LivraisonduCinémaFilm reviews

Κυνόδοντας by Yorgos Lanthimos Dogtooth is sickly insane - or rather, sick and insane, a captivating tale of keeping your children captives. Keeps you glued to the screen. Ссылка скрыта

Highest 2 Lowest by Spike Lee Damn, when did Spike Lee lose his flame entirely? It’s been a long and slow decline, I know - occasional mediocre movies, more and more preaching and moralizing - but this latest one is a crevice, a precipice, a hole to nothingness, this righteous racial and social justice BS made out of cardboard and plywood, at best. Even Lee’s desperate attempts at self-repetition, at mimicking his own signature film style, his own music and camera work, fail. You don’t borrow a classic script from Akira Kurosawa and turn it into a rap wrestling-styled circus. And the same Denzel Washington - the father in my favorite Lee movie, He Got Game - oozes fake morality, fake ambiguity, and a lack of street wisdom. I honestly don’t know how much anyone must like Spike Lee’s cinema legacy to enjoy this film; it’s like singing praise to street mimes while confusing them with real antique Roman statues - now who really does that! The time of Clockers and Crooklyn, of Bamboozled and He Got Game, of 25th Hour and She’s Gotta Have It, of Mo’ Better Blues and Do the Right Thing - they are all dead in the water and gone. Funnily enough, even the late Tony Scott, the author of quite a few of Washington’s action flicks, turned out better stuff in those olden days. Sad. Don’t waste your time. The title is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ссылка скрыта

Άλπεις by Yorgos Lanthimos Alps, Yorgos Lanthimos’s last Greek movie and his first ever non-English one which I watched, is so brutally powerful it could easily be a part of Lars Von Trier’s Golden Heart trilogy. When serving and helping others at the detriment of yourself becomes a burning obsession which leaves bodily marks and scars. Now, for certain, I need to catch up on Lanthimos. The first movie of his I ever watched, back in 2015, was The Lobster, and I disliked it then, despite all the international praise and acclaim. Later, The Killing of a Sacred Deer totally broke the ice for me, and I put Lanthimos on my personal list of super-priority filmmakers, those whose every film I must watch (sure, I haven’t seen last year’s Bugonia yet, but will do soon, no rush). Back in 2017 I thought, well, maybe The Killing was a game changer, bringing a different perspective to his cinema - but now I see I was wrong, dead wrong. I need to revisit The Lobster and his previous Greek films. I hate offering spoilers, but this tale of sacrifice bordering on absurdity, an ever-evolving, self-consuming passion of no limits and no borders, it sure struck a chord. Insane. Ссылка скрыта

Bez Końca by Krzysztof Kieślowski Krzysztof Kieślowski’s No End is a publicly available sketchbook for Trois Couleurs: Bleu. It is also a story of unbearable grief and loss, of suffering without end, set against the backdrop of the Polish Solidarity court trials of the 1980s. Both are equally important for the plot, yet the grief takes over everything - pride, dignity, children - it implodes it all and leaves nothing behind. To add, this is also the first ever Kieślowski’s film with Van den Budenmayer Zbigniew Preisner’s original score, music which later added enormous depth to all of Kieślowski’s subsequent cinema. And last but not least, a stellar performance of Grażyna Szapołowska, the star of Dekalog 6 / A Short Film about Love. Chin up first, mouth tape later. No spoilers. Ссылка скрыта

Miroirs no. 3 by Christian Petzold If you sing in the quietest possible voice, that’s how you should do it. Latest film by Christian Petzold is just that, a tiny action-free story of people suffering yet on their way to redemption away from it. Miroirs no. 3 is Petzold’s fourth movie starring Paula Beer, his muse of the decade, and she delivers beautifully again and again … but this time, in duet with Barbara Auer. And to see Auer take care of her “baby girl” immediately after watching Die Innere Sicherheit, that makes it extra special. Ссылка скрыта

Die Innere Sicherheit by Christian Petzold Christian Petzold’s debut feature, The State I Am In (Die Innere Sicherheit or Internal Security, a literal translation from German), carries more historical than artistic significance - after all, it was Petzold’s first film. That said, it feels very far from his signature slow, indirect, and nuanced filmmaking of last 15 years. Still, you can clearly see the origins, the seeds of what was to come. And of course, this was before he began working with his muses Nina Hoss and Paula Beer. And in light of last year’s huge enthusiasm for Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, a triumphant Antifa anthem, it’s hard not to notice certain similarities in the underlying plot dynamics. Not as fun, but Germans are rarely fun. Oh well. Ссылка скрыта

Lola Rennt by Tom Tykwer Tom Tykwer’s gun-slinging, breakbeat marathon of a crime melodrama is a perfect movie to watch with your 12-year-old. It has lost a bit of its former sleekness with age, sure, it’s hard not to notice - it was an MTV-era late 90s classic, albeit a very good one - but YouTube and Spotify killed MTV. Ссылка скрыта

Fear X by Nicolas Winding Refn Fear X is probably the most surprising Nicolas Winding Refn film for me today. Totally unexpected. Damn, I first watched it over 20 years ago, when it was released, back when I didn’t even know who Refn was. Just another dark arthouse flick. Now, two decades later, I’m a die-hard Refn fan. I love his Danish period - almost “Dogme 95 before Dogme 95 was even proclaimed” - the gore and brutality of Pusher and Bleeder, all that Copenhagen street crime and suffering. And yet, even more than that, I adore Refn’s cinema of the last decade and a half: a true visionary, the cursed poet behind Drive and Only God Forgives, the auteur who created the stylistically and visually impeccable The Neon Demon. Yeah, I’m a fan. So this Sunday afternoon I decided to return to Fear X - and oh boy, was I surprised. This is more Lynchian than Lynch himself: a dark, slow-burning surreal crime drama set in small-town USA. Low on plot, high on the unknown. And full of red-walled, dimly lit hotel corridors. Un hommage à David Lynch, and it should be perceived and valued as such. Not a copycat, but part of the movement. Not a doppelgänger, but an apprentice. A stepping stone toward the great Refn cinema of today. I repeat: I’m a groupie. Ссылка скрыта

Lilja 4-ever Лукаса Мудиссона Это, конечно, очень мрачное кино. Нереально мрачное. Hurtful. И поэтому вдвойне круто, насколько душевно и просто, по-детски, сыграла Лилю Оксана Акиньшина. Не знаю, почему раньше не смотрел его. Видимо, не был готов. Ну и сейчас, спустя 20+ лет, это такой памятник эпохи конца 90-х. Примерно как барабановско-питерский Брат стал как памятник. Ссылка скрыта