Movie review: Flugparken (2014)

A decent, slow psychological drama about a sociopath about to break. The photo and editing is top notch, presenting a subtle study of a young Swedish man who in his own mind thinks he does good.

Flugparken” has been compared to “Taxi Driver”, “Falling Down” and even “American Psycho”, but even though this is more than your average Swedish movie, it’s still average.

Well worth watching for the great photo, though. And the acting is not that bad either.

Rated: 2,5 / 5

Movie review: Victoria (2015)

Wow, what an amazing achievement! One take, no cuts. 140 minutes of realtime movie magic. And in contrast to the extremely overrated ”Birdman”, this one isn’t fake, and it also has content.

Victoria, a lonely Spanish girl having spent 16 years, seven hours a day, practicing the piano, seeks adventure in the nighttime Berlin underground. Desperately naive, she decides to hang out with four shady guys and things escalate quickly. The ”Pusher” trilogy comes to mind.

Sure, it’s unrealistic at times (the story needs to move forward), but it’s still authentic. Most of the dialogue is improvised, and the camera work is fantastic.
Also, ”Victoria” makes me wanna return to the Mitte district in Berlin.

Rated: 3,5 / 5

Movie review: The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)

”She was a young girl driven astray by the lustful lure of the flesh.”

San Francisco in the 1970’s. Sex, drugs, music and comics. What’s not to love? But if you’re 15 years old?

Marielle Heller makes this an awesome film about a teenage girl having an affair with her mother’s boyfriend. Bel Powley is great as Minnie and Alexander Skarsgård is about as sleazy as his name Monroe suggests.

What strikes me is that even the adults are acting like teenagers. Maybe that’s why the weird relationship between a 15 year old girl and a 35 year old man almost seems acceptable? I don’t know, but I know I loved “The Diary of a Teenage Girl“.

All in all, a very human and honest coming of age drama, filled to the brim with great acting, true stories and cool cartoons (it’s based on a semi-autobiographical graphic novel by Phoebe Gloeckner).

If you like ”Juno” and ”Ghost World”, this is definitely for you.

Rated: 4 / 5

Movie review: The Danish Girl (2015)

Great story, nicely done and Alicia Vikander shines.

But this is obviously unrespectfully made for an audience not at all familiar with transgender. It’s like people not into heavy metal trying to act heavy metal-ish. It’s untrue and ignorant, flat and simplistic. Does Tom Hooper even know what transgender means? It just comes out as pseudo-progressive at best, and shallow Hollywood melodramatic fake at worst. Too bad, because the actual story is truly captivating.

If 1920’s scenography is what you fancy, then “The Danish Girl” is a beautiful looking movie.
But transgender is not about looks.

PS. ”Laurence Anyways” by Xavier Dolan. Identity.

Rated: 2 / 5

Movie review: Call Me Lucky (2015)

Emotional, gruesome but important documentary about Boston comic Barry Crimmins.
It starts off like it usually does, with friends and colleagues praising this genius, but halfway through it takes a very dark turn.

Ultimately, “Call Me Lucky” is about Barry being subject to sexual abuse at a very young age, and his ongoing fight against child molesters, the Catholic church and the American government.

Knowing what he’s gone through, it’s incredible to see what a good man he is today. Because like he says: ”Had I been raped a few more times I might have become the rapist”. And like his sister says: ”Half the reason why Barry’s so funny is a gesture of healing”. Depressing, but very powerful.

I have a new role model. I wanna be like Barry Crimmins.

Rated: 3,5 / 5

Movie review: Anomalisa (2015)

Wow. I really liked “Anomalisa“. Such a simple story, yet so complex. You’ll notice there’s something slightly surreal about it right away. Why do the female characters have a male voice? Actually, there are only three different voices in the whole movie, but we still meet a lot of characters. Hmm…
And talking about voices: It’s so nice to hear real conversations in a movie. This is how people actually talk, and yet it’s slightly bizarre, cuz it’s puppets talking.

I definitely like the idea with stop motion and puppets, not just because it’s done brilliantly, but also because it adds to the surreal atmosphere in a deeply social realist film. Some of the scenes in this animated movie capture reality better than any other movie featuring human actors. Crazy.

Highly recommended if you’re into social realism with a twist.

Rated: 4 / 5

Movie review: Atomic – Living in Dread and Promise (2015)

Wow, I didn’t expect such a powerful and emotional experience!

I watched Mogwai play live to this movie at Ex Theater Roppongi in Tokyo, and ”Atomic” – being a chronological history of nuclear disaster – obviously begins with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The emotional experience came out of watching and hearing some of the Japanese people in the audience cry when being shown archive footage of burnt bodies, babies screaming in agony, nature being destroyed and millions of people’s lives shattered due to American atomic bombs. And in the end, there was Fukushima.
Also, with President Obama visiting Hiroshima only two days ago, I guess this was even more emotional to many.

The movie in itself is nothing spectacular. Archive footage, that’s pretty much it. What makes it special is the great soundtrack. I can’t think of any better band to score this than Mogwai, the undisputed kings of shoegazer doom. And listening to it live, in a theater with awesome sound and at maximum volume, was nothing but extremely powerful. The ending noise crescendo with the pounding drums and droning guitars was like Merzbow on LSD.

Rated: 3 / 5 (the movie) 3,5 / 5 (the album) 4,5 / 5 (the concert)

by Mattias Indy Pettersson