This Romanian movie from 2005 is definitely a pretty grim watch: it is a deeply sad and infuriating film but bizarrely at times it’s even darkly comedic (which is why it is sold as a comedy on the poster… but don’t get deceived). It’s the story of a 62 years old man who’s been having stomach pain since the beginning of the day and who decides to ask for help to his neighbours. Eventually an ambulance is called, starting a series of events in which the man gets shuttled from one hospital to another as his condition deteriorates. The fact that the second name of the man is Dante is not by chance as this seems to be a real descent into a real hell.At the beginning of the film I didn’t think I was going to buy into it. I found its pace very slow, the characters not very engaging, but I have t say, the more story unravelled, the more I got sucked in and by the end I was actually glued to it, as well as angry and pretty much deflated.
It is an incredible film, rich in details and populated by people who feel so real that you might be mistaking this for a documentary. It is also filmed like a documentary and aside from a brief tiny “time-jump” during the last act, the rest happens to be pretty much all in real time, which adds to not just to the realism but to agony and the frustration at the shameful acts taking place in front of your eyes.
It is certainly not one for everyone, but if you give it a chance you’ll find a little gem of film that says so much not just about the state of the health system (this takes place in Romania, but it might as well take place anywhere else in the world), but about human beings too: those random strangers we find along the way, some incredibly nice, some deplorable and selfish, some just lazy, others pure bastards.
I’m not going to be able to shake it off easily. It is remarkable film, beautifully acted, choreographed and profoundly moving.
There have been countless films and documentaries on bullfighting, most of which mainly tended to focus on the actual matadors themselves (or bullfighters), but I don’t think I remember ever seeing anything like this: a film which takes the idea of bullfighting as a mean to talk about not just its cultural value and relevance versus how cruel and backwards it all is, but also as a starting point for a philosophic essay about the respect for our ecosystem, our biodiversity, to talk about art, life, death and our very own existence.
The film follows French professor and philosopher Francis Wolff, who happens to be a passionate fan of bullfighting too, though, as he says “Conveying a passion in impossible” so instead he’ll try “to convey his point of view”. He’s a rather strange character, even now after the film I still can’t quite tell whether I like or not. He’s certainly very good at opening up his views on bullfighting and broadening them out and comparing them to many other things I wasn’t expecting, but I have to confess I didn’t quite buy into many of his arguments. His comparisons to slaughterhouses were interesting but his comments about the fact that people are not as offended by them as they are about corridas, just because they don’t see it in the open, didn’t quite hold water for me, nor his parallels with hunting and fishing.Even the film-makers themselves seem to lose faith in him as some point as the film increasingly ends up interviewing people on things which he really should have been talking about. Because of that his personal essay/journey became slightly diluted and contaminated by the (way too many) other voices. At some point prof Wolff even questions the film-makers themselves on why they’re asking questions to the people in the street (which he calls them street philosophers) when he should be the one giving the running commentary in the film.It was a fascinating moment and I wished there had been more scenes like that one. Having the film turning against its own “main star” would have been a fascinating thng to witness, of course it would have been a different film, but then why only giving us a glimpse of that? Later on Wolff refuses to go to Barcelona with the crew, changing his mind at the last moment and forcing the film-makers to go on their own… Another hint of what they film could have been. Instead the film chooses to remain mostly neutral (probably a slightly easier choice given the kind of character Wolff is).
The documentary is mostly structured as a road movie, though the travelling device however clever and visually pleasing, feels at time a bit contrived especially when the film breaks its own rules and the journey is not followed through: in fact often we travel to a place or we build up to a an encounter with somebody or an event only to cut to the next scene straight as soon as we got there, or worse, we cut away to images from the place where we have just been. That made all that travelling rather pointless.
Having said that it is all beautifully filmed and there are some very clever and well researched moments (though watch out animal lovers… at times this is not for the squeamish).
Directors Aarón Fernández Lesur and Jesus Manuel Munoz travel from France to Spain to Mexico, throwing everything they can at the audience from great vistas, to drone shots, black and white archive, stock-footage, giving the film not just an expensive look, but also a great visual variety, in fact much greater than the actual intellectual argument it has to offer. Whether that’s a limitation of the film itself or prof Wolff I can’t tell, but I got the feeling that I was been told some of the same points over and over and I didn’t quite get a sense of progression of the argument.
All on all, there are so many interesting and tantalizing ideas in here, not all of them work and some of them are a bit repetitious, but there’s enough to make the journey worthwhile. Probably a slightly tighter film (and a tighter leash on the professor) would have helped making it feel less fragmented and keeping the argument more focused.
The film is available to watch here in French, Spanish and English:
I must confess I wasn’t quite read for the beautiful visual spectacle that this latest Disney Feature had to offer.The lavish backdrops inspired by by Southeast Asian landscape of Thailand, Vietnam Malaysia, Indonesia and so on (as well as some of the more spiritual themes from those countries) were so evocative and rich in colours and details that at times were just breath-taking. But what was also very impressive was the expressiveness of some of the faces (particularly Raya) and the cinematography (if there is such a thing in animation).But it wasn’t just beautiful animation, the story too was deep and interesting and the action was gripping and exciting. All in all, this was a very very solid entry in the Disney canon. The only thing that bothered me a little bit was how some of the more traditional cute-Disney elements in the film didn’t quite seem to gel with the more ambitious, mystical themes (which was actually the most successful part in my view), the dystopian look of the world, and the Indiana-Jonesy-type of adventures.The cute rolling armadillo (is that what it was?), the con-baby with those weird animals (whatever they were) and in fact pretty much most of the comedic elements seemed to belong to a different film. Even the dragon herself, both visually and in the way spoke jumped out at me as Disney forcing his trademark classic formula into something which was a lot deeper and grownup.Awkwafina (who voices the dragon Sisu) is clearly trying to evoke Eddie Murphy in Mulan (or even Robin Williams in Aladdin, thought she’s got a long way to go to match that) and while most her jokes are probably cute, they are rarely funny or inspired.Now, it seems I’m trashing this film and that’s really not what I want to do. In fact I think it’s one of the best animated feature coming out of Walt Disney Animation Studios in the last decade and I’m only criticising it because I really wanted it to be perfect (and for the most part, it really was).
Disney is getting increasingly better at representing and pushing other cultures other than the more traditional western one and they should be commended for that, but I think they still need to refine the balance with their classic and the more child-friendly elements, because on this one it seemed to me they were holding them back from making a real masterpiece.
The film is out in the cinema right now (if you’re lucky enough to have cinemas open), and also available on Premium Disney+
Bit of a conundrum here: is it possible to like a film where every single character is so despicable that it impossible to root for any of them? A film that uses the most evil cynicism to advance it black comedy and score a few laughs? A film which is morally deplorable in its depiction of exploiting the weak as the key to capitalism?Well apparently it is possible, because despite me wondering throughout “how can I possibly watch more of this bitch doing these awful things?”, I was absolutely glued to the screen without a single clue on how the whole things was going to pan out. There’s no denying that the film is nasty, some people may even have a problem with its bad taste (and they’re probably right), but at the same time it is constantly inventive, always surprising and infinitely addictive.
“I care a lot” proclaims at its start that “there’s no such thing as good people” and while I hope that’s not true, the film goes all the way to prove its. It exposes and makes fun of the corruption behind the healthcare system, the care for elderly and the loopholes within the legal systems. Let’s all just hope that the world depicted is a fictitious one… Let’s pretend this is a science fiction movie and take it as a joke.
Rosamund Pike plays a relentlessly ruthless, cruel, heartless, a calculative bitch, a cold predator who, in cahoots with doctors, retirement-home bosses, and lawyers, works the system to become the appointed legal guardian for rich elderly people so that she can then drain their bank accounts and their assets. She’s one of the most deplorable main character I’ve seen in a long time without any single redeeming quality and yet you can hardly take your eyes off her. She brings with her a delicious nastiness, which is hateful to start with and then it becomes fascinating to watch and almost hypnotic.
She’s won the Golden Globe for best comedy for this film and she deserves it 100%. As for the film itself, I thought it was incredibly “entertaining” and painful at the same time. It has divided critics and audiences right in the middle and for once I’m more with the critics.
I watched it on Amazon Prime, but apparently in some countries is on Netflix.
Let’s be honest, you don’t get to watch a disaster movie waiting to see Citizen Kane: you’ve got to set your expectations to the right levels. Now, I don’t know whether it’s because I’ve been suffering from Blockbuster withdrawal syndrome and I really needed some big-budget dumb movie or because the film is actually quite good, but I have to confess that I really enjoyed this. I have never been a fan of Gerard Butler, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever watched anything with him before. I don’t quite understand his appeal, nor I find him charismatic in any way, but the film works in spite of him. The first hour it truly great. It spends its time building up the characters and setting up the stakes in such a realistic way that it makes it all much more thrilling and gripping. There’s very little that we haven’t seen before, whether in films like Deep Impact, the Day after Tomorrow or even War of the Worlds and yet among all the usual cliches like the screaming crowds scrambling for safety, the selfish survivalists, the massive explosions left and right, the highway with pack-jam traffic and the plane that must leave (right now), what anchors the film is a real sense of emotional relatability. Among the complete chaos the film focuses on one single family, as if the rest of the planet didn’t quite matter and we all end up identifying with them. Yes you heard me right I identified with Gerard Butler!
Greenland isn’t a perfect movie of course and at times it’s a bit laughable (also I would have preferred if it had stopped about 1 minute before the end) but if you’re willing to go with it and you’re in mood of an action-packed film with some emotional resonance you should really give this a go.
Within its genre, it’s one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.
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