by Felipe Rosa
Below is the list of the top movies I watched, roughly, in the past year. It’s coming this late because I wanted to see a few titles before closing the list. Looking back to 2012, I veered very seldomly off the beaten path, sadly. Without further ado: 1) Seeking a Friend for the End of the World Delicate story. As usual, sci-fi movies (yes, this is one) allow the storyteller to create a window to look […]
Categories: Lists
by Felipe Rosa
Amour: a great acting duet with Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant, both marvelous. There is something to be said about not slipping into melodrama, but Michael Haneke, not surprisingly, veered too much in the other direction: the sad, delicate story is told from a great distance, emotionally. Visually, the film is consistent with the emotional distance with the camera mostly quiet, observing the action as if not to interfere. (No complaints in that regard, as long takes are a long-standing […]
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
Les Misérables: a famously good story, defended well by its cast. Anne Hathaway indeed shines the brightest in her small role. Despite those efforts, however, this is not a well-told story. A cardinal sin for a musical, the songs are not consistently interesting. More relevant, however, is that this must be one of the most irritating films visually I’ve seen in quite some time. The shot selection by director Tom Hooper is simply poor: by either shooting most songs with shaky, […]
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: musical
by Felipe Rosa
Broken City: old-fashioned to the point where it would be more at home with grey suits and fedoras, rotary phones and high-contrast lighting. The few elements that were introduced that don’t belong to that world feel out of place mostly because they don’t add anything of consequence. The low-key, B-movie roots result in a film that is somewhat entertaining but not as edgy as it would have been.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: crime
by Felipe Rosa
Gangster Squad: consistently, the feeling that this has been done before comes from the trailers, and throughout the film, nothing shakes it away. It goes beyond the story (even thought that has also been told before). The end credits fan the longing for 1950’s LA more than the whole movie. However, despite the lack of originality and the excess of glitz and violence, it is somewhat entertaining. The cast is good looking, if uneven.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: action
by Felipe Rosa
Zero Dark Thirty: impressive by its cold, sheer efficiency in storytelling, much like the group of people doing its job portrayed. There’s no space for anything else here, just a look at the complex procedural. Jessica Chastain doesn’t play a character as much as a driving force (quite strongly at that). There’s no telling what the movie would have been like had that decision been different; but the story and the film are engaging enough as they are.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: thriller
by Felipe Rosa
Promised Land: there is a certain dishonesty in play, when a character is introduced in a certain light and everything that follows that shows something diametrically opposite. Such disrespect for storytelling suggest this is, indeed, little more than a propaganda piece. While Matt Damon is one of the most earnest faces around, he got thrown (or threw himself, given his other roles in this) into a very thankless position.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
Oscar nominations: sight unseen some of the major players (Les Mis, Amour, Zero Dark Thirty), I generally like these noms.
Categories: Non-Reviews • Tags: awards 2012
by Felipe Rosa
Django Unchained: very entertaining film, particularly for the first two-thirds or so, when the screenplay runs out of steam. Tarantino displays great control over the film’s visuals, music and cast, which is perfectly able to read the fun-as-ever dialogue. Christoph Waltz is once more the stand-out.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: western
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