severnuri Reviews

Arrival (II) (2016)

Puts linguists among world's elites

[9/10 · 21 January 2017]

This is a unique movie. It has no resemblance to Interstellar at all, on the contrary it's quite "unsciencey". If you look deep you may notice some protest, even rebel against the reign of positive sciences in every walk of life, and a yearning for place among world's elites. Because this movie exactly depicts this: promotion of a handful of highly educated, highly skilled linguists -Louise being one of them- to top positions in world affairs as only they can make use of a sophisticated language with weapon-like power. Now, this cheesy plot feels like a sure way to a disastrous movie, but here it isn't, thanks to masterful directing and monumental performance of Amy Adams. This is the type of movie you watch once only, so try to get it right the first time.

Fathers & Daughters (2015)

The hazards of elitism

[8/10 · 31 March 2016]

First off, thank you for this script and putting it on silver screen, so that us commoners get the chance to peek into the life of a certain group of elite aristocrats. No, I can relate to neither that spoiling fatherhood nor the "need to own rather than share" ambition, but now I can reason with the anomaly and its toxic effects per se.

The flow is somewhat convoluted, particularly if you miss the flashbacks, and overall it may feel incoherent but the actings are superb and moments are deep with extreme highs and lows. In the end you're left with numerous dots to connect, expecting you to put some effort into i.e. makes you think. No doubt the writer had first-hand experience and/or insider knowledge of the people and lives depicted.

Ali Baba and the Seven Dwarfs (2015)

Nowhere near Yahsi Bati, but still enjoyable

[7/10 · 24 March 2016]

Cem Yılmaz(and his team) is great at synthesizing original works out of clichés. If you focus on short moments you'll be bored but overall it feels different. This movie aligns with that premise. The parts about the struggle of common Turkish people with foreign languages and Europe -Bulgaria in particular- are hilarious. Some impressive cold war era gadgets were on scene. Commercial product placements were smart and not irritating.

Cons: it's nowhere near Yahşi Batı, even the late appearance of Zafer Algöz could not raise the bar. The content was insufficient to justify the movie length, it should end in 90 minutes at most. Overall 6.5/10

The Water Diviner (2014)

Great first work of a director, original plot

[8/10 · 27 March 2015]

I had low expectations of this movie: it's a director's first work, yet he has to shoot and direct on foreign country with some unknown actors, the story is delicate at some multinational level... recipe for almost a disaster. But I was wrong.

This is not yet another war movie. The story is original, about little known face of WW1 covering two sides, one of which gained nothing and the other lost almost everything in the end. Kurylenko and Bastoni are surprisingly good at Turkish roles (this is the first time I've heard discernible Turkish from foreigners in a movie), spot-on Turkish mimics and gestures. Crowe's and the Turkish soldiers' transition from foe to friends was natural, convincing. Carefully sprinkled humor easing out the delicacy of the subject. Not a historical documentary, which is also mentioned in the movie: "No records. we're Ottoman, not German", the scene showing piles of documents being burnt (1920s' Middle East was apparently quite chaotic and gloomy).

Obviously there was a pressure to "keep it under 2 hours", and given the fact this is an Australian movie (hence 10 min long father-meets-son scene), some other parts progressed very rapidly, making it look like bad editing. I'll be looking forward to an extended cut, with at least 15-20 min more, if there's any. Overall I'm impressed, very good work deserving a solid 8/10

Sexual Chronicles of a French Family (2012)

Portrayal rather than chronicles

[2/10 · 2 January 2014]

I actually went through the trouble of measuring total length of sex/nudity scenes: 34 minutes! Almost half of the movie. Take it out and what are we left with? The boy goes to school, the boy comes from school, family has breakfast, family has dinner, mother has dinner with son, father has dinner with youngest son, birthday party, grandpa attends to plants in garden, an adopted daughter who neither talks nor does much other than -you know-, grandpa dies from heart attack... nothing, basically. Also remains some absurdities like a loving prostitute mourning for the old man, teenage girls giving blow jobs and having threesome with randoms like breathing air, popular girl of the class offering sex to the dull virgin boy following his first and clumsy kiss.

All in all, this is yet another French porn flick exploiting the adrenaline rush incurred by the explicit scenes into some favorable review (because it's not porn, right?) and probably resulting in an unhealthy yet strong desire to visit France.

Desire (2011)

Yet another French porn flick

[2/10 · 25 December 2013]

I give this film the courtesy of marking "Contains spoiler" box (yes, I've seen the uncut version). Here it goes: ass, breasts, vagina, penis, blow job, hand job, pussy eating, promiscuous sex, lesbian sex... Now, I probably spoiled everything and you don't want to see it anymore.

For a moment -just for a moment- I thought there was a plot, like "Women use sex to get other things from men, and men promise other things to get sex from women, but if men are broke and cannot attain those promises then women get unstable enough to run own brothel to raise cash, and then...", but my mind was probably playing tricks on me either in shock incurred from the awfully made car accident scene, or in befuddlement from having repeatedly seen so many jiggly wet asses and vaginae in showers backed by French nymphet chatters, or both.

To cut the long review short -and if you pardon my French- deux stars over dix.

The Untold History of the United States (2012–2013)

Untold, as in "never told this way"

[9/10 · 9 April 2013]

First off, I had not learned in my most recent 10 years of formal education even half of what I've learned after watching this series.

If you have many times got confused, felt something missing, frustrated by concealed fallacies after reading numerous texts on recent history, then you'll be relieved by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick's Untold History of the US. Some say there's nothing untold here, which may be true, but it's never been told in such compact, coherent, true way and void of propaganda. It helps you connect many dots, backed by real archives of footage, articles, papers, interviews, etc.

This is not just about the US, it's about the world. Don't miss it.

The Hunt (2012)

Naked portrayal of a welfare state's village people

[9/10 · 8 April 2013]

This movie, in a nutshell, is a depiction of typical yet pathological ignorance and unsophistication of village people, unique to some welfare state.

The kids were just being kids, but the adults were no more than confused adolescents: the lack of rich verbal communication, abundant body language, asking one's hunger status and offering food to initially reach out, having no idea of the difference between some round-table discussion and arguing as in a bar fight that ought to be won, hunting and chanting drunk as the primary socialization for men, 42 year-old Lucas' phone conversation with Nadja and clumsiness having sex at home like some 16 year old, him being fixated on his routine life instead of considering leaving the village to start anew because his brain simply can't process any change... it was all there, plain and naked, like watching some wild life documentary of 2-leggeds instead of 4. Very well done.

We all need more of these insiders' works from every country out there, if we want to make a healthy transition to not just a global economy but global society as well.