Bloglovin

Følg min blogg med bloglovin

Kosmorama 2010 - reviews

The festival is over and here are my thoughts on the movies I saw. All in all it was a great festival, but then again, how bad can it be to watch movies all day long :P

My Name is Khan (India)
An Indian boy with Asperger syndrome moves to USA and meets the love of his life. This is a LONG movie. It contains too many stories and all in all it's not believable or realistic.

The shock doctrine (UK)
An investigation of "disaster capitalism", based on Naomi Klein's proposition that neo-liberal capitalism feeds on natural disasters, war and terror to establish its dominance. Interesting ideas that keep you thinking throughout the movie and can stir up quite the discussion. Really worth a look.

Sergio (USA)
This is a documentary about the life and work of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and the rescue operation when he was trapped and injured by a bomb explosion at UN headquarters in Baghdad. It's a very personal movie which moves you in a way you wouldn't expect from a documentary.

R (Denmark)
GO SEE! It's a powerful movie from the great nation of Denmark. We follow Rune who is convicted of murder and incarcerated. Life in prison is no joke. Apparently were all the situations based on true stories and the only professional actor in the movie is Rune - the others are former inmates, some even served time in the closed prison used in the movie.

Lebanon (Israel/Germany)
We follow 4 young Israeli soldiers during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982. They are sent with a tank to search a hostile town, a simple mission that turns into a nightmare. This movie shows so clearly how there are no winners in war and that no matter which side you are on people have the same emotions.

Francesca (Romania)
Wanting to follow the current trend, Francesca, a young teacher from Bucharest, is eager to emigrate to Italy. The plan is that her boyfriend, Mita, is going to join her in Italy as soon as he closes the small business he runs. Things take an unfortunate turn and priorities change. I found the story to be somewhat boring, but the movie itself is nicely made.

Ander (Spain)
Ander, a farmer well into his forties, lives with his sister Arantxa and his old mother in a remote part of rural Basque country. One day Ander has an accident and breaks his leg. Against his mother's wishes, the family decides to employ a Peruvian immigrant, José, in order to help out with the farm work. When he invites José to Arantxa's wedding this leads to a serious clash with his mother. And then, at a completely unexpected moment, a sexual encounter occurs between the two men. A sweet story but it is slightly too long and the colors faded which is a shame as this is shot in beautiful surroundings.

Eyes Wide Open (Israel)
A married, Orthodox Jewish father of four falls in love with a twenty two year old male student. A wonderful story about love in the most forbidden way.

Leo's Room (Uruguay/Argentina)
Leo, a young man coming to terms with his own sexuality, runs into Caro, a primary school friend he fancied when they were kids, who's now trying to ward off her own personal demons. This casual re-encounter will affect their personal conflicts without either truly grasping the others problem. This was the third gay themed movie of the day, and of the three I found Eyes wide open to be more interesting, but Leo's Room was entertaining and light but still with some thought worthy topics.

Ein Augenblick Freiheit (France/Austria/Turkey)
We follow a group of Iranian refugees that travel to Turkey in the search for a new and better life. It has a good combination humor, sadness and realness to it. It's not the most compelling movie I've seen but it is definitely worth a look.

Blessed (Australia)
This is probably the best movie of the festival. So powerful and so wonderfully made. During the first part we follow 7 lost children with a strong backdrop of contemporary Melbourne. Then the movie changes perspectives and we follow the mothers of these children. This change is quite interesting filmatically and narratively. A well made movie with a strong story!

En ganske snill mann (Norway)
This movie from Norwegian top director Hans Petter Moland was such a surprise. It's hilarious and Stellan Skarsgård does an amazing job as the main character. I have never laughed this hard of a Norwegian movie.

Snøhulemannen (Norway)
Sverre has lived in snow caves the last 30 years. This documentary takes us on a fantastic journey of the Norwegian countryside. A funny, philosophical and poignant film about total freedom.

Kosmorama 2010 - Part II

On popular demand, here comes the complete list with notes. If it doesn't make sense, it's because it was originally meant for only me. Some explanation of notes can be found at the bottom.

Film	IMDB	Kommentar
Sergio	8,6	M=9, få votes (52) men bra vektet! NUSV=8,2
Cafe Noir	8,6	NB. 12 votes, men høy skåre!!
Leo's room	8,5	Kun 12 votes. M=8
Mary og Max	8,3	Mange votes!! M=9
R	8,1	M=8, få votes (20) men bra vektet!
Et øyeblikk frihet	8,1	NB! Bra vektet
Djevelens trekkspill	8	M=8, bra vektet
The children of Diyarbakir	7,9	M=9, 40 votes totalt. NUSV=7,5
Soundtrack for a revolution	7,8	M=8, få votes (34) NUSV=7,5 Top1000V=8,0.
Northless	7,8	M=7 Bare 33 votes
Libanon	7,8	M=8, bra vektet Non-US voters.
The bone man	7,7	M=8, NUSV=7,7 1200 votes totalt
On the way to school	7,7	M=8, men like mange 10ere som 8ere.
Lola	7,7	Kun 15 votes. M=8
Jalainur	7,7	NB! Flest 7ere, trolig snakk om 7,2
Eastern plays	7,7	NB! 7,8 el mer. Mange 10ere
Francesca	7,6	44% 10ere!!
Air doll	7,6
White material	7,5	M=7, bra vektet.
The little one	7,5	M=7, 63 votes.NUSV=7,1
I love you phillip Morris	7,5	42% 10ere!
Er Dong	7,5	Bare 10 votes men bra vektet.
En ganske snill mann	7,5	Flest 7ere og 8ere.
The general	7,4	M=10 (45%) Hmm.. Høyt USV, lavt NUSV.
The Descent	7,4	M=8, MANGE votes. NUSV=7,5
Ordinary people	7,4	Flest 10ere (29%) men mange 1ere (16%) 93 votes
Operasjon froskeegg	7,4	Barnefilm
The day will come	7,3	M=8, 41 votes totalt. NUSV=7,0
Samson and Delilah	7,3	M=8, ca 800 votes.
Katalin Varga	7,3	X=7,5 M=8, virker dog bra vektet
the shock doctrine	7,2	M=7, Bra vektet.
Med åpne øyne	7,2	Flest 8ere
Ander	7,2
The day God walked away	7,1	M=6, 33 votes totalt. NUSV=6,5
Sensommerlunsj i Roma	7,1	M=7
Night and fog	7,1	M=7
London river	7,1	M=7
Desert flower	7,1
The last days of emma blank	7	M=7. 400 votes.
Blessed	7	flest 10ere
9'	7
Paju	6,9	M=7 59 votes bra vektet.
My name is Khan	6,9	NB! M=10 50% 10ere!!
Ajami	6,9
Shifty	6,8	M=7, 600 votes. NUSV=6,9 Top1000V=6,5
Bodyguards and assassins	6,8
At the end of daybreak	6,8
Amreeka	6,8
The house of the devil	6,6	M=7 NUSV=6,3
Kaniksen	6,6	M=7, 38 votes totalt. NUSV=6,5
Petropolis	6,5	NB! 20 votes. M=8,5
I'm gonna explode	6,4	Sykt mange 1ere.
The limits of control	6,2	M=7. Jim Jarmusch men dårlig blant alle.
Mum and dad	6	M=7 (mange votes)
Angel at sea	5,9
There	5,8	Flest 10ere (33%) av totalt 27 votes. NUSV=5,9
Ashes and blood	5,8
Nattsug	4,5	M=6 Bare 24 votes
Fog		Ingen votes
The revenant	?	Ingen karakter oppgitt.
Snøhulemannen	?	Ingen votes
Queer China, Comrade China	?	Ingen votes
Kampen om Thamshavnbanen	?
Ghost town	?	Finner ikke filmen, men regissør på imdb
En helt vanlig dag på jobben	?
X= gjennomsnitt
M= Median
NUSV= Non US voters
USV= US voters
Top1000V= Top 1000 voters

KOSMORAMA 2010

It's finally time for the 6th annual film festival in Trondheim - Kosmorama! Everyone applauds and pees a little in their pants from joy - atleast I do. I give you the list of movies rated from best to lowest (in IMDB votes)! It should be noted that many of the movies only have a couple of votes and may be biased in rating. My personal list includes references to which movies that apply to, but due to difficulties in posting those (mainly cause I hardly understand my own notes) I won't post those. But if you want input just ask me :) There are also a couple of movies on the program not listed here and that is because of the lack of votes or entry on IMDB. On those you are on your own. As always there are a couple of MUST sees, some movies with 7,2+ that might be good or might be bad. Those under 7,2 are a risk, but in those cases I would recommend checking the number of votes and other reviews on the world wide web. Have loads of fun and enjoy the festival! Let the fun commence!

Sergio	8,6
Cafe Noir	8,6
Leo's room	8,5
Mary og Max	8,3
R	8,1
Et øyeblikk frihet	8,1
Djevelens trekkspill	8
The children of Diyarbakir	7,9
Soundtrack for a revolution	7,8
Northless	7,8
Libanon	7,8
The bone man	7,7
On the way to school	7,7
Lola	7,7
Jalainur	7,7
Eastern plays	7,7
Francesca	7,6
Air doll	7,6
White material	7,5
The little one	7,5
I love you phillip Morris	7,5
Er Dong	7,5
En ganske snill mann	7,5
The general	7,4
The Descent	7,4
Ordinary people	7,4
Operasjon froskeegg	7,4
The day will come	7,3
Samson and Delilah	7,3
Katalin Varga	7,3
the shock doctrine	7,2
Med åpne øyne	7,2
Ander	7,2
The day God walked away	7,1
Sensommerlunsj i Roma	7,1
Night and fog	7,1
London river	7,1
Desert flower	7,1
The last days of emma blank	7
Blessed	7
9'	7
Paju	6,9
My name is Khan	6,9
Ajami	6,9
Shifty	6,8
Bodyguards and assassins	6,8
At the end of daybreak	6,8
Amreeka	6,8
The house of the devil	6,6
Kaniksen	6,6
Petropolis	6,5
I'm gonna explode	6,4
The limits of control	6,2
Mum and dad	6
Angel at sea	5,9
There	5,8
Ashes and blood	5,8
Nattsug	4,5

Upcoming movies

Since the bus left without me I have some time to drink my morning coffee and surf the interwebz. There are a lot of good movies coming in the next couple of months. Not to mention that Kosmorama is in march. Yay! Here's a couple of movies to look forward to:

Alice in Wonderland - Yay, we love Tim Burton and his team! Johnny Depp and Burton's wife Helena Bonham Carter is ofcourse in this flick too. We love them all!

Where the wild things are - Spike Jonze has adapted this 10 sentence book into moving pictures. I'll see the Norwegian version next week, will let ya know.

The road - based on Cormac McCarthy's bestseller book.

Invictus - Clint Eastwoods new movie. Will be in theatres february 5th.

Shutter Island - Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio...

Loads to look forward to and more to come when I have more time!

Stardust

So I just saw stardust again as it was showing on tv and I can't help to think that it's a really cool movie. It's the classic anti-hero fairytale that gets me in a good mood. It's actually very witty and the story is creative, fun and sweet. It doesn't fall into the the typical romantic comedy pit falls with the hero saving the day, but rather he messes up and falls alot.. and then I guess he saves the day. The cast does a great job in my opinion and it's the perfect magical fairytale feel good movie for any grey, cold day or sunny shiny day.. Whatever tickles your fancy. Seeing as I've seen it (sadly enough) 3 times, I seem to be at a loss of words.. you see.... I guess the point being; it's definitely worth a watch for those adventure junkies out there, and you know who you are!

Avatar

The long awaited James Cameron movie "Avatar" is finally here. James Cameron, behind Aliens and Terminator I and II and a little known movie called Titanic, has been on the slow side the past decade. After watching Avatar I can see why. The graphics alone must have taken years. The visual aspect of the movie is pure ecstasy for the eyes. I had goose bumps for 3 hours straight. It was so visually stunning that the rather simple story was ignored. The colors, the amazing graphics, the wonderful play on light and of course the characters were soaked up and after 3 hours I wished I could have more. It's my new drug of choice. However, a sequel MUST have a better plot. Cameron is good on epic movies, but not for the imaginative stories. Avatar is a classic good vs. evil story. The RDA (Resource Development Administration) the largest single non-governmental organization in human space are a bunch of gold diggers looking for Unobtainium, a highly valuable mineral found on the moon Pandora which humans mine to save the earth from its energy crisis. Together with a military force they dig and destroy Pandora in search of Unobtainium. A research team is also located on Pandora and to encourage diplomacy between humans and the Na'vi they develop so-called Avatars. These avatars look like the Na'vi species, but are controlled by the humans they are made from through a link. Jake Sully is recruited to this research project after his brother a Phd working with the avatars, died. Jake Sully, a former marine, got injured in battle and is in a wheel chair. As an avatar he is able to run, jump and all that jazz which instantly makes him like the new world. Long story short; he tries to save Pandora from the big bad company.

The movie has several peaks, with the main climax being the battle for the tree of souls. If it wasn't for the amazing visual expression the movie would have been a long, boring one-dimensional crap fest. Of course the movie does have some relevance for todays climate crisis, but I doubt it will have any profound impact on todays social conscience. WALL-E does that better in my opinion.

Avatar is an epic movie. It has pictures out of this world. My visual cortex will be completely satisfied for at least a couple of weeks after this. The 3D makes it even more spectacular. It isn't the most innovative movie story wise, but if you can ignore that, then you are in for a real treat of a movie.

Once upon a time there was a blog...

Wow, long time no post... Loads of music experiences, movies and books later and the blog has been on hiatus. Maybe because there is nothing to procrastinate from. The most recent happenings would however be the Mew concert in Oslo a couple of weeks ago which was awesome times three. We had gallery seats which wasn't ideal, but I can pick out Jonas Bjerre from a mile away even without glasses so I couldn't be happier. They started out with the good classics at which point I might have shed a tear sadly enough, and went over to some new tunes. In all the played 6 new songs which is ok, since I still haven't gotten used to the "new" sound. Mew will be performing in Trondheim on february 12th and tickets have already been acquired :D

On monday I'm gonna see Avatar which I'm very much looking forward too. The trailer isn't too convincing in my opinion although I do get the obligatory nerdy chills when I see blue sci-fi creatures running around. It's James Cameron so I'm putting all my faith into that. The man hasn't made anything in a looong while so this better be good! Norwegian critics seem to be positive to the movie giving it 4s and 5s (out of 6).

Is there anything else worth mentioning? Hmm.. no new tv-shows that I like. True blood was a huge disappointment. The series has potential, but it insists on being this emo retarded thing with no deeper meaning than being about vampires. Yeah, it's in the south, yeah it's about vampire racism, but they don't play this further into the current sociopolitical state. It could easily have been paralleled with gay-lesbian rights and the prejudice against Arabs post 9/11, but they insist on sticking to the emo crap when they come close to anything even resembling some criticism of today's society. The intro is seriously the best thing about the damn show.

Well, I shall lay my head to sleep and dream of blue night elven looking creatures. Yes, very sad indeed that I dream of blue elves instead of.. well.. anything other than that would be acceptable.

The new Mew single :D



More at www.mewsite.com

Back in the blogsphere

Thesis delivered and it's TV season! So much to watch and so little time. That might change soon as Pushing Daises has not been picked up for season 2.5 and thus ends with 22 episodes. What a shame. It's probably one of my favorite shows. Fullers talents will not go to waste as he is likely to return to Heroes, but still, it's not the same. Unfortunately it seems they ended with a cliffhanger that obviously will not be followed up so it's too bad they weren't able to wrap up the series. It's talk of continuing the series in cartoon form so that the story will continue there, but it's all rather new, so we will see. I know I'm going to watch the last 4 or 5 episodes religiously with as much candy, hot chocolate and attention they deserve. On that not I'm going to go cry a little in the bath room, brb.


Ok, all cried out and ready to move on. Guitar hero seems to be the everyman's rock dream, and there's nothing like cranking up the star power and go full out! Now, I'm still on medium so I shouldn't brag too much, but these guys are pretty awesome!