daniel-raboldt-990-502511 Reviews

The Mother the Son the Rat and the Gun (2021)

Tense and atmospheric

[4 February 2022]

A small, but really suspenseful thriller with some surprising twists. I liked the acting and the structure as well as the cinematography.

Good one!

Saw it at the Snowdance Festival in Germany in 2022. Could have used subtitles, though.

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Finally!

[26 December 2021]

The time has come...

We do not need stories anymore. We can simply fill three hours of movie time with characters and items from other films and the audience starts to drool over every face and inside joke we feed them with.

A Quiet Place Part II (2020)

A classic tv filler episode

[4 October 2021]

Characters go separately on random side plot missions, don't meet again? Has an open end? Makes a few not motivated time jumps? Classic The Walking Dead episode then, not a real movie. People still act stupid.

Dune (2021)

A gigantic and overwhelming but shallow experience

[27 September 2021]

First of all: Yes, you should watch that in a cinema. If you chose a stupid streaming device, you haven't seen the film.

This is by far the most impressive cinematic experience I have had in years. Every image, every sound screams at you "Look, how big I am."

The cast is extraordinary. Again, I fell in love with Rebecca Ferguson and Timothée Chalamet seems to be a perfect choice for the role of Paul Atreides.

Still, something important was missing. The movie feels like the adaptation by a very disciplined and diligent student, who writes the essay exactly as the teacher told him to but who'll never come up with one single original idea. The film is technically perfect in every aspect but feels like a soulless and shallow march from plotpoint to plotpoint.

Maybe I'm wrong. I'll have to watch it again. On a big screen again, of course. But even two days after I watched it for the first time, the feel of emptiness and superficiality won't go away.

Maybe Jodorowsky was right: This book cannot be properly adapted.

7500 (2019)

Claustrophobic thriller

[22 September 2021]

This real-time ride through the sky uses the most minimalistic approach to reach the maximum thrill. It starts to drag a bit in the end because there's not much for the remaining characters or the situation to go to and it's definitely not suited to heighten your mood but the directorial feature debut by Patrick Vollrath is still an extremely tense 90-minutes-thriller, thanks to the script and Joseph Gordon-Levitt who carries this whole film effortlessly.

Equinox (2020)

Brilliant acting and a compelling story

[24 February 2021]

Saw that film last year (2020) at the Max Ophüls film festival in Saarbrücken, Germany because of the amazing Sarah Hostettler and I really liked it.

The plot took a while before it started to really get to me to but the more the story unfolds the more intrigued you get. It's a small drama in a small world, but it pushes all the right buttons and works just perfectly for me.

The Man Who Laughs (1928)

Weirdest rom-com I've ever seen

[16 January 2021]

Seriously, I was expecting a horror or creepy mystery film like "Caligari". And in the beginning, it feels strange and weird like a nightmare. The scene in the snow with the corpses hanging from from the gallows is pure apocalyptic nightmare fuel.

But from the moment we see Conrad Veidt in full make-up and smiling himself into the hearts of two women, it becomes something else entirely. It's funny, a bit sad but alltogether a pretty simple love story.

Not a bad film for sure! What Veidt did to his face is scarier than all of the scenes together. I just expected something else.

Code 8 (2019)

Cool looking and surprisingly well told

[10 November 2020]

I supported that films years ago on Indiegogo and then almost forgot about it. When I bought the Blu-Ray I expected some schlocky scifi action flic with cool cgi but what I got was an actually very good story with some really serious subjects like social injustice and racism AND cool looking visual effects.

The film is basically a heist / gangster film with some scifi and fantasy elements added to it. You could easily take them out and still have a working film. I don't know whether this is a good thing, but I love scifi, so without magical powers and awesome looking robots, I probably wouldn't have watched it.

So: Well done, guys!

Final Voyage (2019)

Dark and claustrophobic Indie SciFi

[10 November 2020]

I watched that film at the Berlin SciFi Filmfestival. It was late at night, dark outside and the cinema was full of people.

I love films that take place in confined spaces and I love space movies. Two men, alone on a voyage through the emptiness of space. Please don't expect some dumb action flic, because this is so much better. It is a philosophical journey, it deals with life, expectations, greed, hope and it tells us a lot about ourselves, how we treat each other and how fast we can turn on each other. If you aren't into subjects like this, you shouldn't watch it. But if you love films that are not only entertaining but have something to say, then this is a movie for you!

I love films like this and I also love awesome spaceship interiors. The design and the models are amazing, and it's even more astounding when you learn, that this is a real independent movie and that they built all the models, the interiors and even the stars themselves, without using any cgi. I wish there were more films like this, that are made with passion and a true love for cinema!

Edit: Like all good films, this one gets better with every rewatch!

The Worst Thing (2019)

Devastating, honest and beautiful documentation

[11 August 2020]

I watched " The worst thing" in Germany at the Snowdance Independent Filmfestival and was immediately blown away by the honesty, the empathy and the questions it raises on themes like justice, revenge and facing your worst fears.

Desireena Almoradie chose a very personal and unobtrusive way to tell the story of Kathleen who decides to try to visit and speak to the murderers of her brother. Being very interested in the history of the German terrorists of the R.A.F. and questions about how people can become murderers, for me the film provided a very interesting perspective on the whole subject matter.

Kathleen who tried to go the hard way instead of the simple way of revenge, hate and counter-violence, which is always self-destructive, has my highest respect. So has Des, the wonderful filmmaker who accompanied her friend Kathleen on this journey into the heart of darkness.

Anne Dark (2017)

Highly imaginative fantasy short!

[21 May 2020]

This shortfilm feels more like a long trailer than a true shortfilm, but as a proof of concept it definitely works. The creatures they present here could've easily been taken from a Guillermo del Toro film. Truly amazing! I wish the filmmakers all the best and i hope that I will see more and bigger films by them on the big screen in the near future.

After We Leave (2019)

Intelligent and quiet scifi drama

[23 April 2020]

I watched this film at the Berlin SciFi film festival and enjoyed it pretty much! It's a slow paced drama, so don't watch it if your brain can't handle something more complicated than "Sharknado". I wish there were more scifi movies like this. Movies that make you think instead of giving you a headache. If something likes this bores you, then maybe you shouldn't watch dramas. Go watch your "Transformers" and "Avengers" crap. I can't believe, people are giving this film 1-star-reviews. No wonder we are getting punished with bull**it like "Rise of Skywalker" or "Star Trek Beyond".

Frieda: Coming Home (2020)

Dark and unsettling

[2 February 2020]

"Frieda - Coming Home" is an unsettling experience taking place in a beautiful but scary vacation lake house in the forests of Germany.

I saw it at the Snowdance Independent Film Festival in 2020 and I was amazed by the beautiful camera work and the slow pacing. The camera is floating through the empty rooms of the house following the two great actors while tension is growing faster and faster!

I liked it very much!