It’s not for everyone. “And Then We Danced” (“Da chven vitsek’vet”, 2019)

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directed by Levan Akin
© 2019 TriArt Film. All Rights Reserved.

Today I’ve got a Swedish production made in Georgia. Nice mix, huh? At first it seemed strange to me that this film was the Swedish entry for Oscars in 2020, even though it’s filmed in Georgia, with Georgian actors. The director is, however, from Sweden and of Georgian origins. So I absolutely understand his choice to make this film, but it’s still awkward to see such production as a representative of the Swedish cinema. Still, the film is very good so ignore my blah-blah-blah at the beginning and let’s focus on the plot. It’s about Merab (Levan Gelbakhiani), a young man who’s been dancing at the National Georgian Ensemble. He’s passionate about dancing and cannot imagine doing anything else. One day, a replacement dancer joins their team. His name is Irakli (Bachi Valishvili) and he’s a lot different from Merab. Merab seems to be rather calm and sedate, while Irakli is a true rebel. And the rebel is also more talented in dancing, so Merab feels threatened with losing his position. However, those two start practising together and the more time they spend, the more they become friends, not rivals. And one day, they realise that friendship is not everything between them. It’s a beautiful story about passion and learning oneself. Still, it is a very controversial production, especially considering what happened in Georgia before the first screening. The authorities didn’t like the film at all as it’s against their own values, especially the ones connected to religion. And I understand that for some people it’s a difficult production, but everyone should have a choice what they want to see and believe in. Personally, I was amazed by the wonderful dancing you can see in this film and I believe that Georgia should be proud of this film. Yes, it does show affection between two men, but it also show what beautiful traditions Georgia has. But as I said, each person has their own preferences and opinions. From me it’s a huge “yes” and I recommend you all to see the film.

My rating: 7/10
S.

I will decide what I do next. “The High Note” (2020)

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directed by Nisha Ganatra
© 2020 Focus Feature. All Rights Reserved.

Sunday means some music, some laughter and a bit of drama. And I’m giving you “The High Note”. Okay, not me, because you’d probably lose your hearing after that, but there’s a talented lady that I’m sure you’d like to hear singing. Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross) is a famous R&B singer, who’s been performing for many years and wishes to release a new album, even though her producer doesn’t like the idea. It’s not common for music legends in her age to succeed with new material, so it’s better to just keep on concerting with the same old songs. However, Grace has a personal assistant named Maggie (Dakota Johnson) and it’s Maggie who’s the main character of this film. She’s been working with the star for few years and been doing a wonderful job, but while working as an assistant, she realises that she’d like to become a producer. She’d love to produce Grace’s music, but it’s practically impossible for a rookie like her. So she finds a talented young man named David (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) who’s definitely attracted to Maggie. Maggie, however, likes him more for his music skills, because he seems like a good material for her first job as a producer. Basically, after watching this film, I think it’s about two women who both have their own dreams, but the big world is stopping them. Grace cannot write new songs because the world wouldn’t “like it”, Maggie cannot become a producer because she’s a young inexperienced woman. I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I can just tell you that both of them will find some way to feel satisfied. A very warm and relaxing production for Sunday, so feel free to check it out.

My rating: 6/10
S.

Stronger than ever. “Rocks” (2019)

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directed by Sarah Gavron
© 2019 Altitude. All Rights Reserved.

This film was one of the British gems during BAFTA 2021. It was nominated for seven awards, which is quite impressive, I must say. And I honestly expected something spectacular, especially since I like dramas. But there’s something about British dramas that makes me feel like they’ve been all made by the same person. It’s often difficult for me to distinguish certain style and it all ends up in my mind’s bag called “British drama”. Still, I believe it’s a film that may interest you, especially since it touches an important topic. Rocks (Bukky Bakray) is a teenager living with her mother and little brother Emmanuel (D’angelou Osei Kissiedu). Everything seems fine until one day the girl gets back home to find a note from her mother saying that she needed to leave. At first Rocks doesn’t understand and tries to contact the woman, but soon she realises that it was leaving for good. From now on, Rocks cannot enjoy the life of a teenager, but she needs to “grow up” immediately to provide for her and her brother. And to make sure they won’t be taken into social services. On the one hand we get the problem of single parents not dealing with their lives as it’s horribly difficult to stay mentally stable in such position. You have a lot of pressure and you may feel like what you’re doing doesn’t make sense, so at some point you just give up and see what happens. But then, there are children who aren’t responsible for their life situation and often need to make up for adult mistakes. Plus, they still want to enjoy being children/teenagers – they deserve to have their own problems, their own dilemmas. It is a difficult topic and I think the film is generally worth seeing. I wasn’t amazed, yet I do recommend it. Especially since Bukky Bakray, who played Rocks, won the Rising Star Award at BAFTA this year, so you may see a rising star on the screen.

My rating: 6/10
S.

It’s the final… “Countdown” (2019)

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directed by Justin Dec
© 2019 STX Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.

What would you say for a scary night after a long week? Because I’m in! And I even have a film that you may like to watch tonight. Maybe it doesn’t have the best ratings, but personally I enjoyed it and needed to hide my face in hands, which is a significant indicator that it’s a good horror. Everything starts with a party where a bunch of teenagers download an app called “Countdown”. It shows each user how much time they have left till their death. Everybody’s laughing at it until one girl named Courtney (Anne Winters) sees 3 hours on her screen. And as you may be guessing, she actually dies in 3 hours. Ta-dam! But that was just the beginning to show you the app is a real deal. And then we meet the main character, Quinn (Elizabeth Lail), who’s working as a nurse. At work she meets Evan (Dillon Lane), Courtney’s boyfriend, who had a car accident after the same party. The teenager tells Quinn about the app and the woman decides to download it, just for fun. But it’s not that fun anymore when she sees 2 days on the screen. At first she doesn’t care much as it’s just a silly app, but we already know that she really has only 48 hours left. Even though the film is a supernatural horror, it wasn’t at the same time cringy. I honestly had chills and was curious what the characters all will do to win with the app. Plus the ending is kind of satisfying, so it’s also a plus from me. But if you feel like this horror isn’t a big deal for you, let me recommend you the real Countdown app. One developer named Ryan Boyling made an app that looks exactly the same as the one in the film and you can download it from official stores. So, would you dare to do that? Want to know how much time you have left…? Enjoy! Either it’s the film, the app or both.

My rating: 6/10
S.

It’s all just a game. “Into the Labyrinth” (“L’uomo del labirinto”, 2019)

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directed by Donato Carrisi

I feel both amazed and frustrated about this film, so I need to write about it and perhaps if I share my thoughts with you, it’ll be some kind of therapy for me. Today I have an Italian thriller, where you can see Dustin Hoffman, because why not, and Toni Servillo, probably my most favourite Italian actor. So it’s obvious I had to see the film. Everything begins with a young girl who’s kidnapped by… a giant rabbit. Yes, I’m serious, please don’t laugh. And then we move 15 years later as she wakes up in hospital with Doctor Green (Dustin Hoffman) by her side. Together they’re trying to remember what the woman has been through. At the same time, Bruno Genko (Toni Servillo), a detective, is trying to solve this case, which could also be his last one as he’s terminally ill. And I must tell you that after first few minutes of the film I knew what’s going on. Maybe I watch too many thrillers or my logical thinking is on point, but I predicted the ending pretty well. Still, I feel like they wasted a marvellous idea for a film by making it too complicated and unreadable from time to time. I was getting lost several times and I see that a lot of people had the same problem. If only they had worked better on the screenplay or made it a bit less chaotic, perhaps it would have been a masterpiece, because there was potential. Still, I had a lot of fun watching it and discovering more and more about the whole accident. And I wish you decide to see it because in the end it’s an interesting riddle and a wonderful acting performance. Let’s see if you guess the ending fast!

My rating: 6/10
S.

For Martha! “Poms” (2019)

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directed by Zara Hayes
© 2019 STX Entertainment. All Rights Reserved.

I guess we all need a bit of relax after all those difficult and often emotionally tiring Oscars’ films. Personally, I love when films boil my brain, but I also need taking a deep cinematographic breath. And today I’m recommending you “Poms”. It’s about Martha (Diane Keaton), who was diagnosed with cancer but decided to stop chemotherapy as she knew it wouldn’t save her life anyway. And in order to die peacefully, she moves to a retirement community called Sun Springs. Everyone is very friendly there, but Martha didn’t come to make friends. She just wants to stay alone and enjoy her last moments. However, there’s a rule in this community that every resident has to join some club. At first Martha doesn’t even want to hear about it, but then one of her neighbours Sheryl (Jacki Weaver), encourages her to do something she’s always wanted to do and… well, I guess you wouldn’t expect it but Martha wishes to join a cheerleading club as when she was younger it was her huge dream to perform. And as you can be guessing, there’s no such club in Sun Springs, so both women decide to open one. You may think it’s something abstract, but I absolutely loved it. I love when we destroy stereotypes. Old ladies should be just staying home, watching TV and embroidering? Bull… you know. Get this gorgeous lady pompoms and let her shine on the stage. I had so much fun with this comedy as it’s a lovely reminder that age is just a number and it’s always a good time to do what we want. Besides, there’s my absolute cinema queen Diane Keaton there, so I couldn’t say “no” to this film. If you need a decent comedy to cheer up a bit, that’s what you need today!

My rating: 6/10
S.

A life lesson from a bike. “White Eye” (2019)

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directed by Tomer Shushan
© 2019 Eroin Corp. All Rights Reserved.

I have one more film that was nominated to Oscars and which also stayed on my mind till now, so I cannot move on without telling you about it. It’s one of the shorts and it didn’t win the Oscar… it actually lost to, in my opinion, a very average film, but I guess the topic of black-skinned citizens’ rights is still so hot these days in the USA that they had to recognise that short because of the message coming out of it. Personally, I’m tired of recognising films for choosing politically important topics, because art becomes a strictly political medium, which is something that I wouldn’t like to see in the future. Art should be talking about everything – our feelings, our values, or be the result of our creative work. Nowadays I feel like we focus too much on sharing political issues and forget about the quality of those pieces of art. It’s obviously my opinion, perhaps some of you like the winner in this category, but my personal winner is “White Eye”. It’s a short and very concrete film showing what it’s like to be human. Omer’s (Daniel Gad) bike has recently been stolen and he accidentally finds the bike on the street. The man gets angry and wants to take this belonging back, but the bike is locked, so he has to either find the current “owner” or steal his own bike. I don’t want to tell you more because it’s a short film so the more I tell you, the less you’ll have to watch. But Omer has to make several decisions, which may have serious consequences. At first, I was amazed by the camera work and how well the whole film was planned. From the technical point of view, it’s wonderful. And then, the longer I was watching, the more emotional the story was becoming. Who would have thought that a simple bike can teach us a lesson about being human. I honestly still think about this short and I wish that a lot of people will see it, even though it didn’t get the Oscar.

My rating: 8/10
S.

We are on the list! “Quo Vadis, Aida?” (2020)

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directed by Jasmila Žbanić
© 2020 Deblokada Produkcija. All Rights Reserved.

What a night that was! Extremely boring, wasn’t it? At least in my eyes that was the most boring Oscars ceremony I’ve seen. I understand that we have the pandemic and a lot of us have lost our beloved ones in the last year, but isn’t such night an occasion to take a deep breath and relax? To clear our minds and forget about the reality for a second? Let’s all thank Yuh-Jung Your and Glenn Close for entertaining us though! And today I’d like to write about a film that was nominated, but didn’t get the Oscar. I’m talking about “Quo Vadis, Aida?”, which was my personal winner as the Best International Film. “Another Round” was my second favourite and I’m also very happy to see it winning, especially since it was a very meaningful production for Thomas Vinterberg (I recommend you to see his speech). Still, “Quo Vadis, Aida?” is a real gem which I hope will be seen by many of you. We move back to 1995 and meet Aida (Jasna Đuričić), a UN translator. During that time, the Army of Republika Srpska (Serbian Republic) has taken over one mountain town called Srebrenica. I wouldn’t like to explain you what was going on there, because it’s a very difficult part of history, but shortly speaking it was a battle between the Serbian Army and Muslim civilians. Aida is protected as she’s at the UN camp, but her family aren’t. She’s trying her best to let her husband and two sons in, but at the same time she has to follow orders and focus on her job. She knows that outside there her family isn’t safe, but there are also thousands of other people begging for protection. Their only chance is to negotiate with the Serbian Army. But you know, war is war, there are no official rules. So for the whole time you feel like watching a ticking bomb and you’re not sure when the massacre begins. Or will it? I was amazed by the idea of showing this historical moment from the perspective of a woman working for UN. Aida is such a strong female character and I felt huge respect towards her. The whole film was very emotional and kept me uncomfortable, but on the other hand I knew I needed to stay as strong as Aida. Honestly, haven’t been so engaged in a film for a long time. It’s an absolute must-see! My personal Oscar goes to Aida.

My rating: 8/10
S.

Choo-choo! “A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon” (2019)

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directed by Richard Phelan & Will Becher
© 2019 Studio Canal. All Rights Reserved.

It’s time to relax right before the ceremony and what’s a better option than watching Shaun the Sheep fooling around? This isn’t the first film about him, but you can watch it without knowing the previous adventures, no worries. So if you don’t know Shaun, let’s say it once again – he is a sheep. Surprising. He’s living in Mossingham on a farm together with Farmer John, his dog Bongo and a bunch of other animals. Nothing much is happening there until a UFO lands close to their house. The alien that comes out of the UFO refers to herself as Lu-La and she seems very curious and friendly. That is why Shaun decides to get to know her and those two have a lot of adorable adventures, especially since Lu-La has superpowers. Unfortunately, The Ministry of Alien Detention (M.A.D.) want to find the alien and catch it, obviously. So Shaun does everything to keep Lu-La safe and help her get back to her planet. Personally, I adore the kind of humour that is present in Shaun the Sheep films. It’s both smart, goofy, sarcastic and cringy, but in a very pleasant way. Besides, if you’ve been reading my blog for longer, you may know that I’m a big fan of stop motion animation. I believe it’s something spectacular and I honestly feel a lot of respect towards people who still create in such style. Bravo and thank you! For me it’s a perfect film for everyone, because children will for sure love Shaun and Lu-La and adults will enjoy their time catching the hidden jokes. So don’t even think about it, just relax and watch this adorable and very well-made animation. Last but not least – should it win the Oscar tonight? Maybe I’ll surprise you but… yes. In my eyes, that’s the best animated film nominated this year. I’m pretty sure it won’t get the statuette, but I still liked it the most and I hope you’ll find a moment to see it.

My rating: 7/10
S.

Some people have no respect for other human beings alive. “Time” (2020)

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directed by Garrett Bradley
© 2020 Amazon Studios. All Rights Reserved.

This one is not a piece of cake. I had such mixed feeling watching it and I’m not surprised there are people who don’t approve this documentary. Because it is, at least in my eyes, a very personal and emotional production, made with an idea and keeping us all in this horrible state of helplessness. But on the other hand, we may not agree with what we see and that can be destroying the atmosphere. Let me explain. In this documentary we’re following Sibil Fox Richardson who’s an entrepreneur and a mother of six children. When she and her husband were younger, they took part in an armed bank robbery, for what they were both sentenced. Sibil was released after 3,5 years, but her husband Robert got a 60-year sentence. And this is the story of a woman who’s made a mistake, so did her partner, but she’s still fighting for his right to be released earlier than in 60 years. And this is the moment when we may have mixed feeling. On the one hand, I think that an armed robbery isn’t just a small offence. That’s a serious crime as someone might have got hurt. If you threat another person holding a weapon, you should definitely be sentenced for your actions. This is my opinion and I bet a lot of you will agree with me. I know that there are different reasons why people decide to break the law, but it’s still breaking the law and putting innocent people in danger. However, 60 years sounds a bit too harsh considering the fact that nobody was hurt. In this case, both of them should have been sentenced for few years and be taken care of by a psychologist. So I understand why Sibil was so frustrated about the whole situation. Both of them know they did wrong, but none of them is a murderer. They just got lost in life for a moment and needed someone to give them a hand. The film is controversial, but it also made me look at the case from two perspectives. In the end, I think it’s a decent documentary about a helpless woman who’s trying to win some time for her family. It’s also nominated to Oscars this year. Not my personal winner, but worth checking out for sure.

My rating: 6/10
S.