Some things have certain smells that have the capacity to transport to a very specific place. Be it your mother’s cooking or the perfume of the one you shared your first kiss with, you can go to a specific memory and relive it over and over. How about the cinema? Can the smell of stale popcorn, artificial butter flavoring and dirty carpets take you some place? The same thing happens with sounds and music. Film scores have been part of cinema ever since sound was incorporated into the reel. Can you imagine Indiana Jones fighting Nazis without John Williams’ score in the background? Or Marty McFly riding his skateboard without Alan…
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G-S-T Review…’The Innocents’
In The Innocents, a group of children face something extraordinary about themselves. Something that in another film would be used for spectacle and wonder, and a more commercial agenda. In another film, those kids would be superheroes facing a vile monster threatening to exterminate us as a species. But The Innocents takes place in a Norwegian building complex that reeks of the mundane and limits associated with low-class families. The kids play in a sandy park that’s full of rust. Ida, a young girl, is sick of having to help her autistic sister Anna. Anna doesn’t speak. When Ida pinches her, she doesn’t cry for help. Ida simply watches as…
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G-S-T Review…’Jurassic World: Dominion’
It’s actually unfair of us to compare Jurassic World: Dominion (and the other parts of the dinosaur franchise revival) to what Steven Spielberg did back in 1993. It’s not that the director utilized a special effects frenzy to guarantee success. He actually made sure we believed dinosaurs were back. And then he terrified us when he made sure we believed they had been let loose. That’s a sense of wonder few films today have the ability to convey. Does that mean everything that would come after didn’t stand a chance? Up to a point, yes. He even experienced it himself with the The Lost World: Jurassic Park, but at least…
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G-S-T Review…’Top Gun: Maverick’
Top Gun: Maverick is a late arrival to the nostalgia-inducing game Hollywood has been playing for some years now. Deemed as “irresponsible” by Tom Cruise at some point of his life, the project was always clouded by the stance of making a new film about the characters, and not necessarily a sequel. Which is exactly what we got. Even with carbon-copied scenes. In all irony, Top Gun: Maverick is the very definition of a pure Top Gun sequel. However, it represents a concept development that feels complete above anything. It pushes for a character definition we didn’t know we needed, and its plot simply makes sense considering the first film…
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G-S-T Review…’Werewolves Within’
We need filmmakers like Josh Ruben. Not only because they actually make fine movies (we got tons of those), but because he bets on the distinct sides of an industry that heavily relies on formula. With only two feature films, he’s managed to convey an intelligent sense into genre filmmaking. With Scare Me he riskily set out to make a comedy film with horror touches. But in Werewolves Within the odds were definitely higher. Here is a film based on a video game, a horror comedy, and with a subgenre setting that’s far from popular or mainstream. The result is one of 2021’s best films. To filmmakers out there, pay attention. …
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Editorial: The Sacredness of Family Values in Netflix’s ‘Ozark’
5 years, 4 seasons, 44 episodes. And still some things remain left unsaid. In Ozark, a middle class family is forced to move to a remote place after a big secret is revealed. I won’t share much because some things are best if seen, but after 5 years of knowing the Byrdes, it’s hard to imagine if they had stuck together like they did, if their lives hadn’t been threatened at first. It’s not that they should welcome the horrible set of events. In a scene that’s on the season finale, the Byrdes survive a horrible accident without a scratch. This is an act of god. Note the lower case.…
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G-S-T Review…’Nobody’
Do this experiment: Remove Bob Odenkirk from Nobody. And try to see the film again without his presence. Is it actually a good film without its most prominent element? I believe it is, and this is how the film goes past its well-planned advertising campaign in which we simply saw a comedy actor in a role that wasn’t supposed to be his. Nobody is a surprise and not because it delivered an irreverent role. It’s a good film because its narrative works, the story is interesting enough, and it never stops to ask too much questions. It’s exactly what we look for in an action film. Nevertheless, of course Odenkirk…
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G-S-T Review…’The Water Man’
When it comes to films dealing with tragedy and loss, it’s not very hard to identify some blueprints that every piece of the plot follows. It seems Hollywood is set on showing a final moment, a grief stricken character that can’t let go, and the burning sensation of “it was all for nothing”. I’m sure not every film has to meet these rules, but it’s part of a general, manipulative trend. Death appears to sell. In The Water Man, we feel like we’re part of a known scheme. This is something that can clearly be identified in its first act. However, as the plot is unraveled we come to understand…
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G-S-T Review…’Minari’
It took me a while to begin writing Minari’s review. As entrapped as I was in its fine and safe depiction of a social setting, at first I wasn’t able to understand the force of its simplicity, the strength in its silent but provoking statement. Sometimes praising comes in strange ways. Forget about the awards and the social imperatives that continue to arise. This is a straightforward portrayal of a basic fact. However, the definite tone of the film is commendably welcoming. Even though we are dealing with drama, and typically, tragedy sets in in the genre, I remained with a smile from start to finish. And this is something…
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Off the Netflix Queue…’Mank’
Films like Mank are so incredibly rare nowadays, that people dissect them as strange specimens of something that went extinct decades ago. Its artistic rendering of a past era is magnificent, and trailers drove everyone wild at the expectation of reliving the golden era of Tinseltown. David Fincher makes Mank with the confidence he always holds. Netflix opens the wallet and lets him get away with making an improbable film about Hollywood. This is work of passion by one of today’s most important filmmakers, and it regards one of the most important films ever made. It’s not explosive, or luxurious as you would expect. It’s an honest rendition of a…
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Off the Shelf…’Scare Me’
Horror movies are supposed to be scary. They’re supposed to disturb you, shake you, and leave you scarred at least for a couple of minutes. That’s the whole goal of the genre, to take you to a primal position of fear in order to escape the mundane, often overwhelming reality. Comedies are similar in nature. They’re supposed to make you laugh so hard you can forget about the things that happened to you minutes ago. If they’re actually good, you will get new memories and you will laugh several hours after at the same stupid joke. Again, you escape. Now, what’s the deal with horror comedies? Think for a minute…
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G-S-T Review…’Rage’
Call it fear, or an unsettling feeling, but this is precisely what I generally get with genre films made in Australia. They hit a nerve with their ability to show violence in a brutal and realistic way, and it’s like filmmakers have no sense of limits when trying to portray a horrific situation. I don’t stay away from those films, but I’m not the same guy when credits roll. With Rage this was a surprise because I definitely did not expect the movie to go that way. It certainly doesn’t show it from the beginning when we feel like in an indie universe of performers trying to do their best.…
