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- Motherless Brooklyn
- Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, Bruce Willis and Alec Baldwin team up to deliver a sleuthing film in the New York of the Fifties. Against the backdrop of WikiPedia:Robert_Moses building excesses and the corruption that went with it, Willis dies, Norton sleuthes, Dafoe loses and Baldwin plots to build even more. Norton's character battles with Tourette's, but gets a perhaps surprising amount of goodwill from New Yorkers. A long and gripping film at the intersection of politics, crime and shady business.
- M. C. Escher - Reise in die Unendlichkeit
- A documentary of Escher's life entirely narrated in his own words - from letters, essays, speeches etc. I learned a number of things I didn't know, e.g. that he was influenced by Bach's music (readers of Gödel, Escher, Bach will not be surprised).
- The Fall of the American Empire a.k.a Der unverhoffte Charme des Geldes
- A PhD-carrying delivery guy teams up with a high-class prostitute and an ex-convict biker in order to handle millions of hot money he obtained after witnessing a heist gone terribly wrong. Staying just ahead of law enforcement (and murderous baddies who are also after the money), they manage to get away with it by each bringing their own strengths and capabilities to bear. An improbable but charming story well told, it also reminds us of the homeless in Canada.
- Bridge of Spies
- I like stories set in Berlin as well as stories with a historical background, so I finally saw this telling of the Rudolf Abel espionage, Gary Powers' U2 being shot down, and their eventual prisoner swap at Glienicke bridge. But it was as disappointing as I head feared when I skipped it when it first came out. Solidly told, but not exciting in any way. Berlin is shown in mostly subdued greyish colors, which may fit the mood of the times, but is an odd choice regardless.
- Men in Black
- If the current sequel disappoints, go back to the original - it's funnier, fresher, more original, and makes better use of its protagonists.
- Doctor Strange
- I often struggle with superhero movies, and this was no exception. A scientist learns to reject his former convictions in order to gain "mystic arts" proficiency (when he really just wants to regain the use of his hands, but gets sucked into saving the world from evil). It has some great graphics and its share of funny moments, but not enough of either to call it a great movie.
- The Dead Don't Die
- I was excited to see a Jim Jarmusch movie with such a great cast, but came away disappointed. Zombies overwhelm a small town, but you wonder what the point of it all is. Some decidedly wacky moments (remember the space ship in Life of Brian?), as well as meta discussions further confuse the viewer. Probably the weakest Jarmusch movie I've seen.
- Men in Black: International
- A disappointing sequel to the MiB franchise. A male lead whose main function seems to be to look good with or without shirt on, a female lead that seems wasted in what she has to do, too many alien beings where the producers went overboard with the cuteness, and a boringly serious Liam Neeson who adds little before tuning into an alien himself. The plot is irrelevant in MiB films, and not even Emma Thompson can rescue the film. It has some funny moments, though.
- Mirage
- Unreliable witnesses with partial memories are all the rage in literature lately, but here Gregory Peck suffers from amnesia 50 years ago. Over time, he remembers more, but not before various baddies (George Kennedy amongst them) come after him that need to be fended off, with the help of private eye Walter Matthau who he engages to help him. It's suspenseful and mysterious, but not everything becomes clear at the end. OK to watch once, but not again once you know what actually happened.
- How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
- While theoretically aimed at both sexes, it's more of a girls film than a guy film. The end is predictable (of course they end up together), and the timeline of 10 days is set, which makes her ever more desperate attempts to get him to break up seem predictable as well. Her increasing evilness in doing so is funny, and we actually feel for the guy, but it's not a film to watch a second time.
- Rocketman
- A look at the life of WikiPedia:Elton_John from the beginnings through the years of fame, drug abuse and hidden homosexuality to the crash (and subsequent sobering up) in the early Eighties. It has dream sequences and thoughts and feelings visualized as images, along with many of his songs as soundtrack where they fit the plotline. So it's not a typical biopic, but it's easy to follow and fun to watch. Of course, it helps if you like his music :-)
- Stan & Ollie
- A look at the tail end of the career of comedy duo WikiPedia:Laurel_and_Hardy, Reilly and Coogan make the mimic of the protagonists come to life as they grapple with declining health, varying financial fortunes due to multiple marriages and horse betting, and questions about working on stage vs. making movies, all the while trying to maintain their personal and professional relationship while making a comeback on stage. It's a loving look even when it's tinged with sadness; I enjoyed it a lot.
- Der Goldene Handschuh
- The story of the killings done by WikiPedia:Fritz_Honka in Hamburg's Reeperbahn district in the Seventies is a dark film about people at the edge of society, mostly alcoholics and prostitutes. It has little to uplift the spirit but it does shine a light on very different times on Hamburg's famous red light district. The eponymous bar of the movie title still exists, though.
- The Old Man & the Gun
- IMDb says: Based on the true story of Forrest Tucker and his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists. It's slowly but charmingly played by senior citizens Robert Redford, Danny Glover and Tom Waits with some comparatively youthful energy added by Sissy Spacek.
- Vice
- It's easy to see why Christian Bale got nominated for Best Actor for impersonating Dick Cheney, but why the film was up for Best Picture is a mystery. The editing is rough, and the cinematography annoying. While some interesting historical facts come to light, why the man came to be the guy he was in office remains a mystery. But it's not a documentary, so a comparison to the gripping Watergate -although striking- wouldn't be fair.
- Berlinale 2019
- Zur Sache, Schätzchen
- A film very much of its time - 1968. There isn't a whole lot of a plot to talk about, except maybe that young people do things differently than their elders, and the authorities, expect them to. They show a funnier alternative to protesting the older generation than their compatriots, who in those days took to the streets to demonstrate for political and societal change.
- Synonymes
- A disaffected young Israeli decides to cut his ties with his home country and moves to France. His motivations and actions are rarely explained, nor are those of a couple he befriends. The worst Berlinale film I ever saw... and it won the competition. Even the protagonist was praised for his acting, which IMO was underwhelming as well. It's a mystery to me what people see in this movie, but then, the Berlinale prides itself on being edgier and more political than other festivals - maybe that's the explanation.
- Watergate
- A 4 hour documentary of the Watergate affair, all the way from the beginnings of the Nixon presidency to his pardon by Gerald Ford - a suspenseful thriller all the way through. It mixes historical footage, reenactments of the Oval Office meetings captured on tape, and interviews with some of the involved figures that were willing to talk. Highly recommended.
- Der Boden unter den Füßen
- The lives of two sisters are examined: the younger is a consultant, always on the go to where her projects take her, and the older suffers from mental problems. Her suicide attempt forces her younger sister to engage with her more profoundly than before, while maintaining her business image and having an affair with her boss. She pushes along as far as she can, but something's got to give, and in the end it does, big time.
- The Kindness of Strangers
- The best of the competition movies I saw, but also the most conventional, and therefore least likely to win. When a young mother flees her abusive husband with her kids to New York City, she has little going for her: not much of a plan, not much money, and no connections. When she is forced to let strangers into her live to help, a restaurant turns out to be a pivot point in various ways, and things begin to look up. Bill Nighy reprises a role similar to last year's The Bookshop.
- Miss Congeniality
- Maybe they should blow up the Miss America contest, just to put an end to it all. That's not quite what was supposed to happen here, and what is supposed to happen is prevented by the ever watchable Sandra Bullock as FBI agent. Her foray into a fashionable, sociable and largely empty temporary new self is fun to watch, a sort of ugly-duckling-to-swan transformation. As a plus, Michael Caine :-)
- Womit haben wir das verdient?
- When the 16-year old daughter of an atheist family announces her conversion to Islam, things are getting upset. Although the film is a comedy, it raises serious questions, and manages to highlight the difficulties of being Muslim in a Western society, without getting preachy about it all - a good comedic treatment of the subject.
- Sixth Sense
- Catching an old Bruce movie for the first time, this one surprised with a plot twist right at the end that shines a different light on everything you saw before. Dead people abound (the best-known line of the movie gives it away), but it isn't horror - more like mystery. And -surprise, surprise- Bruce doesn't wield a gun, and actually has a nice smile.
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