I Am Divine (2013)

Directed by: Jeffrey Schwarz
Country: USA

Movie Review: “I Am Divine” is a documentary about American actor, singer and drag queen, Harris Glenn Milstead, known as Divine in the world of showbiz. Directed by Jeffrey Schwarz, filmmaker and president of LA-based entertainment production company Automat Pictures (with more than 100 major releases since 2000, the year it was founded), the film obviously counts with the participation of trash-film director John Waters, whose long-time collaboration with Divine since the final 60’s until the 80’s, brought them some reputation. Without surprise, films like “Female Trouble” and “Pink Flamingos” are referenced, with particular attention to that famous scene where Divine agreed in eating a dog’s turd when Waters asked him to. Mouthy, polemic and grotesquely exuberant, Divine, is addressed here by his mother, Frances Milstead, his High School girlfriend, several friends from the artistic world, other drag queens, members of the psychedelic theater troupe ‘The Cockettes’, among others. “I Am Divine” was entertaining without being outstanding, featuring a person who could never pass as ‘normal’. It never grabbed me completely, and apart from giving the idea of what the wild parties of those times were (LSD was shared by poor, rich, gay or straight people), or how Divine met other celebrities (Elton John and Andy Warhol were just some examples), I got the sensation that its conception was too commercial and much based on what he liked or not liked, what he did or not did, without really going under his skin.

Human Capital (2013)

Directed by: Paolo Virzi
Country: Italy / France

Movie Review: Solid cinematic adaptation of Stephen Amidon’s American novel of the same name, “Human Capital” was directed by Paolo Virzi (“The First Beautiful Thing”, “Every Blessed Day”), considered an effective storyteller for the screen. The film is a poignant look into a rotten society, which is capable of anything to maintain their comfort in life and avoid to be swallowed by a rampant economic recession. The contrasts between middle and high classes are well delimited, as two families cross paths to face greediness, bankruptcy, infidelity, and even deal with a death. Dino Ossola, a middle class real estate investor is determined to get ahead in life. Taking advantage of the relationship of his daughter Serena with the spoiled son of Giovanni Bernaschi, one of the wealthiest hedge fund managers of Italy, he embarks in a risky business and without moment’s notice sees his financial life completely upside down. Intriguingly, the death of a cyclist in a crash with a car drove by the discredited Luca, Serena’s true love, will serve as salvation for some and misfortune for others. The film is divided into four chapters, where the first three report on the inconvenient greedy Dino, the insecure and unfaithful Carla (Giovanni’s wife), and the passionate Serena, in a determined period of time, while the last one, entitled ‘human capital’, represents the solution adopted to solve the problem. The compelling narrative structure and flawless direction were enhanced by the splendid performances, with particular mention to Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, best actress at Tribeca Film Festival.

Non-Stop (2014)

Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Country: USA / UK / France

Movie Review: After a starting career on horror with “House of Wax” and “Orphan”, Catalan filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra teams up once again in the action-thriller genre with Liam Neeson. “Non-Stop” follows “Unknown” from three years ago, using the same type of sensationalist approach to tell the story of alcoholic US Marshal, Bill Marks, the only man capable to control a threatened plane in route from New York to London. Receiving text messages from an unknown terrorist passenger demanding the transfer of $150 million into a bank account, Marks will have to play tough in a scenario where everyone is suspect. With deaths occurring at every 20 minutes and a bomb onboard, our hero will get precious collaboration from some passengers on several critical moments, not without being turned into a villain due to his aggressive methods and the news considering him as the possible hijacker. Serra knows how to put tension in the scenes, especially in the claustrophobic spaces of a plane where physical confronts succeed. However, the plot is undermined by too many improbable details, involving technology and sly strategies to take the plan forward. The final moments can be panicking for those who are not comfortable flying, but the sensation felt after watching this dishonest thriller is that everything is far-fetched and even occasionally cheesy. Neeson did a competent job, while Julianne Moore and the rest of the company had discreet appearances.

Honour (2014)

Directed by: Shan Khan
Country: UK

Movie Review: “Honour”, Shan Khan’s directorial debut on feature film, pointedly conveys a strong message, which doesn’t indicate that the means of expression chosen to do it have been the most appropriate. After the opening statement: ‘life is nothing without honor’, our attention is captured by a British couple provoking two Muslim women on a train. After a while we’re presented with a hideous crime – a brother (who also happens to be a well-connected cop) killing his sister, Mona, with the help and approval of his mother. The London-based Pakistani family was perpetrating what they call an honor killing, since Mona was planning to run away with a Punjabi man who was pledged to marry with another woman since childhood. Going back in time, the story leads us to the moment where the family hires a solitary bounty hunter to track her down, without ever dream that a dangerous empathy between hunter and prey could be possible. After the first hour, the fantastic mood was turned upside down when Mona, presumably dead inside a box, decides to rise up and run away once again. From then on, the film falls on cliché and predictability. The thrilling elements needed are there, along with an effective direction, but the plot hampered the chances of “Honour” become more valuable. The vile collective madness of a family boosted by its strict tradition is slightly confronted with the difficulties of living within a total different culture. A good idea needing maturation to better captivate us. Good performance by the talented Paddy Considine, though.

Chinese Puzzle (2013)

Directed by: Cedric Klapisch
Country: France / USA / Belgium

Movie Review: The adventures of Xavier Rousseau are best than ever in the bilingual “Chinese Puzzle”, this time with New York as background, after the two previous European stories, “L’auberge Espagnole” and “Russian Dolls”. The film, directed by a more mature Cedric Klapisch, stars Romain Duris as Xavier, a French writer in his 40’s, struggling to finish his novel in New York City, where he moved to be near his children. Xavier explains that life for most of the people resumes to move from point A to point B. But not for him who always has a problem with point B. In truth, Xavier life is a big confusion – he is in bad terms with the mother of his children; agrees to give a son to a lesbian friend who also moved to NY; is having a case with Martine - a French friend who speaks Chinese fluently and keeps visiting; and prepared a fake marriage with an American-Chinese woman in order to live legally in the US. Beyond that, he’s freaking out to find an apartment (all of them with crazy rents and tiny spaces) and a job that pays under the table, while dealing with the bureaucratic American lawyers and immigration services. Capturing so well the urban life of Manhattan and Brooklyn, this modern romantic drama puts us in face of the complex reality of human relationships, only interrupted by the imaginary visits from philosophers Schopenhauer and Hegel. Eventful, agitated and graciously funny, the American/French “Chinese Puzzle” is much recommended.

Tokarev (2014)

Directed by: Paco Cabezas
Country: USA / France

Movie Review: After a great return with David Gordon Green’s “Joe”, Nicolas Cage falls in another minor exercise on the action genre, this time by the hand of Spanish filmmaker Paco Cabezas. The daughter of Paul Maguire (Cage), a retired former criminal, is kidnapped after his house has been broken into. A few days later her body is found dead, and everything points to the Russian mafia, in what they suspect to be a revenge for a dirty job made in the past. Maguire, thirsty to make justice, will reunite two of his trustful gangster pals, declaring open war to the Russians and triggering a spiral of violence. Writers Jim Agnew and Sean Keller worked together again after Dario Argento’s “Giallo”, in a feeble plot that leads to a complete absence of interest, as the shootings and tortures follow one another without offering something sustainable or different. Instead of a more meticulous and suspenseful approach, Cabezas opted for showy rough scenes where the connections aren’t always clear, relegating the film for those tiresome C grade movies where you cannot identify with any character, no matter how much you try to. Not even Cage’s usual competence disguised the weaknesses and banality of a bad story transformed in an even worse film. The contemptible production values didn’t help improving the triviality presented here, and the film takes us to completely dull conclusions that are much more laughable than shocking. Completed on a $25 million budget, I wonder how better this film could have been made.

The Reunion (2013)

Directed by: Anna Odell
Country: Sweden

Movie Review: “The Reunion” marks the directorial debut by the controversial Swedish artist Anna Odell, known for having been charged by prosecutors in Stockholm 2009, in the sequence of a fake suicide attempt made for a final art project while student. The idea for this film came up when Odell wasn’t invited to her High School class reunion party. With a bold structure and adequate acting, Odell crosses the frontiers between documentary and fiction, breaking the film into two different parts – ‘the speech’ and ‘the meetings’. In the first part she decides to create a film of what the party could have been if she had been invited, featuring a lot of tense moments with the former colleagues of high hierarchies, cheerless recalls from the past, verbal confrontation and even physical violence. The second part, Anna decides to meet with some of them to show them the film and know their opinion. The goal is to unmask and ridicule those who always ignored her due to their status, bullied and tricked her, or were false friends. Some of them showed to be constrained, others showed to be inveterate liars, and some others just demonstrate they never grew up. Odell’s little revenge took an artistic form – the cinema itself, but is visible a restrained fury in her eyes and an enormous pleasure to confront her ‘little friends’ with the truth. “The Reunion” adopts the same Scandinavian weightiness of Thomas Vinterberg’s “The Celebration”, bringing into question how the human integrity can be affected due to certain behaviors.

Zulu (2013)

Directed by: Jerome Salle
Country: South Africa / France

Movie Review: As it has been frequent, writer Julien Rappeneau collaborates once again with French director Jérome Salle (“The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch”, “The Burma Conspiracy”) in “Zulu”, a crime thriller based on the novel of the same name by Caryl Ferey. The story, set in post-apartheid South Africa, follows a cop with a traumatic childhood, Ali Sokhela (Forest Whitaker), and his trustful detective partner, Brian Epkeen (Orlando Bloom), in a murder case investigation related to the use of a new illegal substance, and involving Cape Town’s organized crime. Both men and a susceptible third detective, Dan (Conrad Kemp), whose fate will end tragically, will see the line that separates duty from family getting thinner, as the investigation case turns into a very personal matter. Extremely violent, “Zulu” revealed to be as messy as the characters it depicts. The pace is acceptable but the narrative structure was a problem, in a film that tried to convey an extended panorama of South African crime scene rather than focus in the particular case. Salle didn’t have sufficient ability to grab this task and reconstruct it on the screen, and the film loses itself in a few irrelevant scenes that left me waiting for something more substantial. The personal relationships didn’t have the effect they should, being too peripheral to make us care. Overall, the encompassed visions fell flat, both personal and global, of a South Africa infested with new gangsters, weapons and drugs.

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.