pmuchteros Reviews

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

The Fall of our lives

[9/10 · 25 March 2024]

Anatomy of a Fall, beyond a courtroom drama about a man's fatal fall and whether it is an accident, suicide or crime, is essentially the anatomy, the analysis of all kinds of falls in our lives. The decline of human relationships, marriages, parent-child contact, but above all the decline of our self-esteem. For me this is the core of this thematic fruit, masterfully served to us by Justine Triet and which, although it lasts 150 minutes, does not leave you a moment to say that you are bored. Of course, we see that the truth has many aspects in every event and that we should not draw conclusions before all opinions have been heard, especially in cases that have mainly speculations rather than tangible evidence. I would of course also add the chilling acting of the family's young son, who in a sense symbolises "blind" justice, being blind himself in this role and the only "eyewitness" to the event (ancient Greek tragic irony at its best). In addition to the Oscars, the film mainly wins the Palme d'Or, which it won at Cannes, and that's because European cinema is booming in it. Without fanfare about the secondary, the work here has its main theme and deals with it from the first shot to the last. People here fall all the time and not just from balconies. They fall into the eyes of others, into their own eyes in particular. And it doesn't matter at all whether they are innocent or guilty about it. It can be both together or none of these! This is where the wounds that follow us like bruises on the skin count, even if every time we fall, we manage to get back up.

Poor Things (2023)

Manifestation of life

[9/10 · 6 January 2024]

I was wary before the screening. That I might see lingering shots and otherworldly meanings. Nothing prepared me for all my obsessive boxes to be humiliated like this. Because in the end, this is exactly what the film does from the first to the last second. It exposes you as a viewer along with all the rules that have been sewn into your brain since you were a baby until now that you've grown up. Rules of all kinds, intensities and gradations, rules about how to talk, how to make love, how to experience your human nature, your relationships, your contact with other people and the different sexes, how you will eat, how you will dominate others to feel that you control everything and that you are successful with lots and lots of money and acclaim. In a crescendo that doesn't let you get bored for a single moment or even take a breath, the story of a heroine who discovers herself and is reborn from the beginning and discovers through an evolutionary atavism that humans are constantly oppressing all our pleasures for the sake of an insolent propriety that is finally ridiculous in the face of its already terrible seriousness. Lanthimos set out to mess with humanity itself, that is, with alternating vivid colors, traveling through mental landscapes of an insatiable hyperrealism, with dance, endless sex, blood and wide-angle shots from the lens of a keyhole, he actually manages to make us feel that we voyeurize our own lives. The one that we suffocated with so much psychoanalysis, that we explained it technocratically, we cut it into infinite pieces of control, in order to understand everything and leave nothing to experience and primary pleasure because we can be considered "primitive" and that we do not know how to rein in the our wild "instincts". I came out of the cinema almost giddy like when you give your first lasting kiss, like when you come from your first intense orgasm, like when you come down after an adrenaline-filled ride at the amusement park. And I'm still trying to recover from the unbridled beauty of this creation, which confirms that Art really can sum up millions of words in just a few shots. And the saying, which tells us that we should experience everything, not only the good but also the terror, the sadness and that only then we become complete entities, shone in me like a warm, penetrating light. As for the level that Lanthimos has now reached, I already have that characteristic feeling you feel when you are at the wedding of your childhood friend. You feel happy for him even though you know that you won't see him as often as before and that "others" will be happy for him. Lanthimos is as Greek as he is not at all anymore. See it without prejudice, with eyes open and hands firmly grasped from the viewer's position. Life has begun. Again.

Ballad of a White Cow (2020)

Mesmerising

[9/10 · 14 May 2022]

Finally quality cinematography after a long time. Fortunately this is because of movies from countries like Iran where this gem comes from. 1 hour and 41 minutes with not a single boring second. It grips you from the beginning without letting you down until the end. A manifestation against death penalty, showing a very original aspect of the facts, so I cannot reveal anything otherwise I am gonna spoil the whole movie. After a while the whole plot points out brilliantly the connection between loss, justice, rules, forgiveness and punishment by people and God; the perfect confession to a crime which falls apart despite the strong evidence. In any case this movie is ideal for every judge and prosecutor out there, it's a very deep lesson to crisis above people for their actions. It also contains some very provoking parts from the Coran, some are quite chilling as this one: the meaning of our life lies at the consequences of our actions. Go and watch it.

Benedetta (2021)

A death metal cresendo

[9/10 · 27 November 2021]

Wow! What a heavy metal experience. Intensity, passion, colours, imagination, atmospheric images, movement, blood, red skies, candles, faith, lies, lust, even growls plus crosses and sex toys! I can already see the crowd of conservatives trying their best efforts in order to banish the movie from your local cinema, asking for Verhoeven's body on fire. Nevertheless the fact here is that Benedetta was actually a real person, a nun with horny desires about Christ and her lover, Bartholomea. So this is true history on film, although with lots of inspired fiction coming from a great director's mind. The sex scenes are very human, full of authentic tenderness and affection. Of course you can see the irony against Catholic Church and conservatism. Above all, you are in front of a continuous fight for women's rights with great angles of the glorious female body at almost all of its aspects. Femininity and lots of great photography with the medieval Tuscany as the main background. Coincidentally the movie becomes very modern in a way, by the time the plague of pestilence is being shown as it took place above Italy during those eras. Special mention has to be made for Daphne Patakia who delivers a delirium of acting, full of pure human love and care against all obstacles of fear and stereotypes. The comedy hint is also there, combining different movie references, such as The Exorcist, Jeanne d'Arc, Monty Python and -obviously- Blue Is The Warmest Colour. What a great and artistic variety, my Lord! Go and watch it, without any kind of prejudice against love or faith. Only then you'll clearly witness this pure artistic gem.

Corpus Christi (2019)

Jesus nowadays

[10/10 · 26 March 2020]

What an excellent piece of European cinema. Exceptional art from the beginning to the very last frame. Continuous messages against the hypocrites of this so called religious world; deep and authentic preaching through the lips of a criminal cutting every divine book in pieces. Amazing work of photography portraying images as a nowadays garden of Eden. Secrets and guilt amongst demonic humans who could terrify the devil himself. Superb acting like a literal punch in our stomachs. With influences from other cinematic gems as "Behind the Hills", "Jagten" and "Fight Club" I feel the need to kneel before the goddess of Art. Don't miss it. Especially the religious maniacs.

Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013)

A movie you can't forget

[10/10 · 5 November 2013]

Cinematic orgasm. Cinematic. Orgasm. Put the words together and separately, it does not matter actually. I was watching the film with a sense of bitten apricot in my mouth, so from time to time I kept checking if indeed something was dripping from my lips . In any case, you can feel all kinds of dripping in this garden of delight and from many different angles. A deep diving into puberty, into the raw desires of youth, above the thunderous victory of human need. Adele is the personification of youth, just in time when it begins to grown. That exact moment when the juices of love are instantly aggressive and the human body seems like a fruit with the heart as a kernel. When you are in the midst of immortality, gaining the illusion of eternity, just before the fruit is eaten, shortly before the kernel sits at your neck with the bitter taste of rejection, while you greedily swallow life, which seems so inexhaustible. I left my local cinema with the feeling of a hot lump in my throat and stomach. As a teenager in love and disappointed at the same time. And from that moment I keep seeing little hearts and stars everywhere. I keep seeing Adele everywhere.