MiguelAReina Reviews

The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)

Disturbing movie

[7/10 · 14 February 2021]

In anticipation of the many true crimes documentaries that are released now, this found footage movie has something disturbing about it. Although it does not work at the documentary level, due to the low credibility of the interpretations, it does work in the representation of the supposedly found recordings. This distortion of the images, although it is a stylistic signature that goes beyond the imitation of reality to create its own, almost experimental language, builds some of the most discomforting moments in recent horror cinema.

Blizzard of Souls (2019)

The meaning of war

[5/10 · 11 February 2021]

It has the virtue of questioning nationalisms and loyalties in the context of the WWI, building a story that does not pretend to be pacifist, but that reflects on the meaning of war. And it certainly achieves a good visual result on a low budget, hiding the enemy in mists and shadows. However, it lacks a director who can strike a balance between the battlefield and the intimate story. Everything is as correct as it is unexciting.

Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary (2020)

Wonderful transformation story

[9/10 · 9 February 2021]

The legend of Calamity serves to build a film of great formal beauty, in the creation of landscapes full of color and an unlimited horizon. With a solid script that creates an entertaining story and endearing characters, Calamity is also a vindication of women in a man's world, where the disguise builds her own personality. It's a story of transformation from girl to woman and from woman to myth.

Knocking (2021)

Psychological thriller with no surprises

[5/10 · 8 February 2021]

A psychological thriller that is handled with a certain suspense, although from the visual point of view it does not have bright ideas. The story benefits from an adequate length (short film based on a short story), although it gives the impression that the path takes us not very far from where we were at the beginning. Good performing by Cecilia Milocco, which is above the predictability of the story.

La Verónica (2020)

Beyond a face

[8/10 · 8 February 2021]

The director risks in his bet to show this story with only 53 frontal shots of the main character. It's right as a representation of that superficial world of the mobile screen, which nevertheless hides a much more complex (and terrifying) background. Great work by Mariana Di Girólamo, performing Veronica's many moods with only her face. The film is comedy, melodrama and thriller depending on her interlocutor.

Digger (2020)

Greek western

[7/10 · 8 February 2021]

With a form of modern western, the director builds a confrontation with the progress as a destructive element, which is also defined in the relationship of the bohemian father and the son, full of reproaches. With an exceptional cinematography that shows the greatness of the landscape as well as the intimacy of the people, the film works in contrast, in the harshness of the forest and its inhabitants.

And Tomorrow the Entire World (2020)

Fight with the same weapons

[6/10 · 7 February 2021]

The leftists are routinely portrayed as idealistics and somewhat naives. The director, despite her own experience, does not avoid this portrait, although it focuses on the well-known friction between fighting with the same weapons as the enemy, about turning into a wolf to face the wolf. "If it had been done in 1930, Nazism would not have existed." That is a good justification. But showing left-wing extremists as immature and naive makes the debate too simplistic.

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet (2021)

The unbreathable atmosphere

[9/10 · 7 February 2021]

The best metaphor for our current reality. Because what happens on the film we would see as a rarity and now we almost look at it with indifference. Ana Katz builds a film full of humor (absurd), situations that sometimes border on the ridiculous, an overwhelming melancholy in a character who is overcome by everything. The dog mourns the absence of her owner, she feels as helpless as an owner without a dog.

Bebia, à mon seul désir (2021)

Escaping from the labyrinth

[7/10 · 7 February 2021]

The Greek myth of Ariadna taken to a small Georgian village. But this time the ball of yarn works as a guide for Ariadna herself to get out of that labyrinth of family relationships, mixed feelings and emotional tensions. With a B/W cinematography full of nuances, this journey is constructed in a zigzag way, with flashbacks that break the narrative but at the same time fill it with meaning.

Dating Amber (2020)

A great coming (out)-of-age

[7/10 · 7 February 2021]

As a kind of Irish "Love, Simon" (Greg Berlanti, 2018), this is a refreshing look at the coming out but one that proposes a much more interesting reflection on gender roles, on sexual acceptance and hetero-society . The sense of humor is very sarcastic and the dialogue reflects the inner world of the characters, better defined in Amber than in Eddie. The construction of splendid secondary characters magnifies the protagonists.

Mayday (2021)

Women on the warpath

[3/10 · 7 February 2021]

Although the first half hour is attractive in the development of the mystery and confusion it causes in the viewer, from the moment that the director has no intention of giving explanations, you must assume this world of female soldiers in constant warfare. As Alice falls into the rabbit hole, Ana is introduced into this world through an oven and then we witness a simplistic and childish game of misandry.

The Year Before the War (2021)

Kafka meets Freud

[5/10 · 6 February 2021]

A kind of Kafkaesque nightmare, or perhaps a journey into madness that Hans (or his doppelgänger Peter) starts over one year. The year before the outbreak of WWI, to meet characters like Freud, Lenin or a possible Mata Hari. Everything is mysterious and absurd, a carnival representation that indicates a mental disease, maybe. There is an intention of deconstruction of Europe, although not entirely convincing.

Flee (2021)

Be anonymous to be accepted

[9/10 · 6 February 2021]

The justification for the animation in this documentary is based on the concealment of the protagonist's face. Amin is an "unreliable narrator", who has based his life on lies to be accepted, as homosexual and refugee. A therapeutic journey to which we are invited to share Amin's memories (and some lies). At the end, we are moved and grateful for the courage of a man who didn't want to show his face but shared his soul.

The Witches of the Orient (2021)

The triumph of sport

[7/10 · 6 February 2021]

The Japanese women's volleyball team that won the Gold Medal at the 1964 Olympics is the subject of this documentary. Perhaps it is not as interesting a priori as the subject of his previous documentary, "L'empire de la perfection" (Julien Faraut, 2018), but the numerous footage (including a manga series based on the team) allows the director to produce an agile documentary in montage and rhythm. The last game, however, is not as electrifying as it is wanted to make us see.

Liborio (2021)

Sugar in water

[9/10 · 6 February 2021]

The directorial debut of editor Nino Martínez, a collaborator of Jaime Rosales, is an incursion into the world of magic and spirituality. A visually beautiful film, transcendent in its narrative. We see the story/legend of Liborio from different points of view, the views of the community. It is a story in which the limits are not clear: life and death, reality and fantasy, truth and lies... Liborio's path is like sugar in water: you can't see it, but you can savor.

Looking for Venera (2021)

Elephants stay with the herd

[7/10 · 5 February 2021]

Showing the life of a teenager in a family where space, physical and mental, is suffocating, this film achieves a realistic portrait of a gaze that tries to reach beyond. The space is important, in the frame risks, taking the action out of the screen, placing the characters on both sides, cutting the bodies... There are no great dramas, despite the male aggressiveness. But there is a lot of life.

MLK/FBI (2020)

The policy of suspicion

[8/10 · 5 February 2021]

The FBI begins spying on MLK on suspicion of communist activities and ends up spying on his sex life. It is the disease of the moral watchers. The documentary accurately narrates these espionage activities that move against the defense of human rights. Through well selected archival material, it is a necessary film to show the moral baseness of those who considered themselves protectors of moral integrity. It is the danger of a policy based on constant suspicion.

Black Medusa (2021)

Promising young Tunisian woman

[9/10 · 5 February 2021]

With references to "Dressed to kill" (Brian De Palma, 1980) or "Ms. 45" (Abel Ferrara, 1981), and with a clear parallel with "Promising young woman" (Emerald Fennell, 2020), this revenge story shot in black and white exposes the situation of women in Tunisia through an intelligent exercise of film noir that does not try to make a psychological portrait, but rather to expose a character who responds to sexist violence with physical violence. It is one of the virtues of a film that introduces new codes in Arab cinema.

The Cemil Show (2021)

Frustrated hero

[5/10 · 5 February 2021]

There is a nostalgic and cinematographic proposal that works well, but the tone of comedy and social representation fails in its objective. The sense of humor, based on a certain hysteria of the characters, ends up being annoying. It is a comedy that flies low, although it gets more interest in that journey towards the madness of the protagonist, who finds a better position as a villain than as a hero.

The Cemil Show (2021)

Funny little nostalgia

[5/10 · 5 February 2021]

There is a nostalgic and cinematographic proposal that works well, but the tone of comedy and social representation fails in its objective. The sense of humor, based on a certain hysteria of the characters, ends up being annoying, and the protagonist, who is supposed to be nice, fails to connect as a character. It is a low-flying comedy, lost in its own narrative and soon using up its resources.

Sexual Drive (2021)

Little sex, lots of food

[4/10 · 5 February 2021]

The director presents three stories that offer an erotic look related to food. It tries to find a humorous connection, but the stories, especially the first one, are too absurd. Better than in developing the stories, Rôta Yoshida is right in the sexual representation of the act of eating, which establishes a kind of ironic look at the primitive male point of view.

Archipelago (2021)

A pleasure for the senses

[9/10 · 4 February 2021]

The director proposes a trip through the province of Québec and the Saint Lawrence River, in a fictional-documentary that is fascinating. Two narrators, a man and a woman, reflect on the concept of land, of community. A philosophical reflection that is accompanied by a beautiful, absorbing work of animation, that sometimes is introduced in the archival images, along with an outstanding, hypnotic sound design. A beautiful docu-fiction in poetic form.

Pebbles (2021)

The desert as a symbol

[6/10 · 4 February 2021]

A journey through the desert to reach the village where father and son live, it becomes a representation of the family, patriarchal power and the division of the sexes. Despite a drunken and violent father, the son follows him (perhaps he will also become a drunken and violent father). There is good handling of the camera (in the long shot in the village), but the length is long for the scope of the narration.

Beginning (2020)

Medusa turns a muse

[9/10 · 4 February 2021]

The male narrative turned Medusa into a monster, while in her Greek origin she was a muse. For Yana's husband, rape implies a certain acceptance. This masculine reading marks the path of an uncomfortable, claustrophobic film that seems to expel the viewer but in reality traps him in its static, rigid planes. And in his splendid use of the off-camera, where that which threatens the main image seems to be. Splendid example of a thoughtful cinema.

A Corsican Summer (2021)

Summer in Corsica

[7/10 · 4 February 2021]

Pascal Tagnati's proposal is clear: a static camera to present various scenes that describe the summer stay in a small town in Corsica. From there, the dialogues and stories they compose may or may not catch the viewer. In my case, only at times, sometimes I enter the dynamics of the characters and at other times it leaves me indifferent. It has that feeling of being witnesses of lives whose persistence in memory ends up being ephemeral.