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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
The post-Caesar era has come with new challenges for humans and apes
One of the significant and impactful moments that forged my childhood cinephilia was the scene in which astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) falls to his knees disconsolate when he finds the remains of the Statue of Liberty on the beach. Finding it in ruins meant that the civilization he had known had been exterminated and with it the hegemony of humans over the planet.
I still consider it one of the most impressive final sequences in film history.
The reboot of the saga in 2011 and its subsequent films did not generate much interest in me. I saw all three: Inception (2011), Dawn (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).
They have a good cast, good production design, competent directors in charge, but the shadow of the original saga made it unable to connect with these new versions.
There is something about the new installment that is currently being shown in cinemas that has caught me and has resurrected my interest in this universe again.
In a post-Caesar era. Which represents a new beginning within the mythology of this universe. The leader of the apes who started the revolution and led his species to break the subjugation that humans exercised over them has been dead for many years.
Only a few remain in memory of his legacy that emphasized interspecies charity and cohabiting in harmony.
Here there are no longer internal fights between humans and apes.
The apes have won. Now, they are apes trying to subdue other apes led by Proximus. An ape with aspirations of becoming a sovereign king, dictator and tyrant.
There has been an involution in humans. Most have lost the ability to speak. The most intelligent apes even perceive them as an inferior species.
The attractive thing about the plot is the interaction of humans and apes in the face of injustice and abuse of power.
There are clans of apes that live in perfect harmony with nature and other clans that make destruction and violence their way of life. (just like humans).
There is an ape, Noa, and a human, Mae. That they have established a bond of friendship and mutual help. They are both sentient intelligent beings. Mae pretends at first that she doesn't know how to speak. She later shows not only that she can talk but that she is an intelligent human.
The third act is very interesting. Mae destroys a strategic place that, if taken by Proximus' army, would mean the total defeat of the humans.
Thus, in the final stretch we know that many humans who did not lose their intelligence due to the virus live hidden, crouched in a bunker, moving stealthily in order to regain control of the planet...
I find valuable subtexts that speak of peaceful coexistence with others despite differences. A criticism of humanity for believing itself to be the owner of a planet that actually belongs to all the species that inhabit it.
The film ends on a high point, laying the seed for an exciting second installment.
Civil War (2024)
A preventative perspective for the United States
There are so many movies made in Hollywood that show the United States as the savior of the world, the heroic nation that sends its powerful army to wars that are none of its business and then sees the gringo soldiers return home because of the traumas. Emanating from conflicts in which they were invaders. A twisted vision of North American interventionism.
The originality and importance of Civil War is bringing the conflict home. Show a nation divided. Something that is not far from the current socio-political pulse of that country.
The English director Alex Garland has already proven his narrative solvency in science fiction in Annihilation and Ex Machina.
Now, he immerses us in a uchrony that presents us with a fragmented United States. Texas and California have become secessionist states. While Florida is about to do it.
Violence and chaos reign.
In the opening sequence, we see the nation's president giving a triumphalist speech. The events on the street show otherwise.
All the internal fractures of the country are shown from the point of view of three seasoned war journalists led by Lee (Kirsten Dunst). The counterpart is an ambitious young woman who wants to cut her teeth as a war photographer, Jessie (Cailee Spaeny).
It is a road trip, a road movie that shows the desolation and violent internal struggles between paramilitary forces in conflict.
The armed confrontations are recreated with crudeness and verisimilitude while we observe the brave journalists risking their lives and capturing with their lenses the barbarism between citizens of the same country.
The harshness of the situation is taking its toll on the experienced journalists while she takes away the innocence of the young applicant who accompanies them.
In a country that deliriously loves weapons and in which it is common news to see shootings in schools, churches and supermarkets, Civil War puts its finger on the sore spot. A country that wants to continue armed as if they lived in the old West. Where will it eventually lead them?
There is clearly an opposition of forces in the United States. The visions of the country between Republicans and Democrats are increasingly polarized.
Alex Garland shows not only how bloody and useless the confrontation between compatriots is; He also makes a severe criticism of the indifferent. To those who, despite the armed conflict, lock themselves in their bubble and try to live life as if nothing were happening.
Dune: Part Two (2024)
A narrative and audiovisual triumph
I didn't fully connect with the Dune universe until yesterday.
The 80's version, despite being directed by David Lynch, is a fiasco in every way.
And the first of this saga by Villeneuve did not move me enough. I felt it was lukewarm for the beginning of an interplanetary epic.
This second part corrects all the shortcomings of the previous one and is a firm and notable step that positions the saga with the potential to become something similar to what The Lord of the Rings saga achieved.
Denis Villenueve uses the concepts of the book: The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell with mastery and narrative eloquence:
The twelve stages of the hero's journey
1. Ordinary world. The real world before the story begins.
2. The call to adventure. The protagonist is presented with a problem, challenge or adventure.
3. Call rejection. Fear of change causes reluctance to accept the call, a refusal to leave the comfort zone.
4. Meeting with a mentor with supernatural help. The hero finds support that provides him with information and trains him to respond to the challenge.
5. First threshold. The ordinary world is abandoned and the threshold is crossed into the special or magical world. The hero faces what is known as the desert crossing.
6. Tests, allies and enemies. The hero encounters all kinds of trials, enemies and allies, which allows him to learn the rules of that special world.
7. Approach. The hero overcomes the tests on his path.
8. Decisive evidence. The most critical moment takes place, a life or death test.
9. Reward. The hero has faced death and overcome the fear of it, then comes the reward.
10. The way back. The protagonist has to return to the ordinary world.
11. Resurrection or Enlightenment. On the way back, another decisive test takes place on his home world, the hero once again faces death using everything he has learned. The transformation is complete.
12. Return with the elixir. The hero becomes aware of the acquired knowledge (power) that he uses to help others in the ordinary world.
It is a paradigm that has served many visionaries as a practical guide to create their alternative universes. George Lucas has mentioned on several occasions how valuable reading Campbell was to him in laying the foundation for Star Wars.
Dune 2 is visually majestic. There are memorable scenes: the giant worm cavalcades through the desert are innovative and peculiar. He knows how to take advantage of the immensity of the desert, the enigmatic nature of these extensive desert territories. The arid environment helps to understand the psychology of the characters; like Stilgar (Javier Bardem), a leader with unwavering faith.
The narrative has strong religious connotations: it speaks of a Messiah, of prophecies, of mystical rituals that lead to the knowledge of profound truth, of religious fundamentalism. At the same time and inherent to any power struggle, subtle political intrigue is handled to strengthen positions and implement military strategies.
All these aspects are masterfully brought together. A film of almost three hours that does not falter at any time. On the contrary, as it progresses, interest increases and narrative cohesion grows.
A wonderful cast: Timotheé Chamalet as Paul Atreides, the son of an important house banished by circumstances and who, in adversity, finds the clarity and inner strength to become a leader and a kind of messiah. Rebecca Ferguson, as Jessica, his mother, who becomes a spiritual leader known as Reverend Mother.
Florence Pugh, as Princess Irulan, who will witness the collapse of the power of her father, the Emperor (Christopher Walken). That is to say, all the characters are attractive and well drawn. They feel organic and do not merely represent archetypes.
Everything works fine here. The audiovisual gear provides spectacle with strong foundations supported by a deep story that makes allegories to religious and socio-political problems current in the 21st century.
Madame Web (2024)
Laying the foundation for stories to come
Precognition: Extrasensory perception that allows knowledge of future events.
It can manifest itself in the form of visions or mental images, that is, premonitions that arise in the gifted person when perceiving psychic energy, either through contact with objects and people charged with that energy present in everything or by the mere fact of perceiving it in scattered psychic vestiges. In the air.
It's surprising how smear campaigns emerge just a few days before a movie's release.
A group of angry people who rant against a film, labeling it as garbage and spreading their distorted idea on social networks.
I read such negative comments about Madame Web on Twitter and IMDb, that I decided to watch it as soon as possible to draw my own conclusions.
After watching it, it is clear to me that it is an armed smear campaign that is lighting the fuse and expanding among the sheepish masses who believe everything they read on the internet.
Although Madame Web is not a high-level film, it can be seen fluently.
It has narrative cohesion, sustained dramatic tension and a well-constructed atmosphere based on several very well-executed flashforwards that show Cassandra Webb's perspective as she assimilates her precognitive gifts. The scenes where her gift allows her to anticipate upcoming events are, without a doubt, the best part of the film. Especially the scene in the cafeteria with the song 'Toxic' by Britney Spears in the background, generating a wonderful audiovisual counterpoint.
The film fails to include bland and forced humorous dialogues in climatic scenes. A humor that, if it worked before, now feels lacking in freshness and out of place.
It is not the superhero film that will revitalize the genre but it is not the garbage that some malicious people would have you believe.
Despite its shortcomings, it succeeds and lays sufficient foundations for future sequels in which there will be an opportunity to refine details.
Poor Things (2023)
"A free woman is just the opposite of an easy woman."
Taking the story of Frankenstein as a reference, the Greek director builds a fable of how a woman builds herself based on adventure and experimentation.
Characters built with archetypes that represent the best and worst of society and humanity. The sublime and grotesque is shown in the path of self-discovery of Bella Baxter (a wonderful Emma Stone). A woman who, fortuitous reasons, has the opportunity to literally start from scratch in the adventures of life.
Bella's innocence deprives her of all moral judgment, so she throws herself shamelessly and openly into enjoying the sap of life with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), an apparent libertine and promiscuous who ends up overwhelmed and not measuring up to the naturalness, sincerity and freedom of Bella, who says and does without restrictions.
A production design that gives the story a dreamlike atmosphere in Bella's walk through Europe. The film has erotic scenes with high sexual content that range from the hilarious to the sensual and even the reflective. It shows the turning points that can occur in the process of discovering our sensuality and carnal appetites. All these scenes don't hurt. They have a specific weight in the plot and are important to Bella's journey of self-discovery.
One of the dialogues in the film says: "We must experience everything, not only the good, but also the degradation, the horror, the sadness. This makes us complete. Then we can know the world. And when we know the world... The world is ours.''
The image texture and color palette play an important role in Bella's growth, development and evolution as a woman and as a person. Black and white is a blank canvas that passes through to be captured in colors and tones.
A valuable and exciting cinematographic experience for the viewer.
Mean Girls (2024)
Empty & Plastic
I saw it yesterday out of curiosity. I don't recommend it.
Too many sung dialogues. The new version of Mean Girls, by using so many musical scenes that look like video clips, forgets to give adequate development to the characters. They look one-dimensional, flat. Unlike the original, which was a good movie because of the good construction of characters.
They focused too much on the musical and the film has narrative gaps and potholes. Empty and plastic.
You leave the room and immediately forget about it.
An unnecessary remake.
Everything good that the 2004 version had does not appear anywhere here.
Although Angourie Rice is a good actress and a good choice for the lead, she can't do much with a script that doesn't offer much to her.
Flipped (2010)
A story built with sensitivity and mastery
It took thirteen years for me to come across this beautiful film that tells how first love is built.
It is the story of Juli and Bryce; since they become neighbors and schoolmates in elementary school, their transition to teenagers and the consolidation of their love in high school.
A premise that has been told any number of times. It is the mastery with which the narrative is developed that makes it unique and endearing.
All events are told from both perspectives. It is very fun to see how a situation can be perceived in such different ways.
As in any worthwhile romance, this one simmers for several years while we get to know their respective families.
Rob Reiner's hand is noticeable. Creator of the memorable: When Harry Met Sally. He has the ability to capture a relationship with ups and downs over several years without resorting to clichés or corniness. He shows how after physical attraction it is the personalities that end up falling in love beyond the person's appearance.
Radical (2023)
Predictable and conventional melodrama
Full of clichés. With a Eugenio Derbez whose character it is impossible to believe since he always plays himself.
A film that aims to be emotional and powerful in its message ends up being a manual on how to make a predictable melodrama film with a happy ending.
It uses elements to move the viewer that have already been seen in any number of films. Despite being a story based on real events, it is clearly designed for the main character to shine, which makes it a manipulative film that does not feel or perceive fresh in its proposal.
I like stories that talk about teachers who inspire their students. After watching this film, it is clear to me that it will not be remembered as one of the best of its kind.
Reptile (2023)
mmersing yourself in this proposal makes you evoke the cinema of the 90's.
Reptile is a police thriller that has the atmosphere and vibe of the nineties.
An intelligent script with a slow and involving pace. Where it is difficult to predict and define who are the victims and who are the perpetrators, a game of appearances and simulations unfolds between the characters that only the investigative nose of the police officer, Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) will manage to remove the masks.
Benicio Del Toro and Alicia Silverstone return as a couple after having been in the 1997 film: Excess Baggage. The chemistry between the two is evident and is a factor that makes the film work. Since Judy Nichols (Silverstone) is the pillar of the police officer. A shrewd woman who supports her husband and helps him figure out important things in the murder of a girl who was the partner of a successful real estate agent and owner of a rising real estate agency, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake). Timberlake, he's a good actor. There is a lot of talk about his career as a pop singer, at the same time he has built a good filmography. Here he plays a character of ambiguous morals.
I recently read an interview with David Fincher in which he expressed that the problem with current cinema is that it focuses a lot on action and plot and forgets the construction of characters.
What makes Reptile a film with substance is precisely that it has very well-constructed characters. Characters that go beyond a mere sketch, with chiaroscuros, with virtues and weaknesses. Even the supporting characters have these characteristics.
I applaud these types of films that forget about explosions and special effects and focus on offering good characters and a complex and unpredictable story.
Totally Killer (2023)
An effective fusion of genres and influences from classic films
The year is 1987, in Vernon County, a murder has never occurred... until the days before Halloween. Three 16-year-old girls are murdered, each receiving 16 stab wounds. So the serial killer is called: ''Sweet Sixteen''.
Here is a film that effectively combines humor and terror using a light-hearted tone with great slasher scenes that immediately take us back to the Scream saga.
Totally Killer clearly takes elements from classic films such as Mean Girls and Back to the Future, incorporating them well into its plot and into Jamie's (Kiernan Shipka) trip to the past, who travels from 2023 to 1987, to try to prevent the murders that They marked their city.
The script is intelligent and handles sharp humor about sociocultural differences between the 80's and the current era, showing how a few decades ago the world, in some aspects, was a little more innocent, less complicated and twisted.
Kiernan Shipka does very well as a girl who travels to her parents' teenage years and has to live with them without them knowing her parentage.
Without being original, the script fuses the thematic elements it uses very well and the result is an entertaining and exciting film that is very appropriate to enjoy in October.
The Nun II (2023)
The Conjuring Universe, despite a few hiccups, is still going strong.
One of the most enigmatic demons in the Conjuroverse is undoubtedly The Nun. She first appeared in The Conjuring 2 and is a disturbing character with a lot to eat.
Her first film, About Her, is frankly very bad. A weak script narrated clumsily. Despite having solvent actors like Demián Bichir and Charlotte Hope.
The producers, aware that the character deserved a better movie, made an effort in this sequel and delivered a worthy product. Which could not be described as a horror film.
Rather, it is a supernatural thriller with a good narrative rhythm, good locations and great cinematography.
It is the nun Irene, the only survivor of the previous installment, who is entrusted by the Vatican to face this demon in human form that has moved from Eastern Europe to France, leaving death, desolation and fear in its wake among the parishioners. For his attack on priests.
Taissa Farmiga, sister of Vera Farmiga who plays Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring films, makes the saying well: "for the wedge to tighten it must be of the same suit."
Her work is credible. She is a fragile nun in body but strong in will, moved by her faith.
The script has an interesting aspect worth noting: the evil entity has arrived in France, looking for a relic of spiritual power, the eyes of Lucia of Syracuse. Patron saint of the blind. This saint was burned alive by the pagans in times of strong persecution of the Christians in the year 304, before doing so they gouged out her eyes. Despite the fire and burning wood, her body remained incorrupt. She without any injury. Later then, her eyes were hidden in a monastery as a symbol of spiritual strength.
That is why the devil, like a fallen angel, longs to have them. Looking maybe for some light.
The film is not a masterpiece by any means, but it manages to make up for the poor and lousy first installment, providing quality entertainment.
There is a post-credits scene. Taking a look at what's to come for the Warrens.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)
A novel approach to a classic character
I don't think Bram Stoker imagined the repercussion and validity that the character in his novel would have in the collective imagination of past and contemporary moviegoers.
Any number of versions have been made into movies from different points of view. An enigmatic and seductive character whose circumstances are fertile material for various narratives.
This proposal focuses on the Russian schooner that unknowingly transported the body of this being of darkness from Romania to England in 1897.
Here they leave aside the sensual and lascivious side of the character, focusing on the beast thirsty for human blood. A representative of evil in the world.
His appearance is chilling, very close to the Nosferatu of Murnau's version but fiercely aggressive.
Open sea. In the middle of nowhere. A group of sailors will have the challenge of their lives with a black doctor who, despite his abilities, has not been able to put himself in the place he deserves because of his skin color.
The claustrophobic atmosphere is very successful. The night stalking of the dark being together with the natural challenges presented by the sea, create the narrative tension that increases as the ship progresses.
It is a novel perspective of the mythical character that leaves the door open for sequels.
Eight for Silver (2021)
A hidden gem
''As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in the midst of the city; and you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath on you.'"
Ezekiel 22 : 22
For all those who like mythology and urban legends around werewolves, this is an unmissable proposal.
It blends biblical aspects into the narrative in an organic and intelligent way, a gypsy curse that is linked to the silver coins that Judas Iscariot received for delivering Jesus Christ and the French legend of The Beast of Gévaudan.
According to this story, from June 30, 1764 to June 19, 1767, between 82 and 124 people, mostly children, fell victim to the enigmatic beast in southern France. In an agricultural area of extensive fields and forests dominated by landowners. The victims were found brutally disemboweled and mutilated.
The director combines these aspects to create a story in which cinematography plays a fundamental role, creating a very successful atmosphere of uncertainty between cloudy days and fog where the disturbing threat of the mysterious beast has an entire community in suspense and panic. .
A powerful landowner is informed that a group of gypsies have settled on land that he considers to be his property. He meets with the most powerful people in town, including the local priest. Who makes him see that there is a possibility that the land does indeed belong to the gypsies.
The landowner decides to radically end the dispute by massacring the gypsies; he takes the two leaders, tortures one and hangs him like a scarecrow. The woman is buried alive along with an intriguing set of teeth made of silver coins.
The gypsy casts a curse before dying...
From this moment on, misfortune strikes the region and the fight to find the beast and exterminate it begins. Beware of widespread panic and guarded secrets that will come to light.
A great proposal that develops an enveloping narrative for the viewer with impeccable construction of atmosphere and main and secondary characters.
The Flash (2023)
A firm step of the DC Universe
The new proposal of the DC Universe fulfills what it promised in the trailer. It is an exciting adventure full of adrenaline in time loops and alternate universes with a strong emotional and nostalgic charge to recover what was lost by the protagonist.
In fact, it is this emptiness of maternal love that is Flash's main motivation to use his powers to reverse the earthly absence of his mother (a stupendous Maribel Verdú who shines and transmits a warm energy in her brief and substantial time on screen).
The tone of the film has a perfect balance between the comedic moments, the inherent tragedy of the loss of a loved one and how it leaves indelible marks, and the fast-paced action scenes fighting General Zod again in an alternate universe created by mistake by Flash in his eagerness to modify events from his childhood.
There are great movie winks like when Flash goes through a wall that has the same Raquel Welch poster that Andy Dufresne used in The Shawshank Redemption to camouflage the hole that would lead him to freedom.
In the alternate world, Eric Stolz is not fired from Back to the Future and Michael J. Fox is the protagonist of Footloose.
Of all the characters that appear in the alternate universe, it's Michael Keaton's Batman who takes the cake. 30 years away, he returns to print that freshness that made him one of the favorite interpreters of The Knight of the Night.
He doesn't take down Supergirl. I was not convinced by the choice of actress, however her performance is solvent, showing a brave and supportive Kryptonian.
I have read comments on Twitter from detractors of the CGI of the film.
They seem unfounded to me as they reflect the perception of Flash at full speed.
The final part is emotional by displaying a tribute to Superman in all the possibilities of his existence in parallel worlds.
The movie is a firm step forward for the DC Universe.
Sets the bar high for future installments.
The Boogeyman (2023)
''Where your fear is, there is your homework''. Carl Gustav Jung
It's the first Boogeyman movie I've seen. I know there are several versions and even a series. My first experience with this story, based on a short story by Stephen King, has been highly satisfactory.
It spent a bit of night on the Mexican billboard because it was released simultaneously with the Disney movie, The Little Mermaid.
It will surely be appreciated and valued when it is released on streaming, as it is a very well-constructed proposal based on psychological terror.
In its premise and subplots, it handles transcendental issues such as dealing with the sudden loss of a loved one and the underlying fears in each person typical of human nature.
The story shows a psychiatrist and his two daughters dealing with the death of his wife in a traffic accident. The father has withdrawn emotionally and thrown himself into his work, leaving his daughters to handle the death of his mother, alone.
The first few minutes of the tape are sinister and gloomy. In fact, three people who were two rows ahead left the room (I suppose they went to see The Little Mermaid in a nearby room, something light and popcorn).
The construction of the characters is impeccable; The symbolism of open and closed doors, of light and shadow, is handled, not only in the lurking monster but also in the human psyche.
Horror with substance that suggests that the most important monsters to defeat are those that lie in each person.
Montana Story (2021)
Great Old School Movie
I have enjoyed this film very much. The kind of story that was shown in abundance in movie theaters in the 1990s and early 2000s. When there was still room for medium-budget films that supported their narrative on the quality of the script, the performances of the actors and the cinematography of beautiful landscapes that accompanied the plot.
Very far from the visual paraphernalia that seems to be a requirement to have projection in theaters today.
Montana Story, is an intimate family drama that takes place on a ranch in the middle of the wonderful and cold landscapes of Montana. One of the coldest states in the US.
The cold environment contrasts with the narrative in which, at times, passions boil.
We all have moments in our past that in retrospect, we have discovered that we could have acted better, with more determination.
That happens to Cal. Seven years ago he watched his father beat up his sister, Erin (Haley Lu Richardson). Even though inside he wanted to step in and stop the beating, he just freezes up and does nothing.
The ghost of his cowardice and indecision has haunted him all these years.
Erin, has disappeared since that day without a trace.
It is until her father suffers a stroke and is left in a coma with no chance of waking up, that Lu returns to the ranch.
The psychological construction of both characters is what makes it a great movie.
From here on we see slowly and intelligently how the brothers seek to heal the wounds left by that event in the past.
How do you forgive and tell your truths to someone who can't hear you anymore and won't wake up?
The wonderful script is giving the answers of how the two characters are finding the exits of their respective labyrinths in a realistic and satisfactory way with an old horse involved that symbolically represents the past and the future.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)
Story with heart and soul
I had lost faith in the Marvel Universe. The last few movies I saw disappointed me. Especially Thor: Love and Thunder.
They seemed hollow, repetitive and made it seem that the formula was beginning to wear out.
The third installment of Guardians of the Galaxy revives Marvel because it is a film that has heart and soul. Focusing on the values of friendship and loyalty mainly in bad times, which is when the friendly bond should be shown the most.
The character who takes the ribbon is Rocket. A fundamental part of the plot and the success of the narrative is that they tell us the moving story of the character's origin.
Here it is no longer just the sophisticated action scenes and humorous dialogues, there is an emotional factor that permeates and makes the viewer connect with the story and the brotherhood that The Guardians have developed despite their differences.
Also the villain is well built. The High Evolutionary is not the typical and stuffy type that wants to conquer the world, it is one with messianic overtones that wants "a perfect world" from a very twisted vision.
If anything has characterized the predecessor films, it's his great soundtracks. The careful selection of songs to dress up and enhance scenes.
In this third installment, the playlist is outstanding; songs inserted at the right time to create compelling audiovisual counterpoints. Like the opening sequence with Rocket and an acoustic version of Radiohead's ''Creep''.
Or the spectacular scene of The Guardians floating in space with their colorful costumes to enter Orgoscopio while we listen to the wonderful 90s song: ''In thr Meantime by Spacehog
Two and a half hours that fly by. It's organic entertainment, not just designed to amuse but to strike a chord with the viewer.
This film rescues Marvel for the moment from the creative hole in which it was immersed. For now they have offered us one of the best tapes as in their best times of Phase 3.
¡Que viva México! (2023)
Pure garbage
All formula tends to wear off. Director Estrada ran out of fresh ideas and this time he repeats what had worked for him in previous films only to make it clear that his style has become anachronistic.
A failed farce that is incapable of presenting a decent character build. Manichaean characters that remain in unfinished cartoons, cartoonish, mere stereotypes.
It is impossible for the viewer to empathize with this group of unsympathetic and unpleasant characters and with scatological scenes that border on the vulgar.
The only challenge the film presents is for the viewer's bladder. In an exercise in overflowing narcissism, the director makes a 190-minute tape! How if it were an epic of The Lord of the Rings. An excess considering the plot poverty it offers.
Even solvent actors like Alcázar and Cosío, despite each playing several characters, can do little in the face of the mediocrity that the script offers them.
Smile (2022)
Well-crafted psychological horror
Trauma: Very intense emotional shock or impression caused by some negative fact or event that produces a lasting imprint on a person's subconscious that cannot or takes time to overcome.
Here is a clever and disturbing horror film. Without being very original, the first work of the director and screenwriter, Parker Finn, takes elements from other films and makes them his own without falling into crude imitation.
In this story I perceive a clear influence of the wonderful It Follows (2014). Both speak of a curse of an evil entity that is transmitted and spreads from one person to another adding a chain of misfortunes. In It Follows it was transmitted by sexual contact. Promiscuity made the entity strong. Here, it is the trauma of witnessing a suicide that makes the evil entity strong.
As in It Follows, in Smile, only the person carrying the curse can see the identity that can present itself in multiple ways, even as if it were a known person.
The plot flows with narrative solvency from the brutal opening sequence. That rarefied and disturbing atmosphere is sustained and increased as the protagonist, a psychiatrist (terrific performance by the actress, Sosie Bacon) falls into a spiral of confusion and uncertainty as she understands what is happening to her while her loved ones begin to to believe that he has totally lost his mind.
The script is very good. He makes observations about mental health and the thin line between sanity and madness in people who have faced situations of high emotional impact.
It manages to shake the viewer in some very well planned moments so that they are unexpected and even the seasoned movie buff does not see them coming.
The bases are given for it to have one or several sequels, since the premise and the end of the film suggest it.
House of the Dragon: King of the Narrow Sea (2022)
My impressions on Episode 4
Daemon as if he were a fallen angel leads Rhaenyra through the red zone. He knows that she lives repressed in a golden cage and that there are desires and a restless sensuality in her that seeks to get out of her.
He takes her through the corners of King's Landing where desires flow and everything is allowed. Where bodies intertwine lasciviously wanting to penetrate and be penetrated.
A night of initiation. A Dionysian night for the princess to discover the thousand and one paths of sensual pleasure.
Daemon lights the fuse and suddenly disappears. His work on that night of frenzy and debauchery is done...for now.
Already with the flame lit, Rhaenyra seeks to satisfy her appetites and the fire that consumes her and the lucky one is, Criston Cole.
It is clear that if wars win kingdoms, passions can destabilize them politically.
And so it happens. Rhaenyra's incursion into a world that is restricted by status generates a shock that makes the ambitious Otto Hightower make a bad move. Gossiping about her before Vyseris has the opposite effect.
Rhaenyra cleverly makes the King see that Otto is no longer trustworthy, and that leads to the fall and removal of the Hand of the King.
All this shaking in the realm is caused by Daemon. He that he moves his pieces subtly on the board from the seductive anarchy of pleasure.
Nothing will ever be the same for Rhaenyra. This night of excesses establishes a watershed in her life. Her sexuality has awakened and she has understood the limitations imposed by her condition as his heiress and she begins to pull her strings in this game of thrones and power.
Beast (2022)
The unexpected is part of life
A thriller that takes place deep in the Southern African Bushveld in northeastern South Africa.
The mixture of family drama with an intense thriller that makes notes on illegal hunting and shows the hyperviolent instinct of lions when they lose members of their pride, is effective in the atmosphere generated.
A doctor takes his two daughters on safari in hopes of reconnecting with them. There are a lot of mixed emotions involved. Her father divorced her mother and she died shortly after from cancer. There are feelings of guilt on the part of the father and resentment coupled with unhealed emotional wounds in the daughters, who feel that his father abandoned her mother and them at a difficult time.
Right there, in unknown wild lands, the father will have the opportunity to make amends and how; they will be in the wrong place at the wrong time crossing his path with a lion furious at the murder of his pack. Between the attacks of the powerful feline and the desperate fight for survival, there will be moments for them to become stronger and dissipate all the turbulence between father and daughters.
With a solid and enveloping rhythm and with remarkable CGI work in the generation of the majestic cats, 'Beast' gives very brief pauses to the characters and the viewer with an intense narrative in which it is shown that in extreme situations they face even the unthinkable for preserving the lives of those who carry your blood.
Elvis (2022)
You must control the business or the business will control you
Elvis is a biopic of epic dimensions. From the first sequence, the adoration and admiration that the Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrmann feels for Elvis is clearly perceived.
From Elvis's origins in poor black neighborhoods and his discovery and first contact with the wonderful African-American music, gospel and blues. The narrative treatment, the composition of images are typical of the birth of a superhero who would revolutionize the American music scene with his rebellious, irreverent attitude, his powerful voice and stage presence and the challenging lyrics in his songs that challenged the rigid and obtuse morality of The time.
A talented and visionary performer he would find his kryptonite in his manager: parasite master manipulator Colonel Tom Parker.
During the evolution of the plot, the toxic relationship between Elvis and his representative is embroidering. And how he takes advantage of the fissures in Elvis's family: an alcoholic and overprotective mother and a weak-willed father to gradually take not only total control of Elvis's artistic career, but also of his life.
Elvis goes from being a rebellious artist with a cause of extraordinary talent to an entertainer who ranges from bland to tawdry. Making bad movies and appearing in crass TV specials. All this for the Colonel who has taken his career down that wrong path.
Elvis is a good man, devoted husband and father. But he lacks the insight to realize that he is a puppet of his representative.
In 1968 after the attack against one of the Kennedys and advised by young people who see in him a wasted talent, they incite him to be the Elvis of before. Elvis breaks paradigms in a routine Christmas program, offers an extraordinary performance and resumes the rebellious attitude of his beginnings, thus rising again to the crest of the wave.
When he is about to break the harmful bond with the energy vampire that represents him, he falls back into the manipulative clutches of the wolf in sheep's clothing and is condemned to live in a gilt cage for the rest of his career giving shows in a luxurious Las Vegas hotel.
What a great actor Tom Hanks is. You really hate his character. He masterfully portrays a timorous man who finds his gold mine in Elvis and uses every possible lie and falsehood for decades to prevent Elvis from breaking free. The colonel is like a small drop of water, persistent and corrosive that is undermining the internal flame of Elvis.
What could never end and diminish was the enormous talent of the singer, his charisma, the magical connection that existed between his fans and him. The myth, the legend, the icon, remains a superhero in the Olympus of rock & roll.
The Boy (2016)
Psychological labyrinths
El Niño is one of those types of movies that I tend to like a lot: isolated environments, few characters, an old house in the middle of nowhere that keeps unexpected secrets, half-truths...
Greta (Lauren Cahan) accepts an unusually strange job on the other side of the world in order to escape an abusive relationship, she is entrusted by traveling elderly Englishmen to look after their "son" Brahms, a pale-skinned ceramic doll. , melancholic eyes and a penetrating gaze that they treat as if they were alive.
From the outset, the premise is attractive, dark, sinister and disturbing.
The plot recreates atmospheres that generate expectation and suggest supernatural environments, a soul stuck in the middle of two worlds, it could be...
Most of the story takes place with three characters: Greta, Brahms and Malcolm, the delivery boy. It flows well and incorporates the mansion as one more character, one who has many answers.
I found it very interesting the way in which the relationship between the nanny and the doll is woven: psychological labyrinths, power games, the beginning of the construction of an unhealthy relationship that borders on the pathological, something begins to float in the environment , a rarefied environment that presages... what never happens.
That's how it is. Just when we thought that the context was linked to a spectral ghost, a totally surprising twist that gives it a radical 180° turn, changing in a breath a story of psychological horror and links with the afterlife, for an intensely paced thriller. .
That the twist is unexpected and moves the foundations of history is undeniable. It is not clear to me if doing so was the best way to reach resolution. I would have followed the previously agreed narrative path.
In any case, The Boy is a fairly acceptable popcorn tape for those of us who like the genre.
The Black Phone (2021)
Misfortune opens the soul to a light that prosperity does not see.
In a world of femicides and disappearances that leave their families in permanent unrest, director Scott Derrickson, a seasoned craftsman of disturbing and disturbing stories (Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose), creates a fable of terror in which he delves into the world of the victim and victimizer. In that perverse and cruel game that the perpetrators intend to play with the people they keep in captivity to satisfy their twisted desires and motivations.
A well-constructed script that takes time to introduce us to the protagonists and their life circumstances. The story takes place in a small county north of Denver, Colorado in 1978.
Finney is an insecure and introverted teenager. Good baseball player, good pitcher, with a powerful arm. He is a victim of bullying at school and has to deal with a drunk father on a daily basis. One day a friend defends him from his harassers and tells him a phrase that will be prophetic: '' Someday you will have to learn to defend yourself ''.
The director involves us in the life of this boy and his sister while showing how a shadow of uncertainty looms as a wave of teenage disappearances is unleashed in the town.
I want to emphasize that in a few minutes we are introduced to the main and supporting characters and the environment of the place in an efficient and neat way. As well as the supernatural and paranormal element that as the plot progresses will be essential for the narrative arc of the protagonist, antagonist and Gwen, Finney's sister. Gwen has the quality or curse of extrasensory perception that manifests in her dreams in the form of visions or mental images. Psychic traces that make her perceive things that happen around the deranged serial killer and her victims. This leads her to have a peculiar and endearing relationship with God. The one she usually prays to every night.
Already kidnapped, the film focuses on the relationship between Finney and the voices from beyond the grave who were also in his situation, through a disconnected black telephone. The telephone is not only a useful object in his communication with beings in a kind of limbo. It's also an important symbol of Finney finding the strength and confidence he's never had to face this gruesome game of life and death.
The impeccable script takes time to take notes and offer subtext about family ties, friendship ties and insecurities in adolescence, and the downward spiral of a sociopath.
There is an epilogue that shows how a person and their immediate environment can be strengthened when they face misfortune with courage.
A great film that, due to its diverse and varied aspects, is much more than a horror film.
X (2022)
More than just slasher horror
It's usually the movies you watch without any expectation that surprise you the most. This is the case of X, a notable horror movie that I saw only because of my love of the genre and it gave me a pleasant surprise.
Here three influences come together in a successful way: A sinister elderly couple as in The Visit by M. Night Shymalan. A rural setting in Texas in the 1970's with a group of young people living their lives with no strings attached like in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The world of pornography seen without prejudice by delving into the people who work in the industry and their motivations, as portrayed in Paul Thomas Anderson's film Boogie Nights.
All of these well-inserted influences elevate the narrative and make this film more than just Slasher horror.
The premise is apparently simple, a group of six people (three women and three men) from Houston, go to a country house to shoot a porn tape called: The Farmer's Daughter / La Hija del Granjero. Upon arrival, the producer who had made the deal over the phone runs into a grumpy-faced old man and his decrepit wife looking out the window.
The director, Ty West, has dedicated his life to horror movies. Previously, the only thing I had seen of him is The Sacrament of 2013. In which he deals with the case of Reverend Jim Jones, founder of the People's Temple, an American sect that moved to Jonestown, Guyana with the promise of its leader Jones to found there "The Terrestrial Paradise". This happened in 1978. The outcome for the people who followed Jones was not what they hoped for.
That film advances in a somewhat friendly way, bordering on a mockumentary tone as if it were a sociological study of desperate people who have nothing and who find there a sense of belonging and identity. Gradually in the last section of the film there will be a drastic change to a sinister tone that will transport us to an atmosphere of madness, manipulation and chaos.
Something similar happens in X. Although we know that something sinister is hanging over the atmosphere, the entrance tone is lighthearted. With the use of beautiful omniscient overhead shots, image texture that resembles the Super 8 format in which porn was filmed, and effective zoom in and zoom out as resources to provoke the gloomy and delirious atmosphere that will arise at nightfall.
While the young people freely enjoy their counterparts' bodies, the old woman lives frustrated by everything she stopped doing in her youth. The blood frenzy that occurs at dawn has disturbing scenes that will make even the most seasoned fan of the genre jump. No blood and gore just because. In the final stretch, all the traumas and bitterness that motivate the perpetrators are revealed. Knowing their motivations makes their actions more creepy because of the meanness they entail. Envy is the common thread of her atrocities.
A horror story with substance, good characters, finely handled sex scenes and a satisfying ending as far as it goes.