Lima

In my eyes, Scott Derrickson has done it again, and hasn't faltered once in his career, including that piece of craft slavery in the form of a Marvel movie. He's just a smart kid. I could actually do without the supernatural element here, but I understand that it is crucial to the development of the plot. It's not horrifically spooky, but it's finely unsettling, the seventies production design paces flawlessly, and Ethan's masks are creepy enough to make his personality both repulsive and appealing. And on top of that, a double pleasure: the performance of the charismatic boy Mason Thames and the discovery that Jeremy Davies can give a solid performance if the director leads him to do so. I give a shout-out to the musical dramaturgy for Pink Floyd's "On the Run" (from the album "Dark Side of the Moon") at the very end.

It's still mostly top-notch action, but the Wick theme is pretty much exhausted. The script, with dialogue written by Keanu Reeves, was probably about 2 A5 pages, I don’t think it was more than that, and when someone wasn't fighting someone, I was more likely to cover my ears. There is one brilliant action sequence (a bird's eye view of a shotgun rampage with fiery "Dragon Breath" ammunition), but that not enough to make the film memorable. The previous episode, which I thought was better, had a lot of jaw-dropping moments, like the knife fight, the action inferno with the dogs or the horse kicks, but the only thing that really stands out here is the short scene with the shotgun and then the kinetic sequence at the Arc de Triomphe. Otherwise, it's mostly about headshots, and there are so many of them and with such frequency that by the final lengthy scene on the "endless" stairs I was already numb and didn't care. Moreover, how am I supposed to worry about John Wick, when he survives with a mere shake stuff that would have killed even the T-1000 in Terminator 2? It wasn't joy, as in previous episodes, but rather fatigue towards the end. Please, no more episodes.

One of the best music documentaries I've ever seen in my life. Narratively and visually elusive, as David Bowie himself was, free from the encyclopedic structure of the vast majority of similar works, and also full of life truths that I would chisel in stone. No, I'm still not a fan of Bowie's 1970s Ziggy Stardust phase, it doesn't appeal to me musically, and this film hasn't changed that (even Bowie himself questions that era of his in a few sentences), but I love his creative explosion in the 1990s. I love his music in the 1980s, especially the conceptual duo “1. Outside” and “Earthling”, and the jazz and light fusion electronica infused album “Black Tie White Noise”, one of his lesser works, but for me probably his best album ever. What I admire most about Bowie is that he was never satisfied with himself throughout his life, he was always searching, and that search was the meaning of life for him. He still had the flame of a true artist burning in him and his most commercially successful 1980s were paradoxically the least interesting in his eyes because, as he himself admitted, he was stagnant at the time. The urge to try new things, to break free from the security of a comfortable golden cage, this is what drives artists forward. Art must hurt, and Bowie knew it.

I could imagine this as an excellent theatrical play and a solo for two actors and their snappy dialogue. Ugo Tognazzi and Vittorio Gassman, two acting heavyweights; I enjoyed the stoic calmness of the former and Gassman, on the other hand, excelled with his expressive language and passionate gesticulation, as only Italians can. The dialogues, especially the one on the beach, had the power of trinitrotoluene. There’s also a slight attempt to critique the conditions of the time, the untouchability of the bigwigs and the bosses of all kinds, and the destruction of the environment, but really only slight, it is mainly a dialogue clash between two great personalities and everything is subordinated to that. The theatrical ending felt weaker, like it dropped out of some other movie about football hooligans, I didn't understand the director's intention.

It’s a procedural in the style of Spotlight, but secondhand, It’s very, very far from Zodiac or the classic from 1968, but it doesn’t really matter. Thanks to the interesting cinematography, it has the patina of those old 1960s crime dramas, the production design is believable (Ridley Scott's production supervision is evident), the film certainly doesn't waste your time, the narrative is slow but atmospheric. There are almost no murder scenes, but the film doesn't need them. I just missed a little more suspense, except for one fleeting chill running down my spine. The focus is on the two women and their hard work, the information here taken from Disney+ is misleading, it certainly doesn't address sexism or the need for emancipation, thank goodness. PS: Keira Knightley is fine, but she's starting to look dangerously like Céline Dion :o)

A clear inspiration for 8MM, with Schumacher's later film not only drawing on the theme, but even carefully copying some scenes. What starts out as a staid church flick turns into a compelling insight into the porn industry with a concerned dad looking for his daughter in this messy cesspit. The transformation of George C. Scott is fascinating, from a naive Christian guy who confusedly moves from one porn establishment to another making you feel his anxiety, to a confident fighter who, after being taught a lesson, has to change his search tactics, and you watch with interest as he unravels the clues with meticulous consistency, just like Nicolas Cage would do 20 years later. Schrader always hit the mark in his scripts and the huge boom of the porn industry in the 1970s was perfect for his incisive commentary. PS: Note to Malarkey: The 1970s were anything but "puritanical". After the peak of the sexual revolution at the turn of the 60s and 70s, Western society went all out and open in hard sex, with the grindhouse, midnight and 'adult' cinemas plus sex businesses that were all over the tabloids.

Not a silly drama at all compared to the flush rubbish Butler usually works on. You can see that it was made by a skilled Frenchman, so the clichés that are typical of action movies made by Hollywood don't offend you and it also has that nice old-world vibe of movies from a few decades back. There's not really that much action, and when there is, it's nice and raw (sniper!) and with good sound. It is really good.

The first two thirds are an example of first-class screenwriting, where unpredictable moments are strung together like on a treadmill and the rolling train of invention cannot be slowed down. I should be rightly impressed by Tohlle, unfortunately the Daniels as engineers on coke get so carried away that towards the end it becomes a poorly controlled propulsion vehicle that derails and smashes everyone in the wagon. It's a shame, because there's a whole sequence of scenes and situations that you've never seen in a movie before, and that's valuable.

I found Melling's acting terribly irritating for the first half hour, but then somehow it clicked; he’s a weird guy. I once read somewhere that every person has some equivalent of an animal, in my eyes he is a bat. If there's ever a remake of Nosferatu, I vote for him with all my limbs. Otherwise I really liked the visuals, the real locations, I really liked the candlelight and the eye-catching contrast it created; the atmosphere was delectable, the cold added so much. The pace was ok, I like these slowly told stories, and the twist at the end after the first reveal surprised me. I have no problem with this film, unlike my already oversaturated colleagues here.

In places it pretends to be smarter than it really is, but the monstrously long runtime can't be defended, the editor must have gone on holiday somewhere. As an insight into an industry that not one per cent of the population sees, however, it is an interesting and almost voyeuristic look at the disintegration of one prominent figure that is at times riveting. And I would love Cate Blanchett even if she worked on Andrej Babiš's campaign staff.