Gangleri – filmreviews

My expectations may have been a little high for a film of the director of the legendary “Mannhunter” (too old to be reviewed here…) with Johhny Depp and Christian Bale, but “Public Enemies” is a descent, but nothing special film. Set in the 1930′ies where a violent group of criminals robs banks and shoots cops, elements of their way of working lead to some kind of romantisised view of the public. Escaping the police by crossing state borders, we witness the founding of the FBI and the cat-and-mouse game of clever criminals and top-notch policemen. Like I said, the film is good, but it is but a Hollywood production.

“Tenderness” is a good film about Eric Poole who is released from juvenile penitentiary (convicted for murdering his parents) when he reaches the age of 18. Two people are obsessed with this young man and a nice drama develops with thriller and roadmovie elements. Polson does not fill in all the details, so parts of the story have to be filled in by the viewer which in my opinion is a good thing. The atmosphere and the acting are good, the story (based on a novel) original.

A not too good attempt of Velle to make his first English film. That is to say, the film begins quite good. Mike lives in the maffia society of Brooklyn, New York where he tries to lead a life as normal as possible. He works at a shady taxi service to make money to follow classes photography which seems to work out well. He is sucked down the drain of his native community and “The Narrows” takes a serious downturn with the obliged surprise knockout towards the end. Too bad. I wonder why directors still think they have to surprise their audience with unconvincing plot turns. The rest of the film is not bad at all.

No IMdB listing for this Dutch film called “Met Andere Normen” (‘with different norms’ “man” refers to a male person). The Netherlands has a rising popularity for native tv-series, often about glamorous women. I hardly watch tv, so I have not really seen much of it all, but apparently an attempt with a full-length film has been made, so just out of curiosity…
“M.A.N.” seems quite different from the tv-series that the Dutchmen will know the actors from. It has a great soundtrack which adds to the strange atmosphere of for example “Amelie“: not entirely realistic and slightly silly. “M.A.N.” has a couple of nice filmographic jokes and nice opening titles, but the major problem is the fact that I find the two main actors not entirely convincing (the others are) which makes this film just not really good. I like it that Matser has tried to do something different though. Would Van Warmerdam found his inspiration here for “De Laatste Dagen van Emma Blank“?

Directing veteran Assayas made a film of which the box suggests that it is an erotic thriller, the genre that was popular for a short while. In fact the “pervers sex games” refer to a former relation of the two main characters which are only hinted at and which in the present results in but one scene. With the raised expectation the story takes an unsuspected turn, but also as a thriller, “Boarding Gate” is not particularly good. “Nothing too special” is the only thing I can make of this film.

Jennifer Chambers Lynch is indeed the daughter of David Lynch who not only produced this film, but whose music can also be heard in the opening and closing titles. It is not really fair to compare the debut of Lynch junior to her fathers work, but I suppose it might take a few films before that stops, just as with Sophia Coppola. In any case, stylistically Jennifer leans a bit towards her father. Sharp images, an eye for details and a dark soundtrack form the similarities, but for the rest Jennifer associates with the modern Hollywood films: violent and with a story with a changing plot. The first part of the film is really good. Two FBI agents (that is the second time in one weekend that I see Bill Pullman as a policeman) travel to a remote village to investigate a series of brutal murders. Instead of a serial killer manhunt, Lynch focusses on the process of unraveling the story through witness hearings which worked out very well. Then the plot turns 180 degrees, the story loses credibility and the film turns into bloody, but not too functional mayhem supposedly making a surprise blowout. That is too bad, since in the first part of the film Lynch proves herself a descent director able to set a good atmosphere with minimal resources. Too bad she wanted to give the story a surprising twist…

The new film of the brothers Coen plays in the Jewish community of Minnesota in which Larry Gopnik thinks to lead a calm and normal life. He teaches physics as a Jewish highschool and his son is up for his Bar Mitswa. The only thing is that Larry’s brother Arthur stays with the family driving his daughter crazy and apparently also his wife. One thing after another goes bad and Larry no longer knows what is left and what is right. He visits a Jewish lawyer and Rabbis and the film gives a nice peek in the modern, American Jewish society. With the typical Coen black humour a story unravels of a man tossed between faith/tradition and the time his lives in. “A Serious Man” is not a hilaric film as the Coens can make them, it is more of a drama with subtle humour. The film seems to portray a few parts of different stories that suddenly end. “A Serious Man” is a nice film, but in my opinion, not one of the better Coens.

Another hip MTVideo montage action/crime film. “Nobel Son” has a supposedly intelligent script that has a few strange twists, but goes completely nose-down at the end. The film is even quite confusing at times and not really convincing because way too many ideas and changes of the plot have been tried to stuff in it. The only real highlight of the film is the magnificent Alan Rickman as professor Eli Michaelson with a gigantic ego and an overload of arrogance. Just another hip film.

I had not seen this film in ages. I never bought it because Lynch himself is not very happy with this commercial project, but every now and then I feel like watching “Dune”, so in the end I just got myself a very cheap copy. “Dune” is a rather dull scifi with a story that is hard to follow. There are various actors that we also see in other Lynch films and on a few occasions there is ‘Lynchian scene’. I do not particularly like “Dune”, but it is not like I was bored stiff either.