Remedy

A journalistic obsession with the "scoop", ancient sins of the past, and a noble parental motive at the forefront of it all, which is the key and perhaps a seeming panacea. The film also operates well on the level of the clash of the generations, where LaBeouf's character can learn something "about life" from Redford's, and indeed vice versa. As a result, it's much more of a sort of slightly meditative crime drama that isn't thriller-esque and contains essentially no action scenes. Except that Robert Redford pulls it all off and has a cast of actors for whom, with one exception, I have almost boundless respect. [75%]

Far more interesting than the figure skating itself here is the portrayal of Tonya's struggle with public opinion and her pathetic effort to improve her visual self-presentation on the ice. Whereas her toxic yet rather ambiguous relationship with both her mother and her own husband is a chapter unto itself. It can't go without notice that Margot Robbie has notably porked up and "gotten ugly" for this role so her performance as an American hillbilly can be properly authentic. When you think of Margot Robbie in any other film, the contrast between her usual beauty and the unattractiveness she has here is almost adorable. Craig Gillespie has an exquisite flair for engagingly portraying key scenes, which is already evident in the opening on the ice, when a fuming mother in the middle of the rink pushes her four-year-old daughter "to teach her a lesson". The fact that the individual characters are portrayed rather contradictorily, and that you’re rooting for the film itself rather than the protagonist, moves the whole narrative into uncharted waters as far as autobiographical adaptations are concerned. [85%]

A dense American courtroom drama that, thanks to Matt Damon's appealingly idealistic character, sustains your hope for a happy ending until the finale. Coppola, thanks to his skill and the almost "pure" character of Rudy Baylor, manages to present the whole story in a palatable and humane way – considering the (im)palatable and inhuman practices taking place. The sideplot with Claire Danes is excellent and fully rounds out Rudy's character, which runs like a silken thread through the entire film. The final urgency and gradation of the trial is impressive, but "only" nips at the heels of the strongest genre representatives (A Time to Kill and Philadelphia). [85%]

Visually completely mannerist and brief testosterone ride that is so stupidly entertaining as to be utterly irresistible. It's certainly not high art, and there are perhaps too many slow-motion moments at times, but on the other hand this is (from my perspective) Zack Snyder's early and peak period, when he delivered three hugely interesting films to audiences within five years. This "hat trick" sort of firmly defined his future visual style, which he then perfected in Watchmen – his subsequent work is unfortunately already heavily decadent (with the minor exception of Man of Steel). [85%]

Robert Eggers finally leaves the arthouse waters behind with The Northman, serving up solid carnage with a near-hundred-million-dollar budget and top-notch Hollywood stars. The sound design is breathtaking, especially in the first half, and the period atmosphere gives the right bleak impression. Although The Northman is by far the most accessible and watchable of all Eggers films, I have slightly conflicted feelings about it. Both the previous The Witch and The Lighthouse were brimming with an almost neurotic creative trademark and represented quite interesting and innovative works in the field of art films. There's no doubt that The Northman looks nice, and all those booming sounds are quite impressive in the cinema, but narratively it's basically a generic story that is (thankfully) saved by the still strong formal signature of its creator. A weaker 4 stars. [70%]

A decent post-COVID variation on Caruso's Disturbia in the online world which is basically unremarkable in formal terms. At the same time, however, I couldn't shake the feeling from the second half onwards that Steven Soderbergh had either genuinely lost his earlier strong auteur signature or was directly required to do so in this case. David Koepp and Cliff Martinez are also basically icons in their respective fields, yet the whole thing comes across as sterile without any glimmer of invention or originality. Good consumable material for streaming (if you compare it to any recent "Netflix original", maybe more than good), I just would have expected more from a lineup like this. [60%]

This one hurt. I really didn't think I'd still be fondly remembering last year's routine and sterile Jungle Cruise, because this was truly LOST on all fronts. I'm aware that Channing Tatum and Daniel Radcliffe are deliberately overacting in their roles, but why on earth isn't it entertaining, even for a moment? If anyone is knocked on their ass over the filmmakers’ lack of invention with their reference to True Detective and Peaky Blinders (a "reference" in the form of the use of the opening title sequence), I sincerely feel sorry for them. At the same time, I don't rule out the possibility that someone might be genuinely taken with this by virtue of succeeding to decipher such sophisticated references. And it doesn't end there: there's an assload of such deeply "sophisticated" references, in the style of a young Jaroslav Slávik. An utterly awful cringefest in which Sandra Bullock wins once again the battle of her life against time and plastic surgery, Channing Tatum has leeches removed from his own ass (*SPOILER ALERT* NO, I'M JUST KIDDING!), and Daniel Radcliffe, with his fake-looking beard, tragicomically fires a revolver instead of the Avada Kedavra curse. And what was Brad Pitt supposed to do there? A funny interlude, a face for the poster, a continuation of the legacy of his Cliff Booth character? If this pays off in box receipts, them we're totally screwed as a society. A terrible streaming yawner with a foul stench in theaters that even the later "comedic" work of Adam Sandler to shame. The last time I walked out of a theater this pissed off was with Alien: Covenant. [20%]

A contrived stylistic exercise in the "erotic suspense thriller" genre that is severely far-fetched and probably unintentionally self-parodying right from the first few minutes. The sight of a naked Ana de Armas is a pleasure, which is also the only reason why I would recommend this film with gusto. A festival of screenwriting impotence and cluelessness. [25%]

A neurotic, idiosyncratic, ambitious, and above all, perfectly functional contribution to the Batman mythology from the unconventional Matt Reeves, who serves up a slight diversion from the mainstream under the aegis of a huge studio juggernaut. Naturally, it comes closest to Nolan's trilogy in its realism, but on top of that it adds a strong noir atmosphere (if I had to lean towards a genre, it's seriously a detective story more than anything else) and its "darkness" in terms of production is very reminiscent of Burton's second Batman. It's a bit of a black emo cocktail, in which the brilliantly rendered Batman character stands out the most, along with the slightly bizarre romance with Catwoman. Zoë Kravitz was a big surprise and ranks very respectably alongside Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway. Robert Pattinson is very emo as Bruce Wayne, but somehow I kept thinking all along that this was more by design than any fault of Matt Reeves. It's true that the contrast between Batman and Bruce Wayne is beating a dead horse at times, but I can't say that it bothered me particularly. And the Nirvana thing found a place in my heart since that first trailer. [80%]

A desperate attempt to update a cult classic, where I find it somewhat comforting that it could have turned out even worse. There's some pretty cool carnage in places, but the overall lack of imagination leaves you with the impression of a dull and uninventive copy of the original film, with only a casting change and the addition of cell phones. And the occasional tension of the atmosphere doesn't really save it, unfortunately. [50%]