Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2013. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Short Term 12 (2013)



I miss this movie beause I really want to watch ROOM and I need to remind my self how mazing Brie Larson is. Real heroes do not always end up with glory and parades. Heroism is sometimes reflected in small scale actions that no one ever hears about but occur every day in schools, hospitals, or wherever there are people who need compassion. Werner Erhard defines true heroism as "the kind which ends up in the truth, in what works, in what is honest and real being brought out and made available to others." This kind of authenticity is front and center in Destin Cretton's Short Term 12, the story of troubled teens living in a short-term group home who are the recipients of empathy from counselors only a few years older who may have faced similar situations in their life.

Winner of the audience award at the L.A. Film Festival and South by Southwest as well as the narrative feature prize, it is funny and sad with a wide range of emotions in-between. Coming from the director's own experience of working in a similar environment for two years, the film is permeated with an air of authenticity and it is rare that a film has such uniformly natural performances.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

1 000 times goodnight (Tusen ganger god natt) - Review

Rebecca is one of the world's top war photographers. She must weather a major emotional storm when her husband refuses to put up with her dangerous life any longer. He and their young daughters need Rebecca, who, however, loves both her family and her work...
The never failed and never ugly and always talented La Binoche strikes again.   the great war photographer Rebecca (Juliette Binoche), living in Ireland, when she's home, that is. Because her relationship with her family is faltering due to her dangerous work, and many days away from home. She follows suicide bombers in Kabul, and rampage killers in Africa. Her husband is a marine biologist (Nicolai Coaster-Waldau), and he is very tired of her not being there, even when she's home. This is also affecting their two daughters.

Griping drama about a war photographer who is caught between choosing her family or her work. Which we learn is a lot more complicated than we initially thought. The cast did a believable portrayal of the difficulties that people encounter in life between their passion and family. What I liked especially about this film was that the lead was not portrayed as some war hero and her story was not romanticized. The story and characters all felt realistic and convincing since the characters were different shades of gray. Something that is amiss these days within film making. There is always a need to create a struggle between good and evil.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Soekarno : Indonesia Merdeka

This movie is going the official selection from Indonesia for Oscar Best Foreign Language next year. I think I'm kinda disappointed that they chose this movie. No, it's not a bad movie. It's an OK movie. But there's a lot of better movies. Maybe they chose it based on the history. which is good. this movie is about Indonesia's first president, Soekarno. I adore him.

This movie not quite satiate my expectation, not only showing the history of independence fight in overall, but also bring the good and the bad of Soekarno characters, pretty much balancing love story, and (even though I am historian by my grandfather's storytelling) I dare say it's pretty much accurate on the historical side and characters. But none of the characters are explored enough, or has any scene as a focal point, thus makes this movie lack of emotions. Though I gotta admit Ario Bayu and Lukman Sardi are nailed the characters. On another plus side, no doubt, Indonesian movies are about enchanting motion pictures. So, overall it's OK but it's pretty much a tedious movie.

This movie  presents general Indonesian history, and for me Hanung, was more concern in Soekarno's personal life than the conflict about independence. Technically, this movie is good, visual and sound effects are good, and some scenes are so artsy. The actors are good enough to represent their own characters. overall this movie is enough to fulfill public knowledge about Indonesia and the popular issues about Soekarno.

I like the movie, the actings are briliant. And it's not overrated like Habibie and Ainun. It;s great. But is it good enough to be Oscar contender? i don;t think so. But maybe I'm wrong

Sunday, October 5, 2014

What If - Review (2013)



I want to watch some light movie with a lot of romance and comedy. So I chose to watch What if. I love Harry Potter and Daniel Radcliffe So, I was squeeing when I watched this movie lol

Daniel Radcliffe plays the lead role in this film that seeks to find whether men and women can be platonic friends. The woman in question is played by Zoe Kazan. The film is set between Toronto and Dublin - yes Toronto, which usually impersonates various US cities in movies with limited budgets.

Stewing over a recent breakup, Wallace (Radcliffe) works at a textbook company while living in his sister's attic (an improvement over the cupboard under the stairs, at least). He's primed for romance when he encounters Chantry (Kazan), spewing whimsy and animated sketches in her wake. Sparks fly only to be put out when Chantry mentions her boyfriend and asks if they can just be friends.


Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Only Lovers Left Alive review (2013)



My favorites were int his movie. Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowsa, Anton Yelchin. So why not? the movie sounds creepy at first. with those creepy stars it makes it more and more interesting. Only Lovers Left Alive is kind of an anti-vampire movie. It embraces aspects of the vampire genre like how vampires can't go out in sunlight, have super fast reflexes, and live forever. However, it moves away from some of the silly aspects. Jim Jarmusch does a good job of setting up how a vampire could survive in the world. He takes his time and shows us instead of tells us

As a matter of fact, rarely does one find a film with such romantic awareness about the world coming to an end. It is as if the film knew it was the last love film on Earth. The narrative is definitely lacking in certain areas and when you consider Only Lovers Left Alive is a movie about vampires, we expect more than we end up with, in respect to bloodsucker behaviour, but what saves this film more than a little are the brilliant performances by our main two, Adam and Eve, Anton Yelchin's Ian, and the short but destructive appearance from Eve's sister Ava (Mia Wasikowska).

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Begin Again (2013)


Finally, I was watching it last week. I have been waiting for this movie since TIFF last year. Some women don;t like Keira but I like her, a lot to be honest. And Mark Rufallo, he is such a sweet heart who doesn't love him anyway?

This movie is totally a movie for music lovers. I don't call myself as a music lover because I don't listen that much, especially today music. I'm not a big fan of today's pop. And all of the singers and bands are now too pop for my liking. Okay, back to this movie. This movie is directed by John Carney, and I love all of his movies. This movie reminds me a lot of Once, maybe because of the cover and the music story. It's very sweet romantic movie that shows us that love doesn't always involved between two hopeless people in hopeless place. lol

The soundtrack is great, Adam Levine and Ce Loo Green are the bonus. Adam is good as an asshole, still not a fan of him. Keira is great, she is great play as this kind of girl. And Mark is always great in all of his movie. Too bad he is Hulk. lol This movie is totally Mark's movie. I just want to see Keira in lead role again. She is very great. She has been overshadowed by the male co star lately, too bad.