Wednesday, July 13, 2016

The Infiltrator [2016]

MPAA (R)  CNS/USCCB ()  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (2 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (C)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (P. Sobczynski) review
AVClub (I. Vishnevetsky) review  

The Infiltrator [2016] (directed by Brad Fuhrman, screenplay by Ellen Brown Fuhrman based on the true life / true crime book [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Robert Mazur [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) makes me very, very happy that I've never been part of the "into the Lion's Den" nightmares that this film describes.

The film is about former U.S. Customs Agent Robert Mazur (played in the film by Bryan Cranston ironically of Breaking Bad [2008-2013] fame/infamy) who during the height of the Reagan Administration's War on Drugs came up with the idea of "focusing on the (laundering of the) MONEY" made in the Drug Trade rather than on simply focusing on intercepting the shipment of the drugs themselves.  

So he invented the alias Bob Musella and gave him a somewhat mobbed-up / certainly somehow "connected" crooked businessman from New Jersey persona, and with his partner Emir Abreau (given a younger more freewheeling Latino alias/persona and played in the film by John Leguizamo) sets out to infiltrate / go up the ladder of the most powerful (Medellin) drug cartel of the time.  The backstory that they built around (the already some years dead/buried) random man named Musella was brilliant because as an _actual_ U.S. government agent, Mazur was able "to do magic" that is be able to "open doors" for increasingly higher placed Drug Lords that _simply would not have been possible_ for a mere "crooked New Jersey businessman with an Italian name" (unless of course, he was somehow "mobbed-up").  

But honestly _try sleeping at night_ if you're trying to enter into the circle of, gain the trust of, and ultimately_entrap_ Colombian Drug Lords like the men around Pablo Escobar (for whom this operation was ultimately gunning):  "Given" a beautiful if random stripper for the night as "a reward" by some impressed / moderately placed Kingpin, Mazur/Musella opts _to try_ remaining faithful to his wife by telling her (and later "taken by surprise" thinking he had been "generous" Drug Kingpin): "Sorry/thanks, but I'm engaged...(thinking on his feet) ... Look, I messed-up my first marriage, I really don't want to mess-up my second ..."  Well ... from that point on, the U.S. Customs Service has to give him a suitable "government issue fiancee" / agent (played quite impressively by Diane Kruger) for the remainder of the operation ;-).

At that time, "all (money laundering) roads" (in the Western Hemisphere anyway...) led through Manuel Noriega's Panama (and through a notorious bank of the time named BCCI ... which actually was shut-down as a result of this operation).  So viewers are teased with all sorts of other threads of intrigue (left still largely unexplored here) :  was the eventual 1989 U.S. Invasion of Panama set into motion to PROTECT THE CONTINUED SECRECY of ANY NUMBER OF LEVELS of U.S. SECRET GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS that had Panama as a hub (from anti-drug running / anti-money laundering operations (like Mazur's), to operations in support of the U.S. supported Nicaraguan Contras to even (possible) drug running operations _in support_ of the Contras...)  


It all makes for one compelling a story.  But I was _very, very happy_ to be able to watch a story like this, smiling (at various times quite nervously) "with popcorn in hand" from "very, very far away" ;-)

Good / great job! ;-)


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Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Our guy in the Cemetery (orig. Парень с нашего кладбища / Paren s nashego kladbishcha) [2015]

MPAA (Would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

afisha.ru (S. Obolonko) review*
KinoArt.ru (N. Tsyrkun) review*
Kino-teatr.ru (A. Flipov) review*
Kommersant.ru (A. Solntseva) review*
NewsLab.ru (S. Mezenov) review*
OVideo.ru (I. Kershnev) review*
Rossiyskaya Gazeta (A. Litovchenko) review*
TenStars.ru (Y. Sa) review*
TimeOut.ru (D. Ruzaev) review*
VashDosug.ru (I. Gireiev) review*


Our Guy in the Cemetery (orig. Парень с нашего кладбища / Paren s nashego kladbishcha) [2015] [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]* [MC.ru]* (codirected by the brothers Anton Chizhikov [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]* [MC.ru]* and Ilya Chizhikov [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]* [MC.ru]*, screenplay by Vladimir Seryshev [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [MC.ru]*) is a rather straight-forward but effective youth-oriented Russian "scary movie" which serves as the 4th stop on my 2016 Russian Film Tour.

Unsurprisingly ;-), this film has proven FAR MORE POPULAR among Viewers/Readers on the MegaCritic.ru website (who ranked it as the #5 best/most popular Russian film of 2015) than the previous (headier, if also taken more seriously) two films that I reviewed as part of this tour.

The film centers around Kolya (played by Aleksandr Pal [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]*) a 20-or-so year- old "kid" from "the Provinces" who comes to Moscow having been promised a job by his somewhat swarmy Uncle Vasya (played by Aleksandr Ilin [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]*).  Yes, Kolya's uncle wasn't lying to him, completely... He did have a job for him -- as a watchman at an ancient creepy looking cemetery (where he himself was the manager) at the far, FAR EDGE of ... "Is this still Moscow?" asks a bewildered Kolya who may have wondered why he "left the village" for "all this" to begin with.  "Yes it is," his uncle insists (even as he's forcing Kolya to call him Vasiliy Ivanovich, even though he's supposed to be his uncle) "You know, Moscow's growing everyday."   Kolya's unconvinced, but what's he supposed to do?  He's already talked to his grandma that he's arrived, that uncle Vasya's picked him up at the depot and all ... Why cause waves?

Well a pretty good reason to have caused waves or at least ask questions would have been once he spotted HUGE dried blood stain on the floor right by the bed in the watchman's shack where he was to stay.  Instead, while _definitely_ taking note of the HUGE blood stain, he -- a young man from the countryside -- gets a pail of water, some lie soap and a brush, washes the stain away.

Indeed, A GOOD PART OF what makes the film FOR ME (and I suspect a lot of the Russian Viewers/Responders who liked the film on megacritic.ru) was Kolya's attitude.  YES the job sucked, YES he was repeatedly lied to by his swarmy, "city-slicker WANNA BE" uncle.  NO he wasn't even told that the last 5 watchmen RAN AWAY _screaming_ from this job ... Hence probably why his "uncle" had to reach back all the way to _his family_ back in the Provinces (who wouldn't have known any better...) to find someone like his nephew Kolya to take the job.  But there he was, Kolya, AND THIS WAS HIS JOB.  And so he did it.

There's _a lot_ of "Paul Blart" in this film (which I also LOVED).  Indeed, part of what made the film endearing is that yes, as a GOOD "genre film" it _freely_ borrowed from _a lot_ of similar (but also SIMILARLY POPULAR) "genre films" from both the U.S. and Russia.   Among the American films that this film borrowed from would have been the Night at the Museum [2006-2014] movies as well as The Sixth Sense [1999] and perhaps The Evil Dead [1981].  There is also explicit reference (arguably more like an advertisement ;-) to a recent Russian horror film called The Queen of Spades: The Dark Rite [2015] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[MC.ru]*.

So why did all those watchmen run _screaming_ from this job before?  Well, the place was "hopping" (with all sorts of characters) pretty much every night ... late, late at night.  Yet, also amusing was self-deprecating humor of it all:  For this was Russia after all ... and with all the organized crime in Russia these days -- the Living are OFTEN _EASILY_ as FRIGHTENING as ... the Dead ;-).

So even the Dead that he runs into walking the grounds of the Cemetery at night look to poor 20-year-old Kolya "from the Provinces" / "from the Village" to "keep them safe."

So this is a GREAT and often VERY FUNNY FILM :-)

Honestly good job! ;-)


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

** To load Websites from South, East and Eurasia in a timely fashion, installation of ad-blocking software is often required.

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Monday, July 11, 2016

Swiss Army Man [2016]

MPAA (R)  ChiTrib/LATimes (2 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 1/2 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (2 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
ChiTrib/LA Times (R. Abele) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller-Seitz) review
AVClub (A.A. Dowd) review  


Swiss Army Man [2016] (co-directed and co-written by Dan Kwan and Daniel Sheinert) is a small, sneaky, summer-time indie film that despite starring two well known/popular actors -- Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe -- almost certainly _isn't_ going to be remembered for a long time to come... except that it was _strange_.  

Late 20-something / early 30-something Hank (played by Paul Dano) finds himself stranded, somehow, on some desert island, surprisingly awash with a lot of garbage.  And after utilizing said garbage to send out all sorts messages -- in bottles, on small rafts, on even quite elaborate small boats _all_ made out of said garbage (he was not only getting increasingly desperate but _also_ desperately _bored_ ;-) -- he decides to end it all.  So ... standing on a thrown away "6-to-12-pack" plastic "ice-cooler" with a noose around his neck, from which he's about to throw himself off, ... he spots, suddenly ... a body that was washed onto shore.

Having been given for the first time in _a very long time_ a smidgen of hope, he fumbles out of the noose around his neck and runs to the body, finding it to be ... dead.

Yet even though the body (played quite masterfully by former "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe ... talk about "dead pan acting" ;-) is dead (basically _becoming_ "another form of garbage")  even his / its process of decomposition proves remarkably even _miraculously_ useful to Hank: The gases produced in his/its intestinal tract -- his/its flatulence ... -- make(s) it/him ...  (yes) FART ;-) ... with _such force_ that Hank is able to ride the body LIKE A JET SKI ;-) off the island and to (some) new shore.  Other bodily functions (ones that _don't_ require much cerebral input...) prove useful to Hank as well, as his "dead body" / "friend" proves to be a veritable "Swiss Army Knife"-like gadget ... giving the film its name.

And indeed Hank proves to be something of a MacGuiver [wikip] [IMDb] of Garbage, turning all sorts of refuse into useful things.

Much (sort of) ensues ...

There is a more-or-less obvious theme of "recycling" (taken truly to the extreme ;-) / "one man's garbage is another man's treasure" that, honestly, becomes "something to ponder" by film's end.

Yet, I honestly _don't know_ ;-) if the film-makers sought to _make fun of_ "recycling" or (honestly) tried to make a very interesting / youth-oriented (re)statement of a doctrine held by most Eastern Philosophies (Buddhism in particular) that "change" (even Death / Decomposition) is Inevitable and needs to be embraced to attain Enlightenment.

Yes, this is a film that argues that even flatulence (and more ...) can be "made good."

I'll leave it then to you Dear Readers to decide if this goofy / appropriately R-rated / and arguably surprisingly quite intelligent movie is ... for you ;-)


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Sunday, July 10, 2016

The End of a Great Era (orig. Конец прекрасной эпохи / Konets prekrasnoy epokhi) [2015]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (4+ Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

AFisha.ru (S. Zelvenskiy) review*
RadioVesti.ru (A. Dolin) review*
Rossiyskaya Gazeta (A. Litovchenko) review*
The Hollywood Reporter.ru (Y. Zabalyev) review*
Zavtra.ru (A. Belokurova , I. Malashenkov) review*


The End of a Great Era (orig. Конец прекрасной эпохи / Konets prekrasnoy epokhi) [2015] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* (directed and screenplay by Stanislav Govorukhin [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*, based on the novel The Compromise (1981) [GR-ENG] [GR-RUS]*[WCat-ENG] [Amzn-ENG] by Sergei Dovlatov [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb] [KP.ru]*) is an excellent four 2016 Nika Award (Russia's closet equivalent to the Oscars) winning film (including for Best Director) that serves as the third stop of my 2016 Russian Film Tour.

A very smartly filmed period-piece / dramedy of sorts, presented (spot-on perfectly for effect) _entirely_ in high-contrast black-and-white, and set in 1969 (significance of the year becoming important for all kinds of reasons as the film progresses), it tells the story of  "a year in the life" of Andrey Lentulov (played by Ivan Kolesnikov [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]*) a still young, 30-something-or-so, Soviet-era journalist, originally from Leningrad (once and again St. Petersburg) yet for reasons not altogether clear (boredom, perceived greater opportunity / freedom, necessity?) taking a job in not altogether far Tallinn, the capital of the (then) Estonian SSR (once and again Estonia).

Why was he (choosing?) to leave Russia's (then the Soviet Union's) _second city_ (with a population of millions and a cultural cache' commensurate to its size / importance) for basically a "provincial capital" of a then fairly nearby "imperial reservation?"   The Imperialism of Russian life in Tallinn is patently clear throughout the film -- Ethnic Russians seem to hold most of the important positions.  Their ethnic Estonian subordinates appear loyal enough BUT when they turn to speaking Estonian to each other the Russians DON'T HAVE A CLUE what they're saying... Such was "life of the British" in India or Kenya / Rhodesia (or IRELAND for that matter ...) "during the Raj" as well ...

That kind of an admission -- that the Russian dominance of Estonia during the Soviet Era was certainly unjust -- is _in itself_ a remarkably mature and perhaps even brave statement.  (I from / live and write from a country, the United States, that doesn't particularly like to admit its mistakes either ... ;-).

But the whole film becomes a _fascinating_ and to CONTEMPORARY RUSSIA _challenging_ exploration of WHY "1969" could truly be understood as "the end of an era" for (then Soviet) Russia.

To understand "what the era was" and "how/WHY it was ending," the film begins with a montage recalling how the 1960s began in Russia -- WITH GAGARIN.  At the beginning of the 1960s Soviet Union quite literally seemed "at the top of the world."  YET, lest one understand that opening montage as simply a celebration of the Great Soviet Achievements of the time (and let's face it, putting the first satellite and then first human being into space were _great achievements_) EVEN THE OPENING MONTAGE _ENDS_ with an thoroughly _uncomprehending_ Krushchev first scandalized by and then _loudly denouncing_ a famous "modern art exhibition" in Moscow.  So the Khrushchev Thaw was already coming to an end UNDER KHRUSHCHEV.

Fast forward then to "the summer of 1969."  Among the first assignments Andrey is given by his boss, Editor in Chief (goes without saying) "Party man" Genrikh Frantsevich Turonok (played by Boris Kamorzin [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) at his new post at the "Estonian Pravda" (pravda in Russian, of course, meaning "truth," but also the infamous name of the then Soviet Union's Communist Party's _authorative_ newspaper in Moscow) is to help write the front page article _not about_ (AMERICAN) Neil Armstrong WALKING ON THE MOON but instead of a thoroughly _random_ "state visit" by the General Secretary of the Polish People's Republic to Moscow ;-).

Now dear Readers understand, the film shows ALL of Andrey's journalist colleagues watching (live?) coverage of  Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, and them toasting the _human_ achievement of man walking on the moon, SOME perhaps disappointed that it wasn't a Russian walking on the moon, BUT STILL ACKNOWLEDGING, indeed TOASTING (it offered an excuse to drink ;-) the "HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT" OF IT ALL ... and they were being asked TO PRETEND that it "really was no big deal" ... that the again THOROUGHLY RANDOM "state visit" of the Polish General Secretary was _somehow_ "more important."

Many of Andrey's other writing assignments for the paper during that year were similarly absurd: He's given a assignment to write a "puff piece" (most familiar with Soviet Era journalism would know that _most_ domestic stories _were_ "puff pieces") about the recent birth of Tallinn's 400,000th citizen.  (Readers here note that Estonia's capital Tallinn, like most cities between Leningrad and Berlin were thoroughly decimated - and in the case of cities of the Baltic States like Tallinn repeatedly, by both sides - with then a huge exodus of those Estonians who _could flee_ doing so as their country was _definitively_ falling once again under (Soviet) Russian control).  Well, as Andrey sets out to research this story which is to "celebrate" Tallinn's reaching this nearly 25 years-after-the-war benchmark of 400,000 residents ... he finds the story to be "far more complicated" than it would have initially seemed ;-).  The city's 400,000th tovarish was born "out of wedlock" and the father was an Ethiopian exchange student (so "black?" asks Andrey. "Chocolate colored" answers the cautious doctor Andrey's interviewing, unsure if this thoroughly random fact was going to _somehow_ get him into trouble.  And indeed, Andrey's Editor of this Russian language daily in Estonia, becomes worried how this story would not play with HIS higher-ups back in Moscow...)

Later, Andrey's boss sends him on another "puff piece" story to interview a particularly productive Estonian milk-make somewhere in Estonian cow country (she seems to milk cows in a statistically faster fashion than most other milk-maids, _not just_ in the venerable Estonian SSR, but across the whole Soviet Union (Yes folks, THESE were the kind of stories that ROUTINELY made "national news" in the Communist world of the time.  Another great film about the absurdity of that time is the recent Polish film One Way Ticket to the Moon (orig. Bilet na Księżyc) [2013], set incidently in 1969 as well ;-).
 
Well, to approach this story, Andrey has to find an Estonian translator, who he does find, out there in the nearest sizable town to the kolkhoz with this statistically-remarkable milk-maid.  That translator, named Evi (played by Kyart Tammyapv) [IMDb] [KP.ru]*) a quite attractive, blonde, ethnic Estonian journalist working for a local "youth" paper, confesses to Andrey, that she'd actually _much rather_ research sex than milkmaids (! ;-), explaining to Andrey (needless to say, intrigued ;-) quite sincerely (though yes, she does like sex) that "sex is important, can make a lot of people happy, and yet, most people do it wrong."  (Anyway, they do have "their encounter" and afterwards the 20-something-lovely-Estonian-translator kindly tells him "what he could do better the next time." ;-).   And then, afterwards ... they go to find the milkmaid ;-)

The milk-maid episode ends with Andrey getting his research together, writing the story, only to be informed by his superior that their higher-ups (presumably in Moscow) "already wrote the story anyway" (presumably _without_ any research or anything).  And Andrey's excursion into Estonian cow-country was pretty much a waste, except for perhaps getting a few tips about how to better please a woman "the next time" by a young attractive Estonian 20-something year-old, who actually would have fit _quite well_ and quite _sincerely well_ with her Swedish, German or even American "sisters" who were starting to ask similar questions as well.  The difference is, of course, that her Western counterparts could do so far far more freely than she back in the Soviet Union of the time.

There are ALL KINDS OF SIMILAR STORIES / INCIDENTS in this film.  What did they add up to?  It would seem clear that the message of the film was that the "Great Era" of the 1960s Soviet Union came to an end because the Soviet Union was simply _too closed_ of a society.  Everything had to be approved, an orthodoxy to maintain.   Indeed, throughout the film, there were numerous reference by Andrey's various "higher ups" about "the lessons of Czechoslovakia" (in 1968 the Soviet Union led a Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia to crush the "Prague Spring" liberalization movement there).  But of course, those "higher ups" were drawing _exactly the wrong lessons_.  They kept maintaining that the "problem" of Czechoslovakia was that there had been "too much freedom there" that "once you lose censorship, then ..."

The message of the current film here was that the opposite was true: The curtailment of freedom actually _killed_ innovation and reduced happiness, bringing what could have been a Great Era to an end.

Again, this film won FOUR Nika Awards (Russia's Equivalent of the Oscars) last year in Russia including best director (Stanislav Govorukhin [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) and "discovery of the year" (actor - Ivan Kolesnikov [IMDb] [KP.ru]* [KT.ru]*).

Is there a statement being made about the "more current affairs"?  ONE WOULD HAVE TO BE AN IDIOT NOT TO SEE IT...

But while my comments above may seem needlessly hard / harsh to some Russian Readers (and would be Russian censors --  I actually may have had some experiences with this recently, with regard to my review of Francofonia [2015]) -- if there EVER WAS A FILM that could PROVE TO WESTERNERS that RUSSIA is _capable_ of both self-criticism and CAN SMILE it is this one.

And remember dear Readers here, that I started my (somewhat obsessive ;-) periodic focus [1] [2] [3] on Russian films here in search of films that prove that RUSSIANS CAN SMILE.  Why?  Because WE (honestly!) _DON'T_ SEE THEM HERE -- IN THE WEST.  And honestly, World Peace / the Fate of the World may depend on us seeing becoming able to see Russians as being capable of smiling, just like us, just like all of us (in spite of often, honestly, a very tragic national history ... which we also need to take into account).

So my hat off to the film-makers here:  Ten, twenty, thirty years from now this film will be remembered, on _numerous levels_, as a _great_ one, perhaps even beginning / re-invigorating a NEW era ;-)  Congratulations!



* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

** To load Websites from South, East and Eurasia in a timely fashion, installation of ad-blocking software is often required.

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Friday, July 8, 2016

The Secret Life of Pets [2016]

MPAA (PG)  CNS/USCCB (A-I)  ChicagoTribune (3 Stars)  RogerEbert.com (3 Stars)  AVClub (B)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (S. Cohen - AP) review
RogerEbert.com (B. Tallerico) review
AVClub (K. Rife) review  

The Secret Life of Pets [2016] (directed by Yarrow Cheney and Chris Renaud, screenplay by Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio and Brian Lynch) is a SAFE, FUN, CHILDREN'S ORIENTED MOVIE that _won't_ offend anyone.  Thanks be to God ;-)

Yup regardless of complexion or political orientation, pretty much all of us like our pets.   Yes we may prefer dogs to cats or cats to dogs or birds or hamsters, frogs, turtles, fish even snakes to both.   But generally speaking we like pets.  Indeed, one of the more enjoying things at our Parish has been the Annual Blessing of the Animals around St. Francis' Feast Day ;-)

So it's great to see a film about pets that's just gleefully "about our pets" without any attempt to spin the story in some strange political direction (see what I wrote about Dispicable Me 2 [2013])

To the film ... ;-)

It's gleefully about Max (voiced by Louis C.K.) a terrier mix who had been picked-up when he was a pup by his smiling 20-somthing Manhattan dwelling 20-something human owner Katie (voiced by Ellie Kemper).  And as he would tell it, theirs was a perfect relationship, until ... one day, Katie comes home with a surprise: another, now big shaggy dog named Duke (voiced by Eric Stonestreet) who she picked at the Pound both to save the "big shaggy guy" and actually to give Max "a friend" ...

Well Max didn't necessarily feel that he needed a friend.  He had Katie even though, to him inexplicably, she went to work each day.  "What does she do all day?" he would ask the other pets in the apartment building when she was away ;-).  So now he had to deal with this unwelcome addition.  (Actually anyone who's had a couple of dogs will know that the dogs don't necessarily get along initially until they "sort things out" among themselves).

So, Max and Duke are still "sorting things out" while being walked by a rather clueless "dog walker" when "one thing leads to another" and they find themselves separated from the other dogs being walked by said inattentive ipod-tune-listening "dog walker."  THAT QUICKLY GETS THE TWO INTO TROUBLE with New York's "animal control" authorities ... and the rest of the story ensues ... ;-)

After being caught by the said animal control authorities, they're initially freed by a small guerrilla band of "flushed" (they'd prefer to think of themselves as "self liberated") pets led a rather bitter former magician's "bunny" named Snowball (voiced wonderfully by Kevin Hart).  Led literally "underground" (into the sewers), they realize that they really don't fit in there, and so they break away and seek to find their way home ... on their own.

Back home, actually, a cute as a button, Pommeranian, named Gidget (voiced by Jenny Slate) who has a more or less obvious crush on Max, realizes that "Max is missing," and recruits the other pets of the apartment building to help organize a search party to look for him. 

It's not necessarily easy:  Neighbor cat, Chloe (voiced by Lake Bell), famously "doesn't particularly care (one way or another)" if Max is missing (Why? She's _a cat_ after all ;-).  And even cuter than Gidget, guinea pig Norman (voiced by Chris Renaud) while perhaps with his fast-beating heart in the right place, has himself been _hopelessly lost_ (apparently for three weeks ;-) wandering the ventilation shafts of the building trying find _his_ way home ;-).  Gitget recruits a trained Hawk named Tiberius (voiced wonderfully by Albert Brooks) living in a coop on the roof of the building to fly about to look for Max.  But Tiberius has his own inner conflict: Yes _a part of him_ would really like to be "part of the team" of pets being recruited by Gidget to look for Max.  On the other hand, _another part of him_ would really like _to eat_ "a good part of the team" Max ;-)

In the meantime, in perhaps the closest to "a Pixar moment" in this non-Pixar film, big shaggy Duke confesses to Max that he "can't go back to the pound."  Why?  "I've already been once to the Pound.  If I return there, I'm never coming out."

Again, much happens, and all is truly very, very cute.  Do the two make it home?  (I'm not gonna tell you ... but guess ... :-)

In anycase, good job!  Very, good job! ;-) 



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Thursday, July 7, 2016

Neon Bull (orig. Boi Neon) [2015]

MPAA (UR would be R)  Fr. Dennis (3 1/2 Stars)

IMDb listing
AdoroCinema.com listing*

A Folha de São Paulo (S. Martí) review*
Diario de Pernambuco (J. Cavani) review*

APUM.com (V. Blanes) review*
NPR (P. Powers) review
The Hollywood Reporter (B. van Hoeij) review
Way Too Indie (C.J. Prince) review


Neon Bull (orig. Boi Neon) [2015] IMDb] [AC]*(written and directed by Gabriel Mascaro [IMDb] [AC]*) like the director's previous film August Winds (orig. Ventos de Agosto) [2014] (which played here at the Chicago International Film Festival) is about a social contract in Brazil between the nation and its poorer citizens/residents that _ought_ to disturb people.

The contract appears to be this: We won't do much for you.  In exchange, we will let you live lives essentially free of obligations toward others (or honestly toward God / "something" ANYTHING "Higher").  You will probably be poor, but we hope that you will be generally happy, so long as you don't burden yourselves with much thought about the value / meaning of your lives.  Your lives will be essentially like those of the animals: Here for a while, gone sometime after that.  Enjoy, as best you can, your stay...

I do think I know something of this mentality because in my life as a Servite Priest, I did visit the Servite Mission in Acre, Brazil several times, where this same "social contract" is lived-out day-to-day by the rural residents living in little hamlets clustered around little petrol-driven electrical generators spaced at about one kilometer intervals along the rivers of the region.  Those generators are turned-on by the residents for 1-2 hours each evening -- so that the women can watch their telenovelas -- and then presumably when an important soccer match would be played.

Our Servite priests would pass through the various hamlets on "desobriga missions" (for the "unburdening of obligations" -- to allow people to go to Confession, receive Communion, Baptize the recently born, Marry those who need to be Married, etc) at regular intervals so that pretty much every hamlet in this mission territory (about half the size of West Virginia -- 32,000 sq.km) would be visited once every six months.

I remember describing to a cousin of mine the lives of the residents along those rivers -- Pretty much every 14 year old girl would already be (more or less) married and with a child.  Yet pretty much by then, 14-15 years of age, all that one really needed to know, one would already know: He how to fish / raise some corn / beans, she how to cook / tend house.  And it seemed to me that it was still "a more dignified life" living out-there along the rivers than _trying_ to move to the city and ending-up in a favela (slum) at the edge of town raising the same chickens in one's yard and looking (now harder) for a little plot of land to grow one's corn / beans and basic vegetables. -- to which my cousin responded: "But what a tragic waste of human potential."  Basically all those people living along those rivers (and in GABRIEL MASCARO'S FILMS) were being WAREHOUSED: "Left to live out lives without much meaning ... until they would simply die someday."

And so it is then with Mascaro's current film: Viewers follow a random truckload of Brazilian rodeo-workers through the "cow country" of Pernambuco, Brazil:

There's Iremar (played by Juliano Cazarré [IMDb] [AC]*) a stable-hand, who keeps the rodeo's bulls lined-up, in the proper pens at the proper time.  The main competition apparently in the rodeo is simply for a horse mounted rodeo wrangler to simply "take down a running bull by pulling its tail ..."  Iremar's job was simply having those bulls lined-up so that they'd be released, one per rodeo wrangler, at their proper time.  In off hours though, Iremar tinkers around as something of a fashion designer, drawing fairly exotic, form-fitting clothes onto pictures of nude models in porn magazines, and then as he gets the cloth and other materials, he actually sews said clothes for his muse ...

Galega (played by Maeve Jenkins [IMDb] [AC]*) who serves as the group's truck-driver by day, and as something of an exotic dancer (often wearing Iremar's creations) at night.  She has a pubescent girl ...

Cacá (played by Alyne Santana [IMDb] [AC]*) who's become old enough to start "rolling her eyes" at some of her mother's not particularly purpose-filled behavior, but remains still "enough of a kid" to still believe that "all would be fine" if she just "had her own little horse."

Both Iremar and Galega "get distracted' by quite random MOTAS that they meet along their quite random travelings through Pernambuco "cow country."

Now NO ONE is desperately unhappy in this film ... but _more_ than in regards of Mascaro's previous film August Winds (orig. Ventos de Agosto) [2014], ONE CAN NOT BUT WONDER _HERE_ (in the current one) if ALL OF THE CHARACTERS are basically IN A KIND OF PRISON ... FOR "LIFE" ... waiting to just, one day, die.

It's a vision that ought to ... disturb.

Is Life for MANY basically "merda" coming from a "Neon Bull" ...?



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Tuesday, July 5, 2016

He - the Dragon (orig. Он – дракон / On -- Drakon) [2015]

MPAA (UR would be PG-13)  Fr. Dennis (4 Stars)

IMDb listing
KinoPoisk.ru listing*
Kino-teatr.ru listing*
Megacritic.ru listing*

Afischa.ru (A. Dolin) review*
Film.ru (B. Ivanov) review*
FilmPro.ru (S. Sychev) review*
Izvestiya.ru (A. Pogova) review*
KinoAfischa.ru review*
Kino-Teatr.ru (A. Polibentseva) review*
Rossiyskaya Gazeta (A. Litovchenko) review*
Yaroslavl Region (M. Demidova) review*
Zavtra.ru (A. Belokurova) review*

TheHollywoodReporter.ru (D. Ostashevsky) review*

 
He - the Dragon (orig. Он – дракон / On -- drakon) [2015] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* (directed by Indar Dzhendubaev [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* screenplay by Marina Dyachenko [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*  and Sergei Dyachenko [IMDb] [KP.ru]* along with Indar Dzhendubaev [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]* and Aleksey Arsenev [IMDb] [KP.ru]* based on the novel The Rite (orig. Ритуал - Ritual) [GR-Ru]*[GR-Pl]*[WCat-Ru]* by RUSSIAN LANGUAGE writing UKRAINIAN fantasy/romance writers Marina and Sergei Dyachenko [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn]) is an often SPECTACULARLY SHOT (and with world-class CGI) "Twilight Saga"-like love story between a Russian princess Miroslava (played wonderfully by Mariya Poezzhaeva [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) and a tortured Dragon (played when in human form by Russian male supermodel Matvey Lykov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*[fr.wikip]*).

The film, which ranked as the #3 most popular Russian Film of 2015 by Russian Viewers at the MegaCritic.ru* website, serves the first stop of my 2016 Russian Film Tour, which as last year, I undertake in hopes of promoting a better / fuller understanding of peoples, here of Russia and its people, than has been generally been available to us in the West.

To the film ...

The story begins "in the Rus" still long before the Christian era.  We're told that the people of a particular region "of the Rus" were forced "back in those ancient days" to offer-up each year three young maidens to a Dragon.  These young maidens were dressed in their best (wedding or funeral?) garb, laid down in separate small boats and set adrift into a particular bend in a river, whereupon the Dragon would appear from the sky, swoop down and take-away one of the maidens to his far-away lair; the maiden taken away in this way would never be seen or heard from again...

Many years passed, and there came a time in which "The Dragon" _no longer appeared_ (to swoop down take away one said maiden).  What happened?  No one knew.  HOWEVER, _the ritual_ of laying the maiden, dressed in her best in a boat and setting it adrift - IN THE DIRECTION OF HER FUTURE HUSBAND - remained AS SOMETHING OF A WEDDING RITUAL to these people.

Well ... it came to be ... that a young Princess named Miroslava (played wonderfully by Mariya Poezzhaeva [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*), her (quite common / traditional Slavic) name meaning "Lover or Proclaimer of Peace," betrothed to a dashing Prince named Igor (played by Pyotr Romanov [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) is dressed in her wedding garb, set solemnly on the boat and cast-off by her loving Regal/Noble Father (played Stanislav Lyubshin [IMDb] [KP.ru]*[KT.ru]*) in the direction of her betrothed, WHEN ... to _everyone's horror_ ... the Dragon, all but forgotten, 'cept in fairy tales and "Legends of Old...", REAPPEARS, swoops down and TAKES THE YOUNG PRINCESS MIROSLAVA AWAY ...

The rest of the story ensues ... Who was this Dragon?  Where did he take poor Miroslava?  Why didn't he appear for such a long time until now?  And what to do so that this never happens again?

The story that unfolds is just lovely.  It is based on a novel The Rite (orig. Ритуал - Ritual) [GR-Ru]*[GR-Pl]*[WCat-Ru]* by RUSSIAN LANGUAGE writing UKRAINIAN fantasy/romance writers Marina and Sergei Dyachenko [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn]).  That novel itself is unfortunately currently unavailable in English.  However, a fair number of their other works are [GR] [WCat] [Amzn].  So it'd be worth it for Readers interested in this (Teen-oriented / Fantasy) genre to look-up a book or two of theirs :-).


In any case, EXCELLENT FILM!


* Foreign language webpages are most easily translated using Google's Chrome Browser. 

** To load Websites from South, East and Eurasia in a timely fashion, installation of ad-blocking software is often required.

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