Country: USA (2009)

Genre: Romance, Comedy

Director: Marc Webb

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Chloe Moretz

Plot

500 Days: that’s how long the story of Tom (Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Deschanel) lasts – at least for Tom. For Summer, who is doesn’t believe in love and labels their relationship as “friendship” the whole time, the story ends much earlier. Fort Tom, who is a romantic, this is a catastrophe, as he thought to have found his true love. Reminiscing the good days, weeks and months with Summer, he trys to continue his life without her..

Review

“This is not a love story – this is a story about love..” Already in the beginning a narrator makes clear what this movie is all about. The movie tells a simple story about a couple who falls in love and illustrates all the up and downs of their relationship. Luckily this movie avoids the typical clichés of romantic movies. It is rather realistic,what I loved about it. No sob stuff or anything like that, just a feel good movie. In the end there is a romantic movie which is suitable for both, boys and girls..

Country: Austria (2001)

Genre: Drama

Director: Ulrich Seidl

Cast: Maria Hofstätter, Georg Friedrich, Alfred Mrva

Plot

A suburb of Vienna during the hottest days of the year: too many people at too narrow space. In six episodes this movie shows how and why people make things very unpleasant for each other. Amongs others there is a very importunate hitchhiker, a private detective on the run for some car vandals, a couple with a serious marriage problem, an old man, whose wife died long before, on the search for some sexual entertainment and further strange people…

Review

I planned to watch this movie since a very long time. After reading about it I became curious. Recently I had the chance to watch it and I must say I was blown away. This movie is one of the most atmospheric and oppressive ones I’ve seen in years. As already sated in the plot it doesn’t have an ongoing story but consists of different episodes which sometimes run together in the course of the story or which are totally independent. Amongst those episodes there is not even one boring one (which often is the case in episode movies). Every one captivates with bizarre characters and a distinct atmosphere. Considering that, the movie perfectly creates an atmosphere of depressing heat, which you can almost feel. This atmosphere is supported by many still camera angles which intensify the dreariness. The actors, which are mainly amateurs, are really doing good. You wouldn’t recognize them as amateurs. However there’s one actress who is stealing everybody’s show. Maria Hofstätter, who is playing the hitchhiker, is giving a very intense performance. She plays a very unbearable person who you can’t be mad with however. Finally I can say that this movie really casts a spell over you and will follow you some time. In my opinion this is what defines a good movie. If you liked it you should also watch “Import Export”, also by Ulrich Seidl, which has a similar concept but takes place in a totally different environment. It’s hard to say which one is better but both are highly recommendable.

Country: Austria (2008)

Genre: Thriller

Director: Götz Spielmann

Cast: Johannes Krisch, Irina Potapenko, Andreas Lust

Plot

Ex-prisoner Alex (Johannes Krisch) works in an whorehouse. There he has a secret affair with the prostitute Tamara (Irina Potapenko). When both decide to start a new life somewhere else, they develope the plan to rob a bank in order to get the money to start all over. Unfortunately the robbery ends unluckyly as a police officer suddenly appears and accidentially shoots Tamara. Alex, who is able to escape, then hides at the farm of his father. There he discovers that the police officer who shot his girlfrind lives near by…

Review

This movie is one more proof that Austria produces many great and extraordinary movies. As the title indicates, the movie is about revenge. However it is not another self-administrated justice movies like the famous Death Wish with Charles Bronson or lately Law Abiding Citizen who concentrate more on action and contain a very questionable morale. This movie concentrates on the psychology of all affected persons. It is about guilt an expiation, revenge and forgiveness. The whole movie, with a runtime of rougly 2 hours, which seems pretty long for a normal thriller, never gets boring as  you never know what will happen next. The story remains clever throughout the whole movie. If you like unconventional crime stories which focus on character developement and not on action you can enjoy it without hesitation.

Country: Japan (2008)

Genre: ?

Director: Shion Sono

Cast: Takahiro Nishijima, Hikari Mitsumisha, Sakura Andô

Plot

Yu (Takahiro Nishijima) is the perfect son who does nothing wrong. Since the death of his wife, his father works as a priest. He gets along very good with his son unless he has a short relationship with the wild Kaori. After the breakup everything changes. As his father gets more and more embittered he becomes fanatic and forces his son repeatedly to confess. As Yu has no sins to confess he starts committing sins in order to satisfy his father. One day he meets a group of juveniles. Together they are trained by a weird master in the art of photographing under girl’s skirts. This becomes Yus life-task. However, one day, he meets the beautiful Yoko and immediately falls in love with her. Unfortunately Yoko (who hates men except of Jesus and Kurt Cobain) thinks he’s a jerk. Instead of Yu, Sasori, a mysterious woman in black wins Yoko’s heart. In reality the women who helped her out in a fight with some thugs, is Yu dressed as a women due to a lost bet. Those thugs act act as the behest of Koike who recruits members for a sect and therefore planned the meeting of Yu and Yoko for a long time as she follows a diabolic plan…

Review

Cinema is great because everything is possible. Cinema has so many different genres. Japanese director Shion Sono, however, wants more. He doesn’t want to make a movie in a certain genre.  That’s why he made Love Exposure, a 237 minutes long monumental artwork which contains everything you could think of… religious fanaticism, sexual perversion, martial-arts, romance, splatter and a lot more. The movie is a drama, comedy, satire, horror movie, romance and action movie at the same time. It is one wild trip, a unique experience which, observed as a whole,  can be broke down to the most simplest and most beautiful story of the world: two people fall in love with each other. With good cause it was awarded with the Caligari-Price of the Berlinale. The jury justified this award with the words: “Great art which is entertaining but always smart and competent. The movie activates to think about the essence of love, religion and the cohabitating of humans and therfore is more political than many so-called political movies.” These words perfectly describe this movie. I don’t want to tell you too much about this movie as it is adviseable to watch it without knowing too much. All I can say is that it is weird, thrilling, touching, funny and, despite it’s runtime of about 4 hours, very entertaining. I’ve never watched a 4 hour movie which passed by so fast. A true masterpiece and one of the best movies I’ve seen in years…

Country: Germany, Cambodia (2009)

Genre: Romance, Drama

Director: Detlev Buck

Cast: David Kross, Apinya Sakuljaroensuk, Anatole Taubman

Plot

After finishing school, Ben (David Kross) and his friend travel to Cambodia not only for the country and its people but also for parties, drugs and sex. One night he meets Sreykeo (Apinya Sakuljaroensuk), a young cambodian girl. After spending the night with her it turns out that Sreykeo, like many others, is a prositute. Although they separate the next morning, Sreykeo returns some days later and so they start seeing each other more often. Ben more and more gets introduced to the cambodian life, meets Sreykeo’s family and starts paying for food and medicine. However at some point Ben has to return to Germany. But both try to maintain their relationship via telephone or internet. Ben even sends Sreykeo money so that she doens’t have to work as prostitute anymore. The situation changes when Sreykeo receives the news that she is HIV positive.She immediately tells Ben who takes the situation much more serious and travels back to Asia in order to organize a therapy for her. In the course of the time he learns that the cambodian system works differently from the german one and that he finally has to decide between love and duty…

Review

Director Detlev Buck intended to make a romantic movie, however not one of those cheesy romantic comedies which you find in cinemas in great numbers. He wanted to create a story about a real, tangible love. So he decided to film the life story of Benjamin Prüfer who wrote his true story in the book “Wohin du auch gehst”. Detlev Buck actually succeeds. The story is far from typical clichés and works because David Kross (Der Vorleser) really gives a great performance especially in combination with the great Apinya Sakuljaroensuk who harmonizes perfectly with Kross. Same Same But Different isn’t a sentimental AIDS drama. The decease does play a role, especially for dramatic reasons, but it doesn’t dominate the story. The movie is more a romantic story about an unconditional love, in which one person is infected with HIV. The problems of both of them are versatile: the cultural difference, the distance, the little money and of course Ben’s fear that Sreykeo works as prostitute again while he is in Germany. The movie is so special because the protagoniste are totally authentic including all of their actions, the chemistry between the two protagonists is not deniable and additionally you get a realistic view of cambodian life and its culture. And althoug the story is about a serious problem the movie constantly is sort of light and pleasant to watch. Concluding you can say that Detlev Buck created a real, heart-warming love story free from kitsch and clishés.

Country: Germany, UK, Netherlands (2006)

Genre: War, Thriller, Drama

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Cast: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Christian Berkel

Plot

Holland at the end of World War II: After the hideout of young jewish singer Rachel Stein (Carice van Houten) got destroyed by a bomb, she joins a group of other jews trying to escape to the south of Holland, which was already liberated. However their ship gets caught by a German patrol and all jews are killed. Only Rachel survives.
Now, that she has nothing to lose, she joins the dutch resistance. As “Ellis de Vries” she starts flirting with German officer Müntze (Sebastian Koch). As a result of this flir she gets a job offered as secretary. Due to this stroke of luck, the resistance group developes a plan to free imprisoned resistance members. Unexpectedly Rachel falls in love with Müntze and therefore maneuvers herself into a life-threatening situation, as she gets suspected by the resistance group to be a traitor.

Review

The thrilling story about spying, trust and betrayal concenctrates on true experiences of different people in only few distinctive personalities. The fictional story is less about historical events, but analyzes the confusing structures of occupied Holland during the last months of war, where every step was dangerous and the decision of life or death was just a random act. Director Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Total Recall) spend years of research on the story, steadily adjusting it, until he decided to assign a female as main actress in order to bring together all the elements of the story locically and communicate those emotionally to the audience. The idea of telling the tragical events in the form of a thriller works really good. It is very pleasant that the movie doesn’t have the simple division between good and evil. Instead it takes the time to see behind the curtain of even morally questionable persons. On the other hand it exposes the one or the other hero as an opportunist. The whole story is full of surprices and it should be clear that Verhoeven is no director to deliver happy ends. He follows his rough way consequently until the end, takes the hope from all of the protagonists and leads them to the desired end of the war, which is after all only a very bitter end after all the personal losses. Typically for Verhoeven movies, there is much blood, explicit violence, nude bodies and strong emotions. And it is granted for a director of this caliber that the technical realization is first-class, too. So this film is a highly recommendable lection about history, but also about moral and decency.

Country: UK (2004)

Genre: Thriller

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Daniel Craig, Colm Meaney, George Harris

Plot

A nameless drug dealer (Daniel Craig) from London is sick of the drug business and therefore plans his retirement. However his long-time boss Jimmy Price wants him two accomplish two more assignments. The one assignment leads him to London’s junkie scene where he’s supposed to find a missing girl. The other one brings him together with the choleric gangster Duke for whom he is to sell a huge amount of ecstasy pills. Duke, however, stole the pills from a group of criminal serbs, who therefore assing the brutal killer Dragan to bring back the pills…
Review

Most people tend to compare this movie witch Snatch or Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. This has several reasons. On the one hand director Matthew Vaughn was the producer of the above mentioned movies, on the other hand gangster comedies with typical british humor have becom into vogue during the last decade. This wrong expectation is probably the reason why this movie is pretty unknown and for many people disappointing. This is a pitty. Because as a serious criminal movie this movie works really good. And don’t get me wrong. It also contains some british humor and scuril characters, however not that much. The story is a bit tricky and interlaced. However if you hang on til the end the story lines consolidate and become a unity. Next to the story one has to highlight Daniel Craig’s performance. In this movie you can already see why he was chosen as the next James Bond. Matthew Vaughn said that he didn’t want to have a copy of Snatch or Pulp Fiction. Therefore he didn’t only disclaimed on humor but also on graphical violence. He created something difference which in the end is a very entertaining and thrilling crime movie in London’s crime scene.

Country: Mexico, Spain, USA (2006)

Genre: Fantasy, Drama

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú

Plot

In the fascist Spain of 1944, the bookish Ofelia and her pregnant mother move to the mountains of North Spain because her stepfather,a sadistic army officer wants the child to be born at his place. While her stepfather is pursuing the rebels with very cruel methods, Ofelia escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world…

Review

Director Guillermo del Toro wanted to create a farytale for adults. Actually this movie is not suitable for children but nevertheless terrific. Del Toro places its horror-farytale two years after the end of the Spanish civil war. Del Toro doesn’t care about any rules of this genre. I even mixes diffrent influences in order to incorporate his own personal style.”Pan’s Labyrinth” definitely is a farytale. There are princesses, good fairies, mythical creatures, tests and a lost kingdom. However this world is different than it actually appears and often collides with a very cruel reality in wich the young girl Ofelia lives. The story is parable for growing up and the perversion of innocence. The movie is full of symbols and metaphors (which invites you to watch it again). The mysticism and magic of Orfelia’s fantasy world is combined with horribly detailed and cruel pictures. No matter how graphically cruel some scenes may be, they are neither thought to satisfy the appetite for voyeurism nor used as crude shocking effects. Del Toro simply wants to contrast both worlds Orfelia is living in with all of their cruelties. The appearing monsters exist in both worlds, the imaginary world but also the “real” world. The heart of the movie definitely is the great setting as well as the fantastic atmosphere. Especially the professioinal pantomime Doug Jones who acts two key figures in the imaginary world gives a very convincing and creepy performance (supported by a great mask and costumes). But also the other actors, mainly spanish people, including the eleven year old Ivana Baquero, do a great job. If you are not disgusted by the fantastic elements I definitely recommend this movie. It has a great story, character drawing but is also visually overwhelming. Del Toro, who was abused as a child and escaped into an imaginary world hisself, created a great farytale with a distinct style. This sence for fantasy obviously also convinced Peter Jackson who hired him as director for the upcoming Lord of the Rings sequel “The Hobbit”…

Country: UK (2009)

Genre: Thriller-Biopic

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Tom Hardy, Matt King, Kelly Adams

Plot

In 1974, 19 year old Michael Peterson decided that he wants to make a name for himself and so he attempted to rob a post office. He quickly gets caught and originally gets sentenced to 7 years in jail. In the end he has spend 34 years behind bars, 30 of which in solitary confinement. During that time he more and more became “Charles Bronson”, his ultra-violent alter ego. Due to his violent temper, the comitted hostage-takings and especially the fact that he was imprisoned in more than 120 prisons he soon receives the title of “Britain’s most violent prisoner”.

Review

This is not a movie for the mass-market but for friends of special movies. If you expect a conventional prison or gangster movie you will be disappointed. It is neither a profound social drama. Rather than anything else this biopic can be compared to Stanley Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange”. The picture language, the theater-like production, much classic music and the central role of senseless violence… There actually are parallels. The movie is loosely based on the real biography of Michael Peterson, better known as his alter ego Charles Bronson who is said to be Britain’s most violent criminal. Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn really did a great job here. He doesn’t give an explanation for Bronson’s motivation, only his desire to become famous. The actual heart of the movie, however, is the amazing one-man-show of Tom Hardy as Charles Bronson. With an expressive mustache and heaps of muscles he is Charlie Bronson. His acting is insistent in every scene. Thereby it isn’t the intention of the movie neither of his main actor to x-ray and understand it’s ambivalent protagonist. Until the credits, Charles Bronson remains an unsolved mystery which probably is the only way to really portrait him. Therefore the movie is more a brutal-bizarre, helpless making retrospection from Bronsons own point of view which is irreproducible. A very different but fascinating movie.

Country: Austria (2006)

Genre: Drama

Director: Michael Glawogger

Cast: August Diehl, Paulus Manker, Pia Hierzegger

Plot

Sebastian (August Diehl) and Alex, two Austrian students, are rich but bored. In order to kill time they do “Slumming”, meaning that they hang around in shabby bars, investigate the social underclass and tease the people they meet there. One of their later victims is the alcoholic Kallmann (Paulus Manker) who finances his daily intoxication by selling self-made poems in a pretty aggressive way. One night he spends the night totally drunk on a park bench in front of Vienna’s train station when Sebastian and Alex find him. They put him into their car, drive him beyond the boarder of Czeck Republic right into a small Czeck city, where they leave them in front of the local station without any ID. However this short encounter will not only have impact on Kallmann, who desperately tries to get back to Vienna, but especially on Sebastian who experiences a change in life.

Review

This movie starts with one of the most fascinating openings I’ve ever seen (I put it on the end of the article)! You immediately get captured by it and won’t get released until the end of the movie. “Slumming” mainly is a character sketch taking much time to introduce and develope its protagonists. It is amazing how director Glawogger managed it to fascinate with the destiniy of the protagonists, although none of them is really likeable. Sebastian and Alex are just jerks, even though they experience kind of a character change during the movie. And Kallmann simply offends everybody, mostly without a reason. Anyway the relation between them works and somehow you fell sympathy for them. This is mainly the benefit of August Diehl and Paulus Manker which are just brilliant. They are the center of the movie. Without them “Slumming” would probably lose much of it’s power. I really enjoyed watching them and therefore the whole movie. “Slumming” may be a little bulky, which mostly comes from the fact that it sometimes seems like a documentary, however it is very entertaining and finally another proof that Austrian movies should not be underestimated.