gaylord509 Reviews

Lust (2017)

A decent "rape-revenge", but hardly a horror film.

[6/10 · 22 April 2017]

**CONTAINS ONLY MINOR SPOILERS that don't reveal anything vital**

I love rape-revenge movies. I loved "I Spit On Your Grave" (the original), I loved "Ms. 45" and, also worth mentioning as a rape-revenge albeit entirely different from the typical example of the genre: "Irreversible".

"Lust" succeeds at the rape-revenge elements, but fails at being scary. This would have been entirely fine had the film striven to be a pure rape-revenge (s)exploitation; but, rather, it tries to be both a horror and an exploitation, and ends up being what I would refer to as a headless chicken.

The first part of "Lust" is highly mediocre. There are a few jump-scares as we are introduced to Lisa's troubled existence of pills and alcohol. I won't say too much about the plot here, but yes: she has been raped in the past and is now suffering from PTSD and delusions.

The second part, however, is more promising. In certain moments there is even true eeriness present, a rawness I haven't seen in any Norwegian film to date. But this drowns rather quickly in what I feel is the attempt to sustain a horror feel. Eskeland should have made the film a pure rape-revenge, focusing on the more traumatic aspects of the actual rape and on the subsequent revenge, as opposed to focusing on classic horror tension building. The scene where Lisa vomits in the shower after trying to masturbate and get back a healthy association to sex, is a nice touch I would have liked to see more of instead of her screaming in the mirror and attempting suicide and so on.

The film would do nicely with an extra rape scene of some length and a whole second act as the revenge part.

Overall "Lust" is worth watching for fans of the genre. Eskeland deserves respect for having the balls to go that extra mile with the violence compared to other Norwegian films (and to not make it completely tacky in the process). But the extreme revenge scenes, that make up the core of rape-revenge films, were far too few and brief.

"Lust" is a great effort. Hopefully this will pave the way for a true Norwegian "tour de force" at some point down the road.

6/10

Trainwreck (2015)

Terrible, tries too hard to make cheap gender-points.

[2/10 · 29 July 2016]

Let me first say that this film had potential. Both Amy Schumer and Bill Hader plays well. The problem is the script; the film tries way too hard to make points on the fact that there are women out there who do not behave typically lady-like, and who behave more like a stereotypical male.

Schumers character is promiscuous, Hader's character is the more emotional one of the two, and Schumers first almost-boyfriend, a bodybuilder, is portrayed as soft and emotional in the presence of the less emotionally available Amy.

If done right, this could be a nice film where those points would come across, but it would have to be much more subtle to be convincing. In "Trainwreck" the gender juxtapositioning mentioned above unfortunately gets more annoying than anything else due to lack of subtlety.

2/10

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

Way to butcher a classic!

[1/10 · 23 July 2016]

What an absolutely abhorrent, abysmal, distasteful piece of crap this was. Way to butcher a classic! The original has everything this movie doesn't; and this movie lacks everything the original had; wit, personality, charm, a fun concept that in that magical way some movies just ... work, worked ...

When Bill Murray flirted with Weaver in the original, and behaved just within the lines of what some may see as sexism, the ludicrous attempt to "counter" from a female viewpoint in this remake was just pathetic and outright man-hating, bashful.

I sincerely hope the studio loses money on this film. That small shred of respect I had left for Melissa McCarthy (loved her in Spy) and Paul Feig (again, I loved Spy), just went RIGHT out the window.

Stay away from this man-hating piece of crap.

Life in a Fishbowl (2014)

A great piece of Icelandic (social) realism.

[9/10 · 29 September 2014]

Vonarstræti is a great film.

It tells the stories of ordinary people in Iceland during the - I think - buildup of the country's financial crisis in 2008.

Many things separate Vonarstræti from similar films; but above all is perhaps Baldvin Zophoníasson's ability to avoid revealing too much; he never underestimates his audience.

And the stories are simple. The storytelling is simple. The dialogue is real, the performances heartfelt. Hera Hilmar is particularly great, so is the dynamic between her character Eik and Móri, the plagued, yet peaking writer.

Adding to this is the fact that nothing we see on screen is unnecessary to the development of the story. The story is also constantly developing in its own way.

The cinematography is simple and "just there". Nothing fancy here - just like the stories. This simplicity is not just great for realism, it is almost a prerequisite.

On the other hand, it can be argued that the film has its flaws. They include over dramatization of certain scenes, and a potentially bad plot choice (potentially because it's subjective - you be the judge). But even this never goes overboard.

Vonarstræti is overall a great piece of Icelandic social realism. One star deducted for minor flaws, considering that the 10/10 should be reserved for very special cases.

9/10