Hi everyone : ) I quite recently hit the 100 000 view mark on this blog. How fantastic is that? : ) I wonder if you have any films/documentaries/series that you want to see in this blog? That needs reviewing? Or that simply needs a larger audience? All kinds of contact with my readers/viewers is always interesting to me. See you around!
Time for a documentary! It has been quite some time since. Every once in a while I go to the cinema. I had heard about this piece quite a while ago but I cant remember in what context. The story behind it got me quite interested and I didn't walk home disappointed. This is probably the most fascinating life story I have ever seen captured on a screen. The documentary investigates the life of Sixto Rodriguez, a manual laborer in the 70's Detroit who spends his time off work singing in your average shabby bar. One night he is discovered by a record company and gets to record two albums none of which is deemed successfull. Even though the label is very surprised and thought Rodriguez would be a big star they have no other option than to drop him. Rodriguez goes back to dreaming and tearing down buildings in line with his work. For reasons unknown, his records somehow made it to South Africa where he was picked up by the Africaans musicians. The records themselves had close to zero information on them and seeing as he wasn't in the newspapers a mystique formed around him. Rumours that he commited suicide on stage circulated and then became known as truth as time passed, the only thing that wasn't clear was how he did it. Some claimed he lit himself on fire, some say he shot himself in the head. Rodriguez was nonetheless most likely the biggest artist in South Africa during the 70's, bigger the The Beatles, and was incredibly popular even in the decades to come. He was quite political in lyrics and made the unofficial anthems for the anti-apartheid movement that arose in the 80's. The actual documentary begins when two people meet up to investigate what really happened to Rodriguez, who he was and if he really killed himself. I want to keep my actual impressions for myself simply because I feel like there is almost impossible not to spoil anything. The only thing I'd like to add is the question; Why didn't he make it bigger?
I hope that I can do even more posts the next year and its also fun that I am closing in on 100 000 pageviews on this blog. An interesting coincidence! Thank you for watching so far!
This film is something that I had been wanting to watch for a while. The premise and plot of it sounded very enticing and I also appreciate Ellen Page's general acting style. A general theme on this blog, besides the films, is that of the human mind and expectations, and how it can dramatically change your experience of said films. I had, whether I liked it or not, painted a picture in my head about how this film would be, to a certain degree. It did not correspond with how I actually perceived the film and sometimes that's a good thing. It wasn't, this time.
Ellen Page plays the 14 year old girl Hayley who is exploring the fascinating internet and its possibilities. She chats with older men online and finds Jeff ( Patrick Wilson ) interesting for a particular reason. Hayley is the driving force behind them meeting up and she flirts shamelessly with him until they end up at his apartment. Jeff works as a photographer and shows her some of his work and Hayley is fast on picking that up as a subject that "defines" him. She is also very interested in getting on camera for him. In the meantime they have gotten themselves drinks and this is where the film takes an interesting twist.
This film deals with some large themes and without spoiling anything its very easy to take the perpetrator's side in all of it, which is quite uncommon, for obvious reasons. It's also about the constant battle of the sexes and power. So in conclusion I would say some parts of this film are good and some parts are really bad. You are therefore left with a sort of schizophrenic impression.
I usually like films that take an unexpected turn and are in themselves non-predictable but overall I didn't really like where this was going. It became the offspring of a tv-movie and a crim-show on television. Very poor acting, especially from Patrick Wilson, and I felt like it didn't really made an impression on me. It dabbles in the psychological thriller department somewhat, which has an element of "interesting" in it, but I expected more from this.
The re-enactment of a very interesting psychological experiment based off historical events.
Review:
The german teacher Rainer Wagner (Jurgen Vogel ) brings up the subject of autocracy to his students and engages them in an experiment. He wants to instill in them that autocracy is still and will always be a threat to democracy, even though his students are highly sceptical of that. They believe we have learned our lesson, so to speak.
As time passes he introduces uniforms, specific salutions and titles. The students, being quite disinterested at first, start to take a liking to the bonding experience they share. His experiment was inspired by what a class in California did in the 1960's which revolved around the individual and the collective as a whole.
This film is thought provoking and raises questions rather than answer them, making this a film worth watching. Its an interesting view into group-psychology and how we are, after all, social beings. And how we also may lose our values and "minds" when we are in a group, the group becomes more important than anything else.
We also get to follow some particular individuals up close aswell as the teacher and how he personally deals with it. The movement they form is called Die Welle which means the Wave in english. Dennis Gansel is the producer here and he is making his second Nazi-related film.
15 year old aspiring dancer finds herself in a strange situation when her mom finds a new boyfriend.
Review:
I heard good things about this one and had been wanting to see it for quite a while. I dont see alot of british film, perhaps because its, overall, low quality films or perhaps because it gets pushed away by the monster that is Hollywood. I'd like to think its a combination, but mostly the latter. It just seems so much easier for an american film to make it everywhere, I suppose its not really surprising, but why that is is subject for another post.
Katie Jarvis plays the role of Mia, who is quite a lonely and troubled teenager. She responds to the, in her view, hostile world with hostility. The way she has been brought up and the family life she finds herself in has certainly added to her sense of misery. Her mother ( Kierston Wareing ) almost seems to be an involuntary mother and lives on her life the way she did before she got children. Mia discovers alot of things that any teenager do in that age, but with a big carelessness. One day her mother brings home a new boyfriend ( Michael Fassbender) and it complicates Mia's life even more.
The only real goal and motivation in life Mia has is to become a dancer. Ergo, the timeless theme of breaking free from the negative shackles, that you did not ask for, to become "free". It is still a refreshing look at the dreams of a young individual, perhaps because its a so called "kitchen sink" drama. It juggles the everyday life and the dreams, at the same time, in a good way. Meaning there are nuances and subtleties, unlike most Hollywood films.
The dialogue is very interesting and well thought out. I read somewhere it would give Pulp Fiction a run for the money. I dont know if I would go that far, but there certainly is some great lines in this one aswell. Katie Jarvis is doing a great job acting and is the shining star in this film but I really like Michael Fassbender and he is always doing a good job even though he has a supporting role.
I just noticed there are, what could be seem as Hollywood flaming, in this review. That's not really my intention, but im just calling it like I see it. I think its a shame that films are not more provocative, interesting, strange et.c. than they are. Its a goddamn shame.
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