I discovered the disco queen, Donna Summer, in the movie Spinning Gold. This extraordinary singer, whose American career was preceded by one in West Germany, has a story that practically wrote itself, requiring only the presentation of all its elements. As a child, she was bullied and bore a scar from barbed wire on…

Is this the same Sollima who did Sicario 2 and is an expert on European gangster movies? The beginning still looked promising, the protagonist is at a disgusting gay party full of drugs and alcohol, where he is tasked with filming a minister, blackmailed by the cops, only he fails to complete the task and goes on the…

I just got through the highest rated Korean series of last year (8.3 IMDB) and it's another quality Korean ride full of violence, great actors, a packed story, emotions and twists. Honestly I'm not a fan 12-episode series, too long for my taste, I prefer 8 episodes but when it's a Korean gangster series you can take…

Fifty Shades of Grey, but done a bit differently. Director Sam Taylor-Johnson and screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh could have used Amy Winehouse’s story to construct an emotional drama about fame, addiction, voyeurism and the excessive demands placed on how famous women are supposed to behave and look (mainly decently).…

I haven't seen a worse film this year that's for sure, so there's no point in commenting on the film at all, rather I'll comment on the making of it as it might have been. A little girl is unhappy that her father spends his time in a dingy lonely house for a few rupees rather than spend time with her, so she sells his…

I haven't read Fitzgerald's book, so I went to the cinema full of anticipation, and not just because Baz Luhrmann, whose (much reviled) Australia took my breath away, was in the director's chair. The Great Gatsby is an incredibly evocative orgy on the audiovisual front, and I enjoy these visually arresting and artful…

As far as documentary content and technical execution go, Giant Claw is on a pretty high level. But at times I was strongly irritated by Nigel Marven's "clever" observations and "acting". I don't want to damn this film here because of him, though, because my primary interest was to learn about the owner of that "giant…

Iris is a very (really very) moving story about a woman who, due to illness, begins to lose her own personality and the very essence of her life over time. The intertwining of the two timelines feels a bit chaotic at first, but this settles down over time and the end result feels good and purposeful. I found the more…

My second encounter with Star Trek (after the first film by Abrams) was again excellent. I went to the cinema for an experience, and I really enjoyed it, so I am exceedingly satisfied. Star Trek: Into Darkness is an incredibly fun audiovisual orgy with a perfect cast and script. Of the cast, I was of course most…

I really like Alfred Hitchcock as a director, so I definitely couldn't miss a biopic about him, and with such big names in the lead roles. Even though it didn't get any significant ovations, reviews, or awards, I still enjoyed it. Perhaps I was blinded by the cult surrounding Hitchcock, or my favorite Helen Mirren,…