L’Avventura is a 1960s film by Michaelangelo Antonioni. The plot revolves around the search for a woman who disappeared by her lover and her best friend. The plot eventually delves away from the search and focuses on the relationship of the lover and the best friend.
This is the only film that I wasn’t able to finish for class, as it was too dragging for me. Although critics loved this film, it is not for my taste.
Clouds of Sils Maria is a 2014 drama film by Oliver Assayas. It centers around an aging actress and her assistant, as she prepares for an older role in a remake of a play that made her famous.
The film leaves itself open to interpretation for the audience. The topic that was heavily in the film in my opinion was the actress facing the issue regarding her age. One could see how she struggled seeing a young face, one she feels undeserving of the opportunity, take her former role and overshadow her in the twilight years of her career. The insecurity and hidden fear that she presented in the film were very felt in my eyes.
The film was well-structured, although it felt dragging at times. There were times that I didn’t know what was fully happening, but I eventually caught up.
I would recommend this film to people who want to watch something a little bit deeper than most films but is an easy watch.
Volver is a 2006 drama film by Pedro Almadovar. It revolves around a family and their problematic pasts and present.
This film felt like a spanish teleserye for me as it had so many twists and turns. First, the kid kills (in self-defense) the dad, who isn’t really his dad. (:O) And then the mom’s mom, who supposedly died in a fire is ALIVE. (:O) And then the mom’s sister is apparently also her CHILD bc her dad was a sexual abuser (:O) and their sick neighbor’s mother was having an affair with the mom’s dad and that’s who died in the fire. (:O) I totally get how spanish teleseryes influenced Philippine TV after this film.
The film was nicely structured, although it was pretty long because of a lot of dialogue. But it kept me interested enough to pay attention. The twists definitely helped me keep track of what was happening.
I would recommend this film to people who enjoy teleseryes and films with a lot of dialogue.
Heavy Trip is a musical-comedy film by Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio. It is about a group of friends who are in a band but never plays in public until they get an opportunity of a lifetime.
Despite not being a super fan of metal, I very much enjoyed this film! The characters were so dumb and lovable that I can’t help but root for them in their journey to fame. Watching them fight for their dreams was so inspirational that the cynic in me gave up on thinking that they will fail.
The film was very nicely structured in a way that it didn’t feel dragging. The comedic timing was on point and the emotions were pretty balanced.
I would recommend this film to dreamers who love music. I would also recommend this to people who want to watch something light.
Raw is a horror drama film by Julia Docourneau. It is about a college freshman who tastes meat for the first time and becomes a cannibal.
As a person who enjoys seeing gory stuff on-screen, I can say that I found this film enjoyable. I was amused as my seatmates cringed while the main character ingested her sister’s finger.
Although this film is gory, the quality of the plot did not suffer, unlike most gory film these days like The Human Centipede. The film uses cannibalism as a plot device and a metaphor for the sisters’ coming-of-age. It was relatable to a point, as we all go through a phase of insecurity, adjustment, and comformity as we enter college.
Overall, I enjoyed this film and I would recommend it to people who enjoy both gore and plot.
The Edukators is a crime-drama film by Hans Weingartner. The film centers around three friends who invade the houses of rich people to rearrange furniture and leave notes as a form of activism.
I did not enjoy this film because of its flimsy characters. I expected this film to be political, yet these so-called “anarchists” did not fulfill what their goals properly. Aside from being faux anarchists, these characters annoyed me so much that at some point I was rooting for them to lose. I felt bad for the guy they kidnapped because he had to sit through these characters babbling for numerous days. I felt some sort of relief when the film ended.
The film’s structure was pretty easy to follow, and there was nothing objectively wrong with the film. However, these characters were so annoying that I would definitely not watch this film again. I would not recommend it to anyone.
Timecrimes is a sci-fi film by Nacho Vigalondo. It centers around Hector, a man who finds himself in a timeloop with different versions of himself running around their small setting.
This film felt very mainstream psychological horror to me, as it used the usual tropes of the genre in a typical way. They brilliantly used time-travel in a way that it was easy to understand and it did not hinder the plot. The time-travel plot left no plot holes as there were no hanging plot devices like another version of the main character left unchecked.
I love the way the plot unfolded because it shows how the main character’s problem got bigger as he kept travelling back. The character was wiser than he seems, as he solved his problems in peculiar ways.
This film is one of the films that I enjoyed in class, and I would recommend this to people who enjoy sci-fi movies.
Trollhunter is a Norwegian fantasy film by Andre Ovredal. Done in the style of found-footage mockumentaries, the film revolves around a group of students who gets sucked into a conspiracy regarding the truth about trolls.
The film was very enjoyable for me as it felt a bit mainstream. It also incorporated Norwegian mythos. This film definitely taught me a lot about trolls, like the fact that they hate Christians, or how they turn into stone when hit by light.
I also enjoyed the twist in the end, as the reason of their disappearance weren’t the trolls themselves, but the government. This definitely supported their ominous presence throughout the film, being more threatening than the trolls themselves.
I would definitely recommend this to people who want to watch something a bit light, but somehow also a bit wack.
Goodbye, Lenin! is a German comedy film by Wolfgang Becker. It centers around a family that lived in East Germany as the 1989 revolution unfolded. After the matriarch of the family suffers from a near-fatal heart attack, her family must pretend that the revolution didn’t happen in order to keep her from the truth and save her life.
This film was pretty enjoyable for me as it mixed heavy topics with comedy. Their lies became more elaborate as it became more obvious that East Germany was getting more and more westernized. My favorite type of lie that they did was the fake news reports. It was amusing how they had to think of fake news, film, and edit it in order to keep the mother happy.
Holy Motors is a 2012 film by Leos Carax. It revolves around a mysterious character, Mr. Oscar, who inhabits different personas throughout the day, acting as if he was being filmed.
As a person who doesn’t really enjoy art cinema, this film boggled my mind. It made me think about this person’s daily life, how he would live doing countless performances a day. Why does he do this? Does he have any personal relationships? What does he gain out of this? Nothing in this film made sense to me.
Nevertheless, I still enjoyed some parts of his performances. I watched the film in a way that all his performances would be consumed individually, which makes the film something like an anthology for me. Because of this, I enjoyed the film a little bit more.
European Film (2019) 