by Felipe Rosa
War Horse: characteristically well done, with amazing production values, this is an emotional, rousisng spectacle. However, the episodic structure takes out all the chance of the film having characters, as opposed to people (and animals) things are happening to.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: every film is manipulating. (In fact, every piece of art, every human relation is.) The trick is not letting the wires be seen. This film fails, expectedly given the combination of a touchy event in recent history and a sick, problematic kid. Compounding to the problem is how unsympathetic the protagonist actually is. Everything related to him feels too artificial; the wires are exposed.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
We Bought a Zoo: it’s hard to judge a feel-good movie, particularly when it succeeds in its objective. By one hand, this one has an attractive cast, capably directed in general. (The daughter may be a bit too cute, but that’s easy enough to live with.) By the other hand, with so many characters, we wish to know some of them a bit better than we get to.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
The Artist: a review confirms, even strengthens the original opinion. Nowadays the public takes some elements for granted, and to see, so effectively, the story be told, is a pleasure to behold. The story itself is a great crowd pleaser as well, and the film ends on the highest of notes. My bias should also be made explicit: films about films and filmmaking generally attract me. See what I wrote previously: The Artist
Categories: Film reviews, Revisit • Tags: drama, romantic comedy
by Felipe Rosa
Pi: as a study of unhealthy obsession, this film works. But, in the process, it becomes a very unpleasant film to watch.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
The Adventures of Tintin: let there be no mistake: the animation is wonderful, the settings are beautiful, and the free-floating camera is a joy to behold. It’s hard to imagine this story being told in any other way. The problem, then, lies precisely at the story. It’s a perfectly serviceable old-fashioned adventure, as it’s supposed to be. But it’s not really anything more.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: adventure, animation
by Felipe Rosa
The Girl With the Dragon Tatto: the film somehow rises above the pedestrian, pulpy plot. The reason, of course, is the focus that is given to the title character, played marvelously here. While there are examples of great movies out of bad books, this is not one of them; but the courage to show what drives the character gives it points. Great craft at work.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: thriller
by Felipe Rosa
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: a decent finish to the trilogy, despite the slow, unrelated start that doesn’t really add all that much to the story (but does add a lot to the general lore). One can see that, unlike the first film, which was an entity in itself, this and the the previous episode really should be seen as one. Read also: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Star Wars: Attack of the Clones Star Wars: Revenge of the […]
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: action, fantasy, star wars
by Felipe Rosa
Carnage: an example of how a good group of actors and a good director does not a good movie make, by itself. The problem is that the situation they are in could be real, but it is made surreal unconvincingly. And while the acting was good for the first 2 thirds or so, it becomes mostly histrionic at the end.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
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