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PaulDBrazill
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Dzien Matki (2023)
A whipcrack, high-octane, ultra-violent, crime thriller
Mateusz Rakowicz Mother's Day is a whipcrack, high-octane, ultra-violent, crime thriller that is laced with dark and decidedly offbeat humour. The film is grounded by a truly great central performance from Agnieszka Grochowska as Nina, who manages to be both down to earth and adrenaline pumping, And the supporting character actors also perform with great aplomb. . The actions scenes are as tight as hell and very well choreographed . The villains are vivid and gaudy, and just on the right side of over-the-top. There are moments of laugh out loud humour as well as tenderness, and the pulsating score keeps the energy level high.
Casting Kill (2023)
Chills and Thrills.
Casting Kill. Which was shot super- quickly, with a small crew, and on a very limited budget, is a very stylish suspense thriller set in the underbelly of Hollywood filmmaking Nothing is ever quite as it seems and, indeed, Casting Kill has more twists and turns than a corkscrew. The whirlwind indie writer/ director team of Carline Spence and James Smith have been building a well=deserved reputation of late, and they are sure to have another micro - budget hit on their hands with CASTING KILL, a tense and stylish horror/ thriller hybrid with plenty of short, sharp shocks. Like a kick in the eye from a stiletto heel.
The Strays (2023)
Smart and Gripping.
In THE STRAYS, an unhappily married woman leaves her family home and starts a kind of Stepford life in a bland and twee English suburb. To say any more would probably lead to plot spoilers. However, I will say that THE STRAYS is one of the most intelligent and off-kilter horror/ thriller/ dramas that I've seen in ages. It's gripping, odd, engrossing, chilling, sad, unnerving, thoughtful, and very bloody discombobulating. The acting is first class and the film's pacing is spot on. I loved it. The Strays us a highly recommended slice of off kilter film making with consistently strong performances.
Rojst (2018)
First Class.
Whilst many Polish crime dramas are of a very high standard indeed, with The Mire, showrunner. Director and writer Jan Holoubek has produced something special.
In The Mire '87 (2018), a pair of small-town journalists investigate the connection between the deaths of a politician and a prostitute. In The Mire '97 (2021) a suspicious flood in the same town drags up dark secrets from World War 2.
Both series are gripping crime dramas in themselves but the intersection of the sets of events that are separated by 10 years is particularly masterful. An added texture is also given as The Mire smartly shows the changes in Polish society and lifestyles that took place over those 10 years. Power, corruption and lies are, of course, always lurking in the shadows.
The direction, cinematography, score, and writing are all first rate, and the acting is particularly top notch. Dawid Ogrodnik is splendid in both series, as is the ever-brilliant Andrzej Seweryn. Series one looks at its events through the eyes of the journalists whilst series two focuses on the police investigation, with Magdalena Rózczka and Lukasz Simlat on typically fine form.
The Mire: Millennium is show-runner Jan Holoubek's long awaited follow up to two splendid series -The Mire '87, and The Mire '97. Indeed, The Mire: Millennium is the final part of a trilogy which stands up well on his own but is more greatly appreciated if you are familiar with the previous two seasons.
As with those previous two series, a police investigation digs up long-buried dirt on the lives of the inhabitants of small town in Poland. The series' narrative threads are interwoven tightly, along with strands from the previous two series.
The Mire: Millennium is set at the cusp of the last century, a pivotal time in Polish history, which is smartly reflected over the series' eight episodes. But there are also fantastic sequences set in 1963 which are brilliantly recreated slices of history as well as being important parts of the backstory.
Performances are again uniformly strong with Magdalena Rózczka, Lukasz Simlat, and Andrzej Seweryn being particularly excellent. Filip Plawiak playing the young version of Piotr Fronczewski's hotel manager makes a hell of a strong impression too.
Once again there is a great sense of time and place, with the small-town setting being an important character, a remarkable visual aesthetic, and a beautifully atmospheric score from Jan Komar and Malgorzata Penkalla. The Mire: Millennium really is cracking stuff.
Ostatnia wieczerza (2022)
Horror Noir.
Screenwriter/ Director Bartosz M. Kowalski and co screenwriter Mirella Zaradkiewicz are probably best known for their wry and quirky takes on the slasher movie with Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight, and its follow up.
Hellhole, however, is a very different kettle of fish. Avoiding spoilers, Piotr Zurawski plays a detective who is sent undercover to a secluded monastery to investigate a series of mysterious disappearance, All is not what it seems, of course.
Hellhole is a tightly told tale with less flab than Kate Moss in her heyday. Visually, it is beautifully dark and atmospheric, and the creepy soundtrack adds to and develops the dark, gothic feel.
As in most Polish films, the acting is of a uniformly high standard, and I've got to give a special shout out to Sebastian Stankiewicz, who is one of the best character actors working in Poland today.
All in all, Hellhole is a highly recommenced slice of horror noir.
Supernova (2019)
Hard-Hitting
Not to be confused with the recent Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster, Bartosz Kruhlik's 2019 film is a brutal but gripping Polish drama which is short, sharp and completely engrossing. The acting throughout is first class but the standout performance is from Marcin Zarzeczny who is stunning as the drunkard whose wife leaves him in the hope of a better life. Power, corruption and lies - those staples of Polish crime drama - abound, but SUPERNOVA is really a film about the tragedies that can happen in everday life. SUPERNOVA is certainly not for the faint of heart but it is ultimately a rewarding and moving film.
I Called Him Morgan (2016)
Smooth.
I Called Him Morgan is a beautiful and elegiac documentary on the life and death of the great jazz trumpet player Lee Morgan.
Helen Morgan nursed her common-law husband, jazz great Lee Morgan, through heroin addiction. On a February night in 1972, she walked into Slug's Saloon in the East Village with a gun in her purse, and after they fought and he physically threw her out of the bar, she returned and shot him. Highly recommended.
Najmro: Kocha, kradnie, szanuje (2021)
As cool as ...
The Getaway King/ Najmro is a stylish, fast-moving comic crime-caper that is based on a true story and set in '80s Poland. Directed by Mateusz Rakowicz, and written by Rakowicz and Lukasz M. Maciejewski, The Getaway King positively fizzes and sparkles like a freshly corked bottle of champagne! There is a really strong sense of time and place - Pewex, the psychotic Pruszkow mob - and some cracking performances. Dawid Ogrodnik as Zdzislaw 'Najmro' Najmrodzki, a slick criminal who escaped from police custody no less than 29 times - is roguish charm itself, and the ever- excellent Robert Wieckiewicz plays the grizzled, world- weary cop hell-bent on hunting down Najmro with aplomb. A special mention should also be made of Dorota Kolak's splendid turn as Najmro's irascible mother. All in all, The Getaway King is a smashing film and well-worth checking out.