trickstar_trippy Reviews

Thieves of the Wood (2018–2020)

The best period mini series playing now on Netflix

[9/10 · 5 January 2020]

Asa fan of the old Flemish Masters, I couldn't miss Jan de Licht's exploits on Netflix. I binge watched it in two days, and I was hungry for more when it finished. It's a beautifully lensed period piece about bandits in Flandres, set in 18th century, duing the Austrian succession wars. The mini series opens en force, it has one of the best openings scenes, whose build up will remind many of the viewers of Tarantino. The casting is so spot on - many fresh faces for me, or maybe I'm not so well versed in European actors, but many of them with a pictural quality - hence many of the shots brought to mind paintings of sitters or Flemish portraits, you ve got to love those red-headed ladies, but also the men, great casting overall; but not only that, but the acting is very good, believable, which adds on to the already well fleshed out characters. Maybe the fact that the film is based on a novel helped, as many of the lines in the show are quote-worthy. It's a show about les nouveau riches, the new blood, about the bourgeoisie, about banditry and outlaws, but with relevance for today. It's a very contemporary show in tone - and aesthetics, although it pays homage to Pays Bas painting, it's very modern in terms of camera, those hand held's in the forrest, that I first saw in Black Death, are surprisingly fresh in a period piece about bandits and nobles. It can be read as a story from rags to riches, but with enough Belgian grit for the connaisseurs to enjoy. It's filthy and beautiful at the same time. The language is Flemish and it's beautiful, its mixture of Dutch and German and French, sounds so exotic to me. Watch it in original, with English or French subs.

No Mercy (2010)

Overrated thriller, inferior to Memories of a Murder

[6/10 · 30 November 2014]

I expected this to be another Memories of a Murder, but I was so wrong to expect this much from this tedious - albeit admittedly gruesome - movie. Where Memories of Murder had mood and a carefully written plot, No Mercy is full of all kinds of flaws in logic, of dumb twists in the plot and bad acting.

The heavy handed tone in which the movie preaches all sorts of teachings about truth, vengeance, etc reminded me of better movies, such as Symoathy for Mr Vengeance, or even the (overrated Oldboy).

The cinematography is less than I've come to expect from South Korean movies, and the acting is too dramatic for the movie's own good.

The lack of actual thrills (then again, the gruesome imagery works every now and then) make this movie a forgettable affair.

Oh, and don't get me started about the Se7en-inspired final.

This is NOT the best South Korean cinema has got to offer.

Witness (2012– )

The Juarez Episode

[9/10 · 16 July 2014]

Contrary to the other two user reviews, I found the series rather entertaining, albeit admittedly not as intense as I would have liked. They shed more light than, say, Ros Kemp's factual series on gangs, yet fall short of being hard hitting docos (La Vida Loca by Poveda, being one of the most insightful portray of gang culture, violence, and redemption).

It is not my intention to debate whether or not the blurred narrators were actual gangsters, by the same manner I don't question whether the sicario in El Sicario was indeed a hit man. Real criminals don't jeopardize their lives by letting themselves filmed in broad daylight, so am fine with concealed identities.

In addition, I would say the series is about war photographers, the way they witness the facts, which is not always the way they happen. they call it the world through their lenses for a reason. In the end, I think HBO opted for a more emotional approach rather than a factual one, yet offering first hand access into mostly uncharted territory. And contrary to what a user wrote, the South Sudan episode does show tribal scarring (7 minutes in). So much for accuracy.

The Iceman (2012)

such a disappointment

[6/10 · 26 December 2013]

You have Michael Shannon, Chris Evans, James Franco, Winona Ryder, and Ray Liotta. You have one of the most interesting assassins ever to have walked the earth, Richard Kuklinski, one of the most articulate, intelligent, and dangerous hit men for the mob. This movie ought been what Fincher's Zodiac was for Arthur Leigh Allen. If you compare this movie with the HBO documentary about The Iceman, the latter fares better. The 'please God' scene was eerie, and brutal, and merciless, unrelenting when narrated by the real life Kuklinski. In the movie, it's so phoned in, so light, so episodic it fails to deliver the powerful punch. Besides, I don't think Michael Shannon was cast well. Don't get me wrong, I admired his work in Take Shelter, where his neurosis was ever so subtle and his performance outstanding. Here, I find his character poorly written. Besides, the real Kuklinski looked much more ominous - he could look like a door to door seller, but also like a gangster. The real life Kuklinski sends shivers down your spine. This movie does not. I was extremely disappointed.

Wish You Were Here (I) (2012)

Really Good Acting & Tense Drama

[10/10 · 22 September 2012]

Great acting, that's what first comes to mind. Also, a refreshing sense of proper Aussie film-making (in the vein of 'Animal Kingdom' or 'Wolf Creek'). It's tense, very well lensed, fleshed out characters. As the personal drama in the family life unfolds, so does the mystery begin to unravel. The ending doesn't come as a shock, but as a carefully built up finale. Strongly recommended for everyone who's into thriller/drama with horror touches. It uses enough plot elements which aren't the most original, but the way the script blends all these elements into a coherent and well-paced story. A sense of permanent dread menaces the situations on-screen, but this is far from being a grim film. It balances out really well, as there are enough family subplots that lighten it up when the film becomes too tense.

And, again, great performances from the actors.

Hostage (2005)

Stockholm syndrome in modern-day Greece

[3/10 · 1 August 2007]

Jesus. What a bore. This film is even worse than Romanian films (give or take one or two). The photography sucked big time (I think they shot it on digital format, you can almost tell by the plain two-dimensional shots, unimaginative hand held's, and dull colors - and don't tell me that's bleach-by-pass). I do know the Balkans are a very troubled region, where deep-seated xenophobia and nationalistic behavior make victims each and every year, yet this film didn't quite grasp that. The film is detached, not in a Michael Haneke way, but in a most tiresome unmoving manner, treading its way down the sunny slopes of Greece at a snail's pace, although it wants to mislead us into believing that what we're dealing here with is a thriller. The acting was so awful that I thought they had some b-series/ sitcom/ soap opera actors memorize some lines and deliver them in a very flat voice. As for the love making scene between the Albanian would-be hunk and the would-be steamy Greek woman (huh, forbidden love), I deem it less sexy than an Orthodox monastery dormitory. And despite the camera that was all-go (hand-held, because it's easier and cheaper than to use camera grip equipment), the story was so all-stand-still that I couldn't take it. Maybe some Western Europeans could find interesting this wanna be larger-than-life drama set in present day Greece, where the bad guy comes from Albania, living up to his stereotyped status, and the people on the bus are so afraid of him that they're a couple of beers short of joining him into a dance, accompanied by live guitar. You know, like we'd do in elementary school, till the driver'd shoot us off.

Hijos de la guerra (2007)

Live by the gun, die by the gun

[9/10 · 17 July 2007]

Finally, it's on IMDb. Highly recommended for anyone who's got any interest, whatever small, in gang culture, turf wars, gang lords, tattoos, or Latin rap. I think it's fairly accurate in its portrayal of one of the world's most infamous gangs, Mara Salvatrucha Trece. I enjoyed the cinematography (after all, it has Alexandre Fuchs written all over), the interviews, the whole approach, etc. What I did not like was its somewhat over hyped tone in respect to MS-13. It's as if these media portrayals, although they're not glorifying a gangster's life style, are still selling out 'MS -13' as THE most dangerous gang. I mean, come on, it's too hip for its own good. (But, come to think of it, so were the Bloods or the Crips).

After you see this, go check out on 'Ross Kemp on Gangs', an equally interesting piece of work, as well.

Muertos comunes (2004)

Starsky & Hutch or How to Destroy the Atomic Bomb

[7/10 · 23 March 2007]

Only from the credits at the end did I find out that this film was based on true events. Back in the late '80's, Spain seems to had been working on nuclear plans, and weren't for some coup d'etat and American intervention, Spain would've had the atomic bomb.

I know this might sound a bit like your average political thriller, but with 'Muertos Comunes' it wasn't the case. Throughout the film I couldn't help sneering, grinning, and even laughing out loud: it's a tongue-in-cheek cinematic experience, paying homage to both 70's B-series action flicks and to the politics-imbued American sci-fi's of the '5o's. We're dealing with Cold War here, so everything in this film must be and is cool: from the main character (an illiterate yet determinate mustache-wearing detective whose hobbies are cognac, comic books, and lame pick-up lines, who still stays at his mother's and refuses to marry his long-time girlfriend) to the whole setting: a sun-scorched traditional Catholic Spain dealing with new technologies such as pagers and the atomic bomb.

Very enjoyable for a political satire with policier and conspiracy theories undertones.

My vote: 7/10

My Grandmother's House (2005)

Old Women Discussing Theological Issues

[7/10 · 22 March 2007]

I saw this at an obscure film festival in Bucharest. For some yet obscure reasons, I went to see it twice, even though there weren't more than 4 or 5 people inside the theatre. Strangely enough, I thought it was a fiction film - that's how it was advertised, anyway - but as I kept watching it, I couldn't help noticing how realistic the characters' "acting" was. Camera work - hand-held most of the times - was also nice - with an eye very keen on details (and seldom if ever could you say it was video), those details that fill and empty an existence. There were two or there shots that stayed with me: the rat dead in the trap, the toy horse or the old ladies discussing over the table such issues as the holy trinity and the holy ghost, whilst still indulging in tabloid fodder. I don't know what to say: for a documentary, it looks too 'directed/orchestrated', for a fiction film, it looks too improvisational, too documentary-like. All in all, moody and sort of touching, yet carefully avoiding melodrama.

My vote: 7/10

Hard Candy (2005)

What's this, Little Red Riding Hood

[2/10 · 27 July 2006]

Adults only? Actually, only half of the two-actor cast consisted of adults, the other being reserved to the little kids. Given that Macaulay Culkin wasn't available, they hired 19-year old Ellen Page to play the 'little vindicative bitch'. I've been reading reviews praising her acting, her charisma, and class and I've been disappointed: I thought acting means more than mere memorizing lines and uttering them in a flat voice. As for her impersonating poetic justice, give me a break: the story is more unbelievable than Miike's Audition or than any other fairy tale I must've read during my childhood (including Lynch's own). She is no more than a spoiled little brat, that needed some good spanking and no dessert. I know this kind of old-school-charge-and-beat-everything-that-moves preaching won't get me any standing ovations, but it's hard to keep unbiased when you see a lousy act like that. And it's not everything about the girl: this film with its minimalistic approach bored me more than Clerks combined with Linklater's Tape, and this should say something. Some might argue the film had some melodrama stirred in for good measure, but, alas, the film didn't work as a tear-jerker either. Not all directors have what it takes to make another 'Cement Garden' or 'Happiness'. I could say the film had no balls, weren't it for the lousy act of male humiliation. One more thing: I saw mentioned the label 'disturbing' applied to this film. Hell, no: the only thing truly disturbing in this film was that poor little girl trying to act like a cold-blooded killer. Pretty please, put your money to a better use, like seeing Shrek, for example.

Session 9 (2001)

from session 9 to the machinist

[8/10 · 6 June 2006]

walking all the way thru life on the crime street. excellent work by director b. Anderson whom i suspect was chosen to direct the machinist thanks to the skillful manner he handled the split personality, the Blair witch project inspired, session 9 case. nice, flowing camera work, combined with natural harsh lighting (not dogme 95, mind me), and HD. the possession meets personality disorder case is already a sort of cliché (see fight club & co), however it is a good thing the director & screenwriter chose to throw in the mix the idea of perennial evil, the one that lives in the wounded and the weak. another good thing about this feature is the atmosphere it creates (it has something of the cine-verite meets mockumentary camera work of the Blair witch project) by using long shots, steady cams lingering and slow tracking shots. the use of live sound, too. at a first look it looks like a low budget indie, on a second look it has some elements reminding of very atmospheric eerie stuff like fear x.