Kaka

A well-directed old-school paranoia that more than its engaging plot and unprecedented drive, uses minimalist sets, a gloomy atmosphere and other Polanski filmmaking devices and proprieties to tell a thematically well-supported story, which might make one smile at how the master has it all figured out and in control, but could have been much more entertaining and brisk.

Another dense filmmaking experience from the master. A film built on three exceptional performances and a thematically strong and rewarding story. Gradually escalating and revealing a shocking truth that is clear from the beginning, but we want to hear it at the end. The ending is not cathartic, is just natural, and the rest is a solid psychological game of who with whom. Too bad that the hints of legal issues and the question of guilt/innocence and the right to punish/not to punish are much less entertaining than the similarly atmospheric, depressing but much more personal and intimate Bitter Moon, which the viewer can relate to much better.

An exceptional thing, no doubt. Spontaneous, explicit, naturalistic, with brilliant performances and superbly executed. It presents things not only through the script and dialogues but also through the camera and music, which is something that cannot be understated. I understand what the film shows, and it does it brilliantly, but it doesn’t add much more to that, and that's hard to stand for 163 minutes. After two hours, the handheld camera and the endless car ride become too much. It needed a thicker plot, not just a documentary depiction of the issue of teen outsiders with troubled values and lives.

An interesting, artistically ambitious attempt. Visually, it’s similarly "black and white" and artfully polished as anything from Nolan or Spectre. But the script is gibberish and buries the personality and confident direction the creators were pursuing. The parkour is fine, and so is 15th century Spain, but everything in the present is rubbish. And in this case, I'm afraid that, unlike Warcraft, the players of this famous game won't be excited about the film adaptation.

There's loads of these brisk, funny, situationally attuned, brilliantly shot comedies with polished casts in precisely fitting jackets, and no less precisely fitting roles. And if there is also an interesting dramatic subtext and some wisdom from life, much better. It should be noted, however, that Crazy Stupid Love entertains just a little bit more than its contemporaries. It's hard to say what it is, maybe the directorial dynamics, maybe the immediacy of the main characters, in any case, it’s great.

Argo 2 – made in Germany (so a bit worse). Too bad about the clumsy script, which throws up one formulaic thing after another, because otherwise this is a pretty decent German scenic drive. Great actors without exception, an electrifying finale, and an interesting, period-accurate, portrayal of 1970s Chile and the camp practices. Emma Watson confirms that she can break out of the role of Harry Potter's uptight friend and is starting to emerge as a top-notch actress with all the prerequisites for success.

A raw Barcelona odyssey, a tribute to the big city, and Bardem's remarkable one man show with cancer. Unfortunately, it doesn't have any "filler" or other connective tissue in between, so a lot of interesting images, handheld camerawork and a few solid scenes are wasted. It lacks drive, it lacks an emotional charge, and it’s too long. Iñarritú wants to play the same music he did in 21 Grams, but he doesn't have a good enough score, or rather, he has a story and characters you can't understand or relate to.

Exactly what you expect if you know the work of Derek Cianfrance, the master of relationship dramas: a touching, poignant and hauntingly minimalist period piece. The social and moral dilemmas set 100 years in the past give the film a certain refinement and grace of yesteryear that is hard to do in modern films and usually needs to mature a bit. It is expectedly heartbreaking in places and scripted very well; it gets under the skin. You understand everyone involved, and yet you cannot say unequivocally what is good and what is not. After Minghella, those classically told, old-school stories have almost run their course, and it's great that Cianfrance is picking up the baton and moving on. With his directorial virtuosity and sense of emotion, we have much to look forward to in the future. Cut 10 or 15 minutes of overloaded shots of the sea and rocks and it could have been almost perfect. And I hope Vikander gets another Oscar for this.

Something is wrong if you have to wait 131 minutes for the first great scene in a film that is 133 minutes long. This film is not made out of love and fondness for Star Wars, it's made for people who will go to see it out of love and fondness for Star Wars, because any billion in profit is good. A woefully ordinary and completely useless film that doesn't fit in with either the old or the new episodes.

Thematically similar to Wild and Into The Wild, i.e. an individual with different views, attitudes and philosophy of life, going against the established practices and standards of modern society. It's a bit of an agitprop for organic life, a bit of a tribute to the hippies and a bit of a backwoods romp. Most of all, though, it's a surprisingly functional family drama about unconventional family practices and a different approach to life that's very raw in some scenes while brilliantly contrasting the typically capitalist mannerisms of the contemporary bourgeoisie, a superbly typecast American middle class, and a family of pragmatic, penniless scrappers living in the woods who are seemingly depraved in every way, but not really. The greatest virtue is that the director manages to put all these typologically selected life practices into one plane and extracts the positives and negatives from both in equal measure. So, in the end, the viewer is served with a plethora of consistent, very interesting opinions and scenes that are entertaining in their inner charge, thought-provoking message, and are healthily spiced with great acting performances. Thankfully it clearly doesn't side with nature, whereas the older brothers have it in their name and it's clear what it looks like afterwards. Mortensen and co are nuts, but they have brains, they know why they're doing it and you root for them.