I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it was directed by Jafar Panahi, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, it was only the 3^rd movie I saw from this director and I guess I still have some work to do considering his stellar reputation. It was so interesting that Panahi had decided to turn the camera towards him later on during his career and, as a result, this movie was quite complex. I think the best way to describe it would be that it was some kind of autofiction. Indeed, even though Panahi was playing a film director with some issues with the authorities, he wasn’t actually playing himself but some fictionalized version of himself. One of the most intriguing thing was that he never explained why he went to live in this remote village so closed to the border with Turkey which was super impractical since he was trying to remotely direct a movie. Several times he was asked about his choice, by the villagers and also his movie colleagues and, at some point, he literally stood on the actual border. I guess this choice or lack of it was to show his actual position. Indeed, considering all the pressure and how dangerous his position was in Iran, he should probably not stay there but, on the other hand, somehow, he couldn’t leave his country either because it would be like giving up on so many things dear to him. The contrast between these villagers, still living with some rather bizarre superstitions, and the seemingly more sophisticated film crew in Teheran was pretty neat as well. Eventually, I don’t think that Panahi did judge any side, in my opinion, he wanted to show that, no matter our background, we all try to cope somehow with the chaos in our lives, especially in a country like Iran where your options seem to be extremely limited. By the way, it was rather weird to see Turkey being displayed as some kind of symbol for freedom after watching  ‘Gelbe Briefe’ about 10 days ago. To be honest, I wonder if Panahi couldn’t have been more critical about himself somehow. Indeed, on one hand, he would rather put the focus on something or somebody else (he even gave the camera to one of the villagers to film instead of him) but, on the other hand, he kept filming himself and he was always at the centre of all the drama going on in this village but also on the remote film set. Anyway, to conclude, even though it might have been slightly too complex for my limited mental capacities, the end-result was really intriguing, that’s for sure. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but since it was directed by Guy Ritchie and since it was available on Amazon Prime, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, even though it was not Ritchie’s worst movie, it was probably his blandest and most forgettable one and I’m not surprised it was a flop when it was released. I guess the main issue with Ritchie is that the guy might be too busy releasing a movie every single year, without counting his TV-series (‘MobLand’, ‘The Gentlemen’ and ‘Young Sherlock’). As a result, instead of spending several years on a single project, instead, he would apparently rather release something slightly rushed and definitely half-baked, even if the original concept actually had some potential. I mean, who wouldn’t like to watch Henry Cavill and Jake Gyllenhaal playing a duo of highly qualified fixers? Unfortunately, pretty much nothing really worked in this movie after all. Indeed, even though the movie was sold as some spectacular action flick similar to the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise, for at least 1 hour, there was actually no action whatsoever, instead, they hindered the business of their target to force a negotiation with him. It was not necessarily a bad idea but the issue was that none of it was really convincing. At some point, you kept seeing them going to court every 30 seconds but I didn’t buy it. Even if their schemes were indeed successful, it would take months to get a court decision, not 5 mins like it was displayed in this movie. On top of that, even though Eiza González (who kept popping up in Ritchie’s movies for some reason) was really lovely as usual, I never believed that she was a tough cutthroat lawyer. On the other hand, she was not helped by the fact that all the characters were so poorly developed. I mean, sure, Cavill and Gyllenhaal were quite charismatic but, except for some decent banter between them, there was literally nothing describing their characters one way or another. Sure, they were cool, bad*ss and seemingly super competent but the only thing I actually learned about them was that one was called Bronco (like a horse?) and Sid (short for Sidney?). Anyway, all in all, it wasn’t really bad, Cavill and Gyllenhaal were actually a cool duo, they just deserved a better movie than this one. 

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it was available on HBO Max, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it is rather sad that, already with their 2^nd movie, the new DC Studios already seemed to be struggling as this movie was a flop when it was released. I wish I could say it deserved better but, to be honest, I would be lying. I mean, it wasn’t completely awful. Indeed, the character Kara Zor-El / Supergirl was neat, at least, she was more interesting than the rather boring Superman and the way they explained her general behaviour was not bad. On top of that, Milly Alcock delivered here a solid performance. It was also nice that they introduced Lobo who is such a cool character and Jason Momoa was basically born to play him, even though it was slightly jarring that he was already playing Aquaman only a few years ago in the DCEU. However, Lobo showed up in this tale completely randomly and I wondered what the hell he was doing here. It was also a good idea to have Supergirl getting involved in some intergalactic adventure. Unfortunately, pretty much nothing else in this movie was interesting though. First of all, Krypto the dreadful mutt was easily the most annoying thing in the previous Superman movie and it was just so lame that he became so important in this story. Seriously, it was such a poor idea to add this ‘character’ in the new DC Studios universe and he might ruin the whole thing for me if they keep focusing so much on him. Even more problematic was that the story was just so generic, predictable and plain boring. There is always this issue that the Kryptonians, by being so invisible, are actually terribly tedious and they always struggle to come up with some interesting challenges for them. Eventually, they always come up with some boring devices like this green sun in this case and, of course, some good old Kryptonite. But these narrative devices are just too limited because the Kryptonians always regain their power somehow and then dispose fairly easily of their opponents. I was also rather amazed by the ending. Indeed, one of the main ideas was that Kara wanted to prevent that Ruthye would kill Krem because it would actually ruin her and I really liked this idea. However, as soon as Ruthye had a back turn, Kara actually executed the guy himself which was rather flabbergasting and vastly contradicted who Kara was supposed to be (I seriously doubt that Superman would kill someone like that). There is also the issue that, after the Golden Age of the superheroes, especially the MCU, the genre is clearly struggling right now. Indeed, it all pretty much stopped with ‘Avengers: Engame’ because they completely oversaturated the market with too many movies and TV-shows in the genre. Maybe if they would try something really different, it could still work but, if they keep coming back with the same old stories we have seen too many times already, I’m afraid these movies will keep tanking like this one.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I didn’t remember at all this tragic incident that took place in the San José Mine in Chile but I think it actually helped me to more appreciate this movie since I didn’t know at all what was going to happen. Eventually, it was quite an incredible story. Spending 2 weeks with barely any food and water was already so horrendous but then they also spent an extra 2 months in the mine before being rescued which I didn’t expect at all, even if it actually made sense though. It was apparently all over the news, not only in Chile but also in the rest of the world but I honestly didn’t remember it at all. Apparently, it was adapted from a book which was made with the involvement of all the survivors and their family so it seemed reasonable that the story was fairly faithfully told here.  Concerning the directing, it was nothing fancy but it was effective enough and the beginning scenes with the collapse of the mine were quite spectacular. There was one detail that bothered me though. Even though most of the actors involved were Spanish speakers, for some reason, they all spoke in English instead, probably to easily reach an international audience but it actually had the opposite effect on me though. Concerning the cast, it was neat to see Naomi Scott in her first feature film role, even though she played more football (soccer) than she actually had dialogues. In fact, the only one who felt really miscast here was Juliette Binoche. I wonder what could have possibly attracted such a strong actress to play such a thankless role which was obviously not a good fit for her at all (she actually replaced Jennifer Lopez). In general, they didn’t focus much on the men stuck in this mine and their relatives, it was all fairly shallow. Instead, they focused on the actual events which was not a bad approach, especially since this true story was quite impressive. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really groundbreaking, I thought it was still a decent watch though. 

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this movie but, since it had been nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I was slightly apprehensive regarding this movie. Indeed, I actually already saw the remake called ‘The Preacher's Wife’ but I really didn’t like it at all, in fact, it was probably one of the most boring movies I had seen so far starring Denzel Washington (On the other hand, I have to admit that I saw it ages ago). Well, there is no doubt that Cary Grant was basically born to play such characters, he was really charismatic here and it was pretty neat how this angel managed to charm everybody, men, women and children alike. I have to admit that I wasn’t not familiar with Loretta Young and she was quite lovely but, to be honest, she didn’t have much to do here. However, David Niven was probably the one with the most thankless role as his bishop was just so stiff and so slow to catch up with what was going on (on the other hand, it’s not every day that you get the visit from an actual angel). Eventually, there was something rather strange going on with this love triangle involving this angel, this bishop and his wife. Indeed, was Dudley trying to make the bishop jealous so he would take better care of his wife or was he really into Julia? I thought it was slightly ambiguous towards the end which was interesting but I might be giving this movie too much credit. It was probably not that deep after all. By the way, in my opinion, making someone jealous might be the worst way to revive a relationship and, if Dudley’s main goal was indeed to fix this marriage, I wonder if he couldn’t find a different way to achieve this. Anyway, I have to admit that the gentle sweet vibe was nice and it obviously reminded me of ‘It's a Wonderful Life’ which was released only a year before but, in spite of Cary Grant’s huge charisma, this movie never came near this classic though.