heptaparaparshinokh

I don't want to go too far into detail, because I can't really justify wasting much time on reviewing this film, but I had to give an alternate opinion to hopefully help people avoid the movie. The animation is crud and the story alternates between boring/pointless to extremely irritating. The humor was completely lost on the audience, and yes - Ghost in the Shell fans, this is NOT an action sci-fi or anything like that - its an attempt at slapstick comedy, and the humor just did not work after being translated. It was a total chore to watch this movie, and horrible way for me to kick off the film fest, especially considering how excited I was and how open I was for anything - I wasn't expecting a Ghost in the Shell sequel, but I was expecting something entertaining, and it simply didn't achieve this. Yaaawwnnn... Rent Kino's Journey instead.

I was very interested in seeing this film based completely on the synopsis, since I couldn't find a review ANYWHERE online. I went into it pretty cold, not knowing exactly what to expect. The beginning of the film really grabbed me - the film was grainy, black and white, and the imagery was poetic and disturbing. This is the story of Estamira... sort of... I wont go into the detail of her life and what we see of it, because you can see that in the movie and read about it in the plot summary... some of the shots in this movie were spectacular... especially in the first half, and the final sequence in the water.. but there were points where her ranting and raving became almost painful to endure.. contradictory, angry, and occasionally insightful, Estamira is a rather unique and confusing person and her story is heartbreaking, although it is difficult to empathize given her temperament. I was hoping they would go into more detail with some of the other people featured in the film - mainly her friends at the landfill, but it was mainly dedicated to her. The main this I can say is that its a good film, but if they had have cut it down to about 45 minutes, it would have been superb. I'm looking forward to seeing what the director does next.

Many people rag on this movie for being too violent and shocking, while others even claim that the movie is pretty tame when compared to other. Guess what? None of that matters! This movie, whether violent and horrific or not is completely brilliant. It's a simple story of a man pushed out into a hostile environment, having been sculpted by the horrors of his life and the results that come with it. The narrative is painfully honest at times, revealing great insight, despite coming from a ragged, miserable bastard. To me, the most important scenes are the ones where he's interacting with various people during the point when he's still trying to rebuild his life. The conversations are almost too much to bear, as he is shed of any dignity that he may have clung to subsequent to the man's terrible past. Check this movie out as soon as possible if you haven't, and honestly, drop all that garbage about the violence, because it's totally irrelevant. I can't wait for Gaspar Noe's followup to irreversible!