Bullhead
by Felipe Rosa
Bullhead: credit is due that the film turns out to be something different than it starts as. However, it’s also heavy-handed, both in some of the acting and in its writing.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
Tag: drama
Rampart
by Felipe Rosa
Rampart: this film follows the “rule” that, if the main character is despicable, it must also be interesting. Here we have a typical Ellroy cop, played strongly by Harrelson. But the movie comes and goes leaving something amiss.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
W.E.
by Felipe Rosa
W.E.: while trying to make a beautiful, stylish movie, the story seems to have been thrown overboard. The two different settings are joined artificially, and neither is appealing to start with. The jumpy editing doesn’t make anything easier to relate to.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: biopic / historic, drama
A Better Life
by Felipe Rosa
A Better Life: the blueprint of this film is quite obvious, and the update to the geographical realities of Los Angeles is competent. The problem is that the acting is uneven: while Demián Bichir as the father is wonderful, the son is not as interesting to watch.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
A Separation
by Felipe Rosa
A Separation: deeply humane, layered, great drama. It’s the mark of its superb writing that all characters are interesting, flawed, complex human beings; all that happens is organic, a slice of life instead of a scene of a movie or a setup or payoff. Every once in a while, a movie brings joy for watching it, not because it’s built to make you feel good, but because it just clicks so well; this is one of those.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
Albert Nobbs
by Felipe Rosa
Albert Nobbs: a delicate, sad story, well told with wonderful performances by Glenn Close and Janet McTeer. However, I can’t help but wonder if Ms Close didn’t end up harming the movie; she has a very recognizable face, one that makes it hard to sell the character she is playing.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
by Felipe Rosa
Sex, Lies, and Videotape: relatively efficient and interesting, but dry and clean as the houses and apartments the characters live in. The main issue is that the characters aren’t sympathetic nor their quandaries particularly engaging.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
Coriolanus (2011)
by Felipe Rosa
Coriolanus: a grim tale as only The Bard’s can be. The clash of the wonderful language with the contemporary setting always makes for an interesting experience, further improved by the raw amount of talent involved.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama
Red Tails
by Felipe Rosa
Red Tails: by being so clean, prim and proper, this film ends up doing a disservice to the story, that needed more bite to it; it ends up, despite all warnings, looking more like a work of fiction than someting based on reality. The battle scenes are exciting, in a video-gamey, SWotL sort of way.
Categories: Film reviews • Tags: drama, war
