bookmark_borderSome Birds – Review

When they hand you voting cards at a film festival, I never know what to tick. The first film always seems great, it is better than the documentaries you are used to, perhaps it is the first time you have been in a cinema in a while, the atmosphere is contagious.

And then, the second is even better. If I could give Some Birds more than five stars, I would. I am not saying it is better than perfect, although it is great (especially for first time filmmakers), it is that I had already given five stars to another film at this festival, and Some Birds was better than that.

The filmmakers started their journey five years before the festival. Yes, it does take that long to make a movie. The director had an idea from his personal life, and the writer could relate. So, they met at a workshop, and decided to work on it together.

In other words, the story starts with an insider story, writing what you know. But they didn’t end it with their knowledge. They had expert guidance, from experienced filmmakers in an incubator program. And, they even spent a year observing different care homes, asking questions to the director of a care home when they had idea.

The main character is put into a care home by his son. The second main character ends up looking after him, as some kind of juvenile rehabilitation project. Well, the main character does not like it in the care home, and wants to escape, to prove that he can look after himself.

Is that a spoiler? Oh well. Here, the creators did their research, and asked the care home how somoene could be discharged. The scenes in the film are authentic, not only drawing on the creators lives, or the lives of others who are in the homes, but out of questions the creators asked, to see what options the characters would have in real life. They seem to have done more research than the writers of most biopics.

And, I think that is why I like the film. Of course, it helps to have a main character who is charismatic. The actor has had small parts in films before, but is better known as the voice in movies. When his movie-grandson heard the actor’s voice, he said, “you are Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh!” He isn’t really a rabbit, but he is the Hungarian voice of Rabbit.

All of the actors do their parts well, and even before I heard it was anyone’s first time film (it was the writers first, director’s, and the DOP’s first), it was still my favorite film. This film was much more powerful than other films I had seen by seasoned directors. It was more real than documentaries. But it probably won’t win the festival. That usually goes to something political.

I would also recommend Some Birds to learners of Hungarian. There are lots of sections that can be cut out and used as lessons, basic words that A1 or A2 learners should be able to understand. There are also longer sections that are more difficult to follow, and there are a few characters who speak German. But the basic language is interesting, it really fits the lives of the characters, or certain scenes of them anyway, much more naturally than a langauge textbook would.

Yes, I recommend this film. Watch it until the end, and you will see why even the title fits, and why it is called, “Some Birds.”

bookmark_borderNasty film review

Ilie Nastase was voted fifty-fifth. (according to the “Mari Romani” show.) 

His teammate, Ion Tiriac, ranked 77.  

While Ion Tiriac’s wax statue was displayed recently at Iulius mall, Ilie “Nasty” Nastase is the title character of the documentary about the golden age of men’s tennis in Romania. While a search for “Tiriac” might yield results for the former tennis great’s successful businesses (including Tiriac Auto and Allianz Tiriac insurance company) a search for “Nastase” brings results about the other player himself.  Ion Tiriac is a success story to be proud of, but Mr. Nastase is a character to remember.

Continue reading “Nasty film review”

bookmark_border5 Remakes that pass for originals

We’re growing tired of remakes.  Some rehashes claim to be better than the original, but we’re not sure “better” is the right word.

Do we need another Karate Kid, another Dr. Doolittle, another Ghostbusters, another Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, or another Steel Magnolias?  What was wrong with the first film?

(The second Karate Kid was okay,  but “Pick up your coat” is incredibly lazy compared to “wax on, wax off.”)

However, some remakes add something, and in some ways improve upon the original.  A few, in fact, are so good that we sometimes think that the remake is the original. Continue reading “5 Remakes that pass for originals”

bookmark_borderApocalypse Now Redux: review

Walter Murch, yes the Walter Murch, travelled all the way to Aberystwyth to take questions on his film, Apocalypse Now.

Okay, so Murch was only the sound stylist, right? An editor, not a director, star, screenwriter or even a producer. Producers take home the best picture award, directors get to be thought of the auteur, actors get famous, screenwriters can say they thought it all up, but without people working below the line there’s only so much you can do.

Continue reading “Apocalypse Now Redux: review”

bookmark_borderThe Disaster Artist (review)

At Ptara, I directed two microbudget feature films. Make that nanobudget.

One had a crew of two (excluding the three actors, who also crewed, and a few kids who helped out on sound one day), and the other was basically me editing a large variety of footage to make it coherent. There were challenges in both, and everyone learned a lot.  And, what these films lack in production values is made up for in performance and storyline.

By contrast, Tommy Wiseau’s “The Room” had a budget that was about 1000 times either of my films.  He worked with a much more expensive kit and a more experienced cast and crew. Yet, “The Room” was filled with continuity errors, bad acting, and an incoherent plot.

Continue reading “The Disaster Artist (review)”

bookmark_borderReview: WPR rebuttal

“SenatorJPO” appeared to be going places.  He was an honors student at Wisconsin’s finest Universities, with a BA and MA to his name.  Then he graduated and appeared to be lost in the reality of underemployment.

He’s now taking on the educational establishment, as well as public radio, with his own public service radio show.  For two hours every Friday, SenatorJPO gives his “rebuttal” to the information (or misinformation) supplied by the WPR radio station run by the university. Continue reading “Review: WPR rebuttal”

bookmark_border“A short course of nothing” review of “Las Maestras de la República”

I hate to start a review with a spoiler, but knowing your history is always a spoiler.  And, if you don’t know your history, historical films often lack interest.

Spain was backward during Franco’s dictatorship, just as fundamentalists in the middle east are making their own countries backward.  Much of Europe only truly emerged from the dark ages in the past 200 years, some parts have yet to emerge.

This documentary “Las Maestras de la Republica” is a story about education in a time between extremes, not only Franco’s extreme, but the extreme of the other guys.  The Second Spanish Republic was not a bed of roses, and the documentary skims over most of the problems of that regime.  Instead, it focuses on the new found equality of Spanish women through education, especially the role of teaching. Continue reading ““A short course of nothing” review of “Las Maestras de la República””

bookmark_borderTopsy Turvy (1999) Review

Poster with the words "The Mikado on top, and a full length portrait of the character kaisha, in traditional dress and holding a sword, surrounded by flowers.
The Mikado, promotional poster from the Gilbert and Sullivan theatrical production, by Johnathan B. Jeffrey, ca. 1885

I purposely avoided Moliere, Shakespeare in Love, and almost every other movie about a playwright.  I do this because I respect writers like Shakespeare, and I find their period fascinating.  I likewise avoid most movies about Thomas Jefferson.  I prefer the Jefferson that I read in his letters, or from his contemporaries, to the cartoon lecher that Hollywood spoon feeds us with.

It ain’t just reverence and respect for the past, I don’t like the glossy misinterpretations.  Those movies about great people are often like sampling Mozart into some kind of techno elevator music. Continue reading “Topsy Turvy (1999) Review”

bookmark_borderReview: Le Rayon Vert

NAPOLEON DYNAMITE meets AMELIE POULAIN. Or, the grandmother of both films.

Le Rayon Vert is a classic. It’s not black and white, it’s not silent, and you probably never heard of the actors. The director’s name, Eric Rohmer, may easily be confused with a military general.

It’s title is apparently taken from a Jules Verne novel, but this is no sci-fi. No, Le Rayon Vert is the same down to earth, independent filmmaking that made Napoleon Dynamite seems so at home with audiences. And the main character is sort of the kind of hopeless romantic as Amelie. Only, she’s a bit more self-absorbed and socially maladroit, perhaps like young master Dynamite. (Or a female, French version of him.) Continue reading “Review: Le Rayon Vert”