Posted on 2/28/2010 7:00 PM By Ronen Divon
In one word: intense. But this does not even start to describe this jewel of a film. Imagine a coming of age tale, taking place in jail, amidst violence and harsh struggle to survive. It’s one of these rare films that combine raw material, that is anything but randomly placed on the screen. Malik, the film protagonist, is a character unexplained. All we see is a young person, barely a man, with a hinted history of petty crime, sent to jail. What’s interesting is that we don’t need to develop sympathy for Malik. The filmmaker does not try to make him appealing nor require our empathy. Malik serves, at least in my mind, a very different purpose: he is a looking glass through which we, the audience, get exposed to a world most of us never experienced before and, hopefully, never will, or are we? Though the brutal world in which the film takes place is foreign to most of us, it includes all the elements one will find everyday in our own surroundings. Corrupt administration, power-driven men of influence who will stop at nothing to get what they want, money, sex, religion, ethnic hatred, loyalty and betrayal. Be it Corporate America or a harsh French prison, the rules are frightenedly the same. Malik survives and even thrives because of one single quality he poses: adaptation. He is a fast learner, quick to adjust, and even faster to seize opportunities and turn them into his advantage. Ultimately he may represent the lowest level humans may reach, but as far as natural selection goes, he and his kind will roam the Earth. Is that the film’s prophecy?
Posted on 2/21/2010 7:00 PM By Ronen Divon
An offbeat thriller with a dark edge. Imagine Coen Brothers in Danish… The film could have used a little more of the Coen’s quirky sense of humor but it shines in creating an atmosphere of a forgotten rural town, where on the surface nothing seems to happen but when digging deeper, well… everyone knows everyone else’s secrets, some of which end floating up the local bog. Strangers are not welcomed but once you win the locals’ heart you can’t leave either…
Posted on 2/13/2010 7:00 PM By Ronen Divon
With 93% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, I went to this film with elevated expectations. That was a mistake. Though Jeff Bridges is, at parts, captivating, consider this film an inferior country-music version of the 2008 film ‘The Wrestler’, starring Mickey Rourke. Bridges feels a little too comfortable in the part, while the plot, which moves at an ever-slow pace, is all too familiar. Some critics held Bridges performance as a movie-savor – I wish I could agree; he is good at time but not enough to hold an interest for two long hours…
Posted on 1/30/2010 7:00 PM By Ronen Divon
Finally had a chance to watch this movie and I was surprised by the level of realism in which it portrayed war, something I didn’t expect from a movie made back in 1930. Watching it today, in parts, it will be dated in terms of acting and maybe a little too preachy. But it still deserves the highest grade for the way it portrays the horrors of war while still telling a story. I now realize where some notable later war films such as Saving Private Ryan and Seven Days in May, took their inspiration from.
Posted on 1/30/2010 7:00 PM By Ronen Divon
There are several very funny moments in It’s Complicated, but what really makes this movie bearable is the ever-shining Meryl Streep, who successfully brings credibility even to the most pathetic of characters… Yet, a Nancy Meyers fan I am not. I find her films to be schmaltzy, corny and expected. Yes, there are worse films than hers out there – hers at least have a decent line of plot, typically good casting, and enough occasional comic situations to deem it a three star versus a two star rating on my scale. But much like the fake tears her cast sheds at exactly the right moment – a cast partially made of all perfect children, in a perfect little world - made of Better Homes and Gardens looking houses, where money is never an issue nor any of the other trivial issues of existence that may bother us commoners, much like those tears, this movie too will dry and be forgotten shortly after you’ve left the theater. But for most movie goers choosing to go see this film, that’s okay. It provides short-lived entertainment. By the way, did I mention already how wonderful Meryl Streep is?.....
Posted on 1/24/2010 7:00 PM By Ronen Divon
I loved this film as a child, and brought it home on DVD to share with my children, who enjoyed it too. Goes to prove that a good film does not degrade in time, even if it does not feature blue-skinned 3-D creatures from a different world… Story counts, and very few can imagine it as Hand Christian Andersen did, and as the wonderful Danny Kaye brought it to life, with the help of plenty other good actors, and the direction of Charles Vidor. As a child I took the film to be the real story of Andersen, even though it is stated at the opening titles it’s not a biography but a fairytale about his life. Now, as an adult, I read a bit about Andersen and I am afraid I prefer the tale over the truth… Still, we are forever in debt for this creative mind and for me, no one can represent Andersen better than Danny Kaye.