cogitocata Reviews

Lake Los Angeles (2014)

if you're an American, then you must watch this

[7/10 · 29 April 2018]

Yes, if you're an American, you must watch this. And even if you're not an American, but living relatively comfortably in your modern bubble where you are safe and well fed and your troubles, although real enough, are nothing like the troubles most people in our world have to face every day just to survive. You and me, since I am writing this and you are reading it, obviously are not in that situation. But this film will take you there for a short trip. And you need to go there. It's a moral duty. Plus, it's an excellent movie.

Inception (2010)

A legend is being born under our lucky eyes

[10/10 · 29 July 2010]

If only I were alive when Tarkovsky was alive, to see his movies in the theaters and know that he is alive and well. Too bad he was killed so young! The world would be a much richer place now if Tarkovsky would have had the chance to make more movies.

But luckily geniuses are still being born. Those who believe that only Tarkovsky, Bergman, Hitchcock, Kubrick and the rest of the cinema pantheon were able to make great movies are obviously wrong.

Christopher Nolan has always been great at making movies, but his latest work, Inception, is beyond words. Movies are usually beyond words because what can be shown cannot be put into words, but when I say beyond words referring to Inception I mean overwhelming, perfect. Of course, it may not address the ultimate questions like Tarkovsky did in all his movies, but Nolan's art takes a relatively simple phenomenon like dreaming and works it into a wonderfully complicated experience that keeps your brain hooked on and leaves you breathless when it ends.

They say that this movie is invulnerable to spoilers. It may be so, but I see no reason in trying to say what it is about. Suffice to say that this movie is one of the best movies ever made and that we are privileged to know that Nolan is alive and well and he may still have good things in store for us, even though with Inception he may have set a standard so high he may reach it never again in his live. But even if Nolan will not give us in the future anything at least as good as Inception if not better, we should still be grateful that he was born. We are witnessing a legend being born! And speaking of legend, Leonardo Di Caprio is on his way to becoming one as well. He is young and he already has an impressive list of titles he has powered with his acting. I am sure that he is becoming the next Bogart or Al Pacino if not bigger than these two giants.

The Invention of Lying (2009)

Great comedy that, leaving all humor behind, tries to make a serious point and undermines itself

[6/10 · 2 February 2010]

The details of the story are there for anyone to see, so I'll just try to make one single point. I think The invention of lying would have been a great comedy, but it tried to tell us, along with Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and others, just how fictitious religion is. What we are told is that in a world where lying is inconceivable, there would be no religion, meaning that religion is nothing more than a bunch of lies. But the same movie tells us that such a religion could only flourish in a world where lying is inconceivable. But did we ever had such a world? I believe that the evolution story tells us how the survival of the fittest can only be based on killing and deceiving. Given that we have religion, it means that there is something very wrong with this picture, and I mean moving picture: its main flaw is mere inconsistency. It would have been grate only if would have found within the power to remain a comedy and not turn into some grand narrative about the nature of reality, religion etc. Even the greatest critics, I mean serious critics, not those like Sam Harris, who barely understand what an argument is, of religion have admitted that, quoting Emile Durkheim, given the fact that religion has endured for such a long time, it must correspond to some reality, indeed, it must be based in some reality. Of course, for Durkheim, this reality is society itself, but at least he went through the trouble of making an argument. Anyway, the movie is great and entertaining but of course, just as long as you remember not to take it seriously, because in that very moment it crashes into itself with a big boom. Or, why not, bang.

District 9 (2009)

When minuses don't make a difference

[8/10 · 7 October 2009]

I gave this film 8 out of 10 because there where two major flaws which I had to count as minus points in the final rating. The first one is that the movie is too much like a Rambo movie at some points. Millions of bullets flying around and hitting no one, or at least no one important. The second has to do with only one scene but it suggests a possible deeper problem of the script. Of all millions huts in District 9, our hero, when chased by the military, ends up by pure accident in exactly the right one (adding more details to this would make me have to check that "contains spoiler" box, and I don't want to do that). Such a turn of events puts the viewer's good faith at great pains, but there are plenty of good things to compensate for these weak spots (that could have been easily avoided, in my opinion). Without a doubt, the best thing about the movie is the originality of the story. I mean, you can search all over, but you will find no other movie that makes a social problem out of a first degree contact. The deeper social critique of the movie may not be immediately accessible to everyone, so I will not go into it here. The ending is beautiful and it leaves you in a wonderful state of suspense, though some may experiment this as uncomfortable and unconcluding. But concluding is the last thing this ending should have been and the worst thing the producers can do is think of making a sequel. But knowing Peter Jackosn a sequel is the least we can expect.

Franklyn (2008)

A poorly made story about three crazy people.

[3/10 · 16 April 2009]

Of course, those three people are not crazy in the same degree. We have one that is clinically mad, one that is just having hallucinations with his imaginary childhood lover, which has now grown into a fairy-like beautiful woman, and finally we have a suicidal girl. So we have three grades of madness and a fairy-tale-for-three-years-old-kids way of making a story, which is neither interesting or verosimile, nor captivating or intelligent. PS: I have no idea why some people are talking about dystopia or sci-fi, or even fantasy. This film is fantastic in the same way, for example, A beautiful mind is, meaning that we only deal with the delusions of a mentally disturbed person in the form a futuristic society in which religion plays a central role.

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007)

Back to the golden age...of the cinema!

[10/10 · 19 September 2007]

Seeing 4 3 2 I had the feeling that I was watching a classic from the golden age of the cinema. This is somehow ironic, because this movie is actually about the so called golden age of Rmania. This age was hardly golden, though. Anyway, I didn't see this movie as a movie about communism. For me, it was a display of the multifaceted human drama, from a common perspective. This movie is all about perspective. Camera angle, perspective, focusing, they all have something to say. And they are doing a great job in saying it. A much better job than all the special effects that we are blown away by in most modern films. Romanian film makers, maybe because they are poor, are forced to make art because they can't afford special effects. They make art as Hithcock and Bergman did. I will say no more about this film, except, GO SEE IT! But first, to really enjoy it, start learning romanian !