Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
This is one of several festival wrap-ups we’ve got on the site today...
Hey, everyone! The Flu here!
IT’S FINALLY OVER!
After two weeks of nonstop moviegoing, the Rio Film Fest is finally over! I am about to collapse of fatigue. The last few days weren’t all that busy. I did manage to watch a couple of movies for the second time. Only the ones I really loved, like 24 Hour Party People, Das/The Experiment, Bowling For Columbine and Igby Goes Down. Those are definetly in the top 5, along with the new Metropolis, which only had one screening.
First up was Taking Sides, with Harvey Keitel, Stelans Skarsgard (or something like that...) and Moritz Bleibtreu. Now, this movie was a surprise. There are some beautiful moments of acting here, specially from Skarsgard. But the plot didn’t really manage to catch my complete attention: Keitel and Bleibtreu are investigating a famous musician, played by Skarsgard, a possible ex-member of the nazi party. And that’s about it, through the entire movie. It does have a major political message, and it was interesting to see Keitel’s character equalling in intolerance with the nazis themselves, as he simply wouldn’t listen to any of Skarsgard’s character’s explanations and labeled him with no mercy at all. It’s an interesting movie, which definetly has something to say
Next up was Spider. I heard everything I could hear about this movie. Many different opinions. So I didn’t really know what to expect, although I had great hopes for it. It didn’t exactly reach my expectations, but I still thought this was a great movie. The way Cronemberg showed the psychosis of Spider was just brilliant, not to say completely believable. And I just have to take a minute here to praise mister Ralph Fiennes. His portrayal of the troubled Spider Cleg is, to say the least, memorable. I’ve always loved his work, but Fiennes has topped himself. I think I could appreciate Spider a bit more if I just didn’t expect too much of it.
Then, I went to the last movie of this festival. Finally. And it, after Igby Goes Down, it was the one I was most looking forward to. And I have to say... After Wintersleepers, Run Lola Run and The Princess And The Warrior, this is something new to Tom Tykwer: a low point. Maybe it’s Franka Potente that was missing in the movie. But something was not right there. But the movie is not a total disaster. The first half of the movie and the very last sequence were great, but it just wasn’t enough for a director like Tykwer. He’s one of my favorite moviemakers nowadays, and I was really disappointed. By the way, I’m sorry if it’s just sounding too shallow of a review, it’s just that I haven’t had the time to digest the movie, and I’m REALLY, REALLY tired, so just bare with me.
So this is it. By now I have no intentions of going to a movie theater in the recent present. No more movies at all for me for months.
So, I hoped a few of you liked the reports and, well... See you next year, I guess!
The Flu, gone for A LONG TIME.
Thanks, man, and enjoy the rest and relaxation...
"Moriarty" out.
