Film Reviews by Swambi

This has very poor production values, and appears to hhave been made many years ago stright to poor quality video. It mostly consists of various 'experts' lecturing in a condescending way, with occasional shots interspersed of extremely fuzzy lovers. It is entirely true to the title in terms of speaking of sex, but there are much better disks available on the same topic.

The film collates a varied selection of film clips from the period in question, some fascinating, some less so. These seem to have been rather randomly assembled, and lack a clear structure, explanation and narration as to how they relate to the progress and history of the period, which detracts from the experience. (Also, I personally found the accent and tone of the narrator rather off-putting, even apart from the cursory way in which the events of the period were quickly rushed through.)

On the positive side, some of the clips do amazingly bring to life the people and events of the period. The clip of the burning of the Hindenberg airship (in 32 seconds) is unforgettable.

If you want a very different experience, try this film - but not if you are in a hurry. It is called Silent Light, and those are pretty much the themes that recur throughout the film. It has beautiful and unusual filming, starting with minutes of "silence" as the stars rotate over-head and then break into a glorious dawn, with time lapse photography. Whilst I say silence the entire film has an amazing assortment of background sounds (no music). For example, with the dawn shots you hear the braying of animals and background chirps of insects. Light, skies and contrasts fill the film. Most shots are incredibly slow, compared to the speed we are used to in normal films, but if you can slow down this gives a relaxed feeling of being right in the scenes (although I think it could well have been cut to shorter than 131 minutes)!

The "acting" is almost non-existent, and plot pretty minimal, although if you have patience it develops progressively and surprisingly. The participants are genuine Mennonites speaking Dutch and living in northern Mexico, who were instructed not to act. It shows, with some scenes looking as if they had forgotten their lines and are wondering what to do, but ultimately delivers something that gives a greater feeling of truth, more like a documentary than fiction.

This makes for an unusual film, but if you have patience and an interest in beautiful filming and moral issues, then give it a try - you may be pleasantly surprised!

This film had a "dogme" feel, as if the actors were making up the script as they went along. It is very simply filmed, concentrating on interactions between 3 main characters, but still failed to develop their character, or give a good understanding of their past or future - although it is somewhat redeemed by a few lighter moments towards the end.

Personally I never felt convinced or involved, and most of the story is depressing. Cyril is unremittingly troubled for most of the film, his father unremittingly hard-hearted (although we never gain any idea why) and Samantha incredibly good and patient at all times. As this pattern basically repeats itself with little change, the behaviour of Cyril can soon become boring and aggravating.

The Directors then attempt to liven the story up with some crime and action, but this is frustrating because it is overplayed and unbelievable, particularly with virtually miraculous effects undertaken by Cyril. This left me feeling that the Directors were abusing credibility to manipulate the feeling of the viewers.

This is a strange film. It is set as a road story of a traumatised teenager travelling across post-war Europe, with little more than a compass, and with flashbacks to the appalling prison camp he has left, and a beautiful woman, whose identity is never clear until the end. The scenes individually can be attractive and reasonably filmed and there is some excellent music, and a positive message, and so may appeal particularly if you like sentimental encounters.

However, unless you can totally disengage your rationality, the chances any of this ever actually happening, or everyone being happily able to communicate in English, are clearly zero, making it impossible to engage with the film. The combination of a wooden David a random selection of encounters, and periodic flashbacks gives the whole film a discontinuity, and although I enjoyed some of the characters and the scenery, overall I felt that the film was poorly produced and failed to respect viewers' common sense (by expecting them to believe the impossible).

From the start of the film you can guess how it ends, and as it goes on (and on) much of the reason for keeping watching is just to make sure whether anything more cheerful might occur. But unfortunately it drags without improving and on without much real plot for the entire 90 minutes.

There is some interaction between the incredibly miserable William and the incredibly helpful Souleymane, but even this is severely limited by William's constant miserable bad temper, which is uncomfortable to watch and prevents any detailed character development or discussion.

Souleyman's family and friends are seen, but again never developed in any detail. The film is mostly shot in taxis in the dark. The cinematography is reasonable, but the inevitable progression and profanities combined with a total lack of understanding of William and why he is determined to die, make this puzzling and depressing. Eventually at the end, the film is cut off in mid flow, and the viewer is left rather perplexed as to why there was no more and whether it was intended to have any message at all.

This is an excellent film, provided you don't mind crying! The acting is superb, particularly Akeelah battling to overcome the heavily stacked odds against ever succeeding. As the story progresses more and more of her run-down community rally in support, and family and other with relationships are very well developed.

The film also draws on a positive view of personal worth and interesting background on words and spelling. The filming is of a high standard, and involvement is progressively developed, so that even if you have zero interest in spelling bees you feel mounting excitement and tension as the story unfolds. (After seeing this, and possibly thinking some of it is just too good to be true, you may want to see the actual story in the film called "Spellbound".)

This film has a lot of potential. The message of hope, family, forgiveness, faith, reconciliation, the difficulties of loving your neighbour is positive and uplifting. The extent to which it is believably interpreted and applied in the film is more questionable.

On the positive side, the filming and music are good. The acting generally reasonable, the storyline potentially interesting, involving contrasting families, colours, viewpoints, a 'good cop' and bad cop' and with some scenes well made and emotionally moving. however, many scenes lacked credibility. The story tended to go 'over the top' with contrasts so stark that I doubted they reflected reality. Also, as the film progressed there were some enormous co-incidences, as well as major errors in medical facts, which detracted from the overall experience.

It is difficult to characterise this film. The good points are traditional Irish backing music, shots of seals, lovely Irish islands and old Irish cottage interiors.

However, the plot is weak and unbelievable, including, as it does, seals morphing into and humans and back, a baby who sails around at sea in a cradle for years (without clothes), boats mysteriously propelling themselves, kids renovating derelict houses. This makes it too incredible and childish for adults - but (unfortunately) also probably far too boring, slow moving and confusing for most modern children.

You have to be a dedicated Wim Wenders fan to enjoy this film. The few moments of good interaction between the journalist and the girl do not compensate for fuzzy and shaky black and white shots that are completely out-dated and emulate poor amateur video. If you expect this to be compensated for by the story, you will be disappointed. It has a total lack of focus, and drags on, so that the 107 minutes seem far longer.

Sadly there are none of the beautiful cinematography and scenery you can see in his far better film (on a similar theme) Paris, Texas.

This film focuses on personal relationships, family, the struggle and difficulties of daily life, work and death and romance. For me some of the strongest elements were the quite extensive series of scenes in what looked a very realistic (and not totally hygienic) bakery and cake factory, including the workers traveling too and fro, and also some of the scenes between Robert and his Dad, Robert and Iris and Iris and her family.

Although I personally like this type of slow moving and personal focused film, I can't rate this higher than average. Different elements are introduced to the plot and vanish without any reason. Much of the acting is unconvincing, it is never clear why the very intelligent Stanley can't even write his name, and the plot and direction are disjointed and lack focus, so that despite some good scenes, the film overall lacks consistency, focus, credibilty and direction.

I enjoyed this film and would certainly recommend a viewing, although it wouldn't feature on my list of all time greats.

It is set against the background of present day UK government and Middle East instability, and explores a plot along lines reminiscent of Forrest Gump, with a rather 'gormless' hero, and a similar approach to combining extraordinary events with such realistic filming that strange events become credible, ranging from the Civil Service, investment firms, cultured Arabs owning Scottish castles and lochs and massive investment in salmon fishing facilities in the Yemen. This aspect also develops a slightly subtle humour, a few thoughts on the nature of faith and fishing and some exceptional shots of fish that I really enjoyed (although not a fisherman).

Overall though, the film was let down on the 'romantic' and relationships aspect, with a lack of clarity leaving one wondering about the morality or indeed reason for Fred Jones deserting Mary. The relationships generally lacked any chemistry, and could largely be predicted from the outset.

There are a couple of action scenes in the film and the second one (a flash flood incident) seemed incredible at some points.

The film is well acted, with some nice cinematography, and if you live in America or have an interest or connection with the lives of immigrants there, you could well enjoy this. I enjoy films with human interest, but even so I found this tediously slow with long elements of discussion between various Mexican immigrants, and not much drama to carry things through. The plot is really minimal, and I largely failed to connect or feel involved with either the father, the son, or the theft of their vehicle. However, if you are interested in this type of film, you could have a better experience.

Do not believe the synopsis! Whilst the plot has a lot of potential, the film does not deliver it. The 'ordinary family life, and his wife are well acted, but the 'sex addiction' is poorly implemented, to the point of being unbelievable, and unpleasant - and very definitely not erotic! As a result I think the film fails to deliver, and ends up largely being a succession of unpleasant (but not particularly unusual) sex episodes, without exploring why Sammy ever got into this mess (or why anyone has sex with him, or how he could change). There is a small element of suspense related to how or when he will be found out, but that hardly sustains much interest. The ending is ultimately left ambiguous, which in this case I consider to be due to the producer being too lazy to provide a 'proper' ending. However, if you are a fan of rather violent and unloving sex, with some psychological review and contrast with nice family scenes, you could find this interesting.

This series has a potentially interesting story-line, but it seems poorly executed, and long before the first episode of the full 215 minutes I was well and truly bored. This is compounded from a rather puerile approach to the whole film, unpleasant sexual encounters, out-dated and rather poor filming and a fairly incredible series of sub-plots, which the actors struggle with. Overall I was left feeling uninvolved, unconvinced, and then un-interested. If you are keen on TV series and the 1970s, there are some interesting moments to be found, and you will probably want to see for yourself.