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Reviews
Carne trémula (1997)
live flesh is a story of true love, redemption and acceptance
Hey there everyone,
"live flesh" is one of those fine movies which go through your mind days after the movie. Like all Almodovar's movies, this one also features desperate characters who cope with loneliness. Picture Victor, a young street kid who falls in love with a ravishingly beautiful woman (The Italian Francesca Neri) after a one night stand in a disco bathroom. He calls her and she rejects him in a mean, cold hearted way.
What Victor doesn't know, is that Elena is actually a drug addict. Victor goes to her apartment for an explanation. There he gets entangled in a weird shooting accident with two cops, which leaves him in jail for seven years and a cop paralyzed. This cop (a young Javier Bardem) becomes a paralympics star and weds Elena. After his jail time Victor returns for Elena, but things have changed. Both David and Elena fear Victor, but he has no bad intentions. Even though Victor does try to get mingled back into the life of his former love. Victor also becomes involved with the other cop's (Sancho) wife and she (Clara) starts to fall in love with him. Victor and Clara make out constantly, but Victor stays in love with Elena. He finally confronts Elena about the injustices done to him in the past and her crucial role in it. He knows to seduce her for a one night and vows to never see her again. He dumps Clara later on, leaving her in tears. In agony she finally has to courage to escape her drunken husbands and his domestic beatings. Sancho (after a tip from jealous David) and Clara meet each other at Victor's house, which again leads to a shoot out. This time Victor escapes painful consequences. Elena runs to the house, hearing gunshots and screams out her love for Victor. Victor and Elena are reunited after 7 years and get a baby. This time things will turn out right for Victor. Spain has become a free country and his son will have a better future.
In all of Almodovar's movies the characters are nice to watch (both in acting and appearance). The color use is always good and adds to the atmosphere of an intimate story. And if you don't like the story... Just check out the movie pure for the beautiful blue eyes of Francesca Neri. They express both a beautiful soul and an agonizing spirit.
De kleine blonde dood (1993)
great film
First of all, let me state to day that you should also read the book. The book delves much deeper into the mind of the main character (Boudewijn) or in the movie (Valentijn). It also deals with how Valentijn became how he is nowadays and the child abuse from his father. (Please, read the passages in the book concerning the butterflies. so good)
Anyway, this is a movie site, so I will limit my attention to the movie. Valentijn is egotistical poet, only interested in living wild, sleeping around or other hedonistic outings. Suddenly, he meets up with (to him just another girl) his former school teacher and accidentally gets her pregnant. Valentijn does not seem eager to be a father and turns back to his former lifestyle. He leaves Mieke alone with their son.
Valentijn is ignorant at first, but during the movie he starts to care for his son. The boy grows up to be a lovable, sweet kid. Valentijn takes Mickey to his house, after a beating from Mieke. Valentijn can not combine his wild life with a stable fraternal home. He makes a lot of mistakes, but gradually Mickey becomes an unmissable piece of his life. Just after this takes place, Mickey starts to get headaches. Suddenly the boy dies after a fall. Mickey appeared to have had a tumor in his head, since birth.
After this, Valentijn realizes what he had, how he lost it and how he wasted the time he did have with his son. He burst out into tears and finds consolation from his former, estranged love Mieke. The movie ends with them both on a bike riding down Amsterdam over a bridge. They both look disillusioned and heartbroken.
Igby Goes Down (2002)
igby is up!
Hey there, Igby goes down is a great movie. Meet Igby Slocumb (Kieran Culkin), a young, yet full grown cynic boy who just can not fit in with his family and environment. He will do anything to frustrate his mother and drops out of school constantly. "Igby goes down" is a dark comedy (or sometimes named bittersweet) and like many other fine (often indie) American movies in this genre the last years it stands out for me as the best one (Garden state, Buffalo '66, confessions of a dangerous mind, ghost world, about schmidt, requiem for a dream, to die for, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, secretary, election, rushmore, donnie darko, lost in translation, American psycho and some others.) They all contain elements of comedy combined with visible, believable drama. The comedy is not explicit, but reflects more the absurd (corrupted) world in which the modern Western peoples sometimes live in.
What I think is great about this movie is that you learn why Igby has become like this. Even though Igby is a slacker, you will like him immediately from the first scene. Igby is actually a normal boy who doesn't care much for the superficialities his family (mother Suasan Sarandon & father Bill Pullman) smothers him with. In fact, he only cares much for his dad, a mental patient.
Igby runs away from school and house and meets some great characters; his real father's heroin junkie mistress (gorgeous Amanada Peet), her transvestite room mate, a slightly older college girl next door who he falls in love with (Claire Danes). Yeah, Igby is living the life, but like all good things, it comes to an end when reality steps in. His brother steals his girlfriend. His roommates slip further into drugs and Igby must return home to his mother. She has become sick and in a confronting euthanasia scene Igby can finally come to terms with her. He can even come to terms with his numb half brother (Ryan Phillipe), a stiff, young republican, college boy.
Forget those stupid Oscar movies. They are either unmanly tearjerkers or unfairly lobbied into winning by scheming execs. Develop your own taste. Revolution now, art has to be made! Anyway highly recommended
The Brown Bunny (2003)
memorable movie
The Brown Bunny is a very hard movie to watch. Lots of silent scenes and lots of periods in the scenes when nothing is happening. But this is not a weak part of the movie. If you watch the whole movie, you realize that the silences really add to the suspense. Gallo plays Bud in a great role. He is so plagued by pain that it is uncomfortable and confronting. He just cannot forgive himself for losing the one girl he really loved; Daisy. He cries, approaches other women, rides his bike, sees prostitutes, but they do not match up to Daisy. Everything he does, he falls into a deeper depression with a final breakdown in a hotel room in a dreamlike sequence.
The plot of the movie is very powerful and can only be felt by those undergone similar love ache (plot is not written down here as a spoiler!). Gallo gives away one of the best acting experiences I have seen in years. Even though most critics rate this movie as bad. I can only hope Gallo will go on making more movies, not necessarily the same, but just as interesting.
Oh and the blow job scene is indeed a bit like porn, but I don't care. Chloe Sevigny is also good as Daisy.
Simon (2004)
so dutch
I saw Simon in the cinema and it was a fantastic experience. Simon is a summary of Dutch culture and especially the Amsterdam subculture. The actors are all standouts in this movie and have the performances of their careers. I agree with previous comments that Cees Geel's performance was Oscarworthy. I watch movies everyday and I must say Simon was the best I have seen in YEARS! First of all, Simon is about Holland. Holland was once famous for windmills, cheese, tulips and wooden shoes. These days we (the Dutch) are famous for gay marriage, euthanasia, legalized prostitution, legalized marihuana use and islamofascist murders. In other countries themes like these give people the feeling of a modern Sodom & Gomorra.
This movie sets the right mood from the start. It is a commercial for modern, Western liberal countries where everyone can be their full self. Simon is a drug dealing, swearing, unemployed guy, who sheets on his girlfriend. Yet, you cannot dislike him! He is charismatic, funny, good at heart and completely original. His friendship with Camiel is somehow weird, as he is a gay, shy dentist student. Their friendship suffers a setback and they meet back after 14 years. Camiel and Simon team up with their entire group of friends and offspring to give Simon the best last days of his life.
This movie is important, because it reflects exactly what people in the '90s wanted Holland to be. I can cry at what my country has become of these days, but I can also smile at the warm intentions of what it once inspired to be. People all over the world, watch this movie! It will make you laugh, it will make you cry, but it will also make you think.
Eddy Terstall thank you for this fantastic achievement. This movie will be remembered someday and be seen as an international classic.
Godzilla (1998)
awful, apocalypse of filmmaking
It's both a bad and bad made movie. (And I don't mean bad in a good way) The only credits go to the special effects. The story is weak and exploited from earlier made Godzilla- and Dinosaurmovies. The actors are B-grade, but their acting is C-grade (in the acception of Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno) The good scenes are stolen. The script is bad, the dialogues suck. Yuch, both a waste of my time and my money. I never want to see a Roland Emmerich movie ever again!!
PS
It's absolutely uncomprehensible to me that this movie cost $30,= per dvd and a wonderful film as Red River only $8,=!It's an insult, but who cares? I know which movie I'm gonna buy!
Pulp Fiction (1994)
phenomenal
Great movie. A mustsee for everyone. The script, the acting, the directing... It's all topnotch. I can give a detailed review, but it won't help you. You gotta enjoy this one yourself without any details told.