efewebber Reviews

Ingrid (2009)

You'll never catch her (in any possible way)

[6/10 · 11 October 2009]

Must say I am a bit biased on this one as I know some of the people that appear on the screen, but anyway, I ll try to be balanced.

The movie premiered the other day in the Sitges international film festival (Spain). I watched it in the main screen, with a wonderful sound, large screen, the cast in the audience, etc.

The movie is weird, to say the least. The director, Eduard Cortes, spent a couple of years surfing social networks, mainly fotolog and myspace, in search for raw talent. Then he decided to make a movie clearly motivated by the web, and with most crew members taken from his incursions on the cyberworld. The idea sounds reasonable, but somehow someone forgot the script is an important part of a movie.

Its main character is played by professional actor, Eduard Farelo, and is one of the few people appearing on the screen I could relate to in some sense. After a divorce he meets the girl whose name entitles the movie, Ingrid, and quickly gets deeply bound to her unusual life, e.g. pain loving scenes,funny tattoos, strange parties with weirdos, etc.

Ingrid (played quite alright by Elena Serrano, specially if we consider it is the first time she has ever participated in a movie) is a girl who has a never clearly stated but traumatic past that somehow the movie tries to unveil little by little. Apparently she struggles to relieve her past psychological suffering by inflicting physical pain on her own body. On the other hand, her charm and love of life makes her the queen of her particular world.

I cannot recommend the movie vividly, mainly because half of the stuff in the script does not make any sense or is simply left unexplained, but at least I can say it may be worth watching for the music and some of the shots.

Both the music by Micka Luna (a self taught musician with an active myspace world) and the songs by the many bands that appear on the movie are worth the ticket (if the ticket costs less that 7 euros or so). At least I enjoyed watching the movie and listening to the music once I disconnected my brain from understanding or even mildly sharing the whereabouts of Ingrid.

Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (2009)

Lost in the sounds of Tokyo

[5/10 · 30 August 2009]

Having enjoyed greatly many of Isabel Coixet's movies (notably "Things I never told you" and "The secret life of words") I must say I was quite disappointed by this last movie.

It is difficult to point out what fails in this movie, but I certainly did not connect at all with its characters and situations. The movie is set in Tokyo, but contrary to "Lost in translation" here the movie tries to build half on Japanese characters and half on western ones, which really demands a deeper knowledge about japan. It is difficult for me to believe the Japanese part of the movie, first of all they all seem to speak very good English, which is, at least, difficult to believe, e.g. why would the Japanese girl, played by Kinko Rikuchi, speak good English at all?, why is the other guy working with the Spanish seller almost American? Must say maybe I am biased by my own experience with the Japanese people I met in japan, but certainly communication is in general much tougher than what Isabel portraits here.

Of course all the visual and sound stuff is really good, beautiful takes, nice sounds etc, but the story really does not make any sense to me from the beginning to the end. As the movie develops I got mostly bored, the sex scenes seem empty, repetitive and with no special purpose.

We do not get enough info to actually feel anything for any character, starting from the friendship between the guy recording sounds and the girl and ending by the business-man and his daughter. Everything seems fake to some extend and the whole story really appears to be built to serve as an excuse to go to Tokyo and enjoy the visual landscapes of the city (maybe just a documentary about the fish market would suffice).

Sadly, I must say I got nothing of what I was expecting: neither a nice insight into Japan, nor a situation I could connect with. I certainly would prefer to watch "Lost in Translation", read Amelie Nothomb or watch a good documentary about japan to see beautiful takes of the country, instead of spending two precious hours at the cinema.

In any case, I hope I ll enjoy better the next one from Coixet! (and I ll certainly keep enjoying Japanese food meanwhile)

The Oxford Murders (2008)

A worth seeing mystery movie

[8/10 · 19 January 2008]

Fresh out of the cinema I have a very good feeling about the movie. My first impression is that it is definitely worth seeing. Alex de la Iglesia (the director of for instance "El Dia de la Bestia" or "La comunidad") makes this time a mystery movie following the classical parameters. A nice plot, specially for those who like mathematics or logic in general, with intricate moves and very nice dialogs by John Hurt and Eliah Wood (who, by the way, looks like a pretty solid actor. I had only seen him playing Frodo and was a bit worried about him getting stuck on that character, not at all) who basically follow the classical thoughts about "the perfect murder" and in the philosophical search for absolute truths.

Being a fan of de la Iglesia, whose sense of humor is well known and pretty easy to recognize, I am quite happy to see that he is also able of making a genuine mystery film, with everything you expect to see on it, twisted arguments, funny characters ("Podorov", and of course, Dominique Pinon from, among others, Delicatessen) and a extremely good film-making, nice sequences, good mystery music, etc.

To me, being a bit of a geek, the mathematical references are too obvious, the series shown are too well known, they are nice nonetheless, but for instance why to talk about Fibonaci numbers (which were also in the 'Da Vinci Code' when one can talk about many other nice and funny series? On the other hand being a mystery movie's lover one always enjoys the sequences which are clear homage's to previous classics, pay attention and you'll enjoy.

Let me end up by mentioning the very nice work of Leonor Watling (you may have seen her before in, for example Almodovar's "Talk to her", her meaning she), who, apart from being a really good actress, of being extremely beautiful and attractive is also a pretty good singer! It was quite a pleasure, being Spanish myself, to see her playing an important role with such a great casting!

So, watch it by yourself, the first "serious" Alex de la Iglesia movie, and he does a pretty good job!

Invisibles (2007)

Forgotten stories of present invisible lives

[9/10 · 25 March 2007]

Five directors, Isabel Coixet, Fernando Leon de Aranoa, Wim Wenders, Mariano Barroso and Javier Corcuera in a movie produced by actor Javier Bardem. This movie presents five forgotten stories all of which are currently happening, in fact to be more precise these are not really forgotten but as the title emphasizes they are "invisible".

All are quite well treated and really well done, the first one by Coixet builds on the life of a bolivian girl working in Barcelona who sends money back home to a family devastated by an illness which no big pharmaceutical laboratory is trying to cure, "la chancha", and which affects millions of people who live in deep poverty.

The second one filmed by Wim Wenders gives voice to several women of the Democratic republic of Congo who have suffered the worst consequences of war.

The third film made by Fernando Leon is just fantastic, the drama of several thousand of children of the northern parts of Uganda. These children walk every night before the night falls to avoid being kidnapped by soldiers. Fernando Leon films, not avoiding the beautiful scenery of Uganda, many of the children and their stories and also those who take care of the shelters where "the night commuters" go looking for protection every night.

Mariano Barroso departs slightly from the usual documentary format to mix the way big pharmaceutical corporations work and the way many citizens of Africa suffer the consequences of their policies (or the lack of any policy).

The final piece by Javier Corcuera follows a group of farmers from Colombia who lost their lands to the "guerrilla" and other para military forces and which are now trying to gain them back to recover their lives.

This movie is a must. It doesn't matter if one wants to see it as a way of advertising one particular NGO, "MSF", the stories are there and they just present them to our eyes, maybe dreaming that in this way they will stop being "invisibles". In my case, they have completely achieved it. Hope you learn from it too.

Los 2 lados de la cama (2005)

Nice comedy about 3 fun guys and 3 serious girls!! (when will that change?)

[7/10 · 9 January 2006]

This is the second part of the successful 'Al otro lado de la cama'. Only two main characters have changed, now played by Vero Sanchez y Lucia Jimenez while before we had Paz Vega and Natalia Verbeke, and the structure is quite similar to the first one: 3 girls, actually 4,(the previous two plus Maria Esteve and Pilar Castro) and 3 guys (Willy Toledo, Ernesto Alterio y Alberto San Juan) in their thirties living in nice apartments in Madrid and having their love and sexual life entangled. This of course together with nice Latin (mostly from Spain) music performed by the actors.

To me the movie achieves its goal as a soft comedy directed to Spanish people in their thirties who can relate easily to the music they perform and also to some of the problems they face. However, it does not deviate at all from the structure of the previous one although now the relations between the couples are a bit different, and that means it is essentially the same movie with slightly different actors and situations.

Another point I would like to stress, and it is more of a complain to the script: why do the laughing lines fall into the guys? Can't the girls have also some good lines in this comedy? Come on, Veronica Sanchez and Lucia Jimenez deserved some comedy as well, I want to laugh with Spanish actresses in the same way I did with Carol Lombard in "To be or not to be"!. In this movie, all the "good" comedy lines are for the guys, which are OK in their roles (very similar, if not exactly the same, as in the previous one) and none for any of the girls (except a bit for Maria Esteve and Pilar Castro) which act in a way as simple beautiful filling in this comedy. Can't we have beautiful actresses who can make us laugh? Please, let's write better comedy scripts for these very talented bunch of girls!!

In any case the movie is worth seeing on a Sunday afternoon!

Camarón (2005)

Great opportunity to learn about a legend!!

[7/10 · 4 November 2005]

The figure of Camaron has long deserved to have a good movie made of it, the greatest voice of flamenco, a great "cantaor" that revolutionized flamenco and whose life ended tragically.

The movie is worth seeing for those who want to see Camaron and enjoy his art and have a rough approach to his life. The actor who plays Camaron, a fellow from Barcelona apparently, is very convincing in the role, even though he is synchronized with the original voice in the singing scenes. Some roles are also nice to see, Paco de Lucia, Tomatito, "La Chispa" (what a pleasure to see Veronica Sanchez on screen, so lively and beautiful), and specially his relation to his friend Lucas.

The only things I missed were dates and places, when was he born? when did he go to Madrid? and so on, no explicit dates are given along the movie which would help frame Camaron in the recent history of Spain.

To me, and I really like Camaron, it was definitely worth seeing, a couple of hours in the life of the genius, with his music and the guitar of Tomate and Paco de Lucia, following his first steps in Madrid ... but somehow I still think there is a better movie to be made of such a star!!

The Secret Life of Words (2005)

Secret's Poetry

[9/10 · 23 October 2005]

I went to see this last Isabel Coixet's movie three hours ago and its beautiful and powerful story is still bouncing in my head... the sea, Tim Robbin's eyes, Hanna's beautiful voice and her intense way of holding her feelings, Simon's delightful food in the middle of nowhere..

The way it is conceived is somehow simple, a mysterious woman, in my opinion extremely well resolved by Sarah Polley, happens to arrive to a remote place where a bunch of loners have just had a deep dramatic experience. As explicitly mentioned in the movie, 'God makes them..' ('Dios los cria'.., in Spanish), and so as she gets there she expands and relaxes in this environment where no one really expects anything from anybody.

The takes are so beautiful, the thousand different feelings that the same isolated landscape in the middle of the sea projects through the movie is unbeatable. The cast of characters is solid, and the supporting characters are developed enough so as to allow the viewer to understand, in basic terms, what brought them there.

Finally, the use of Tom Waits for the final transition is sublime! but, yeah, how could it not be? Tom Waits's music is the music for these films where the very deep of the heart is at stake.

So, yes, I do recommend this movie for anyone who cares or wants to care or would like to be able to care about people who have been profoundly wounded at some point. And this, I am afraid, hopefully includes you. Thanks Isabel.

The Sea Inside (I) (2004)

...but I always wake up..and I always wish I was dead

[9/10 · 23 January 2005]

Mar Adentro's essence is contained in that sentence, the fact that a person, although feeling and, in general terms, having a life, may deeply wish not to exist. In the case of Ramon Sanpedro his illness, he was a quadruplegic for around 27 years, made him decide to be dead. The beauty of this film mainly resides in its powerful focus on the influence Ramon had on the people around him, the life he was giving to them, while keeping always his desire to leave this earth, and his, to him, sad existence. There is no global moral in this story, he doesn't want to talk about what everybody should do but just what he wants his life to be, part of his family understands, the other doesn't, as actually happens with most problems everywhere. Amenabar, although very young and maybe still a bit naive in his approach to feelings, manages to write a wonderful movie about life, freedom, love, and eventually the ultimate meaning of dignity. Javier Bardem performance does not need any adjectives, just go and see it for yourself. A must.