Leave no trace (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Debra Granik
	Actors: Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Foster
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 10.09.2018, Schauburg,
Synopsis: Will (Foster) and his teenage daughter, Tom (McKenzie), have lived off the grid for years in the forests of Portland, Oregon. When their idyllic life is shattered, both are put into social services. After clashing with their new surroundings, Will and Tom set off on a harrowing journey back to their wild homeland.
Review: The plot sounds a bit like Captain Fantastic. And its drives indeed to the margin of the Western society, where people don't want to deal with consumption and money and want to cut with all human influences that they consider as destructive. Here we have much more realistic interactions with the society. Administration forcing people to be dependent and unhappy. People without understanding for outcast people. This sets another viewpoint on the meaning of having a job, of going to standard school, of paying taxes, of having a house. The fact that Tom struggles to get her father accepting the Western consumption society makes me have more understanding for the ones who do not accept it. The values of freedom and justice are not the same for everyone. It becomes even more critical to make the effort of listening to the other, even if apparently marginal, and to make the effort of accepting different references.  The acting of McKenzie and Foster is very emotional as it (their emotions) is what they have and what cannot be stolen or restricted by the rules of the Canadian society. There is not much action or intrigues that could require different acting register. After having discovered Jennifer Lawrence, Debra Granik discovers Thomasin McKenzie that looks more sensitive but also with a very strong personality.
Rating: 6 /10

Happy end (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Michael Haneke
	Actors: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Isabelle Huppert, Mathieu Kassowitz, Franz Rogowski, Fantine Harduin
	Country: F, D, A
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 27.09.2017, Gondel, French version with German subtitle
Synopsis: George Laurent (Trintignant) is gradually succumbing to dementia. This octogenarian patriarch of upper-bourgeois family dislikes sharing his palatial manor in Calais, with his twice-married son, Thomas (Kassowitz), and Anne (Huppert), his divorced workaholic daughter who has taken over the family construction business. Anne has to handle the impact of a disastrous workplace accident caused by her disappointing son Pierre's (Rogowski) negligence, while at the same time, the urgent hospitalisation of Thomas' ex-wife from a mysterious poisoning, leads his sulky 13-year-old daughter, Ève (Harduin), to live with her father and his new wife.
Review: The basic thread is built up slowly. One could say too slow. But like in a Balzac's book, every character is painted so that you know what is his/her situation and what he/she aims at. And also you which reason he/she has to get rid of the old George Laurent or of somebody else in the family. Therefore the family dinners look so deadly in the atmosphere and in the goals of everyone.  As often Isabelle Huppert acts excellently the tormented introverted woman. Mathieu Kassowitz acts in a rare role for him and shows that he an excellent actor even when he is not really challenged nor in focus.  I had the impression that Haneke is directing for the sake of the story but limits the suspense to one scene and the final scene. The relatively boring parts that make most of the film are so in order to highlight these two scenes where the extreme drama appear without much noise but between the lines.
Rating: 5 /10

Good time (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Benny and Josh Safdie
	Actors: Benny Safdie, Robert Pattinson, Jennifer Jason Leigh
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 25.09.2017, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Obsessively caring for his intellectually disabled brother, Nick (Safdie), the volatile criminal, Connie (Pattinson), involves his sibling in a bank robbery that promising being quick and easy ends up being a nightmare. Nick will wind up in Rikers Island after one unanticipated complication, forcing the desperate but determined Connie to embark on a non-stop runaway quest to bail Nick out. Over the course of a long and violent night, Connie will do more harm than good.
Review: The plot is clever. How to bring two marginalised individuals into so-called normal society. By making them feel and show brother affection as anybody would do, because they are in fact as anybody else. The constant instability of Nick is first disturbing and then rather annoying. He cares more about what the viewer would think about him being a good guy than about the good of his brother. This is the latent flaw in the story that is otherwise quite good. With not much to say, there is a kind of suspense and I was not bored for a long time.  This flaw reflects of course on the acting of Robert Pattinson that seems quite monotonous and exaggerated. Benny Safdie acts also very monotonous but it does not look exaggerated and I could buy it.  I liked the photography. Dark and realistic with all the takes in the night. The subjects always in good focus with regard to the darkness of the environment. The camera handling is often close to the documentary.
Rating: 5 /10

The man who killed Don Quixote (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Terry Gilliam
	Actors: Adam Driver, Jonathan Pryce
	Country: GB, F, B, E, P
	Genre: Adventure, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 17.09.2018, Schauburg, OV Sneak Preview, English/Spanish version with German subtitle
Synopsis: Toby (Driver), a cynical advertising director finds himself trapped in the outrageous delusions of an old Spanish shoe-maker Javier (Pryce) who believes himself to be Don Quixote. In the course of their comic and increasingly surreal adventures, Toby is forced to confront the tragic repercussions of a film he made in his idealistic youth - a film that changed the hopes and dreams of a small Spanish village forever.
Review: I heard about this movie when it was a project of Terry Gilliam and failed due to the illness of Jean Rochefort and other unexpected events. At that time (2000) it sounded like a curse on the movie. This had been filmed in the almost-making-off of the movie, Lost in La Mancha (2002).  The convinced Don Quixote of now acted by Jonathan Pryce, the lost in acting Don Quixote of Toby's first movie, the ideal of Don Quixote in Toby's mind. The connotation to Don Quixote is imbricated. I like that. We have the impression of travelling in time via the movies shown in the movie, via the costume party that has a major place in the script, via the weird situation of Javier in the village, via the dreams of Toby. And this quest for the remembered hot girl transforming into a quest for his youth brings the arrogant Toby to a human level. And like for Don Quixote the true and cruel reality remains. It is one's choice what we do and what we don't. Toby met his Dulcinea making his study film. The acting of Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce are great. Especially Jonathan Pryce being Javier convinced to be Don Quixote and calling Toby Sancho and treating him as a valet. Adam Driver does not show much emotion visually. Some teacher prefer this to let the story be driven by the director and his story-telling, by the shots. Technically I liked the mix of different types of scenery and of prop and of costumes. This was for me kind of part of the travel through time and space. This travel is also done via the encounter with migrants, with the extravagant mecene and his wife. This way we see how Javier and Toby go through these different worlds.  I like this kind of movie that make me dream and think about parts of the story.
Rating: 7 /10

Next Gen (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Kevin R. Adams, Joe Ksander
	Actors (voices): John Krasinski, Charlyne Yi, Jason Sudeikis (We're the Millers, Horrible Bosses 1-2)
	Country: USA, CN, CDN
	Genre: Animation, Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 06.12.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: Rebel teenager Mai prefers her little dog to the pet robots everybody else has. Close to the release of a new model, she encounters a special robot that will get quite attached to her.
Review: Erm erm, this sound a lot like Big Hero 6, but it is far from it. Instead of a well-built Americano-Japanese Universe (around the city of San-Fransokyo), the one in Next Gen is more like a American dream future world in which are inserted a few Chinese elements to too-obviously please the audience of the country that co-produced the thing. Add a non-subtle Steve Jobs / Apple metaphor and voila! Voila nothing. The robot is cute like it should, friendly like it should, has feelings a-la-Wall-E, the colors are pleasing, but I was too disturbed by the action poses and jokes trying too hard. Want to explain why the girl is rebel? Because her father left, as simple as that. I really blame the Chinese influence on this movie. It culminates during one the final battle scenes, when the robot and girl discuss at length what it means to be friend and why the robot likes having one etc... It is all too forced. I am not even sure it is safe to show it to kids for entertainment, because of the weird morale.
Rating: 3 /10

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Peyton Reed (The Break-Up, Ant-Man)
	Actors: Paul Rudd (Knocked Up, The is the End), Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit 2-3), Michael Peña (Extinction), Michael Douglas (The Game)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 28.10.2018, VOD, 42" TV screen.
Synopsis: Scott Lang (Rudd) enjoys spending time with his daughter while on house arrest. When his former associates, who gave him the Ant-Man suit, contact him, he must provide help.
Review: Sequel to the 2015 Ant-Man, this one goes one notch higher with the fan-service and the use of elements only hinted in the first movie: Hope van Dyne (Lilly) joins in the action as the Wasp, Hank Pym's wife is there too, much much more shrinking tech, more streets of San Francisco, and more of what worked in the first (Luis etc...). Note that in the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it may help to have seen Captain America: Civil War before. And however separated the events may seem, Ant-Man will play a big role in the sequel to Avengers: Infinity War called Avengers: Endgame (see the trailer). But what about the movie itself? Paul Rudd still plays goofily the thief that wants to be close to his daughter, and starts in a somewhat tense relationship with the Pym family after the events of the latest Captain America. Then comes a threat, good-looking but lacking ambition I found. It is also obvious by the fact that there are a few more enemies throughout the movie (thugs, in the police...) as if the main one was too weak. And the story stays very close to this threat and the Pym family (Hank's wife), never really reaching out. There is not much else to say about this movie. Apart from the possible implications in the future of the MCU, it is quite forgettable.
Rating: 4 /10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Dave Green
	Actors: Megan Fox (TMNT, Transformers 1-2, Jennifer's Body), Will Arnett (The LEGO and BATMAN Movie, Tyler Perry (Gone Girl)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 25.11.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: After having saved the city, the four mutant brothers stay in the shadows and react in different ways to that situation. The arrival of a new enemy will force them to re-think about their place and role.
Review: This sequel is very much in line of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with among other differences a Megan Fox post-surgery that doesn't bring much to the story. She seems to be around only to humanize this movie that looks like 100% of the shots contain special effects, thanks to some pseudo romance and of course a deadly hip swaying. The fights are still pretty confused, but the worst is the use of the technology and its implications which doesn't make an once of sense, even for a movie adapted from a comics, which is telling a lot. Just scan something, show something on a display, hack something, whatever to give a hand to make the struggling story go forward. Another disappointment is the under-use of Shredder which seems to be present only as connection to the first movie, as he doesn't even fight once with his super-armor. But maybe that would have been repetitive. Instead, he is a tool to introduce new characters that came back to my mind from my childhood (when I was watching the animated series): the villain Alien warlord Krang and his technodrome, and the two fools Beebop and Rocksteady (what are those names?!?). The thugs turned mutants (a rhino and a warthog) are in fact relatively funny and as the turtles, animated in the finest details. But that's not enough to make it a decent movie.
Rating: 3 /10

L'animale (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Katharina Mückstein
	Actors: Sophie Stockinger, Kathrin Resetarits, Dominik Warta
	Country: A
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 09.12.2018, ArteKino Festival, Austrian German with English subtitle
Synopsis: Riding on their tuned-up bikes, Mati (Stockinger) and her posse of male friends intimidate their neighborhood and harass the girls. In their village, they rule. But when her closest pal Sebastian falls in love with Mati and her enemy Carla unexpectedly turns into a friend, Mati is in danger of losing her standing among her male friends. Her father (Warta) and her mother (Resetarits).
Review: JoRafCinema participates this year to the ArteKino Festival as we did in 2016. The first movie watched from the selection is L'animale. The Festival is accessible on the following link.  The plot starts almost classical now after a last decade full of coming-of-age movies about the homosexual coming out. And here the family of Mati is full of surprises. It is not exactly coming out but rather discovery and acceptance of its own sexuality, discovery that they don't need to be afraid of their secret side. Mati discovering slowly that she actually does not like the bad boys she's hanging with and prefers the girl from the supermarket and that she shouldn't be afraid of it. Her father discovering that he feels more attracted by men and shouldn't be afraid of it, even if he is. Her mother discovering that she is no more jealous if she cheats on him with other men. The shots are alternating between Mati's story and her father's. Her mother's is more like a secondary story of the father's. And this gives quite a good rythm between the conflictual and often agressive Mati and the introvert and quiet father. Both are acting with authenticity. The last words during the credits are "Zeifle aber hab keine Angst. / Brenne. Und ergib dich nicht." The music by Fleischmann can be found here. And this fits to the movie without being a major character. The song L'animale, by Franco Battiato is sung by all of them when they realise what is their situation, that they are no more afraid of it and that they have to live with it. This scene is impressively good as it gives a common plot to the different stories, a common sense.
Rating: 6 /10

Los ojos del camino (2017)

	Also Known As: Die Augen des Weges, The eyes of the journey, Les yeux du chemin
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Rodrigo Otero Heraud
	Actors: Hipólito Peralta Ccama
	Country: PE
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 22.08.2018, City46, Quechua with German subtitle
Synopsis: A shaman of the Andean tradition who emerges in different regions of the Andean Cordillera and disappears again. He talks to and about the mountains, the water, the rocks, the people, and finds out under what disease the human race of the present suffers.
Review: The difficulty to give a critic of the Western consumerist society when you are outside of it is the degree of knowledge about it. This documentary would have been authentic and efficient if it would have just done his job of explaining the world, the mindset and the habits of the Andean traditions. Instead of that good 90% of the monologue is focused on accusing the Western consumerist society of things. That might be true but fails the major advantage of having shots of the Andean Cordillera and of its people that is: talk about the Andean Cordillera and its people.  I see this movie therefore not as indigeneous movie but as an occidental movie with indigene people.  The pictures have been shot in different places, but as it is not possible to follow where it is, the sometimes astonishing landscapes got forgotten.
Rating: 3 /10

The Equalizer (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Antoine Fuqua (Olympus has Fallen, Shooter, The Magnificent Seven)
	Actors: Denzel Washington (Crimson Tide, The Book of Eli, Man on Fire), Marton Csokas (The Amazing Spider-man), Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick-Ass 1-2)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 01.11.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: Robert McCall (Washington) is apparently a simple worker in a hardware store, but nobody knows about his past. On his evening routine he regularly crosses paths with Teri (Grace Moretz), prostitute working for a Russian mafia. When she gets hurt, he will go back to a part of his past that he though he had left behind.
Review: The trailer of the movie that I saw in 2014 was appetizing. The retired ultra-gifted CIA operative story had a feeling of the Taken (with Liam Neeson) series to it. In fact I mistook its director Antoine Fuqua for a French disciple of Luc Besson like Taken's Pierre Morel. But in addition there was some darkness and a vigilante approach that could have been paralleled with John Wick released the same year. The movie was thus disappointing to me in spite of a nice slow first act and the apparition of a pretty bad villain to match our hero. In summary the actions of McCall feel less and less justified, and are shot in a style increasingly stylish: more and more slow motion, rain, darkness, attempts of original ideas to decimate the gang of bad guys. To the point that I was far too detached from him, destroying the close relationship that was built from the beginning. A sequel was produced anyway in 2018. Note that I have learnt that the movie is adapted from an eponymous 80;s TV-series with Edward Woodward (The Wicker Man, Hot Fuzz) in the title role.
Rating: 4 /10

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials (2015)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Wes Ball (The Maze Runner)
	Actors: Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster (Game of Thrones TV-series), Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad TV-series), Barry Pepper (Enemy of the State)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 20.10.2018, in-flight entertainment 8" screen
Synopsis: After having escaped the Maze, the Gladers now face a new set of challenges on the open roads of a desolate landscape filled with unimaginable obstacles.
Review: After having watched the annoyingly open-ended The Maze Runner, a long flight was the opportunity to see what was next in the series. And it is not brilliant. The Universe is vastly expended compared to the original confined maze which should have led to a very different movie but to keep on delivering what the audience liked in the first one, our heroes always end up screaming: "RUN!!!", every 20 minutes of the movie. This is very annoying especially when it happens for no reason. Something else exasperating is that even though they meet tons of people that have lived they live in the free world, at no moment is any of them asking what the hell really happened to the planet, or at least they knowledge of it. The film-makers apparently go to great lengths so that the question is never on the table, keeping us in a constant mystery while there is no reason to, which is even more annoying than in the first movie. It would take a very long and boring flight for me to watch the third installment.
Rating: 2 /10

The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2018
	Director: Clay Kaytis (The Angry Birds Movie)
	Actors: Kurt Russell (Escape from L.A., Guardian of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Bone Tomahawk, The Hateful Eight), Darby Camp, Judah Lewis
	Country: USA
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 04.12.2018, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: After their mother gets to work on Christmas eve, Teddy (Lewis) is stuck at home to take care of his little sister Kate (Camp). She elaborates a plan to catch Santa on video when he delivers the presents.
Review: One good thing about watching this Christmas movie is to be able to get in the 'Winter' Christmas spirit, which is not easy when you live in the southern hemisphere and it is 30 degrees and sunny outside. It was produced by Netflix so that allowed them to deliver a fresh Christmas movie to watch at home without having to go to the Cinema or wait three years for it to be available in VoD. Most importantly it features Kurt Russell, an actor beloved in the 80's for his roles in the John Carpenter movies Escape from New York, The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from L.A., still popular in the 90's for Tango and Cash, BackDraft and Stargate, and that I loved to see in a big comeback with Tarantino's Death Proof and The Hateful Eight followed by the recent Bone Tomahawk, Fast & Furious 7&8 and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2. But enough about Kurt Russell who is satisfyingly showing off as expected, because the movie sucks anyway. The mystery around Santa is rapidly not one anymore, American urban pop-culture take over the story (car chases, concert in jail...) and the geography and timeline of everything doesn't make any sense. There is a mandatory happy ending with reconciliations, but it really is all badly done, and nothing more than a pretense to throw tons of special effects to our faces. I'd rather watch again Jingle all the Way or Home Alone, or Love Actually if with a girl.
Rating: 2 /10