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Lullaby (2014)
Really poor quality
Don't let the present 6.2 rating here fool you. This movies is below the average. And please do not watch it because you like Amy Adams. She barely appears in the movie.
The whole plot looks forced, specially Adams' character, which was there probably to fool viewers into watching this. The story does not lead anywhere and tries too hard to be a lesson in life.
Pretentious, without any new ideas, and pointless are the best adjectives to describe it. It's the first work of this director, who clearly intended to make a emotionally loaded movie with a message, but ended with a broken piece.
Room (2015)
Rarely enjoyed a movie so much
It came to me as a big surprise. I love when I don't have any expectations about a movie and it turns out to be a jewel.
Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay are very impressive. The first has proved in this movie that she could fill a dramatic role, although I also love her in her comedy roles. Jacob was a discovery for me, but he's very authentic. I am sure he will has a successful career before him.
I just resent the fact that Ma's character did not get developed thoroughly. There are a couple of lose ends there, and his discomfort with the whole story is not really explained properly.
It's worth for the story, and for the acting. But as you can guess, it's not an easy topic.
Nadie quiere la noche (2015)
Nobody wants Nobody wants the night
I don't know whether the story was meant to be motivating or inspirational. Or maybe Coixet just wanted to portrait a strong woman. In any case, the film does not work. It feels sluggish with disconnected bits.
Binoche might be a great actress, but as we know, good actress do not save bad directing/scripting. Just having cute dogs in a beautiful landscape is not too much stuff for a film.
Putting Rinko Kikuchi (a Japanese) as an Inuik can only be seen as funny. It resembles the times past were they would paint a white guy red to cast him as native American.
Days and Nights (2014)
Days and nights: let me save you 90 min. of your time (or maybe only 30 min) and $6.95 of your money
Right at the beginning, we hear Peter's voice in off (Camargo's character). I thought what the hell, will this film be narrated by Peter and be all about Camargo's character? Guess what? Neither of the two options. The film didn't care to develop any of these two aspects. The voice in off is just a glimpse into a thought, completely unrelated to the rest of the movie. The whole is just one meaningless quirk that anticipates the broken structure of this film.
Adding to this negative first impression above: nothing got knitted together in any meaningful way. The characters meet for Memorial day at a country house. So far, that could be similar to many other films with an ensemble cast. However, no hint is given about how do they relate to each other, or what kind of tensions could develop among them, if any. Not even a subtle hint. They could have a secret that could be reveled at the climax, but no. And the film doesn't even have a proper climax. Things just happen. The film could be about their relationships, but it is not. The characters are boring, instead of transmitting the feeling that they are desperately bored. That contributes significantly to a boring film. Kathy Holmes' character is specially disconnected and unexplained, although I enjoyed her acting. In the same way, the family doctor is just there doing I don't know what. He seems to always be present for some strange reason, behaving like a family member and feeling completely at home. Equally disconnected is any symbolism regarding the bald eagle (a seagull in the original), or anything relating to the native Americans. They were included for no meaningful reason. They appear in and out. I suppose the script writers might have attached some deep meaning to all these pieces in their minds, but they were not combined into a harmonic work. Apparently someone thought it would make the film deep, but it has lots of intentions, that don't get developed. And that upside-down American flag? Also no connection to the story. This film is not a criticism of America, although it points in this direction. The film is a mess.
The breaking point for me was at around minute 30, when (Elizabeth) Allison Janney says "Boring, boring, and more boring, it's all so beautifully boring." The audience laughs. An audience laughing at a dramatic scene of a dramatic film? That's the kiss of death. At least I felt that I was not alone. This was maybe the most ridiculous sentence I can remember in any film I have watched. If you have an example that is even worse, let me know, but I don't think it is possible. At this point, I realized that this film was not just kind of boring, but really bad. Nothing could redeem it from its pretentious, boring nothingness.
Why they set the film in the 80s still puzzles me. The story does not relate in any way to what was happening back then. There are just a couple of loose hints pointing to the 80s. If you have some sort of 80s nostalgia, this film won't do the trick to kill it.
The funny trivia: Peter (Camargo's role) is not a good director in the film, and so is the case of the real director (Camargo).
The positive side: the photography was done in good taste and gives you a warm feeling. Most of the cast is first class. The exceptions are clearly Camargo and his real-life wife, who does not fit in the role of an innocent young muse at all, nor would be a fit for any serious dramatic role. She actually would be a better fit in one of those made-for-TV movies as a middle-aged housewife with a cheating husband. You get the idea.
I should have paid attention to the 100% negative reviews of this film before I started to watch. But I wrongly thought, how bad can a film with this ensemble cast be? Worse than I imagined. The film is clearly the product of someone not too deep into literature, and who thought that picking a universal work like the Seagull by Chekhov could serve as a basis for a great story if they just added good actors to it. Things are not that easy. Without leading the actors into their characters and without understanding what made the Russian story so powerful, without understanding why its symbolism and its tensions are a portrait of the human condition, you end up with a broken set of images. It looks like a high-school theater project gone wrong.