Movies watched recently

Lisbon story: this movie is too slow and it doesn't work because it has almost no fascinating elements. The monologue about cinema is funny, the acting is natural and the music is beautiful. The camera angles are well chosen and it gives you a fine idea of Lisbon, close to reality.
Night at the museum: clichéd and with the typical moralism. Still the visual effects are excellent, the acting is funny and some of the jokes work well. This is nice if you're looking for a decent kids' movie.


Scoop: typical Woody Allen comedy. Hilarious and very quotable. Well acted, enjoyable and thought-provocking. Watch this and Match Point together.


The squid and the whale: one of the best indies I've watched. Its subject matter is realistical, the characters are profoundly humane and flawed, the screenplay is touching and sometimes painfully funny. The acting is brillinat, without any false tone and the music is beautifully used.

Fellini's Roma: exotic, original and poetic. Even if the directing is breath-taking, all scenes are enjoyable and meaningful and together they give a good portrait of Rome , I think the lack of a storyline made this a bit confusing. It's still worth watching and beautiful.
Arsenic and old lace: Laugh out loud screwball comedy with a lot of original characters. THe dialog is superb and amusing. The acting and direction are also excellent.


Mar Adentro (The Sea Inside): great drama. It will make you cry and it's affecting, but it's never manipulating. Dealing with a complicated subject, it never takes sides. The direction is beautiful, the acting is very strong from everyone , the music and the photography are great.

The Brooklyn Follies

This is the second Paul Auster novel I've read, and I personally found it better than The Book of Ilusions, which had some excellent moments and some terrible ones. This is an heartwarming tale (or should I say several tales) about redemption and the beauty of life. It's a pleasure to read, with all the funny twists, intelligent dialogue, interesting life stories, realistic characters, and uplifting conclusion. The ambience varies between tragic and comic, and it always feels right. I loved the unravelling of the story, with the characters changing and developing naturally. They are all very original and beautifully described, with unique charactersistics. The relationships between all the characters are realistic and, in the end, positive, with people really connecting with each other. Even if sometimes this is too hopeful, it always feels warm and it's enteretaining. It obviously follows Paul Auster'ps typical obsessions and situations, but it's a wonderful read.

Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

I read three books by Michael Cunningham: The Hours, which is my favorite, Flesh and Blood and Specimen Days, which is my least favorite. I really liked it, almost loved it, but I loved the others in all aspects. This one has three stories, starring each a man named Simon, a woman named Catharine (or a variant) and a boy named Luke (or Lucas). There's a victorian ghost story, amodern day cop thriller and a sci-fi love story, by thids order. The first one was my favorite, it reaches Cunningham's other books greatness. The characters are fascinating, the writing is poetic, beautiful and haunting, The twists are intelligent, the pace is exciting and at the same time reflective, and the ambience is uniquely strange. It's filed with gorgeously dark descriptions, and I was absorbed by this. It made me think about life, death and love. The second story is still very well written, but the dialogue was unrealistic and the subplots weren't developed enough. Even so, it builds a convincing athmosphere, you can feel the fear of the characters, and the children are brilliantly sinister and evocative. The ending leaves you wanting to know more and thinking about the story. The last one was the one I liked the leaqst. Even if I liked the characters, the settings were terrible, very clichéd and typical. Besides, why are ETs always green humanoids with some distinctive feature, but still able to speak, walk andreacting like humans? This had too much action, and Cunningham obviously doesn't really know what to do with sci-fi, creating alien words and an apocalyptic, unbelievable version of a near future. But I loved the painful ending and the love that Simon is unable to express. It's good to compare the stories and see the similarities, that go beyond the names and Walt Withman. Together, they create a beautiful mesage about the power people have to heal and love each other. This is a very original read, but it's not a good book if you're just starting this author's work.

Monsoon Wedding

Monsoon Wedding is the first indian movie I've watched, and I found it very original, vibrant and exuberant. The screenplay is very good. A traditional indian marrige in the 21st century is the beginning point on a study on human relationships and a country trying to find an equilibrium between modernity and tradition. The approach isn't very subtle, but the message isn't forced or repeated like absolut truth either. The characters are believable they are just people and they talk, act and think like it. The stories are well built, give you a good insight on lifes of different people and have a good pace, this movie never becomes boring.

The acting is very good. As I didn't know any of the actors, they automatically became the characters they were playing. Vasundhara Das, who plays Aditi, the bride, gives her character grace, beauty and sensibility, never overacting in a quietly remarkable performance. Naseeruddin Shah plays the father very well having a few remarkable scenes. Tilotama Shome, who plays Alice, should have had more screen time, but she still had a great chemistry with her romantic pair. The cast is consistent and believable.

The direction is good. The camera angles capture sensuality and at the same time an everyday feeling. The digital photography works and gives Monsoon Wedding bright, clear colouring. The music is indian, but in all styles and types. This sometimes benefits the scenes, but it might make them sound like a soap opera. The wardrobe is beautiful and appropriatte, I loved some of the traditional costumes. Overall, this is an original movie with a very interesting subject.