Reviews by Rath

The biopic is essentially comparable to literary version of the biography. Everything depends on the interest, a priori, can awaken in the viewer / reader a peculiar kind, and of course, also by the sitter's personality. Therefore, it is a genre that, at first, has as many detractors as well as unconditional.

In the case of "The Devil and Daniel Johnston" I must admit that the second premise was not fulfilled, the character I woke up. After hearing so many positive comments about the movie I saw almost all of my expectations dashed. Not that the film lacks interest. Even the beginning of the film seems to presage the best when looking at home theater images that Johnston conducted in early youth. This is precisely where one appreciates the sensitivity and imaginative capacity of the sitter and their subsequent musical side. To my understanding, Daniel Johnston should have followed the path of filmmaking. His family are really funny parodies, acidic and very creative. Also deserve attention comics who performed at the time and loving obsession that reflected many of them by a girl he had idealized these are details that describe a hypersensitive personality and, therefore, very vulnerable.

From here, it's another movie. The action focuses on his mental crisis in the wake of attending a musical concert and have one or several bad experiences with psychotropic drugs which, together with its previous interest ends up bound to the world of indie music. In this regard, the only thing I see in the documentary are monotonous melodies while clubbing a piano or an arrhythmic scratch guitar.

It is fair to recognize that the only thing I know Johnston's musical work is through this movie, but what I heard, I didn't like much of anything. I think we took a wrong turn and that in his particular descent into hell (with that obsessive obfuscation by the figure of the devil) has much to do an oppressive religious education can be seen through their parents but it does not show the movie. At the end, the inner demons of the subconscious and eventually appear to embody the lyrics of their songs.

To avoid being too negative, I will add another option for lovers of the biopic, a title that makes extraordinary portrait of another author, also marginal in their own way, but I consider essential to the history of the comic and the counterculture Made in USA. I refer to "Crumb" (Terry Zwigoff, 1994).

Another curious incursion of James Whale in the world of fantasy and horror films, Boris Karloff repeating his favorite player, with whom he had already filmed "Frankenstein" as it strives to specify producer with a sign in the prologue ... "This is the same actor," he says.

"The Old Dark House" goes more or less, as do a lot of movies. Its onset is over how promising, with the typical situation of a winding road car during a night of great storm and whose occupants will find refuge in an isolated mansion in the middle of the dark forest. Whale dosing knows very well the dramatic aspect of the story, including various elements of comedy and relaxed and the mood of the verbiage in some of the "refugees" that are found in the dark house.

The particular history and presentation of both the owners and the guests of the house serves as a bridge to link a series of short stories and new relationships that work best when they have moments disturbing when, by force, adopt a tone of romance that breaks the structure and intentions of the story more accurate.

Both the environmental aspect in your grim and unsettling atmosphere, as the gloomy decor of each corner are very well made, despite arriving at certain times to appreciate its true characteristics of plasterboard. In this regard, the interaction between the exterior of the house with a storm of such magnitude that eventually lead to landslides, with the effects produced in their hearts, doors and windows are opened and closed by the action of the storm with subsequent entry of rain, long curtains windswept penetrating like ghosts through the corridors ... is an aspect to take into account in developing an atmosphere of pervasive nightmare that does not support escape and is one of the strengths of the movie.

In short, an entertaining story, which is welcome and that, despite the ups and downs arising from a referred romance that breaks your rhythm, you get to keep the interest up to the end and is one of the best examples of horror movies his time and a milestone in the path of the always peculiar and exquisite director James Whale.

This movie marks, together with the immediately following "Wendy and Lucy" (2008) samples intimate cinema's most recognizable feature of the american filmmaker Kelly Reichardt. Both movies share the same atmosphere of independent film, made ​​with lots of freedom but little means and gestural based almost anecdotal but always accompanied by an emotionally charged.

If in "Wendy & Lucy" the centerpiece was the relationship between a boy and his lost dog, "Old Joy" based this relationship on the reunion and wanderings of two friends who have followed very different life paths and decide to spend a weekend together in a rugged mountain.

Referring to the natural environment, it is true that comes to establish itself as third star of the narrative. The unquestionable beauty of the landscape is something that has often praised those who have referred to this movie, and not without reason. Something to value, coupled with a tight soundtrack ("Yo la tengo") that perfectly accompanies the images, and the exquisite silence of the dead time caused by the very lack of communication between two old friends whom time has left too much to share.

This is the first movie shot by Jesus Franco, one of the major authors of the film series B. It can be seen as the main characteristics of Spanish film director as it is a compendium of his most beloved subjects.

We arranged in tabular form, almost without transition or direct relationship between them, as if it were a comic book, from comedy drama wackiest intense tinged thriller. And all this only to demonstrate the multifaceted personality of its maker in terms of tastes and interests are concerned (Franco plays the piano up to the tracks) and a very bold approach to the film "gender" in a time when censorship caused havoc in film production in his country.

Also are reflected in "We Are 18 Years Old" various myths of the history of cinema as a form of homage. It is undeniable that, despite the script license and own blunders young beginner, the movie is a fresh comedy, endowed with a rabid color, which welcomes and sometimes reaches to shake the risks assumed from these young and full of illusions that show the main characters.

Documentary about the mysterious death of the writer and philosopher Walter Benjamin in the town of Port Bou (Girona, Spain), bordering with France, while trying to escape the Gestapo to be a renowned German Jewish intellectual.

The film makes a brief review of the last years of his life: the flight to Paris from his native country in 1933 with the Nazi rise and subsequent attempt to escape again to the USA in 1940 by Spain and Portugal a planned shipment when France became occupied by Hitler's troops.

The main body of the documentary is made up those last days of September 1940, when Benjamin reaches from Marseilles Port Bou by any one of many mountain passes as they existed at that time so to avoid the official border. The coastal town was the last to see alive the writer and also where would be buried. ¿Natural death or suicide? There is no certainty about it. Interviewed in the film are common people who speak "hearsay" or mouth of ancestors, not personally get to know the writer.

The circumstances of Benjamin's death remain a historical enigma but "Who Killed Walter Benjamin ..." is a document readable and well structured to make known to the forces and the daily reality of people in Port Bou on those dates, after the Spanish Civil War on the eve of WWII.

"Adam & Paul" is the first feature film by Leonard Abrahamson and narrates the wanderings of a couple of young polydrug dysfunctional and a little over a day.

The excellent performance of the late Tom Murphy immediately recalls the famous Stan Laurel and perhaps here the feeling that accompanies unsafe tragicomic steps of the couple.

At first the feeling that history can not give much, that soon will run out any possibility of surprise and everything will be, at most, a trivial story of outcasts. But here comes the greatest merit of its director, who manages to attract the viewer's interest quickly through a never forced the couple aroused sympathy of friends. Any kind of relationship with their environment ends up being catastrophic and tragicomic moments happen with a good dose of humor but not without sometimes of deep bitterness.

Abrahamson confirmed later in his next and final full movie premiered "Garage" (2007) interest in the universe of people with emotional problems. An even better film which re-emerges shaped relationship difficulties disaffected beings.

Based on a true story, Larry Peerce movie can be divided neatly into two sections. The first one serves as a presentation of a series of very different characters with their unique history in tow. The second part, more broadly, we show them again but now grouped in the same New York subway car.

In order not to reveal anything important to the plot, one can say that everything that happens in suburban development is more or less logical of different personal attitudes to a situation that is presumed to limit or at least, quite embarrassing. In this respect, it reminded me of "12 Angry Men" (Sidney Lumet, 1957) as the study of personalities and, if not deepen both the psychology of the characters, the drama of the action is equally or more virulent.

Is set to value the excellent work of his interpreters, when the movie lent itself to overacting, and good planning in the script and the painstaking work of directing actors by its maker.

"The Incident" is almost an island in the filmography of Peerce and almost certainly his best work.

"Gate of Flesh" is a portrait of postwar Japanese society, trying to survive among the still smoldering ashes of the devastated buildings. A group of prostitutes in the ruined lives inside one of them. The film focuses primarily on the special relationship between them and their self-imposed but inviolable code of rules.

Its director, Seijun Suzuki, boasts stunning aesthetics, staggering at times. Never mind that the sets of a ruined Tokyo are displayed in a motley mix of bright colors that exude cardboard, because what seems to be pursued is a forced sense of unreality. The fabulous presentation of the four major players in monochrome frames unreal, deserves special attention as it is a model of avant-garde comics. Their casual clothes are the fashion pop in full swing at the time of filming. The sequences in which pleasure and pain go hand in hand exude sensuality unprejudiced. Even the imagination of girls come alive in the form of delusional and very accurate overlays. In short, is a movie that breaks the mold due to the high modernism of the language used.

It is also appreciated to make a clean sweep with the history of imperial Japan lost the war. Having taken the defeat, Suzuki seems to pose a carefree and colorful view of the uncertain future of Japanese, in direct opposition to the usual pessimistic and black and white dramas that proliferated in the land of the rising sun after the Second World War.

Big bet for a film that surprises seen today think their carrying nearly 50 years ago! It will be very difficult for the time cause some kind of havoc on this movie ...

Transferred to cinema a short story by Jean Bruller, better known by his pseudonym Vercors. This story, like some others of the same author were published clandestinely during the German occupation of France in the Second World War.

The author's literary humanist vision is well captured and developed in the movie. The imposed coexistence of a German officer in the house of an old man and his niece on the outskirts of Paris, is the pretext for presenting a mosaic of suggestions ranging from anthropology to study anti-military argument.

The debut of Melville, who was then his most literary, is clearly indebted to the expressionist cinema. When the movie took almost all indoors, shows the great skill of the director to show the psychology of the three characters through a great job of lighting and the use of detailed drawings.

Despite the enforced sobriety and economy of means, almost laconic monologues german militar -musician in civilian life, cultured and refined person- directed to the dumb owners of the house are captivating enough to always keep the viewer's attention a good level and not feel like a release the rare occasions that the camera is placed outdoors. In the latter regard, adding that the images of Paris are noted as busy file, but the "assembly" and monumental typical shot the officer played by Howard Vernon did not become squeaky ...

As a final note evil little personal: for the second time, Nicole Stéphane has forced me to remember to Harpo, the mute of Marx Brothers. Unfortunately, and although there is only a close up of her face in frontal view, it is essential enough to stretch out the time perhaps more lyrical film.

More than curious and unusual first contact with cinema of a director so personal and unique in their proposals as Melville.

After a promising start, the movie starts losing narrative force from fifteen minutes, looking like he will not ever start, or worse, will end up being a love story of teenagers inconsequential. Following the first meeting of the father of the young protagonist with the brand new lover, the sensation varies completely. The film takes a dramatic turn as the characters show not be as flat as it seemed at the outset and felt that anything can happen.

Rory Culkin almost enhances the role of unstable and even disturbed Edward Norton. Regarding last AThis actor, I found clear resemblance to Robert Mitchum in "Cape Fear" (also reminiscent of De Niro in "Taxi Driver") including the large family threat just emptying the movie.

Although at times be confusing, "Down in the Valley" makes a good study of personalities, but too superficial, interested in defining their games deceptive appearances. Interest in history resolution manages to stay until the end. Worse, its ups and downs narrative script and multiple licenses at the end of the movie, happy ending included. In summary, independent American cinema but not much ...