Excellent direction, audacious editing and sound, a movie full of surprises…
but little content and too much meaningless violence!
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Ekaterina Samsonov, Alessandro Nivola, Alex Manette, Judith Roberts
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Writer (based on the book by) Jonathan Ames
Writer: Lynne Ramsay
Cinematographer: Thomas Townend
Editor: Joe Bini
Composer: Jonny Greenwood
A typical piece of Americana with doomsayers, prophets, and believers of all kind at every corner. However, not sure what the story is all about, with its narrative marred in mysteries that lead nowhere
Cast: Rami Malek, Dj Qualls, Kate Lyn Sheil, Toby Huss, Lin Shaye, Mark Kelly
Director: Sarah Adina Smith
Writer: Sarah Adina Smith
Cinematographer: Shaheen Seth
Editor: Sarah Adina Smith
Inspired opening, tedious follow-up
Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Jeremy Irons, Ciarán Hinds, Matthias Schoenaerts, Joely Richardson, Mary-Louise Parker, Charlotte Rampling
Director: Francis Lawrence
Based upon the book by Jason Matthews
Writer: Justin Haythe
Cinematographer: Jo Willems
Editor: Alan Edward Bell
Composer: James Newton Howard
A movie that not only celebrates everlasting love, but adds to it family, religious, and small town values in a most simplistic and nauseating way / Propaganda cinema at its best! And it works: the public seems to like it (6,4 on IMDB and an astonishing 9 as audience score on Rotten Tomatoes)! So depressing! 🙁
Cast: Alex Roe, Jessica Rothe, John Benjamin Hickey, Abby Ryder Fortson, Tyler Riggs, Peter Cambor, Gillian Vigman, Morgan Alexandria
Director: Bethany Ashton Wolf
Writer: Bethany Ashton Wolf
Music by Brett Boyett
Cinematography by Duane Manwiller
Love your father no matter what / You can’t live with yourself and reject where you come from… These are a few of the messages in this ode to the family that is in fact a glorification of patriarchy and that ends in syrupy sentimentality / Ill-adapted flashbacks
Cast: Brie Larson, Naomi Watts, Woody Harrelson, Max Greenfield, Ella Anderson, Sarah Snook, Olivia Kate Rice, Dominic Bogart Shree Crooks, Charlie Shotwell, Sadie Sink
Director: Destin Cretton
Writer (based upon the book by) Jeannette Walls
Writer: Destin Cretton, Andrew Lanham
Cinematographer: Brett Pawlak
Editor: Nat Sanders
Composer: Joel P. West
Erasing motherhood: a rare look at fatherhood and male altruism
Cast: Masahiro Motoki, Pistol Takehara, Eri Fukatsu
Director: Miwa Nishikawa
Writers: Miwa Nishikawa (screenplay), Miwa Nishikawa (novel)
Music: Michiaki Katoh, Toshihiro Nakanishi
Cinematography: Yutaka Yamazaki
Film Editing: Ryûji Miyajima
Good story and realization, average content
Three men: the father, the lover, the raper / Three women: ywo sisters + deceased mother
The “scifi” setting that was perhaps justified when the story was written in 1996 doesn’t convey anything to the plot today.
Cast: Ellen Page, Evan Rachel Wood, Callum Keith Rennie, Max Minghella
Director: Patricia Rozema
Based on the novel by Jean Hegland
Writer: Patricia Rozema
Cinematographer: Daniel Grant
Editor: Matthew Hannam
Composer: Max Richter
Many good things about this movie: good humor, good dialogues, very good acting by Ruffalo. Add to this the efficient way to stage multiple facets about minorities (depressed parent, mixed-race family, single father household, etc,).
The way the two daughters evolve and learn how to cope with their lovable but manic-depressive father is remarkable.
Cast: Mark Ruffalo, Zoe Saldana, Keir Dullea, Beth Dixon, Georgia Lyman
Director: Maya Forbes
Writer: Maya Forbes
Director of Photography: Bobby Bukowski
Music by Theodore Shapiro
Film Editing by Michael R. Miller
strong script and direction
A movie essentially focused on male characters, in which women play a subdued role.
An uncommon and powerful representation of how a father experiences the loss of his children somewhat compensates the gender unbalance of the movie.
Interestingly, the music is not intended to fit a particular scene but does include several ones, creating an overarching level of expression that transcends that of the scene itself. In some of the critical passages, the personages talk but the dialogue is not heard, being replaced by the music that links the scene to the previous one.
Cast: Casey Affleck, Michelle Williams, Kyle Chandler, Lucas Hedges, Gretchen Mol, C.J. Wilson
Director: Kenneth Lonergan
Writer: Kenneth Lonergan
Cinematographer: Jody Lee Lipes
Editor: Jennifer Lame
Composer: Lesley Barber
A heavy subject treated with lightness
Cast: Abbey Hoes, Uwe Ochsenknecht, Gijs Blom
Director: Saskia Diesing
Writers: Saskia Diesing, Esther Gerritsen
Music by Paul Eisenach
Cinematography by Aage Hollander
Film Editing by Barbara Toennieshen