Malarkey

The main character of this film is a young, naïve girl, who finds herself in Dublin in the late 1970s. The female part of the audience will probably understand Maeve’s behavior better, but this mild drama was still alright to watch. It was very obvious that the director of this film used her own memories… and these are often the best there is to make a movie authentic.

There is nothing difficult to understand about the premise of this film. The main motive is the friendship of a professional journalist who tries to map the events in Cambodia and a local who takes him around this mysterious and beautiful country. Unfortunately, at a time when the Khmer Rouge are trying to seize the government. A story that only real life could have written. When we add in the precise camera and the fact that the Khmers carried out purges that would make even Hitler green with envy, trust me it’s not a pleasant viewing experience. The first half lets you navigate yourself in the events, but the second shows true evil. It baffled me that anyone would participate in such atrocities. It was horrifying, not only visually in some scenes but also in terms of the psychology of certain characters. It’s been a long time since I spent two hours just gaping at some film in total stupor.

This Finnish film is not exactly a success. The Finns are normally able to make a quality crazy comedy bordering on deviant, but this film about how youngsters perceive the world wasn’t much fun for me. I would rate it as average, but the girl was so annoying that it was unbearable in some moments. A typical puberty, but who would want to watch it?

Sometimes I feel that the most powerful message can be find in the simplest of premises. Ikingut is a stellar example of a nice family film from Iceland. I think it might be the best Icelandic family film, and guess how many of those there are. And it is all based on the simplest premise ever, which is the fear of the unknown. The main character is a poor Eskimo boy struggling to navigate the new world, and he’s as unhappy about it as the inhabitants of Iceland. I enjoyed it. Family movies with a message are the best. The kids get them while the adults enjoy themselves. Especially thanks to the snowbound sceneries of Iceland, they are simply priceless.

Daniel Auteuil and Dany Boon have been born for such comedies. A nice, inoffensive, in a similar vein like for example The Dinner Game. A witty and funny movie. It’s simply a pleasant chillout, but it also has a message and some nice film moments, so natural that no one but the French would’ve been able to pull it off.

Quite decent for a post-apocalyptic flick. A rather small-scale movie, putting an emphasis on minimalism and making the maximum use of it. It is evident that the creators are the same as those behind Stranger Things. For some unfathomable reason, they’re very good in guiding child actors, who are actually in the spot light in this movie as well.

If you want to see an epic Asian movie, we can even say period epic movie, War of the Arrows is worth seeing. The technical aspect of this movie is totally awesome. The archery techniques might not be portrayed in an exactly realistic manner but everything in this movie is spectacular, action-packed and enjoyable. What is not so good is the historical sub-text and the story itself, which isn’t that complex but there are some moments in the history of the Korean peninsula that aren’t clear, so concerning the historical aspect of this movie I was lost. What’s more, the Koreans, similarly to Chinese epic movies, made this movie a little for effect with chaotic storytelling and their archers look more like supermen than average warriors. Still, it is a good piece. A fan would be exulted, others satisfied.

Within the road movie genre, this movie is totally brilliant. It fulfills all the requirements for pieces with similar themes where the main characters are an incongruous duo approximately 15 years old give or take 2 years and they are unbelievably authentic and make you interested in where they are going, why they are they going there and what happens during their trip. However the beginning and the end of this movie is not so great. For its running time of 85 minutes, this movie is quite fast paced; I would even say a bit too much. The introduction to the story is absent – you fall into the story and immediately get to like these boys even though you will quite often disagree with them. The story also lacks a proper ending, which means that for example the story line at the police station loses all meaning. Everything just ends with the movie title all over the screen...

A crazy theme filmed by the Italians in their own way with that kind of secretive humor which takes you a minute to get used to, accept it and start to laugh out loud. Moreover, situating the movie into Sardinia is brilliant. The Italians make fun of the Sardinians which was the intention, but they also have no problem to make fun of classical Italian stereotypes known all over the world. And I do like this kind of local jokes. The movie is politically incorrect, crazy, not for everyone, but enjoyable. And that is important.

A great Korean spy detective movie that starts as a crime movie and ends up as a quite good thriller. I liked the originality of the long fingers of espionage forces which reach not only to their northern neighbors but over the Indian Ocean to America. To watch a story of a serial killer while wondering about which organization would benefit the most from getting their hands on him – that hasn’t happened to me in a long time. The Koreans made up their story perfectly and the ending was absolutely thrilling. Of course there are a few moments that are a bit more emotional than they should be – that is typical for the Koreans. Nevertheless, while watching the ending scenes I felt like I was watching an old Asian thriller like Infernal Affairs. It was a great movie which saves the action till the end to knock you off your feet. I even enjoyed the cast including the psycho who enjoyed his role probably more than he should have. But even that eventually helped this movie’s atmosphere. In my opinion, it was a great movie experience and another successful attempt of South Korea at western film making.