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Reviews
Mona (2012)
Beautifully made but falls short of expectations
Due to the ever present money shortage for Latvian cinema this movie was being made 7 long years. Although the director Ināra Kolmane (for whom this is the first feature film after a successful career as a documentary movie maker) tried to glue all the parts of the movie together seamlessly, there was still that feeling back in my mind that a part of the movie was being made quite some time ago, the main actor's outdated cellphone, the hand-held tetris game console a child was playing with and... I don't know how to explain it but the mood for some parts of the film was really pre-recession or even pre-book Latvia-like.
Taking into account that the author herself has stated that the themes of the movie are still relevant even today (and I have no doubt about that) and that the movie was intended as some kind of a modern day fairytale, I could look past that thing and it really isn't the movie's real weak point. But let's start with the good things.
Soundtrack... is it only me or Latvians are getting better and better at making their movies sound really great. Well... not really Latvians, this time it was a renown Icelandic composer but anyway. I've watched Amatieris and Seranta Lapiņa atgrieanās (haven't seen Kolka Cool yet) and I've noticed these positive changes. The soundtrack is simply beautiful and complements the film.
The visual aspect... I'm not the first person to say that but it's one of the most beautiful (visually) movies ever made in Latvia. And I'm happy that, unlike in Amatieris or Serzanta Lapina Atgriesanas (both visually beautiful movies too), a Latvian, Uldis Jancis was responsible for cinematography. That means we can expect some beauty for him in future too. There are some scenes that are still in my head and will stay there for a long time.
Sensible story... it's sort of sketchy but at least I could follow what the movie was about. With other, IMHO, good Latvian movies I've seen before, Amatieris and Serzanta Lapina Atgriesanas, it wasn't as clear as to what the filmmakers wanted to say.
These are the movie's strong points. Now about the weak points.
The intro- it wasn't clear to me what was happening and why it was happening at the very beginning. That's a problem many Latvian movies have.
The love story - I guess the author tried to show us a love story. However I must say that it didn't get through to me. I felt that there wasn't really much love between the characters, just lust and passion... The love story just wasn't that well developed.
The density of it all - as some other people have pointed it out (and I invite you to look at movie's summary on the front page), there's so much stuff in the movie that most of it isn't developed much at all. On the one hand you have the love triangle- check, then you have a businessman trying to escape from the urban jungle- check... and then you also have a slaughterhouse and a question whether it's good to kill and eat animals, you have dreams and nightmares and signs written in the sugar accientally poured on the table... At some point there's just too much stuff taking place in beautiful locations (and Latvia is, indeed, beautiful), that you cannot comprehend whether or not there's some meaning in all of that or not.
But in any case, it's another at least watchable Latvian movie. I'm happy that the age of Streičs and other old school directors is nearing its end as, all due respect to the great filmmakers of Soviet era, cinema has made leaps since the 70-80s and some of our directors seem to be still stuck in that era even now, using boring angles while shooting their movies and employing musicians who can only compose drivel for their soundtracks... and have nothing new to say about this age that is so obviously not theirs.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)
Fresh Take on Teen Films but Fails on Other Fronts
I'll admit that I've never been neither much of a gamer nor an avid reader of comic books aka graphic novels. So, while I understood the gaming world references, there was little nostalgic value in the film for me personally and I had no idea about who Scott Pilgrim is.
The movie is definitely an achievement in teen movie genre that faces some problems with identity in the 21st century, IMHO. Michael Cera will definitely make you laugh, he's probably one of those characters you start to laugh at already seeing for the first time in the movie, the jokes are not as funny as Cera's characteristic stupid face and mannerisms. And that's a big problem with this film. You find yourself laughing not about the jokes but about the movie itself. Now, there's nothing wrong with it as Wright obviously intended "Scott Pilgrim" to be a stab at stupid action movies and video game clichés, among other things, but the attempts at serious drama just get lost in this CGI and Kung Fu or whatever extravaganza...
I remember "Watchmen" as I had a problem like this with that movie too. You might call it "style over substance" as nowadays, at least for me personally, "Sin City" like stylized comic book adaptations go far too over the top and it wouldn't be bad, it would be great if only they wouldn't try to attempt serious drama among all the CGI battles and explosions and Ddddddd's running on the street.
"Scott Pilgrim vs The World", as I said, is not a bad movie as it entertains and gives you a good time. But it's nothing more than that. It doesn't feel as revolutionary in the visual area as Avatar was and the plot, while it could work despite all the massive "why?" questions about everything on the screen (why is Scott sleeping in the same bed with a guy who's having gay threesome at the same time), is massacred by empty characters you cannot relate to and who either bore you or are utterly repulsive.
It's not a bad movie- it brings new things to teen movie genre, like interesting and clever visuals and cool battle scenes, it entertains and is funny, even if drags a bit at the end. But it isn't particularly good film either, as it's inhabited by "style over substance" in all areas and over the top/ exaggerated characters you cannot and don't want to relate to. In this way it's similar to already mentioned "Watchmen"
Rigas sargi (2007)
Brilliant movie in context of Latvian cinema!
Of course, the movie wasn't perfect. Movies seldom are. Some special effects weren't as good as in big budget Hollywood blockbusters but they were pretty impressive considering 4 million dollar budget this film had (i think many will wonder how it's possible for 4 million only). Also i liked the fact that the main characters weren't some kind of Rembo who kills everything and everywhere around. It was clearly seen that these guys were ordinary Latvian people who made their own contribution as they could make Latvia happen. Love story (stories) weren't too cheesy also and overall the movie was pretty believable. Of course, as always there will be some who will shout against historical imprecision but in that case if all would be true to the facts, movie would be far from being so close emotionally to viewers. Also i liked the fact that the grand battle wasn't the most emotional moment in this movie and wasn't going on for a half an hour as often in foreign movies. Main emotional moment was the last scene in my opinion. You should see it, Latvians and foreigners too because everybody knows the story behind Troy, King Arthur or Pearl Harbor but this story is unknown to foreign people, story about little nation struggling to keep its newly gained independence after 700 years under foreign rulers.
Stargate: Atlantis (2004)
great real feeling
I like this series because there are so many real things.Someone mentioned that he didn't like that everybody in Pegasus use English but- what would happen with series if in every episode they would have to learn new language- it would be ridiculous to learn a language in 42 minutes of the show and there wouldn't be any time to set the story. That's why all the aliens are speaking English and if we consider that that's sci-fi- are there any problem with this. Also I like that there isn't as much another kind life forms as in Farscape series with SG-1s Ben Browder- it's not interesting for me to see too much bad dressed or grimed unreal creatures- it leads more to Fantasie but all I need is Sci-Fi.Atlantis and SG-1 are way better than Andromeda, Battlestar G or Star Trek cause it's more realistic now- in 2nd season and it plays in our time when watching other sci-fi giants you must learn many many things about their culture, way of life or politics.
I recommend SG-1 and Atlantis for all- these series aren't all in all sci-fi. "Before I sleep" episode was excellent drama and "The Storm" was really like these action movies when one hero (Joe Flennigan) fights with evil and well trained militarists. Everyone can find something for him there.