Mad Max: Fury Road

– “Oh, what a day… what a lovely day” roars Nux as he pursues his nemesis in the midst of a massive violent sandstorm.  Nicholas Hoult, 14 years after “About a Boy”, gives a mesmerizing performance as yet another lost boy who needs to believe in something, whether that is the oppressive tyrant or the…

The Hateful Eight

– Far and above everything else related to the film, I have to praise the startling score of the grand Maestro, Ennio Morricone! At age 87 he succeeds to deliver yet another haunting western music theme, as if it comes straight from the spaghetti westerns of the ’60s and ’70s. Only this time there is…

Oscars 2016 – Special Edition

– Mark Rylance starring at the most surprising reversal of the Oscar night! As unforeseen it might have been, his win in the best supporting actor category was utterly worthy. Sylvester Stallone may have gathered the affinity of his peers, but no one can argue that Rylance delivered the best performance in his category.  –…

Oscars 2015 – Special Edition!

– J.K. Simmons acceptance speech, where he urges about 100 million people who are watching the Oscars, to call (not text nor email!!) their parents and talk to them!  – “Acting is a noble profession”. Neil Patrick Harris tries to convince himself while being almost naked on the stage of the Dolby Theatre as part…

Cobain: Montage of Heck

– The amazingly inspirational animation of Hisko Hulsing and Stefan Nadelman acompanying archive recordings of Kurt Cobain’s early years, bringing to life less known incidents. – The visualization of Cobain’s scattered notes and sketches that reveal nuggets of his musical genius and artistic nature and the way the director literally brings them to file. –…

The Fire (El Incendio)

– The brutal realism of the violent sex scene in the garage, shot with great intimacy by Juan Schnitman. – The gradual scaling of the tension between the couple and how this leads toy the violent outburst of Marcelo highlighting simultaneously the anew stimulation of Lucia. – The extreme camera movement as the couple exits…

45 Years

– The low lighted but chilling performance of Charlotte Rambling in the role of the insecure wife haunted by ghosts of the past. – The parallelism of the attic as a place that hides a human’s fears. It might not be a real monster hidden in there, but a dark secret of the past can…

Queen of the Desert

– The magnificent landscape shots of the vast desert, as Werner Herzog could not help it but include some documentary like footage in his feature film. The only thing missing there was his smooth narrating voice. – Nicole Kidman was given the burden of the whole film upon her shoulders and she absolutely nailed it…

Taxi

– The comforting feeling that despite the house arrest and the 20 years ban of shooting films that Jafar Panahi was sentenced to by the Iranian government, he always finds the way to bend the rules and expand the borders of the cinematic medium with new films. – However this film merely achieves to capture…