User reviews

An absolutely bonkers Gilliam-esque thriller set in Spain that tells the stories of various unsavoury and down right horrific characters which may or may not be the invention of a supposed madman.

The direction is wonderful (think Wes Anderson on a small budget after having a little taste of LSD), the acting is stellar and the entire movie plays out like a surreal, hypnotic yet massively intriguing Grimms Brothers fairy tale. It is darkly humourous, massively entertaining and well worth a watch.

Unlike last year, there has not been an abundance of stellar foreign language movies released in the UK thus far, bar Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, but this offering really does remind you why Spanish cinema is gradually overtaking France as the best in Europe.

Highly recommended.

Advantages of traveling by train (2019) is a film as daring as it is bizarre and, without a doubt, unclassifiable, developing strange stories involving three separate chapters, being apparently independent, Advantages of traveling by train tells the story of the editor Helga Pato (Pilar Castro), a woman in her forties who by chance meets the psychiatrist Ángel Sanagustín (Ernesto Alterio) on a train trip, who tells her (first chapter) the story of one of his patients. Ángel tells Helga the story of Martín Urales de Úbeda, an extremely dangerous paranoid patient obsessed, among other things, with garbage. Martín Urales (Luís Tosar), who enlisted in the army, was sent to fight in the Kosovo War where he met Dr. Linares, a determined and compassionate woman who, when trying to create a children's hospital to cure the damage of the war, She is forced to make a great deal: In exchange for having the hospital she wants, Linares must take one child a month to her benefactors to film adult and snuff films.

Winner of the best film award at the Feroz 2020 awards, it is an ensemble film that mixes suspense, comedy, drama, horror, gore and probably some other genres. It is an unclassifiable coming and going made up of several strangely connected stories, although they are very uneven, some being frankly unpleasant, others disturbing, giving rise to a discouraging result. One of the most surprising recent Spanish films in which thorny themes are mixed, such as male domination, Diogenes syndrome, human abuse and others, meanwhile it unexpectedly delves into dark tunnels that show terrifyingly funny passages, which They get lost in recesses that are the materialization of that interior in which we keep all the psychological breakdowns, traumas, fears, lies and half-truths that characterize us. Filmador Moreno goes from one place to another without losing the global identity, connecting the dots that apparently become loose, leaving things in suspense and then recovering them. The film is notable for its wonderful casting full of the best Spanish actors, giving good performances, with the three main actors standing out: Luis Tosar, Pilar Castro and Ernesto Alterio. Being accompanied by a very good supporting cast with many well-known faces, such as: Quim Gutiérrez, Belén Cuesta, Macarena García, Javier Godino, Javier Botet, Stéphanie Magnin, Ramón Barea, Alberto San Juan, Manuel Morón, among others.

The film plays with reality and fiction, with madness and sanity, and black humor, to translate the novel of the same title written by Antoni Orejudo. As debut director Aritz Moreno explains: "When I read the book, I saw a movie in my head: a peculiar and unusual film like the novel, but that is precisely what attracted me." The novel was adapted by Javier Gullón, who already did an excellent job adapting the initially unadaptable novel: The Duplicated Man by José Samarago, which director Dennis Villenueve turned into the film The Enemy. The film was original but unevenly made by Director Aritz Moreno in his debut film.

If left-of-center surrealist filmmakers such as Alejandro Jodorowsky ("El Topo", "The Holy Mountain"), Werner Herzog ("Even Dwarves Started Small"), David Lynch ("Eraserhead"), Luis Bunuel ("Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie", "Un Chien Andalou", "The Exterminating Angel") appeal to you, then you'd have no problem welcoming "Adventures Of Travelling By Train" to your collection. If, like me, extremely wordy films with dozens of characters and scenarios bother you, tick off a star or two. Without a doubt, the three related stories presented sit squarely in the Theatre Of The Absurd. View at your own risk.

Different people's lives with hidden connections to each other Sinister characters of a troubled mind or real ones?

Bunuel meets Borat with the story telling structure of the Saragossa Manuscript. If one of those three hints triggers something, this might be a strange and bizarre ride for you into the realm of Spanish post surreal movie making. Interesting cinematography, but not entirely consistent.

I don't know even if i liked it!

This is a dark comedy/psychological drama thriller. A definition of weirdness. Bizarre, creepy, some hilarious moments, some frightening moments. Excellent acting, also well directed.

But, in my opinion, it is not as clever as the creators think it is. It is not mind blowing, neither it makes much sense. Some metaphors may make sense (abusive relationships at the second part) but overall, this is surrealistic, like a modern fairy tale where Logic and laws of physics don't apply. Like a Kafka's dream.

If that was the intention, it is still enjoyable and interesting even though I would prefer it more cohesive.

In any case, the ending is not good. That is a twist for the sake of twists. And it didn't mean anything, just something irrational, i think it's lazy writing.

If you like your movies to be absurd, watch it for sure.

Probably one of the best Spanish films in the decade in my humble opinion. These twisted stories are much more than that: a fantastic hyperbolic metaphor of a toxic, claustophobic relationship, a Proust-like character's vision of the world, a reflection on fiction itself... All of it wrapped up in very dark humour and some quite shocking scenes. The aforementioned scenes might put off some viewers and I can absolutely understand. Having said that, we might have said the same thing about OEdipus' parricide, incest and self-mutilation and passed on a great story. Thank God we didn't, and I hope most viewers will give this fresh take on narration a chance.

Even after a string of recent disappointments from European producers, I did not think it could get any worse than Calvaire. Well... I was wrong. This cinematic excrement (spoiler: pun intended) is a qualitatively new level of low. In a nutshell, this is a repulsive cocktail of nearly all imaginable degeneracies further refracted by the psychotic mind of its characters. This "thriller" has as little to do with the genre it is claimed to represent as with art in general.

This movie is fantastic. It's about stories in stories in stories told by stories who change to stories... And so on. I don't wanna spoil, but I felt super amused, moved and inspired. But at the and. That doesn't matter. It's just a fictional film. So. Watch it. Or not. Have a good day.

One of the worst movies I ever seen! Don't spend 1.40 hour of your life (like me) to watch this movie.

Travelling on a train, you might get someone who is ... let's say interesting. Than again, maybe you are also very interesting yourself. So this movie that is assembled of many parts and seems detached from each other, is actually very much connected. But if you've seen more than one movie, you can assemble that yourself.

What you may not be able to decode, is the connections. And while you can spend your time guessing, you can also just enjoy the mayhem and madness that occurs. There are many dark moments amongst the very fun and light moments. This mixture may not be to your taste, but the movie does that balancing act quite nicely. The tone is tough to acoomplish, but if you yourself are not too sensible, the movie will achieve satisfying your needs ... which may be even in a weird way. Again not judging one way or the other. Sick humor and some depraved things aside, this really is tension filled ... with an ending that you may guess in a way ... but that still is spot on - even if you may not know what it actually means (you can decide that for yourself)

A psychoanalyst meets a woman on a train.

In order to pass the time, he tells her a story. Before long, the character in the story starts to narrate his own tale.

And on and on it goes in this surreal, Russian Doll of a movie that recalls the work of Bunuel, especially Phantom of Liberty and Obscure Object of Desire.

(It also reminded me of Utopia, the excellent British TV series - especially the vivid colour scheme and the experimental score)

Some of the stories include:

An army amputee who returns home with a harrowing story

A female book editor who becomes trapped in a horribly twisted, masochistic relationship

And a 'slug man' with a prosthetic exoskeleton who journeys to Paris where he meets a beautiful woman with one leg longer than the other

This is a wildly ambitious film, made even more impressive by the fact that it is Aritz Moreno's debut feature.

The tales are bizarre and shocking but never feel exploitative or cheap. There is a definite method to the madness here.

Except for the ending, which feels a little rushed and abrupt, the film plays beautifully.

The individual stories are gripping, the performances are exceptional, the transitions are smooth and the pacing is great.

This is a highly assured work from a daring and uncompromising filmmaker.

It'll be interesting to see where Moritz goes from here.

Keep quite an open mind if you're up to watch it, a rather bold film that touches heavy, weird and dreadful topics, crossing several lines. The director has pretty dark and bizarre ideas which he shares with us in beautiful aesthetics and great acting, in a film you'll absolutely remember watching. Maybe he tried too much to shock us with some wild details here and there but in the end the metaphors work out. Certainly makes you think, a film definitely not for everyone.