POMO

Stonehearst Asylum is mentally at the level of Dracula Untold, but with a more ambitious story, an A-list cast and wrapped up in nobler motivations (everything for love!). It lacks the intelligent, detached perspective and masterful toying with the audience that make Shutter Island so great.

Finally, someone from Czechia whose genre films are not hindered by Eastern European shittiness, have balls and can be sold globally. Ghoul is a universally effective horror movie in the Hollywood Paranormal Activity / Blair Witch style, with better direction than a lot of similar projects, such as Chernobyl Diaries and The Dyatlov Pass Incident (which makes Petr Jákl a better director than Renny Harlin :-D). The film is composed of things we’ve seen elsewhere, but it works, especially because of the name Chikatilo, which sends chills down one’s spine. Too bad this name is not evoked earlier in the film, as it would have lent the introduction a more powerful atmosphere. And too bad that Jákl didn’t make this earlier. Today, this film is just one of many.

Jar City is a hellishly dark crime film with a unique atmosphere. The mystery is gradually unraveled by visiting more and more residents that had something to do with it and their information pushes the bewildered detectives forward, which is strengthened by deeper and deeper immersion in the harshness and isolation of the Scandinavian environment. A film with a great audiovisual aspect that won’t attract many tourists to Iceland.

The initial theatricality and static nature of the narrative gradually disappear, the actors stop overacting, bonds are formed between their characters, and the plot begins to step up smoothly and efficiently. And at the end of the film, you are holding your breath. It is just a pity that it’s a TV movie that cannot go too wild and, in an effort to protect the viewer’s sensibilities, omits the worst – cannibalistic – part of Chikatilo’s killing spree. A great role for Max von Sydow.

Out of the three currently praised biopics – The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game and American Sniper – the first one about Hawking is the most inspiring and charming, but also the most sentimental. It’s not a film for Hawking’s admirers, but for seekers of life tragedies, complicated fates, faithful and long-lasting marital devotion, etc. who love a good cry. The depth of the universe is best shown here in a large shot of garden fireworks, in front of which a couple of lovers are holding each other’s hands... The film never gets tacky, but it also never reaches the level of poetic drama and relationship realism of The Notebook. It is rather a textbook example of a beautifully shot and acted idealistic story about good and exceptional people.

I don’t remember ever wanting to clap as hard during the end credits as I did this time. An excellent film, even though there is no one to root for and J.K. Simmons in particular portrays a monster only a tiny bit less scary than Anthony Hopkins’s character in The Silence of the Lambs. I wouldn’t be surprised if Whiplash wins Academy Awards for sound and editing, especially since it has no competition among music films with respect to sound.

The over-the-top climax makes you forget all of the screenwriting clichés and the predictability of the point that the film tries to make. And in the end, Inside successfully turns from a slasher B-movie into a tragic drama, with a climax reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s Braindead, though without zombies, but in the real world in a house on a neighboring street. This ultra-brutal exploitation splatter movie is not afraid to escalate with pulsating electronic background music, because it knows that it will sound even better when the crucial piano comes in at the right moment. For fans of this particular sub-genre, Inside is a rare treat; for the ordinary viewer, however, it is an unwatchable nightmare.

Satan is a not exactly conventional Christmas film for a select audience. Though it follows a classic horror formula a la The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it is conceived as a low-budget crazy comedy. Concern and disgust are present to a lesser extent than in similar horror movies; the film cannot be taken too seriously. However, the retarded rednecks have a certain appeal, and Vincent Cassel portrays his likable eccentric with real gusto.

Poetic, philosophical, exciting, historically instructive, sensitively written and edited, technically world-class. I don’t believe that anyone could make a better documentary about the High Tatras and specific climbing routes, which connect history (the legendary Polish first ascensionist Wieslaw Stanislawski) with the present (two young Slovaks following in his footsteps). The Alps would also benefit from a documentary filmmaker like Pavol Barabáš.

A movie that starts five minutes before the end credits with the only scene that evokes any emotion. The rest is too Harlequin romance-like and shallow to engage viewers and allow them to relate to the characters in any way or to have any interest in observing the evolution of their “relationship”. Dakota Johnson’s acting is OK and natural. Jamie Dornan is not natural and his acting is reminiscent of Ben Affleck in Armageddon. And everything falls apart with him because his complicated and wannabe opaque character is supposed to be the core of the film, just as Sharon Stone was the core of Basic Instinct. Or at least I hope that the book is based on psychology and not flying helicopters and cars given as gifts. The contract negotiation scene shows the only spark of the director’s creativity in this gray, gray void. But it is irrelevant to the film as a whole. The most characteristic scene here is the one involving playing the piano after the loss of virginity… Personally, I was pleased by the answer “Me” to the question “And what will I get out of it?” Because I, ever impatient, never knew how to answer this particular question and always opted to move on to find a different, more experienced candidate.