Open Up to Me (orig. Kerron sinulle kaiken) [2014]

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

IMDb listing
Cineuropa.org listing

Iltalehti.fi review*
nyt.fi (L. Virtanen) review*
cinemagazine.nl (H. Wouters) review*

Open Up to Me (orig. Kerron sinulle kaiken) [2014] [IMDb] [CEu] (written and directed by Simo Halinen [IMDb] [CEu]) is a FINNISH drama that that for many viewers (including myself) would probably be one of the most challenging films to be shown recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.

This is because the film is about the struggles, "after the fact", of a person who had undergone a sex change operation.  Leave it to the Europeans and specifically the Scandinavians to tell a story like this... ;-).

But honestly, THIS IS AN EXCELLENT FILM -- A "THIS IS HOW IT IS / THIS IS HOW IT WILL REMAIN" sort of a story.  And if one thinks that this is some sort of a glorification of this sort of decision, IT CERTAINLY IS NOT.  Instead, the film is an _eyes quite open_ exposition of "these are the conflicts / issues that one still is going to have to deal with, if one does decide to go in this direction" (so, in fact, one could make an informed decision):

Maarit (played magnificently/thoroughly credibly throughout by Leea Klemola [IMDb] [CEu]) is a 40-something person who had recently (in the past year or so) undergone a sex change operation from male to female.

She had previously been married (as a male) to an ex who now hates him/her.  Why?  Well she tells Maarit: "Thanks to you, no one will ever touch me again."  Why?  Well, WHEN / HOW does one explain to a potential new boyfriend, fiance', or husband (and then HIS family and circle of friends) that after 15 years of marriage, one's ex decided to have a sex change.  Yes, this was Maarit's decision, but ...

Similarly, Maarit's teenage daughter Pinja (played again wonderfully by Emmi Nivala [IMDb] [CEu]), already quiet, average, perhaps a bit overweight, has to deal with school-mates who pick-on her for the chosen-unconventionality of one of her parents.  Yes, Maarit's decision was his-now-hers and not his-now-her daughter's BUT ... how does one explain that to other teens when ALL OF THEM are already insecure, trying make their way in the world as it is?


Then previously, Maarit was a social worker by profession.  NOW, she's a cleaning-lady.  In the course of the film, she's trying to get herself back into social work, applying for a job at a Helsinki women's shelter, BUT ... her potential employer asks her: "You know, as a matter of course, we do a google search on potential employees here ... and there's no 'Maarit <last name>' of Helsinki anywhere to be found on the internet."  And she has to explain.

The potential employer tries to be open minded / compassionate, BUT ... she's _also_ thinking about the various troubled / traumatized women who come to their shelter and wondering (at least inside her head) if it'd be fair to them already dealing with so much to be "helped" by someone who'd need to give at least a paragraph's worth of explanation about who she was and how she got to be who she was ... before she would help / counsel them ...

Finally, Maarit does try to find a guy.  And she kinda does, Sam (played by Peter Franzén [IMDb] [CEu]) who's married but with marital problems.  In fact, when Sam first meets her, Maarit, he still thinks that she's a counselor (and he meets her then in the context of a counseling session).  Maarit tries very hard to be honest with him about who she is, who she was, and tells him, quite soon enough, that she's no no longer a counselor.

Initially Sam doesn't seem to mind (or really comprehend) her previous history.  But eventually it does bother him and then when his estranging wife Julia (played again quite well by Ria Kataja [IMDb] [CEu]) finds out that he's been carrying on (having an affair) with someone who had a sex change operation ... well, (would ANYBODY be surprised ...) SHE ABSOLUTELY HITS THE ROOF ... telling him "the only way you're ever going to see OUR kids again is with a court order" (she does cool down a few days later, but ... Sam-Julia's marriage comes to an end and it's pretty clear that Sam's own life/history is now very much changed by his ever so brief affair/fling with Maarit.

SO ... THIS IS NOT A PRETTY MOVIE.  IN FACT, it's A QUITE SOBERING ONE.  One's left wondering if Maarit knew how difficult (SOCIALLY / RELATIONALLY...) it would be to go through a sex change operation would he/she have done so?

One does get the impression that Maarit would have done it anyway.  And many others like Maarit do so anyway.

AND ONE CAN ONLY BEGIN TO APPRECIATE THE AMOUNT OF PAIN THAT THESE PEOPLE ALREADY ARE IN when this ALWAYS quite _radical_ (and irreversible, on all kinds of levels) option becomes a serious one for them.  One gets the sense that ONE REALLY DOESN'T DO THIS LIGHTLY ... because it really involves a huge amount of social-relational pain.

So this is one heck of a film, well done and certainly very, very thought provoking.


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

Alias Loner (orig. Segvārds Vientulis) [2014]

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

IMDb listing
Cineuropa.org listing
ForumCinema.lv listing*

Official Facebook*

LSM.lv (B. Cuzco) article*

Delfi.lv review*
Diena.lv (K. Matīsa, K. Raksti) review*
Kinoteikumi.lv review*
LTV.lv review*


Alias Loner (orig. Segvārds Vientulis) [2014] [FB] [IMDb] (written and directed by Normunds Pucis [IMDb] [CEu]) is a LATVIAN docudrama about Father Anton Juhņevičs (played in the film by Varis Piņķis [IMDb] [CEu]) an outspoken Latvian Catholic priest who hid in his Church young Latvians fleeing conscription by BOTH Nazi and Soviet authorities during WW II and CAME TO LEAD during the SUMMER AND FALL OF 1945 the ARMED LATVIAN OPPOSITION TO THE REIMPOSITION OF SOVIET RULE on his country.   The film played recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.

Recognizing by late 1945 that continued fighting was pointless, he turned himself in to Archbishop of Riga in January 1946, who kept him (with Soviet authorities' permission) under house arrest at a Capuchin monastery in the Latvian capital city Riga.

When the Archbishop of Riga tried to get him out of the country, Fr. Juhņevičs was arrested outside of the monastery, tried and eventually put to death in 1947.

For a non-Latvian like me, I found it both fascinating and actually not altogether surprising that organized Latvian armed resistance to the reimposition of Soviet rule until at least 1946.  The Courland peninsula in Latvia remained outside of Soviet Control until the end of World War II, and the Latvians knew for certain what awaited them if they surrendered to the Soviet NKVD authorities.

What's remarkable that FINALLY a film, and reaching the West, was made about this post-WW II continued guerrilla resistance to Soviet rule.  (Previously, I had merely heard that such armed opposition existed in the Ukraine until at least 1950... There was also reference to similar Lithuanian resistance in the German film Wolfschildren (orig. Wolfskinder) [2013] about "left behind"/war refugee German East Prussian children who eventually came to survive and be adopted by Lithuanian families in the years after the war).  It's a remarkable and important story that helps explain conflicts and fears that remain up to today.


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

In the Crosswind (orig. Risttuules) [2014]

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

IMDb listing
Cineuropa.org listing
EFIS.ee listing*
CSFD listing*
Filmweb.pl listing*
Kinopoisk.ru listing*

Cineuropa.org interview w. director

AllFilm.ee review*
aVoir-aLire.fr (F. Mignard) review*
Cineuropa.org (L. Boyce) review*
Cinema-Scope.com (K. Reardon) review*
Filmiarvustus.eu (R. Puust) review*
Kino-zeit.de (K. Kieninger) review*

In the Crosswind (orig. Risttuules) [2014] [IMDb] [CEu] [EFIS]* (directed and cowritten by Martti Helde [IMDb] [CEu] [EFIS]* along with Liis Nimik [IMDb] [CEu] [EFIS]*) is an ESTONIAN docudrama that tells the story of the first wave of the Stalin-era mass deportations [en.wikip] of residents of the freshly Soviet-occupied Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia [en.wikip] to Siberia following the signing of the then secret protocols [en.wikip] [pl.wikip]* of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact [en.wikip] [et.wikip]*[pl.wikip].*

The story based on archival materials is told through the letters/diary of a fictionalized Estonian woman named Erna (played in the film by the Estonian actress Laura Peterson [IMDb] [CEu] [EFIS]*).  The film played recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.

Erna begins the story as a 27 y/o university educated woman living with her husband Heldur (played by Tarmo Song [IMDb] [CEu] [EFIS]*) who was a former Estonian military officer, and young daughter Eliide (played by Mirt Preegel [IMDb] [CEu] [EFIS]*) on a lovely apple orchard in the rolling Estonian countryside.

Her (family's) lives were forever altered when on June 14, 1941 (8 days before the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union) the NKVD came, arrested the family, separated the Erna's husband from her and her daughter and sent them all along with some 10,000 other Estonians (and 30,000 others - Lithuanians, Latvians - from the Baltic States) to Siberia.  For the next 15 years (!) Erna writes her husband from her place of exile, never receiving a reply.

The fifteen years of exile are portrayed STYLISTICALLY in this way:

While THE WHOLE FILM was filmed in black and white, from the moment that the family was arrested taken away, EVERY SCENE WAS FILMED WITH LIVE ACTORS _FROZEN IN POSES_ DEPICTING THE SCENES DESCRIBED IN ERNA'S LETTERS / DIARY ENTRIES -- the train station scene when they were loaded onto cattle cars to be deported to Siberia; the arrival scene in Siberia with their several days march to the location of their exile; a scene depicting their work camp barracks and the timber felling/lumber yard work that they were first consigned to, various tilling of the soil, improvement of the work camp into a village (or construction of a village near the original work camp) after they had _clear cut_ a sufficient amount of the timber in the area; a Communist era wedding scene as some of the younger exiles after many years believing that there was no hope of return, progressively decided to "continue on with their lives" "out there."

IN EACH CASE, THE CAMERA WOULD MEANDER through the rather complex scenes of "still" (FROZEN) "life" depicted, while Erma's voice-over would read the diary entry / letter that she was writing to her husband at the time.

The effect is haunting, intentionally so, and an expression of a description of the period of Exile that the writer director found while researching Estonia's archival records to make the film.  In a diary written by a woman, perhaps not unlike Erna of the film, she describes the experience of Exile as that of "time entering into a entirely different dimension," that is, that TIME ... STOOD ... STILL.

This was a profound film, and one of several made recently by various peoples that suffered these Soviet era deportaions.

Among the excellent films on this theme that I've reviewed here are Siberian Exile (orig. Syberiada Polska) [2013] from Poland and The Excursionist (orig. Ekskursantė) [2013] from Lithuania.

Together they tell stories of awful industrialized suffering at the hands of arrogant rulers who really didn't care about the little people that they crushed as bugs under their heels.


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

<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >

Colossal Youth (orig. La Juventude em Marcha) [2006]

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

IMDb listing
CineEuropa.org listing

avoir-alire.fr  (R. Le Vern) review*
revistacinetica.com.br (P. Butcher) review*
Sight & Sound (M. Gomes) review

AV Club (S. Tobias) review
Slant.com (F. de Croce) review


Colossal Youth (orig. La Juventude em Marcha) [2006] [IMDb] [CEu] (written and directed by Pedro Costa [en.wikip] [pt.wikip]* [IMDb] [CEu]) is a haunting, cinematographically brilliant if minimalist (and lengthy...)  film that is probably the most famous creation to date of this PORTUGUESE DIRECTOR. Costa's latest film,  Cavalo Dinhiero [2014] [IMDb] [CEu], arguably a sequel to Colossal played recently at the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.  Since I was unable to see Cavalo, I decided to look-up and review this film on which it was based instead.  (Where did I find Colossal Youth?  Through the rent-by-mail-service of Facets Multimedia in Chicago).

Set in the context of Lisbon's Fontainhas slum as it was being demolished and its largely Cape Verdan immigrant (largely black) inhabitants were being moved to "new(er) quarters" out "in the suburbs," Colossal Youth (orig. La Juventude em Marcha) [2006] [IMDb] [CEu] the film's pace is frustratingly if IMHO _deliberately_ slow.  The characters -- Ventura, Vanda, one even nicknamed "Lento" (slow ...) all incidently PLAYING THEMSELVES -- appear to live in almost suspended animation.  Things, _important things_, are happening _to them_: Ventura is looking for a new place, Vanda is worried about her kids, "Lento" is ill.   But it's all playing out SLOWLY. 

And, again, that's of course largely the point: Time is inexorably moving forward, Change is inexorably taking place ... but how much control, if _any_, do ANY of these people have over what's happening around them and even _to them_?

My only complaint in regards to the movie is that it portrays the ghetto life of the poor in this slum to be NECESSARILY and ONLY ... "SLOW" and LARGELY "SOLITARY."  I do believe that this was the decision of the film-maker to underline the FUNDAMENTAL HELPLESSNESS of the SLUM DWELLERS PORTRAYED.

Yet, most of us who actually know something about life in the "favelas," "barrios" (slums) would know that there is actually a lot of life going on there -- AND that RELIGION plays an important part of that life playing-out (it often provides both Joy and Hope).  There's but one reference in the movie to religion, one of the characters says that he went to Confession.  I'd submit that there would be much, much more going on than that ... even as I understand the point trying to be made by the film makers.

I'd just like to underline that people (even in poor neighborhoods/ slums) are NEVER only victims, we're ALL more than just that. 

But still, very good film and beautifully, beautifully shot!


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

Get Hard [2015]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB () review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (M. Zoller Seitz) review
AVClub (H. Hassenger) review  

Get Hard [2015] (directed and screenplay cowritten by Etan Cohen along with Jay Martel and Ian Roberts) is not a particularly pretty comedy but IMHO it works and probably better than it should.  The film is about race, gender, class, so basically about every "hotbutton" issue that divides us today: 

On the one hand there is James (played by Will Ferrell) a born/raised super-privileged, rich, white, heterosexual, male dope / hedgefund broker who _really believes_ that he "made it on his own" by means of his "wits," "hard work," and ... well ... "an eight million dollar start-up loan from his dad." ;-) 

On the other hand, there's Darnell (played by Kevin Hart) who runs an "executive car wash service" (basically a modern day _shoe-shining_ service ...) inside the parking garage of the Los Angeles high rise office building where James works ... for his future father-in-law Martin (played by Craig T. Nelson, James' fiancee Alissa played by Alison Brie)

Near the beginning of the film, James offers Darnell advice on the value of hard-work as he hands him a $1 tip on a $20 wash ... the unsolicited advice apparently "worth" in his mind the other $2 that could at least make the tip 15% ...

Well, James' world comes crashing down when, suddenly, he finds himself (the only one at his firm ...) arrested, convicted and then "made an example of ..." for "financial improprieties" at the firm where he's _just been made_ "partner."  Hmmm ...

Facing 10 years of hard time in San Quentin rather than 1 year at a country club, James turns to the only black person he knows ... Darnell ... to "teach him how to survive in prison."  Why Darnell?  Well, he's black, right? 

Darnell actually jumps on the deal ... because he needs $30,000 for a down payment on a house that would move him, his appalled wife Rita (played by Edwina Findley Dickerson) and cute-as-a-button 8-10 year old daughter Makayla (played by Ariana Neal) to a nice house in the suburbs where his daughter wouldn't have to pass through a metal detector when she went to school ... James is willing to pay (now...), so ...

Much, of course, then ensues ...

This film is based on a rather long list of rather appalling assumptions, two of which IMHO stand-out most clearly:  (1) that "all black men, or perhaps even 'men of color' spend time in jail," and (2) jail means (homosexual) rape. 

The story places responsibility for the first assumption on the "dimwitted rich white boy" James.  So we ourselves don't have to take (much) responsibility for it. 

The second assumption, IMHO, is more problematic:  Why is it that we assume that "prison means homosexual rape?" ("Well isn't it 'obvious...'?").  Let me ask again, WHY?

I ask this, not because I'm an idiot ... WE ALL HAVE COME TO ASSUME THAT PRISON = RAPE.  But then, if prison is supposed to be PUNISHMENT BEFITTING A CRIME, have we allowed homosexual rape to become THE DE FACTO PUNISHMENT FOR CRIME ... _ANY_ CRIME (worthy of jail ...)?

In the West, WE ALL FIND _CANING_ barbaric ... why NOT ... RAPE?  

And, (okay, I'm offering a "Modest Proposal" here ...): Wouldn't we "save a heck of a lot of money" if we just sentenced violent criminals to ... RAPE?  Or perhaps "multiple rapes"?  Whatever ...

And if that, somehow "disturbs us" ... AREN'T WE DOING THE SAME THING NOW ?   We're sentencing people to "20 years of rape" ... We don't call it that, but we assume that (unless one gets sentenced to a "country club...")

Why not clean-up the prisons with: Prison rape gets you solitary for a year, two years, five years, the rest of your term, or even if need be, the firing squad? 

Basically, we've turned prison into NOT "TIME" but RAPE.  And I'm asking, why?  Again, why is CANING "barbaric" while PRISON RAPE is NOT?

Anyway ... enjoy the film ... and every other prison film, and every other prison joke from now on ... ;-)


<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

How Strange to be Named Federico: Scola narrates Fellini (orig. Che Strano Chiamarsi Federico: Scola Racconta Fellini) [2013]

MPAA (UR would be R)  CineBlog.it (7.5/10)  OC.it (7/10)  Fr. Dennis (4+ Stars)

IMDb listing
FilmItalia.org listing
FilmTV.it listing*

Blogosfere.it (A.  Cappuccio) review*
CineBlog.it (A.M. Abate) review*
OndaCinema.it (F. D'Ettore) review*

AVoir-ALire.fr (V. Dumez) review*

The Hollywood Reporter (D. Young) review
Variety (J. Weissberg) review

How Strange to be Named Federico: Scola Narrates Fellini (orig. Che Strano Chiamarsi Federico: Scola Racconta Fellini) [2013] [IMDb] [FilmItal] [FT.it]* (directed and cowritten by Ettore Scola [en.wikip] [it.wikip]* [IMDb] [FilmItal] [FT.it]* along with Paula Scola [IMDb] [FilmItal] and Silvia Scola [IMDb] [FilmItal]) is a BRILLIANT "Fellini-like" biopic about the legendary Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini [en.wikip] [it.wikip]* ;-) that played AND WILL CLOSE the 2015 - 18th Chicago European Union Film Festival held at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.

It is a testament to the strength of this year's festival that three of Italy's films that played at the festival were (1) Black Souls (orig. Anime Nere) [2014] [IMDb] [FilmItal] [FT.it]* (dir. Francesco Munzi [IMDb] [FilmItal] [FT.it]*) a drama about the Calabrese mafia (Calabria (being "the toe" of the "boot of Italy"), (2) The Dinner (orig. I Nostri Ragazzi) [2014] [IMDb] [FilmItal] [FT.it]* (dir. Ivano De Matteo [IMDb] [FilmItal] [FT.it]*) a family drama that asks the question, in a society as family oriented as Italy's what do you do if your child commits a crime or otherwise "has issues"?  Should your first loyalty be to your kid or to the larger society?, and then (3) this fantastic (and promising to be stylistically brilliant) homage to Fellini.  Everyone of these films promised to be 3-4 Star quality.  Yet one _really_ "can't see everything," ;-) one has to choose ;-).  And so I chose this film about Fellini ;-).

Note to readers: One CAN buy this film for a affordable / basically regular DVD price ($10-15) albeit presently in European PAL format via Amazon.com.  Then one can download a simple free-ware program called PassKey-Lite to override one's computer's restrictions on what Region DVD-format discs one play on one's computer.  And multi-regional DVD players are also quite affordable these days (costing around $35 or only about $10 more than a uni-regional one) and then one need not worry ever again about playing non-North American DVDs.  Again, one could find a cheap multi-regional DVD player via Amazon.com.

Anyway, if one is at all a film lover, this is a film to see / search out / own.  

So what then is Federico Fellini [en.wikip] [it.wikip]* "story" according to his good friend, and fellow film-maker Ettore Scola [en.wikip] [it.wikip]*?

Well interestingly enough, Ettore Scola [en.wikip] [it.wikip]* notes that Fellini [en.wikip] [it.wikip]* began his career in 1939 AS A CARTOONIST at the Italian satirical magazine Marc'Aurelio [it.wikip]* during the Mussolini era.  (Scola came to the same magazine ten years later while Fellini still worked there and they became lifelong friends)

Yes during the Mussolini era, the magazine operated then under obvious parameters of censorship (NO, NO, NO jokes about Mussolini ... and some of the members of the editorial board were clearly portrayed as rather fanatical, if then rather RIDICULOUS Fascist "believers").  The film further portrays the magazine AFTER THE WAR as more-or-less obviously supporting the Italy's post-War Center-Right Christian Democratic Party over the Communists (even if this again limited the potential scope of the magazine's humor).  

YET, "politics aside," the Marc'Aurelio [it.wikip]* operated with a very simple (though still "kinda brutal") editorial quality control policy: "fa ridere" / "non fa fidere" (funny / not funny) which ended-up producing an _inordinate number_ of comedy (and then mostly screenwriting / directorial) talents in the post-WW II era, including Fellini (played in the film as a young man by Tommaso Lazotti [IMDb] [FilmItal] [FT.it]*) and Scola (played in the film as a young man by Giulio Forges Davanzati [IMDb] [FilmItal] [FT.it]*).  Seriously, the Marc'Aurelio [it.wikip]* could be called the SNL-like "incubator" for Italian writers / screenwriters / directors that would breakout on their own in the 1950s-60s.

I found Fellini's origins AS A CARTOONIST FASCINATING because this IMMEDIATELY (and FOREVER) HELPS EXPLAIN TO ME _WHY_ THE CHARACTERS IN FELLINI'S FILMS WERE SO OFTEN SO, ERR... EVOCATIVE, EXPRESSIVE, MEMORABLE ... or just plain "grotesquely strange" ;-)  He was DRAWING EXAGGERATED CHARACTERS LIKE THIS 20-30-40 years before putting them in his films ;-).

Further, it makes total sense to me that before / as he was making the transition to film, Fellini started to write jokes / sketches for Italy's version of Vaudeville (again during / immediately after the WW II era).

Then Scola recounts (narrated as an old man by Vittorio Viviani [IMDb] [FT.it]*) Fellini's love affair with the automobile, NOT as a STATUS SYMBOL but _as a means to encounter people_, ODD PEOPLE, that one would probably otherwise never meet.  From the time that he first purchased a car, back in the late 40s and 50s, he'd love to cruise around at night -- often with Scola onboard as well -- to seek out interesting people, often quite literally "at the edges (margins) of the city."

Two such encounters recorded in the film, one with a clearly "past her prime" older prostitute (played wonderfully by Antonella Attili [IMDb]) evoking Fellini's celebrated Oscar-Winning film Nights of Cabiria [1957] [IMDb] (where Fellini's then wife, Guilietta Masina [en.wikip] [it.wikip]*[IMDb] with probably one of the most expressive/evocative faces in the history of film, played _exactly_ this kind of "not exactly A-team" but certainly talkative / interesting small-time prostitute) and another involving a street artist (played by Sergio Rubini [IMDb] [FT.it]*) who'd draw strikingly beautiful chalk paintings of saints on Rome's sidewalks (and then complain that "rain would come and wash them all away," Go figure ... ;-)  Having lived in Rome for three years (while in the seminary), I've met and talked to street artists JUST LIKE THIS ;-) and I've also wondered about "the futily of their work" ;-).

Finally Scola recounts Fellini's love for his "Studio 5" in the famed legendary Cinecittà movie studio complex at the edge of Rome.  Studio 5 became known, in hushed reverential tones, as "La Casa di Fellini" (Fellini's House).  Much of the second half of the movie recounts / shows us that some of the most famous scenes in Fellini's movies, INCLUDING the FONTANA DI TREVI SCENE [YouTube] in La Dolce Vita [1960], AS UTTERLY "REAL" AS IT/THEY MAY HAVE SEEMED, WERE OFTEN ENTIRELY CREATED IN STUDIO FIVE.  Honestly, my jaw dropped when I realized that EVEN that most famous scene WAS ACTUALLY FILMED THERE (with a MOCK-UP of that MOST FAMOUS / ELABORATE FOUNTAIN RE-CREATED THERE to do it).  Wow!

All in all, I just found this to be a lovely / fascinating and ENTIRELY, ENTIRELY, ENTIRELY APPROPRIATE :-) "FELLINI-LIKE" BIO-PIC about Fellini, reminding us all "where he came from." 

Honestly, I was in awe.  What a great tribute to such a fascinating and so often creative / "off-the-wall" man!


* Reasonably good (sense) translations of non-English webpages can be found by viewing them through Google's Chrome browser.

<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>

Home [2015]

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

IMDb listing
CNS/USCCB (J. Mulderig) review
ChicagoTribune (M. Phillips) review
RogerEbert.com (S. Wloszczyna) review
AVClub (T. Johnson) review

Home [2015] (directed by Tim Johnson, screenplay by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember based on the children's book "The True Meaning of Smekday" (2007) [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] by Adam Rex [wikip] [GR] [WCat] [Amzn] [IMDb]) could perhaps be best described as a "highly sugar coated / smiley faced" _knock-off_of the children's / space alien classic Lilo & Stitch [2002].  But I would suggest that this was part of the current film's "originality" / point.

How could something be both a "knock-off" and "original" ;-)?  Let me explain:

In Lilo & Stitch [2002], Stitch is presented as a really self-selfish/self-serving, terribly-bad-behaved fugitive alien (the audience understands immediately why he's "on the run") who crashes to earth where ironically since HE LOOKS KINDA LIKE "A PUPPY DOG," humans, notably a little Hawaiian girl named Lilo, try to him "adopt" as a pet.  And well, he's NOT "a cute little puppy dog" even though, thanks to Lilo he eventually kinda becomes one, and certainly better behaved.    

In the current film, the Earth is invaded by an alien race called "The Boov," who KINDA LOOK LIKE STITCH from the aforementioned film.  But UNLIKE STITCH, "The Boov" aren't really "bad tempered."  Yes, they're cowardly and unbelievably selfish -- heck THEY STEAL OUR PLANET, making the bad-tempered Stitch seem as diminutive and selfless as "Mother Theresa" -- but they do everything in a supremely KINDLY, MATTER OF FACT SORT OF WAY:

"THE BOOV" MEAN "NO HARM" as they ARRIVE ... IN OVERWHELMING FORCE ... and then "KINDLY" _VACUUM US UP_ INTO THEIR SPACE SHIPS and DUMP US ALL INTO A _VERY, VERY NICE_ DISNEYLAND LIKE, well-watered, "RESERVATION" full of theme-park rides and "cotton candy" and named "HAPPY HUMANLAND" ... somewhere in AUSTRALIA ... WHILE THEY TAKE ... the rest of our world.

It's COLONIALISM at its bright, primary-color, if perhaps a little pastelish CHEERIEST ;-)

So "the Boov" ARE AN ENTIRE RACE of "Stitches" who've learned to mask their cruelty / nastiness behind lovely smiles and kindly, well-tempered voices.  Again, THEY MEAN NO HARM, THEY JUST WANT / GET THEIR WAY ...

So then the film is BOTH a "knockoff" and quite "original" ;-)

Now, of course, since "the Boov" treat alien races (us) with "kindly" if supremely paternalistic / sanitized disdain (again, they move, err ABDUCT, us with VACUUM CLEANER-LIKE SPACESHIPS) it's not surprising that they treat each other with a similar ever-"kindly" but just wait till the "shoe drops" sort of a way.

So enter Oh (voiced by Jim Parsons), kind of a "screw-up" among "The Boov."  The other "Boov" aren't openly mean to him, hostile to him.  They just don't talk (or associate) with him.  And he explains at one point to the strangely "left behind" 10-year-old African American-girl named Gratuity "Tip" Tucci (voiced by Rihanna and her mother is voiced by Jennifer Lopez) that "the Boov" have a very simple "NINE (!) strikes and you're out policy."  That is, "the Boov" put up with you until you make _nine mistakes_ and then ... THEY ERASE YOU.  (No need to get angry about anything.  "The Boov" give their folks PLENTY OF CHANCES ... it's just after you reach some point of incompetence/failure ... they just get rid of you.  And "that is that."  Again, no need to get upset, "raise one's voice," about ... ANYTHING).

Well, no matter how "kindly" it all may seem, it's all actually incredibly cruel.  Here, (most of) the human race gets sucked-off to a distant corner of their/OUR planet (where we're actually treated quite well, but we DON'T really have a choice in the matter).  And even the "higher race Boov" treat each other with "gentle" but ridiculous / emotionless "that's just the way it is" "firmness."

And it's left to "left behind" Gratuity / "Tip" and her cat (named Pig) to teach "the Boov" a lesson in what it really means to be compassionate / kind.

Actually a great / fun children's story ;-)


<< NOTE - Do you like what you've been reading here?  If you do then consider giving a small donation to this Blog (sugg. $6 _non-recurring_) _every so often_ to continue/further its operation.  To donate just CLICK HERE.  Thank you! :-) >>