Aftershock (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Nicolás López (Sin Filtro)
	Actors: Eli Roth (Inglorious Basterds, Death Proof), Ariel Levy, Nicolás Martínez
	Country: USA, RCH
	Genre: Drama, Horror
	Conditions of visioning: 15.04.2019, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: An American tourist (Roth) and two Chilean friends end up at a big party in the coastal town of Valparaiso, together with other tourists. When a big Earthquake hits, all hell breaks loose.
Review: I have been wanting to watch this movie for a long time as it takes place in my residence country of Chile and should have dealt with the adventures of a group of friends in the aftermath of a natural disaster that is always looming over our heads. I was expecting something like the classic 1974 Earthquake (not mentioning the recent San Andreas) or the little known Sinking of Japan, but on a much smaller scale of course. Well in the end it doesn't even belong to the same genre or category! Another incentive for me to watch the movie was the presence as producer and lead actor of Eli Roth, friend of Quentin Tarantino, seen in Inglorious Basterds and DeathProof, producer/director of the gore Cabin Fever and The Green Inferno, and attached to the entertaining Piranha 3D. And I liked him in the movie's first (long) act showing parties and chit-chat between friends and new acquaintances (although the sound of Reggaeton is not heard one which is unrealistic for parties in Chile). But then when the Earthquake hits, the movie shows its true nature: it is in fact a cheap Horror Drama with a fun beginning. I know this sounds weird, and it does feel it too. The movie is obviously cheap when you see how the action is limited to a club, a few streets and night-time. Also as another movie with too few ideas, it adds improbable coincidences to the story, like sharks in tornadoes during an alien invasion, or in that case sadistic prisoners that escaped during the disaster and stalk our protagonists till death. Then it tries to be dramatic (when people loose their friends) but the long fun beginning makes that it doesn't work. Finally what's left in my memory is the gore horror and torture scenes (as in Cabin Fever or The Green Inferno) that I was not expecting. OK I see now the movie tagline: "The only thing more terrifying than mother nature is human nature". Aaaaah OK that was the point... Still, not a good movie.
Rating: 2 /10

Fuerzas especiales (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: José Miguel Zúñiga
	Actors: Sergio Freire, Rodrigo Salinas, Loreto Aravena
	Country: RCH
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 29.03.2018, Chilean Netflix, Chilean version
Synopsis: The adventures and misadventures of Corporals Salinas (Salinas) and Freire (Freire), who will have to settle for their lives to be respected by their superiors.
Review: I watched this movie recommended by my cousin. And it was a good choice! The movie is hilarious. I needed an explanation for the recurring "Buenos días Buenas tardes" of the two heroes. It seems that it is the way city people laugh at country boys who cannot decide between the Good morning and the Good afternoon and say both to be sure to be right. The adventures are all based on the daily work of city policemen. Helping people, getting drunkards in jail, looking for the big number where they could surge and boost their career. The love stories and personal stories are full of humour as well. The actors remind me the French duo Eric et Ramzy and their movies (e.g. La tour Montparnasse infernale, Les Dalton) having a similar humour and where apparently stupid people manage to be real heroes. Freire y Salinas are close friend and collabrated in many stand-up comedies. The remaining actors fulfill the caricatural roles.
Rating: 6 /10

Sin filtro (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Nicolás López
	Actors: Paz Bascuñán, Ramón Llao
	Country: RCH
	Genre: Comedy, Black Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 29.03.2018, Chilean Netflix, Chilean version
Synopsis: Pía (Bascuñán) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown: Her boss humiliates her, her husband ignores her, her stepson does not respect her, and her best friend does not listen to her. Pía has a strong chest pain and after trying everything to heal she decides to undergo an acupuncture treatment. The Chinese doctor Yi-Ho (Llao) discovers that Pía's pain is caused by repressed feelings and with an ancient technique he takes out the filter. From now on, Pía will not filter and realize that the only way to heal is to say everything she thinks.
Review: The story is full of stereotyped humour with many scenes and characters having low or no credibility. But the dialogues are funny and the vertiginous attack of truth from Pia to everyone around are also funny. The flow of scenes looks like a series of sketches. And the fun comes from the fact that Pia says what sometimes I had in mind in life scenes. The main actress seems most of the time overdoing either when she supposedly contains her anger or when she explodes. Some characters are good in the sketch format but no more in a movie as they evolve less than their roles. The lights and camera are like for the old Brazilian telenovelas (white light, very visible reflectors). The movie has some ideas, but not much more.
Rating: 4 /10

The 33 (2015)

	Also Known As: Los 33
	Year of first release: 2015
	Director: Patricia Riggen
	Actors: Antonio Banderas (Desperado, The Mask of Zorro, The 13th Warrior), Rodrigo Santoro, Juliette Binoche (Godzilla), Lou Diamond Phillips (Bats), Gabriel Byrne (The Usual Suspects)
	Country: RCH, USA
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 16.08.2016, in-flight entertainment 10" screen.
Synopsis: After their mine collapses, a group of 33 miners gets trapped underground. The Chilean government has to take part in a costly and risky operation to rescue them.
Review: This drama is based on the accident that occurred in Chile in 2010 and that left 33 minors stranded underground for 70 days, until they finally got rescued with the whole world watching. It didn't take much time for a book to be published (Deep Down Dark by Héctor Tobar) and its rights sold to Hollywood. It is a pity that the movie is not Chilean, or at least American but with Chilean actors and in Spanish language. But it is likely that a Chilean smaller production would not have had the same impact. I found ridiculous that American actors like Antonio Banderas or Gabriel Byrne play in English with a faked strong Spanish accent... it doesn't make much sense. At least they throw a couple of 'huevon' throughout the movie, but for example the prejudice against the Bolivian minor would have had more impact if suggested by Chileans rather than spelled out loud by Americans. Other noticeable actors are Bob Gunton as president Piñera, Juliette Binoche that I barely recognized and the B-movie star Lou Diamond Philips (famous from La Bamba) that I hadn't seen since Bats. My first surprise was to see that the minors had some room to move around. For some reason I always thought they were more restricted. You can see in the movie the things that really happened (like the one minor with both wife and mistress waiting for him) in contrast with the obviously dramatization: the pseudo-romance between the sister and the ministry of mining, him having the idea that finally saves the day... Such exaggerations spoiled a bit the authenticity of the enterprise, but in the end the memory of the true events and the emotion at the final deliverance make it alright.
Rating: 5 /10

La Danza de la Realidad (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky (Santa Sangre, El Topo)
	Actors: Brontis Jodorowsky, Pamela Flores, Jeremias Herskovits
	Country: RCH, F
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 28.01.2016, Cinema MLC, GIFFF2016
Synopsis: In the small Chilean town on Tocopilla, the 10-year old Alejandro Jodorowsky is learning life from his communist father and overly affective mother.
Review: I have loved watching the previous works of the artist Alejandro Jodorowsky: El Topo, La Montagna Sagrada and Santa Sangre, very well aware that they are not easy for one's brain to accept. His first movie Fando & Lis (in Black & White) is in particular quite ... boring to watch nowadays. La Danza de la Realidad is different from those older creations, produced 23 years after the latest of his movies (The Rainbow Thief with Omar Sharif, already sitting on my Blu-ray shelf) and being a kind of fantasized autobiography of the period when he was 10 years old in Chili. He will in fact release this year the second movie in a 5-part series about his life: Endless Poetry. About this movie, well... it is very particular as usual with Jodorowsky and we do find the common grounds with his other movies: circus, crippled, family relationships and naked bodies, sometimes I found shown to no interest. The crazy creativity of the movie is refreshing but I would have preferred it to be contained within 90 minutes instead of 130. The desert landscapes around Tocopilla have a special significance for me, reminding me of a region of the world that I am quite familiar with and about to be even more. What I found best in this movie are the scenes during which the real-life 87 years old Jodorowsky is standing behind his 10 years old self and whispering him philosophical advices like "Everything that I am is already contained in you" or "Do not regret the hard time you are going through as they will transform you into me". I found those scenes very poetic.
Rating: 5 /10

Tiempos menos moedernos (2011)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2011
	Director: Simón Franco
	Actors: Nicolás Saavedra, Oscar Payaguala
	Country: RA, RCH
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 18.08.2015, DVD, Original Spanish version
Synopsis: As Felipe (Saavedra) visits his friend Ramiro Payaguala (Oscar Payaguala), he sees a box containing telephone, television, the whole modernity for this isolated ranch in Patagonia. After installing all this, Ramiro meets the modernity and handles this.
Review: As often in Latin American movies, the starting scene is slow and long. But afterwards it is really good. With the distance and looking at the context we have in Europe everyday of people getting lazy and stupid by watching too much TV, the movie becomes even very funny.  The actors are good and Oscar Payaguala who is a quite famous singer from Argentina plays perfectly the role of rough Patagonian. There is some folk songs as well in the movie. Saavedra is very authentic and took his role very well. I would look for his other movies, because he has potential. Unfortunately the movie is very slow and some parts could have been shortened. On the other side, this shows the real rythm of life in the Patagonian countryside.
Rating: 5 /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

Turistas (2009)

	Also Known As: Touristes
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: Alicia Scherson
	Actors: Aline Kuppenheim, Marcelo Alonso, Diego Noguera
	Country: RCH
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 30.11.2013, City46, OV
Synopsis: Carla is 37 years old, married and leaves Santiago for holidays with her husband. Suddenly they querell and she is left alone on the road. She decides to continue her way with the Norvegian tourist Ulrik to a National parc, where they camp between trees. Both are tourists.
Review: It is the second movie in a row showing people behaving without feeling nor humanity. But this time, it is what Alicia Scherson wants to show and she leads the story around that. Clara is a tourist in her own life, as she is not motivated by anything, not sure of anything and do not care about the others, all in a quite passive way.  The directing is great, as nature and Clara's life mirror one another subtly. The nature encounters human on its way making the life harder, as Clara encounters humans and herself making her life harder. The picture is very good, of the nature (plenty of close-up on trees and small animals) as well as of people. The composition of the picture is also very well thought and is almost surrealistic. Some technical defects in the picture when kind of special effects are used do not disturb much.  Very nice surprise! It looks like as if Clara is looking for answers or help in the nature because she trusts it fully, but (SPOILER) does not find any answer nor help.
Rating: 7 /10

Gloria (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Sebastían Lelio
	Actors: Paulina García, Sergio Hernández
	Country: RCH
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 15.07.2013, Schauburg, OV Sneak preview
Synopsis: Gloria, a free-spirited woman in the mid 50s, lives the realities of her whirlwind relationship with a former naval officer whom she meets out in clubs.
Review: Gloria and many other characters are depicted with children, some of them divorced, so that this story could also be placed in a European city. As picture of the modernity, the children do not care much about the parents, and inform them barely about their lives. So that the life of Gloria is switching from work to parties in a sweet and dramatic loneliness. Some sex scenes with quite old people, this is quite rare. Globally, the story is a bit slow and reminds therefore Straight story, by David Lynch. Where Lynch filled the space with music, Lelio fills it with the smile of Gloria and her singing shortly some songs. Both actors are making it great and give some impulses to the storyline. The movie was not so bad, but the pace may be boring for many.
Rating: 5 /10

!NO! (2012)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2012
	Director: Pablo Larraín
	Actors: Gabriel García Bernal
	Country: RCH, F, USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 13.03.2013, Schauburg, OV
Synopsis: An ad executive comes up with a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile's 1988 referendum.
Review: From the historical point of view the movie is very interesting. On top of it, it is good to have books and movies to work on such a burdening history. The rythm of the story is good and the viewer is involved emotionally into the private life of René Saavedra and into the fight for freedom of the his customers. The acting of García Bernal is very good and so the other actors. I do not like the graphical concept, the light and the camera movement, which makes the movie sometimes heavy to watch. The scenery is very realistic and this pays in particular in a couple of scenes where the police goes on to the masses of partying people.
Rating: 5 /10