The arrival of a plane in Hawaii brings a guy two women together in sort of love triangle. An ex wife and a potential love interest makes this conflicted man to decided what ever happen to me and where I’m going with my life.
Aloha is directed by Cameron Crowe, the film starring Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams is a romantic comedy about Brian Gilchrest (Cooper) a contractor for the military after a messed up work in Kabul. Arriving to Hawaii he discovered that his ex girlfriend Tracy (McAdams) is now married. During his assignment Brian meet up with his Air Force liaison Allison Ng (Emma Stone).
All I can say is Aloha is a really flat film, the development of the story doesn’t offer a real twist, besides passages of Brian and Allison relationship and Brian memories of missing time with Tracy. All this is happening in the setting of the beautiful Hawaii. The characters are weak and cannot hold longer in the duration of the movie.
There is no conflict so the story falls apart gradually.
Monday, August 3, 2015
I’m always fascinated when a film’s subject is film itself. The actors conflicts, fame, the making a play, show business in general. In “Cloud Sils Maria” is a French movie by director Oliveier Assayas, about an actress Maria Enders (Julliete Binoche) and her relationship with her loyal American Assistant Valentine (Kristen Stewart)
At the beginning of the movie Maria and Valentine are traveling by train to Zurich for an event to honor a famous writer Wilhelm Melchoir who gave Maria her first opportunity in the industry, playing a young role in Maloha Snake. Maria received the news that Melchoir passed away, but the event will happen as plan. During the event a theater director approached Maria to play a role again in the play Maloja Snake, but this time the older character, Maria decided to spent the following months in Wilhelm Melchoir house in the mountain to prepare for the role, the house name Sils Maria
“Cloud Sils Maria” is a deep exploration of fame in the film industry as well the theater circuit. The film divided by chapters present a conflict, young vs old, from Mari to Valentine, they argue on how important celebrities are portrait themselves in the media to be relevant. This is when Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz) appears, which is the new younger antagonist she is a reflection of Maria at her younger years as an actress. Maria is famous but is not relevant as Jo-Ann is.
The film is powerful, with great performances and a very unusual structure that makes the audience question the reality of the characters and their actual presence on film.
At the beginning of the movie Maria and Valentine are traveling by train to Zurich for an event to honor a famous writer Wilhelm Melchoir who gave Maria her first opportunity in the industry, playing a young role in Maloha Snake. Maria received the news that Melchoir passed away, but the event will happen as plan. During the event a theater director approached Maria to play a role again in the play Maloja Snake, but this time the older character, Maria decided to spent the following months in Wilhelm Melchoir house in the mountain to prepare for the role, the house name Sils Maria
“Cloud Sils Maria” is a deep exploration of fame in the film industry as well the theater circuit. The film divided by chapters present a conflict, young vs old, from Mari to Valentine, they argue on how important celebrities are portrait themselves in the media to be relevant. This is when Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloë Grace Moretz) appears, which is the new younger antagonist she is a reflection of Maria at her younger years as an actress. Maria is famous but is not relevant as Jo-Ann is.
The film is powerful, with great performances and a very unusual structure that makes the audience question the reality of the characters and their actual presence on film.
Monday, July 20, 2015
Director Asif Kapadia (Senna) of the documentary Amy presents the very beginning a conflicted and troubled rising star that just want to write good songs and play the best music she ever can.
Kapadia’s take on Amy is the use of archival footage, the same style that he used on his film Senna. A very risky technique that contains you into material that is controlled, but also is challenging, you don’t have a way to ask the right or wrong questions the interviews are there and you need to use whatever you want and make it meaningful.
In contrast Amy a singer songwriter and Senna a race car driver both wanted to reach the higher level of their career but with a certain prize. Amy becomes successful easily for her personality and charisma, but also for her capacity of manipulate people around her. That was the beauty of her persona. Senna have a dream since he was a kid, be the best driver and win all the awards and fame that he can. His personality was charismatic, but competitive. The dream of going fast for both of these characters was the reason of their demise. Senna killed in 1994 in a F1 of San Marino, for Amy managing pressure to be the star that they want and not the one that Amy was looking for. She went faster and faster just please the people who were controlling her, dying in 2011.
Amy documentary feeds the audience with a very in depth dissection of her songs, connecting us with her most personal and crucial moments, giving a meaning of her sad and darkest lyrics. Her dad, her boyfriends, her problems with drugs and alcoholism are presented in on screen lyrics highlighting her life presented in music and images.
Kapadia style in Amy is similar to Senna, but with different pacing. The director and editor never tried to please the audience with musical intermissions to make a musical documentary, but besides a documentary about this true artist that we lost too soon.
Kapadia’s take on Amy is the use of archival footage, the same style that he used on his film Senna. A very risky technique that contains you into material that is controlled, but also is challenging, you don’t have a way to ask the right or wrong questions the interviews are there and you need to use whatever you want and make it meaningful.
In contrast Amy a singer songwriter and Senna a race car driver both wanted to reach the higher level of their career but with a certain prize. Amy becomes successful easily for her personality and charisma, but also for her capacity of manipulate people around her. That was the beauty of her persona. Senna have a dream since he was a kid, be the best driver and win all the awards and fame that he can. His personality was charismatic, but competitive. The dream of going fast for both of these characters was the reason of their demise. Senna killed in 1994 in a F1 of San Marino, for Amy managing pressure to be the star that they want and not the one that Amy was looking for. She went faster and faster just please the people who were controlling her, dying in 2011.
Amy documentary feeds the audience with a very in depth dissection of her songs, connecting us with her most personal and crucial moments, giving a meaning of her sad and darkest lyrics. Her dad, her boyfriends, her problems with drugs and alcoholism are presented in on screen lyrics highlighting her life presented in music and images.
Kapadia style in Amy is similar to Senna, but with different pacing. The director and editor never tried to please the audience with musical intermissions to make a musical documentary, but besides a documentary about this true artist that we lost too soon.
Monday, June 22, 2015
A film that talks about how films shape your life is one of the most appealing things I ever seen in recent years. Alfonso Gomex-Rejon, director of “Me , Earl and The Dying Girl” tells the story of Greg an awkward kid who place safe with everyone at school, by associate to the multiple cliques around them, an attitude that will teach him that life is not about protecting himself of the drama and emotional roller coaster of a normal teenager.
His escapism is movies, an early discover with his father (Nick Offerman) who loves art films like Werner Herzog, but also was a time when he met Earl ,(Ronald Cyler II) an African American kid who lives nearby in a rough neighborhood. Greg and Earl become associated and friends making wonderful but also awful versions of classical films. A sudden news come to Greg’s parent’s, a school friend Rachel Kushner ( Olivia Cooke) is diagnosed with Leukemia so Mr and Mrs Gaines (Greg’s parents) ask him to develop a friendship with Rachel in order to give her moral support and also company.
The film will develop in a interesting story of love, friendship and movies.
Me, Earl and The Dying Girl is an ingenious film with a lof of film references and influences, from director Michell Gondry “Be Kind Rewind” to visual techniques like François Truffaut and Stanley Kucbrick.
The story is powerful with great performances, Alfonso Gomex-Rejon developed a great tools of storytelling techniques.
His escapism is movies, an early discover with his father (Nick Offerman) who loves art films like Werner Herzog, but also was a time when he met Earl ,(Ronald Cyler II) an African American kid who lives nearby in a rough neighborhood. Greg and Earl become associated and friends making wonderful but also awful versions of classical films. A sudden news come to Greg’s parent’s, a school friend Rachel Kushner ( Olivia Cooke) is diagnosed with Leukemia so Mr and Mrs Gaines (Greg’s parents) ask him to develop a friendship with Rachel in order to give her moral support and also company.
The film will develop in a interesting story of love, friendship and movies.
Me, Earl and The Dying Girl is an ingenious film with a lof of film references and influences, from director Michell Gondry “Be Kind Rewind” to visual techniques like François Truffaut and Stanley Kucbrick.
The story is powerful with great performances, Alfonso Gomex-Rejon developed a great tools of storytelling techniques.
Los Angeles is always a great scenarios for personal stories of struggle and success, specially when the subject is an African American raised in rough neighborhoods. From John Singleton’s “Boyz in the Hood”, John N. Smith “Dangerous Mind” and Paul Haggis “Crash” these films explore African American trying to make it, but with a very shocking consequences.
In the film “Dope” director Famuyiwa presents a very simple story with very complex consequences. Malcolm Adekanbi (Shamik Moore) is a high school senior who lives with his mother. Malcom’s dad left to Africa when he was a little kid. Malcolm’s love 90’s hip hop, from wearing the traditional clothing to hear the music and also been devoted to that cultural trend. His biggest dream is to go to Harvard, but as an African American his advisory is not to happy about it, he also demoralized Malcom to desist the idea.
Malcolm have two friends, Jib and Diggy,( Tony Revolori and Kersey Clemons) both are geek like him and they spent time in their bicycles going around the rough neighborhood of Inwood in Los Angeles. In a strange chain of events in a party Malcolm end up with his back pack fill with molly and a gun and that’s when the real adventure of Dope start.
The film to me is like putting the essence of Pulp Fiction in a high school in Los Angeles. The story takes you from many intricate corners of Malcom’s and the gang trying to get rid of the drug and doing things right. The film is funny, shocking but also have a good heart, because presents a great social statement about stereotypes of African American who wants to have the sames chances like everyone else.
Dope have the perfect soundtrack for the summer, curated by Pharrell. The film is produced by Forest Whitaker and Sean Combs.
In the film “Dope” director Famuyiwa presents a very simple story with very complex consequences. Malcolm Adekanbi (Shamik Moore) is a high school senior who lives with his mother. Malcom’s dad left to Africa when he was a little kid. Malcolm’s love 90’s hip hop, from wearing the traditional clothing to hear the music and also been devoted to that cultural trend. His biggest dream is to go to Harvard, but as an African American his advisory is not to happy about it, he also demoralized Malcom to desist the idea.
Malcolm have two friends, Jib and Diggy,( Tony Revolori and Kersey Clemons) both are geek like him and they spent time in their bicycles going around the rough neighborhood of Inwood in Los Angeles. In a strange chain of events in a party Malcolm end up with his back pack fill with molly and a gun and that’s when the real adventure of Dope start.
The film to me is like putting the essence of Pulp Fiction in a high school in Los Angeles. The story takes you from many intricate corners of Malcom’s and the gang trying to get rid of the drug and doing things right. The film is funny, shocking but also have a good heart, because presents a great social statement about stereotypes of African American who wants to have the sames chances like everyone else.
Dope have the perfect soundtrack for the summer, curated by Pharrell. The film is produced by Forest Whitaker and Sean Combs.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
The brain is one of the most complex organs from human beings. It have the ability to manage, memories, emotions, but also is capable to control the body and the proper functioning.
When we born, the brain is already working and developing. But when we are out of the whom, the brain is trying to keep up with the activity that surround us.
That's basically when the story of "Inside Out" start. A little girl was born, Riley Anderson but also the first emotion of this girl shows up Joy (Amy Poehler) who is responsible of taking care of the most happy and joyful feeling of Riley. Then the next one of the gang appears. Sadness (Phyllis Smith) Fear (Bill Hader) Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kailing).
Throughout the years of Riley childhood everything seems to run smoothly, until Riley's parents decide to move to San Francisco for a business opportunity. This is the moment when the world is crumbly around for the emotions and of course to Riley.
Inside Out is a film by Pete Docter. No strange from the genre of animation. He have written the story of films like Up, WALL-E and Toy Story 1 and 2 and the subjects that he covered are related to human connection, life and of course emotions. Probably in "Inside Out" Docter combined all this different elements from past film and merged into a very original and self explanatory story about a kids brain, how thoughts, emotions and the intricate aspects the human brain works. During a Q&A at the Museum of Moving images, he confessed that he create the story with the help of neurologist and physiologist, but also with his own personal experiences as a father.
This is a movie from a point of view from a kid, but told by adults. "Inside Out" is very original and groundbreaking film when it comes to storytelling, character development and fine performance by all the actors on this movie.
I highly recommend this movie, is funny, original and most of all compelling. In fact it brought me tears at the end.
When we born, the brain is already working and developing. But when we are out of the whom, the brain is trying to keep up with the activity that surround us.
That's basically when the story of "Inside Out" start. A little girl was born, Riley Anderson but also the first emotion of this girl shows up Joy (Amy Poehler) who is responsible of taking care of the most happy and joyful feeling of Riley. Then the next one of the gang appears. Sadness (Phyllis Smith) Fear (Bill Hader) Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kailing).
Throughout the years of Riley childhood everything seems to run smoothly, until Riley's parents decide to move to San Francisco for a business opportunity. This is the moment when the world is crumbly around for the emotions and of course to Riley.
Inside Out is a film by Pete Docter. No strange from the genre of animation. He have written the story of films like Up, WALL-E and Toy Story 1 and 2 and the subjects that he covered are related to human connection, life and of course emotions. Probably in "Inside Out" Docter combined all this different elements from past film and merged into a very original and self explanatory story about a kids brain, how thoughts, emotions and the intricate aspects the human brain works. During a Q&A at the Museum of Moving images, he confessed that he create the story with the help of neurologist and physiologist, but also with his own personal experiences as a father.
This is a movie from a point of view from a kid, but told by adults. "Inside Out" is very original and groundbreaking film when it comes to storytelling, character development and fine performance by all the actors on this movie.
I highly recommend this movie, is funny, original and most of all compelling. In fact it brought me tears at the end.
Friday, May 1, 2015
AVA
Love in the modern world is probably one of the biggest mystery in our society. The lack of human interaction and the replacement of that personal and close interaction it's been replaced by electronic communication. From email, web chat, instant text messaging, internet dating and app based dating choices, people are more afraid of meet someone in person and rely on technology to develop the basic thing which is connection.
Hollywood have explore human interaction with artificial intelligence as part of the exploration of human nature and personality against a machine.
From Terminator (Human-robot bond friendship) 2001 (Human - A.I. Spaceship crew member) Her (Human - Robot companion) Blade Runner (Human - A.I. working, pleasure robot) A.I. Artificial intelligence (Human - A.I. family member replacement) Alien and Prometheus (Human - A.I. Spaceship crew member) all this films shows the different aspects of A.I. presence in the real world.
Alex Garland's "Ex Machina" tales the story of Caleb (Domhall Gleeson) a worker for the company Bluebook. At the beginning of the movie Caleb is chosen by the company lottery to visit the company CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac) house in the mountains. Nathan house is a paradise, with all the amazing aspect of a technologic masterpiece as well the perfect location to learn and experiment.
Nathan is a very eccentric person, who lives only with his servant Kyoko a non English speaking assistant, Nathan idea is use Caleb to perform a Touring Test (Based on the work of Alan Touring) on his A.I. named AVA (Alicia Vikander). The idea is to understand how human AVA can be and discover if her behavior can be distinguished from human to A.I.
The relationship between AVA and Caleb develops into a romantic attachment.
Ex Machina becomes am instant classic for the nature of the subject, the film making techniques, as well sound and music but also the powerful story with a very nihilistic conclusion who will everyone wonder. Films like Blade Runner is immediately connected, because it creates a conflict between right or wrong and how science defies god by using technology to provide companionship to humans. Technology is develop to make life easier, not to replace life and turning life against us.
This film Ex Machina is a great movie with a powerful performance by Oscar Isaac, Alicia Viaknder and a great piece of film making by Alex Garland.
Hollywood have explore human interaction with artificial intelligence as part of the exploration of human nature and personality against a machine.
From Terminator (Human-robot bond friendship) 2001 (Human - A.I. Spaceship crew member) Her (Human - Robot companion) Blade Runner (Human - A.I. working, pleasure robot) A.I. Artificial intelligence (Human - A.I. family member replacement) Alien and Prometheus (Human - A.I. Spaceship crew member) all this films shows the different aspects of A.I. presence in the real world.
Alex Garland's "Ex Machina" tales the story of Caleb (Domhall Gleeson) a worker for the company Bluebook. At the beginning of the movie Caleb is chosen by the company lottery to visit the company CEO Nathan (Oscar Isaac) house in the mountains. Nathan house is a paradise, with all the amazing aspect of a technologic masterpiece as well the perfect location to learn and experiment.
Nathan is a very eccentric person, who lives only with his servant Kyoko a non English speaking assistant, Nathan idea is use Caleb to perform a Touring Test (Based on the work of Alan Touring) on his A.I. named AVA (Alicia Vikander). The idea is to understand how human AVA can be and discover if her behavior can be distinguished from human to A.I.
The relationship between AVA and Caleb develops into a romantic attachment.
Ex Machina becomes am instant classic for the nature of the subject, the film making techniques, as well sound and music but also the powerful story with a very nihilistic conclusion who will everyone wonder. Films like Blade Runner is immediately connected, because it creates a conflict between right or wrong and how science defies god by using technology to provide companionship to humans. Technology is develop to make life easier, not to replace life and turning life against us.
This film Ex Machina is a great movie with a powerful performance by Oscar Isaac, Alicia Viaknder and a great piece of film making by Alex Garland.
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