Gorgeous (2022) User Reviews

Sweetie- Cici

[ozgetuzungonenc · 8/10 · 27 October 2022]

Sweetie I especially admire the narration by the director when he points out the verbal violence in families. Also, it is striking how the brain copes with the guilt. To me, the film screams for a few things: The domestic violence exists- it is not only physical as some believe. Patriarchic father figure and mother instinct have just crashed into each other! Suppressed emotions always find a way to be revealed. Traumas, which mean being wounded mentally, sometimes require our attention, again and again- Being recalled by the brain means that they needs to be resolved.

Just like a bleeding scar.

If it was half an hour shorter, it would be masterpiece

[abuyukabaci · 8/10 · 1 November 2022]

Anatolian family drama... oldest tale on this land. Just because it's old doesn't mean it's not fresh. It's not original or bold, but it is... new, you know. Like renewed antiques.

Oya did it again of course and has been acknowledged by his trademarks, zoom in/outs, dark and folkloric comedy, keep the characters centered and so on.

Writing is good, acting is superb (except fatih artman, who is one of my favorites but dude can only act angry, shouting, rude man). Casting is spot on.

However it's long. Oh man it's long. It's like dragging on and on and on. You are not Nuri Bilge Ceylan, you know. Keep it short keep it fresh.

Must see

8/10.

Does re-inventing your past cure your wounds?

[ozgur_ozbek · 7/10 · 9 January 2023]

It was impossible to stay away from the hype for a new Berkun Oya movie after the great Bir Baskadir. In that sense maybe Cici does not hit as hard but it is no way a waste of one's time. The relationship between the father and the son is a very important theme and Orhan Pamuk says the father always kills the son in the East, which in a way is the case here. In Cici, the storyline that did not translate to me was the Cemil-Saliha love as I can not picture Saliha remaining emotionally attached after moving to the big city. The scene where Olgun Simsek argues with Okan Yalabik was incredible where I can swear it happened just in front of me. The casting was perfect with the transitions between young and old versions were flawless. The family discussion at the barbecue/mangal revealed all the real intentions of characters in a very natural way where the writing was sublime. One last bit of question on my side is whether Saliha spent enough time in Ankara to become the rather sophisticated urban woman that is portraited but this might be quite picky.

Masterpiece, Experiencing Someone's Trauma

[Duhanakdmn · 10/10 · 10 November 2022]

Experiencing someone's trauma was well executed.

Switching to now and past is an awesome idea. The acting part was just perfect, I felt all the emotions of every character. When we are watching the movie, it feels like we are watching someone's photos frame by frame, but this time we know the backstory. "twist" of the film wasn't that big, and I think it made the movie clean. There is nothing too much, and nothing less. While you watch it you get more and more curious about the story like you are listening to someone's tale or gossip about someone's story that tells you everything about the characters but not in order.

Weak buildup

[ilkeozguner · 7/10 · 3 November 2022]

First of all, I liked the picture. The terrain is perfect and reminded me my own childhood and i like the pictures that i could relate.

Secondly actor performances is perfect. If I should be more specific I loved the the way that Ayca Bingol acted.

Even though actor performances are brilliant, build up is weak. One minor event led huge consequences which is not believable for me. In Turkey's world almost everybody has much more trauma that we need push down so I would expect more strong back story from Berkun Oya who is very capable to do so.

I can not wait to watch next project of Berkun Oya.

An accurate reading of Anatolian-Turkish families

[yasiryilmaz1 · 10/10 · 6 November 2022]

Definitely a reliable analysis of traditional Turkish families: Traditional Turkish families - if not all, most - are characterized by terrible communication among family members due to sub-par individual maturity of Turkish people. Turkish men are work-oriented machines whose emotional development is almost always incomplete and, depending on the family milieu and neighborhood, they can be very harsh on children. Many Turkish women are unaccomplished passion storehouses who are too often deprived of equal opportunities in childhood. The children such people raise - even when these children attend university and adopt an urban lifestyle that requires a higher degree of self-awareness - are almost always immature and have difficulty exploring, understanding, and facing their own individuality, psychology, and the emotional immaturity that always govern their relationships. The director did a remarkably successful reading of Turkish family and societal dynamics, based on realistic characters. Definitely worth your time.

Patriarchal family drama in an idyllic Anatolian town

[uslu-ezgi · 7/10 · 10 November 2022]

The movie starts with the event which led to the death of the father and breakdown of a family and then regathering of the family members some 30 years later at the family home.

Elder boy of the family, now a renowned director, films the event as he thinks it affected him as a child and partly because his childhood trauma is a good material for the script of his film. Although he felt some level of remorse for the event leading to the death of his father, he is kind of reckless comparing with himself after 2 years of having learnt the truth.

Opening scene of the movie shows the mother watching an old ad on tv about nurses and nursing. This relates to the last scene of the movie showing the mother, now old and has dementia, thinking herself as a good nurse. As a woman in a patriarchal family, she plays the role of the carer fullfilling the necessities of being a nurse.

Considering still scenes of Anatolian nature and everyday lives of the local people, director Berkun Oya's style resembles to Nuri Bilge Ceylan quite much. However, his movies differ slightly in terms of being more fluidal and ending with a striking fact.

Berkun Oya Rules

[yusufpiskin · 9/10 · 27 October 2022]

A film signed by Berkin Oya, who deserves the title of 'Auteur' director even before he is 45 years old.

The movie wasn't actually made for Netflix. Netflix later joined the project and bought all the rights of the film without being a passenger of the Antalya Film Festival.

Berkun Oya, who has worked at every stage of a set and gained experience, presents us with the master framing, actor/actress management and script language that we are used to in this film.

The advantage of having full control in the series, theater plays, films and even in writing is a plus.

If we talk about this movie; The fact that he used the experienced actors and actresses for the cast and inexperienced actors in the same frame and the equal distribution of roles in each frame is proof of how much he trusts himself.

Having started his career as a cameraman, Yagiz Yavru's cinematography is magnificent.

Ali Aga, on the other hand, made the film even more watchable with an edit worthy of him.

Eli Haligua and Fatih Ragbet did a great job in sound engineering.

It would take pages to praise the names in the cast of the movie one by one, everyone in the cast believed in the work, many of whom had already worked with Berkun Oya...

But a round of applause is needed for Okan Yalabik and Nur Sürer...

The name of the movie is "Cici" (cute) but not cute!

[yunus_erdogdu · 6/10 · 8 November 2022]

The film is so stagnant that the director has nothing to tell, but look, I have the opportunity, I have money, I understand these things, and he puts out a task as if he is wasting your time, just as I waste my time. The expectation from a movie is consistent with the name of the movie, but the movie "Cici" is far from its name and beyond being cute in terms of its subject and flow. With these possibilities, a great emotional Anatolian drama could have come out with this cast, but it didn't. No, I think the director should keep trying, but on the condition that before starting a new project, watch Cici from start to finish without speeding up and skipping.

Satisfying Ending

[itsmae · 9/10 · 29 October 2022]

The movie portrays the story of a Turkish countryside family's traumatic life story.

You cannot unsee the fact that the father in the movie is a common father figure in Turkey-or at least can be considered so by a lot of people who grew up in Turkey: the figure that tends to be caring and loving all the time but also abusive at times. It's clearly a good demonstration of such type of father figure.

On another note, I also think that the mother's insistence towards the father on sending her daughter to Ankara to study nursery and her obsession with sphygmomanometer pump reflect the guilt that she herself couldn't study nursery-most probably due to her family's pressure to marry her with a man and not allow her to study. These may partly be the reasons constituting their marital problems showcased throughout the movie.

This attempt to portray the not so much portrayed features of Turkish culture (mainly the aggressive and caring father figure) is the main reason I resonate with the productions of Berkun Oya.

It was the same with Bir Baskadir (Ethos), too.

I personally found some bits of familiarity in this movie. Though can be guessed beforehand, the ending was satisfying. In sum: Good acting. Cool shots. Beautiful story. Loved it!

Making most of an uneven film

[waigo7 · 7/10 · 3 November 2022]

From TV series to almost festival films Berkun Oya follows an interesting path in Turkis TV/Cinema. From 3 works i've seen it is safe to say that he would fancy uncetralised collection of stories. Masum was had a main story line unraveled with nunerous character arcs. Bir Baskadir was the epitome if it. Making that in a film is however very difficult an i think ge didn't do it well enough. Ayça Bingöl's character's arc was rushed, Fatih Artman's character had too much emotional burden despite missing character development. It is obvious that it is quite hard to maintain balance and construct satisfying narration for bulk of characters but sometimes it is better to change the construct rather than dictating it.

The film has upsides too and it is even partially thanks to fulfilling character development. My favourite is Yilmaz Erdogan's character. It is so well written, that also lead to a strong performence from him, althoght Erdogan's a better writer than actor. Score and music is also great and works beautifully. Cinematography is also very good. It can be nitpicking but i expected a more pulsating approach in dad's punishment scene and at plot twist/expectation subversion moment.

I think Berkun Oya can do much better and there is room to improve. I think he has potential to overcome this challenge.

A slow burner

[kyzygan · 1/10 · 7 November 2022]

A family who migrated from the village to the city after a painful loss reunites in their old house at about 30. Not fully understood and rashly delivered a Berkun movie, that is.

Aren't we about to throw up on stories of "family members reunite after years and the door to the past confrontations reopens"? Enough, really enough. Our storytellers can't get enough of this theme, just as the TV series used up on the "rich boy, poor girl theme." Not to mention the clinically depressed mother who wanted to be a nurse, but she became a mother at a very young age; for some odd reason, Berkun failed to communicate that adequately to the audience. Dreadfully slow, depressing movie.

One of the Best Turkish Dramas Lately

[gokcink · 9/10 · 14 November 2022]

Another heart touching movie from Yilmaz Erdogan alike "Vizontele" but this time no funny scenes. Instead depressing climate, slow moving and sometimes boring. Great acting from all actors and actresses. Although the movie is quite long and partially boring the character's performance is great. The Cast Director deserves a big "Bravo" because every single character was an absolute great match with the scenerio where you can not say "X would be better in this role" Every Turk who is or was involved in a family that used to work in Europe (Especially Germany) will sense the details in the movie such as the Bekir Character has a nightmare and wakes up screaming "Turken Raus" (Turks go away)

Impressive; almost fascinating

[gokselll · 8/10 · 28 October 2022]

Discounting a couple of problems caused by two distinct narration styles applied in the beginning scenes and the rest parts of the movie, Cici is a fascinating family drama. Despite its plain and unagitating langue, the movie skilfully achieves to build a riveting and immersive story.

In addition to many succesful scenes and glorious acting performances, this movie also deserves attention even for only mesmerizing performance of Olgun Simsek (character Cemil), who creates an excellent scene (in the middle part of the movie) with an inimitable smile spreading a great sorrow.

Congratulations to director-writer Berkun Oya and the whole team.

Excellent story and phenomenal actings!

[aylinonsu · 10/10 · 3 November 2022]

One little detail on the young mother of the 3 siblings; she does not look like a village girl, she rather looks like a city girl who regularly visits a beauty salon. She seems to have manicure, very nice facial on her.

Other than that detail, casting is just amazing! Young siblings resemble the older actors a lot. Fantastic job in cinematography!

Yilmaz Erdogan is amazing as always! I watched it all along and happy to watch it again.

This films reminds me of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's fantastic films and I appreciate the quality in providing the vision.

Thank you to all of the actors taking part in such a fantastic film.

Love his slow, simple movies with real emotions

[mrvblky · 9/10 · 12 November 2022]

I just love how Mr. Oya in Turkish movies captures the emotions of the actors. I am tired of fast shows, quick emotion changes in Turkish shows, the rollercoasters, the love triangles, the horrible comedy, so this movie genre completely changes Turkish movies. It is just refreshing to tap into oneself.

Also the actors must have it pretty hard, since the scenes are shot long. Though they did an amazing job.

So generally, it is a very slow movie, less action and I do believe that this is Mr. Oyas intention. Loved it. Parents were saying it is boring and slow, but they still watched every single minute of it! :)

Wow! What just happened!

[s_umitli · 10/10 · 18 March 2024]

Never have I ever seen such a full bodied turkish production with such cross referenced editing and interwoven story and succesful character development not only in a leading role but in the entire parts. The cast, acting, set design, cinematography, picture, editing, sound.. they all combine in this contemporary masterpiece.

Titled ironically, the movie throws many questions in the air. Whether lf things could have been else way, would they bring happiness in life or does growth and progress always happen for the best?

A continuos feeling of nostalgia crushing your heart over and over, the movie (imo) is in the league of Cinema del Paradiso.