romanprv Reviews

Love & Death (2023)

Jesse & Elizabeth

[9/10 · 4 May 2023]

Rather accidently I started the first episode and was immediately stunned by Jesse Plemons' and Elizabeth Olsen's outstanding performances.

The emotional story telling is very detailed and intense and the viewer benefits greatly from the ability to participate in the situation -- otherwise it might feel a bit slow paced, I guess. Fans of "The Affair" should try this mini series, though this is some other approach.

The only weird thing I noticed here is that Jesse & Elizabeth make a rather odd couple in my view. I would never expect them to be in love in real life but well, maybe I'm just jealous on Jesse for having an affair with Elizabeth Olsen's gorgeous character.

The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

What a comedy

[3/10 · 3 May 2023]

I don't think I ever saw a AAA movie with such a vast number of logical flaws and story holes. Sure, a movie is not a scientific paper but there has to be some kind of consistency and plausibility to keep it enjoyable. I'm a huge fan of fantasy, science fiction and horror but this flick makes even me wonder how it would make sense at all.

As a fan of Russel Crowe I really wanted to like this film but I just sat there wondering how a demon powerful enough to possess a grown man is taken out of his body within seconds with a trick hardly a 6 year old would fall for. Further I admired the luxury the exorcist has to travel with his very own unique scooter(!) between countries. I also could not find an answer to the fact, that he still has to convince a mother to visit her possessed child while he was already announced by the Pope himself, travelled hundreds of miles (with his scooter) and the mother already accepted a priest in her home. To keep my amusement up, I witnessed an experienced underground worker lighting a small fire torch(!), instantly completely burning a bystanding co worker as if he was soaked in petrol. Moreover, no one can explain why the sister of a possessed child joyfully and carelessly listens to music in the room next door(!) while her younger brother suffers from possession, scratching his eyes out etc.

Sorry, even a die hard horror fan like me who likes to oversee logical flaws in favor of a good story is not able to enjoy this trash. I give 3 stars, because acting, directing and setting are decent, yet a total waste to a story book written by a bunch of ... okay, I'll spare the insult.

Alice, Darling (2022)

Shallow - more shallow - Alice, Darling

[5/10 · 3 February 2023]

Without a doubt, abusive relationships are an extremely important subject of our time. If sophisticated and served with the required depth, even movies might clear things up and maybe even change things for the better. Sadly, this is not the case here. This movie's main flaws are in it's shallowness and clearly one-sided view on a very sensitive topic:

(1) All we experience is Alice's suffering and incapability to break out of her relationship. There is a victim and a culprit -- that's how simple it is presented in a strictly subjective way. But monsters are made, not born. What about her boyfriend, why is he acting like this and how did he become who he is? This would have been one of the rare cases where flashbacks would have made sense. The film totally misses the opportunity to make the audience understand the mechanics and causes of this relationship by showing both sides of the story.

(2) We learn about Alice as a character who is suffering in an abusive relationship. That's it. But who and how was she before she met him, why did she fall in love with him and how did she change? It would have been a much more emotional impact, if the audience would have been able to compare her former self to the current situation.

(3) In an abusive relationship, there are only victims -- meaning the abuser is also suffering. Since her boyfriend suffers from personality disorder, he's a sick person. How does he suffer, what about his other relationships to friends etc.? Did he made some efforts to get healing? There's nothing like that in here, because that would not fit his awfully simplistic role: The evil torturer.

(4) Making a movie about mental health issues bears a great challenge: You have to explain it properly to the audience -- otherwise it will be misunderstood, with all the after effects. Not everyone, who criticizes his partner, likes a certain haircut on him or needs his confirmation from time to time, is a narcissist. This movie fails here completely and serves every wannabe psychologist very well.

Without a doubt, due to it's simplified and one-sided approach this movie will surely comfort a certain part of the audience. Anyone else, who is rally interested in this matter, will most likely be disgusted by it's shallowness. I don't think it was the intention of the creators but if you see it in the most negative way, this movie is sexistic even. A female abuser would have made it more interesting but here it's a white male in his 30s. Guess what.

Nevertheless and despite the several deep flaws in it's storyline etc., the movie is well shot. Acting is decent, especially Wunmi Mosaku and Charlie Carrick do a great job. I give 5/10 stars, because it's technically well done and picks up an important subject -- though it could tell it's shallow story in 30 minutes.

Troll (2022)

Disastrous

[2/10 · 12 December 2022]

If you do a disaster movie like King Kong or Godzilla in the year 2022, it'd better be skillfully done or at least has to show something new with an in depth approach. If you hoped to find a scandinavian take on this special genre you'd be highly disappointed, because (except the different appearance of King Kong) there is none. Instead, this film feels like one of the worst Roland Emmerich Hollywood movies.

The simple and silly story uses every cliche, all the outworn dialogues and well known scenarios we've seen hundreds of times before. Moreoever, it contains several logical flaws in plot and roleplay and even worse, this movie is extremely sexist. Every heroic, smart or meaningful character is female, while every male character is either dumb, evil or trivial. Is this how gender equality looks like? I don't think so.

Troll (2022) is almost a satire, that's how silly and battered it is. I appreciate the more abstract idea of King Kong but what happens here is an insult to any other movie of the genre.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

Indeed nothing new

[6/10 · 6 November 2022]

While the direction is flawless with wonderful shots of the french landscape, this movie has it's strongest deficits in narration and momentum. Vast parts of this 2,5 hour movie feel repetitive, expendable and merely too familiar as they have shown up in numerous other movies. Some scenes and especially dialogues strongly remind (unsurprisingly) of "Das Boot" (1981) -- one of the most successful german movies of all time.

Since the film not only illustrates the story of a young soldier but also contains some scenes of the ongoings on political levels, there was a chance to tell more about the historical background and also about the technology and weaponry used in WW1, on a non-documentary level. Sadly, both chances were missed and the narration focuses almost solely on the cruelty of war while drowning in well known side-plots and all too often heard dialogues. Unfortunately, it contains only a handful of deeply touching and genuine scenes. Moreover, the performance of the younger characters is questionable and the development of the main character is hardly visible. Nevertheless, this movie is good but not a must-see for sure.

Old Man (2022)

A Short Story

[5/10 · 17 October 2022]

This movie starts promising: An interesting setting and enigmatic characters let you hope for a 90 min play full of twisted dialogues and psychologically complex interaction, maybe warfare even. In a few moments, it skillfully achieves to build up an atmosphere of subtle, lovecraftian horror -- but only to tear it down a few seconds later with meaningless, down-to-earth dialogues. In general, this movie looses momentum very fast and makes you wish it would only run 30 min tops. It boils down to its ending and so it would have been a perfect fit for "Alfred Hitchcock presents". I recommend this for fans of Stephen Lang and die hard mystery movie lovers only.