sergicaballeroalsina Reviews

Pistol (2022)

A correct product

[6/10 · 19 June 2023]

We live in times in which any form of subversion ends up being absorbed, immediately becoming someone's profit. This has happened before. There are even corpses that also end up making profit. I guess it's a paradox that a series about the Pistols is premiering on Disney+. So was their contract with EMI or Kim Kardashian appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone, in spite of Sinnead O'Connor's will. Rock history is full of such examples. Once upon a time, these stories were told by the older brothers and it was transmitted from generation to generation of rockers. Nowadays, it is easier to teach these fragments of popular history through a series. This work is semi-documentary in nature and perfectly fulfills that task. Although it has episodes that are well known to the general public, there are unprecedented and interesting details to get an idea of what punk is supposed to mean. It has a certain historiographical interest: it explains but does not portray. On an artistic level, I think it's not a big deal. The performances are too rigid. When not exaggerated, cold ... although punk is the same, sometimes. It is a naïve portrait of a kind of childishness, stupidity of believing yourself to be a rock star, regardless of whether you are or not. The plot is very superficial, the characters conflicts are teenage soap opera like. That's exactly Disney+, I guess. It does not take any risk at any artistic level, it is absolutely flat. With art being one of the main themes, it's a shame that the series, taking in consideration Boyles' creative ability, it doesn't seem creative at all, as if the creator did not have much importance. In spite of all this, and if we take it for its usefulness being a informative capsule about a more or less outstanding episode in the history of recent popular culture, this series is a correct product, despite the paradox.

Black Mirror: Joan Is Awful (2023) Season 6, Episode 1

Black is back

[8/10 · 15 June 2023]

Black Mirror is back to interpellate us almost in real time. Joan is awful but tremendously light, without any kind of grease or stuffiness. It is fun, dynamic and, although it exploits the rabidly current too much in a loop with premises that we already know, that small step that goes further in the self-referential, that penultimate turn of the screw, is done with infinite grace, smiling generously at the original spirit of the Serie. A rentrée with a bunch of stars who maintain a wonderful tone with their fresh and fun performances in this affable and familiar mirror of our monstrous contemporary.

Man Facing Southeast (1986)

Unfinished reflection

[9/10 · 13 March 2023]

Man Facing Southeast gives the immediate feeling of a cult film, of a classic. The elegance, the containment in the technical deployment of science fiction makes it a film that has aged well. It doesn't make an ass of itself at any point. It is coherent and sober, as well as its cinematography and style. The meaning of script's content is of great interest. The dichotomy between science and superstition, madness and hygiene, rational or magical thinking. The inescapable need to believe and the hygienic-sanitary replica. The dogmatism of the protocol in front of the inexplicable. Both the film and its main character are beautiful and surprising . The argument simply speaks about being a man, about the expiation of his mistakes, of his infinite ignorance, of the impossibility of surpassing himself and the express violence in case of dissonance. It speaks of antipathy and sympathy, the monstrosity of the system, the violence against charisma, the purity of solidarity, the cruelty of indifference and the shame that man should feel for man. A classic which has the ability to leave unknowns unclear, like an old unfinished reflection.

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)

A matter of genre

[7/10 · 16 February 2023]

One of the obsessions of vampire movies in recent decades is to revisit the cliché, renew the myth and find the essence of the vampire's style, be it neo-gothic, realism or pure pop and indie stylization. A girl walks... uses allegories such as oil addiction or heroin dependence to self-reference the myth in a new way. There is also a part of self-parody of the genre. This movie can boast of being revisionist and it can also boast of its style. The success defining its own language is indisputable. The cinematography is wonderful. Also its silence. Its emptiness and its contrast, the black and white, its cruelty and its happiness in equal parts. The context is unprecedented and so is its heroin. It seems to me that this movie is intended to be provocative in that sense. Surely it takes some liberties with certain taboos in culture, and this dare must be taken into account as an added value to any film with courage enough to do so. For very different reasons, this movie is a wonderful work in a very unique way.

Friendship's Death (1987)

Love for sober Sci-Fi

[8/10 · 16 November 2022]

There is a kind of subtle trilogy of cult classics and subtle fantasy; Man facing Southeast (1986) The Man from Earth (2007) and Fiendship's Death (1987) I have to confess that I've seen them recently and I loved them very much because of what they have in common: the way in which the movie deals with that which has about science fiction. They base their speech on the dialogues and avoid making use of any super-special-effect to reinforce the plot, the meaning itself. They do not pretend that the story needs more technology than the mere word. All the aesthetics, the first and main sense of the film, rests solely on the story explained by the main character. This protagonist has a message for us and wants to make us think. It's a common premise in all three films and, frankly, it works. Even so, these films do not forget style and are elegant because of their restrained form. I celebrate that they don't want to embarrass me with empty spectacularity and that the magic holds on the words.

Barfly (1987)

Violently happy

[7/10 · 10 November 2022]

A story which meets all the expectations that Bukowski's readers could have for a movie and his work. Brutal honesty in an environment steeped in its own alcohol, as its cinematography is. If you want to focus the interest in players you will find a more than okay interpretation of the writer's alter ego by Mickey Rourke. Excellent work by Faye Dunaway with her beautiful, mad, overcooked but perfect character. A cameo from the maestro making the grade of Hitchcock and a great, violently happy outcome. You can't ask for more in a Hank's work for cinema. Neither would the movie have worked better.

Alcarràs (2022)

If the sun were a day laborer...

[8/10 · 15 September 2022]

Alcarràs. I can say it in two ways: very good film and I really liked it.

It's a sad but especially tender movie.

For me, as I am from Barcelona, this movie is clearly a western in which the family, the land and work are the same thing. And fruit, and love.

And It is also a beautiful movie, natty, warm and pleasant which portrays in a soft manner the strength that rural life requires.

Its language is fresh, direct and very honest.

Full of things simply explained without becoming sentimental, it speaks of something that is lost, that has been snapped up.

I like the children's role in it. It doesn't become burdensome, as is usually the case with children's performances, it is nice and funny but without going overboard.

A balsamic drama very sweet in form but bitter in content.

It is frankly fair the existance of such a good fictional film set in that rural reality.

The Great Beauty (2013)

Manierismo Vivace

[9/10 · 14 January 2019]

When one looks for the meaning of Mannerism, one finds a definition that could fit perfectly with a review that explains what happens with this film. Of course, if I made a copy paste of that definition that would be breaking the commitment with originality one makes when writing a review. Precisely that, originality and copy, is what all this is about. The definition of Mannerism is problematic. You can begin by explaining that it reproduces or imitates the style, the manner, of the Renaissance Grand Masters. This did not mean any demerit at a technical level. In fact it was an art that pursued technical excellence, virtuosity. The visual game that Sorrentino proposes about proportions, symmetry and scale, resembles what could have been the update on Fellini's filmmaking. Extravagance, decadence and erotic refinement appear as other possible definitions of Mannerism. In La Grande Bellezza, the Dolce Vita of a certain intellectual elite gives us an aesthetic impression that does not leave us indifferent. It speaks of desire, taboo, pleasure and distraction. Of the last layers of hedonism. It shakes us through its sensuality, its movements, the costumes and music, laughter and pleasure. It excites us, it causes us vertigo. It makes us vibrate. It does not explore the limits of beauty but it questions them. "At my age, beauty is not enough." The contrast between the exalted solemnity of the formal and the exploration of a certain suffering of helplessness and loneliness in its characters is recurrent in Sorrentino's movies: Renaissance architecture to frame the existential void of contemporary snobs. Throws the value of apparent beauty to the void, to the inevitable disappearance of life and illusion. To decline and death. The dreams and the miraculous are, perhaps, the last springs to which Jep Gambardella can hold on to continue believing in life and art. Very debtor of Guido in 8 ½, very Italian. Finally there is a positive definition for Mannerism. For its value as a self-reference of art itself. The History of Art has progressed constantly in this way. For the one that runs between the homage and the copy. The originality and the unprecedented are two of the things that I value most in movies but also "the roots are important". That's why I celebrate this electric, very powerful, revision of the genius and the grace of Fellini.

Boys Don't Cry (1999)

Art as the pursuit of truth

[9/10 · 12 September 2018]

According to Bertrand Russell, Art is a pursuit of truth. This is an indie jewel that finds in truth its best ally. Realistic cinema, heir of Cassavettes, with minimal artifices and simple aesthetics. Its atmosphere and photography transports us very truthfully to the environment in which the story unfolds. It does not seem to me a movie about the rights of transgender or intersex people. Nor about any personal struggle. This is a full-time community tragedy. It is neither a beautiful movie. Its artistic language is in tune with the disenchantment of an absolutely hostile social reality. All the characters are circumscribed to a "too real" cultural environment, of non-existent opportunities. A spectrum of our society striken by precariousness, ugliness, addictions and crime. All of them are victims of their reality. The whole cast nails it portraying a social fragment, one among many, in which everyone feels disgust for their life. A drama filled with dirt and disappointment in which the main characters see a very small light in their relationship. A loophole, an illusion. What hopes does a transgender person have in such an environment? The same as the others: none. And it will be sacrificed. Why would we want to contemplate a portrait that does not really have any kind of appeal? I think that Hilary Swank and her brave construction of the main character have everything to blame. She takes the actor's work to the limit. The most extremely honest performance I have ever seen. I feel grateful that there is such a movie. That Art pursues the truth so closely.

We All Want What's Best for Her (2013)

Deep down they all want what is best for her

[7/10 · 25 August 2018]

The accident has changed her life. But it is the way that others behave with her that has changed the most. The film explores the fragile balance between condescension and cruelty that the closest people to a sick or wounded person often go through. An environment that is not really ready for that change. But who is? Deep down they all want what is best for her. Wishes that are not made strongly enough. That do not come true due to lack of energy or vocation. The world demands Geni to make an effort, to recover the Geni that she was before the accident, to behave. But it is the world that does not strive or behave. The film is explained efficiently through a clear, Frenchlike cinematographic language. But the important thing about this movie is the enormous acting by Nora Navas. The simplicity and clarity of her role allows us to observe the universe from Geni's eyes. From the indeterminate position of a woman who, far from living up to her old standards (middle-aged white woman, professional-liberal middle class), embraces a new world. She has awakened as a carefree girl, with a naked gaze. Facing her, a display of egos that turn out to be more demanding with her than with themselves. Everyone disputes the role of victim. No one wants Geni to monopolize pain. She is not the center of anything. She's off camara. Should she face the bitter assumption of this new reality or should she redeem herself from it? Hostility ends up turning her into the heroine of a perfect ending.

Pieles (2017)

One of a kind

[7/10 · 19 July 2018]

Taking Freaks (1932) and The Elephant Man (1980) as starting point, Eduardo Casanova's debut runs essentially in a very superficial way: A set of scenes remarkable for their delicacy in the composition and for the joy of pink, comprises a "late baroqueer" Cabinet of Curiosities. It's a movie with a very bold language that talks about desire and suffering, loneliness, about what is erotic and what disgusting, about the monstrosity in the meaning and shape. About accepting oneself and the right to replace our limits with new ones. The contradictions that produced the subjectivity of beauty. "You're only interested in the way I look" says one of the female characters. In this context it is a brilliant paradox. Superficial, I said, and frivolous: Very Louis XV style. But no superfluous. The dramatic central dialogues give depth and direction to the film. Its non-correct spirit and daring language make it one of a kind.

Black Mirror: Nosedive (2016) Season 3, Episode 1

Dystopia in real time

[9/10 · 12 July 2018]

1984 was a miscalculation in Orwell's pen. The old dystopias spoke of uncertain futures. Black Mirror is the dystopia that faces us, an unwanted reality that closes the gap, dystopia in real time. Nosedive is the episode that best honors the name of the series. It is the episode that speaks most directly to our culture. Reality is relegated to the level of mere assumption in a culture that questions the truth of our relationships. Because we have homogenized the way in which we establish them, placing our relations with our families, with movie stars, with our boss, with politicians and with our friends, but also with our enemies on the same action field. In a way, we have decoded our relationships. We have deranged them. The reality we issue through our new social media is constantly subject to judgment. We have self-imposed a discipline based on the control we exercise over others and that others exercise, simultaneously, over us: we have developed together a kind of voluntary censorship without mercy. How many years have passed since we exceeded Big Brother? Prestige means the power to impress but its etymological root in Latin means trick. The posing, the food that tastes like nothing but looks cool and pastel colours everywhere have become a way of life. Nosedive deals with all that. It's about you in front of a black mirror and it's about me, writing this review, hoping you give me a positive vote even if you do not know me at all.

Bomb City (2017)

In Bomb City tragedy is served

[8/10 · 30 May 2018]

Some movies that tell real stories have a journalistic vocation. They try to shed light on a story that according to certain criteria, must be told. If they narrate what happened with the clarity due, in an honest way and without artifice, the dramatic purpose occurs in a satisfactory manner. Sometimes they are movies that stimulate debate. In other cases they are movies with a clear purpose: that we issue a judgement. This is one of those movies. Cinematographically speaking, Bomb City is a steamroller. It is solid, punchy and develops in a powerful rhythm. Its music and aesthetics match. It is clear and effective. In general it is a balanced film. It has enough elements to be considered a classic youngsters movie. The cast appropriately embodies the superficial, naive and well-meaning features of the main characters. Naive heroes who fight against hatred and stupidity. Boys with perhaps wrong intentions but who manage to soften you up and prepare you for rage and impotence to take over you. The very structure of the script presages injustice. In Bomb City tragedy is served. The hero will find his redemption through our catharsis. The injustices that end with a human sacrifice and classic tragedies have an undeniable formal affinity. But, is our perplexity at such flagrant injustice a kind of catharsis?

Sweetwater (2013)

Madness in the Far West

[7/10 · 25 March 2018]

I declare myself a lover of western movies. Of those of classic style, in which there are no surprises and the hero is clearly the hero, as dedicated to bourbon as he is to his gun; who takes the girl in extremis and has a very personal sense of justice and love. Westerns without surprises, I said, in which the good win and the bad die, be that as it may. But I confess my weakness for more or less experimental westerns. Sweetwater portrays fundamental themes known to all; the madness of religion and the eccentricity of the law. It does that through two singular characters, exaggerated, delirious, supposedly transcendental, totally overcooked. The script is very normal but it compensates this with other expressive resources, with scenes of fairly honest, extreme and suggestive poetry. A western filled with black humor and meaningless speech that deals with a harsh revenge, for once, at the hands of a woman. A little bit excessive movie, not suitable for anyone. A particular portrait of the madness of the Far West. A remarkable, risky but inspiring western.

Open Range (2003)

Too indebted to 'Unforgiven' but well done

[8/10 · 23 March 2018]

This is an important western. Although it is classic, it avoids at all costs the cliches of the genre, both with its characters and its narrative. The script is fresh, which makes the film develop without shrillness. The cinematography is excellent, portraying the landscape as well as the action scenes. It is also an entertaining movie, a lot of things happen. It is very remarkable the realistic way in which violence is treated, probably the most believable I remember in a western. The staging includes casual, unseen actions that make the movie dynamic and credible. The main characters are charming; two tough guys but with a message, with a past and a couple of convictions, rich in contrasts and witty dialogues. Explicit but not rude; the old-fashioned way. Two guys with whom it is easy to sympathize, for their values and their sense of humor. Open Range is, in short, a very good film that deserves an opportunity because it technically and narratively brings new things. And if it is not a masterpiece it is for two reasons: it is too indebted to 'Unforgiven' and that kills originality and has a deliberately self-indulgent, unnecessarily sweetened end.

Romeo + Juliet (1996)

Baroque drama in a rave party landscape.

[9/10 · 11 March 2018]

A movie in which this text is faithfully interpreted should be a pretty movie even with eyes closed. We should agree that theoretically there is no better dramatic text than any classic from the pen of Shakespeare. From this I deduce that at least half of the artistic purpose of the film is satisfactorily resolved. We could discuss its aesthetics although I think that has to do with personal taste. A wannabe contemporary drama through the post-modern setting of the rave parties landscapes and an aesthetic halfway between cyber-punk and techno of the second half of the 90s that refers to other movies of the decade. In this way it achieves the task of transferring such an important text to those days. I think that Baz Luhrmann could not have thought of a better way to recreate a paradigmatically baroque play that also containes his so characteristic aesthetic universe. The simplicity or complexity of the characters can not be discussed either; Only the performances can be questioned, but they develop favorably through the remarkable work of the actors. Be careful because if you are willing to contemplate the most famous love story in the world in a truly unprecedented environment, this can become one of your favorite dramas.

Días de cine (2007)

A misunterstood drama taken for a typical Spanish comedy

[7/10 · 11 March 2018]

This is a tragicomedy that caricatures a time in which the whims of censorship and shabby eroticism were imposed on the Spanish film industry. The artistic difficulties of the newcomer director, the economic problems of an upstart producer, the bribery of the censors and the political but also cultural transition (from folk to eroticism) are portrayed in this bizarre artistic event. Although it is more notable for its theme than for its technical and artistic aspects, however, it has more than correct performances, a good cinematography and a narrative rhythm that works. I think it's a misunderstood movie because it has been taken for a typical Spanish comedy that, I think, does not intend to be. It should be vindicated for what it is: A choral drama, very rhythmic, disguised as a black comedy, with a more than satisfactory narrative tone.

The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012)

Sexy Drama

[9/10 · 4 February 2018]

This is a very expressive but believable sexy drama that attracts you from the beginning. The language in which feelings and emotions are exposed is rich as well as effective: the movie gets to you in many different ways. Its musicality makes it a very vivid film. The plot is about a passionate relationship in an environment in which the cult of beauty and pleasure is professed. The charm of the main characters, the lifestyle of a couple who have it all worked out, who are happy, seduce you from the first minute. But as the movie goes on the vertigo seizes you as much as them; the feeling that things can break down at any moment, that they can only get worse, that glory is not forever, increasingly cause a lump in your throat. The movie follows an almost-circular narrative structure, placing the sacrifice in the middle of the footage. After enjoying so much passion and beauty the tragedy hurts more. That's when catharsis happens: A sea of tears with bluegrass playing in the back. Thank you for such a beautiful and pleasant drama.

Julieta (2016)

A pleasant Drama

[8/10 · 28 January 2018]

It's true, Julieta is Almodóvar's least hysterical movie. The most atypical. The post-punk look is just anecdotal and its characters are not the heroines to which we are used to. It is a narratively mature drama, harmonious, with an air of Greek tragedy and terrible myth that goes through the film. It is about weak women, fragile women, broken women. The melancholic light and Hopper's colour palette create a very suitable scenario where this family drama unfolds. The movie keeps a very determined narrative tone and is a very enjoyable aesthetic experience. The loneliness and the pain caused by the passage of time are the real main characters of the film. The depression and the unbearable guilt as well. And the spleen of the Atlantic. And the emptiness.

Moloch (1999)

Pathetic Onirism

[8/10 · 20 January 2018]

Molokh is an intimate portrait about the state of torment of a reduced delirious aristocracy. The limits of the characters are often confused with the environment, with the unreal atmosphere of the landscape. It is important to highlight its fine technical work and especially its cinematography: a very careful composition in each scene. The cold way in which the light is treated and the density of the environment in each picture are the perfect frame to explain the morbid delirium of a group of attenuated and bizarre figures confined to their desolation. The dialogues have a certain dynamic and despite their absurdity and pathos they maintain enough dramatic tension so that the film is not lost in boredom. An original movie with an independent way to explore, from the formal simplicity of its cinematic, the hypochondria, the mania and the phobia of the main character and his naive and wicked chorus.

Slow West (2015)

Somewhere between Wonderland and The Far West

[8/10 · 5 January 2018]

Slow West is a kind of brand new werstern that takes place in a beautiful landscape without precedents. This is an epic journey of a naive hero who goes through dummy but lovely situations which could remind you of Alice's Wonderland because its psychedelia and its moments of intoxication. A bitter-ending amateur odyssey plenty of charming beauty so far away from the cliches of the genre. Is this iconoclastic and cool tragedy the last of the acid westerns?

My Uncle (1958)

The timelessness of classic humor

[8/10 · 5 October 2017]

Mon oncle is a movie that did not follow any fashion. Monsieur Hulot did not follow any fashion either. An original main character immersed in a deliberate silence, like Buster Keaton and who, like Charlot, does not fit into Modern Times. The film is, in part, a portrait of the ridicule of post- Modern life. A satire of the precious snobs. It unfolds like a great cinematographic trick. A great show of visual jokes, of mime, of old comedy, of rudimentary and timeless universal humor. An essential way of doing comedy through a language that crosses any border, classic but current. Its photography have the feeling of a cartoon and a comic strip. Its music and its colors refer to the circus and the acrobats of daily life, the clowns of the work and the beauty of the imperfect.

Shadows (1958)

Brilliant

[10/10 · 18 September 2017]

Shadows is not a common movie, it does not follows any regular pattern, just like its protagonists: amateur heroes of the Beat Generation in a clearly supposed realistic drama, therefore a social story. This film claims a literary and artistic attitude. It goes one step ahead in narrative release as if was a New Yorker-Nouvelle Vague film. It shares a nervous narration with The Beat Generation literature. Also its music, its rhythm, its aesthetics and its poetic-way. The genuine dialogues, the vague plans, the non-specific and aimless situations and the spontaneity of its Cinematography, makes a fresh and original hipster gem. An art feast. The improvisation exercise, subtly controlled, makes Shadows a vivid and unpredictable movie. Pioneering, unique and essential.

Band of Outsiders (1964)

Classic = modern

[10/10 · 9 September 2017]

Bande à parte is an exhibition of its own style from the title sequence. And a declaration of intent; the Cinema as a game. Irrespective of being part of the Nouvelle Vague its genre is unclassifiable. The whole movie is a great artistic trick in which the experience get things that only cinema can achieve. The entire film fights hard against the boredom of the viewer in the same way that the protagonists fight their own boredom. A playful movie in which through an overactive narration shows us a gallery of actions that could happen in a action- movie and happen. I'm going to try to condense it into a hyper- spoiler: the traffic in Paris, the parody of a duel, a teacher dictates Romeo and Juliet, we hear heartbeats, somebody makes up, Arthur comes through the top of a car running, Odile runs and runs while the boys read the press to us, a lion, and a tiger, Odile sings around, Frantz does acrobatics on a wheel, a fair-shotgun, they cross a river, and play changing chairs and drinks, they smoke, tell jokes and fight, and run through the Louvre and a moment of silence. And of course the eternal and great dance. As the narrator would say: "Let the images speak." The kids move around like children in an amusement park and we want to stay in this movie. The Pulp plot is almost anecdote because in this masterpiece, Godard, as the narrator says about the heroes of this great adventure "saw that there were no limits or constructions" and invented a movie 100% unprecedented. Finally " the movie ends when nothing yet degrades or decreases. " Chapeau.

The Beguiled (2017)

Suffocating and precious

[8/10 · 8 September 2017]

Alert: This is not a comparative review because I do not know the original one. The beguiled seems to me a good underrated film which could provide a very satisfying aesthetic experience. An atypical and dense, but brief drama. Mature and well structured. Generous in expressive resources. Beautiful. The film proposes a very particular atmosphere with ambiguous characters and its balance between formal delicacy and cold blood. It is a choral movie and the performance of the entire cast is quite sober and remarkable for their complicity. The soundtrack enriches the feeling of suffocation in a very effective way. The artistic part is really stand out and deserves awards or recognitions at least: the costume design and the cinematography are impeccable. This film works, has something to explain through its own language, regardless of what happened with the original version of 1971