andrealeonti Reviews

Cold Ground (2017)

An enjoyable indie movie

[7/10 · 10 June 2020]

If you're into indie movie and if you can give a look to low budget indipendent movies, give Cold Ground a try. Even if with some flaws, Cold Ground is a pretty well built movie which can set up some tension.

I can guarantee that it's more genuine than many mainstream horror or mockumentary.

If you can keep in mind its "indie-ness", you'll enjoy Cold Ground!

It Chapter Two (2019)

'IT' is a really bad movie.

[4/10 · 13 September 2019]

Among the most anticipated films by the "mass" public in the world of cinema there was certainly IT - Chapter II, the final segment of the reinterpretation of the homonymous masterpiece by Stephen King by the Argentine director Andrés "Andy" Muschietti.

Let's start from the assumption that those who have read (like me) and loved King's novel live seraphic with the knowledge that we will never see on screen anything that can even get near the famous novel: it's true, this often happens for every film transposition originated from bestsellers, but for IT it's an even more affirmed discourse, given the complexity and the bulk of the work, but (above all) given the presence of much more devastating scenes than any sequence proposed in the derivative cinematographic works.

Starting, instead, from the end, if a horror movie (or presumed one) gets to make you laugh and get you out of the room indifferent and not "disturbed" there is something wrong with it.

And in fact, to say it all, in IT 2 there are many things that are not good at all.

Muschietti sins of excessive complacency towards himself and makes a film on the edge of ridicule: I cannot decide where to start from, and trust me it's difficult because in this film there are too many things that are wrong, so much banal and unlikely to arouse laughter among the public. The technical and directorial execution is not disputable (and God forbid, with all that budget) but Muschietti's direction has no soul. Blanda, insipid and austere: in almost three hours of film (THREE HOURS) there is not a single sequence, a single machine pass, a single roundup or shot that makes you awaken, now from torpor, now from laughter, and arouse in you attention or particular appreciation for the cinematographic "eye" by which the director has decided to tell his story.

Here, another problem, the story: Muschiett's IT does not convey the minimum of malice or ruthlessness that transpires, instead, from the novel, it's rather a psychopathic self-centered clown with personality disorders who enjoys becoming now an horny mummy who tries to make out with Eddie Kaspbrak, now a Pomeranian dog (yes!), and that enjoys, repeatedly and always according to the same reiterated scheme, to blow up helpless young children and turn them into blood-hydrants for pure personal quirk.

Third problem: SPECIAL EFFECTS. Here I really do not know where to start, a shameless and almost criminally liable use of CGI (which is however badly done). Thanks to the magical art of computer graphics, IT has lot of fun switching from one embarrassing creature (and to the limit of the comic) to another: first a mummy with a two meter tongue that begins to vomit on Eddie Kaspbrak on an improbable Dirty-Dancing-style music , then a nice old lady who after a few seconds of total paralysis (which would have made me run away as fast as I can) decides to bake some cookies for the poor Beverly Marsh completely naked (of course, right?). Stuff worthy of the best (or worst) comedies.

(Few) Strength points: good actorial play and a always hilarious Richie Tozier whose caustic humor always tears a smile (but will never make you laugh like IT becoming a pomeranian dog).

Big Love for the short but fantastic (especially for the "aficionados") cameo of the Master Stephen King, even if, if I had been in him, rather than making the appearance I would have sued Muschietti and the artistic crew, requesting the sentence to forced labor and the radiation from the world of cinema.

In conclusion: an embarrassing film, in the full sense of the word, a film that does not scare and that makes you laugh very much. Well, actually, the only thing this movie makes you want to do is to look for Muschietti and ask him to refund you your ticket.

Corpse Bride (2005)

A genuine masterpiece

[9/10 · 7 September 2019]

When I saw this movie for the first time I was around 7-8 years old and I immediately fell in love with it. I recently watched this again with my young cousin and I found myself moved several times during this movie.

The delicacy with which Burton narrates a story that takes place between the world of the living and that of the dead is utterly sublime. First of all, what struck me a lot is that the living world is dark and grey, while the dead world is happy and colorful.

The film lives on a delicacy able to entertain and move, and that is difficult to describe in words. It is a film that should be seen at least once in a lifetime, and that lends itself to numerous reading plans: a child will perceive it differently from an adult, but in both cases it will remain a great film.

Ready Player One (2018)

A going-to-be classic

[8/10 · 29 August 2019]

Generally I don't like science fiction, but I loved Ready Player One, and here I'll explain why.

Ready Player one is a film that focuses its entire structure on the amazing visual power of the images that recreate a corrupt society, overwhelmed by a crisis of values, alienated and that finds its outlet only in virtual reality, in a parallel world where everyone can be what he wants, have the ambitions he has not in the real world, and pretend to be what is not.

With a visually spectacular and masterfully directed film, Spielberg weaves a clear warning that also shines well in front of the ruthless dynamism of the staging: in a post-apocalyptic future, the human society is totally absorbed by the virtual world: there are no ambitions , social and human relationships are almost non-existent. Every person lives his life entirely on OASIS: the more you play, the more powerful you become, but the more you play, the more you risk destroying yourself and even risk being sentenced to (virtual) forced labor in order to repay the debts you contracted playing .

Spielberg's warning is as actual and clear as ever: the contemporary world dominated by social media and virtual reality will eventually suck all of us into a vicious circle in which everyone will believe they are free, but no one will ever really be free: we will all be slaves of ourselves, slaves of screens and of false relationships that we will virtually undertake, where everyone can be everyone and anyone can pretend to be anyone.

On the narrative aspect, the shameless nostalgic quotationism of the pop culture of the 1980s is very interesting: Back to The Future, New Wave music, Duran Duran, The Shining and many others: an aspect that, in addition to entertain those whose hearts are left to those years, it's also a representation (and a veiled criticism) to modern society that lives on nostalgia and believes that it can perpetually alienate itself in the memory of a past period, apparently better (the eighties) of the social, cultural and human drama that overwhelms today's world.

Ready Player One is a magnificently direct, dynamic, highly entertaining film but also full of an absolutely undeniable moral: what you enjoy in this film can also induce you to think (and be frightened): what if in a close future wewould all end up in a world like Oasis?

Nothing is impossible but, considering our contemporary society, better make use of Hallyday's sentence:

"I know it sounds like a weird move, but people need to spend more time in the real world, because like Halliday said, reality is the only thing that's real."

The Nest (2019)

De Feo's "The Nest" may represent the rebirth of a long forgotten genre like the italian horror

[8/10 · 20 August 2019]

Let's be clear: horror is a genre that in Italy has been forgotten for about 20-25 years. After ancient glories and masterpieces signed by worldwide-acclaimed masters such as Argento, Fulci, Avati and Bava, horror cinema seems to have totally disappeared from national screens.

Roberto De Feo's "The Nest" is the breath of rebirth and resurrection of a long forgotten genre. The Nest is a horror that does not point to fear or disgust with particular visual artifices, but adheres to a more suspended, obscure and implicit line like Robert Eggers' "The Witch". Except for two or three visually more decisive and explicit sequences (placed however in a timely manner and not inopportune) it is a film that is based on dark atmospheres, on a sense of anguish and on a feeling that something strange is about to occur. It is a horror that also presents very delicate sequences, not trivial and well cohesive with the rest of the work. A fairly predictable end, however, if one takes into account the clues given here and there in the film and the narrative evolution of the story. An ending that presents nothing innovative, but well cohesive with the premise built by the film.

On a technical level, it presents a really beautiful and extremely accurate photography, moreover being a horror, and an Italian horror. From the directorial style it would be very plausible to believe that it is an Anglo-Saxon or American production. De Feo's direction is obscure, punctual, precise, elegant, enveloping but also sufficiently detached. Actorial evidence is positive on the whole, except for some high and low of some actors.

The Nest could be the rebirth of a new wave of Italian horror, and I sincerely hope that it is not a beacon of darkness destined, inexorably, to go out to make a long-forgotten genre return to oblivion.

7.5/10

Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

Jarmusch's brilliant and visionary Vampires Tale

[8/10 · 19 August 2019]

Without a doubt the best vampire film of the last thirty years. Jarmusch succeeds in representing in an excellent way a vision of the life of contemporary vampires. Dramatic, melancholic, post-industrial and post-punk. Extraordinary.

Without the aid of special effects of any kind, or liters of blood, Jarmusch manages to tell the dramatic story of two millennial vampires, who have passed through centuries of history and who now find themselves having to live as outcasts, segregated in the dark modernity of a distant world, empty, desert and almost alienated.

Only Lovers Left Alive is the perfect representation of how Vampires should be brought to the screen nowadays. The marvelous narrative blends with a spectacular, dark and decadent photograph, and with an extraordinary soundtrack, cohesive with the entire work.

Exciting, extraordinary. A film that touches the innermost strings of the human soul.

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus (2014)

Spike Lee's deconstruction of Vampyr Character

[7/10 · 19 August 2019]

Spike Lee's brilliant horror deconstruction. The director skillfully mixes horror cinematography with some of his antitheses, as in the use of an extremely realistic photography, and constantly lit up scenes.

The drama of Dr. Green's life teaches us that violence is inherent to man, necessary for his survival, but ultimately harmful and capable of killing ourselves. The themes dear to the director, such as the criticism of American society and of racism towards African Americans that is overturned in an wealthy African American character, who is both victim and executioner of his own destiny, remain topical.

Da Sweet Blood of Jesus it is certainly not a masterpiece, but a decidedly enjoyable film and that together with "Only Lovers Left Alive" by Jim Jarmusch offers a new, modern and contemporary vision of the cinematographically harassed figure of "vampire".

Incident in a Ghostland (2018)

Just brilliant.

[8/10 · 15 August 2019]

After the shocking Martyrs, Pascal Laugier takes us back to a new delirious nightmare.

Incident in a Ghostland is definitely the horror of the year, as well as one of the best and most solid horror films of the decade.

Laugier's direction here is aesthetically elevated, supported also by a wonderful photography. The perversion of showing violence, even if decidedly less intense and raw than in Martyrs, still stand in this film.

The construction of the tension is absolutely extraordinary: it grows in a short time and remains high throughout the whole film, until the very end.

Laugier once again manages to scare and create emotional distress both visually but also emotionally, thanks also to fantastic and plot.

A film capable of frightening, disturbing but also of moving.

Personally I consider it the most beautiful and complete horror film seen in the last 5-6 years.

Us (II) (2019)

An arthouse horror movie.

[8/10 · 15 August 2019]

Peele validates with this film his being one of the most interesting debut directors on the current scene.

If already in Get Out Peele had managed to blend horror, suspense with contemporary and complex social and political themes, with "Us" he manages to do it even better.

The social and political critique of the moral, ethical and political degeneration of the United States (and of the world in general) is here much clearer and more explicit.

To an excellent execution, he also adds some kind of experimentalism that refers to old-school horror cinematography: like some effective and amusing comic parenthesis that horror movies had long forgotten.

If it is true that horror cinema must be a tool of social criticism capable of frightening precisely by showing the degenerations of society or by creating frightening and destabilizing degenerations, "Us" is a horror in every aspect.

The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)

Egger's visionary old horror tale is a gem for the horror universe

[8/10 · 15 August 2019]

Eggers finally gives the universe of horror films a rare gem. An ancient gothic fairy tale, dark, ancient but not unprejudiced. With "The Witch" you don't expect a conventional horror that overflows with blood or jumpscares. The narrative rhythm is rather unconventional for a horror, but it is well suited to the universe that Eggers created and was able to draw and transmit with this film.

Riviera (2017–2020)

An enjoyable summer tv show

[7/10 · 30 July 2019]

Let's be clear: Rivera is not a masterpiece neither is what you would call "an art show". Thanks to a pretty envolving plot and a wonderful mise en place it's a show you can perfectly enjoy unpretentiously. Its strong point is certainly the photography and the breathtaking locations of the French Riviera, that unfolds between cover villas and luxury cars and yachts.

I define it a "summer" show because it's definetly one of those show you can enjoy in summer, when after lunch the weather it's too hot to do anything.