Change Your Image
mindblitz
Reviews
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
Crude pranks with very brief moments of laughter, nothing more.
I'm not American, Kazakh, Jew, Gypsy, Christian or whatever else in order to have a relationship with the movie, therefore I think I can be pretty much impartial First of all, the Borat character should not be taken seriously. He does not speak like a Kazakh, accent is nowhere near a Kazakh's English (It's a very thick East European accent which you can catch from miles away). He's way off being a Kazakh. So Kazakhstan need not worry about Borat humiliating Kazakh people. The only offending image was the image of the car when the Kazakh anthem was bragging about Kazakhstan's superior industry.
I'm not easily offended by explicit language and harsh jokes or male nudity. There are indeed some funny moments though, here and there. The humor is not for everyone, although I believe this is kind of sense of humor we used to have when we were 8 year old naughty boys. The elevator scene was funny, but two naked guys fighting in bed was not funny at all.
I don't care about the Antisemitism or whatever there is in the movie to supposedly offense the audience in order to create oppositions and attract attention. But I find it remarkable how durable the political correctness of an average American is, easily dissolving after a two minute chat with a bizarre Kazakh guy. Like right after Borat asks "which one do you recommend to shoot a Jew?". and the guy selling guns going "a 9 mm or a 45." without any hesitation.
The movie has no plot to talk about, had no remarkable moments, and is washed all over with crude pranks. The only thing to talk about is "were these guys really in the game, or are their reactions genuine". My vote is 2/10.
Lost Highway (1997)
It's about how you "feel"
Lost highway is not your typical Hollywood. It is something else. It's not about how the plot ties and winds; it's about how you feel. As soon as the movie starts to "thrill", you have this feeling of uneasiness that won't go away. Even in the most hardcore thrillers there are moments of relief where you can recover for a couple of seconds and take a sip from your coffee. Or the director uses this as a "fake relief" in order to achieve a great shock. But a typical moviegoer knows this trick well and expects a shocker during these fake relief moments.
But in Lost Highway, there are no reliefs. At all. You have that uneasy feeling of "OMG, something is about to happen" all the movie; yet most of the time nothing shocking happens. Sometimes it does though, seemingly randomly. So you expect it to happen, and it happens and is still a big shocker to you. This is Lynch genius.
Don't expect to fully understand the plot. Understanding does not reward you any tiny bit like in "Memento" for example. Just let your feelings go. This is a journey and Lynch is the driver. But everything is not non-sense random, there seems to be a twisted link between everything, you feel the connections but cannot name them.
Lynch is a pure artist. But it's not an "art for art" movie at all. His plots could be cunningly smart. Some weird subtle gesture of an actor may lead you to think "OK, Lynchian absurdity", and turns out to be a big clue for the real plot. Like "I like to remember things my own way." You'd think that this is weird to say to a cop when you first hear it, after watching the whole movie it makes another sense.
You can also never be sure of the chronological order of the events, it may or may not have happened now; one event can fit in so many gaps perfectly that you can have a hundred theories yet each one can make perfect sense all at the same time.
This movie is something else. Watch it with zero expectations, Lynch knows where to lead you. But I should warn you, this movie haunts you long after. It will take a long time before you can let it off your sub-conscience. Not because it is so scary; it is; but because the story is told directly to your sub-conscience, bypassing your daily brain. Go watch it. 9/10
Hababam Sinifi Sinifta Kaldi (1975)
A legend in Turkish movie history
Hababam Sinifi is basically a movie based on the novel by Rifat Ilgaz, telling the story about a class of lazy high school pranksters. The movie just presents the most entertaining moments of high school years; which we have all been there once, and feel deep down a nostalgia for the days when life was fun and we were teenagers, going only after fun and entertainment. Cheating in Literature exams, smoking in the mens room, playing hookey from school for a football game; those were the best days of our lives. While the movie is brilliantly and incredibly funny; it contains some heart breaking emotional moments as well.
I can easily say that this movie is by far the best movie ever made in Turkey, and it is a must-see for everyone who has been to high school and now a middle-ager. While it contains some local cultural jokes here and there, the story told is highly universal, as was "Cidade de Deus" or, say, "Trainspotting". And although it is 30 years old, it is a story that never gets old.
All in all, THIS movie is the greatest movie of all times. And if you ever get a chance to see it, do not miss it. Or ask some Turkish friend about it, and you'll find out that everybody knows it, has seen it zillions of times, knows every scene by heart, and just plain loves it. 9,3 overall IMDb rating is no mistake.
My rating: 10/10