Plot:
Colter (Jake Gyllenhaal) keeps waking up in a strange body on a train, 8 minutes before said train explodes. He is sent there by Goodwin (Vera Farmiga) and her boss Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) to figure out who bombed the train. But at first it seems that the most success Colter is going to have is with fellow train passenger Christina (Michelle Monaghan). But as he gets more confident with his task, we also discover that there’s probably more behind the project than we thought at first.
I loved Source Code – up until the last 10 minutes or so. Everything was going so very well up until then: the plot had me hooked, the performances were great and the premise (while admittedly a bit ludicrous) worked. And then the ending just had me headdesking.
Plot:
Sam (Yannick Renier) is heading South, trying to take care of some family business. On the way he picks up the siblings Léa (Léa Seydoux) who is pregnant and Mathieu (Théo Frilet). Mathieu falls in love with Sam, who remains remote. Feeling neglected, Léa picks up yet antoher hitchhiker, Jérémie (Pierre Perrier) and the four of them continue South, while Sam tries to get a grip on the traumatic events in his childhood.
Visually, the film is really good: Lipshitz assembles some very pretty people and the cinematography is great. Yannick Renier is the perfect guy to play the brooding, mysterious hero. But other than that the film didn’t have much to offer to me.
Plot:
Lars (Thure Lindhardt) was just dismissed from the army because of rumors that he was gay. Now he doesn’t really know what to do with himself. By chance he stumbles into a group of neonazis. Their leader Fatty (Nicolas Bro) sees that Lars shows a lot of promise, so when Lars falls out with his parents, he pounces: He tells Lars he can stay with Jimmy (David Dencik) who is renovating a house for the group. But then Lars and Jimmy fall in love.
Brotherhood is a strong movie, particularly for a debut. There are some weaknesses in the plot but that is more than made up for by the differentiated approach to both Lars and Jimmy’s relationship with each other and even more so their relationship with the neonazi group.
Plot:
Elena and Raphael are back in New York but the events in Asia have left their mark on the world. And now it seems that Caliane, mad, ancient and incredibly powerful archangel and Raphael’s mother is awakening from her millennia long sleep. And nobody knows what to expect, apart from the fact that a whole lot of vampires and angels are negatively affected by it, which is rarely a good thing. So Elena has her hands full.
Yeah, Archangel’s Consort continues the tradition of the Guild Hunter Series so far: I continue to dislike Raphael and Elena, while the secondary characters are pretty engaging. But I think I’ve reached the point where it just isn’t enough that I want to continue reading.
Plot:
Miguel (Cristian Mercado) is a Peruvian fisherman and an integral part of the community in his hometown. He and his wife Mariela (Tatiana Astengo) are expecting their first child together and his life seems to be perfect. But there’s also Santiago (Manolo Cardona), an artist who came to the village to paint: Miguel and Santiago are in love, which nobody can know about. One day Santiago drowns – and since he can’t really leave until his body is found, he asks Miguel for help. But Miguel is not really prepared to let him go.
Contracorriente is a beautiful, haunting (no pun intended) film. The story is a wonderful metaphor, the cast is great and the cinematography is absolutely mind-blowing.
Plot: Anne Lister (Maxine Peake) is a wealthy woman in 19th century Yorkshire who also happens to be a lesbian. She’s very much in love with Mariana (Anna Madeley) who returns her affection. Much to Anne’s surprise though, she discovers that Mariana is to be married to the older Charles Lawton (Michael Culkin). Anne is not willing to compromise, contrary to Mariana which causes a rift between the two of them.
The Secret Diaries if Miss Anne Lister tells an interesting story and provides a fascinating look at the life of lesbians at the time. The perfomances are wonderful and the script has a good sense of humor. Very entertaining.
Plot:
Aspiring actress Marina (Silvia Lourenço) leaves her boyfried behind to move to São Paulo and try her luck there. She stays with Suzana (Maria Clara Spinelli), a successful lawyer who just started dating her colleague Gil (Gustavo Machado). On her first evening, Marina goes partying together with her neighbor Jay (Fábio Herford), a socially awkward writer in love with prostitute Michelle (Leilah Moreno). Marina meets the enigmatic singer Justine (Danni Carlos) and immediately falls in love with her.
Paulista is divided in three stories, one I couldn’t care less about (Jay and Michelle), one that was okay (Marina and Justine) and one that was excellent (Suzana and Gil). Unfortunately the film mostly focusses on the Marina, so it ends up being only nice where it could have been really great.
shoot me is a performance by Luke Baio and Dominik Grünbühel.
Plot:
shoot me does not have a plot per se. We watch Luke Baio and Dominik Grünbühel filming each other in more or less inscrutable movements and poses, changing costumes wildly, exchanging hats, dancing, moving sets. In the end they hand out popcorn and we get to see the short film they just made and which was edited live and got its soundtrack live, too.
shoot me was amazingly brilliant. It was fun to watch the process of the filming – with some very clever special effects (done in camera) – and the resulting film was really extremely cool – especially for a film that took only about an hour to make (not counting the planning which was extensive).
