Fruitvale Station (2013) (greek)

του Ryan Coogler με τους Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer (ΗΠΑ 85')

Η πρώτη μεγάλου μήκους ταινία του σκηνοθέτη έκανε πρεμιέρα πέρυσι στο φεστιβάλ του Sundance. Απέσπασε τα βραβεία της επιτροπής και του κοινού, ενώ συμμετείχε και στις Κάννες στο τμήμα “Ένα Κάποιο Βλέμμα”. Εξέπληξε πολλούς όταν και έλειπε από τις φετινές υποψηφιότητες των Όσκαρ, την στιγμή που περιμέναμε την Ακαδημία να κάνει την διαφορά. Κρίμα.

Ξημερώματα Πρωτοχρονιάς 2009. Ο Oscar Grant δολοφονείται από τον αξιωματικό Johannes Mehserle στον σιδηροδρομικό σταθμό Fruitvale στην Καλιφόρνια, μπροστά στα έκπληκτα μάτια εκατοντάδων επιβατών. Κινητά μαγνητοσκοπούν μία πρωτοφανή αστυνομική βία απέναντι στον Oscar και την παρέα του. Η συμμετοχή σε έναν καβγά αποδεικνύεται μοιραία.

Ο Oscar είναι ένας νεαρός που παλεύει να βάλει την ζωή του σε τάξη. Η φυλακή τον κράτησε μακριά, του έμαθε όμως να διαβάζει τον εαυτό του μέσα από τους άλλους. Η αποδοκιμασία της μητέρας του και η δυσπιστία της αρραβωνιαστικιάς του τον ωθούν στο να κοιτάξει τον εαυτό του κατάματα. Η κόρη του τον χρειάζεται περισσότερο από ποτέ.

Η τελευταία ημέρα της ζωής του Oscar δεν είναι τίποτε άλλο από θραύσματα του παρελθόντος που επανέρχονται στο τώρα. Η ανησυχία, με ένα μείγμα αμφιβολίας είναι εμφανής παντού, στο πρόσωπο, στις κινήσεις, στις λέξεις που χρησιμοποιεί. Κάθε κάδρο αποδεικνύει την σταδιακή αλλαγή των αποφάσεών του. Ο ίδιος, σαν να νιώθει τι θα συμβεί, κάνει μερικά βήματα προς τα πίσω. Μικρά βήματα που μπορούν να κάνουν τη διαφορά, κάτι που ο Oscar δείχνει να μαθαίνει.

Το εκπληκτικό σε αυτή την ταινία είναι ότι απουσιάζει κάθε προκατάληψη. Δεν προσπαθεί να διδάξει, ούτε να υποδείξει το σωστό και το λάθος. Αφήνει την τελική κρίση σε εμάς. Ποιος έφταιξε, τι έγινε, γιατί; Δυνατή, ειλικρινής και κυρίως συγκλονιστική για τις αλήθειες που κρύβει.

Εξαιρετικές ερμηνείες από την μοναδική Octavia Spencer και τον πρωτοεμφανιζόμενο Michael B. Jordan. Απολαύστε. 

My week in movies #2

And after a long January and a tiring week, I present to you, my beloved readers, some of the latest movies I have watched this past week. Most of them are quite new, compared to my last list, where some oldies were there. So, read these small reviews and enjoy your weekend with some more cinema.

(You can find detailed plots through each title linking to Imdb)

Walk the line (2005)

Strong performances for a movie I thought was boring in the beginning. Then it got my attention and I watched it till the end. Reese Witherspoon is astonishing as June Carter and along with Joaquin Phoenix they created a burning couple trying to get through life's difficulties. The music and the drugs, the fall and the rise of a great musician and this wonderful woman's integrity, with which she managed to save him. Amazing. They loved each other till the end.

Stories we tell (2012)

So lyrical and magnetic direction from this extremely intelligent woman, named Sarah Polley. The story of one family unravels so effortlessly, their feelings and sides of the same story are so different, but at the same time so alike. Very very very good documentary. So honest. Polley isn't afraid of the exposure it gives to her personal life and family, but instead she pushes everything to the limit, like a constant need to get it all out there. Maybe that way all of these people, among the director, can find peace with their past.

Extended film critique coming up soon.

Into the wild (2007)

As a traveler myself or at least one who is on “travel break” now, I deeply fell in love with this movie and the story of this guy. The freedom he felt, the rebel he deeply was and the kindness he offered where elements that make everyone envy this man. Even though he got defeated by what he loved deeply, he still teaches us great life lessons. Is officially in my favorite's list. Truthful cinema doesn't deserve anything less.

The Butler (2013)

Unfortunately, it fails in every attempt to reveal the Butler's story in a decent way. The narration has gaps, the scenes change abruptly. There is no proper flow. The direction doesn't allow its characters to unfold properly. They are suffocated in a long and boring story. Except for the admiration one can feel for the real butler's integrity, there is not much that the character can tell us. A much more fascinating figure is his son and his actions, leaving the mother (a decent acting by Oprah) drift through fuzziness. Quite disappointing.

Rush(2013)

This true story of rivalry is so righteously presented that you cannot do anything but admire. Its essence is so strong and powerful. The direction is so intense that lets the story unfolds easily. Except some fast editing in the beginning this movie deserves more attention and acclaim. What a figure Niki Lauda is. What an athlete. 

Captain Phillips (2013)

Director: Paul Greengrass

Writer: Billy Ray (screenplay), Richard Phillips (based upon the book "A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALS, and Dangerous Days at Sea" by)

With: Tom Hanks, Barkhad Abdi, Barkhad Abdirahman

Duration: 134'

Country: USA

One of the movies that claim the title “Movie of the Year” has already six Oscar nominations for this year, along with Best Achievement in Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay and Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Barkhad Abdi. Having almost 70 nominations, the movie has already claimed a position in the “favorites” list.

The screenplay (Billy Ray) of “Captain Phillips” is based on the the book “A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea” (2010) by the real Richard Phillips who was taken hostage by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean as part of the Maersk Alabama hijacking in 2009.

The US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama was the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years as IMDB informs us on the movie's page, where it has scored 8, 1 so far. With most of the nominations gained for the performance of Tom Hanks and his co-star Barkhad Abdi, “Captain Phillips” has become everyone's favorite action thriller of the year.

We follow the extraordinary story of a captain who, while on duty in the Indian Ocean, his cargo ship was hijacked by Somali pirates. We watch with extreme precision how the captain realized the menace and how he managed to prevent the hijacking by using all means from his crew, the ship and his own head.

While proving to be prepared with solutions for preventing the incident, he is unaware of what will follow next. The horror and fear he will face in the hands of these “fishermen”, who are nothing more than poor men in need for money for the boss who rules their lives.

Muse, the leader of this mission thinks that he got lucky choosing an American cargo ship. He believes its crew and captain will obey his orders and hand him the ship's money. But he miscalculates and soon realizes nothing is going to be easy with this captain.

The story unravels slow revealing its characters feelings. While we observe the growing tension we cannot help but notice this peculiar relationship created between Captain Phillips and the leader of the hijackers, Muse. 

Looking at each other deep in the eye, they are trying to show who is in control. Muse wants to impose his domination over his own crew, but mostly over the captain. Captain Phillips though, wants to preserve his own authority and is trying to maintain a neutral attitude towards the pirates. And he also tries the same thing: to show his own crew that he still has control.

After some serious incidents, everyone realizes that things have changed into worse. The pirates act recklessly doing the unthinkable. They kidnap Captain Phillips for at least two days, while the American coast guard along with trained marines await the appropriate moment to attack and disarm or better, eliminate them.

The negotiations fail to come to a desirable result and the USA justs wants to get rid of the targets. The morality that is hidden behind all these, the power America shows over anything named as terrorism or pirates is overwhelming. If you stand in front of the Americans as an obstacle, they will do anything to take you down in the name of national security. The movie tries hard to remind us this.

All this tension unraveling throughout the movie, bursts out at the last sequence, where Captain Phillips collapses. And here is where the sublime performance by Tom Hanks takes place. Weak and confused he gives up, he falls apart, he loses the control he fought for. His vulnerability is magnificent on screen. 

DiCaprio managed to steal the 'Best Actor in a Leading Role' nomination from Hanks, and me being a fan of both of them, cannot help but think this: Hanks has already proven his value, while DiCaprio still fights for a position in the Oscar Hall of Fame. Well, maybe Leo will get it this time.

One thing I admire in Paul Greengrass's direction is that he managed without any Hollywood tricks and effects to exhibit this slow growing tension and succeed in giving us a thrilling action movie with great performances (don't forget Barkhad Abdi's nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role).

One of the feelings I cannot hide for this movie, is my deep sadness over those poor Somali people who had no choice but to hijack, threaten, kidnap just to survive. They live in a world so different, where they grow up under war conditions. Even though this movie focuses on a more American way of dealing with things, it still makes us wonder why these people have no choice but turn to crime.

Frances Ha (2012)

Directed by Noah Baumbach

Written by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig (screenplay)

With Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam Driver

USA, 86 min

In noisy and busy New York a lot of young people are struggling for a better life. One of them is Frances. She doesn’t really have an apartment since her temporary job in a dance firm is not really offering her a decent salary and as she declares being a dancer, she is actually a struggling one trying to stand out.

“Frances Ha” is the silent surprise of last year. An independent American production with a pretty black & white photography, young actors and most of all a freshly point of view of how young people are these days. Even if it is based on New York with its neuroticism borrowed by Woody Allen’s remarks and movies, the film speaks for everyone. For all the struggles every person, who experiences the western society’s “diseases”, deals with.

The film of Noah Baumbach is inspired by the French Nouvelle Vague and the characteristic Woody Allen vibe of “Manhattan” and “Annie Hall”. In its content, the awkwardly designed character of Frances always has a talent of bringing unintended questions and blurred (but truthful), life and love, statements.

She lives with her best friend, Sophie, who she considers as her soul mate. They share an apartment together and a wonderful life – almost in a childish way - but when Sophie decides to move elsewhere with someone else, the deep disappointment in Frances’s face is more than evident in herself and her own life. It somehow makes her realize and think over her own life purpose and how she would be able to survive in hectic New York.

The later crisis between them will almost force her to face this big blank wall of self reflection. This eventually will result into reinventing her own goals and plans, to actually confront her own self.

Life for Frances is something she needs to endure, but her own existence and well – being depends mostly on other people. She is social and quite extrovert, but she shares a quite rare intimacy only with the people she chooses, or better to say, with the people who really don’t bother judging her bold and nervy social behavior.

The clean and abrupt – almost tidy – editing of the movie gives away Baumbach’s random direction attitude. It feels like he put together all his frames and shots somehow unintended. This procedure’s honesty is an element missing from other contemporary Americans. It is marvelous and so beautiful to see how his direction’s simplicity, even though is not completely new or innovative, helps him recreate through his own perspective.

Frances drifts around New York, she imposes herself into other people’s lives, she tells exactly what she thinks and is so genuine that you cannot do anything but admire and secretly envy her freedom of character. But she is also sensitive and talented, maybe not made for the big lights and major dance performances, but her style and life values are there permanently to remind her – and us – that we need to keep up and promote our own dreams any way possible.

Nothing that others – or society and the media – enforces us to do should happen. Success is an overestimated situation that can destroy as easy as it can build human lives. The point is to live and experience through feelings. But the other, more valuable hidden point is what you produce in this world to actually have a meaning for some people, even if you can count them in one hand.

This is what “Frances Ha” is about. It is for the small, not of great significance, lives of people who are actually very important, even more important than the already seemingly important ones.

The essence of this film is completed through these lines:

"I want this one moment. It’s what I want in a relationship…It’s that thing when you’re with someone and you love them, and they know it, and they love you and you know it but it’s a party and you’re both talking to other people and you’re laughing and shining and you look across the room and catch each other’s eyes, but not because you’re possessive or it’s precisely sexual, but because that is your person in this life."

My week in movies #1

Last week I decided, since time is a precious thing in my life and I don’t have much of it, to write down small reviews of all the movies I have watched - instead of detailed film critiques - in a period of like 10 days. These are some of the movies I watched and, as you can see, are from various genres, times and directors. 

This list can also be used as a small guide if you are wondering what to watch every night!

The small reviews below are from my Letterbox profile.  

Despicable Me 2 (2013)

In the first movie minions were the true revelation. With their characteristic non-language they return in "Despicable Me 2" claiming more time and spotlight. “Despicable Me 2” is spreading jokes that are not so childish but actually extremely funny for everyone.

With love as the main theme in this sequel, Gru finds himself trapped between his girls and this new undercover job that he was offered. Finally, after a lot of thought he will accept and he will try to discover which villain stole this powerful mutation liquid that turns everyone into monsters.

Smart, sweet and still hilarious, "Despicable Me 2" is quite a delight to watch. It's perfect for a relaxing night; a night which with some minions on your side can prove more than amazing. 

Rebel without a cause (1955)

This movie reveals with great way how some youngsters want to define themselves through their parents’ non action. They are bold and gorgeous, but their beauty contradicts their greedy lust for life. Their reckless behavior results to destructive results.

A big social statement for teenage behavior, especially in the 50s-60s era. It is rebellious like its own protagonists, who carelessly cannot realize the importance of their actions and who are constantly being neglected and left in their fate by their own parents. 

Iconic James Dean you will live forever. 

Shadow of a doubt (1943)

Such a masterpiece of horror and mystery. As in all Hitchcock's movies we - the audience - are one step ahead in the plot, but here we walk into the dark secrets of Uncle Charlie's past, almost along with Charlotte 'Charlie' Newton, his young niece. So intense. You cannot miss a shot. I want to watch it again and again. 

Training Day (2001)

What a magnificent performance given by Denzel Washington. This story of corruption and control, so violently given, shows some of our basic instincts. Yes, the strongest survives, but also the smartest. In a world full of drugs and cruelty, blood and guns in the streets, does police have a role of maintaining order or a role of taking everything under control no matter the outcome? In this cruel world we need to consider if we are going to fight against this brutality with our hearts, our ethics and morals or with our own violent, nasty instincts. 

Harvey (1950)

A movie I have never heard of before came and surprised me completely. Through amazing performances by its cast (Oh yes, including Harvey) and the leading extraordinary James Stewart, "Harvey" tells the story of a man and its imaginary (?) 6 feet tall rabbit friend and how together they change people one by one.

His politeness affects everyone around him, even though his older sister is trying to lock him up in a mental institution. Through his odd behavior, the insanity of others comes slowly to the surface, proving that he is the sanest of them all. Touching and truthful, 'Harvey' has a lot of meanings, letting each viewer to discover and decode them in their own way.

The sessions (2012)

The sessions (2012)

Director: Ben Lewin

Writer: Ben Lewin, Mark O'Brien (article)

With: John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy

Duration: USA

Production: 95’

One of the words that pop up in your head watching this movie is heartbreaking honesty.

Characterized as the Festival Hit of the year, “The Sessions” made an impression on the crowd for its obvious - almost unintentionally looking - naivety. It had gained an Oscar nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for the indeed extraordinary Helen Hunt and some more Festival awards with most important that of Sundance (Audience Award and Special Jury Prize).

Based on the article of Mark O'Brien, the same person we see on screen, the same unique character that suffered from polio at age of 6 and used an iron lung until his death, the true, inspiring story of a man who wanted to experience life in its full extent. A man who was craving for real love, for true feelings of affection and wanted to know everything about the magic of making love.

Mark is living a peaceful life at his house. He has a special lady to clean him up, help him shop his vintage shirts and feed him. After not feeling comfortable with his latest assistant, he goes on a hunt of finding the perfect candidate. Through this process he realizes how much he wants to seize being a virgin.  How much he truly wants to experience sexual intercourse, aka having sex.

He is a devoted Catholic and with the ethical guide of his priest he decides to take this journey and hire a sex surrogate. The priest, such an amusing character given by William H. Macy, is his listener, his way of making amends with God himself, but most of all is his true friend who watches a grown disabled man with a pure heart to wish for something so natural and normal. He deletes any kind of religious boundaries and manages to advise him as a true friend.

After he already decided to act upon his decision to have sex and feel real love, he contacts his therapist who introduces him to Cheryl Cohen-Greene, a professional sex surrogate who has a normal, conventional life. The relationship they create will change them both. To his journey towards manhood, Mark discovers how he can love, how he can express himself and his tortured body.

And then except Helen Hunt, you get an astonishing performance by John Hawkes. His facial expressions of a simple, honest, full of humor disabled man transfer the uniqueness of this true story into our own eyes as we watch his life transforming into the beautiful experience it can be. By fulfilling only this simple wish, which for any other is something so “easy to get”, he is finally the person who always wanted to be – complete. Complete with love, sex, emotions, moments, happiness and life, no matter the difficulties. 

The simplicity that accompanies The Sessions’ direction by Ben Lewin can be shown in the clean shots of his characters. The colorful universe Mark lives in, even if for some can provoke pity, Lewin manages to convey exactly the opposite. He makes you feel proud and admire Mark for his integrity, his way of thinking, his romance, his own extraordinary life.

The talent of Mark deleting any kind of awkwardness and taboo concerning sex and its content is also the director’s talent not to make it look weird in any context. Mark and his character win everyone over with his innocence, his ignorance, his unlikeness. He is sweet and so unpredictable beautiful, a beauty that comes from inside and glows on the outside. What if he is marked by the “disabled” tag, the people and their lives he touched with his simplicity are living proof that tags and people don’t match.  

Mark’s story is a constant lesson to all of us who seek perfection and happiness in a life that is most of all beautiful and interesting just the way it is. 

Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)

Director: Alain Resnais

Writer:  Marguerite Duras

With: Emmanuelle Riva, Eiji Okada, Stella Dassas

Duration: 90’

Production: France, Japan

Elle is a French actress shooting a movie in Hiroshima. She meets Lui, a married Japanese architect. Together they share their opinions about the war, about life and love, until all of their past is being unraveled.

This movie and its story have a strong sentimental base. At the beginning the war pictures and the words that accompany them are breathtaking. We are being introduced to a couple that met in Hiroshima. The details of their relationship and their background are being slowly revealed.

First everything is about the war. As the story goes the focus changes and goes to the couple’s past, particularly Elle’s past. Then, she will slowly expose herself to buried memories and feelings. The strong and confident French actress will become a scared little girl and nothing can save her. She is exposed to love, sentiments, and strong feelings. Slowly she will remember that once she did fell all these again. The turbulence that the past provokes makes her act in complete denial of the present.

The constant denial of Elle’s lover depicts the general denial of such a destructive war that makes your heart doom. The power of her own story is so magnificent that deletes somehow the struggle of their departure (she has to go back to France to her husband, he is married in Hiroshima).

Several images scattered create the essence of memories tried to be forgotten through the years, the alcohol though, manages to withdraw them from the oblivion darkness to the realistic surface of the present. He listens carefully as the moments of grief and despair she recalls appear, pretending to be the lover she lost once and for all.

All these information she reveals, do expose why she has lived what she has lived, but not in any case justify the actions of her surroundings towards her. Her betrayal is so powerful her own parents lock her in this basement; she is being constantly humiliated for this unfortunate – but so fortunate for her still – affair with the German soldier during the Nazi occupation.

She loved him with all of her human senses. She never regrets her love for him and now this Japanese man makes her relive this strength in her soul. He makes her remember the true love she once experienced and so tragically lost. She is deadly afraid that all these will happen again. Scared and alone she starts drifting through Hiroshima, trying to settle her thoughts, trying to put her own feelings in order.

He is following her, trying to convince her to stay with him, but she – like a dog experiencing a traumatic incident – believes that such a strong love will result to her “imprisonment” again. The loss, the emptiness, the grief of losing a lover were so intense, she never wants to live it again. The unclear ending proves not only that the destinations does not even matter, but also that strong feelings can overcome any type of fear ever existed in one’s mind and soul.

Yes she probably stayed, we don’t know for how long, we will never know, but at least she managed to talk about this traumatic experience, to let it out, there exposed, ready to be judged or dismissed. She managed to somehow accept it deep in her heart, without accusing or regretting, but only sharing it, reliving it and finally discarding it to permanent oblivion.