POMO

This is nothing for lovers of the Icelandic countryside, which goes practically unseen here. The story could have been set in a similar slum/industrial area on the outskirts of Manchester. The friendship between teenagers at a time of rising violence and bullying among young people is often cruel and bleak, but also balanced by the support between them and their protectiveness. Though Beautiful Beings is not very original in terms of theme or execution, it is dramatically intense. [KVIFF]

Cold Skin proves that being a butcher skilled in filmmaking is not the same as being a generally skillful director, or rather a director capable of, for example, comprehensively telling a story with sensitive development of the meeting of two species. Cold Skin is neither fish nor fowl, a dysfunctional film that Xavier Gens gradually transforms from a survival horror flick into a fantasy tale with heart. Halfway through, however, something in it goes off the rails and the result evokes only a bitter smile. The theme and the setting of a rugged volcanic coastline had potential and, in light of the budget and production possibilities, it could be forgiven for its mediocre digital rendering.

Girlhouse is everything a bunch of teen viewers could want with their popcorn on a Friday night. Bikini babes of all races and sexual archetypes, webcams, a civil and beautiful female protagonist, her likable boyfriend/protector, a wacky pervert and a bloody slaughter. Girlhouse is a strange combination of creative contradictions. The screenplay works creatively with all of the characters and entertains with surprising details despite the formulaic plot. At the same time, it bears the embarrassing marks of amateurish filmmaking and frequent stupidity. Its greatest asset is the killer, who outdoes even the more ponderous Leatherface with his speed and radicalism. The brutality of the slaughter in the movie’s final third is a surprising outcome of the previous refined introduction of the characters, which creates another interesting contrast that sets Girlhouse apart from other, similar movies.

Though the strange, not very believable theme works with a fine idea, it raises unanswered questions and embarrassing impressions from its WTF scenes and completely inappropriate humorous undertones. I needed a second viewing to confirm that there was no error in my state of mind at the time and that Kosinski had really gone so far off the rails. And there was no error. Even the music is bad in this movie. Though the film kicks off with a fine song, the other songs later drive nails in its coffin.

Fresh offers up a terrifying thriller theme verging on horror and bizarrely cut with black humor. An analysis of the tasting of elegantly served human flesh, as none of the Hannibal movies served it. The film has edgy camerawork and a likable actress in the lead role, but I won’t give it a fourth star because, even though it was entertaining from start to finish, I missed a more coherent directorial focus in this medley of genres and feels.

The German version is just as wonderful as the French original, with a similarly good cast and negligible changes to the screenplay. The biggest difference, which is irrelevant to the story and its entertainment value, is the more austere interior of the living room in which everything takes place. And the drier opening with the pizza delivery guy. In terms of the nature of the characters, however, “German” is perhaps closer to the Czech viewer than the more exotic “French” from 2012.

In this delightful conversational film set in a living room, one line escalates into comical misunderstandings and a quarrel involving everyone. The charm of French chattiness and overwrought emotional reactions is balanced by serious moments and the revelation of the individual characters’ hidden feelings. What’s in a Name is similar to the slightly better Italian (and now German, as in this case) Perfect Strangers.

The return of the main characters from the first Jurassic Park was pleasing, as they are still likeable, enthusiastic scientists who love dinosaurs. Drawing the viewer into a world that dinosaurs are a living part of is cool. The movie gets off to a good start with the trafficker’s den in Malta and the long action scene that takes place there. Chases on rooftops and on a motorcycle in the streets, as we know them from Bourne and Bond movies, upgraded with velociraptors...why not?! But the rest of the film, in which we are only transported to a different reservation than in the first film, is a lumbering retread of what we have already seen, and it’s not very exciting, for that matter, with a lame Tim Cook-esque villain, logical crutches and nonsense unworthy of this film franchise. And only one fantastically shot scene that recalls Spielberg (the dive into the lake). And sadly, it is a short scene. Dominion is the weakest instalment of the whole franchise.

In the third episode of the saga, my favorite character, the lawyer played by Robert Duvall, is missing, along with the chemistry between the members of the clan, of which he was the unifying element. And Pacino’s Michael Corleone is very different – I wouldn’t say that eight years had passed since the previous film, but rather twenty. However, moving to his native Sicily and dealing with the Church in order to enter the highest circles of power is fertile ground for another gang of corrupt goons and Michael’s reflection on his own life with the devastating weight of remorse makes the film a respectable conclusion to the trilogy. And the most emotional.

The Godfather Part II is a cinematic masterpiece that extends the story of the Corleone family into the higher realms intertwined with politics and the even darker rules of mafia practices. Whereas the disintegration of the family as the only real value of the protagonists’ existence was hinted at in the first film, the second, longest part is entirely about it. One timeline – about the childhood and adolescence of the first film’s most magnetic character (Marlon Brando), played perfectly by Robert De Niro – depicts the core of Vito Corleone’s personality in his early days in New York, while the other timeline examines his more inconsistent and darker son Michael, who became the most powerful American mobster of his time. It is a great role for the charismatic, respect-inspiring Al Pacino, whose Michael is capable of anything. More characters, a more interesting revealing of the workings of the most powerful underworld and even more pronounced between-the-lines plot shifts come together to form a chilling mosaic of thought. With all due respect to Martin Scorsese, it’s a good thing Francis Coppola remained the director of the trilogy. His more poetic form of storytelling suits it perfectly.