Film Reviews by RM

In my opinion, enjoying this film, and more generally Lanthimos' films, is pretty much up to people's likings. The lobster is perfectly aligned to others by the same director. In this context, the film is, in my view, absolutely worth watching. The story is absurd but internally coherent -- that's a hard thing to achieve --, actors are great on this monotone speech they use -- even harder -- and it got an open ending that makes you think. I also liked the dark humor that is present throughout the film. Very specific tip: that monotone way of speaking is absent when some characters speak French ( I don't think it means anything though).

Now, if weirdness is not your thing, I think it is quite legitimate to simply hate this film.

This is, in my opinion, a good film very much in line with other Kaurismaki's works. In other words, one needs to like the director's style and sense of humor, which I happen to do but would understand many won't.

The topic is again social justice -- social change + unemployment + labour abuse + alcoholism in Finland in the 90s--, which is finely described in the very particular Kaurismaki's humor. I believe this is the main strength of the film, together with some strong performances (I believe some of the actors recurrently appear in other Kaurismaki's films). There is, as usual, a slightly surrealistic atmosphere and the typical long silences in the dialogs only make this atmosphere more powerful -- but perhaps this would be seen as something natural for the Finnish audience, as the Finns tend to be quieter than other Europeans. The takes are quite short and it almost feels like if it was a film made of sketches . I don't know if I like this or not but I think it 's worth mentioning.

Recommended.

Excellent film from all angles. The topic itself is interesting as little is publicly known about Ernesto Guevara's the early life. The portrait of the different people across South America is simply perfect. The acting is absolutely fantastic, with the main character being increasingly aware of the existing injustices beyond his middle-class comfortable position. The writing is very good and takes into account all the different dialects (Spanish/Castilian speakers will appreciate this more). Landscapes are incredible... but of course this is not so much the director's merit :)

I feel this film may become a cult one with time. The development of the anti-hero character is really very good and the performances are excellent. The atmosphere the director creates is suffocating and almost hypnotic.

This said, I've read other members' criticism about the Joker being based on a comic character but changing a number of key aspects in the story. I'm terribly ignorant on the comic scene and therefore I can't judge but I would definitely understand that people who liked the original comic felt somehow disappointing with this film.

An absolutely fantastic and well documented account of the not very well-known tensions, controversies and eventually fights within the antifascist side during the Spanish Civil War. While this may look like a very local conflict, Ken Loach smartly manages to highlight the international relevance of the events in this film. I feel the film is loosely based on the autobiographic novel "Homage to Catalonia" by George Orwell.

My only minor criticism is perhaps the fact that English was not widely spoken among the Spaniards until the present century and that workers from the CNT union in Catalonia were usually immigrants from elsewhere in Spain and apparently couldn't really speak Catalan.