POMO

For a film that looks like the work of a student, Harpoon is a well-written and well-acted genre flick. You will surprisingly become comfortable with the trio of not exactly likable characters on the boat thanks to their authentic depiction. The interplay of lies, questionable friendships and secret romantic relationships works well. The final surprise is far-fetched, but it suits Harpoon’s B-movie nature. The blood and distastefulness give a reasonable boost to the attractiveness of the “intimate” conflict for viewers.

An original, surprising and highly creative coming to terms with ethnic traumas in a small, extraordinarily intelligent genre flick set in a secluded “reform school”, from which you would expect anything but that. In terms of filmmaking craft, Boarding School is impressive from the opening moments, as it develops and examines the characters in their unconventional nature, taking delight in their psychologically electrifying, innocent and treacherous interactions. The film ambushes viewers with unexpected twists at the right time and in the right places. A remarkable, fragile yet morbid, and endearingly weird film. The only one of its kind.

A promising upgrade of the haunted house with its nooks, props and mystery, situated underwater, where it is explored by a couple of divers in scenes similar to those seen in versions of the same subject set on dry land, but with an underwater drone camera and a dwindling supply of oxygen. The filmmakers are unable to apply any inventiveness to overcome the awkwardness of the film’s concept, which makes you wonder, “What could possibly harm them if there are no fantasy monsters involved? A water spirit?”, and the more they try to push the horror angle, the more ridiculous the film becomes. Moronic behaviour of the characters, spastic scene continuity and scares that aren’t scary, all in a movie that must have been a lot of work to make.

Confusingly edited in the dramatic scenes and needlessly baffling in the climax, The Dark is a self-negating thriller that would like to work sophisticatedly on multiple plot levels. However, it is kept afloat by the presence of Maria Bello and Sean Bean and the atmosphere of the setting. If you like mysterious horror dramas, harsh wind, wave-ravaged Nordic islands and their dark folk legends, and if you have a weakness for one of the protagonists, like I do for Maria, you won’t be bored and you’ll turn a blind eye to the film’s missteps.

The energy of this slow-moving film is given by the nuances of the central couple’s relationship. The seemingly dull plot consisting in their simply spending time together on a trip to the Californian outback is loaded with spontaneity and authenticity, open and even graphic intimacy and tense quarrels, abounding with love and hate, shot live as if we were there with them. In an epic widescreen picture, but emotionally barren with no supporting music. Throughout the film, we wait to see if there will be some kind of twist, dramatization, a point. And Bruno Dumont duly defies us and our expectations. A hell of a festival flick.

Though it is beautifully filmed in formalistic terms and Bradley Cooper devotes himself to his acting performance, Maestro is a lifeless biopic. It’s as if there were no motifs in Leonard Bernstein’s life that would be sufficient for a dramatic and emotional telling of his story on film. Nevertheless, the film itself shows that there were such motifs, but it would have been necessary to work with them in a different way and build the screenplay on a foundation other than Bernstein’s homosexuality versus his marriage. The aspects of the complexity of his relationship with his wife are not tangible here. If not for a few dialogue scenes, we wouldn’t understand them at all, because we have no way or time to feel them. Produced by both Scorsese and Spielberg? Seriously?

With its setting and weather, The Slayer is an atmospheric slasher flick with the well-chosen Sarah Kendall doing a fine job in the lead role. You won’t exactly be scared by it, but the identity of the murderer is well concealed, the killings are satisfying with decent execution and the climax is properly intense. But it’s a shame that it isn’t sufficiently explained. That is, if we don’t take into account the inorganically tacked-on epilogue. We have to be satisfied with the ambiguity of the connection between the main character’s dreams and the events that take place in the film.

An irresistibly sexy flick during which I felt extreme anticipation for a carefully concealed and emotional point that would further confirm its cleverness. Instead, however, it becomes an endless loop in which everything possible is overwrought and it thus remains “only” a sexy flick that’s nicely paced and spectacularly shot with an interesting story.

Well cast, but with the wrong kind of directing for a satire. The duo of villains is rather more laughable than menacing, and if that was the intention, it doesn’t add anything to the film, but hinders it instead. The balance of suspense and dark humor is generally uneven. However, the romantic “car wash” with Maiki Monroe’s hair is unforgettable; I’m already practicing it at home.

When Evil Lurks is the most original and most well-rendered manifestation of the devil on earth in many years. Though we follow only a handful of characters fleeing the devil in the vicinity of a small town, the film is of almost apocalyptic proportions; the plot is packed with twists and changing locations; a desperate feeling of constant danger from an unpredictably hidden evil; superbly executed gore scenes that Hollywood wouldn’t dare to shoot; solid directing like that seen in a high-quality family survival drama. Not everything in the film makes sense, but its urgent sense of drive in combination with the believability of the supernatural threat is excellent.