C_Brand Reviews

Cold War (2018)

Cold, yes

[6/10 · 24 April 2019]

While certainly beautiful to look, Cold War - based on the director's parents - does indeed feel cold. Though two artists, getting drunk on Paris life an utterly absorbed with each other (for the most part) the film is strangely devoid of passion. Unlike Betty Blue - a tragic look at a couple obsessed with each other and in love - the lack of character depth in either the father or mother lends itself a more melodramatic feel. Artistically put together and lyrically beautiful, it doesn't hit the spot in the same way as The Last Resort. There is something very sad about it (there is no child in the film - no Pawel Pavlovsky himself) which must surely stem from Pavlosvsky's relationship with his parents. Yes they were glamorous, artistic and popular, but also self-absorbed. A somewhat distant couple through the eyes of a child.

Yuli (2018)

Demons and dance

[6/10 · 24 April 2019]

Written by Paul Laverty this is the story of Acosta's life: a loving yet brutally determined father, a schizophrenic sister, a poor childhood in Cuba, racism, career vs. family and becoming the principal dancer at the English National Ballet in London. Acosta recreates his own life, directing other dancers to play characters from that life with Acosta occasionally playing his own father. Like a child recreating its own past in order to feel comfortable within the known - or to change it - Acosta does it with dance.

This is a beautiful piece of work and takes us into the graceful world and mind of a man working through his demons with dance.

Loro 1 (2018)

A good film about an awful human

[6/10 · 24 April 2019]

He might be a repugnant individual, but Berlusconi's life is also occasionally terrifying and sometimes sad. He is a dinosaur, unwilling to let go of the glamour and corruption that have become his legacy, a man pumped on viagra, desperate to cheat age and ultimately death - unwilling to accept there is a battle he cannot win. Whether it's possible to make a fascinating study of one so vacuous is moot. It's well made. Whether you care what happens to Berlusconi the 'man' is a whole other matter. But certainly this could be shown in schools around the country - as the study of a personality and life one should never aim to duplicate.

Division 19 (2017)

If you thought it couldn't happen to you....

[7/10 · 16 April 2019]

A look at a bleak future where anonymity is a crime, data a commodity and all who take on the state are publicly ruined or dispatched to an outside world to live on scraps. Every element is what is happening now but twenty years hence. So bets placed on prison fights become the online phenomenon Panopticon TV where subscribers can 'adopt a felon' and a crumbling health service is reduced to rusty ATM machines that dole out medicare. Just how can a citizen defend themselves when the data-miners know their every move and preference? This is Julian Assange territory, where the State may be a crypto a dinosaur, but still has enough tricks up its sleeve to prevail and the numbers of downtrodden, inactive enough to change nothing. The message is clear: We could all end up trapped in the belly of this techno beast. the choice is still ours. Just not for long.

Escape at Dannemora (2018)

Slow moving but brilliant

[8/10 · 16 April 2019]

With such fast paced editing in today's movies - TV gives time to expand both characters and plot. Maybe sometimes there's a little too much lingering as the decision to escape seems very much in real time without a sense of risk (which false timing in the form of editing can accentuate - but who cares. Just feel the width. With an incredible central performance from Patricia Arquette and superb support from all round cast - including even the smallest of roles - plus Benicio Del Toro - what's not to like? Stiller directs the slow burn proceedings masterly and it looks absolutely beautiful. Quiet, desolate and desperate. TV at the top of its game.