mokono Reviews

The Old Oak (2023)

Modern day fairy tale?

[7/10 · 18 December 2023]

The story itself is not surprising or revolutionary. Everything that happens is essentially what any decent human being can hope to see in any story of integration that involves deprived locals and war refugees from vastly distinct cultures.

It is not particularly well told or developed. Many of the interesting tensions are not well explored. The plot shifts and turns are sometimes predictable, other times quite random and often badly delivered.

The saving grace is that actors are local and the struggles are real. It becomes quite another thing to see local people trying to tell a fictional story based on their own very real history of resistance and change.

Rafiki (2018)

Beautiful but shallow

[6/10 · 25 November 2018]

It's a beautiful movie with a strong and important political and societal message. It's also a movie with very cliché characters and no real development. The story seems really just an excuse to add a little drama to the main romance, but is even too flimsy to accomplish anything. Does the political message lose its strength? Well, the movie did get banned, so it did enough.

Enter the Void (2009)

Interesting - but did we really need 2+ hours and flashing lights?

[6/10 · 30 July 2017]

Gaspar Noe seeks to impress - and that he does. A sensory experience, mainly with flashing lights and bright colors - from the city, from the drug trips and from the strip clubs and motels the movie takes us to. It's a relatively simple story, once you remove the flash and ignore most of the resurrection/drug culture going on - which is fairly superficial anyway. The intensity of the emotions and experiences of the orphans is really what makes the movie worth watching for me - you can feel they've had a disturbing life - deep in your guts. Which then becomes sort of OK - as you see them coming to terms with death and what comes next - things happened as pretty much every character in the movie is broken - the trip somehow providing closure to all involved. After going through all of it, you might ask yourself if we really needed more than 2 hours to go through all of this. All part of the experience?

Brazil (1985)

Light fun on dystopias

[7/10 · 23 October 2016]

It's a pleasant watch, with quite a bit of subtle and not-so-subtle humour on bureaucracy, consumerism, fascism and inequality in the future (with a few nods to the present). Even the 2 hours feel easy, as you just keep wondering what's next in the life of the young lost protagonist. However, it's a shame that the subjects wherein are explored so lightly - one would wish deeper exploration of the ironies of dystopia/reality facing topics that are important still today - excessive security control by the state being a de-facto dictatorship, etc. The story of the protagonist also feels that a bit more ambition would have been welcome - while it's appreciated it's not a typical "selfless saving the world scenario", it could've been just a bit more... ambitious! It ends up being just a really weird love story!

Youth Without Youth (2007)

Heavy on dreams and light on philosophy

[6/10 · 16 October 2016]

This is an intriguing pleasant movie which takes you through several stages of suspension of disbelief and then leaves you with "in the end it was all a dream?"

However, I can guess that the book format would fit more with the philosophical aspects of it. You can see that a lot of big philosophical questions are approached by the mechanics of doubling your personality through multiple consciousnesses, then mixed with Orientalism and soul transfers... even some telekinesis... in short, it's a bit of a mess. Still pleasant to watch, but you get the feeling that there would be a deeper message or at least more development into the various teams, but instead we have more like a short safari through various aspects of these beliefs.

The love story part of it is also not particularly interesting - it offers, for no reason, a duality between work and love. The love is the sort that is automatic and axiomatic - the work is seen as very interesting but we only know it's about the origin of languages and, purportedly, their evolution into something post modern languages. Guessing that since it doesn't really exist (if it ever will) limits recounting anything about the future, but the past analysis is also not particularly developed.

So, pleasant watch, but nothing to get particularly excited or introspective.

Her (2013)

Beautiful but superficial (especially if you're aware of how AI works)

[6/10 · 31 August 2016]

This film requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief for people like myself, with some basic knowledge of how AI works.

Even with that said, the story isn't particularly amazing: Writer is having some intimacy issues (can't forget his lifelong partner ex-wife who filed for divorce AND most women he meets seem to be really weird and sexual) Writer meets AI and falls in love because AI listens and is attentive and always there, etc AI falls in love with writer (because writer? because he writes beautiful letters?) Vague issues about AI not being a real relationship - opportunity to explore how world is being overtaken by relationships with AI and people divide between AI lovers and not is very vaguely explored AI decides to "disappear" (unclear) Writer watches sunset

Their conversations stay on a basic level, with a bit of cheap philosophy in between and some dramas on the whole "not having a body" thing, which seems to be the most important part of being an AI.

The music score is great, the cinematography is beautiful. With not caring so much about the technology and the depth of the relationship, you can probably let your imagination run free and see much more love in the movie than there actually is.

As it is though, it's just OK.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

Wants to make you cry just a bit too much

[4/10 · 24 August 2016]

It's not an unpleasant experience overall: a simple story, cute kids, good scenes - just trying to be too dramatic without actually much content.

If you've been watching any recent movies, you can see the art of making you feel has been improving considerably: good timing of dramatic music, paused dialogue and close-ups, etc. Even if you were not particularly caring for the characters, suddenly you find yourself feeling "this is serious" and maybe even your eyes water up - only to ask yourself why a few minutes later.

Grave of the fireflies takes the basic formula: sad setting (war) + likable characters (cute children) and lets it unfold, adding cardboard characters as needed (cold portrayal of Japanese society, impolite or uncaring neighbors for no reason, etc).

There is a senseless "flashback" from the main characters watching themselves which adds nothing. Character development is a bit limited, as you see the survival strategies ramp up a bit, but no real effect or reason on why that is. In fact, the conclusion arrives for lack of awareness, not lack of resources. Which contradicts the negativity of the war setting..

Anyway, not too unpleasant, except for the "intellectual dishonesty" of shoving drama down the throats of the viewer.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

Feeling of emptiness

[8/10 · 3 April 2016]

I've got mixed feelings about the movie. It was a great watch, very nicely done and got me thinking at the end. Can't complain, thus I have no problem giving it an 8.

But a doubt creeps into my mind: does it actually have any substance? Yea, we get a nice close look into some broken characters but... in fact, that's it, isn't it? We see these people are broken and we don't really need to go that deep. The movie has a very nice presentation, going from scene to scene but... in the end it's all quite simple, no? Problematic relationship, ego instead of love, unloved wife, unloved daughter, compensating by vices... But aren't all movies like this? Hopefully not! My feelings are problematic because I can't stop comparing this movie to Fellini's 8 1/2 or Synedoche, New York. And Synedoche takes the cake on complexity, easily.

So yea. This is not so much of a review but rather sharing the feeling that the movie left. Which, in the end, is the point of a review.

A great movie about broken people, that'll leave you feeling broken. If you're anything like me (:

Estômago (2007)

Surprisingly good!

[8/10 · 31 January 2016]

This movie is worth it just for the camera work. There are so many scenes that just grab your emotions by the throat and jerk them around with how strong the image is. The camera captures trivial moments with such detail and delightful symphony that these details become overwhelming to the enchanted viewer.

The story is not really amazing or surprising, but the movie does a great job of making that irrelevant. It's a character movie that allows you to see how food moves a main character in its relations with the world. This main character, albeit simple, never ceases to surprise us with the quirky way he sees the world. Add a little bit of food magic, and you've got this movie wrapped up.

A simple thing, yet a joy to watch.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

An alright blockbuster - lots of flash, not so much brain

[6/10 · 20 December 2015]

It's endearing the see people cheering at a screen and clapping to actors and reacting emotionally to every scene on the screen.

It's endearing to see your memory sparked up by familiar characters.

But hey, I don't remember the first 3 Star Wars anymore, I might just have to rewatch them. But this good-evil/black-white dichotomy is just laughable as a plot. The characters continue to be quite simple, everything that is complex about them are "mysteries" that are not really explained. Because if they were, they'd probably either make no sense or be fairly boring.

The movie is quite pleasant to watch, the back and forth between dramatic moments. But if you stop to think about why things are happening, you'll see it makes no sense. So major suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy.

The level of production is very high, of course, which makes for great music, scenarios and etc.

What surprises me is that there's lots of Star Wars spin-offs that are great, mature, complex and worth spending time on. But movies? Meh.

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006)

Boy has a bad year, nothing more, nothing less

[6/10 · 15 December 2015]

Underwhelming, is the main word for this movie. The movie is great at what it does: shows how a boy reacts to a situation he doesn't really understand or tries to understand.

Football takes the second place in importance, as the movie goes to great lengths to show how Brazil is a country of football and how it is the boy's main escape, as it happens to boys all over.

So we get a nice show looking at a boy living with a funny old man, dedicating himself to his few hobbies (football and football) and a bit of flirting with a girl his age and a girl fit to be his mother.

What could have given this movie a sense of uniqueness is mostly glossed over with dramatic scenes with some of the secondary characters, who look at the boy as a symbol.

The movie even goes so far as to hide a critical conversation with the boy (presumably to show how he'd forget this in his shock?).

So, yea. Does its job decently. The job does not become a great movie. Easy Sunday watch, not recommendable for much else.

Guru (2007)

Stereotypical and superficial but still pretty.

[3/10 · 19 February 2012]

Still "getting into" Indian movies, so still not conformed to the excessive length and unbalanced focus into beautiful scenery and dramatic scenes to the loss of actual content.

Still. The main story line is exactly its synopsis: a guy from a village manages to make the biggest firm in India, polyesters (and maybe something else, but it's irrelevant, he could be dealing in dirt as far as we know).

His obstacles are usually dramatic old men giving him an opportunity to not "get bigger" or succeed in any other way, and he always makes it through simply by not accepting "no", and eventually things go his way, without any explanation or illustration.

One of deepest comments one overhears here is when he decides to invest in polyester instead of cotton, instead of everything else. So he grabs opportunities that no one else sees. Good job.

Also, his whole career is based on him being "Guru", or basically the stubborn brat who only knows to say he doesn't understand "no", that he comes from a village and that he wants to win. So there's a plot twist there, he enters the market with a partner, but being himself, ignores him until he can't be ignored anymore and just quits on his own. Later on, he starts a media campaign exposing the company's faults as revenge (I think, maybe different characters).

This is actually the turning point. His father-in-law and ? decide to go against him because he used illegal methods to gain his competitive position. Their several generic dialogues were very *endearing* as the family split and played childish games in order to deliver the most dramatic "i'm gonna fight you until I win" monologue.

Ah, yes, that's one of the major faults of the "dialogue", there's no discussion. Either it's a plain monologue, or it's a character accusing another who stays silent and makes dramatic eye contact until the end.

To illustrate the best example, the plot twists somewhere here, as apparently the company did do a lot of illegalities, mainly avoiding tax (import and otherwise), manipulation of own share price and other things, which, in my humble opinion, whatever way you spin it, is wrong and bad for society as whole. (There's also a lot of bribing, but I can understand that much better.)

So Guru-bai receives all these accusations, first from the only newspaper he couldn't buy, then from the actual government. So what is his answer? "I'm a poor man from a village and I managed to rise. You don't want me to, so you complain about all these things I did. I don't care because I did it for the common man, because I am the common man." So they give up on most of the accusations and he goes on doing his stuff. Great job, really. Brilliant. Couldn't ask for a more generic representation of business than this.

Another classic, yet terrible, addition to the movie is the random addition of emotional scenes that actually are too artificial to spark any emotion. So besides the usual father who doesn't approve, there's the sister of the wife who always loves Guru and goes on to live a miserable life in a wheelchair (just to make Guru's enemy marry her out of pity or so) and then die when the action needed some spicing. Guru himself gets half his body paralyzed at the end, just to make his accusers seem even more evil. And all the love bits with Ash seemed fairly random. But I guess I enjoyed them more than the main story, so I'll avoid any comments.

What I enjoyed most about the movie? Istanbul, definitely. The "turkish" dancer especially... But more seriously, the movie was very beautiful. Fake, but beautiful. "Enhanced reality", in Istanbul, the countryside and Bombay scenes were great to watch.

But really, I want to watch a movie from India that respects its viewers, its content and topics.. and still be astoundingly beautiful and musical.

I'm sure there has to be one out there...

Amarcord (1973)

Fireworks

[4/10 · 18 January 2011]

I write this for mainly two reasons: 1. As I clicked through a few pages of reviews, most of them were raving madly about Fellini, not many gave below 10, and then again, not much lower. 2. When I stopped to read a few of them, they contained obvious misinterpretations of the movie (which was funny) and none of them came up with a significant argument as to why the movie was good but just not for my taste.

With the disclaimer done, here's my feelings about the piece: Fireworks. Loud, full of cracks, constantly surprising and distracting you with big flashes and quick satisfaction.

This movie represents the life in this seaside little city, but does so via caricatures. Very loud, very energetic, very... "Italian" caricatures, you could say. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, except that it probably needs to be funny most of the time. Which it isn't. It consists mainly of slapstick humor, slight sexual references, kids being cheeky, the works. Sure, it is entertaining at times, but 2 hours of it?

I did not feel much connection to the characters, some, indeed, I did not really recognize in the middle of the constant mess of the screen (admittedly, the woman who dies left me a bit confused). As there is no plot, you don't really see anyone grow, just really pass the time, but I may be a sucker for plots, so enough about that.

There are several special events that go on to show how the people at the time lived them. I interpreted them mostly as a mockery of the masses, especially for the fascist parade. Entertaining, in fact, but they're so fast and superficial that.. one's left with a feeling of "..that's what you wanted to show?"

One thing I did enjoy from the constant mess was how some scenes were composed of irrelevant people who were bluntly being so. Comes to mind especially the construction scene, where, out of 20 workers, none was doing absolutely anything that could be valued in an actual construction site.

So, to wrap-up, outside of a few good jokes, interesting moments (e.g.: poetry) and nice recreations, this film is simply too much for too little. I would consider watching it again, were it shortened to 30 minutes.

Um Funeral à Chuva (2010)

Overrated, over-hyped.. just superficial

[2/10 · 18 November 2010]

Just watched the movie in Coimbra during "Caminhos do Cinema Português", with comments by the director and some of the actors afterward.

The speeches were, like the rest of the movie, stereotypical. Ironic, but sumptuously received by the eager audience, clapping and nodding almost as fiercely as they laughed during the actual movie. The main actor said he is sick of people's preconception of Portuguese cinema, that all the "people" seem to want are movies with explosions, naked women.. movies without a soul. The director claims he wanted to produce something that represents friendship, basing this on his life experience. They talked a lot about gaining friendships on the set.

This is a movie about people that lived together for a period in their lives and never saw each other again before the event in the title: the funeral of one of them. They reminisce about the times where they were together (doing what? drinking, smoking, going to clubs) and while they are cold to each other at the beginning, in the final shots they are jumping and kissing each other. Take out the localized reference (the hazing) and there's a textbook Hollywood argument.

That would be OK, even after hearing the smug speeches. It would even have been acceptable that they fall into the own pitfalls they say they avoid, by creating the most vulgar collection of stereotypes possible, "hot" frustrated actress and gay couple included. Everyone could live with the irony that this woman goes through the whole movie to realize she can't stand being a cheap masturbation icon anymore, even though every shot with her is focused on her breasts or legs (as more than half of the movie, while everyone else has jackets on, she's wearing a mini skirt and a sleeveless top) and reaches a climax of absurdity as she wipes herself as she sits in the toilet, camera angle slightly above the knees. As to the gay couple, I would call this movie plainly homophobic, but as the audience reacted extremely well to the constant mockery, I will pretend that could be normal also. Even though I can't help but wonder why the gay man of the group was the only one to bring his partner.

The acting is terrible, everyone said it, as most of the actors are amateurs. Actually, the few funny moments that can be cherished come clearly from improvisation during group talk. The audience was also prepared as they did not fail to mention this was a very low budget film, without any support from the state (but with a list of "supporting entities" that filled the screen during the credits for almost more than a minute).

One of the main actors claimed something interesting: he does not drink, he does not smoke, he did not even go to university. A "critical" scene is when the stuck-up professor finally admits he likes the simple things of life and asks his own students for rolling paper, to give an example of its relevance. This actor, however, was one of the contributors of life stories to the authenticity of the film. All the actors are claimed to have participated in the movie without demanding any compensation as they all loved the story so much. This is what pains me. The stories they share, artificial. The dialog seems to have been translated from English through Google (and ironically the subtitles the other way around). I can not imagine anyone going through their stories. Probably the best part was the hazing. From then on, we have sentimental child caring hungover students, a game of "I never" (that in my generation only started being played commonly after popularization through Lost), throwing paper planes to resemble snow, taking care of a depressed guy because a girl did not like him by singing in the rain... This could've easily been a parody to the American "Teenage" Dream.. but unfortunately it isn't. I have had my share of exaggerated group laughter for a while now. I would not be surprised if the screenplay just said for half the movie "pretend you're having fun" during the reminiscing scenes.

Essentially, this is it: the movie has nothing but a bunch of people drinking and acting like bohemian students without knowing what that is. Pseudo-philosophy is also delivered: the professor (who gained an accent uncharacteristic of the region from "memory" to "present" time-line) is shown as the responsible one without knowing why he acts that way, when he was the worst of them all. On the other side, the cool guy in the group is the one who gave up engineering for traveling and writing columns on some newspaper (constantly referring to other cultures as superior to ours, typical Portuguese attitude, so that's accurate). The best things in life are simple, screw the rest and dance in the rain. If simple life is indeed as simple as theirs...

Should mention also the soundtrack: The highlights were Gogol Bordello's Alcohol and "Supertheory of Supereverything", noting that the first one was played when they were drinking, and the second one when a very religious lady was presenting an adequately decorated house (the song describes the bible as a not very interesting read).

Concluding, even after all this, the movie was very well received by the public. We're asked to rate it after the session, most of the votes I noticed gave maximum score. If you like the typical movies I have described throughout the review and if you're Portuguese, there's a strong chance you will enjoy the experience. However, I'm not one of those and I certainly hope there are more people out there who can recognize this as the presumptuous yet superficial piece that it is. And every foreigner that is steered away from it will increase the chances that when there actually exists good Portuguese cinema, they may actually give it a chance.

Thank you for reading.

Russian Dolls (2005)

Shallow, artificial egotistic love fest

[3/10 · 10 November 2010]

Spoilers everywhere, of course: Good parts: Humor was good, for.. the most of it, especially in the beginning. "Cute" french silly humor. This was given mostly by supporting characters, such as Isabelle and minor characters such as the boring neighbor, the tree-cutter.. so on. That said, it's an interesting mix of locations and characters, the weird things happening around Xavi usually make you get up and see what's going on. The soap opera he's working on, for example.

But that's about all I can remember for the good bits. First of all, I can't deal with Xavier. He interprets everything that is given to him on the most basic perspective, but grinds on with shallow life philosophy as if his life is the most fascinating thing on earth. And mind you, when he talks about his life, he talks about the girls he accidentally had sex with.

What's fascinating is how he is presented as the most uninteresting guy alive, he does absolutely nothing to deserve any kind of respect/interest/love from anyone (oh wait, he did take care of the kid. once) but everyone just seems to either hate him or love him.

So that's one of my main criticisms: what could've been a movie about growing up and so on, it's a movie about sex and "relationships". I use the brackets as, unfortunately, this idea of relationships is based on having sex being the same as a relationship, the difference between love and sex is, well, the time that it took to have sex in the first place it seems. William and Natacha fall in love madly because they looked at each other, even though they couldn't speak the same language. Every girl falls in love with Xavi, when all he does is walk around, mumbling his nonsense. Then suddenly he only loves Wendy, while both of them just go around having sex or desiring others, and that turns out to be more serious and important. Because of this transition, we have the most ironic part of the movie, as Wendy and Xavi are writing the script for a clichéd soap opera and trying to survive with their integrity even as they create the most basic, Christmas-styled happy endings... and THEN, Wendy (not Xavi cause he's the cliché of the guy unable to say anything good which makes him adorable) starts this long monologue on how Xavi is the perfect guy for her because she appreciates her imperfections as much as his good bits. I really wondered by then if the subtle mockery in the rest of the movie of this kind of situations was intended..

So to summarize the main plot: Xavi is a mess because he doesn't know who he loves as he just f'cks and walks. He spends time with Wendy, gets to love her. He gets jealous of her f'cking around with others, she admits she's also madly in love. He keeps f'cking around, so she admits that's not healthy for herself but their love is the real thing. Final scene she forgives him and he has a go at monogamy.

So, if you don't like this Xavi character, you will have some trouble appreciating the movie, as it is 90% about him. Even the humor which I referred to as a good thing in the beginning, is good when others do it, when Xavi is the source of it.. it just seems forced. Very personally, I really couldn't deal with him playing the flute anymore when he BSing someone else.

On a very personal note, I suffer with this movie as I am part of the generation that during and after university, feels that Europe is somewhat of a playground: we travel, we have different international friends, we know all the different cultural stereotypes and so on. I felt pained already with L'Auberge Espagnole, so I don't even know why I gave this movie a chance, but here it is. This is where I really have to say this is the European Hollywood at work: take an interesting subject, squash the soul out of it and present only the simple popcorn bits. We have the funny English accents, we have one or two stereotypes per nationality (ooh wait, where were the blatant stereotypes for the french?) and *bam!*, you have an international experience. What about LEARNING from different cultures instead of just making fun of them? What about growing up with friends a plane away? What about dealing with getting back to your old life and realizing how everything seems boring and held back in time? Rant finished.

Final comment on internationalization: for some reason in this movie, if someone else doesn't speak your language, the characters don't dumb it down or use sign language, no, they speak as fast as they were doing before and use simpler words, maybe. Natacha wants the lights to be on, so she says "Sun" in Russian while opening up her arms and it suddenly dawns on William "You want the lights on?" to a happy answer of "Da, Da!". Seriously?

To wrap-up, if you're looking for good European love and growth cinema, don't come here. I like the Before Sunrise/Sunset duo for example. Or "He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not"... or "lovers of the arctic circle" or "the science of sleep" (IMDB doesn't allow me to write the original names, ha!) For funny international stereotype bashing.. eh. I think even EuroTrip is better.

Psycho (1960)

Generation gap?

[6/10 · 9 June 2008]

Let's start at the end: it's fun to watch. However, it's definitely not a scary movie.. I mean, "haunted-house" dramatic effects, as some people call it, are just plain ridiculous. I know for sure that a lot of people in my generation would have the same reaction I did when I saw the first murder: burst out laughing. But reading some of the comments here, it seems to have scared people in the movie theaters and some users claim to still be scared about it. Well, I really feel like asking, is it all a generation gap thing? Can't be, after all, there are way scarier things around now, in all types of scares, especially visually (heh, the skeleton..).

I have to say, though, it's well done and well played, feels good to watch. The only problem here is looking and sounding silly on the climaxes.

That, and that the content is.. well, not that complex. I mean, we've all seen a load of stories about multiple personalities by now.. and this one isn't specially interesting. Again, too much emphasis on this. Also, the characters in general are just slightly above general. We see a little too many "hollywood"esque and shallow personalities. Sometimes, the dialogue flows in mysterious ways (sheriff scene).. showing us that it wasn't very well translated from the script writer's mind.

So all in all, it's worth seeing for the laughs and for being a landmark for the genre. But that's it.

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

Pleasant, not great

[6/10 · 21 January 2008]

I enjoyed this movie. The action scenes made some of my adrenaline run, made me even connect emotionally to the Japanese despair over the overwhelming American invasion. However, the movie is a bit too long. You know how it is about war movies that try/are emotional, too many scenes of soldiers dying like ducks and landscape shots that at first strike you as brutal but then just become repetitive. I don't mean they're unnecessary, but they were still prolonged a little too much.

Then, the Japanese point of view is nice to see, but in my opinion seems a little too forced anyway. A Japanese sympathizer to the Americans as the main character (especially since he's seen as the smarter one there..).. you know how that sounds. Hollywood cheap "we are best" drama. But again, this does not feel like the case, but it leaves you with a bitter taste of doubt in your mouth. About a possible historical lesson, I was hoping to learn a little more.. not a bad point, just not a great point.

Which leaves basically a pleasant movie to watch, but not great. The taste of doubt of too much "Americanism" in it, or forced drama or whatever is offset by the camera works that successfully make you feel for the Japanese and give you a definite idea of how that conflict went.

The Untouchables (1987)

Disappointment, beware

[4/10 · 19 January 2008]

Consider this a warning. I can't even recommend this movie as an action movie as it has definitely not enough action for its long and boring 2 hours.

Good points: action scenes, where actors even manage to look cool. Also some weak comedy.

Bad points: key word 'boring'. The plot is also definitely laughable, as you really can't take it seriously. The soundtrack definitely helps on that, as it effectively tells you what's happening on every scene, and also making it sound like a comical piece. The rest of the dialogue, read punchlines and random talk, I would have to call cheesy, to agree with a few of the posters from here, even forced, especially the dialogue related to the title of the movie..

All that said.. the watchable periods of the movie are sparse, but enjoyable. In total, not a pleasant experience.

Sideways (2004)

Average American..

[6/10 · 31 December 2007]

Can't say much more than the title. Average love story, with a man with no respect for himself. And, as usual, he is presented as the good guy, and at the same time an opposite of him is presented.. as the bad example. The usual you can get sex but you can't get love.. unless you're a social inept idiot.

The wine part seems to be just another excuse. And i'd daresay it may even be just a publicity stunt.. If American wines were that good...

Anyway, average American movie. Very watchable if you're bored, if you're demanding you'll get chills up your spine every minute since you'll be watching stereotypes all over.

M (1931)

Slow

[6/10 · 31 December 2007]

This movie may be especially interesting to cinema students, as people say it's an historical point for film-noir and other such genres, besides all the new techniques applied, which were indeed well used..

But for a more general public, the pace of the movie is too slow. Like most "old" movies. Also, the story is quite simple, especially for today's standards, since we've already "seen it all".

However, the way it is presented works. Quite well, in fact. The only problem is that the story has so little to it, that it could've been presented easily in half the time, instead of boring the viewer with meaningless police investigations.. Until I got past half of the movie, I was considering giving up on it, but the last part hooked me up till the end. The way they present the moral dilemma behind the story really makes one think about it. But that's pretty much it.

Still, a pleasant experience, if the viewer is patient/doesn't have anything else to do..