RomBlixen's reviews

Run-down Havana pretends to be a bustling city through the raucousness of its inhabitants and the creaking of its decades-old cars. Ubiquitous poverty is barely concealed by flashy cheap clothing and rum. Loneliness is under every character's skin, who grasp at any chance to escape in a tedious struggle for their lives. In this inaspicious setting, Jesús is a hairdresser who does an old lady's hair, he brushes wigs for drag queens performing in a cabaret attended by bolero lovers. Dullness and uneventfullness is one day broken into by his father, who'd left the home when Jesús was only three. Father is not pleased with his son's tastes, job, friends and lifestyle. Just as Jesús feels his life escapes his control to a stranger father, life will give them both an opportunity they hadn't asked for.

I found the all three of the main stars, Gillian Amderson, Michelle Pfeiffer and Viola Davis at the peak of their talent, making honest portrayals of the First Ladies' characters. But then, in the light of so much hurtful criticism of her work, I would also like to stand up for Ms Davis.

I found her interptetation of Ms Obama to be truthful, respectful and clean. The mouth thing -well, I believe that is not a thing at all, when there is so much going on under her character's skin. Do I get real-life Michelle Obama from her her depiction? I certainly do: her relentless power and emotion? Her zeal for her family? Her dismissal for nice words and her keen eye to spot commitment? Yes, I do. I get all of it and more thanks to Ms Davis. She may not conform to viewers' pre-empted expectations, persnickety to the point of bold intolerance. Yet Ms Davis has performed as talentedly as her co-stars and certainly not a single inch shorter of her own flair. Do not believe me, see for yourselves.

This movie looks as if it's got something awesome, but then it hasn't. FX are great but decontextualised within an unfollowable plot. You end up watching the pictures but unable to read the story, just as when you where a kid. How's that for retro?

I reserve the right to doubt whether this is ineptitude or deliberate creation of a stupenduos nanar.

The volcanic plumes do look like campfire smokes and action by extras on moments of camera-shaking is robotic. To some, though, such features make some flicks charming. I'm a fan of them. Sometimes corny requires some sense of art.

If any given rock music fan wanted a comprehensive ride into Latin American rock since 1957, then this documentary is a must-see. Yet they wouldn't only get just a chronicle. They 'd also catch a glimpse into some of, if not just the most traumatic decades of Latin America's fair share in the Cold War's social struggle and political abuse in America's backyard. True that the stars and the constellations depicted after the opening eposodes in the chronology are Santaolalla's findings, but this by no means is an exhaustive account but a fair introduction into the force of rock and roll as it naturally thrived on the continent's woes. The music is just great. It explores the many forms rock can be reinvented when it hits context and genius reveals itself in unexpected fusions, subgenres and scenes.

Unbearably parsimonious, the only thing worth watching is the main characters' great performances, who manage to take the indecisive plot somewhere away from utter uneventfulness. It does depict the ugly reality of teen exploitation, but it fails to deliver relatability.

I concede that scholars, experts and dilettantes have condemned it for many a sin. But as I watched, I suddenly realised the kid I once was was still there, alive. For this insignificant reason, I loved it. It's got everything a kid like me might have wanted in a comic.

First day of school and Marc (Marc Vilajuana) walks into his classroom holding hands with Carla, his girlfriend. The movie rapidly slides into Marc's growing fascination towards Alex (Alex Durán), the gay new kid who is bullied by the class thugs. Though Alex's ordeal is the recurring theme, the viewer gets an insight into Marc's discovery of his feelings for Alex in the blunt, unstarchy way of Spanish Latin-ness.

The film depicts the intimidating ground gay teenagers have to walk within the hostile, heavily prejudiced environment of the schools of our civilized world, where none of us has ever escaped discrimination in the many ways it is conceived and exerted.