val-soph Reviews

Russian Consul (2024)

Being a piece of **** does not have nationality

[8/10 · 25 March 2024]

Unexpected movie to say the least.

My mother insisted to go see this movie, and to be honest, I wasn't too excited about it, but to please her, we went. Being a Serb myself, and watching a piece in Serbian production, I expected to see another story on Serbian suffering in Kosovo (a common theme), but the movie really surprised me.

It's a story on hatred and a story on suffering, and it doesn't have a face. At times I loved the Serb and the Albanian, and at times I hated both. The funeral scene at the end profoundly touched me. In the end, we both suffer while we burry our dead. Our mind gets consumed by ideas that serve the interests of the malicious few, but it is us regular humans that pay the price in blood.

Before Sunrise (1995)

When Disappointed in Love, I Come Back to This Movie

[10/10 · 7 January 2024]

I don't even remember how many times I have seen this movie. I seem to come back to it any time I go through a heartbreak, and this time is no different. It reminds me of what it's like to love someone when you're young - you don't think about the circumstances or how you're going to do it, you just love.

This year, I discovered that this movie was based on a story that happened to the director. But he learned, before his second sequel came out, that the girl he had met had died in a motorcycle crash in 1994, before 'Before Sunrise' was even released. That really made a dent in my heart. How poignant. The fact that he still made 'Before Midnight', imagining their lives together, really made my heart whole. 10/10.

Breaking the Waves (1996)

Love Twisting the Fabric of Reality

[8/10 · 6 January 2024]

Right off the bat, we are thrown into Lars' fantastic world where love is the highest moral good. It's the premise that colors the whole narrative, making us imagine a whole new world...

Bess is so poignantly naive, it's impossible not to empathize with her. She got me right in the feels, I wanted so badly to rescue her, and shower her with that very same love she was so freely giving away to others. Childlike but never pathetic, faithful but never fanatic, she goes with the flow, molding the reality for herself. Her love is unconditional, motherly, sweet, and scary. She does not question; instead, she reacts from deep within - her soul-wrenching truth is an offering to all of us who have watched this movie. It swallows us whole.

Don't Look Up (2021)

Climate change is the comet

[7/10 · 25 December 2021]

I initially thought this was about the pandemic and the vaccines... Instead, this is about climate change ( Kay is a huge activist, check his twitter bio). Is climate change like a comet about to destroy the Earth? Well, while we can peer-review comets trajectory calculations, it's not as simple with climate change. The margin of error is too big.

Cuties (2020)

Your hatred towards this movie made me watch it

[8/10 · 22 December 2021]

The movie is horrifying on purpose, don't you get it? The camera is the male gaze. The girls (children) are trying to fit in, they don't even know what those dances represent, it is not sexual to them. They see singers, dancers on YT and think that's what is cool and that's what means to be a woman. Those are their role models.

Don't you get it? We're to blame for CUTIES even existing. We glorify sexual behaviors and are shocked when kids imitate us. We internalize misogyny and then are surprised when kids do so too. Are we blind??

Luckily the movie shines the light at the end of the tunnel... Amy realizes that she doesn't have to be exactly like her mother but she also doesn't have to be a twerker to fit in (remember: she's horrified at the stares she's getting during the competition!). And maybe her mother is not that bad either.

Le coeur fantôme (1996)

Never to be abandoned again

[8/10 · 20 May 2018]

This movie tells the story of a man grappling with separation, which triggers an emotional response linked to his past. The sacrifices he makes to overcome his fear of abandonment ultimately lead to a 'phantom heart'.

On Body and Soul (2017)

If splendid was a movie, this would be it

[10/10 · 20 May 2018]

This is an encounter between soulmates, in Plato's terms. The divine is clearly present, using dreams to lead them through the natural world.

The end of the movie brings a sentiment of a purpose fulfilled.

Exceptional.

The Captain (2017)

If you want to test man's character, give him power

[8/10 · 5 April 2018]

An interesting movie for 2 main reasons: 1) it shows the fragilities of the Nazi Germany towards the end of the war, with many German soldiers deserting the army (something nobody talks about) and 2) it shows the depths of the human ego and the decadence of character when power is given arbitrarily

Two Irenes (2017)

From an observer to a protagonist of a double life

[10/10 · 22 March 2018]

The two Irenes decide to experiment the double life of their father.

Just Like Our Parents (2017)

Rejecting the liquid modernity

[10/10 · 19 March 2018]

A struggle between family values and the ultra-modern society.

The New Girlfriend (2014)

From a dull beginning, to a great film!

[9/10 · 9 July 2015]

i am surprised to see negative reviews on this film. 1 star? I wonder what could have been so bad in the movie to deserve 1 star...

The first 20 minutes of the film are rather dull but as the film develops, the mystery unveils and the clichés disappear. Isild Le Besco (Laura) is fairly bad which is why the movie is so difficult to watch in the beginning, unfortunately.

Roman Duris (David) and Anais Demoustier (Claire) are excellent together. I could feel every line, every movement, every thought.

I felt deeply overwhelmed when the film ended. The trailer is perfect, as it doesn't reveal too much. Please do not read reviews of the movie with spoilers, you will certainly lose the surprise effect of the plot.

9/10

9 stars because of the beginning, otherwise WELL DONE Francois Ozon!

Ordinary People (2009)

Only for those who seek a bit further from a movie, not only entertainment

[8/10 · 5 July 2015]

The movie is practically motionless and with no apparent story. However. the weight of the events is present.

The title "Ordinary people" represents perfectly the content of the movie. We sometimes wonder how it was possible to murder your neighbors, people who probably did nothing wrong to you; how it was possible to take part in a systematic cleansing without standing up against it, and just because somebody with little or no authority gave you orders to do it.

The story is very similar to Schoah - can anybody explain mass killings of Jews during the WWII? Ordinary people killing ordinary people. It will always remain a mystery, as suggested by the movie.