faornelas Reviews

Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

Stop messing with Jurassic Park!

[5/10 · 3 June 2022]

I am a big fan of the franchise, specially the two original films directed by Spielberg and based on Chriton's books. Jurassic Park is the film of my childhood, but enough is enough.

The last two films lost it way completely. This one has a couple of really nice action sequences, but leaves us with the feeling there are more locusts and humans in scene than dinosaurs, despite the myriad of species featured, they get displicent attention and really short screen time in a plot deficient story.

It is sad to have to admit it, but it's high time they leave the franchise in peace. I hope this is the final one. The only reason I give it an average 6 is for the return of the original cast, the dylophosaurs and pure sentimental value.

But this was quite disappointing and one more missed opportunity.

Wolfwalkers (2020)

For your consideration

[10/10 · 13 January 2021]

It's about time for this amazing Irish team of creators, who has been nominated 4 times for an Oscar, to be finally recognized with an Academy Award. Tired of seeing Disney/Pixar wins year after year no matter how good or not so good their films are. What a magnificent film this is, full of creation, magic and emotion! Give it an Oscar right away!

I Was at Home, But... (2019)

A film in one shot

[5/10 · 6 November 2020]

The last shot of the film summarises the two ways the spectator may feel by the end of this film. Either you will be sleeping as the dog, or clueless as the dunkey. The only thing that is worthy are the beautiful shots and images.

Operation Carwash: A Worldwide Corruption Scandal Made in Brazil (2017)

What about the others?

[6/10 · 14 February 2020]

Althought it is a quite well done film, I am still waiting for the promissed sequel showing the investigation and arrest of politics from different political parties. But this is never going to happen because like Lava Jato (car wash operation), this film was made by anonimous producers to demonize and destroy just the left parties of Brazil as if there werent right wing politicians involved in corruption (Aécio Neves, Michel Temer and now Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the actual president)

March for Freedom (2019)

An irresponsible movement

[1/10 · 14 February 2020]

The documentary is not about democracy or "freedom", it's about a movement named MBL, a bunch of irresponsible and inconsequent kids who took advantage of a critical moment in Brazil's recent history to agitate society against a democratically elected president without measuring the consequences, paving the way for the rise of the extreme right and the disastrous election of Jair Bolsonaro, which none of them support anymore 1 year after his election.

Angels in America (2003)

Why isn't this on top 250?

[10/10 · 15 June 2019]

I wonder why this series are not in the Top 250 best Tv series of all times. I mean, John Addams was a one season only mini series too, and it appears in the ranking.

Cyrano, My Love (2018)

A French "Shakespeare in Love"

[8/10 · 14 June 2019]

A beautiful and fun film that much resembles the Oscar winning film "Shakespeare in Love", to homage a great French auteur as well as Paris wonderful locations.

The Mechanism (2018–2019)

Neither left nor right. Let's face it! Unfortunately, corruption is all over it!

[8/10 · 1 June 2019]

Just reading through the different reviews here and you can get an idea how the audience is divided (or lost) accusing the series of being biased to the left or right political parties propaganda. But this is because the country's population is divided and blinded now and cannot see anything beyond their political parties agenda and ideologies

What the series show in reality, specially in the second season, is that corruption in Brazil dates as far as democracy and that, unfortunately, it is not an exclusivity of the left or right parties, but all over the country's political system.

But by doing this, saying everybody is corrupt, it fails to please both sides interests, because if corruption is all over it, there are no victims or villains, everybody is to blame.

But contemporary Brazilians are unable to see this, just because the polarization is convenient for both sides, and politics became passion, just like soccer in Brazil, with supporters hating and accusing each other all the time, unable to see or recognize their own team mistakes.

As for the series quality, it is a quite enjoyable well crafted and well acted series, although it lingers the events a little too long sometimes for dramatic purposes, or the lack of new events in the Car Wash operation.

Watch it with an open mind and get over your own political convictions.

Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (2005)

For Your Consideration

[9/10 · 16 November 2006]

"Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus" is Brazil's official entry for the 2007 Academy Awards Foreign Language Film competition.

It will probably not win, for it is too arty for the Oscars taste (it won a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival), but it definitely deserves a nomination.

Beyond its apparent simplicity, you will discover an overwhelming tale of friendship, with very decent performances (specially by João Miguel) and exquisite cinematography.

A must see for everyone who appreciates good cinema!

P.s: I also recommend another new Brazilian gem - O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias (2006)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Crouching Entertainment, Hidden Art

[10/10 · 7 April 2001]

Some may like a movie for its entertaining tenor. Others do it for its art. "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" comes to remind us all that a motion picture can perfectly combine these two elements, can both entertain and enchant.

Director Ang Lee maestry takes us to a journey through a visionary world of tigers and dragons where our imagination, our emotions and dreams come true. The cinematography is magic and sublime, the soundtrack epic and triumphant, the performances truly emotional (specially by Michelle Yeoh) and the story..., the story is simply extraordinary! An unforgettable cinematic experience.

Behind every scene, every take, from the most outstanding battles to the most introspective ones, there is hidden poetry declaimed by means of images. You just need to develop an eye for this in order to find out what a best picture is about.

Chocolat (2000)

Simply Delicious!

[8/10 · 18 March 2001]

It is right that "Chocolat" reminds a lot of "Babette's Feast" (Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film). Both stories are about tradition and how everything can be changed by just experiencing new things (in both cases food prepared by a foreign woman). But, although traditional, "Chocolat" stills an original story. And "one taste is all it takes" to like this delicious motion picture.

There are plenty of sweets to be delighted in "Chocolat": the story by itself, its original score and art direction, Judi Dench's performance; and the magnificent, and wonderful, and pretty Juliette Binoche, whose character, Vianne Rocher, is also part of a tradition and should be set free. And her chocolates....!!! But do not expect a comedy to surfeit of laughs, or a romance to surfeit of love, thought it is more like a drama, to find grace and reach satisfaction.

Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Inspiration!

[10/10 · 12 October 2000]

65 million years ago, dinosaurs became extinct. In 1993, imagination, science and technology came together, bringing these remarkable creatures back from extinction in a spectacular motion picture that became a worldwide phenomenon: Jurassic Park. A Steven Spielberg film starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough, Jurassic Park is a breathtaking adventure that opens the gate to a lost world, the incredible world of the dinosaurs.

On a remote island in the west coast of Costa Rica, a venture capitalist called John Hammond figured out an astonishing recovering and cloning technique to re-create dinosaurs from DNA fragments preserved in amber. He started a company called InGen, which placed the genetically engineered dinosaurs in a theme park called Jurassic Park. Before opening the attraction to the public, Hammond invites a top paleontologist, a paleobotanist, a mathematician/theorist, and his two eager grandchildren to experience the park and help calm anxious investors. However, their visit is anything but tranquil as the park security system breaks down and the prehistoric creatures break out... This is the original story of Jurassic Park, a simple but well developed idea based not only on the best-selling novel by Michael Crichton, but also on truly scientific evidences.

It presents a world lost by time and by the human kind, a world where nature and its inhabitants used to live in perfect harmony. In order to evoke this lost world, Jurassic Park makes use of striking visual and sound effects that depicts faithfully these extraordinary creatures which were the dinosaurs, how they were and how they lived; and a wonderful soundtrack composed and conducted by John Williams, which is the spirit of this unforgettable adventure, one of the greatest successes in the history of Cinema, winner of three Academy Awards.

This incredible motion picture goes 6,5 million years back of evolution to inspire millions of people today and give us what we humans must need: hope. Because although dinosaurs appear to be the real creatures, we are the villains of this story which is life. And as the birds fly away at the end of the film it is time to think about our own existence and our place in the world habitat. Nature cannot be contained, cannot be controlled by men. `Life finds a way'. As Spielberg said during filming of this biogenetics adventure `My interest is in making a good movie that honors the existence of dinosaurs'. And he really made it!

Being John Malkovich (1999)

Being creative!

[10/10 · 7 March 2000]

What would you expect from a movie in which someone finds, in the seventh and a half floor of a building, a kind of portal to the mind of the actor John Malkovich that makes it possible, for those who enter, to see the world through John Malkovich's eyes, for fifteen minutes? A lot of creativity, isn't it? That's it! I'm not kidding! This movie really exists and it is called "Being John Malkovich". And, if there is one movie that we can call creative, this is the one.

"Being John Malkovich" is probably the most creative film ever made. Directed by the video maker Spike Jonze, it will prove to you that being your own self is the best idea, even if you ever wanted to be someone else, with a brilliant and extremely original screenplay that surprises you from the beginning until the last minute of the film. For example, what about John Malkovich being John Malkovich? Or being John Cusack being John Malkovich, manipulating a human being as if he were a puppet? Got confused? Watch the movie and you will ask yourself how can a person create such a creative movie! You will not believe in what you will see, specially if you see it through your own eyes!

American Beauty (1999)

An American Beauty! Look closer...

[10/10 · 6 February 2000]

Bought by Steven Spielberg for Dream Works Pictures, the screenplay of "American Beauty" was given to the British director Sam Mendes (this is his first movie) with just one condition: "Don't change even a line". Result: the movie is being acclaimed by American and international press and, due to its favoritism (American Beauty is the winner of three Golden Globes: best screenplay, director and picture), it is being considered the motion picture that will probably win the Oscar for best picture of the year, in March 26th. "American Beauty" is one of those unusual motion pictures, that eventually come up to show that the industry of American cinema is not restricted to commercial productions to be consumed by the public, without any sense of criticism.

It is a narrative, starring Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening, that concerns the appearances of our lives, based on the relationship of an American family. What the movie try to and does demonstrate is that, in fact, nothing is what appears to be. (that is why the movie tagline "... look closer" makes sense) In "American Beauty", almost all the characters pretend or seem to be what they really don't are. All except Lester Burnham, the character performed by Kevin Spacey, who, with nothing to lose, do vanish all appearances, starting to behave like a teenager, as a try to escape from the familiar coma. Slowly, this brilliant story discard the apparent American beauty. There is no more American way of life, there is just life. And the beauty is found in the most ordinary thing of life. We just need to look closer. And this is the essence of the movie, this is what makes it special, an excellent American film, with excellent screenplay, direction and performances.

"American Beauty" has many in common with the movie "The Ice Storm", specially for the way it depicts the family relationship: with coldness, lack of dialog, and conjugal crisis. Both pictures consist in a social critic to this institution, which is the family. The American family, to be more exactly. But that is all, because Ang Lee's film is a serious story, full of metaphors, that takes place in the Nixon Era, a moment of changes in the social situation of America. "American Beauty" is a light film, which constantly sways between comedy and drama, and takes place in a suburb of contemporary America.

Hollywood makes history with "American Beauty", marking a time of turning its attention to more mature and better written scripts. Now, it is going to be perfect if the public accepts this new style of American movie and start to face cinema as an art and not a mere entertainment. So, take a look! We don't see a film like this every time we go to the movies.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Eyes wide open to our feelings reality.

[9/10 · 30 November 1999]

Don't close your eyes to this motion picture. Eyes Wide Shut really deserves your attention, as the Academy Awards'. Not because this is the last production by director Stanley Kubrick, but due to the fact that Kubrick (2001: A Space Odyssey) really did a great motion picture. Eyes Wide Shut is a movie that explores the psychological roots of the human feelings, concerning a very delicate subject, which is the treason. The eroticism present in the movie is not gratuitous. There is a purpose to be there and the purpose is to make us think about many things that surround our lives: from the prostitute contaminated with AIDS to the man who uses his own daughter to gain money, the movie constantly gives us something to think about. And there is a lot of time to think since the movie is very long, sometimes tedious. But nothing that we can not tolerate. Moreover, Kubrick presents a natural vision from one of the biggest myths of the human kind: the sex. In Eyes Wide Shut the sexuality is treated with extremely naturalness.

It seems that Kubrick's last piece of art have great chances to receive some nominations for the next Academy Awards and succeed in some categories: Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman acted extremely well, so were the supporting performances, the art direction and costume design are superb, the soundtrack is excellent, collecting some great musics that fit perfectly in the screen, following the story according to the movie plot; not to mention, of course, the direction. So, keep your eyes wide open.

Midnight (1998)

A powerful and dramatic motion picture for the end of the millennium.

[9/10 · 6 November 1999]

O Primeiro Dia (The First Day) is the long version, edited for cinema, of the short film Meia Noite (Midnight), produced by Daniela Thomas and Walter Salles for the series "2000 seem by", created by the French cultural broadcast television Art and the producer Haut et Court , in order to collect different views, from 10 distinct countries, concerning the end of the millennium.

With a powerful and dramatic story, full of great performances, extraordinary cinematographic takes and metaphors, O Primeiro Dia represents the obscure but hopeful view of two young, but experienced, Brazilian film makers: Daniela Thomas and Walter Salles. In their new motion picture the destiny brings two different people, from two distinct "worlds", together, as the fireworks fall over Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach and the new millennium approachs bringing hope to everyone. The first day of the new millennium is presented as a hope for a new life, for a new world, in which there won't be no more violence, poverty or even sadness. But this hope can die as soon as it is born, revealing a first day as obscure and sad as the last day , proving that all the years are and will ever be the same, unless we change. Here, in Brazil, we have a saying "don't leave for tomorrow what you can do today". This is the great message of the film. As one of the characters says in the movie "If there is one day to decide something in life, this day is today".

American History X (1998)

American History X is one of the best motion pictures ever produced concerning the prejudice and one of the most marking movies of all times!

[10/10 · 19 May 1999]

American History X is one example of motion picture that can be called cinematographic art! It is absolutely not a film for those who go to the movies just for fun; it is, in fact, for those who see art as an object of reflection about our world, ourselves and our lives. It is a motion picture in which the image says more than a thousand words, concerning a serious and real drama that affects not only the America but the whole world: the prejudice, one of the most irrational attitudes of human kind; proving that some legacies must end. It is even better due to the remarkable performance of Edward Norton as the former neo-nazi skinhead Derek Vinyard. American History X is one of the best motion pictures ever produced concerning the prejudice and one of the most marking movies of all times!

Central Station (1998)

A masterpiece that makes me proud of being Brazilian!

[10/10 · 23 March 1999]

Congratulations to director Walter Salles and all who contributed to the production of Central Station (Central do Brasil), a masterpiece of Brazilian cinema and the entire world! Central Station is a perfect motion picture: all the elements of the movie are perfectly integrated compounding a cinematographic production with inestimable quality, which reflects the professional talent of Walter Salles direction. By the way, talent is something that do not lack in Central Station: with an extremely emotive and original screenplay by João Emanuel Carneiro and Marcos Bernstein, extraordinary performances by Vinícius de Oliveira and two of the best Brazilian actresses, Fernanda Montenegro and Marília Pêra, a wonderful dramatic score composed by Antonio Pinto and Jaques Morelenbaume, and an spectacular cinematography directed by Walter Carvalho, besides other high quality cinematographic elements, Central Station is a motion picture that portrays faithfully and with an humanitarian reality the dramatic and touching journey of Dora and Josué to the heart of Brazil, and the life of millions of Brazilians!

Central Station is an important chapter of the Brazilian cinematographic history for marking the top of the growth of Brazilian cinema and consolidating Brazil as a great source of cinematographic production. All the awards conquered and its international reputation are merits that belongs to the quality of the movie and the spectacular work of all its cast and crew to bring it to reality. Central Station is a masterpiece that makes me proud of being Brazilian, an absolute landmark in the history of cinema!

The Truman Show (1998)

The Truman Show is a touching story of a lifetime that shows how insensible the human being can be and makes us think about our own lives!

[9/10 · 23 March 1999]

On the air, unaware, being watched by the whole world! It's show time! It is the Truman Show! A touching story of a lifetime that shows how insensible the human being can be, manipulating a man's life and feelings, confining him to a surreal world where life can even be perfect but is lack of sensibility; just because it makes good television. With this extremely inspiring and original screenplay by Andrew Niccol, spectacular art direction by Richard L. Johnson and costume design by Marilyn Matthews, a wonderful dramatic score composed by Burkhard Dallwitz, a show of interpretations by Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank and Ed Harris as Christof, and a remarkable direction by Peter Weir; the Truman Show is an entertaining and dramatic cinematographic production that makes us think about our own lives. Are they really true or they are full of actors and frustrations? The decision between the true life and The Truman Show belongs to us.

Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Shakespeare in Love is a cinematographic masterpiece that corresponds to a Shakespearian production!

[10/10 · 15 March 1999]

Shakespeare in Love is one of those motion pictures that reach the perfection! It is a movie concerning the art of representing, precisely the life and art of the best English dramatist and one of the best poets of all times: William Shakespeare. All its elements, from the original screenplay to the editing process, are high quality: the art direction is spectacular, capturing faithfully the historical and theatrical context of Shakespeare era and creating great stages where artists represent with extraordinary talent; the cinematography also seems to be acting since it produces incredible dramatic sequences along with the musical score for its dynamics; and the extravagant costume design and makeup are features that enrich the visual quality of this motion picture. Finally, it is important to mention that the movie's perfect combination of all its elements could only be possible due to an experienced direction. Shakespeare in Love is a cinematographic masterpiece that corresponds to a Shakespearian production!

The Thin Red Line (1998)

The Thin Red Line is a touching life lesson in a war between life and death!

[10/10 · 4 March 1999]

The story is much more than just a tale of men fighting a war in which some survive and others do not, in The Thin Red Line every man fights his own war. This motion picture is completely different from any other concerning war ever produced, for its deep psychoanalysis of those who are submitted to the horrors of war, their feelings and emotions. It doesn't matter who you are , in a war all are innocent like a child. Despite its casual monotony for its 172 minutes of projection, it is a touching life lesson in a war between life and death, with an original story and an spectacular cinematography, that demonstrates how useless and senseless a war can be if we can live in peace. The Thin Red Line between peace and war.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)

Almost nothing has survived from the novel by Michael Crichton in The Lost World!

[8/10 · 26 February 1999]

I don't know why The Lost World producers insist in telling that this motion picture is based on the novel by Michael Crichton if almost nothing has survived from his remarkable story in this motion picture. "When I first heard that Michael was going to write the book and that he was thinking of calling it The Lost World, I was thrilled because I'm a big fan of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's book The Lost World. I was compelled by the idea of being inside a prehistoric world that exists today - not behind electrified fences, not in a theme park, but in a world without the intervention of man. I thought, 'Wow, what a great story.' If I hadn't found a story I was interested in, Jurassic Park would have remained just a nice memory for me," says Steven Spielberg. However, the bestseller novel The Lost World by Michael Crichton, which is really a great story and the perfect sequel to Jurassic Park, was "ignored" by the motion picture producers and the cinematographic adaptation of the original story became a running and screaming breathtaking adventure with amazing visual and sound effects, and an extraordinary soundtrack, but with a little convincing story, completely different from the proposal of Michael Crichton for The Lost World, disappointing everybody who had read his novel. A lost story concerning a Lost World!