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Elvis (2022)
Elvis - The Hero's Journey from Rising to Eternity
Elvis (2022), luxuriously written, produced and directed by Baz Lurhmann, cannot be described as a normal Elvis Presley biopic. Creating a film about the life of a singer, actor, showman and entertainer so revolutionary and socially engaged as Elvis could not be done in a normal way, so as than Elvis' life was not a normal life.
The Hero's Journey, established by Joseph Campbell, famous writer and myth scholar, is a standard sequence of steps and ways of telling a story that has been adopted in fantastic productions for decades.
The sagas Star Wars, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and the first solo films of the superheroes of the Marvel empire were the main representations of millionaire revenues built from this "magic rule" until Baz Lurhmann's Elvis was released in theaters.
A fan of superheroes from old comics as a child, the story about Elvis Presley is told in the newest film about his life in a way heavily inspired by that interest.
Elvis is not a biopic, it is not a film about the history of music or even American culture, but a superhero story that permeates these subjects.
The thing is, unlike many comics, the movie's story actually happened - at least 99% of the time. In the 2 hours and 40 minutes of film we are introduced to the "ordinary world" of the would-be hero, the "call to adventure" he receives, the refusal, the trials and all the steps of the standard and almost worn out model of the Hero's Journey of tell stories. However, even in this we have some innovations.
Told not from an omniscient point of view, nor from Elvis' own point of view, nor even in an entirely linear way, the work is narrated from the perspective of the character who is the hero's wise mentor and at the same time the cunning villain, his businessman, Colonel Tom Parker, played by Tom Hanks.
Characterized with a lot of makeup and several prosthetics, Hanks, playing the role of the businessman seen on screen, acts with a mischievousness felt just by looking into his eyes.
Exposing and captivating the public with facts about the life of his "protected boy" and the source of his parasitic exploitation of income, the Colonel alters the order of the stages of this famous Hero's Journey by treating it as a mea culpa and an attempt to justify his manipulations on what can be called his long deathbed.
The main historical facts about Elvis and the beginning of his life together with his family are presented clearly, but the whole work is based on the moment that the Colonel, the narrator, meets the promising young artist.
Chaydon Jay plays the artist's impoverished childhood version. Although with a brief participation in the feature, the young man strategically and energetically conveys his performance as a young Elvis in the initial phase of the formation of his religious worship for the black music of the southern United States, where the singer was raised, and his passion radical for religion.
As a scene of famous religious ceremonies in the South of the USA very well demonstrated, the young Elvis (Chaydon) really does seem to have the "spirit in him". Whether the holy spirit or even that of his twin brother who was stillborn, which is why Elvis always seemed to have the strength of 2 men in his soul, according to his mother, something very powerful was part of the young man's being, and the film presents this very well from the beginning.
This religiosity that Elvis grew up with and always used to recover after difficult moments in life, is passed on to the true King of this film, Austin Butler, who embodies the King of Rock and brings Baz Luhrmann's work to life.
The American actor accepts and gives himself completely to the job of masterfully interpreting nearly 30 years of Elvis Presley's career and life. Impressing with the incredible vocal work and convincing that it was Elvis in person with the body work, Austin seems to have been possessed by the spirit of the King as he recorded the film full of dances, swaying, karate moves and gestures to perform the spectacular performances.
Bringing us drama, excitement, anger and charisma, the boy's charming performance in the moments on stage and in the development of the character in the "ordinary world" of the feature, convey and allow us to feel the same emotions that appear on the scene.
Running from the 50s to the 70s, Austin shows Elvis as an innocent, humble and shy young man - but with a flamboyant style - to the rebellious icon full of sex appeal who literally transformed the way of performing live and on TV in the United States. USA, in addition to Elvis gospel and country.
As the movie demonstrates, Elvis in the 50's already started to inspire artists of the time - and artists that we still have emerging today - as well as displacing a handful of other artists who settled in the way of giving presentations. The young man turned monotonous music sessions into truly unprecedented spectacles, coming into conflict with politicians, the police, the parents of young people at the time and racial segregationists.
The artist was born and raised in an environment that was so natural to Elvis, but that was discriminated against by traditional white society. With black music legends B. B. King (Kelvin Harrison), Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup (Gary Clark Jr.), Big Mama Thornton (Shonka Dukureh), Little Richard (Alton Mason) and Sister Rosetta Tharpe (Yola), the film still includes the historical facts related to Martin Luther King Jr. And the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy as a great stimulus in the formation, rhythm, emotions and decisions of the King.
Demonstrating through warm scenes the social, racial and cultural context of the USA, we see how these and other factors have always been part of the concerns and influences on Elvis, as well as receiving tremendous influences from his works, designed to raise public awareness.
In the first quarter of the film, until a small percentage of the next, the plot runs at a frantic pace and with almost no pause for breath at certain points. Condensing with glamor and historical facts the various years of Elvis' early life and right from the moment he met Colonel Tom Parker, the narrator of the work, there are few moments to reflect on what is cut and displayed on the screen.
The facts of this passage emerge at a rythm enough to entertain and even learn, but they almost overwhelm the audience's attention with the story, the excellent music and all the brilliance present in it.
Soon after these moments, we can enjoy a more fluid rhythm, being able to feel the artist's strong emotions and achievements, understand the results of his trajectory, in the same way that we continue to appreciate the excellent scene montages, photography, costumes and sound mixing present during all the energy and synergy of the film, from the opening style to the end credits.
Featuring original songs and other edited songs by Elvis, as well as a dozen productions by contemporary artists such as Doja Cat, Eminem, the band Måneskin, Diplo and Swae Lee, as well as Austin Butler's own voice, the film proves the impact and quality of the King's songs sung by these figures in the same intensity as the unpublished songs created by them in a way inspired by their work.
Elvis is a truly deified figure. In the movie and in real life, Captain Marvel Jr and Superman would not receive as much acclaim as Elvis Presley has already received from audiences that crossed the line of show and became religious worship with a strong and incongruous sex appeal.
Those who don't know the story of Elvis, receive enough information and fun to say they are well-educated at the beginning, prepared for what comes in the following scenes and instigated to seek more complementary details about the King after the end of the film - the production it's about a man who lived 42 years. It is not possible to present exactly everything on stage.
Who is a fan of the King of Rock, famous that never left the mouths and ears of the people, maybe you can be nostalgic for 2 or 3 details that are important in the King's career as a little more about his time in the army, where he came to becoming a sergeant for his hard work, his more than 31 feature films, his spectacular worldwide performance at Aloha from Hawaii, the world's first satellite show - invented just for Elvis at the will (and legal self-preservation) of his manager.
All these facts are presented in the film. In fact, some of them are the reason for great self-promotion by the Colonel, who brags about these feats in his narrative, but seeing them in more screen time would also serve for the self-promotion of the public itself, which extols these facts about their transcendental idol.
Even so, everything that the film shows doubles and with great quality the few details that it doesn't show so comprehensively. From the manager's point of view, the artist was rarely seen as a real person, but he was always the attraction of a show that should never stop and that should be explored to the fullest. The greatest show on Earth - for many years the most profitable on Earth.
The final stages of the journey are marked by conflicts between the hero, Elvis, and his manipulative villain, the businessman. In the same way, we have conflicts between Elvis and those close to him, as well as between Elvis and himself, intoxicated, confused and depressed with the directions his innovative life had taken in recent years.
Elvis Presley, may not have realized how well executed it was. His quest for eternity, at least in terms of his career. More than 40 years after his "death", after several other successful works about his life, Elvis 2022 is more recent proof of that his hero's journey did not end like many others, not coming to end, but reaching to eternity with this magnificent artwork from Baz Lurhmann.
Fatman (2020)
Don't mess with Santa
Starring Mel Gibson, this Christmas production is not in the same genre of films that we watch with children at the end of the year.
With an indicative rating from the age of 16, Fatman brings a fanciful and hopeful narrative of Santa Claus, the good old man with a white beard who brings us gifts and the joy of Christmas, in a more realistic and embittered situation.
Situated in the real world, where Santa Claus needs to seek new commercial partnerships with the American army to save his operation from bankruptcy, the mythical and magical figure tries to maintain persistence in the increasingly disappointing and scarce, Christmas spirit, as he struggles and gun to the teeth.
It would be difficult to imagine a story in which Santa Claus, a practically omniscient and immortal man, as well as his wife and elves, could walk the streets, go to the bar, maintain his wedding and pay as bills from his toy factory as a being real human. Fatman can manage to bring this narrative in a very elaborate way thinking of the realistic air of the story.
This fantasy picture that links comedy and action has no super jokes or sketches designed to be explicitly informed, but it is able to hold your attention in a very interesting way. Imagining the serious, plausible explanations and techniques in a subtle and objective way for the existence of all this fable, the film generates a good dose of humor and curiosity.
With subtlety in presenting this magical figure hidden in the form of a common businessman, with many years of marriage and that practice shooting and crossfit, this movie conveys empathy with the good old man - strong as hell -, discredited in human kindness and Christmas, as well as that of a bankrupt businessman after trying to pursue the famous "American dream".
Bluntly, arcs of redemption or even great moral lessons, Fatman captivates with curiosity, the air of comedy it involves, and the action and shooting scenes with the villain of the film, played by Walton Goggins, an assassin cold, calculating and distressed with Santa Claus, as well as the sulky child who hires him to kill him.
It is not ideal to have very young children in the room when watching this movie, but the production's Rambo style makes it fun to watch at various times of the year.
Voces (2020)
A similar terror, but a scary suspense
An abandoned house in a dense forest, a family indebted in constant changes of housing, sinister and haunting figures and voices.
The horror genre doesn't necessarily have to have original works to stay active.
Although it has a premise already known to the public, the Spanish production, Don't Listen, will make you be surprised and never look at flies the same way again.
With great impact right at the beginning of the film, literally, the plot unfolds with a moderate amount of twists, but forceful quality in all of them.
After the loss of his son in a tragic and mysterious accident in the house where the boy said he heard voices, a stunned father remains in the house where the horror happened to end the reform in which he invested his savings.
Without the company of his wife, who left the place to try to overcome what happened, Daniel, very well played by the expressive Rodolfo Sancho, returns to hear his son's voices in recordings and calls made after his death.
The boy's request for help "on the other side" despairs the late father to the point of seeking and convincing a paranormal investigator marked by traumas, accompanied by his affectionate, but incredulous daughter.
The similar concept of this narrative with other productions of the genre is slightly irrelevant in view of the development of the way in which the production accompanies the plot.
Beginning with a dramatic family tragedy, the work manages to maintain this line and link it, in an increasing and surprising way, with traces of action, mystery and the different lines of terror.
Like most films of this genre, dark montages of scenes, settings and jump scares do not go unnoticed. However, the tension and attention built over the course of the plot will maintain the priority and fright for the progress of the narrative without deteriorating or even exaggerating in any aspect the other approaches to production.
Without reinventing terror as a whole, Don't Listen captivates and disturbs, in a coherent way, with the optimal use of the particular elements of its script, environments and cast.
The freshness of this Spanish production ranges from the empathic and suffering family relationships wounded and haunted by the entities from the beginning of the film to its shocking ending without the absence of high doses of bitterness, as was experienced throughout the course of the plot.
La vita davanti a sé (2020)
The price of a promise
Both in cinema and in real life, the protagonists of The Life Ahead are very different with regard to age and fame. However, this difference is practically impossible to notice in relation to the quality of the excellent performance of each of the two.
Inspired by a novel written by Romain Gary, entitled "Life ahead," the work is the second film adaptation of the book and the first interpretation of actress Sophia Loren in many years.
Sophia Loren is a renowned Italian actress, winner of an Oscar award for her career rich in memorable performances. The movie star plays Madame Rosa, an elderly woman who worked in prostitution to support herself, and now, in her own home, takes care of the children of other women who have no one to leave their children with.
In addition to this long and already difficult journey, Madame Rosa faced, in her youth, one of the greatest crimes committed against humanity, the Holocaust.
As a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, Madame Rosa has little prejudice in her life. Even so, at the beginning, he is very reluctant to promise to accept Momo's stay, played by the young Ibrahima Gueye.
Ibrahima is a newcomer in cinematographic productions, however, possessing an enormous charisma worthy of those who are already professionals in the field. In the role of Momo, a young Muslim refugee from Senegal who lives in the streets of Italy, the boy is under the care of a doctor unable to continue welcoming him.
After stealing and pushing the lady, Madame Rosa, young Momo has no idea that Dr. Cohen, the doctor who welcomes him, will successfully try to convince the young man while a new shelter and guardians are sought.
In a promise moved to financial compensation for the boy's care, Dr. Cohen signs Madame Rosa's acceptance of the services.
In this abrupt union of such divergent figures is the focus, the positive and negative points of the script.
In a work on the difficult and progressive relationship between an energetic street boy and an elderly Holocaust survivor, the production places little emphasis on each of these themes. In a single moment of the plot, exciting details, however, shallow details of the horror faced by Madame Rosa are exposed, and Momo, at that moment, does not seem to even know what the period is about.
Still having as main objective the creation of affinity and bonds of affection between the two figures, the development of the scenes did not contribute enough to subtly reinforce this difficult task between the characters. In 1 hour and 34 minutes, the film seems to run or be edited in such a way that, in one scene, the disaffection between the protagonists is expressive, and in the next, a forced relationship of empathy and acceptance emerges uniting the characters.
This brief cinematic cliché reduces what could be an excellent production. However, it does not reduce it enough to prevent us from feeling and sympathizing with the situation of those involved.
With deteriorations in Madame Rosa's state of health, the sad pact sealed between the new friends leads to striking and unusual journeys for the fulfillment of the promise and the attempt to keep the life and affection experienced by both of them permanent.
The Life Ahead fail to converge in a natural way for the beginning of the friendship between their very different characters, but it does not fail to do so in the continuity of the development of this relationship. In the same way, this beautiful production fails much less in the elegant and charismatic air of its interpretations, if not to say that it is impeccable in that fact.
The Queen's Gambit (2020)
Addicted and genius chess player
The name is strange, but it is a risky opening move in chess. Like its title, Netflix's seven-episode miniseries is a set of dramatic, intellectual risks, causes and consequences.
The thought-provoking work based on a book of the same name by the American writer, Walter Tevis, follows the fictional story of the young orphan, Elizabeth Harmon. "Beth", masterfully performed by actress Anya Taylor-Joy, becomes a chess prodigy and faces great challenges, in part, self-inflicted during this journey set in the periods of the Cold War.
Endowed with quick reasoning and great logic, taught or even transmitted naturally by her late mother, a notorious and problematic doctor in mathematics, the young woman is introduced to the world of addictions and chess games when she arrives at the orphanage soon after her loss.
For Beth, after learning the rules of the game from the lonely caretaker where she lives, chess is her addiction and her talent. The strategies, calculations and the possibility of exercising some control in your life, in this case, over so many pieces on a single and small board, are what sharpen and hold the mind of the reserved young woman of only 9 years old.
Over time, the tranquilizers used to focus on your intellectual obsession become more than just game tools and become another dangerous addiction for the girl.
After being finally adopted, the girl who had been prevented from further developing her chess game makes great moves in her life, motivated by knowledge and victories.
Demonstrating audacity, competitiveness and great technique, even without initially recognizing this in herself and not even knowing all the practices, Beth dominates the professional tournaments of great masters and competitors, outraged by the defeat for the young woman considered "beginner" and discriminated against for being a young woman woman in a mostly male environment at the time.
In the midst of a variety of macho contestants, who consider themselves to be part of the archaic and private "gentlemen's clubs", the lady figure, sponsored by her adoptive mother, faces the defiant matches with ease and apathy with a focused eye and focus that goes beyond genius and, at times, can be compared to a level of madness.
As time goes by, the character grows and her number of victories increases, as does her ego, her fame and the admiration received by others. Likewise, his vices presented by the media and, unconsciously, by his new maternal figure, increasingly cease to be stimulating for his mental game as training for chess, and become official as the loss of his self control over drinks, drugs and other stimulants.
It is almost a fact that great minds suffer due to repression or attempts to adapt to more common social standards. However, appearing to be overcoming this, Beth's mind stops suffering socially to intellectually face her aptitude that she thinks depends on chemical obsessions.
Being slaughtered and, consequently, having to avoid the obstacles inflicted by life and by his own decisions, the work captivates by curiosity to discover what will be the next movements in the departure of Beth Harmon's life.
Without many suspensions or grandiose twists and turns, the story draws attention due to the protagonist's resourcefulness during the journey to success, without really riches, and for her particular way of narrating her own movements with tension and propriety, partially or in detail.
Like a chess tournament where the plays can be many or few, but always with a remarkable complexity for those involved, the Netflix production, depending on the development of Taylor-Joy's great performance, is also composed of the diversity of lessons learned, ignored and often caused by the character's addictions and genius.
Pursued by past traumas and unsuccessful Platonic romances, but which do not reach the feet of her passion for chess, Beth becomes the queen of the game after a long journey full of strategies and unforeseen events, in scenarios and moments with impeccable cine matic recreation.
After a continuous and growing rhythm of dramas, passions and a certain humor, the production makes a small faux pas using a cliché of the cinema. At the decisive moment, friends abandoned in the past miraculously emerge from an enormous distance to help overcome the difficult situation. However, although continuing with this cliché showing the overcoming of adversity by the character's own genius, the end of this game has an elegance that compensates for its small mistakes.
At the end of the miniseries, after captivating and dramatic movements in the life of the protagonist and her few friends, the queen, after sacrificing and being supported by her pawns, manages to defeat the king deservedly and respectfully and to overcome her own challenges.
Enola Holmes (2020)
The smartest sister of Sherlock Holmes
Enola Holmes, the younger sister of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes is an intrepid protagonist of the new Netflix production that bears his name. Filled with a youthful freshness, the film is capable of bringing us an invigorating version of the fantastic stories of deductions in an older century.
Unlike the brilliant and fictional British researcher created in the 19th century by the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Enola is younger in fiction and in reality. The story that introduces the teenage character to the literature published in 2006 by the American author Nancy Springer.
The character's youth in no way detracts from her cleverness. Enola is trained in different fighting styles, versed in various literature, with a spontaneous desire for investigations and for establishing her own free personality. In the story, Enola Holmes has to escape the rigid control and harshness of her older siblings while searching for her mother who has mysteriously disappeared.
Getting involved in restrictive issues of social classes and sexism, characteristics of the time when the story takes place, but unfortunately, also today, a character is attracted to a dangerous political plot and to a young and platonic novel.
Even though it is a production more geared towards the teen audience, the work pleases different ages with its action-packed narrative, mental and fun exercises that Enola can perform, standing out even his famous older brother, Sherlock Holmes, solving a difficult case before him.
Although it diminishes some of its own innovative strength with a youth novel built very quickly - literally, in just a single afternoon, Enola already repeatedly exposes how much the romantic interest grows in her head - mistake and success of many productions in that same style, the film has a very efficient construction.
Positive point for the temporal work that works on the pillars of the young character's self-knowledge and the discovery of the vast world that she always read about and prepared to explore, but had never really ventured, although she felt no fear during this adventure dangerous to which it is taken.
In the script, in the setting of the scenes and costumes, and especially in the great and energetic performance of Millie Bobby Brown who also produces a work, the Netflix film based on the work of writer Nancy Springer is a plot really worthy of detective stories and with a lot of feminine empowerment, action, fun and current reflections.
The Devil All the Time (2020)
Choices, extremes and their encounters
Even with a rope, it might not be possible to tie the cores of the story of this Netflix adaptation as well as the script is capable of doing it.
Based on a book of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock, directed by the semi-Brazilian director, Antonio Campos, and with big names in the cast, The Devill All The Time impresses us with the balance between the linearity and the cyclical flow of his sordid suspense.
With the mix of religious fanaticism and hedonism at the center of the work, the story unfolds with a disturbing series of terrible choices and their consequences with superior characteristics.
Involving wars waged between men and with God Himself, regardless of religion or lack of it, as seen in one of the characters in the film, the lustful pleasure or the feeling of satisfaction by the dogmatic rigidity of a higher belief form clearly opposite parallels, but with an inevitable encounter.
In the script, a soldier returns home, tormented by the terrors of war. In a certain restaurant, he finds the love of his life in a waitress who is asked for the pleas of the needy. In the same place, an adventurous and perfectionist photographer is faced with another passionate and seductive waitress attracting her with his harmony.
One will lose his wife to a cancer after brutal supplications to God, with the right to sacrifice and abuse, begging him to make it disappear, and the other will start a wave of voyeurism linked to brutal murders for many and many years.
As a result of one of these meetings, we have the figure of the young boy abused by his father's flawed, fervent and short-lived religiosity.
At the same time, we have the orphan woman who gives herself over to the worship of an exaggerated and God-fearing pastor. In yet another unpretentious encounter between religious, we have insanity and disbelief arising from an excess of belief leading to murder and another orphaned girl, as in her own mother's cycle.
Against these two children, there is the growth of a pure relationship between foster siblings, soon affected by a further pastor who emerges ahead of their falsehood and seduction.
In this production, at all times, we are introduced to chance's destiny and active choices about its actions and events. In any case, deciding to act or being coerced to such an act, there is not a single "saint" or innocent person who is not a victim of his own actions in any region where the two American cities set in the work meet.
Not even the poor victim of a suicide that was not supposed to happen can keep that title for a long time. The actions that led her to this end were not only accepted, but the rope itself was literally suspended and tied around its neck by its own hands.
With fleeting joys and extensive disturbances throughout the plot, with virtually no rest for such distress inflicted on its protagonists and supporting actors, the performances of his cast can really make you believe that so much suffering or apathy towards him is really being felt by everyone. - Maybe not so much for Robert Pattinson's acting that he doesn't seem to know very well the role he's been playing until the last moments.
At the end of the work, another meeting between the cyclical extremes of the work. Two men embittered by the loss of their respective sisters. No innocent, but one more malicious than the other, is reunited in the first place where they were connected in their lives. This time, for the same motivation, but with intensely different purposes.
With one coming to kill and the other trying to just live, doing everything in his power to do so, yet another set of personal choices and attitudes is connected in this set of stories in which, apparently, there is no connection, and certainly not there is no benefit.
A growing energy that does not draw a straight line, the film ties the pieces of a puzzle together in a single line forming a very well-assembled circle, connecting each piece in a way that they meet in the most fierce and imperceptible way possible.
Murdering Manichaeism and presenting us with a vision purely based on the pleasure and flaws of his fanaticism, whether worldly or religious, in none of them in the plot of The Devill All The Time, any of his characters can have a seal of "good person" "Assigned to you in any of your days.
Contratiempo (2016)
How many plot twists can a movie take?
Although out of the Hollywood style with explosions and fierce pursuits, and even without being inspired by some classic literature, the modern Spanish production, "The invisible Guest" (2016), takes your breath away every minute during the time you are watching it, and even after.
The plot revolves around the preparation of an iconic and respectable businessman for his trial after being accused of the murder of his paramour. With an innocent, yet unbelievable and full of "holes" story, the details that are questioned and explained to successfully fill them in the future trial are the beginning and the middle of a new and complex web of facts and lies related to another unfortunate crime.
Focusing on a single and luxurious apartment that serves as a place for various memories and flashbacks, the narrattive of just under two hours in length takes you constantly to an infinite number of paths, hypotheses and opinions. All surprising and questionable, but without loose ends.
The movie is a gradual and incessant suspense. The absence of action scenes is filled by the lack of any kind of monotony, either by the great script or by the alternation of expressions of its actors. Filled with doubts and reasoning, the work is no purely intellectual questioning, but rather, a thriller that makes you frantically look at and exchange targets of hatred and sympathy as the plot progresses or makes you think you are moving towards an imaginable or simple ending.
After the conclusion of the work, perhaps one or another idea that appeared in the viewer's mind during the course of the plot is similar to some of the various assumptions that the story makes you raise. However, the intensity of the surprise and anxiety it generates will leave you with a tightness in your chest and a round of applause for the production.
'The invisible guest" is a movie that makes you want to advance in time to discover its end soon, but that prevents you from doing so due to the uninterrupted increase in the quantity and quality of discoveries and plot twists.
Capone (2020)
Inside of a ill mobster mind
Alphonse (Al) Capone, one of the most notorious gangsters of all time, now, portrayed after his long and violent life of crimes. Already played by several iconic figures in cinema, one of them "The Godfather" Robert De Niro, the character of the Italian-American mobster is now represented by the versatile British actor, Tom Hardy.
The protagonist, today, is 6 years younger than the role he plays, a fact that could never be perceived by watching the film that presents the decadent and almost true ending of the mobster.
The work focuses on the last year of Al Capone's life and his internal struggles to endure and continue each day that remains of his life, not for a police hunt or for a growing wave of crimes, escapes and betrayals, but for regrets and the weakened mental situation of a man released after a decade of imprisonment.
The film can be described as a deepening of the confusion present in the mobster's mind without seeking to redeem him in any way, but only showing what was in his last year of life, a sick man.
The semi-biographical work is based on the mixture of scenes from reality with the daydreams and illusions created by the fragile and broken mind of the gangster, affected by neurosyphilis during his incarcerated period. Rare are the times when it is clear whether what is happening is in the world or just in Capone's mind.
Subtle and constant transitions of settings replace dialogues that, when uttered, sound like screams, grunts and animalistic noises coming from the criminal with Americanized Italian lines. In the case of a sick and historically violent man, this fact does not take merit from Hardy's interpretation or even from the work itself, but it does not increase his qualification either.
Wallowing in Capone's blood and physiological needs, as the film portrays so often, it becomes difficult to really connect with the current situation of man without first introducing himself to what he was before.
Everyone knows about the mobster Al Capone, but in filmmaking, apart from one or another daydream, there is no initial setting to really get to know him before what the work aims, even in fiction, or to see and feel compassion for the person who turned at the end.
Several situations in the narrative are purely Hollywood's creation, as in the case of Capone's lost son, as far as is known today. However, by portraying the inside of the gangster's sick mind, it's not impossible to relate the subplots of the script and the search for reconciliation with his heir with the pure delusions experienced and imagined by his protagonist, clearly sorry for himself (or simply forgotten about who he really was).
However, even in what can be found true, there is a tension and an exaggeration in the picture to allow us to believe that this situation occurred in reality or even in the gangster's problematic dreams, perhaps one of the most striking defects in production.
The film simply portrays the inside of the mind of a sick former criminal. There are no plot twists or growth involving the protagonist or the other characters.
All the events are the result of Capone's mental confusion in his last stage of life as an invalid gangster and a disturbed man. Such an approach cannot be considered erroneous as it is precisely what the film and the director seek to focus on.
If the film had the intention of imagining the last moments of Capone's disoriented persona, the work achieved such merit, but it did not surpass the exaggeration that most likely would not occur even with the most famous gangster of all time.
Tom Hardy gets an animalistic, but very good interpretation of an interesting character, but hardly believable in a film that even manages to be interesting, but it is just that.
The Letter for the King (2020)
An epic middle journey
Based on a classic book of the same name, this series of medieval adventures that divide a relatively new cast and major names in cinema and television (such as Andy Serkis and David Wenham) presents itself as a historical fiction very well produced in the effects and the setting , but with a medium development of its characters and plots.
The Letter to the King narrative is summed up in the paths and misadventures that the young aspiring knight, Tiuri, faces to carry an important and secret message to the king of neighboring, but distant lands. This journey involves magic and the classic conflict between good and evil, between light and darkness, literally in history. This is what was written, in a simplified way, since what was actually produced and exhibited in the series is also not much of that initial premise.
With certain freedoms to serve a young audience, even so, Carta ao Rei does not develop its characters or conflicts very much. Everything happens in a very well filmed and artistic way, but with little real depth in the plots that occur, or should occur, in history. A certain maturity in the darker scenes and an extra dose of concern in the young cast are what would increase, and a lot, the tension of the story that could very well be balanced with the romantic and comic reliefs that she already addresses, albeit in the same superficial rhythm.
From certain performances by the main characters to a absence of a longer duration of conflicts (mainly from the end), the series presents a set of flaws mixed with an untapped potential, which does not make it something forgettable or even bad. The six-episode production is a good story to follow. There are wars and political conflicts, good debates on ethics and issues of gender and social class, a search for trial and a demonstration of power, benevolent or evil, and a hint of friendship and romantic interest. The only negative point that really extends to almost all aspects of the series is the sheer feeling of "it could be better" replacing the good old taste of "I want more".
* In fact, it is interesting to see that Andy Serkis continues to insert his children in the cinematographic environment, and precisely in productions related to the Middle Ages, placing his daughter Ruby in the series, as he did with his son Louis in the film "The Kid Who Would Be King " .
Er ist wieder da (2015)
Hitler came back, but his ideals have always been here!
In this work based on a book of the same name, the satire, very well orchestrated, is about Hitler in person - if we can call him that - going back to the present times in the exact place where the bunker where he was said to be dead. Inserting a short man with a short mustache, hair licked from the side and military uniform from Germany in the 1940s playing Führer himself in offices and on YouTube channels in the modern world, the comicisms for the time deviation just couldn't be greater than the criticisms that the unusual figure would attract and realize, being filmed in a mixture of scenarios set up for the script and a commentary tone with interviews on the streets today.
Without being disrespectful to those persecuted by the dictator and his nation of lunatic supporters, "He is back" presents a narrative ranging from a growing and comical black humor caused by the insults to Hitler to the reflections on what the insults and antics have done by themselves they were, and still are, capable of doing.
Not only impressed by the similar characterization and the great performance in the role of the German dictator by the actor Oliver Masucci, the film is able to surprise you with a progress that has been hinted at since the beginning of the story, taking the dictator to the same point that he would one day it arrived provoking and taking advantage of indoctrinated revolts and intolerance - exhibiting exactly the obvious that would happen if Hitler really came back to life.
"You talk like him". In parallel with what happened to Hitler in history, with the presentation of his appearance, his fame, his exile and his unfortunate triumphant return, the satirical work proves, unfortunately, that all the blind ideals that caused the darkest period in history modernism remain present and sympathizers hidden in the real world, just waiting for the speeches, stimuli and leadership that will lead them on the path of ignorance and indifference that soon turns into protests, uniformed marches, fanatical greetings and violence against other human beings who they are then lowered from that level, repeating history that should never have been repeated and never even happened.
It's scary how reality looks like a work of fiction.
Jojo Rabbit (2019)
One of the best and funniest self critic to nazi
An actor of Jewish descent playing Hitler in a film that he writes, produces and directs. Honestly, it couldn't be better!
Jojo Rabbit is not about the Nazi dictator, but about Jojo, a 10-year-old German boy who has the tyrant as an imaginary friend during the end of World War II. Jojo is another member of the Hitlerist Youth indoctrinated to praise blindly his country, his prejudices, his leader and the Reich, even in the decay of war. And it is with a lot of acid comedy and black humor that the work satirizes this, pointing out all the lunatic fanaticism that permeated the Nazis of that time - And of the present times.
With an excellent timing for the satirical strips, jokes and direct criticisms that flow in the speeches of the characters and in the montage of the scenes, with the right to mention the "Aryan" clones that the Nazis tried to produce and that needed to "go for a walk", the comedy Jojo Rabbit, based on a literary drama, treats the delicate subject of World War II terror with great care and comic mastery.
There is a fine line between what can be approached without disrespect to those attacked by the Holocaust and between apologies for that movement, and the film works on it in a very clever way - perhaps only seen before in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Bastards.
With the core of the narrative the young fanatic 10 years old who finds a Jewish girl being hidden by his mother in his own home, the film shows Jojo starting an internal debate, sympathy for the fugitive and, consequently, empathy and humanity for her . Jojo's progress in putting reason in the place of ideological fanaticism is a comic and striking statement against prejudice and growing discrimination in the present day since the horrors that happened in the 1940s.
The most delicate point when making a work of this type is the question of the appropriation of lives that could be insulted depending on its presentation. By focusing on the core of the boy and his imaginary Nazi friend, the only really appropriate life in Jojo Rabbit is that of Adolf Hitler himself who is recreated and debauched in a stubborn, clueless, cowardly and cartoonish version coming directly from a child's imagination. , in a very necessary way.
Featuring Nazis blind to common sense and the country's situation and believers only to what they didn't even see, the unreal caricatures of their enemies, the Jews, the film humorously emphasizes the Nazi prejudice and ignorance that he blamed, without no logic, to other peoples due to unusual situations that were actually caused by themselves, as in the case of a fat uncle, drunkard and gambler who only did what he did because he had been "hypnotized by the powers of the Jews".
With a production of realistic scenarios and a soundtrack from the 80's, this modern work that covers a fiction located in the 40's and with reflections in the current reality has the excellent performance of the young Roman Griffin Davis, who plays Jojo, of the world star Scarlett Johansson in the role of her zealous and spontaneous mother, and Taika Waititi who signs the work, gives paper and criticizes, for being exaggerated and ridiculous who Hitler was and how his ideas sounded.
What incredible irony! A film full of swastikas and intended to show their idiocy.
Eli (2019)
One good scary end among to many scary ends
A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who speaks lies shall perish. - Proverbs 19: 9. A phrase in a quick and unnoticed scene from the movie "Eli" which, when finalized, becomes very consistent with the course of the whole plot.
Eli is a movie divided between scenes of jump scares and suspicious innuendo that increases tension in a balanced yet striking way. With a main character suffering from a disease that affects his immune system giving him "allergies to the world" and whose parents are in an exhaustive search for treatments, the amount of scientific, psychological and religious subplots and variations applicable to this premise are diverse within of the horror genre and the movie itself.
What could be a failure in the development of the story is actually a very well-organized positive point in the production where subtle twists and turns that the film could take without being spoiled by its actual end chosen by the director.
The empathy and agony conveyed by the character's medical condition, well presented in Charlie Shotwell's acting, as well as his own terror experienced by the terrible figures he claims to see in the suspicious home where he performs his treatment, along with the coldness of the doctor played by Lili Taylor. , characteristic of the famous term "monster doctor" where science is so clear and superior to the needs of patients, form a sinister duality that is only increased and influenced by the suspense of Sadie Sink's own Stranger Things character, where we often wonder about the reality of his character in the world or just in the head of the sick boy, and the firm presence of his exhausted and conflicting parents who are incredulous about the macabre claims of his haunted son in the house where they are for treatment.
This whole ghostly scenario makes this psychological thriller with dozens of explanations take on a resolute form and with an ending perhaps even contemplated in one or two moments of the film, but surprising and well elaborated nonetheless. Eli is one of those films in which the plot twist can be considered very close to its end, but all the unfolding culminates in the balance between the increase of plots and suspensions and their filtering until the final moment arrives, taking away this terror. religion "from the category of" one more of those movies ".
Joker (2019)
Joker, a movie that makes you understand and even sympathize with the villain, and realize how wrong it is
It's funny how characters, real or fictional, that spread hate, terror and violence are canonized and idolized as heroic icons by society. Through the city streets we see people in T-shirts with the face of Pablo Escobar, a narcoterrorist who shot down a plane and detonated car bombs through the streets of Medellin while alive and on top of Colombia's drug trade. And in the movie "Joker", where we see hundreds of people forming angry clown-masked crowds to extol the same character responsible for committing murders in the fictional and chaotic city of Gotham, we can entertain ourselves and reflect on why, in a full way. of tension and applause for this amazing work of art which is the film directed by Todd Phillips.
The longest character in the movie, masterfully played by Joaquin Phoenix, is Arthur Fleck. Do not confuse it with the Joker who is played by the same actor! The character whose title the film is named is presented only at the end and is unlike anything Arthur Fleck does and represents over the course of the film in a slow and explanatory, but not boring and even justifiable construction, as the movie itself comes to. take over.
Although with constant presentations of the city's chaos and searches made by the character, there are no conflicting action scenes or big political lines that create the growing tension and mini-twists in the story. The focus of the work is the origin of her character, and she does it so perfectly that it is what motivates her stomach to wrap up after seeing her scenes. Arthur's suffering is so well announced and explored that in any scene where he can feel his release and have the least joy is captivating to those who watch him and empathize with him (additional applause for the bathroom dance scene, dancing on the stairs and the character being cheered by the criminal crowd in the burning city). The protagonist's pitying feeling is so well mounted by the script and the acting of the actor that it takes time to realize that his joy comes only from crimes and terrible acts of indefensible violence.
Arthur is a person with mental health problems and aware of it. She is such a desolate and indifferent person to society, and yet with all this, she must still pretend to be someone different from what she is, just for the world to keep up appearances of having a certain balance and equality.
It is embedded in a universe so dirty and painful that all good and sparkling parts of life are forgotten or repressed when they begin to be explored, making them overrated to a fantasy and unrealistic point when idealized, as in the delusions of the character.
It's one of the very interesting points of the movie that makes us reflect on the difference between "living" day by day with a "forced life" situation ("That's Life") and actually "enduring" these situations in a way that we no longer feel. negatively impacted by them. Arthur, like many of us in life, must live with their difficult situations and the situations of the outside world, which do not make them bearable anyway, as there is no other way out.
The ladder Arthur Fleck climbs day after day of personal trials and self-pity is not the same as the newly created Joker descends and dances fully built, graced and set free as a living and real character in the world in which Arthur was never sure whether existed.
His speeches and his planned and exhaustively rehearsed practices for society are not the same as the character can express naturally (and indifference) at the end of the narrative.
His attempts to make himself understandable and fair at the end of the fictional plot only reinforce how we as a real-world society sympathize with these imaginary characters, and therefore how we should discuss these subjects in observing real people who may share the same characteristics of character. People we pass disinterested almost every day walking the streets and do not understand how a different treatment can influence their minds that work in a unique way and can understand things in a biological and psychologically different way from others. Which makes them find the actions taken by the fantasy villain and real-world criminals justifiable.
All cinema art is part of an industry, which puts the movies we watch in two distinct categories. We have "film projects" and "artworks".
As a film project, we consider the product itself displayed on screen, the set of filmed scenes we see, entertain and can get on with our lives.
As an artworks, we have an artistic exhibition that can be explicitly ordered by our wishes as clients of a brand or then delivered by the artist as a critique or gift for the needs of society that will allow us to admire and understand in the political, social, ethical and moral context where we are currently dwelling. Joker does very well with his role in these two categories, as a great movie that we will have the pleasure of paying to see, and as the artwork that we will analyze artistically with a weight in the heart and a smile on the face. That's life!
Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018)
Discovering the man behind the king
Elvis Presley was declared and praised as "The King of Rock". Although extravagant in his own way, he humbly never accepted this title, even though it deserves many artistic, professional, and personal motives. This documentary is a beautiful and thorough investigation and narrative about the entire social, musical, and historical context in the US, in the world, if you find it before, during, and what it looked like after Elvis Presley and all his life. Elvis's success and the rise of many other artists are presented with many of his most memorable personal moments and how the people around him heard or made an influence. Your city, family, religion, your friends, your manager and artists of the time are very well connected to all the moments and decisions that lit or King to your first and stardom, always looking for a truth, good emotions and energies for others. who he wanted so much to convey joy to his music and movies.
Many racial issues are explained and narrated with respect to Elvis had his part, partly as "a piece on the table" and also as a voice and tribute to those who do not like to hear about this time.
In his striking but 42 years of life (if he died), Elvis starred in 31 films, recorded 784 songs and performed over 1600 concerts and concerts. While performing actions for more than one life, the King's final years are not as well explored in this documentary as other moments in his younger phase, nor are Elvis's latest close analyzes focused on narrative. His wife, Priscilla, is one of the main sources of personal details, and rightly so, although she may have several other Elvis phases after her alteration and affinity and relationships with others.
Elvis Presley: The Searcher doesn't come to such striking details as Elvis's repercussion after his departure, but he approaches a huge part of his life with dexterity and quality worthy of a king.
The Boys (2019)
Supers and selfish humans
"Superman exists, is an active in a billion dollar company, only defends the United States and is a sociopathic threat." It's a great storyline, even more so these days, Superheroes, big and universal heroes, magic and pop geek culture, Superheroes exist, and they have horrible behavior (not to say the other thing). Superheroes are all controlled by a company that makes its marketing, merchandising and business efforts to maintain and continue its success. The black, satirical and politically incorrect humor of all issues is already noticeable and of excellent quality in the series "The Boys". The path of the series begins to expand and well-meaning when intrigued is a problem that in part has a suspension and a policy of changing policy, social rights and actions, involving harassment, tragedy, war and often triggered and muffled. precisely by those who The Good Guys are a work that shows a total and realistic absence of Manichaeism in their universe. In the series "The Boys", it is not an alien with the Kansas-created superpower and its powers to use them when placed in benevolent and emergency situations, but also a completely scientific and marketing experiment. On the human side, he is so despised for his "higher self," as are all other "supers" and normal humans intent on exterminating - committing other crimes that they deem justifiable because of their personal tragedies. Corrective and other very wrong and violent thoughts and actions aimed at improving side identity and real-world intentions filled with such particular moments of selfish and caring decisions, and above all, the action of various levels of humor and unbridled sarcasm shows what a work of fiction could be a real world report.
Stranger Things (2016)
A third season that makes wish more, but also would be a golden finish
The children have grown up, this is quite obvious and even discussed explicitly in scenes from the play. Interests, ways of acting and interacting and the very relationship between the child nucleus (now adolescent) of the protagonists, all changed due to age. But not only the actors and their incredible abilities (additional claps to Millie Bobby Brown), but the plot also grew. The resurgence of the villain, the violence of his entity and his followers, as well as the nauseating way of recruiting them, and the level and maturity of the crimes unrolled. In this season we have the development of the old and new characters, the presentation of their positive and negative characteristics, their internal conflicts, external fights, and even some justifications and redemptions for their actions. This year we see more human and political crimes, many influenced by the mystical entity of the inverted world, but still developed by the human side. We find ourselves in the Cold War scene with antagonists interested in the events that occurred in Hawkins, although without so many explanations, which did not degrade the quality of the story. After all, the old Cold War conflict added to a parallel world filled with scientific novelties and secret passages ends up making the purpose a bit too obvious to be so approached.
The series this year also goes faster. There are not too many subframes, everything is well connected. And all the focus are well concentrated without pointing out superfluous details. However, the pace at which we were accustomed to seeing conflicts, and then the various reunions of the young protagonists in amicable and amusing meetings is altered and accelerated, by the very fact of the growth of all. The novel takes the place of some friendships, and some losses open up new spaces for a continued plot in a fourth season or not.
Speaking about entertainment and the market, of course we will see another season of Stranger Things, and that this may not focus so much on the frames that the previous ones have focused on the level of personal interactions and plots to fight not to be repetitive and always be able to say that " closed with a golden key. " And speaking about personal desires is clear that many also want a continuation, but I think we can all agree that if for any (impossible) reason the series ends now, satisfaction will be greater than anxiety or disappointment. Even after that post-credit scene.
The Society (2019)
A dystopian present in the eyes of youth
"The Society" is a somewhat unpretentious series that delivers a diversion with several and alternating tones of tension. We have fiction, suspense, romance, energetic sex and a frenzy of a group of young people so dependent, disinterested and also disconnected by the modernities and the media that end up giving few short but deep winks on serious matters. In this situation where all the young people of the city are left abandoned in a version of itself, with nothing of the common world around, there is not a great deepening in the scientific explanations or resolutions for the problem. Time and time again ideas about copying the city, natural disasters and even parallel universes appear, but this is not the focus, but the conflicts, thoughts, desires, and daily life of youth. Something super consistent with reality and perhaps one of the truest details in history. In this series we do not see adventurous protagonists, geniuses or politicians with projects, mechanisms and nor twists and miraculous discoveries for their questions, but a group of young people, each with its personality, belief and sexuality in discovery and formation, just leaving school and being thrown into a situation that would not be common even in an adult life. Thus showing the development that may be the most natural for someone in this bizarre situation, with good and various subplots, as well as in life itself in high school.
When They See Us (2019)
A true story about racism and a pinned to Donald Trump
"When They See Us" tells the actual case of a crime and a series of misfortunes that occurred in New York in the year 1989. Many events of the past demonstrate specific relation with problems of the present, but the work "Eyes that condemn" portrays with great intensity and racial, social and political issues that still remain in the world. The miniseries begins and ends with a focus on children accused and unjustly condemned for a terrible crime, which becomes more of a crime in itself, accompanying them in the midst of trials, persecutions and struggles for the claim of justice and truth even after their ease, trying to survive in a world they could not see grow and live. At the end of production, where we have the conclusion of the actual story in which the defendants unjustly have proven innocence, we do not see trials in judgments, lawyers, reporters and "trainees" knocking over lots of papers along with their glasses as we see in the twists of old films . The whole development of the miniseries focuses on the critical moments and routine of the accused and their families and their daily sacrifices and tortures. Shooting with impeccable quality, cast with incredible performance, editing and cuts that increase more and more the suspense, the will to watch, and the desire to see justice be done to discriminated children.
I would like to emphasize the performance of the actor Jharrel Jerome who, among all the children's cast, was the one who most exaggerated the youthful mannerisms, completely forgivable with the development, by the same actor, of the character until adulthood, going through dramas and trials in several prisons where the character was imprisoned.
The miniseries is an incredible and necessary production, documenting prejudices that have put real children in years of imprisonment, and pinning with much force the current president of the USA, Donald Trump, who had strong and odious participation in the real case.