rsaavedra Reviews

Carmen & Lola (2018)

Poetic

[9/10 · 27 April 2024]

Two women fall in love within a culture/community that condemns lesbians. Said community is moreover itself discriminated as a whole: gitanos (gypsies) in Spain.

Found the execution of such thorny abstract not only realistic, also truly poetic. Specially the very last scenes, to the very last millisecond of footage. Both visually, and also sound-wise. Measured, exquisitely beautiful, flooring.

Some emotional reactions and storms, as well as very spontaneous, joyful moments, feel almost like parts of a documentary. They ended up captured quite naturally, non-pretentiously. Surprised to learn afterwards that the actors (at least some?) were non-professionals. Many other movies with professional actors do not approach the level this one does. Imho it gives you that sense of having just witnessed a true work of art.

Cowboy Bebop (2021)

Fun, but certainly took liberties

[7/10 · 20 August 2023]

Watched the full original anime, and wrote a review here on IMDB for it not too long ago, that was a 9/10 for me. This one, just a 7/10. Borrows characters and some plot pieces from the original, but boy it is not fully faithful to it. The anime hardcore fans will not like that.

Positives: acting-wise I liked most of all Jet, then Spike, Faye, Ana, then Julia. For Julia, her "I'm on Mars" song is truly gorgeous. Vicious for me here was almost funnier than scary though. His character adaptation however is clearly not the same calculating cold-blooded commanding killer he was in the anime. Rather an impulsive psycho brat.

Negatives: well, the adaptation itself. It is quite off from the original in some important points. There can be infinite ways to depart from any original, and the magnitude of the departures can also go different ways, so specific choices had to be made of course. But the ones they made leave me thinking there could have been quite some better options: either still departing possibly even more from the original, or with fewer departures, or remaining completely faithful.

Something I perceived and liked from the anime was a sort of recurrent blues atmosphere. Loss, longing, sadness, failures, mistakes, betrayals, resignation. This adaptation also has that, but as if toned down or rushed through in some cases.

Certain music pieces in the anime played with the images as if in a masterful and sublime artistic trance, lasting generously. Analogous scenes in this adaptation, however, even with slow motion for me seemed nowhere near as trance-like in comparison, not achieving the same level of "blues beauty," also typically ending too quickly. An example: the gorgeous children's choir a capella song.

Julia's song "I'm on Mars," and some aspects of the ending of this 1st season seem to try to reach those sublime "lows" of the blues vibes in the original. I wish they had continued with further seasons. Maybe they would have managed to match, or even surpass that down the road? Who knows.

Cowboy Bebop (1998–1999)

Shocked at Faye's child molestation

[9/10 · 14 April 2023]

Just finished watching this series for the first time, and also, just went through all the comments here, and was surprised to not see one mention of what shocked me the most. But first the positives:

This series has great music, good timing, and it's fun. It also has serious blues atmosphere some times, even some horror-like tension. The latter from what I'd say was my favorite episode (the 11th,) which brought to mind the movie Alien. Absolutely stunning tension there when watching it for the first time.

But now the shock. Episode 24. Faye is in her bedroom watching a video tape in the darkness, she recorded that video in her past youth, but she can't remember anything. Suddenly she realizes the wiz girl Edward (13 years old, and likely with some mental condition) is right there behind her, and has been watching silently over her shoulder. Faye (age 23, though chronologically 50+ additional years old) is upset and surprised, and asks whatever she is doing there. Ed is almost falling asleep, but before lying down she hints at the fact that she might know the place shown in the video. Faye goes berserk asking her about what she knows, but Edward goes unresponsive. Now Faye insists trying angrily to wake her up to get some answers, but seeing that Ed remains unresponsive, what does she do?... Out of the blue Faye assaults her and kisses her violently right there on the mouth (Dalai Lama to shame,) and then pins her down to her bed. The scene suggests most likely Faye simply proceeded to opportunistically take advantage of the situation and indeed raped her right then and there.

Honestly I could hardly believe it. Had to rewind Netflix and go over it again and again to see if I had gotten that wrong, but no. Faye's character out of the blue turned out to be a lesbian child molester/rapist. Evangelion also showed us child molestation between Misato (29 years old) and Shinji (14), so it's not something new in anime. But on Misato's defense, Shinji was not asleep/unresponsive when Misato kissed him, and more importantly, Misato clearly never raped him violently or intended to, which is what Cowboy Bebop shows us Faye doing, to a girl with a mental condition, mind you. Clearly on a different level.

This scene has been out there in the public eye for more than 20 years now, in one of the most celebrated anime series of all time, and hardly anyone comments on this. Kind of gives food for thought. Do people witnessing scenes like this in real life possibly simply brush off the awkwardness of it, choose to ignore it, or to reinterpret it differently? The scene is followed by next day Faye flying her vehicle with Ed tied up to it, so adding quite a few other crimes to the list: endangerment, unlawful restraining...

Of course, this is a series about an unlawful world, where our protagonists are bounty hunters, and hitman targets themselves. So Faye's true nature just crowns the "refinement" of the series in some unexpected and not so subtle way. But still, it was shocking to watch, and also quite shocking not to find any comments about it.

Ed was looking for her father, yet her father (possibly also with some mental condition) even though had been looking for her in the past, out of the blue dumps her right then and there where she finally found him. Not surprisingly, and I tend to think possibly because of how Faye treated her, Ed decides to leave the team. Whether she will try to find her father or go somewhere else on Earth is not completely clear. It is quite a desolated scene to see her go with the dog, who also at the last moment made his final choice to stick to her instead of remaining on the ship. This for me was the true saddest moment in the series, not the actual ending.

All in all, definitely recommended. Planning to re-watch entirely.

Arcane (2021– )

New Masterpiece

[10/10 · 4 December 2021]

Mostly repeating here a blog post I wrote about it. Long story short: Arcane is a masterpiece in several fronts.

The fact that it is based on a video game is completely irrelevant. I for instance have never played the game, and this was a sort of prejudice for me before watching the series. If they expected me to know anything about it, or if the series was full of hidden hints only for those "in the know," it would make me really upset and spoil my enjoyment. Fortunately none of that ever happened. The story builds up and unfolds its own scope with no prerequisites.

No spoilers here. Believe it or not, the story fundamentally revolves around emotional trauma between sisters, to the point of reaching psychotic levels. The daughter-parent or parent figure relationships are just as important if not even more, because they play major roles in quite a number of characters including the main ones. The conflicts all those characters face within the social and political divides in their city, their struggles, the decisions they make, and most specially, how they show us their development. Following the good writing principle of "show, don't tell..." Oh boy, how beautifully do they show us...

If you don't cry easily at emotional, very real-feeling scenes, just because they are "animated," well there was the movie "Grave of the Fireflies" before. Now we have quite a few of the nine episodes in this Arcane Season 1 to challenge you. Interestingly, Arcane also has enchanting fireflies.

Powder/Jinx is so fascinatingly presented even in the simplest of moments. Curiously and specially, even while she is sitting; either busy on a chair, saying something grand, or apparently doing almost nothing sitting somewhere. Most other characters also have incredible levels of expressiveness in their faces and voices, both "villains" and "heroes," although categorizing some of Arcane's characters as either one ends up becoming quite blurry. The beauty of visual expressiveness goes beyond just the faces and into hands, as in the delicacy of movements in Jinx's hand releasing some of her deadly granades. As gory as it may sound, even some dead faces I think are masterfully done.

The fast-action animation, and the associated slow-mo takes, are simply amazing and breathtaking. Mind-blowing also comes to mind as quite an adequate description. "Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse", a recent mind-blowing animation masterpiece on its very own, came to my mind when watching some of Arcane's fast flashing scenes. But Arcane in my opinion has that extra and more refined icing on top, which are those incredible facial expressions. Even if I actually think they slouched a bit on those from Vi in the last episode (those reminded me a bit too much of Frozen's often cringy mouths.) But Powder's/Jinx's face and emotional baggage is altogether on another level though. So masterfully done, every nanosecond of it, visuals and voice. In fact maybe also Silco's, Ecco's, Mel's, Viktor's, the asian-looking guard's...

Again, no spoilers here, so don't worry, but for me there was another minor annoyance in the very final moments of the series. A weapon trajectory and target was (imho) pointlessly and unnecessarily shown in a confusing way. Something else not so great for me was the last song, "What could have been," crowning the ending, and carried by no less than Sting's voice. The lyrics of course make sense after such a loaded ending, but as much of a fan of Sting's voice as I am, the music and singing there honestly did not particularly click too much with me. I also forgive that, specially given Ramsey's gorgeous and haunting "Goodbye" song in the 3rd episode, plus the rest of the outstanding soundtrack.

I hesitated whether voting 9 or 10/10 for Arcane here on IMDB. But the visuals, the music, sound overall, the action, most specially the story, all the tension and struggle, the character development, how they show us what they go through on their faces, their mouths, those eyes, their voices... What they say, what they do, and how they show us what they do... My minor nitpicks could not stand against such an overall masterfully flooring spectacle. 10/10. This series is an audiovisual but specially an emotional roller coaster feast. A fluke of excellence. Masterpiece.

The Children's Hour (1961)

Court scene edited out from "Infam" (German DVD version of "Children's Hour")?

[8/10 · 18 December 2020]

Watched it from the red boxed DVD called "Infam", borrowed from the local library in Bonn, Germany. Noticed here online that the running time of the movie is supposed to be 1h 48 mins, but in this DVD it is only 104 minutes, so 1h 44 mins: four minutes apparently missing.

Also noticed among the photos for this movie here on IMDB that there is a pink poster photo seemingly showing a scene right in the courtroom. This scene is nowhere to be found at least on this DVD.

From the grandmother's house where MacClaine threatens her to sue, then the questioning of the girls takes place etc., after that the movie transitions directly to a scene showing the front of the school with a very unkept and messy garden, then the aunt showing up in a taxi, and only then in a dialog it is clear that this is weeks/months later, the case in court was already over, and that they had lost because the aunt never showed up as witness.

But reading the wikipedia entry for this movie, section "Reception", I read: "(...) they have not let us into the courtroom where the critical suit for slander was tried." So it seems the original movie itself did not include a court scene? But where is this pink poster photo here on IMDB from then?

I will try to rewatch the movie from some other sources. Hoping it wasn't a case of some censorship removing the scene. This sort of editing of former pieces of art that may be seen as inappropriate/uncomfortable now would be quite a shameful editing, just as if attempting to rewrite history.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997)

In my humble opinion, terrible storytelling

[5/10 · 26 September 2020]

Saw the movie Death and Rebirth decades ago and understood almost nothing, not having seen the Evangelion series before, and of course also not having read the manga.

Now I saw the entire series (on Netflix), then rewatched Death and Rebirth, and now finally watched End of Evangelion.

About Death and Rebirth, still I think it´s a movie that can't stand on its own, a complete mess of a collage. Complicating things can only get creative license so far. You just can't hide poor storytelling by making things look complex.

End of Evangelion, together with the entire series, granted, might have had a massive cultural and generational impact particularly on adolescents because of the sexual undertones, and several psychological matters which are very important in general for us all regardless of age: low self-steem, feelings of worthlessness, depression, bullying, selfishness, psychological abuse, suicidal thoughts, assuming responsibility for your decisions...

But just as stories themselves, with respect to plot, character development, explanation of events or loose threads, "inevitability," resolution, climax, ending... in my opinion are quite badly done all over; in fact terribly done. For me there is some sort of "overcomplication" characterizing the Neon Genesis Evangelion work as a whole, which just serves as a crutch for plain bad story telling. Quite some critically important things happen that are left simply unexplained. Overall, the whole series exudes disorganization and being a poorly told story (basically, similar impression that I originally got from Death and Rebirth, even though back then I was not familiar at all with the series.)

Just referring to the series and these two movie(s) here; not sure about the original manga on paper though, which I have not read.

Ghost in the Shell 2.0 (2008)

Terrible artistic choices

[3/10 · 16 August 2019]

This movie is a graphic disaster. A complete remake of the movie with the CGI approach at least would have been a sensible creative move, although in my opinion would still not hold a candle against the original. But remaking just parts of it, while alternating those with original parts???? Who the heck thought a fractional remake like that would have any infinitesimal degree of good? Not only that, they replaced precisely some of the most beautiful original scenes in the opening minutes. It's just so horrible. Unbelievably annoying as hell, a stylistic inconsistency galore, on top of what feels like an overt lazy rip-off/ plagiarism. Brings to mind the "retouching" done by a cleaning lady on that famous Ecce Homo fresco in Spain, completely ruining it. Ridiculous to think anyone seriously thought this GITS 2.0 would be worth it done this way, or would improve in any absurd way upon the beautiful and graphically consistent original (which is more consistent than the manga, in fact.) What an absolute disaster. I have not heard of any other case, but if there are any other examples like this fragmented remake in film history, I'm sure those must be similarly awful and unbearable, regardless of genre. This kind of movie mutant seriously ought to be outlawed.

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Unpredictable

[7/10 · 11 January 2019]

I´ll only say, this movie gets good points for sheer unpredictability. Not many movies can achieve this feat.

A Silent Voice: The Movie (2016)

Heartwrenching and heartbreaking

[9/10 · 18 May 2018]

Started with manga book #1 but after the first few pages got the impression it was going to be too much of just another young adult school love drama. So decided to go ahead with the movie: if I liked it, then I would read the series. Boy, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. To start with the only negative comment I have: this is by far and beyond the movie which includes the most apologies I have ever seen in any movie. Some times it's not really clear whether the characters have any reason to apologize, they just feel terrible about something that happened, they can't or couldn't have changed it, they clearly wish it had not happened, or some times they even are the victims... In any case, they apologize, and apologize, and apologize... Almost all of them apologize at some point or another throughout the movie. And these are not casual apologies, some are very formal and intense, Japanese style, long and expressive ones. And done with the negatives. I'm giving this movie 9/10 because even though the apologizing can feel suffocating at times, it's there because of rather serious circumstances which do pile up and call upon so many sorrys. Quite a nasty class of bullying is on the table. Also plain old meanness, unfairness, miscommunication, depression, isolation, low self esteem, fear, anxiety, love, loss, etc. etc. I found this light-looking young adult movie deeply heart wrenching and poignant. I'm not exactly a cry-baby, and second half of this movie I was pretty much in tears most of the time. From childhood till adulthood I grew up with a neighbor who was deaf-mute, that might be part of it. Also not sure if they used an actual deaf-mute actress for the German version but to me it sounded completely realistic and plausible the way a deaf-mute sounds like. Every time that character apologizes for anything, just to hear the way she pronounces "Tut mir leid" (sorry) is quite the heartbreaking experience for me, even if German is not my native language whatsoever. This movie was also imho quite original, visually speaking. Simply beautiful. After going through the unexpected emotional rollercoaster of watching it for the first time, only then I read about it and found out that both the movie and manga series have received several awards. In conclusion, and needless to say, very very highly recommended.

Oedipus Rex (1957)

Worth watching

[7/10 · 25 October 2009]

Read the book, then found this movie at the British Council and rented it. First thing: I found the movie's translation (by W. B. Yeats) much nicer than the translation I read. Second: I found the king's rage scene really wonderfully acted, even though that part in the book didn't suggest much dramatic climax to me (it was supposed to be just the king relating an exposition of antecedents.) That scene alone I think makes this movie worth watching, it is a very poetic sort of rendering of violence. The voice of the king overall is great. Several scenes really show great acting of the solemn kind. The details in the masks are truly worth watching as some others mentioned. Even the hair of the king (back of the mask) is quite a sculpture on its own. Also the long hands and nails, as well as the seer in white.

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Last 10 or so minutes shatter the potential this movie had

[7/10 · 10 March 2008]

Just watched this movie, which means, saw it after the Oscars had been awarded. But trust me, in this particular case I am completely comfortable saying that I am not biased at all by the Oscars. I am writing this review just amazed at how angry I felt when leaving the theater. I went there somewhat predisposed to witness a masterpiece. Well, loud and clear, for me this movie a masterpiece IT IS NOT!

I perfectly got the point in the title: some criminals are just way too sick for old wise men to handle. That doesn't mean the movie had to get disorganized and unnecessarily leave unresolved scenes near the end. Absolutely infuriating!! Haven't read the book, I wonder if the book has that same problem, or if it was a creative license by the Cohen brothers? They might have been awarded the Oscars, but boy, those guys can really mess up a really promising movie.

I give it 7 stars only because before those last 10 minutes it all had been built up as if it was a great movie.

Secuestro express (II) (2004)

Terrible resolutions (both video and plot-wise)

[6/10 · 17 August 2005]

The video quality in Secuestro Express is truly disappointing from the very beginning. The movie starts with blurry images of shanty towns in Caracas, I thought the blur was an intentional effect, and maybe perfect in-focus images were soon going to kick in, showing in sharp details the "ranchos and cerros", but nope... detail never arrived, the video quality was actually as bad as what I was thinking could be a blur special effect. Gave it the benefit of the doubt thinking it could be the theater's fault, but once again nope: letters in Twisted-Metal-Black evoking style started popping up on screen naming each character in the movie, and those letters were decently sharp and in focus. So it wasn't the theater but the film, no doubt. Thumbs down to extremely poor video quality.

Good points: acting of some of the bad guys, some of them were believably bad guys in some occasions, not in all occasions though. Overall cursing and foul language was also very realistic and spot-on. The girls acting was also good in some occasions, but not in all as well though. A nice aesthetic touch right before the nightmare, the song by Soledad Bravo in the drugstore was particularly beautiful.

Bad points: rich vs. poor philosophizing in the movie was extremely lame. Also, making the rich girl of a wealthy young couple in Caracas a generous and selfless/sacrificed voluntary nurse is pushing her character "just a bit", to say the least. To my surprise, acting of Ruben Blades was rather lame. Acting of the boyfriend I think was also extremely lame. Some of the unexpected twists in the movie seemed a little forced and extreme. That's completely subjective of course, just my impression. At the end, pervert cops nightmare possibility saved by a pseudo heroic act of one of the bad guys was also rather forced and imho lame, very unnecessary.

Grave of the Fireflies (1988)

The most beautiful elegy to all innocent victims of all wars

[10/10 · 26 November 2002]

A most unusual blend of beauty, and sadness, to display the cruel consequences of war. Slowly and steadily, as if in slow motion, we are slapped in the face with the miserable reality of the main characters, devastating and cruel reality, shown so simply and so powerfully from the very first to the very last second of the movie. Some parts literally smash your heart to sorrow. Graphically speaking the movie displays such a breathtaking look. Not just the sceneries and overall style, even minor details like the leaves and debris flying across the scenery in several shots truly resemble the paintings of Hokusai or Hiroshigue (which I happen to be very fond of). The artistic value of the visuals works perfectly in service of the powerful emotional substance explored in this movie, the combination is just perfect. There are several moments that I personally find truly poetic and most sublime in Grave of the fireflies. Forget whether you hate or enjoy war movies, or whether you like or dislike animated or manga movies. Grave of the Fireflies really stands far beyond any preconceptions you might have for these categories.

Die Another Day (2002)

Disappointing

[5/10 · 23 November 2002]

Pluses:

1) Madona's song at the beginning.

2) Halle Berry after coming out of the water, once she is walking on the sand, there she looks her best in the movie.

3) Ms. Frost, she looks so gorgeous near the end in the sword scene on the plane.

4) The Aston Martin.

Minuses:

1) Halle Berry before coming out of the water, when Bond spots her with the binocular she is jumping in the water in a rather goofy way, not so sexy. That scene gave me an impression as if the movie was a comedy.

2) Too long sword scene between the guys, and come on, this is not Crouching Tiger we are talking about, these guys are not that good with the swords to bore the audience for that long with it.

3) Too long car chase on the ice, also rather childish car weaponry duels.

4) Austin Powers made a good spoof of this, regardless it keeps happening: childish, and ridiculously, unnecessarily long and ineffective killing attempts by the bad guys, like the laser against Jinx.

5) A few not too good special effects: bond surfing with the yellow parachute near the end clearly looks like the video of him cut & pasted on the video of the giant wave. Also the red and yellow sports cars right when coming out from the back of the blazing big plane, they look quite badly edited. After the cars had fallen (this is more of a blunder), the red Ferrari ended up just neatly nailed in a swampy area, with no shape alteration of the middle and back of the car structure, even though it had just fallen from miles high.

6) Too long movie overall.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (1997)

Not for neophytes

[5/10 · 30 September 2002]

I think this movie is too fragmented and interrupted for someone who (like me) is a complete neophyte to the Evangelion TV series. It seems to be an ambitious summary, made by cutting/pasting small and sparse fragments of relevant chapters or events of the long series into the much more limited movie time frame. I haven't seen the series but judging from the movie alone it is way too fragmented and over-compressed. It gave me an impression of too many omissions of important developments, and I found it somewhat frustrating to try to follow. Obviously the makers assumed the viewers would know some things about Evangelion that I didn't know at all. Some examples of the weak points I found: at some times the movie suddenly starts explaining (e.g. resolving) some issues as if it was perfectly clear to the viewer that those were pending issues in the plot, when I didn't even had a clue about the existence of those issues in the movie. Also some characters are just shown in one scene, and in the next their true nature is suddenly revealed, with no development in between. On the good side, I was particularly impressed with the musical fragments in the movie, absolutely beautiful, particularly the Bach one. If I ever have the opportunity I'll try to watch the first chapters of the series to get into it, instead of (or before) trying to follow this movie. I would recommend the same to anyone that is not initiated in the series.