mark01254 Reviews

We Children from Bahnhof Zoo (2021)

This is just a 480 minute long Indie Dream Pop music video

[4/10 · 21 February 2021]

There's not much else left to say. Cinematography is decent, some of the actors deliver a pretty good performance (Angeline Häntsch, Bruno Alexander, Gerhard Liebmann, Bernd Hölscher) - the main character's, however, is not really convincing at times. Other than that, it's completely overproduced, drifting away from reality since minute 1. A rather cringeworthy take on David Bowie, massive overuse of soundtracks, it just feels like a never ending music video, picking up overly idealized stories of the character's lives. The "Sound" Disco looks more like a high-priced elite club of the 21st century in the US.

It's like they tried to take the whole Stranger Things fictional 80's retro vibe filter featuring fantasy content and apply it to a surprisingly uncritical story about drug addiction of Berlin's troubled youth in the 70's experiencing a mild existential crisis.

They lost me for good when they actually muted Bowie's song Heroes, the masterpiece that was carrying the atmosphere throughout the 1981 film "Christiane F.", after a few seconds just to fade in some somber piano cover of Sia's Chandelier. Not a bad song, but completely misplaced!

And that's one of the problems I have with this adaptation. It's a total overkill of dramatic elements, fake snow, wind machines, close-up shots and fake tears. It's similar to what happens to a good photo when you start tweaking and using Instagram filters...

Split (IX) (2016)

I see all this potential and I see squandering.

[7/10 · 11 February 2021]

Very interesting movie and pretty decent performance by McAvoy given that it's a very hard role to play. Sure there are actors that could've pulled off the main role(s) probably even more disturbingly, thinking of Joaquin Phoenix, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Spacey or even Christoph Waltz. But still, I have no real objection against the choice of McAvoy, really.

Opposed to this you have the horrendous acting of Taylor-Joy. I see how her role of a silent, traumatized girl might be unthankful, but I couldn't stand her character from day 1.

The idea itself is very promising and offered a lot of potential. There have been many moments where it made use of that potential (Hedwig appearing, the main character switching personalities, dialogues with the therapist) and there have been many where it didn't (the whole beast thing for example).

I think the last third of the film was unnecessary and killed the potential of a nail-biting purely psychological thriller.

Betty Buckley playing Dr. Fletcher on the other hand, has really been able to shine in her performance and showed a lot of integrity in her character.

Overall a good movie, but the director didn't make full use of the potential it offered.

The Snowman (2017)

The first movie ever to make me fall asleep in a cinema

[3/10 · 23 October 2017]

As a big fan of horror and crime movies, especially the ones that are set in Nordic countries, which usually guarantees for a special atmosphere, this movie left me disappointed, bored and exhausted.

With such a brilliant cast and having the very successful novel by Jo Nesbø as a background, expectations were high. And indeed, the film work itself, having Dion Beebe behind the camera and Thelma Schoonmaker as a cutter is good, but it simply doesn't compensate for a plot that massively lacks integrity, for bland and shallow characters whose actors would've offered so much more potential, for a complete lack of thrill and for inconsistencies on all levels. They even missed the chance to show a victim actually fighting for their life - the snowman is obviously prepared for everything.

The trailer pretty is pretty much reduced to every thrilling moment this movie is offering, the snowman itself (now talking about the actual fella made of snow) doesn't really play a major role at all, it's almost cringeworthy to see it randomly stand somewhere at a crime scene, but in the movie it appears completely irrelevant to the story itself. Obviously, the snowman was supposed to be a signature similar to Jigsaw's clown mask or the stick dolls that represented the presence of the Blair Witch, but after all it seemed to me that it was just a random pick and after all it doesn't play any role other than making for a tired laugh in the audience whenever a grim snowman can be seen peaking through the window.

There was a lot of potential - interesting characters with background stories, a great setting with a dark and hibernal Norwegian landscape, but the director completely wasted it.

I've seen thousands of movies but this one was the first one ever that had me fall asleep and that made people leave the theater before it finished. I also never observed so many people from the audience leave to take a toilet break or have a smoke because they quickly noticed how the movie just makes the chance of missing something important so small after a certain point.

My final rating is 3/10 - 2 points for great filming and photography and the effort. It would be OK for watching at home on a dark winter evening, having a hot cup of tea and some distraction to sit through it. But definitely not worth going to the cinema to see it.