Reviews

Surrealism is the movie equivalent of the storytelling of a first grader, the plot goes backwards forwards and changes as frequently as their freshly soiled underpants. The Phantom of Liberty was full of soiled underpants, with every sketch changing often enough to give a viewer a taste of a new story. Each story has a main character whom it follows, and we see as a side character from the previous scene. There is nothing wrong with this formula, in fact Monty Python had done it all the time. The real problem was that its attempts to be funny were just kind of lame. I laughed while watching that movie as many times as I have watching nearly an entire season of "That 70s Show." If you were as cynical and pessimistic as I am, then you are correct in guessing, maybe once. The movie doesn't really deserve a score either, because Surrealism is about as silly as it will get, and it really depends on tastes. Personally I don't look for themes in every detail, I just take it at face value.

The movie Time of The Gypsies follows a boy named Perhan through his life as he travels from one place to another, to make money for his family, but also grow into a man. The movie takes some time to introduce Perhan, but when you first meet him, the plot slowly stops orbiting him and begins to follow him, almost literally. The cinematography was excellent, and provided a lot of emotion that boiled out in scenes by itself. The movie also never really goes out of bounds from how unrealistic it is. Even though some scenes have a bit of magical realism in them, the scenes are never ostentatious. A good movie and definitely worth watching if you want to learn more about gypsy life.

The Other Conquest was decent, I didn't feel very immersed or moved by the movie. There were points where the movie moved very slowly and every now and then lost my attention. While the movie was not to my tastes, I really found the movie's making much more interesting, in the sense that it was constantly under surveillance of the Mexican authorities.

I admire the director for creating the movie under that kind of pressure, but I can't say much for the film itself. The cinematography was excellent however. Each shot was designed very well and lighting was very real, especially without filters.

What disappointed me the most about the plot, was really that the beginning made it seem like a very intense movie that you would assume would be like "Apocalypto," but Carrasco was looking for a much more realistic and actual approach to the "Other Conquest."