J*A*S*M

The 4.7/10 rating in IMDB is a lot more accurate than the multiple four stars here. A long-winded film that lacks a spark, where a couple of gratuitous brutal scenes are hidden under a layer of wannabe intelligent psychological quotes from the murder’s “diary”. But under that layer of poser pseudo encumbrance and brief episodes brutality, the film is empty, totally empty.

Jack Black is almost annoyingly unrestrained for my taste, but under the baton Linklater, even this plot cliché with a not very likeable protagonist ends up being 100% effective. Nice, non-conflicting film.

Finally I can watch this famous film as it should be: in peace, in the original language and without any interruptions from beginning to end… and it’s such a classic Ron Howard, when he has a solid script in his hands. Perfectly executed, though not entirely captivating. It’s missing a WOW! moment.

If it didn’t move so much, it would have been quite nice, but the actress and the incompetent editing bring it down, a lot.

I don’t think the problem with this film is the competence of the director (the film is quite skilfully made), but rather the utter pointlessness of it as a whole. The first one was a straightforward horror snack that certainly didn’t need a sequel. This one stretches things brutally and it can be seen.

No. Nonono. I’m overall willing to be magnanimous with horror films that take place both underground and in locations in Southern Europe (here, specifically, in the Bay of Kotor, in Montenegro) because I have a soft spot for them, but this one was a big, cheap (and not budget-wise), unoriginal pile of crap. Ignore.

At first I gave it four stars because I loved the retro atmosphere of sunny Greece, but the blandness of the film manifested itself after a couple of days and I remember almost nothing about it, with the exception of those beautiful Greek locations, of course.

A chilling and a surprisingly intense twisted horror indie drama. The director reliably holds the attention of the viewer with a stifling atmosphere and unsettling horror scenes, avoiding a premature reveal of their origin. The actors are likeable and the basic vaginal scene is effective. It’s a bit of a shame that the bland final twist doesn’t bring anything we haven’t seen yet. But it’s not possible to come up with something all the time, right. Overall, satisfied.

I loved this film’s stubborn attempt at distracting the viewer from the important things, hiding the motivations of the main characters and breaking with the genre expectations derived from the “thriller” label, even if I admit that others may find it frustrating for the very same reasons. The ending is infuriating, and that’s the best thing about it. A point less for the behaviour of some of the characters (Dafoe’s in particular), I find it irritating, especially with the all cards on the table.

I was expecting a sharp Hollywood satire, but even though it’s a non-Hollywood film about the Hollywood environment, the satire is not as bold as I thought it would be. We get some dialogues here and there mocking the fads and mannerisms of the stars, but it’s mostly a subversive and untraditional movie about relationship with protagonists that are fucked up in a way that not even in Hollywood must be common. Really, such a parade of perverted and self-destructive characters is not something you see every day. Cronenberg is in true form this time, and though fans of his earlier works won’t find much physical nastiness, the inner psychical nastiness is more than enough, to the point that the film won’t be very easy to digest for many viewers, even if it’s told detachedly and with black humour. It’s edgy fun, and it worked superbly for me. 9/10