Saw this film at the Science plus Fiction festival of Trieste.
I really loved it. The story and pacing are good. The historical setting is very well done and immerse the viewer in the era and location, the supernatural element has a nice crescendo, it reminded me of a good ghost story around a fire that people would narrate to others during a long winter night.
The atmosphere is palpable.
The two main actors (the young girl and the photograper) were phenomenal.
I would suggest to do not miss this one if you like good ghost stories.
Reviews
12 Reviews
Come True
(2020)
Not all bad but don't delivers
5 November 2020
In my opinion is a decent film but not a good story.
The aesthetic is pleasant with a retro vibe, the music also as a very 80 vibe with some retrowave in it, i also liked a lot the directions, there were a lot of scenes that were pleasant to watch and evocative.
So why they low rating?
It's simple: the story is slow, the pacing is off and the final payoff is dull and not very original.
The film start with a good concept that could have been developed in something interesting, but from the midpoint on decide to stop building and run toward a mediocre ending with a very cliché closure.
The main actress was very good at least.
So should you watch it? In my opinion it is still worth your time, just for the good parts i mentioned, but still don't expect too much.
Benny Loves You
(2019)
Funny horror commedy
1 November 2020
Saw it tonight at the Science plus Fiction festival of Trieste.
One of the best film up untill now in the festival, Benny Loves you delivers.
There is gore comedy, but the film also has some deeper moments.
The film never drags, the rythm is always at a good pace. Most characters are quite enjoyable and the actors do a good jobs at portraying them.
So for me this film was 90 minutes of fun.
I think that if you like horror mixed with commedy and don't mind some gore , this is one of the film to do not miss this year.
Gleipnir
(2020)
Good story, nice animation, not as ecchi as another review may let you think
14 May 2020
This anime, based on the manga of the same name, is worth watching.
The good: The characters are interesting; they are not too much stereotypical (yes the main character do follow the reluctant hero type but that's only the starting point). Their motivations are understandable, if you give them the time to expose why they are doing what they do, and there is personal growth.
The story is strange, not totaly new in some aspects, but if this follow the manga (and for now it has followed it) it will get to some pretty interesting territories, with some interesting psychological aspects to it.
The design is good, and the animation is well done.
Music is on point (the ending song is epic and it's from the same band that did Goblin Slayer opening).
The bad (?): The thing that could discourage some viewers is the ecchi part. Honestly i think this anime doesn't even have that much fan service compared to other more famous mainstream anime, even in comparison to anime aimed toward younger audience (like Fairy Tail, or even Ranma 1/2). Yes there is some partial nudity, but is not all over the place, and at least they have human realistic proportions and bodies that follows the laws of physics. And yes there is a concept in the story that hint to something sexual in nature, but once again somethign similiar has been done in more explicit ways in more mainstream anime (like Darling in the FranXX).
In short: If you like anime with a very good story, good characters, well animated and don't mind partial nudity here and there i would say this is a must watch of this season.
The good: The characters are interesting; they are not too much stereotypical (yes the main character do follow the reluctant hero type but that's only the starting point). Their motivations are understandable, if you give them the time to expose why they are doing what they do, and there is personal growth.
The story is strange, not totaly new in some aspects, but if this follow the manga (and for now it has followed it) it will get to some pretty interesting territories, with some interesting psychological aspects to it.
The design is good, and the animation is well done.
Music is on point (the ending song is epic and it's from the same band that did Goblin Slayer opening).
The bad (?): The thing that could discourage some viewers is the ecchi part. Honestly i think this anime doesn't even have that much fan service compared to other more famous mainstream anime, even in comparison to anime aimed toward younger audience (like Fairy Tail, or even Ranma 1/2). Yes there is some partial nudity, but is not all over the place, and at least they have human realistic proportions and bodies that follows the laws of physics. And yes there is a concept in the story that hint to something sexual in nature, but once again somethign similiar has been done in more explicit ways in more mainstream anime (like Darling in the FranXX).
In short: If you like anime with a very good story, good characters, well animated and don't mind partial nudity here and there i would say this is a must watch of this season.
A very good isekai
26 April 2020
This is one of the rare good isekai because:
- the story is very well written;
- the main character actually do stuff, is likable and is not good at everything;
- the concept is different from most isekai (read the plot summary for more informations);
- there is a lot of good comedy and wholesomeness;
- art style is likable, animation is well done, musics are good;
All in all good, but first big discrepancy from source material
1 January 2020
I liked the Geralt part, it's pretty similiar to the book, Jaskier it's perfect and Cavill is always very good as Geralt.
It's a decent episode that start to bring things together.
What i didn't like it's the Ciri part: it contain a very big discrepancy from the source material, and create a random new bad guy, just to avoid using certain characters as the moral grey area obstacle in the future for Geralt (on the contrary, here are used as a source of wisdom).
This show continue to be goodish, but bittersweet, because with a little more effort it could have been better.
The Witcher
(2019– )
It's pretty decent, even with some miscast
20 December 2019
To be as short as possible.
It's pretty decent, with some minor problems.
The good: Henry Cavil it's really trying to be a good Geralt of Rivia, you can see he dig the character and doing his best to bring a faithful version of Geralt on the screen. Ciri and Yennefer are also decent, their acting is on point most of the time and their look it's pretty faithful to the books and games. The story mostly follow some of the most story relevant chapters of the first two books (which are a collection of short novels, with here and there events that will be relevants after, in the saga). The musics are good, and the dialogues and overall feeling is for most parts that of the witcher saga. The fights have good choreography that reminds of the fight in the games. The direction is mostly good, not something out of this world but it's still well built. The special effects are not always perfect, but they hold well enough overall.
The bad: Ok, time to talk about the elephant in the room. Some obvious miscasts: the worse of all is Triss Merigold, for her they chose an actress that really is as far as possible as her description in the books and her image in the game (why always the redheads?). Also, too many black actors; while per se is obviously not a problem, when you cast actor you should always ask yourself for what roles are you casting them. If you are filming, for example, a film about ancient viking, you shouldn't cast half of them as black people. But we live in a time where casts must respect quotas even where it's against the logic of the story. Here it's a bit of a problem because the witcher saga, even if it is set in a fantasy world, its' a world that traspose slavic and north european myths, folklore and populations (in the books the northern kingdoms like Redania and Temeria are slavic, the southern kingodms like Nilfgard are germanic, the supernatural creatures are described as in the slavic folklore with a pinch of tolkien). Since this is supposed to be a medieval northern european kinda of fantasy world, seeing all those ethnicity that aren't supposed to be there break the immersion a bit. It's not so big of a problem that will make you stop watching, but it's something they could and should have avoid, but decided not to to be more inclusive/PC. Let's be happy that the main trio is cast right, i suppose.
So, in the end, should you be watching this series? For now, i would say yes, indeed. Is this a good witcher series? Yes, as i said in the beginning it's a pretty decent transposition. Is this a perfect transposition? No, and sadly because if they wanted to they could come a lot more closer with some simple casting choice.
The good: Henry Cavil it's really trying to be a good Geralt of Rivia, you can see he dig the character and doing his best to bring a faithful version of Geralt on the screen. Ciri and Yennefer are also decent, their acting is on point most of the time and their look it's pretty faithful to the books and games. The story mostly follow some of the most story relevant chapters of the first two books (which are a collection of short novels, with here and there events that will be relevants after, in the saga). The musics are good, and the dialogues and overall feeling is for most parts that of the witcher saga. The fights have good choreography that reminds of the fight in the games. The direction is mostly good, not something out of this world but it's still well built. The special effects are not always perfect, but they hold well enough overall.
The bad: Ok, time to talk about the elephant in the room. Some obvious miscasts: the worse of all is Triss Merigold, for her they chose an actress that really is as far as possible as her description in the books and her image in the game (why always the redheads?). Also, too many black actors; while per se is obviously not a problem, when you cast actor you should always ask yourself for what roles are you casting them. If you are filming, for example, a film about ancient viking, you shouldn't cast half of them as black people. But we live in a time where casts must respect quotas even where it's against the logic of the story. Here it's a bit of a problem because the witcher saga, even if it is set in a fantasy world, its' a world that traspose slavic and north european myths, folklore and populations (in the books the northern kingdoms like Redania and Temeria are slavic, the southern kingodms like Nilfgard are germanic, the supernatural creatures are described as in the slavic folklore with a pinch of tolkien). Since this is supposed to be a medieval northern european kinda of fantasy world, seeing all those ethnicity that aren't supposed to be there break the immersion a bit. It's not so big of a problem that will make you stop watching, but it's something they could and should have avoid, but decided not to to be more inclusive/PC. Let's be happy that the main trio is cast right, i suppose.
So, in the end, should you be watching this series? For now, i would say yes, indeed. Is this a good witcher series? Yes, as i said in the beginning it's a pretty decent transposition. Is this a perfect transposition? No, and sadly because if they wanted to they could come a lot more closer with some simple casting choice.
Ushio & Tora
(2015–2016)
A good shonen anime from a once very famous manga
28 February 2019
Ushio and Tora is a shonen manga with elements of supernatural, action, comedy and tragedy.
Ushio and Tora new anime series deserve more recognition.
The story is pretty good, it has a good balance of light moments and sad ones and it explains all the main mystery of the plot, with some interesting twist you wouldn't guess at the start of the serie.
The serie cover all the main plot from the manga (even if some side stories and secondary characters are left out for pacing and length reasons).
The characters are all decents: for example the main love interest is not, for once, only a cardboard cutout, but has a personality of her own.
The combats are not dragged on too much and are often resolved in interesting ways.
The animation is decent.
So if you like shonen anime, i would give Ushio and Tora a try.
Not as satisfying as the book ending
13 April 2018
Supernatural
(2005–2020)
Good but don't go after season 5
20 February 2016
This show was created with 5 season in mind by Kripke. From season 1 to season 5 it will be an awesome ride to a big finale: a story well told with a start, a development and a well thought ending. It's dark, sometimes funny but mostly the right kind of horror with some Neil Gaiman writing in mind. After that you mostly get fandom seasons, boring story arcs that will bring you nowhere, repetition of the formula you have seen before but in a less clever ways. To me is just not good writing. Single episodes can be OK, but overall it should have ended with season 5. 10/10 from s1 to s5. 6/10 from s6 to where I stop watching and caring (s9 or 10, i can't remember).
Fun as always but "Bernatelli" Italian does not sound Italian at all
7 January 2016
Warning: Spoilers
It's a very fun episode. But (spoilers ahead?) it would be funnier if the Italian spoken by "Bernatelli" would sound even remotely Italian, it's almost worst than Jen's Italian. No really i can understand US shows and films having this problem, but UK shows can afford to ask someone who can actually speak Italian to do the role of an Italian, since half a million of italians live in UK. Not only pronunciation (which is absolutely wrong, i was unable to understand anything), but also the grammar is terrible. They could have put a little more effort in it. Killed half of the episode for me (if it wasn't clear, it's because i'm Italian) and I think to anyone who, as they said in the same episode, can actually speak Italian.
Tell Your Friends