carmo-5 Reviews

The Five Devils (2022)

Summary: A chronologically confusing film for no reason to be so.

[2/10 · 2 September 2023]

According to Wikipedia, part of the filming took place in Isère (France), in the commune Le Bourg-d'Oisans and at Lac Bleu, as well as in Île-de-France. I couldn´t figure out why this movie is called The Five Devils. I read somewhere else that the name of the film relates to the five mountains nearby the place the action takes place. I do not think the landscape plays an important role in the film and, definitely has nothing to do with the story being told. Perhaps a more suitable title would be The Scent of Things, considering 'scent' is a strong issue throughout the whole film, which attracts our attention but does not contribute much for clarifying the development of the plot per se. If I have not read a short description given in Mubi about the story, the whole movie would have been even more confusing to me. Vicky´s father, Jimmy, had not seen his sister Julia for 10 years. From what I remember, Vicky and Julia had not met before, up to the day Julia arrives at the family (Joanne, Jimmy and Vicky) house and the story starts.

My Days of Mercy (2017)

A film with Mercy and mercy

[8/10 · 19 August 2023]

Watching the movie My Days of Mercy (2017) was a great surprise. I decided to watch it because its title attracted my attention, mainly because it left me confused and, as a consequence, promoted my curiosity in an attempt to understand the reasons for my confusion. It is an unpretentious film, with a very interesting plot and with a small group of very good actors - the trio of two sisters and one brother (Amy Seimetz, Ellen Page and Charlie Shotwell) is really convincing as a family. My initial confusion regarding its title was clarified as the film unfolded, making its two possible interpretations noticeable in the context of the story.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017–2023)

Trying to become a famous comedian without being a comedian.

[7/10 · 27 May 2023]

Since the first episode I did not sympathize much with Mrs. Maisel i.e., the Midge character. Although incorporating a great deal of the women values in the 50-60s, she does not take them very seriously, which can be understandable. However, since the beginning she acts as having two goals in life: a strong focus on herself as well as pursuing a career as comedian, no matter what. Her efforts to becoming a successful comedian were the support for the development of the 5 seasons of the series. Surprisingly, in my opinion Mrs. Maisel is not funny at all. Her type of humor can be very caustic and sometimes quite offensive. Usually she uses as the source of her jokes to pick on or degrade people she is related to and not only that, but also identifying them, which can be very unfair. As a character she was very disappointing to me, mostly due to her selfishness, lack of empathy and by irritatingly pushing herself into being a famous comedian without even being a comedian. Except for Mrs. Maisel, the series is entertaining and good.

Inside Man (II) (2022)

Messy story and incoherent characters.

[1/10 · 11 May 2023]

The TV miniseries Inside Man (2022) has four episodes, each with a duration time of approximately 1 hour. I chose to watch this miniseries for three reasons: (1) it has only four episodes and nowadays I am short of time, (2) Stanley Tucci, a very good actor in my opinion, is part of the cast and (3) it is distributed by the BBC and Netflix - based on my experience usually everything with the involvement of BBC has good quality. Unfortunately this time Inside Man was an unexpected bad surprise mostly due to the unbelievably mediocre script. The roles played by all the actors in the series are complete nonsense; they all have implausible behaviors to the point of being totally pathetic. The story as a whole is ridiculous and messy, having situations and reactions entirely out of the common sense, lacking coherence as well as explanations for justifying the silly behavior most of the characters exhibit throughout the four episodes. Due to the bad script the whole dynamic of the characters becomes very irritating, to say the least.

The World to Come (2020)

A frozen world

[7/10 · 24 April 2023]

The story told in the film The World to Come (2020) can be seen as a love story that has its beginning in the year 1856 and focuses on two couples. One of them already established in a farm and the other arriving with the intent of establishing in a nearby farm they rented. Since the beginning it is quite obvious who are the characters who would go through the process of falling love with each other. The rural region is quite unattractive and deprived of the basics for a comfortable life, although the newcomers seemed to be used to a better life. Since the beginning the two wives got along very well which, somehow, paved the way that took both into having an affair. Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby are very good in the roles they play - it is a fact though that their characters are much more interesting and fitted to each other than those of their husbands, interpreted by Casey Affleck and Christopher Abbott respectively. I think this is a film that would attract those who live a conformed miserable emotional life and have no means for changing it.

Stateless (2020)

Impressive story and impressive acting

[10/10 · 15 March 2023]

The Australian 6-episode miniseries called Stateless (2019), is excellent. Excellence is due to the performance of the many actors who participate in the series. Particularly noteworthy are the convincing performances by Yvonne Strahovski, Fayssal Bazzi and Asher Keddie in a story whose main setting is an immigrant detention center located in an isolated and arid region of Australia. The emotional charge involved in unfolding the stories associated with the various individuals who are detained at the center or who work there is tremendous. It's a series without any distraction and is as dry as the setting in which the story unfolds - the whole focus is on the direction and the excellent work of the participating actors.

The Heat of the Day (1989 TV Movie)

A boring movie

[5/10 · 15 March 2023]

The Heat of the Day (1989) is a British film where the story takes place during the World War II, partly in London and, to a lesser extent, in Ireland. The film is based on a homonymous novel, published in 1949, written by Elizabeth Bowen and its screenplay is due to Harold Pinter. The film has espionage ingredients, but not very well explained. In my view most of the actors have quite an artificial and unconvincing performance in many scenes. However, the actress Imelda Staunton, who plays a small part in the film, in her two short scenes was able to upgrade the film to a higher level and after that, the film went back to being confused and aimless. In short, it's a boring movie.

City of Trees (2019)

Very good movie

[10/10 · 15 March 2023]

I´ve just seen City of Trees (2019) in the YouTube. The film is relatively short (1h30m approximately) and it was a very good surprise to the point that, when it ended, I felt like watching it again. It is that sort of film that puts you into a very good frame of mind about yourself and about the whole world. All the actors are great and so is everything else in the film. Dialogues and the way the whole story develops seem very natural i.e., the way they should be. Many thanks to all who took part in the project - you all did a very good job indeed! And particularly, congratulations to Alexandra Swarens who wrote, directed and acted in the movie, besides being one of the executive producers.

The Salvation (2014)

The Salvation has no salvation

[4/10 · 13 March 2023]

The film The Salvation (2014) made available by Netflix has a script already trivialized by the many other films already made that share the same basic story, with minor variations. It is impossible to understand the reason for its production. The participation of the Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen can be explained considering that the film is a co-production involving Denmark, UK and South Africa, with direction and script by Danes. The actress Eva Green had a secondary role, without any depth, which is quite surprising, considering how talented she is and how much she could have contributed to the film by a playing a good role and improving the story. Mads Mikkelsen was good in his role, as usual.

The Current War (2017)

Fiat Lux

[5/10 · 13 March 2023]

The movie The Current War (2017) is a pretty boring movie to watch, even though the subject is of interest to everyone i.e., electricity. The three inventors and researchers, Westinghouse, Edison and Tesla had a fierce competitive character and the three decidedly do not "fit" in a 1h47 min film. Each of them carried out research in different scientific areas, with the production of a considerable number of contributions. To do justice to the research conducted and their respective egos, each of them would deserve a series in which the other two were just supporting characters. It is a film where the competition between the three becomes very boring for those who watch the clash.

The Makeover (2013 TV Movie)

About influencer and influencee

[6/10 · 13 March 2023]

The Makeover (2013) is a Hallmark film and by knowing that, even before starting to watch it, we can already infer that it will follow the Hallmark line of films that can invariably be characterized as: cute, well behaved and with a happy ending. While this is so about The Makeover, the film has some other ingredients that make it a little more interesting than some other Hallmark films, particularly the underlying discussion about the relationship between verbal expression and the characterization of the social group an individual belongs to. The title is very suggestive and characterizes the film well.

News of the World (2020)

Being a newsreader in the 1870s and looking after a young girl.

[7/10 · 13 March 2023]

The movie News of the World (2020) is based on a novel written by Paulette Jiles published in 2016. The story takes place in Texas. The film doesn't reflect much the accounts given by the character played by Tom Hanks. As far as I can remember, his reports are about national news. Perhaps in the time frame when the story takes place, there was not much interest in reporting on the world, considering that the interest in news was much more at the national level, considering the civil war had recently ended. The most interesting thing about the film was getting to know about the job of the character played by Tom Hanks: that of a reader of news published in newspapers, in meetings that he promoted in the circuit of small communities he used to visit. Actress Helena Zengel is very reminiscent of actress Gwendoline Christie from Game of Thrones.

The Good Nurse (2022)

Hospitals being careless for investigating causa mortis of patients

[8/10 · 13 March 2023]

The American film The Good Nurse (2022) available on Netflix is based on a real case of murders that took place in the USA over a period of 16 years, from 1988 to 2003. The film focuses on the discovery and identification of the modus operandi of a serial killer, Charles Cullen, who worked as a nurse in a considerable number of hospitals in New Jersey (USA) for 16 years and who murdered a high number of patients. In the hospitals where he worked, countless deaths occurred without a plausible medical justification being identified as the cause of death and, apparently, the hospitals did not invest much for discovering the problem that led the patient to death. It is a very good film that, despite being almost three hours long, is not tiring and keeps your attention throughout the whole time. It has a competent direction and an excellent and convincing cast: Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne, Kim Dickens, Nnamdi Asomugha, Noah Emmerich.

The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan (1979 TV Movie)

A fantasy about love disobeying time barriers

[6/10 · 13 March 2023]

The made for TV film The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan (1979) has a parallel with the film Somewhere in Time (1980) because both are about a story that explores a romantic attachment between a man and a woman that depends on time travel. I believe the successful music theme in Somewhere in Time is the variation 18 of the work by Rachmaninoff known as Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini (Caprices for solo violin). When watching The Two Words.. the music, by Glenn Paxton, reminded me the music theme for Somewhere in Time. The film is based on a book called Second Sight (1977), by David Williams. It is a very romantic film where some of actors are not very convincing in their roles and, most of the time, they sound very artificial. Accepting and pretending that time travel via a dress could be plausible, the movie could be entertaining.

Luther: The Fallen Sun (2023)

Searching for a killer who has his hair a la Paulie Gualtieri

[3/10 · 12 March 2023]

I haven't watched all five seasons of Luther but I read that they were a huge success. I found out about the release of the movie Luther: the Fallen Sun and I was really curious to see it. I watched the movie yesterday and I confess that all the expectations I created, based on the comments I read about the series, turned out to be reduced to nothing. In the end, I had a feeling that something went wrong because the movie was quite mediocre and well below the high expectations induced by the ratings of the Luther series. Despite having an elaborate production, the story is quite poor and has many ingredients that also appear in other films of the same genre. The actor (Andy Serkis) who plays the villain is quite pathetic and unconvincing, with his wig (I assumed he was wearing a wig) that was much more in evidence throughout the whole film than himself. The whole time his hair reminded me that of the gangster Paulie Gualtieri, played by Tony Sirico in The Sopranos. At the end, going to Norway seemed to me very awkward, considering the show the villain used to prepare is watched remotely by clients of his website.

The Devil's Hour (2022– )

Totally forgettable

[3/10 · 11 March 2023]

I didn't like the way the miniseries The Devil's Hour (2022), was organized and presented. All six episodes in the first season, with chronological comings and goings that more disturb than promote the understanding of the story, make the series tedious. I had to mentally sew together seemingly loose parts so that certain events could make some sense. In the end I came to the conclusion that it was a wasted job because I didn't find the story interesting. The performance of the entire cast is very good, particularly the boy, a character who is present in all episodes. In short, the series is confusing, boring and has unconvincing attempts at explanations. It seems the series will have two more seasons.

Tim (1979)

An unconventional relationship

[9/10 · 9 March 2023]

The 1979 Australian film Tim was really a surprise. I found it by chance when I was on the YouTube. I was unaware of the existence of this film and, like almost any Australian film, it was worth watching. Mel Gibson is great as Tim and the actors who play his family are equally good and convincing in their respective roles, particularly his father (played by actor Alywn Kurts). The story is quite simple but very enjoyable, although I do not think that Piper Laurie was suitable for the role she plays. Tim is based on a homonym novel written by the Australian writer Colleen McCullough and published in 1974. She became quite famous for her book The Thorn Birds, published in 1977, an international bestseller whose story is told in the successful miniseries also named The Thorn Birds.

Sangaree (1953)

An intense cliché-based melodrama

[4/10 · 8 March 2023]

The film Sangaree (1953) is one of those romantic-drama films in which everything happens: romance, deaths, murders, betrayals, fights, etc... The screenplay is based on a book that has the same title as the film, published in 1948 (first edition), and written by the American writer and physician Frank G. Slaughter. The performance of many actors in the film is quite exaggerated and unconvincing of the roles they play and, in addition, the story is very soap opera like and melodramatic, even bordering on the pathetic in some parts and, sometimes, even being annoying, but not so much considering I watched the movie all the way through.

Colette (I) (2018)

A woman who experienced life in many different ways

[5/10 · 8 March 2023]

Colette (2018) is one of those films that quickly falls by the wayside. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette was a French woman ahead of her time and a trendsetter for most of her 81 years of life. She was a writer, actress, journalist, amateur photographer and mime. The film shows this through a sample of part of her life focusing on her first marriage, her initial literary production, which was appropriated by her husband and by the unconventional side of the writer. In my opinion Colette stands out much more for being a woman ahead of her time than for her limited literary contributions. The film Gigi (1958) had a relative success and is based on one of her books, Gigi, published in French in 1944.

Citizen X (1995 TV Movie)

Searching for a serial-killer in communist Russia.

[10/10 · 7 March 2023]

Citizen X (1995) is an American TV film based on a book written by Robert Cullen entitled The Killer Department: Detective Viktor Burakov's Eight-Year Hunt for the Most Savage Serial Killer in Russian History (1993). The film has a slow pace and tries to mimic the Soviet system during the period 1978-1990, when the search for the killer took place. The film shows the many difficulties the detective (Stephen Rea) had to deal with to carry on his investigations, considering the very inhospitable scenario, the heavy Soviet bureaucracy, the lack of a team to work with, the lack suitable equipment for scrutinizing places where bodies were found and several other problems. Excellent performances by Stephen Rea, Donald Sutherland, Jeffery DeMunn, Max von Sydow and Imelda Staunton who, despite having a minor role, is also great, as always. The soundtrack of the film was composed by Randy Edelman and suits the film very well, particularly the song A Heavy Burden.

The Power of the Dog (2021)

Attempting to control a hidden passion, by being nasty

[1/10 · 6 March 2023]

I'm not sure why the movie The Power of the Dog (2021) has this title. I ended up finding in the Web that the title is a reference to verse 20 of the biblical Psalm number 22: "Deliver my soul from the sword and my favorite from the strength of the dog". I have no idea if this information is true or not. Anyway, I inferred that the role of alpha dog (Phil) was very well played by Benedict Cumberbatch, in his constant and unpleasant harassment of his brother's wife and stepson. The film's setting is completely stripped down as the story takes place on a ranch in Montana, in 1925, in the middle of nowhere, owned by Phil and his brother George. The whole story is permeated with the recurring memory of the now dead cowboy-mentor "Bronco Henry", who impacted Phil in a remarkable way. The impact was such that the saddle used by the cowboy was treated and worshiped by Phil as a valuable object that deserved attention and prominence. The film evidences, in a discreet way, Phil's repressed passion for the dead cowboy, which is reinforced not only by the cult of the cowboy's saddle, but also by Phil's ritual involving visit to the place where the cowboy used to go for isolation followed by a bath in the nearby pond. I did not like this film. The actors, however, did a very good work.

The Queen's Gambit (2020)

A talented female chess player is born

[9/10 · 6 March 2023]

The miniseries The Queen´s Gambit (2020) is very good. The period in which the story unfolds (the 50s-60s) is very well characterized and, in particular, the series makes clear how widespread and adopted the habit of smoking was in those days. The way orphanages were run at the time, with daily doses of tranquilizers for the orphans, was a big surprise to me. Unfortunately, the story about the family of Elizabeth Harmon, the orphan who became a chess player, is approached in a fragmented way, which leaves us without much information for trying to better understand her aloofness and uncommitted behavior (with everything, except chess ). Actors are very good in the the roles they play and the miniseries reflects a very competent work on a very interesting story.

Land Girls (2009–2011)

Women helping England fighting the 2nd Word War

[8/10 · 5 March 2023]

The motivation for creating the British series entitled Land Girls (2009-2011) was due to the celebration of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War (1st September 1939 - 2nd September 1945). The episodes were filmed in and around the city of Birmingham. The 15 episodes that make up the series, divided into three seasons, focus on the lives of women who joined an English civil organization, Women's Land Army, whose objective was to supply agricultural labor, since many of the men who worked in agriculture went to serve in the army during World War II. Some of the many stories that unfold during the three seasons ended poorly. The series is very good, has very interesting characters and a wide variety of personal stories. To our satisfaction, it could have gone well beyond its 15 episodes.

Adventures of a Mathematician (2020)

Participation of mathematician Stanislaw M. Ulam in the Manhattan Project.

[6/10 · 5 March 2023]

Adventures of a Mathematician or The Mathematician (2020) is a German, Polish and English co-production focusing on the participation of mathematician Stanislaw M. Ulam in the construction of the atomic bomb, part of the Manhattan Project led by Oppenheimer starting in 1942, that took place in Nevada , USA. The film was based on Ulam's autobiography (published in 1983 as the book Adventures of a Mathematician). It is an average film, mainly due to the high volume of condensed information presented in a film that lasts 1h 42min. I believe that the subject would have a better and more interesting treatment/development if it were organized as a mini series. Parts of the film were loose and/or unnecessary since they were not developed (such as, for example, the participation of the mathematician's brother in the story). I didn't know this mathematician, nor did I know about his participation in the project, and also, that he had a significant contribution to the development of the hydrogen bomb. The world would be better off if any of these bombs (or any other) had never been created.

The Lighthouse (I) (2019)

Dominance-submission relationship between two men taking care of a lighthouse.

[1/10 · 5 March 2023]

The movie The Lighthouse (2019) is pretty bad. Most of the film focuses on the unpleasant character (Thomas Wake) played by Willem Dafoe who spends lots of time harassing the younger and handsome (according to Thomas Wake's assessment) co-worker (whose name is Thomas Howard, played by Robert Pattinson), with orders and joking comments. At a certain point in the film, when both start drinking as if there was no tomorrow, the course of events leads to a certain physical contact between the two men, evidenced by songs and dances. From that point on, the dominance-submission relationship of one character over the other is inverted quite suddenly and, in my opinion, without the support of facts. It is also difficult to justify Thomas Howard's fixation on wanting to reach the place of the lighthouse light and Thomas Wake's obstinacy in not allowing this to happen, unless approaching the relationship between both as one of dominance-submission that ends up becoming inverted. The film also shows a mermaid as part of a hallucination experienced by Thomas Howard. In an awfully brutal scene, the same character kills a seagull, out of anger or perhaps another hallucination, who knows?