La salada (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Juán Martín Hsu
	Actors: Ignacio Huang, Yunseon Kim, Chang Sun Kim, Nicolás Mateo, Paloma Contreras, Limbert Ticona, Lizeth Villaroel, Percy Jiménes
	Country: RA, E
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 25.09.2014, Kursaal 2, FSSDZ2014, Spanish with English subtitles
Synopsis: A mosaic of experiences for new immigrants in Argentina, from Bolivia, Taiwan, Korea. The three stories of people struggling with loneliness and alienation during La feria de la Salada, a huge fair in Lomas de Zamora, close to Buenos Aires. Bruno (Ticona) and his uncle (Jiménez) come to Argentina thanks to Yenny (Villaroel). Luciano (Mateo) is seduced by Yunjin (Yunseon Kim) while trading with her father Sr. Kim (Kim). Huang (Huang) feel lonely in his job and does not manages to get much contact with Ángeles (Contreras).
Review: The stories are full of authenticity. They are very funny because the humour is based on events that many immigrants encounter in the daily life. The humour is both of situation and of words.  The directing and technical work is very good and even excellent if we consider the working conditions in the Feria during the Feria. During the Q&A after the movie, Hsu explained that it was difficult to contain the people away from the camera. They all wanted to get an autograph of the actors, wanted to claim something to the camera or just say Hello.  FYI La salada is a huge fair created by a group of Bolivian migrants.
Rating: 7 /10

Rocks in my pocket (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Signe Baumane
	Actors: None
	Country: LV, USA
	Genre: Animation
	Conditions of visioning: 24.09.2014, Trueba 2, FSSDZ2014, English with Spanish subtitles
Synopsis: A fantastical tale based on true events, about five women of Signe Baumane's family, including herself, and their battles with depression and madness.
Review: The stories are true, explained with humour and respect. We travel also through the tumultuous history of Latvia, over Tsarism, Sovietism, Nizism and again Sovietism. This makes out of the family tale a kind of saga like the Dostoievski full of quotes à la Dostoievski. I loved that and this makes of Baumane a great story teller. The directing mixes animation with modeling clay and illustrations. Main problem in an animation movie is that the voice must fit. And the voice of Baumane is terrible. There is a lot of emotion. Fine. But the voice felt like a torture to me. With a few changes this would be a 8/10 worth.
Rating: 6 /10

Ciencias naturales (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Matías Lucchesi
	Actors: Paula Hertzog, Paula Barrientos
	Country: RA, F
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 24.09.2014, Trueba 2, FSSDZ2014, Spanish with English subtitles
Synopsis: Lila (Hertzog), a 12-years-old girl, has been educated by her mother in a lost part of Argentina, Los condores. Keen to know her identity, she decides to meet her father. She only knows he worked for a company building antennae in the region. When she escapes from the school, the teacher Jimena (Barrientos) decides to help her.
Review: The story sounds classical but the distances and the roughness in this remote region of Argentina makes it challenging and interesting. The landscapes are amazing and enhance the emotions provided by the amazing acting of Paula Hertzog. She is a very promising figure. For only 12-year-old her charisma when she is in front of the camera is incredible. With these landscapes, this solid story and such an actress, the technical work seems little but is very well done. This first ful size movie shows good mastering of Lucchesi. From a simple but solid story, it is talentuous to make a movie with suspense and force.
Rating: 8 /10

Princesa de Francia (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Matías Pineiro
	Actors: Julián Larquier Tellarini, Romina Paula
	Country: RA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 24.09.2014, Trueba 2, FSSDZ2014, Spanish with English subtitles
Synopsis: A year after his father's death in Mexico, Victor () returns to Buenos Aires with plans for the new play for his former theatre company.
Review: Their is not much in the story but a dance of characters having relations with one another. For this it has a bit the charm, the lightness of the Eric Rohmer movies. There are some scenes shot with a lot of humour, like the first football scene and the phone calls between Natalia and Victor.  When in Rohmer there was a kind of poetry in the scenery and in the acting, I do not see it here apart from these humourful scenes.  The dialogues do not spark my curiosity.
Rating: 4 /10

Dos disparos (2014)

	Also Known As: Two guns shot
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Martín Rejtman
	Actors: Rafael Federman, Susana Pampín, Benjamín Coelho
	Country: RA, RCH, D, NL
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 24.09.2014, Kursaal 2, FSSDZ2014
Synopsis: Early one morning after coming back from a night club, Mariano (Federman) finds casually a gun in the family house, shoots himself twice. He survives. How does the whole family including Mariano himself, his mother (Pampín), his brother Ezequiel (Coelho) react to this act?
Review: The story starts very dramatically and we expect then to get into the psychology of the different members of the family. But no. It starts with a close look to the brother, the mother and Mariano himself, but we stay at the surface. Slowly, the story is diverging and there are some comedy features.  The acting, the technical aspects and directing are ok. I did not find anything neither original nor noticeable because very well done.
Rating: 3 /10

Kaín gyermekei (2014)

	Also Known As: Cain's children
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Marcell Gerö
	Actors: Pál Pásztor,  József GáborNag, Zsolt Barcsai
	Country: F, H
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 24.09.2014, Kursaal 2, FSSDZ2014, Hungarian with Spanish/English subtitles
Synopsis: Three boys committed murder. After discovering their haunting faces and disturbing stories in a banned prison documentary from 1984, the film finds them today as adults.
Review: The three stories are shown alternating in a nice cut. I find impressive that not only the criminals but also their family speak so open about the events and about the family context. And all these family backgrounds are distorted and moving. Actually I was suprised that they dare to tell these things in front of a camera. None of them has been really integrated in the society. All of them regret deeply their acts and can barely speak about it. The question set by the movie is neither whether they are guilty or not, nor whether they paid their fault or not. But the result is at least that cutting young people from the society at a young age without making any effort (neither family nor society) to reintegrate them is very destructive for these lives.  The director explained in the discussion after the movie that the confidence has been created with the time, long time spent together with each of the interviewed, the interest shown by the director for their stories and the possibility for them to stop as soon as they wanted to.
Rating: 7 /10

Astro Boy (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: David Bowers
	Actors (voices): Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell
	Country: HK, J, USA
	Genre: Animation, Adventure, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 26.09.2014, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Toby (Highmore) is a science genius like his father Dr. Tenma (Cage) and he would like more attention from him. After a terrible accident, the father recreates a robot at the image if his son.
Review: It is not a coincidence that I watched this movie a few days after I did Space Pirate Captain Harlock: I was watching both animated series as a kid, so I guess my memories of ones are linked to the other. Actually I was so young when watching Astro Boy that I remember better my collection of stickers than the series itself. We didn't hear much about Astro Boy the movie when it was released and it was quickly forgotten. Not surprising actually: if it can please kids, it is only as basic as that and the level is too low for an adult audience, in spite of an attractive voice cast: Nicolas Cage, Samuel Jackson, Alan Tudyk, Elle Fanning, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron... The SFX are good and the characters could be interesting, but for me the story is very weak and too predictable, making the movie no more than easy entertainment for an evening when you want to watch animation.
Rating: 3 /10

Kak menya zovut (2014)

	Also Known As: Name me
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Nigina Sayfullaeva
	Actors: Konstantin Lavronenko, Alexandra Bortich, Marina Vasilieva
	Country: RUS
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 23.09.2014, Antiguo Berri, FSSDZ2014, Russian/Ukranian with Spanish/English subtitles
Synopsis: Two 17-years old Moscowite girls, Olya and Sasha, are going to the Crimea to meet Olya's father Sergey  (Lavronenko). Little did they know that the innocent joke they invent will turn into great drama and their lives forever.
Review: The story presents two girls characters very different and the impact of not having had a father on them. Moreover it shows their evolution when they encounter an image of father. For Olya her real father and for Sasha her pretended father. The changes are amazing of subtlety in the dramatisation and strength in the emotion. These extremes that appear quite unrealistic had been chosen by the director to enhance the situation and create emotions in the public.  The scenery for each scene enhances also the emotion to be felt in the scene. The acting is extreme and therefore looks a bit unrealistic. But in these extreme roles, the three main actors are convincing.  In the discussion after the movie, Sayfullaeva explained that the team of non-actors (except Lavronenko) lived together during the shooting in order to get more of the binding supposed to be seen between father and daughters.  For her concepts and methods, I find the director very promising.
Rating: 7 /10

Knocked Up (2007)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2007
	Director: Judd Apatow (The 40 Year-Old Virgin)
	Actors: Seth Rogen (Zack and Miri make a Porn), Katherine Heigl, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel (11:14, How I met your mother TV-series), Jay Baruchel (The Sorcerer's Apprentice), Jonah Hill (21 & 22 Jump Street), Alan Tudyk (Firefly TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 29.09.2014, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: After a celebration night, the young TV-hostess Allison (Heigl) gets pregnant from the one-night-stand jobless stoner Ben (Rogen).
Review:  This is the first movie I watch from Jude Apatow. I heard about the similarities of his style with the one of Kevin Smith in Too Fat for 40, learning that contrary to Smith, Apatow's movies make a lot of money because he stays within some boundaries that Smith easily crosses. The example was that the humour can be gross in Apatow's movies but not as far as the Donkey show in Smith's Clerks 2. Indeed Knocked Up is a Comedy in which the jokes are rather vulgar and sometimes fall out-of-place in an otherwise classic Romance. The solid and realistic romantic story is also sprinkled with geek references (cinema, Internet, SF, ...), making it look like a (rather well-done) mix of genre purposefully done so to please many audiences (guys, women, geeks, teenagers and adults alike). Another thing: before even watching the movie I noticed that 2h10 is very long for a Comedy, and indeed the pace is quite slow, sometimes too slow, and the jokes not as punchy as they could be. All of this to say that I still prefer Smith's style, but Knocked Up didn't displease me. It is also funny to watch the bunch of new comedians that now appear in several Apatow movies and many others, and that were reunited in This is the End. There are also short cameos from Steve Carel (Crazy, Stupid, Love) and James Franco (Spiderman 1-3) among others.
Rating: 6 /10

Vincent n'a pas d'écailles (2014)

	Also Known As: Vincent
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Thomas Salvador
	Actors: Thomas Salvador, Vimala Pons
	Country: F
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 23.09.2014, Antiguo Berri, FSSDZ2014, French with Spanish/English subtitles
Synopsis: Vincent (Salvador) hides in a small town in the Provence. He finds a job. But he feels good only in the water, the lakes and rivers of the region. His strength, reflexes and agility increase when in contact with water. There he meets Lucie (Pons), falls in love and shares his secret with someone for the first time.
Review: This superheroe story is original as the guy is a normal guy and tries to hide from the society. He manages to hide it well except when he is upset. The only scenes being too much and avoiding the development of the story is the long pursuit of Vincent by the police. The SFX are great especially in these superfluous scenes. The scenery in the Provence are wonderful. There is almost no dialogue, so that the love story looses in credibility, the atmospheres are not complete and some parts are frustrating as well as the story demanded for diaogues. This was very annoying to me.
Rating: 4 /10

Ventos do agosto (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Gabriel Mascaro
	Actors: Dandara de Morais, Geová Manoel dos Santos
	Country: BR
	Genre: Drama, Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 23.09.2014, Antiguo Berri, FSSDZ2014, Portuguese of Brasil with Spanish subtitles
Synopsis: Shirley (de Morais) and Jeison (dos Santos) work in a plantage. They love each other and do not think much about their future. When a sound hunter passes by and then away, this changes.
Review: The story does not start so bad with the couple of plantage workers and the sound hunter. But as soon as this dies, there is no explicit story. One just imagines that the lover Jeison is disturbed by the dead body. All the others are indifferent. The dialogues are very rare. Images of nature and plantation work are beautifully composed and show an excellent image quality, possibly more than 25 images per second. The sounds have been recorded like the wind hunter did, with a microphone and recomposed so that it sounds very uncluttered. I loved these pictures of people climbing trees, of water streams and drops, of living forest.
Rating: 4 /10

Historia del miedo (2014)

	Also Known As: Histoire de la peur, History of fear
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Benjamin Naishtat
	Actors: Jonathan Da Rosa, Tatiana Giménez
	Country: RA, UY, F, D
	Genre: Drama, Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 23.09.2014, Kursaal2, FSSDZ2014, Spanish with English subtitles
Synopsis: An helicopter warns the inhabitants of a Barrio (neighbourhood) that they have one week to leave. The loud speaker does not work. There a family faces unexplained small fires just behind their property. Tati and Pola work there as servant and gardener.
Review:  This is the first movie I see in the Donostia Zinemaldia 2014, the Film Festival of San Sebastian. This multiple social portrait presents different categories of people in the daily life and their fears, often linked to the unknown and its metaphor the dark in opposition to the light. Black out during the night having the kids playing outside; house alarm belling without knowing why; dogs barking in the far. The sudden appearance and disappearance of lights have been used a lot to generate this atmosphere. The sound track without music has been worked a lot to create atmospheres supporting the expression of fear. During the Q&A after the movie, the director explained his will to show that fear is amorph and therefore he did not want to show it via images but via atmospheres.
Rating: 6 /10

Die Welle (2008)

	Also Known As: The wave
	Year of first release: 2008
	Director: Dennis Gansel
	Actors: Jürgen Vogel, Frederick Lau, Max Riemelt, Jennifer Ulrich
	Country: D
	Genre: Drama, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 10.09.2014, Arte via livestream, German version
Synopsis: In modern Germany, a school organises a project week in which each class will approach one society concept going from democracy to autocracy. The autocracy group takes the exercise seriously and nazism-rise-like behaviour appear.
Review: The story from a novel by Todd Strasser (aka Morton Rhue) on a teaching experiment by history teacher Ron Jones in 1967 in Palo Alto is strong. It shows that the beast is living in us to use the words of Berthold Brecht ("Der Schoß ist fruchtbar noch, aus dem das kroch"). It is not so hard to become a nazi. It is not just a question of hating. It is also a question of doing anything for the own group regardless from the human manners and regardless from the rest.  The acting of Jürgen Vogel as teacher is as usual very natural, authentic and convincing. Also the directing of teenagers (Lau, Riemelt and Ulrich) is well done, as these appear to me with the will of finding their own identity, of getting out from their own family difficulties, of being engaged to enjoy life and find their own limits. The photography always tries to focus on the characters that are already a lot. It is not easy to adapt a book in a movie. This has been successful because the idea of the book is there even if many points and all the details are gone. Other details have been invented.
Rating: 8 /10

Albator, Corsaire de l'Espace (2013)

	Also Known As: Space Pirate Captain Harlock (English)
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Starship Troopers: Invasion)
	Actors (voices): Yû Aoi, Ayano Fukuda, Arata Furuta
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, SF, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 23.09.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema, 2D
Synopsis: While the decaying humanity is forbidden to go back to sacred Earth by the Gaia Coalition, Captain Harlock and his crew aboard the Arcadia are fighting against the established order.
Review: The fact that a whole generation enjoyed watching the animated 24-minute episodes of the cult TV-series when they where young doesn't mean that they will appreciate this long-awaited cinema adaptation. I was not the biggest fan of the series, finding it too dark for me at the time (I was probably too young for it) but I could still easily watch the episodes in which Albator (The name of Captain Harlock in French) was fighting against the bigger and bigger weapons that his enemies could conjure, and I definitely loved the design of his emblematic ship. This dark aspect is also present in the movie, the design of the Arcadia is awesome, the two mega weapons are impressive (one converting neutron stars into pure light power, an the other making use of Jupiter as particle accelerator!) and the space battles nicely done although the Arcadia seems too strong to be true, defeating some 68000 ships! When I first saw the trailer one year ago, I immediately noticed that the spaceships laser weapon design look very similar to the ones in Starship Troopers: Invasion (by the same director) and it is indeed the case, but pushing the comparison further I noticed that the landscapes, faces, movement animation, cities... are better-looking in this Captain Harlock thanks to progress in technology in only one year's time, or maybe a different approach, I don't know. Unfortunately, for me this avalanche of nice-looking shots doesn't compensate for the too slow rhythm, and the typical Japanese characteristic of being over-explicative and elliptic at the same time. It is also really difficult to relate to the characters because of their non-understandable reactions (like the one who changes side three times over). No wonder that the international version is 4 minutes shorter than the Japanese one (that I watched) to improve the rhythm, I even thought it would have been shortened to 1h30, like they did with The Day of Resurrection (a.k.a. Virus) in the 80's. Another disturbing element is the borrowings (mostly in designs) to many many other SF/Space Opera movies or books: from Wall-E to Starship Troopers Invasion, Titan A.E., Star Wars, The Universal War graphic novel, Joe Haldeman's Forever War, several Asimov and Clarke's novels...But this may as well only be because some of those were inspired by Japanimation in the first place, like James Cameron has never hidden.
Rating: 4 /10

Zona sur (2009)

	Also Known As: Southern district
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Juan Carlos Valdivia
	Actors: Ninón del Castillo, Pascual Loayza, Nicolás Fernández
	Country: BOL
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 07.09.2014, DVD
Synopsis: In La Paz, Bolivia, the classes are split in different areas of the city. The southern district is for the rich white people. The indios are servants or bring the market at home. But in modern Bolivia times are changing.
Review: I wanted to watch this movie to get in the mood of the upcoming Film Festival of San Sebastian showing a section with Hispanic movies. As Bolivia does not make many movies and being half Bolivian, I was even more curious when I saw this in the video store. The story of the end of the times when to be rich in Bolivia you had to be white is attractive. The racism and the machism are shown as latent values of the Bolivian society. I liked the way to present the decadent life (via the older brother) and the spirit of classes in this white family, especially the mother (del Castillo) and surprisingly also in the two servants, especially Wilson (Loayza). The fact that times change and that the indios have also money is coming more in the second half of the movie, but so unexplained and unintroduced that for European minds full of stereotypes this would associate the change in the Bolivian society as a consequence of the drugs economy. Other interesting topic approached is the feminism being nowadays a very hot potatoe in a still machist Bolivia. This movie is really showing the social evolution initiated in 2006 by the indio president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, even if he is never mentioned.  I loved the photography and also the amazing control on the camera, especially when the kid (Fernández) is on the roof of the house. This gives the impression of observing lives with distance and sometimes as if people had special powers. I liked this aspect and would have done even more in this direction. But this might be another movie.
Rating: 7 /10

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

	Also Known As: The Jack Ryan Initiative (French)
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Kenneth Branagh (Frankenstein, Hamlet, Thor)
	Actors: Chris Pine (Star Trek 1-2, This Means War), Kevin Costner (Dance with the Wolves), Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3), Kenneth Branagh (Wild Wild West, Valkyrie)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 22.09.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: After his helicopter accident in Afghanistan, the young analyst Jack Ryan (Pine) is recruited by the CIA to infiltrate a Wall Street Bank.
Review: This is the new reboot to the Jack Ryan franchise (based on the novels by Tom Clancy), the previous one being The Sum of all Fears (2002), and the three original movies in the series: The Hunt for Red October (1990), Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). I may soon watch the two latter (with Harrison Ford) to complete my knowledge of the series. I am not a big fan of Chris Pine as an actor, but I found this time he overplayed less than usual. The same actually goes for Keira Knightley whom I found changed since the Pirates of the Caribbean series, more subtle in her play. Kevin Costner is so experienced that he acts completely naturally, and I found Kenneth Branagh particularly good, conveying a lot of meaning with just one stare (in particular at the point when he realizes he has been played), this quality maybe coming from his theatrical background. The story starts well by establishing the character of Jack Ryan through the accident that made him fearful of helicopters throughout all of his future adventures. The bad guys and the stakes are also described slowly enough to be intriguing, and the tension is maintained until about 30 minute from the end. At that point, loopholes appear in the story and the rhythm accelerates frenetically, as if this would increase the tension, and maybe trying to copy The Sum of all Fears but the expected effect is not met and on the contrary the action become completely unbelievable and confused. That is really a pity for a movie that could have been not as good as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, but at least good. Funny that the English title copies the one of the Tom Cruise movie, while the French title looks more like the one of a Jason Bourne movie. This Jack Ryan is better than the most recent spy movie I have seen (The November Man), but probably still the worst of the five of the series.
Rating: 4 /10

21, Jump Street (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street)
	Actors: Jonah Hill (This is the End), Channing Tatum (G. I. Joe, White House Down), Ice Cube (Anaconda, Ghosts of Mars), Dave Franco (Now you See me)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 21.09.2014, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Schmidt and Jenko (Hill & Tatum), former high-school rivals, team up to succeed in becoming police officers. After failing their first bust, they are transferred to a special division where they are asked to infiltrate a high school drug network.
Review: I thought this movie was already reviewed by my co-blogger but actually only the sequel was (22, Jump Street). I am not familiar with Jonah Hill's filmography (I only saw This is the End) but from what I understand this movie bears his mark. I am also not familiar with the original series that revealed Johnny Depp but I gathered that it was a serious one, while this cinema adaptation is a continuous display of stupidity and dumb humour. I like absurd humour when is applied to a whole absurd universe (a Dodgeball world cup in the eponymous movie, male models day-to-day life in Zoolander), but apparently not when applied to a topic that could be treated seriously (drugs among teenagers). The two main characters are so stupid than any situation is a potential joke, and thus there can be no drama or tension in the movie. And it is not the false self-mockery at the beginning (making fun of remakes of 80's classics) nor (spoiler) the cameo by Johnny Depp that will justify making a stupid movie. OK I laughed a few times but I was more embarassed at what comedy has become, and the good ratings the movie got on IMDb for example, generating a sequel not two years later.
Rating: 3 /10

Starry Eyes (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Kevin Kolsch, Dennis Widmyer
	Actors: Alex Essoe, Amanda Fuller, Noah Segan, Pat Haely (The Innkeepers, Cheap Thrills)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 18.09.2014, GABRIEL Kino, MFFF2014
Synopsis: Sarah (Essoe) wishes to become a movie star at Hollywood but keeps on failing auditions, until at one of those she starts to show her true self.
Review: Fortunately I didn't even see the official poster of the movie before watching it. I find it tells you too much about where it is going (thus I have put a neutral one here), while I went to watch it only knowing the basic synopsis (above). I loved the realistic way in which the struggle of the young actress is depicted: her day job in a cheesy fast food restaurant (which owner is played by the excellent Pat Healy), her newly acquired friends in the same situation as her, the conflicts between young actresses, the failed auditions and the frustration, until the revelation. All of this making for a touching first hour, increasing in intensity until it reaches the breaking point. After that, spoiler: be ready for a blood bath. I found the main role very well played, as is the one of the producer (the relatively unknown Louis Dezseran). And the story really goes to a place I was not expecting, so that I liked Starry Eyes like I did American Mary last year: both immerse us progressively into worlds that could seem harmless at first: show business in this movie, strip clubs and surgery in the other.
Rating: 8 /10

White Bird in a Blizzard (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Gregg Araki (Kaboom!)
	Actors: Shailene Woodley, Eva Green (Casino Royale, 300: Rise of an Empire), Christopher Meloni
	Country: F, USA
	Genre: Drama, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 18.09.2014, CINEMA theater, MFFF2014
Synopsis: Kat (Woodley) was 17 when her mother (Green) disappeared. How was her teenager life before and after that event?
Review:  I enjoyed a lot Gregg Araki's previous movie Kaboom! for its energy and originality. In White Bird in a Blizzard, the main characters are younger that in Kaboom! (end of high school vs. college), but Araki shows them with his same talent, i.e. living their daily lives with their specific problems: relationship with friends, parents, school, boyfriends, sex... I like this realistic style. While the movie progresses, we learn more about the disappeared mother in unexpected and quite funny situations also involving the father, both parents very well played I found. But the heart of the story remains Kat and how she lives her life, and the way it is told makes it easy for feel for her. On the downside, the movie is a bit slow and predictable (except for the final twist), so that I didn't like it as much as Kaboom! which went madly is all directions.
Rating: 6 /10