gudaulin

Most adaptations of Shakespeare's plays suffer from excessive respect for the classics, and they carve marble and speak in flowery language. A  large group of viewers are convinced that this is the only correct way. Haprdáns is not for them. However, those who love irony, sarcasm, exaggeration, wordplay, and their meanings will appreciate it. Anyone with this kind of mindset will greatly enjoy Haprdáns as a crazy version of "Hamlet." I also feel that Vyskočil's version is much closer to what could actually have happened at the Danish court. Ivan Vyskočil, as a connoisseur of the human soul, stripped away pathos, romance, and noble ideals. Only the human foundation and the technology of power remained, which actually didn't change much over the centuries. Unlike the classical "Hamlet," Haprdáns gets by with the absolute minimum of corpses. What wins in politics and human history is usually considered the truth, and this time the winner needed very little. Overall impression: 85%.

A film of two completely different parts, although I don't mean that it is divided exactly in half. In the first roughly third, we watch a heavy social drama in the spirit of the best traditions of British film school, only for the film to increasingly clearly sail into the waters of Canadian production specializing in so-called stories based on real events in the following minutes. It is heavily average and the originally strong story becomes a banal anecdote about the miraculous success of an outsider. The ending is then framed with the most clichéd clichés, like when the hero bursts into the middle of a company meeting and confesses his love with a stuttering voice. Surely you have seen the same thing at least 20 times in various romantic comedies, but here it really hurts. Overall impression: 55%.

Undoubtedly an interesting film, but it has its limits due to the era it was made in, the governing political system, and its ideology. It's not just about the fact that in Jasný's film, the communists are portrayed as someone who is respected by the camp prisoners. That was actually true in reality. Their unity and (almost religious) faith made them significant players in the struggle for survival. The problem lies in the ideological and uncritical perspective. The past viewed through contemporary value filters inevitably distorts the image (which, by the way, applies to any era - including the present one). If the same film were made at the end of the 60s with necessary script adjustments, it would likely be an exceptional film. In the imaginary duel of two thematically and content-wise related films, the Slovak film The Boxer and Death confidently wins, even though only two years separate them, there is a deep gap between them in their artistic expression. Overall impression: 60%.

A Serious Man is not among the ambitious titles in the Coen brothers' work, nor does it impress and engulf you at first sight. However, it got under my skin, and from it emerged - I would say a pleasant spectacle, but that wouldn't be true because it is actually a tragicomedy in the purest sense of the word. It is the story of a man who wanted to live righteously and exemplary, but the more seriously he tried, the more blows he received from his surroundings and life itself. The stylish prologue, which goes back deep into the history of the Jewish diaspora, does not seem to relate to the rest of the film at first glance, and it confuses the viewer and brings uncertain tension into the film regarding where it is all heading. It is a small film, a typical indie film about an unlucky hero who easily evokes empathy in the audience - and to whom it does not matter at all. Overall impression: 90%.

Spike Lee gave up his steadfast commitment to the fate of the black community in the name of a higher purpose this time. His ambition was to capture the social atmosphere of New York in the 1970s against the backdrop of a series of murders being investigated. An era of liberal freedom of thought, disco music, sexual exploits, drugs, and increased crime. I feel like this time he was doing too many things at once, and a more focused narrative centered on one theme would have benefited the film, but at least I will remember Mira Sorvino's performance until Alzheimer's gets me. In a blonde wig and disco outfit, she looked incredibly provocatively sexy. Everything else is forgettable, although that doesn't mean it was poorly directed. Overall impression: 65%.

A psychological drama about dealing with guilt. What could have been just a teenage folly becomes a tragedy due to chance. There are different kinds of guilt and responsibility for the death of a child is among the greatest. The main character of the story, after years spent in prison, returns to freedom convinced that he has paid for his crime more than enough and it is high time to repress the matter from memory and make up for what can be done. But there is still the mother, for whom the wound is still fresh, and she wants an apology and full confession from the perpetrator. However, for the guilty, this means the necessity to fully admit guilt - and that is harder than spending time in punishment. The film is shot in the spirit of Dogme 95, with which I often have problems, but in the case of Troubled Water, Erik Poppe caught me in just the right mood, certainly also thanks to the power of the subject matter. The path to reconciliation here is neither cheap nor simple. Overall impression: 90%.

We will take exemplary care of you, and we will show you precisely how Swiss institutions function. Do you want a double portion of meat - you can have it. We will provide you with a psychologist, a personal consultant, and a whole team of specialists who are responsible for your well-being. Just keep one thing in mind. Sooner or later, we will send you voluntarily or involuntarily from our paradise to the unfriendly world from which you once came to us. You can disagree with it, you can even protest, but that's all you can do about it. Special Flight is a contribution to the current European debate on the influx of immigrants. It's solidly made, but quite monotonous and excessively long. It exhausts what it wants to communicate in half an hour, and with each passing minute, it repeats itself. Overall impression: 55%.

Killer Joe is known to me from the theater stage. My wife was somewhat disgusted by the performance, which obviously tried to appeal to a younger audience and was far from the classic form of bourgeois theater. Partying, intercourse, violence... basically not something for delicate souls. However, I appreciated the black sarcastic humor and I would rate the theatrical play highly. Tracy Letts delved into the life of American white poverty, which we know best in the stylized performance of the sitcom My Name is Earl. But here, it is significantly more raw and devoid of softening humor. No textbook characters, not much intelligence, and considerably down-to-earth motivations. On the stage, the play functioned as a completely cynical comedy, whereas William Friedkin shifted it more toward the position of a classic crime thriller, and I slightly dislike this shift. Matthew McConaughey functions more as a violent maniac and sexual deviant rather than a pragmatic provider of special services who increasingly demands payment for the work done. As for the casting and acting, I have no objections, but I would appreciate it much more if the film stuck to my original vision of Killer Joe as a dark comedy about very flawed people. Overall impression: 65%.

The protagonist of The Old Maid belongs to the large group of introverts who are exhausted by loud and numerous company and who value peace, stability, and safety above all. Miss Muriel hides her emotional vulnerability behind the mask of a cool and distant woman. She cannot express her rich inner world and her behavior is shy and reserved. Gabriel, on the other hand, represents the type of man we call an old bachelor. He loves his comfort and his rituals, and there is no indication that he wants to change the established functioning regime. However, a car malfunction forces the travelers to change their plans. After a few days when circumstances force these seemingly different characters to interact and communicate with each other, we now have enough for what we call love at second sight to emerge. The Old Maid is a rather inconspicuous, intimate film with a calm storytelling pace. We usually associate French romantic films with charm and elegance, but here they are replaced by cute clumsiness, misunderstandings, and bad luck. Instead of the carefree madness so popular in the romantic genre, the director here asserts distance and irony, enhanced by the civilian acting of both major stars of the French film screen. Overall impression: 75%.

It's been ages, but it feels like yesterday. I remember the feeling of tension and excitement at the premiere of Alien. I don't mean the usual scary or action scenes, but the feeling you get as if you were in a trance from encountering something that greatly exceeds the usual genre standards and newly defines the concept of quality in that genre. Since then, I've had similar feelings a few more times, but I could probably count them on one hand. After a long hiatus, I felt that chill again with Sicario. The soundtrack is one you won't forget. You feel like you're sitting on a payload of plastic explosives, where you can't see the timer, but you perceive the relentless ticking of passing seconds. At the back of your head, you have a barrel pressed against you, and the safety switch clicks off in silence. Superlatives can be used to describe the cinematography, wherein the camera quickly descends from beautiful panoramic shots of nature to the road, where the viewer becomes part of a nervously anticipating automobile convoy, waiting for a surprise attack. The editing combines details and entities interspersed with large panoramas. While watching, I constantly felt overwhelming pressure, like a champagne bottle's cork. The director creates tension by allowing the viewer, like his protagonist, to stumble in uncertainty and only providing information in necessary doses. Sicario is a raw, dirty, and morally ambiguous thriller that only superficially conforms to the usual formula of action films. Instead of noble ideals, personal scores are settled here, and cynicism dominates. As one of the anti-heroes says, if we can't get 20% of Americans to stop injecting, snorting, and swallowing drugs, drugs won't disappear, and our goal must be to maintain the simplest market structure. Interesting agreements can be made with one major supplier. The film shows the sad infinity of the struggle between repressive state forces, equipped with greater powers and budgets and effectively evading control, and organized crime on the other hand, which is not bound by any rules and becomes increasingly brutal. It is a world where the elimination of one criminal group leads to the strengthening of another. For me, this is so far the most powerful film experience of 2015, and I have only two criticisms: Neither side of the conflict embraces armed shootouts in long tunnels dug between Mexico and the United States. Professionals are well aware that bullets bouncing off rock can incredibly deviously change direction, often finding their own side as a target. And those two poor souls in the car full of drugs could hardly have expected the police to work their way to them during a minute-long shootout. Despite the above-mentioned criticisms, I wholeheartedly give it the highest rating. This is a film that hit me hard. Overall impression: 95%.