Chef (2014)

Directed by: Jon Favreau
Country: USA

Movie Review: American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actor, Jon Favreau, leaves the adventurous sci-fi genre behind (“Zathura: a Space Adventure”, a couple of “Iron Man”, and “Cowboys & Aliens”) to bring us an assertive feel-good comedy with lots of food, social media, and good disposition. When preparing to receive the visit of a successful food critic, prestigious chef Carl Casper tries to innovate in the L.A. restaurant he works for ten years by changing the whole menu. However, his long- time boss disagrees and persuades him to cook the same old menu. The reviews ended up being a flop and Carl challenges the critic for the second time via Twitter (becoming an online celebrity for the worst reasons), but again his boss gets in his way, making Carl quit without regrets. Frustrated and out of job, Carl moves to Miami, returning to the old times when he drove a food truck throughout the streets. He will also get the opportunity to better know his only son and reconnect with his ex-wife. Despite some stereotypes and a bit of sentimentality regarding the family matters, “Chef” puts some charm and soul, not only in the yummy dishes that presents but also in the character of a cook who loves what he does, never giving up and finally making peace with life in general. It’s the sort of predictable film that, nevertheless becomes much more engaging and genuine than other comedies that rely on gross gags and idiotic situations. To simplify: it's imperfect but articulated.

Still Life (2013)

Directed by: Uberto Pasolini
Country: UK / Italy

Movie Review: “Still Life” works as a poignant drama and black comedy, consisting in the sophomore feature film from Italian-born, British-based director, writer, producer, and former investment banker, Uberto Pasolini. The story focuses on John May, magnificently performed by Eddie Marsan, a council caseworker who tries to find the absent relatives of recently deceased lonely people, trying to persuade them to attend the funeral. Oftentimes, John is the unique presence in those funerals and that certainly makes him feel terrible and frustrated. Although very tidy, obsessive, and meticulous in his work, John receives order to leave the premises for good due to department reorganization, after 22 years in service. But not without finishing his last case concerning Billy Stoke, an isolated man with a violent past, who lost contact with his daughter that no one knew about. To satisfy his own curiosity, John starts gathering the maximum info by meeting Stoke’s relatives and acquaintances in person. Marsan was simply brilliant; his presence and expressions (like when he was absorbed in old photo albums) stick to our heads for a long time after the film is over. After all, the morbid yet good-hearted John himself, is also looking for a meaning in his solitary life. “Still Life” is a grey, gloomy, and fatalist film in every sense, but nonetheless rewards us deeply in the end. With four distinguished prizes at Venice, Pasolini, with a classy direction, seems condemned to a big career.

Neighbors (2014)

Directed by: Nicholas Stoller
Country: USA

Movie Review: Written by Andrew J.Cohen and Brendan O’Brien, “Neighbors” is another unsubstantial comedy that relies in isolated situations, most of them based on sex or parties full of drugs and alcohol, to try to make us laugh. The film counts with the usual suspects: Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”, “Get Him to the Geek”) as director, and Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as protagonists. For Mac and Kelly Radner, life isn’t what it used to be, after their baby daughter was born. They’re home most of the time, conditioned on their actions, and even the sex is compromised. An incredible appetite for being young again returns when their new neighbors, with ages around 20, arrive next door to open a fraternity house. In the next day of the opening party, which they gladly participated, they decided to call the cops since the noise was extremely loud and the baby couldn’t sleep. The quarrel takes bigger proportions and the little vengeances from both sides will be terrible. A stupid and artless effort is put in each scene to pull out the so much desired laughs, but without practical results since the misses are in much greater number than the hits. Situations like having sex in front of a baby or milking Rose Byrne’s tits are examples of the silliness that you can expect. Without any doubt, “Neighbors” will be another success near younger audiences or comedy aficionados, yet sadly I couldn’t find many motives to recommend it.

Transcendence (2013)

Directed by: Wally Pfister
Country: USA / UK / China

Movie Review: “Transcendence” wins the prize for the most despicable sci-fi movie of the year, since I didn’t remember the last time I was so bored in a theater. Cinematographer and first-time director, Wally Pfister, should take some more lessons from the notable filmmaker Christopher Nolan, who appears here as executive producer, because his directorial debut seems more convoluted and artificial than any type of super technological intelligence you can imagine. The story follows Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp), a reputed scientist whose innovative discoveries in the field of artificial intelligence make him a target for an extremist anti-technological organization. Caster is shot dead, but his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall), with the precious help of their best friend Max Watters (Paul Bettany), will continue to maintain Caster’s dream alive, making his consciousness inhabit a quantum computer and connecting it to the Internet. Executed on autopilot, the film is visually uninteresting and deficiently structured, being a catastrophe as a thriller. Jack Paglen’s worthless script made every performance go down in the same wave of ineffectiveness (and Depp and Hall even have my admiration!), in a film that was condemned to failure since the first moment it started to be filmed. The incredibly bad “Transcendence” is one of those films that keeps you eternally waiting for something creative to happen. Parched in emotions and opaque in conception, it’s the perfect example of what a sci-fi thriller should not be.

Winds (2013)

Directed by: Selim Evci
Country: Turkey

Movie Review: Set in Imbros, currently known as Gokçeada Island, “Winds” makes a nostalgic portrait of a loved one’s loss and the sad reality of an island abandoned by the exodus. Murat is a photographer and sound recordist who left Istanbul to capture the sounds of a Greek village in the cited island, the largest of Turkey. There, he will become friends with a solitary elderly woman, Madam Styliani, who discloses her life story and gives him a lesson in history that Murat will keep as a treasure in his old cassettes. Two years later, Murat returns to the island finding her door completely closed. Madam Styliani had already died, but her granddaughter, Eleni, the main subject of her proud narration, had arrived in the island from France. Murat and Eleni embark in a contemplative discovery of places and objects, while listen to the recordings. The concept of recording sounds is not entirely new - the Irish “Silence”, directed by Pat Collins, reveals to be a much more ambitious and ambiguous depiction than “Winds”, which adopts a direct and ultimately predictable development. The shots of the pair riding a motorcycle throughout the deserted roads of the island were pretty similar to Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s 2006 “Climates”, while in the final moments both a glimpse of possible romance and communication with the dead, didn’t bring anything remarkable. Perhaps too detailed and quiescent, “Winds” seemed overextended and failed to engage as a whole.

The Double (2013)

Directed by: Richard Ayoade
Country: UK

Movie Review: After become noticeable in 2010 with “Submarine”, helmer Richard Ayoade directs  “The Double”, an offbeat dramedy with surreal traces based on Dostoyevsky’s novella of the same name, and starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska. Simon James works in the same company for seven years, being responsible for several improvements in the field of regression analysis, a fact completely ignored by his uncaring boss. The shy, undecided, and often absent in mind, Simon, dreams with his co-worker and neighbor Hannah, following her with his eyes everywhere she goes – an obsession that takes voyeuristic proportions. Certain day, he finds out that a man, who physically looks exactly like him, is working in the company and occupies a relevant position. Becoming pals, the two duplicates will eventually clash when it comes to Hannah, the object of their fervent dispute. The eerie occurrences, oppressive dark settings, and weird characters present at the work premises are extensible to Simon’s home where his estranged mother whispers with a mysterious palm reader, saying her son is a strange person. Our senses are stimulated thanks to Eric Wilson’s compelling cinematography and Ayoade’s ‘off-the-hook’ direction, however the film doesn’t get close to the book that served as inspirational source. “The Double” belongs to those uncanny nightmares where everything can happen, ending ironically with Simon saying ‘I’d like to think I’m pretty unique’.

Devil's Knot (2013)

Directed by: Atom Egoyan
Country: USA

Movie Review: Far are the times when Canadian filmmaker of Armenian origin, Atom Egoyan, surprised us with his raw, honest cinema. Films like “Family Viewing”, “Speaking Parts”, “The Adjuster”, “Calendar”, “Sweet Hereafter”, and “Exotica” will be forever in my mind as great films, however this “Devil’s Knot”, based on the true events happened in 1993 in West Memphis, Arkansas, where three young boys were severely mutilated and killed, is a weak effort. The case known as West Memphis Three became famous when three boys were wrongly convicted, remaining in prison for more than 18 years. Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon starred, the former as an obsessed defense lawyer decided to find the truth, and the latter as the unconvincing mother of one of the 8-year-old victims, Stevie Branch. This disappointing drama comes in a very bad time and devoid of the best arguments and mood to triumph, since this particular case received huge attention by the press and media, having at least four amazing documentaries released about the subject matter. The screenplay, written by Paul Harris Boardman and Scott Derrickson based on Mara Leveritt’s book, uses several manipulations to force the viewers to involve themselves emotionally. The result is pretty much artificial and narratively distorted, as everything is presented in a hasty, confused, and imprecise manner. I doubt this film works, even for those who are not familiar with the horrifying story depicted. For a much more genuine insight about the case, I urge you to watch Amy Berg’s “West of Memphis”, and “Paradise Lost” trilogy.

The Physician (2013)

Directed by: Philipp Stolzl
Country: Germany

Movie Review: Set in 11th Century, “The Physician”, is a German film in English-language based on Noah Gordon’s novel with the same name. However, the adaptation made by Jan Berger didn’t make justice to the book, a hit in Europe, leaving this epic adventure a few miles away from the original story. It starts in England, where the smart young orphan Rob Cole becomes apprentice of an uproarious barber surgeon who applies primitive and painful methods for treatment. When the latter almost gets blind due to cataracts, he agrees to be operated by Jews who brought sophisticated techniques from Isfahan. With an enormous will for learning more, Cole will disguise himself of Jew (since no Catholics are allowed) and travel to Persia to study with the great Ibn Sina, the biggest reference in medicine. Guided by his God and a sixth sense, nothing hampers Cole towards his triumphant discovers. The scenarios and settings reflect well the conditions lived in each place – England was depicted with fog, somber, and misery, while in Persia we can see sunlight, abundance and knowledge. Indeed, the plot showed not to be in the same level as some of its technical aspects such as production and costume design. Helmer Philipp Stolzl created an atmosphere taken from “Prince of Persia”, “Alladin” and “Sinbad”, but the course of the story becomes uneven and the film struggles in its middle part to maintain the vivacity of the first half-hour. Slightly entertaining but highly clichéd, “The Physician” might please inattentive fans of adventure genre, but wasn’t solid enough to be recommended without considerable reservations.

Tom at the Farm (2013)

Directed by: Xavier Dolan
Country: Canada / France

Movie Review: Ambitious Quebecois filmmaker Xavier Dolan, directly associated with queer cinema (“I Killed my Mother”, “Heartbeats”, “Laurence Anyways”), has in “Tom at the Farm” his first exercise on thriller with mixed results. It’s undeniable that Dolan is a very talented man, considering that he also stars as the main character (not a novelty) and was responsible for the adaptation of Michel Marc Bouchard’s novel, production and editing. The issue is that the good and the bad alternate constantly. While some scenes were capable to surprise or even intrigue me, other seemed completely forced and unbalanced. Coming from Montreal, Tom arrives at a farm in the countryside to attend to the funeral of his lover, Guillaume. For his surprise, Gullaume’s mother, Agathe, wasn’t aware of his son’s sexual orientation, while his frustrated brother, Francis, tries everything to show who’s the boss around, making Tom extremely uncomfortable. Entering in a dangerous game that was much defiant and abusive, Francis, shows a sort of perversion difficult to decipher, while Tom acts like a scared sensible child. To complicate more the situation, Sarah, the woman who the family always thought to be Guillaume’s girlfriend, arrives at the farm. With a keen photography and not rare big close-ups to penetrate in the characters’ innermost souls, “Tom at the Farm” is a tragicomic thriller that still may have something to be enjoyed, despite the flaws and lack of a real climax.

Ida (2013)

Directed by: Pawel Pawlikowski
Country: Poland / Denmark

Movie Review: After his first four fictional feature films have been made in UK, Polish born filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski returns to his country of birth to shoot “Ida”, a simple, sad, and mesmerizing drama set in the 60’s about a young nun of Jewish origin who tries to find out what happened to her missing family. Anna was raised in an orphanage since childhood and is about to take her vows. In spite of the letters sent along the years to her aunt Wanda Gruz, her only living relative, she never got any reply back. Impelled by her prioress she leaves the convent to meet Wanda, a decadent former state prosecutor for the Poland’s Stalinist regime, who discloses that Anna’s real name is Ida Lebenstein, and her parents have no graves, since their bodies lie buried in the middle of some woods or lake. Together, they will look for the truth about Ida’s parents, an atrocious reality that will also disclose Wanda’s own secret. I was glad to see Pawlikowski returning to the right track and compelling stories after the misstep “The Woman in the Fifth”, since Ida’s story is not just about the past of her family but also the final disappointment with the exterior world. Deep silences and a highly aesthetical black-and-white cinematography take us to the European cinema of other times – from Bresson to Bergman (presence of religion), adorned with a score that had its peak with a live version of Coltrane’s “Naima”, and distinct performances. With great sensibility, Pawlikowski presents us one of the best works of his career, a modern treasure in tones of classic.

Whitewash (2013)

Directed by: Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais
Country: Canada

Movie Review: Canadian actor Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais has in “Whitewash” his directorial debut, a thriller that didn’t thrill me at all. Set in the extremely cold Quebec, the story follows Bruce (Thomas Haden Church), a snowplow operator with a problematic past who sees himself overwhelmed by his fellow Paul (Marc Labrèche), an insidious gambler. Accidentally, Bruce kills Paul in the middle of a snowstorm, burying the body and hiding himself from the authorities as his consciousness nags him continuously. Little by little and through flashbacks, we become aware of the men’s intractable relationship, but I only started slightly to involve myself in the story after the first hour, just to see its ending 30 minutes later. Haden Church’s performance was much more convincing than Labrèche, in a film that seemed set in layers, almost without a coherent narrative continuity, which affected strongly the final result. Despite of Bruce’s undesired encounters, tortured thoughts, and monologues where he expresses his fear by imagining a police interrogation, the film is devoid of real stimulation and keeps going round in circles, without any unsettling moment capable of grabbing my attention. I would say that Hoss-Desmarais risked too much in an almost-solo, non-charismatic character, and the outcome is neither minimalist nor conventional. The power of the mind over the body can be very benumbing. Only in this particular case, I also felt numb, and it wasn’t from the Canadian cold.

The Butterfly's Dream (2013)

Directed by: Yilmaz Erdogan
Country: Turkey

Movie Review: Good intentions aside – the film pays a tribute to forgotten poets from the past and gives a good look on beautiful friendship - “The Butterfly’s Dream” wasn’t so inspired in its conception, despite the fantastic cinematography of Gokhan Tiryaki (known for his work with the acclaimed director Nuri Bilge Ceylan) and solid performances in general. Film director, actor and also poet, Yilmaz Erdogan, wrote, starred and directed this mournful drama with Hollywood film stereotypes in mind, and that was the main issue, asphyxiating the aspirations of a decent plot, which presented sufficient arguments to be a triumph – impoverished but spirited poets, Muzaffer and Rustu, enjoying life, friendship and love, searching for recognition, and fighting against tuberculosis in 1940’s Turkey. Both poets, who had the poet Behçet Necatigil (performed by Erdogan) as friend and mentor, will end up finding the love of their lives, until their short happiness be interrupted by sickness and a couple of painful goodbyes. An adventurous episode is presented when Muzaffer and his beloved Suzan disguised themselves to descend into the grueling world of coal miners. The narrative tones used were familiarly common, whereas the score, intrusive most of the times, has a too dramatic effect, taking us to the melodrama. “The Butterfly’s Dream” is watchable as a story, yet could have been so much better movie if Erdogan had gathered the right elements to compose the ideal atmosphere.

Attila Marcel (2013)

Directed by: Sylvain Chomet
Country: France

Movie Review: Acclaimed French director, Sylvain Chomet, known for his successful animated achievements, “The Triplets of Belleville” and “The Illusionist”, the latter adapted from an original screenplay by Jacques Tati, returns with actors in flesh and bone for his first live-action feature, combining comedy, drama and musical in a satisfactory way. The story follows 33-year-old Paul (Guillaume Gouix), a gifted pianist who stopped talking at the age of two, after witnessing his parents’ death. Raised and spoiled by two incredible aunts, Annie (Bernardette Lafont) and Anna (Hélene Vincent), who suspect he’s doing drugs, Paul will be helped in secrecy by a terminally ill neighbor and activist, Mme. Proust (Anne Le Ny). To complete his life changing, he will find the future mother of his child, and his attitude will improve after becoming the winner of an important piano competition he’s been pursuing for years. “Attila Marcel” mixes the universes of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Jacques Demy, with its colorful visuals, dreamy ambiances, introverted romance, and introducing joyful jazz sequences into the classic tunes from the past. Its sweetness and extravagancy, brings some funny moments, most of them in the second half, exactly when the tough memories become clearer in Paul’s consciousness. This compensates the not so auspicious starting, which seemed to take the film to boring places. Gouix was great in its role, even saying just one word throughout the entire movie, while Chomet gives a step forward from his comfort zone.

Blue Ruin (2013)

Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier
Country: USA

Movie Review: “Blue Ruin” is an absorbing American indie thriller, directed by Jeremy Saulnier (also screenwriter and cinematographer), which depicts a sequence of unstoppable revenges involving two families. Homeless Dwight (Macon Blair) roams the streets with his long hair and beard, taking every opportunity to break into some house to have a bath. All he possesses is an old car and the clothes he’s wearing. When informed by the police that Wade Cleland is about to be released from prison, Dwight’s eyes became wide open and his hands started shaking with rage. Supposedly, Wade murdered Dwight’s parents and now will have to suffer the consequences. Highly determined but inexperienced in the act of killing, Dwight fulfills his purpose but leaves a track behind – he forgot his car keys in the local of the crime. In the next step, the hunter becomes hunted by Wade’s siblings, doing everything he can to protect himself and his sister, and asking for the help of an old friend who is an expert in guns. Some scenes contain explicit violence but the film doesn’t rely on these particular moments to impress, since the story is involving and the motives that led to this situation put us in a state of curiosity and anxiety, without ever losing grip on visuals or atmosphere. Blair’s performance had something that captivated me, in one hand he shows to be a merciless punisher, but on the other, he tries to find reasons not to continue killing. “Blue Ruin” can figure among other recent, competent thrillers, such as “Blue Caprice” or “Joe”.

Locke (2013)

Directed by: Steven Knight
Country: UK / USA

Movie Review: Static and minimalist on visuals, and expeditious in words, “Locke” is a one-man drama, totally set in the streets of England inside of a car. While travelling from Birmingham to London, successful construction foreman Ivan Locke (Tom Hardy) engages in a sequence of serious phone calls. Assuming a compromising mistake in the recent past, he just made the most courageous decision in life, putting at stake his family, his career, and his own mental state. Evincing an admirable cold-blood within a stressful situation, he tries to control himself and simultaneously calm down his wife, his partner who will have to prepare everything alone for the next fundamental day at work, his demanded boss, and the future mother of his new child who is about to be born. Director/screenwriter Steven Knight (“Redemption”) presents us an original and bold concept in his directorial sophomore feature film, unexpectedly creating tension through the conversations we witness. Certainly this won’t be a film for those who are searching for thrilling action moments or mysterious plots, since “Locke” lives much from Tom Hardy’s memorable performance and from what the viewers feel by putting themselves in his place. In the scarce moments in which he doesn’t talk to anyone, he imagines conversations with his deceased father, a fact that shows his despair and loneliness. The low budgeted “Locke” takes us purposely to commonplaces in terms of visuals, but even contrived, captivated my attention with its simple story of a man’s downfall.

Mikra Anglia (2013)

Directed by: Pantelis Voulgaris
Country: Greece

Movie Review: “Mikra Anglia” is a grievous drama directed by veteran Greek filmmaker Pantelis Voulgaris, based on Ioanna Karystiani’s novel of the same name. The film is set on the Greek island of Andros in 1930, where many women mourn for their beloved men, dead or lost at sea. Orsa is madly in love with Spyros, a brave seaman who promises to marry her after his return from the next trip, which will make him captain, a fundamental condition for the marriage to happen. Spyro’s retired uncle, Emilius, is the one to talk to Orsa’s mother, Mina, to ask for her permission but the answer was a short 'no', since his family is far from the wealth she wants for their daughters. Tormented and abandoned, Mina tries to protect her daughter from having a fate like hers, since her husband, captain Savvas, lives most of the time with his other wife and kid in Argentina. When Mina forces Orsa to hastily marry captain Nikos, Spyros, now a respected captain too, decides to have his revenge asking for the hand of Orsa’s younger sister, Moscha. The situation seems unbearable when the entire family starts living under the same roof. The film takes its time to makes us absorb completely the torments lived by each of the characters – repressed love, absence, guilt, infidelity, fear of losing the loved ones – they’re all silent sufferers who are trying to find some solace in their lives. Will it be possible for the two sisters count with each other? Poetic in words, precise in its images, and sad as a Greek tragedy, “Mikra Anglia” depicts a plausible and bitter reality in tones of homage for all those anguished women.

In Your Eyes (2014)

Directed by: Brin Hill
Country: USA

Movie Review: Have you ever imagined having a long distance conversation just with the power of your mind? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll find in “In Your Eyes”, a telepathic romance written by Joss Whedon (“The Avengers”, “Much Ado About Nothing”) who also appears as executive producer, and directed by Brin Hill – his sophomore feature. The solitary Dylan (Michael Stahl-David) is an ex-con who’s trying to give some meaning to his boring life in New Mexico. Rebecca (Zoe Kazan) in turn is the insecure wife of a reputed doctor who puts business in front of everything. These two characters will learn they can communicate telepathically, feel what the other feels, and even see what’s going on, in the other side of the country. Like lunatics, they keep talking into the air, sharing their problems and concerns, and (guess what?) occasionally slapping themselves in the face as a punishment when the other deserves a lesson. Whedon’s concept defies the so trendy online relationships, but “In Your Eyes” touches the melodrama in several occasions and becomes pretty much unpersuasive. With a relaxed country music playing, some situations transpired humor, which was the most positive aspect of the film, while the plot, more dull than inventive, might warm your heart and numb your mind. Actress Zoe Kazan, however, confirmed to have talent and sensibility for roles of this kind, capturing my attention since her participation in the very much auspicious comedy “Ruby Sparks”, which she wrote.

Labor Day (2013)

Directed by: Jason Reitman
Country: USA

Movie Review: “Labor Day” was too miserable to make me believe it came out from the hands of Jason Reitman, who holds in his career such respectable films, as are the cases of “Thank You for Smoking”, “Juno”, “Up in the Air”, and “Young Adult”. The film was based on the novel of the same name by Joyce Maynard who, for the second time, sees her literary work adapted for the screen, after Gus Van Sant’s “To Die For” in 1995. Adele Wheeler (Kate Winslet) is a depressive mother who lives alone with her adolescent son Henry (Gattlin Griffith). This young boy tries everything to please her and get her out of an unnatural apathy. One day, while shopping, they are approached by a wounded stranger named Frank (Josh Brolin), who first asks for a ride but immediately invites himself into their house. The man is a fugitive, formerly convicted to 18 years in prison for murder. The story starts to take ridiculous proportions since an early stage, when Frank ties Adele through slow and sensual movements while a tense music floats in the air. After the initial suspicion, acceptance arrives and the kind tones reveal they had become a family. Frank even shows he’s a skillful man in the kitchen for Adele’s satisfaction, while Henry struggles with the common problems of adolescence. Providing that the romance was too cheesy and the action/thriller too insufficient, what attracted me more in “Labor Day” was the amazing peach pie baked by the family! However, and since everyone deserves another chance, I’ll keep waiting for that stroke of genius that Reitman once accustomed us.

The Missing Picture (2013)

Directed by: Rithy Panh
Country: Cambodia / France

Movie Review: Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh exposes once again the atrocities and terrifying atmosphere imposed by the authoritarian communist regime Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, between 1975 and 1979 in Cambodia. Looking in vain for a missing photograph taken in that time by Khmer Rouge, evincing mass murder, Panh resolves to narrate his own story, at the same time that recreates in an artsy way – through scenarios composed by clay dolls and the use of new and old footage - the impure and corrupt environment of Phnom Penh, where poor common people, capitalists, and intellectuals were eradicated and destroyed. The film starts with a big close-up of Panh’s hands carving clay to shape a little figure that symbolizes his father, a dignified man who starved to death as protest against the inhuman conditions lived in those killing fields. The scene then shifts to footage where we can see children submitted to forced labor, sick people who lost their dignitiy, and deep misery in every sense. The creative scenarios mingled with harrowing images of a sad reality, left me with an unexplainable sensation – almost like hypnotized by the narrator’s melancholic voice, absorbed by Panh’s beautiful creativity, and furious with what these innocent people had to suffer. Not so blunt or striking as the ‘Indonesian’ “The Act of Killing”, “The Missing Picture” shows personal sensibility and grief. Rithy Panh showed to be confident behind the camera and his panning shots prove what he wanted to: ‘a picture can be stolen but a thought cannot’.

The Immigrant (2013)

Directed by: James Gray
Country: USA

Movie Review: American film director and screenwriter, James Gray, reunites Joaquin Phoenix (for the fourth time – “The Yards”, “We Own the Night”, “Two Lovers”), Marion Cotillard and Jermey Renner in “The Immigrant”, a drama set in the 20’s. Ewa (Cotillard) and her sister Magda got into a ship and came to America from Poland, looking for a better life and with their chests full of hope and dreams. When they arrive to Ellis Island, doctors find out that Magda suffers from a lung disease and the two sisters are separated. While Magda is taken away to receive treatment, Ewa was going to be deported if it wasn’t for Bruno (Phoenix), a well-connected man who offered his help, but for a price. He forces her into prostitution and gradually gets impressed with her good nature allied to a determined power of negotiation – ‘I like money but I don’t like you’, she says. The story, evolving slowly and without putting all the energy possible in the scenes, gained some relevance when Bruno’s magician cousin, Amil (Renner), decides to openly demonstrate his true love for Ewa, entering in a competitive dispute with his cousin. Visually rich, using mostly yellowish tones for indoors and a fainted sepia for outdoors, “The Immigrant” was emotionally demotivating, failing to convey passion in its most crucial moments. Cotillard’s performance as sweet and submissive catholic woman who needs to make money to survive, messed a bit with my nerves, while Phoenix wasn’t so brilliant here as in his two last appearances ("The Master", "Her"). Production design and cinematography were outstanding.