NordicBlackbird

I can't remember ever watching a movie or even a full documentary about Jews in Finland during WWII. So this is an important movie. I trusted Härö would meet my expectations as his previous movies, ones that I've seen, have been deep with emotion and told stories that stay with you.

The movie is about Abraham Stiller, a businessman who plays an important role in stopping deportations of Finnish Jews and Jews that had moved to Finland to escape the holocaust.

Unfortunately I found myself disappointed. The characters remain quite distant, the events are spread over many years with big leaps so the overall storyarch leaves big gaps. Big world events are told in newspaper headlines but even those are few. Throughout the movie the war seems distant. The characters are living in their own bubble. I wasn't expecting big explosions and such but little details about everyday life struggles.

What's good about the movie is that it's well made, without big flair and pathos. The actors deliver their lines in multiple languages, which is always appreciated. Unfortunately, once again (often the case with Finnish movies) the sound mixing is bad and I had to rely on my own language skills and read Swedish subtitles even when the dialogue was in my own language (Finnish).

Bottom line: the movie is still historically important and worth watching even though it's only mediocre.

Is It Cake? Should be one of my favourite baking shows. I absolutely love Netflix's other baking show Nailed It and every time there's a baking show on TV, I end up watching it. So why is this one different?

After watching all of season one, my biggest problems are:

1. The host. He's very annoying and often comes across creepy. Jokes end up being cringy instead of funny.

2. Not much attention to the actual baking and sculpting. This is a baking show where the contestans make realistic cakes! It should be interesting!

3. The judging. It's hasty, they are very far away from the cake and decoys and the lighting is very bad. The judges end up screaming in panic.

If there's going to be another season exactly like this, I'll pass.

How is it possible to make a boring movie from such interesting true story? The pacing is slow, the use of voice overs is dull, the whole movie is in bleak colours... The dialogue is like written by a teenager who thinks to know what love is. I really didn't feel there was any spark between Delpy and Bruhl.

Cut 30 minutes off and you'd have a better film.