Filmmaniak

This is a thriller reminiscent of Snowpiercer about a vertical prison, which also serves as a metaphor for human society and its caste. Together with the voluntarily imprisoned protagonist, we gradually discover the rules of the prison, the multiple floors of which form individual cells. A table with food gradually passes through the cells once a day, from which prisoners can eat anything left over from those above them. The prisoners are moved every month, so we get to see the very different situations on different floors, and this fantastic, distressing, and sinister excursion culminates in the hero's decision to try something no one before him has tried. One would like to know more, but the film does not answer everything and, in its fictional world, it creates its own logic, according to which it is necessary to play and not dispute it too much. This an excellently written, uncompromising, brutal, striking, suspenseful (and sometimes even funny) and engaging allegory, perceiving human society as a collection of hungry selfish people, with clever dialogues, excellent disturbing moments and an innovative environment. It is attractive in its resistance and the clear and simple mechanism by which it is driven. There is beauty in simplicity, and this is certainly true here.

This film is a Laotian mysterious art ghost story imbued with magical realism and Back to the Future for demanding and thoughtful viewers. On the one hand it’s a drama about death, the inability to leave loved ones and the need to give the dead a dignified burial, on the other a supernatural sci-fi about time travel (very artistic), time loops, paradoxes and influencing the present through past interventions. The two storylines - one dedicated to a little boy who sees the spirit of a deceased girl, and the other dealing with the same character fifty years later - are remarkably interconnected and told in an innovative way that requires some investment on the part of the viewer (the frequent story ellipses are slightly confusing, but even so the story does make sense). Firmly grasped direction, an intelligently processed plot with unpredictable development, ambiguous characters with gradually changing motivations and a film that gives nothing to the audience for free and rewards you slowly but surely.

An impressive thriller about a thief trying to rob a car and falling for the bait placed inside by a seasoned doctor who has had his car turned into a darkened and bulletproof trap for potential criminals. This intelligently devised and skilfully written and directed film was created in the modest space of one street and one interior with all-wheel drive, and it develops in unexpected ways. It starts with an attractive idea of a person trapped in a car with limited resources, talking over the dashboard with the car’s owner. The film first innovatively uses the car's environment for various dramatic-comedic situations, although the middle section gets a little boring. Finally, it gradually works its way from a story about providing a hard lesson about theft to a clever and critical-social commentary (full of surprising twists) on life in cities with a high level of crime, on the need to respect the rules of mutual decency and on taking justice into one's own hands.

In this thriller, Sam Worthington plays a family father who takes his wife and their injured six-year-old daughter to the hospital, then takes a nap in the waiting room. When he wakes up, his family is nowhere to be found and none of the doctors or staff remember them. The plot is similarly constructed to Flightplan starring Jodie Foster, and also leaves viewers constantly in doubt as to whether the protagonist is a confused and hallucinating fool, or whether the hospital is part of some giant pharmaceutical plot and everyone is lying to him. The film manoeuvres between the two possibilities at all times, thus maintaining a fairly stable level of uncertainty, aided by several remarkable twists. The strong conclusion is spoiled by the fact that when reconstructing what happened in the film and what people said, you find a large number of screenwriting shortcomings and lapses, wherein the film had to be intentionally vague and ambiguous to be dramatic enough and not reveal the truth too soon. For some, it may be too contrived and silly, but it's a spectacle that is attractive and engaging, and it is solidly directed and the acting is good.

Audiences will be grateful for this portrait devoted to the work of Jiří Suchý. The film consists mainly of his storytelling and recollection, and of numerous examples of his work, from older things, which he created together with Jiří Šlitr, to more recent works. Suchý's information-filled summary of his more than sixty-year musical, singing and song writing career includes the relevant period context, a large number of archival records and newly recorded material, in which Jiří Suchý, despite his age, is presented as a constantly witty and still unprecedentedly creative and hard-working nimbler who maintains a good mood and has a clear mind, which only strengthens admiration for him. The film deliberately omits very basic facts, and therefore the ideal viewers are those who already know Jiří Suchý and at least some of his songs, like him and want to learn more about him.

This socially engaged film follows the rebellion of several Algerian students against attacks by conservative extremist groups, trampling on women's free rights in the name of religion, which forces them to wear the hijab and observe religious customs. The spontaneous and energetically filmed feature, filled with natural actresses, tells the tale of characters who love their country and do not want to leave it, and are therefore forced to fight by all means against the oppressive and binding regime, because resisting even at the cost of potential victims is necessary in order for any social change to ever occur. However, the value of the film as an important political expression is in this case significantly higher than its plot and narrative qualities.

The film is not exactly a complete portrait - for example, Man on the Moon or Goya's Ghosts are mentioned only in the final summary of Forman's filmography, and the film focuses on many of his other films only to the extent of communicating their basic idea and summarizing the context of their origin. For laymen, however, the engaging and factual documentary, half in Czech and half in English, is a great introductory insight into Forman's work (and fully understandable to foreign and American audiences, which is excellent), while experts will appreciate the passages dedicated to Forman's childhood and personal life, which is accompanied by fantastic archival materials and unique video recordings from the private property of the Forman family.

This originally and poetically recounted Icelandic drama excels through an excellent camera and the performance of Ingvar Sigurðsson in the lead role, combining masculinity and stubbornness with subtle sensitivity. The well-directed and subtle film deals with the psychological transformation of a widower who, while babysitting his granddaughter, drives away his grief by building a family home, and his response to the shock of going through his wife's estate as an unexpected substitute for mourning is silent defiance, followed by a noisy eruption.

A visually impressive, but at times somewhat mannerist film about a terrorist abduction viewed from the perspective of a paramilitary unit of teenage fanatical soldiers. The soldiers break free from their chains after the accidental killing of a dairy cow they were supposed to care for and the subsequent suicide of the squadron leader. This raw and physical Colombian film-experience excels in its individual scenes, dealing with the struggle for freedom bordering on the struggle for survival through suggestive acting performances. On the whole, however, the film does not represent anything exceptional or captivating - it lacks greater harshness, more fundamental emphasis on character psychology (the characters are constantly making stupid mistakes that always come back to haunt them) and a tighter story, which in some places the unnecessarily loose narrative doesn't help much.

A dense drama about a ten-year-old girl with aggressive outbursts of rage that her mother is afraid of, whilst social facilities pass her back and forth to each other like a hot potato. This is by far this year’s film with the most screaming, which also serves as a feature-length advertisement for contraception. The film boasts great actors and an empathetic insight into the worries of social workers, whose sense of hopelessness, threat and constant terror is successfully transmitted to the audience. The film excels in building fears of another fit by the little girl and offers a number of surprisingly chilling scenes, but in its second half goes in circles for too long and is slightly clueless about how to end the suffering somewhat satisfactorily.