POMO

Love and Bullets is a pulpy musical terror, but you have to appreciate its good heart and the filmmakers’ intention to depict Naples and its flaws in nice colors. There is more killing and shooting than in Gomorrah, but also a lot of merry dancing and kissing, and the film often does not take itself seriously. Despite the fact that the storyline and the protagonists’ faces and expressions are straight out of a soap opera, the long runtime, the large number of characters and expensive production with grand exteriors make it a proper feature-length movie. This movie is a bizarre experience somewhere between geeky guilty pleasure and pure torment, which was not helped by my sleep deprivation during a late-night screening at Pragues' Lucerna cinema with its wooden seats. The film just would. not. end.

This lovingly made film works with painted images, carefully directed voices of the actors and Mansell’s characteristically deep music eliciting a sense of fatefulness. Loving Vincent has the framework of a detective story with a gripping mystery and misleading questions, varied with the diverse characters whom the protagonist meets and made beautiful with poetic thoughts from the letters that van Gogh wrote before his death. The heart of the film comprises van Gogh’s life itself, his outsider existence tormented by self-doubt. His was an existence with exceptional perception of life and the ability to transform the positive face of his soul into works of art. His intimately dramatic story as a now celebrated artist is particularly attractive for viewers generally, and not only for people who feel misunderstood and naturally long for recognition and wider acceptance. The film concludes beautifully with the song “Starry Starry Night” performed by singer Lianne La Havas.

An old man chattering about nothing in particular rather than about life. Lucky offers likable characters and an attractive environment, but both are underused. And Lynch spouts one inanity after another, without adding another dimension to the film by linking it to the motifs of his works. I can imagine a more atmospheric, poetic and meaningful version by Jim Jarmusch, for example. And that’s a great idea.

Though definitely not breathtaking, Menashe certainly offer an interesting insight into the rules of operation of the Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn. The community’s rabbi decides whether a little boy will remain in the care of his father, the main character of the film, who has been a widower for a year and is a somewhat clumsy, hapless individual… [Karlovy Vary IFF]

M.F.A. is a naïve feminist take on a major American issue – sexual violence against women. Given the childish and “cool” approach taken to this serious issue here, the movie takes itself way too seriously. And it is the complete antithesis of the fun movies by Russ Meyer. [Sitges FF]

Though director Vladimir de Fontenay’s depiction of the events in Mobile Homes is sensitive and emphatic and Imogen Poots delivers a perfect performance, the premise is terribly overused: [Spoiler!] A teenage homeless girl with a pretty face and a young son wanders through American countryside. When she finally begins to find some assurances and a potential home, her problematic boyfriend (whom she has recently fled) unexpectedly comes back into her life. And since she still loves him in a way, she lets all her hopes and prospects be shattered… [Cannes]

Molly’s Game is a movie that takes itself way too seriously considering it contains just one short dramatic scene (a beating at the hands of a mafioso) and thinks itself way too clever given that it needs 20 tortuous seconds of dialogue to express something that could have been said in five (without losing the point). If we don’t want to build on superficial grandeur, but rather want to tell a believable story with sufficient social insight and reflection of the its characters’ morality, this film doesn’t completely succeed. It’s like The Wolf of Wall Street without that film’s satirical insight, wit, energy and the human side of its characters. However, it has plenty of sexy costumes and cleavage to keep you from getting bored.

Not even Edgar Wright would have the balls to make this! An anarchistic, anti-family black comedy along the lines of Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead where it’s not zombies doing the massacring, but parents – of their own children. And the kids must save themselves from their crazy moms and dads while we root for them! Mom and Dad is an American suburban satire serving as a kind of wish-fulfilment for exhausted parents (sorry, kids!). The highly effective soundtrack mostly consist of modern ambient electronic music, but occasionally comes across as a parody of Spielbergian family musical motifs. Plus there are some wonderful editing tricks. A silly, but perfectly executed and courageous movie! [Sitges FF]

Most Beautiful Island is a take on the American dream in an intimate, low-budget thriller that does not fulfil the expectations of a perverted viewer, but reaches a level of suspense that even the most discerning genre enthusiast will find satisfying. Not bad for an actress’s debut as a director and screenwriter, while also being in front of the camera the whole time. [Sitges FF]

An admirable creative intention to express a powerful message, carried out in an overly abstract way. But why not? The focus on the main character’s feelings in the first half of the film is so formally precise and psychologically engaging that few living directors would be able to pull it off. Darren Aronofsky knows that and therefore has the courage to go so wild in the second half, like a painter who spontaneously moves his brush, forming a line that is disturbing at first glance but then becomes a unique, valuable feature of the work as a whole. I accept and acknowledge this, and I am delightfully intoxicated with the final impression of the film.