Change Your Image
Breyner
Reviews
Notting Hill (1999)
Opportunistic and harmless little film
"Notting Hill" is destined to be the hype of the year in Britain and, as usually, what you get is a lot less than all the hype made you expect. The attempt to cash in on "Four Weddings.." is really obvious, but at least the latter had some rhythm. In "Notting Hill", the storyline is just an excuse for yet another artificial joke. Another problem is that the image the fime wants to portray is so clean, that it ends up having no relation to the actual neighbourhood it tries to portray. A total waste of money, which should be compensated by all unwarned movie-goers.
Happiness (1998)
Happiness is an empty attempt to shock audiences
While I was watching Solond's film, I kept getting the feeling that something wasn't right in the way the story is told. The characters seem to be solid enough, the way they lives intertwine are credible, but the overall tone of irony and is totally inappropriate. It seems that Solondz is particularly worried in showing how witty and sarcastic he is and in maintaining is cult-status, rather than prove that he can also direct a film. If we take away the "shock-value" of the topics he deals with, there is nothing else in "Happiness" that can make it stand above other current American indies.
Longe da Vista (1998)
An interesting metaphoric work on solitude that lacks emotion
"Longe da Vista" is the story of an old Portuguese conman who writes letters to an American-Portuguese man pretending he's a woman. The film tells his story as he makes acquaintance with his new cellmate, who becomes his partner in the letters writing.
It is above all a story of solitude, multiple solitude. Everyone is lonely in this film: the prisioners, obviously, but also the main character's sister, the cellmate's girlfriend, her clients at the sex-line service, the American Portuguese and so on.
Joao Mario Grilo, a talented yet too rigid director, tries to link all these peoples' solitudes but the film fails to develop good characters (with the exception of the main character, a superb performance by Canto e Castro) and seems at times too attached to its metaphoric content.
Still, a pleasant film, from a director whose films, while never being masterpieces are always worth seeing.