maximo23 Reviews

Soft Shell Man (2001)

Excellent movie

[10/10 · 13 March 2002]

From reading the above comments, I imagine that most these people are so used to a "hollywood" movie structure that when they're presented with something that shifts away from that, they just can't make sense out of it. The characters are fully developed, and I think the protagonist, Alex, is extremely believable. He has sympathy towards people who might not deserve it and then he can't get a hold of himself when he's about to put one of his precious relationships at risk. So what? That's exactly how we behave in real life too.

The cinematography is awesome, the music is beautiful, the plot is extremely interesting. And all the characters are so...French-Canadian.... I think you have to be French to understand that those situations are not unrealistic.

That's why I like Canadian movies - they are different, and tell the story as it is, without trying to embelish situations or try to tie the knots for the viewer... they assume the viewer is intelligent enough to take his own conclusions. Well, not all of them anyway...

Maelstrom (2000)

a regular artsy-wannabe movie

[14 February 2001]

I went to see the movie because it got excellent reviews from the local newspapers and websites here in Vancouver. I'd seen "Possible Worlds" a few weekends before, and it was truly an excellent movie, no cliches... silence used to build up angst and suspense....

Maelstrom was nothing like it. It was a cross between a bad French comedy and a pretentious artsy movie. Trying to rid the plot from cliches and predictability, it was filled with the most absurd of situations. True, it was sometimes funny, and sometimes powerful - but it just seemed like a bunch of references scattered on screen, with music, imagery and pause used not to built the story, but to shock through being "unexpected" and "French artsy".

But it was worth seeing. French-Canadian movies have a feeling of Nordic melancholy that can turn to the good or the bad. Mostly they turn to the good. and some turn nowhere. Like Maelstrom.