by Felipe Rosa
My Man Godfrey: it works better as a social commentary and satire than as romantic comedy, since the romance (from one of the parties involved anyway) doesn’t really get shown. William Powell fits the part as a glove!
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy, romantic comedy
by Felipe Rosa
Bloody Sunday: muscular filmmaking. People should take notes: this is how (and why) handheld camera should be used. It’s very bold to throw the viewer in the midst of a very complex event without dumbing it down for our sake; Paul Greengrass did something similar in United 93, but those events were part of something we know so much better.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
by Felipe Rosa
Ball of Fire: one has just to look at the credentials for this movie to see it could not really go wrong, could it? (Just go check it up, if you doubt me.) Another delightful little screwball comedy, highlighted by the solid performances by both Barbara Stanwyck (looking gorgeous) and Gary Cooper.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy
by Felipe Rosa
The Palm Beach Story: what a delightful little farce by Preston Sturges, one of its old masters. The cast is great at throwing those zingers as they were the most natural things to be said, and what wonderful dialogue that is. And, again, a 60+ year old movie that sounds modern even today.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy
by Felipe Rosa
Desk Set: in spite of the rushed and unconvincing romantic element introduced late, this is just such a great pleasure to watch. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are characteristically great, the dialogue zings, the story makes sense (and still today resonates).
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy
by Felipe Rosa
Happythankyoumoreplease: out of the 7 or 8 relationships in this rushed, underdeveloped, badly written film, about half of one is worth paying attention to. The characters are uninteresting, too. And I wonder why the decision to go handheld/steadicam was taken: it doesn’t make sense to the story. Unhappythankyoucanigohomenow.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: bottom, romantic comedy
by Felipe Rosa
Megamind: it’s typical DW animation fare. Fun and completely forgettable. There’s nothing here, storywise or aestheticswise, to differentiate it from most of their other movies.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: animation, super hero
by Felipe Rosa
Take Me Home Tonight: one would think that 20+ years later something new would be added to that 80’s teen movie formula. Not here. Someone not familiar with faces could watch this in 20 years and think this was indeed done in 1987. It borrows everything, adds nothing (almost: the drug use is more honest here). In fact, I think that the blonde girl drives the same car the blonde girl drove in License to Drive.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: romantic comedy
by Felipe Rosa
Sunshine Cleaning: this could have been interesting, in particular with this principal cast. However, the story and the characters seem to belong to different movies, and the story just goes from nowhere to nowhere passing through nowhere as well. At least it’s consistent in that regard.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: comedy, drama
Fifth about The Seventh