Film Reviews by Philip in Paradiso

The film documents the 1965 massacre of Communists or Communist sympathizers in Indonesia through the eyes of one man whose family was targeted by the killers. Many of the victims were not Communists at all. The scale of the violence was such that it could be termed a genocide. Britain and the USA supported the genocidal killers, and, in fact, they are still, broadly speaking, in power in Indonesia today.

It will unsettle and shock you, but it should be seen. It could be called: "A study in Evil".

I was not sure the movie would be that good. In fact, I found it very good. The life of the main character was, in some ways, fascinating. The acting of all the key characters is excellent, particularly Amy Adams'. There are also some funny moments and the film sustains the viewer's interest to the end, in my opinion. Overall, a very good film in my view.

Not a bad film but not a masterpiece either. The storyline is interesting along the lines of your usual zombie movie. But I found the characters a bit formulaic and the hint of a love story between the 2 young lead characters is not credible, somehow: there seems to be no chemistry between them. Overall, you will like it if you like that kind of film. But the raving reviews it got when it came out are over the top in my view: it is fairly good, not superb.