tecnodata Reviews

Beyrouth ya Beyrouth (1975)

Dated but by now interesting

[10/10 · 22 December 2021]

A warning: the 10 stars is not for the actual merit but as an encouragement to watch it.

The movie is unduly long for what it has (or might want) to say, slow and at times frankly boring and it reaches its apparent intent of showing the disconcert of that Lebanese generation ( for which much worse was to come, unfortunately) by disconcerting the viewer.

The director had surely grown up on a heavy dose of French movies doubled down with Bergman and Antonioni's influence.

The long sequences of people sitting silent in cafès, staring at nothing might have endeared viewers as avant-garde at the time but are now frankly just boring.

Having said so it still is interesting as a time piece, notable also for the depiction of traditional if decaying old Lebanese mansions which in the intervening decades have probably been destroyed and rebuilt more than once.

I feel so sorry for that part of the world and those people so in the end, by watching this movie, I felt like sharing a bit in their misfortune.

En dag skall gry (1944)

Better than expected

[7/10 · 12 November 2021]

Typical of the time but quite professionally made. Probably not for young viewers accustomed to fancier productions but interesting for old-timers. I happen to like those movies with a not too-complicated story which are able to make one follow it without falling asleep.

Black Mercedes (2019)

Long but interesting

[10/10 · 24 October 2021]

I can't understand the low rating.

It actually is a good movie, not a masterpiece for the ages (it should really be an 8, IMO but gave more hoping to rebalance the misguiding rating).

The movie is well made, the ambiance and time set are credible, the acting is more than decent (with some characters like the inspector/s, the lawyer, etc quite well cast) the plot a bit long winded but credible for the most part (in order to avoid spoilers I cannot tell which part seems less so).

To sum it up while I rarely watch a whole long movie in one sitting I went through this like a breeze and without a yawn. That's quite an accomplishment in my judgement and will look for other works by this director.

I Can Quit Whenever I Want (2014)

Ironic but sad

[8/10 · 24 July 2021]

Others have pointed out at all the different, and actually quite legitimate, inspirations from Breaking Bad to La banda degli onesti, etc.

What I see here is a caustic condemnation for a system which wastes young brains in a corrupt, inefficient loop of despair.

It is sad but unfortunately true that some are overprotected while others have to struggle endlessly.

The final scene is quite subdued but could have been exploited in a more dramatic way.

While I was reluctant to watch it, fearing the usual unpleasant onslaught of so-called New Italian Comedy, I'm glad I finally did. And can recommend it if you like the bittersweet bite of social critique with a few interspersed gags.

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

a political movie?

[6/10 · 26 June 2021]

While the first Borat had the freshness of invention and the intent of satirizing some or many of the American idiosyncrasies this one looks more like a hastily concocted job with the only purpose of getting it out before the election.

I believe Baron Coen even stated publicly so.

And it shows, because all the gags are disconnected and one feels that it is just politically driven.

So, probably not worth the 10s from supporters nor the 1s from detractors but all in all a bit boring for the repetition.

Planning on watching the second half after a respite.

Damnation (2017–2018)

An American Peaky Blinder

[7/10 · 12 June 2021]

Well done, entertaining and clearly inspired and trying to score on by Peaky Blinder's success. Even the music seems interchangeable.

But the main actor, Killian Scott, is not quite impressive and well cast as Cillian Murphy. They went to a great extent to find a similar looking actor but Murphy's persona is quite more believable. Logan Marshall-Green as Creely, provides a better performance but not quite as memorable as Paul Anderson (Arthur Shelby). In some ways Marshall-Green overtakes Killian Scott's as the main character but I guess that's what the authors decided once they were faced with the miscast of the main actor.

Marshall-Green kind of unfinished and at times unbelievable killer role is somehow justified by his childhood.

Rendering the early twenties ambiance and colors was not going to be easy, they make a good show of the car models available then, but Formica-covered table were not common in 1924 and in the same year people could not talk of Penicillin which would only be discovered in 1928 and become available as a medicine In 1942.

My best votes go to Heyerdahl and Bobbi Charlton both memorable in their roles.

The Betrothed (1989– )

Alberto Sordi's undoubtley worst performance...

[5/10 · 29 May 2021]

... and Dario Fo's too.

A number of actors either popular (Walter Chiari) at the time or part of the film establishment (Valentina Cortese, Piera degli Esposti, etc.) were cast in this retro production of a classic Italian novel that all Italian teenager have to endure reading in high school.

Regardless of the literary merits, the director's effort to infuse some complexities in the story and pictorial references, most notably Caravaggio-like shots of characters like the hit-men working for the villain, the film fails miserably al least by modern standards. Some research shows that even at the time, Sordi's and company's co-option notwithstanding, it was not a great success, alas.

Now we can only look at it like a late archeological specimen, redeemed neither by the acting nor by the direction, with only the quaint locations and settings waking us occasionally from the induced stupor of a a story, production and acting that fail to become classics but remain just old-fashioned.

Only for hard-core Italian enthusiasts with a sadistic bent.

Hillbilly Elegy (2020)

Not a perfect movie but...

[10/10 · 15 May 2021]

It should be mandatory viewing, in America but not only.

It shows all that is good and bad and why we still have hopes.

The casting (and acting, I should say, not to mention the directing and cutting which are first rate, too) are absolutely perfect apart from the overdone makeup on Mamaw.

I'm not going to keep this from giving it a 10 score, and this is from someone who saw his first movie in 1946...

PS I now know why some people don't like the movie.

It's for political reasons.

I found it out after praising it to some younger, self-proclaimed left wingers, expecting them to share my positive view of the movie only to be told that 1) the main character is a Republican , therefore everything he does is inherently bad 2) The timing of the movie distracts people from what should be their main attention at the moment i. E. Black Americans.

3) for some contorted reason, by showing that a hillbilly can rescue himself from poverty with hard work and family sacrifice, is considered a criticism of Black People. Go figure... Naive me who thought that an uplifting story could be inspiring and educational, regardless of the characters' color.

The Resistance Fighter (2019)

A masterpiece? Not, but...

[7/10 · 9 May 2021]

.. Not as bad as the rating shown by Imdb.

A technically non-sophisticated movie, the director is clearly not going to be remembered for this but it still worthy of a couple of hours of one's time at least to remind us all of the plight of Poland caught, like often before, in the vice grips of larger, predatory countries.

The narrating style could be assimilated to the cartoons that were in vogue after WWII, a sequence of pictures/events trying to capture the various moments of a story without the fluent narration that we could easily expect now but still a solid 7 stars, for both sympathy to the cause and people but also for highlighting an episode of the enormous sacrifice that the Poles suffered.

Stan & Ollie (2018)

A sweet, sad movie...

[8/10 · 9 April 2021]

Well acted, directed and a real pleasure for all of us, who when growing up, were enjoying the work of the real Stan and Ollie.

Their career might have been on the wane in the '50s but their movies were still going strong, widely shown in the theaters across Europe so it is kind of surprising, at least for me, that they were struggling to get a movie contract.

Also surprising that they were such close friends contrary to what was believed at the time, possibly because of their temporary separation.

Highly recommended to anybody who can remember those perhaps simpler times when we could have a good laugh with acting and gags that have roots in the ancient Roman comedies.

Like Crazy (2016)

Great directing, as usual but still waiting for a 10 star movie by Virzì

[9/10 · 1 August 2020]

I consider myself a fan of Paolo Virzì movies and this one did not disappoint me. And yet, I always come back with that feeling that he seems to be always just a step away from an accomplished masterpiece. Like Crazy easily passes the minimum threshold of getting one involved and watch it to the end, in fact more than that. At 2 hours it's a longish movie whose end arrives sooner than expected. There's however something not quite fully realized in it, might it be the cutting, the repetition of certain schemes, the un-natural behavior of some of the characters. It's a bit like a poem where a few rhymes don't quite rhyme or the hidden meaning doesn't quite come through. The acting is certainly not to be faulted: if this were a Hollywood movie, Micaela Ramazzotti would have undoubtedly qualified for an Oscar nomination. Bruni Tedeschi is great too but a bit over the top here and there. A better cutting would have been a great help, too as some themes are a bit repetitive. Taking away some 5 or 10 minutes would have greatly improved the flowing of the narration. What can I say, I appreciate everything Virzì has done so far, he's surely a great director but I'm still expecting and betting that his best has yet to come.

Haute Cuisine (2012)

Is boring an understatement for this film?

[4 March 2014]

I'm a bit surprised to find myself in disagreement with other reviewers but this movie is a) actually boring b) the actress, although a good professional, is actually that: a soulless professional c) the " president" is totally miscast d) even the recipes, in their farfetchedness, are completely uninteresting. The rhythm of the gags is repetitive, no plot, no drama. Just the usual surprised, smiling faces of the ( supposedly) typical Frenchmen when they hear yet another recipe declaimed by a loving, caring chef. One of the few films that I didn't finish watching and that can be easily forgotten. I'm sure that other people might disagree and I accept that but, sorry, that's my opinion.

Catch As Catch Can (1967)

What a waste of talent!

[3/10 · 7 January 2014]

I didn't see this movie when it came out in 1968. And for good reasons, I guess, as it must have had a very short life in theaters. I saw it today and I was intrigued by the opportunity of watching what I was expecting to be a long lost gem. What a disappointment. I couldn't bear myself to endure watching it to the end. Put simply, it's one of the worst films ever made for which no significant use can be found apart from titillating the sexual interest of American teenagers (who nowadays have better options, anyway). The only reason it was made was probably the exploit the physical gimmicks of the main actor, Vittorio Gassman, who at the time was at the peak of his career as a TV personality.

Short Cuts (1993)

Inspired by Fellini?

[4 August 2011]

I saw this movie again last night and, like an old friend with which you had a bit of disagreement long ago but you are happy to see again, I found it most enjoyable. Well, enjoyable by an artistic, cinematic point of view. Certainly not by a human point of view since at the end, the shallowness and downright ugliness of some of the characters, came back to make me feel again that lingering subtle sense of depression at life being sometimes so unpalatable. That same bitterness at the back of your mouth after a not-so-honorable spree the night before. And yet the movie is one that you will never say: I've had enough of this. You do want to follow the different personas, their briefly brushing of self-contained lives, hoping a new story will develop, a redeeming character will appear. But no one enters from the left to shed light. Everyone is self-absorbed.

I looked at the some of the other reviews to see if someone else had my same hunch and did not find any reference to what I think is Altman's inspiration for this canvas of American lives: Federico Fellini. Where La Dolce vita was a large fresco of a certain society at a certain point in time, here Altman wants to represent on a large, spread out mural a number of characters loosely connected or separated by their own materialism, hoping that, in the end, what the viewer sees is the colors and shape of a bustling city that can only be L.A. Where Fellini had a Ulysses-like character (Mastroianni) representing himself and his awe at the confusing life of a cynical old city on the verge of modern materialism, Altman does not have an himself watching and connecting the stories but tries to be more objective, more detached, letting the individual stories develop kind of casually. This is because the script does not come from him, from his own experiences ( as I understand the aging singer character is his only contribution to the plot) but from a number of short stories written by someone else. So, where Fellini is telling us of his own fears, surprises and expectations Altman is recounting someone's else story, a story that he is trying to tell not interpret, hoping that it will speak to the viewers by itself. So, if Fellini's fresco reminds me of The Triumph of Death in the cemetery of Pisa, scary, bigger than life and never to be forgotten, Altman's work reminds me of those many , beautiful murals one can see all over the world: busy, colorful, confusing and devoid of perspective but which one goes away from with a bit of bitter aftertaste for not having told a more decisive, clear message. An 8 nonetheless.

The First Beautiful Thing (2010)

a director steadily evolving

[3 March 2011]

Having just seen this movie I'd say that Virzì is seriously working on becoming a major director. His technique is steadily evolving, his stories becoming more and more complex yet intimate, digging in his own youth and background while finding his own voice and style. Not quite Fellini yet but he seems to have a penchant for rolling in wallowing, like the great master, in his own experiences, remembrances and fantasies. It's a great compliment to say no matter what confusion one might find in the plot, one cannot really stop watching it. And like a good book, once finished watching, one feels like going back an looking again at some pages to better savor them. I don't know if this was Oscar material (too intimate, and a bit difficult to read for a general audience) but surely a movie to watch again after a few days, like a good book to leaf through now and again. This is what French movie directors have been trying to convey at their best. Kudos to Virzì.

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006)

A modern American Graffiti

[8/10 · 15 December 2010]

I don't really feel like a need to add a summary here. All the people who have seen the movie know the story already but I believe that there is a deeper meaning to it. Much as James Joyce's Ulysses has the same story as the Odyssey but it is adapted to early 20th century Dublin with a more syncopated, modern, staccato style so this modern days American Graffiti is based in Astoria in the '80s. I don't know if anybody read the movie the same way. It is basically the same story: some young boys dreaming of leaving the oppression of a place with no future. But only one will leave, the others will be condemned to a bleak, boring future of drugs and joblessness. Give or take something and allow for changes in time, attitude,culture and place this really is a modern days American Graffiti. Great movie. Intense and absorbing if not technically accomplished. it speaks even to people who don't know where Astoria is because it talks of problems we all are familiar with.

La Dolce Vita (1960)

Fellini's films were always only about himself

[10/10 · 27 November 2010]

I'm so glad to see so many reviews about this movie. I plan on reading all of them but, after having seen it after so many years ( I first saw it when it came out in 1960 and loved it) I feel the urge to immediately clarify one point: this movie, like all the others he made,is autobiographical. Fellini, like all great artists, is always talking about himself. He is like a pig in his through (no offense intended)who sits in it, taking pleasure in the warmth emanating from his own ejections, all the while trying to give meaning to himself and his feelings. And wondering why other people find interesting what he is saying. The themes are always the same: the need for incestuous maternal love, the adventure of leaving the little provincial town, the reminiscences of his (much idolized) boyhood, an absent father figure that he tries to summon up, a purifying young female figure,etc. etc. This was his greatest success and it is so because he put so much of himself into it while casting a cynical (but not overly harsh) eye on his fellow men. To really understand this movie one needs to think of it not like a series of episodes illustrating a decaying societies but more like a large, very large canvas,or better yet a large fresco, showing, not without some sympathy, the ebullient, multi-language society in which a smart young man from a provincial little town in Italy is trying to find his ways and a meaning for his life. A great movie, not unlike a modern Divine Comedy or Ulysses with an Italian Leopold Bloom navigating and getting lost in a sweet, intoxicating modern days Rome, not dissimilar from the one he later described in Satyricon.

I tartassati (1959)

la prima commedia all'italiana?

[8/10 · 21 August 2010]

Varie considerazioni vengono alla mente dopo aver visto questo film a 40 anni di distanza dalla sua prima uscita. Primo, Sia Fabrizi che Totò danno una delle loro migliori performances. Equilibrate e spoglie degli eccessi interpretativi tipici di ambedue in tanti altri films. Fabrizi è a mio parere eccezionale ( e non sono mai stato un suo fan). Spogliato della pretesa di dover essere un attore "serio" ma non ancora rovinato dalla bassezza delle successive commediole, riesce ad essere convincente nel ruolo del finanziere pur restando a metà tra la commedia e la realtà. Tutti tendono a ricordare questa coppia nell'altro più famoso Guardie e Ladri ma a mio parere quì ambedue sono più bilanciati, divertenti ma non macchiettistici. Fabrizi riesce anche a tenere le posizioni contro la forza di Totò non scadendo al ruolo di guitto nè pretendendo di dare una recitazione " strutturata"; senza diventare una "spalla" ma sempre pronto a improvvisare, contrattaccare e reagire allo strapotere verbale e scenico di Totò . Divertente quanto necessario ma senza le esagerazioni di tono e di gesti che purtroppo lo hanno poi caratterizzato e sminuito. Per Totò pur potendo ripetere per intero gli stessi apprezzamenti, occorre aggiungere che dal punto di vista puramente della sua interpretazione, questo a mio parere è il massimo di quanto potè dare con le ruoli e i registi che ebbe. Non più, o quasi mai macchietta anche se la tentazione e i vizietti e i mai dimenticati ammiccamenti spuntano quà e là, riesce a trovare quella chiave interpretativa che se avesse mantenuto, ne avrebbe fatto uno dei migliori interpreti italiani del periodo. Il fatto è che tutti cercano di dare una finale patente di qualità a Totò per la collaborazione con Pasolini quando oramai era praticamente giubilato oltre che cieco, mentre basterebbe guardare a films come questo , a metà tra la farsa e la realtà, un neorealismo alleggerito si potrebbe dire, per riconoscere che l'uomo avrebbe avuto molte frecce al suo arco per diventare qualcosa di più del guitto, divertente e snodato che ci ricordiamo e che non ha mai avuto praticamente alcun seguito al di fuori del mercato italiano. E infine la considerazione più importante: tutti attribuiscono la nascita del filone della Commedia all'Italiana a I Soliti Ignoti. In realtà I Tartassati, non ancora film di costume ma non più neorealista è da considerare se non la prima commedia all'Italiana quanto meno il suo immediato precursore. Usciti a pochi mesi di distanza l'uno dall'altro fanno ambedue presagire la felice stagione, sia per popolarità che per incassi, che si stava avvicinando. Resta solo il rimpianto di cosa sarebbe potuto diventare Totò se avesse inseguito meno i facili guadagni che le sue macchiette gli assicuravano e avesse invece trovato un regista in grado di vederlo senza la maschera del guitto che purtroppo abbiamo nella memoria. Il " principe" avrebbe ben potuto fare da contraltare ai famosi " colonnelli" ( Sordi, Gassman, Tognazzi ecc.)guadagnandosi l'agognato posto tra i "grandi" attori.