dolce's Official Reviews: (All Reviews Have Been Deleted)
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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 First "A" of the Year!
http://www.worldofkj.com/Galia-MySummerLove.php
My Summer of Love
Quote: A sinister commentary on class manipulation cloaked in deep sensuality, My Summer of Love stands as both a sensory and cerebral peak of 2005. Pawel Pawlikowski’s story of two budding teenage girls’ summer together is intoxicating as it is uncomfortable. Bathed in summer light, Mona (Nathalie Press) and Tamsin (Emily Blunt) explore each other’s boundaries both physically and emotionally....
They sunbath on random hillsides; walk through the woods and the streets of the town. They’re lethargic movements reflect summer heat, and their shining faces the sweat of august. Their eyes take in more than they reveal, and the two fluctuate between raw confessions and hesitant caresses. As summer winds down the two girls’ actions escalate in manipulation and intensity. Sumptuous and sensual, if My Summer of Love couldn’t rise above such description it would still be a pleasure to watch. But it rises even above such acclaim by peeling back layers of a story that is more than meets the eye.
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| Sat Jun 18, 2005 1:38 am |
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Neostorm
All Star Poster
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 2:48 pm
Posts: 4684
Location: Toronto
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Dolce you should write Romance novels. 
Which movie did you like most, this one or Kill Bill???
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| Sun Jun 19, 2005 8:06 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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Heh. I used to steal those books from the supermarket when I was, like, 10.
No comparison between it and Kill Bill. There was never any deception on the part of Thurman, or anyone for that matter. It was fairly straightforward, with the surprise simply being how The Bride finishes the job. It was great to look at, but mostly because Tarantino has made martial arts into something more. I really like his approach to the genre in light of recent martial arts movies. He didn't take people's lo ve for the choreography as a given, camped it up, made a great story, and had this great way of weaving her past and present witch hunt perfectly. It was great fun.
My Summer of Love is very languid (I think that's the word). It kind of just oozes these "laxy-day" images of the two girls. At one point they hang out around the mansion drinking wine and smoking. Thats it. Mona's mouth turns a bit purple from all the wine sipping, and they eventually fall asleep on the grass by the badminton court. It kind of has this attention to details that kept me mesmerized. Mostly because the details were very sensual though. The Moby Dick of teenage first love, so to speak. So it works alot better than listing off ways to use whale blubber.
Last third of the movie things start to get dark. You can feel it as histilities grow between Mona and Phil, and Tamsin starts getting possessive of Mona.
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| Sun Jun 19, 2005 11:08 pm |
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makeshift
Teenage Dream
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:20 am
Posts: 9247
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Galia, when you do you think you'll see Me And You And Everyone We Know? I'm really looking forward to it, and want to hear what you think about it.
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| Mon Jun 20, 2005 8:44 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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This week some time. I want to get a review up before it goes into wider release Friday. Some people have expressed interest in Heights as well, so I'll try to get that one in also. Don't really like hanging out in hotel rooms in Jersey anyways, so a theatre is as good a place to rest as anywhere else right now. That's why I've been seeing so many movies the last two weeks. I'll try to squeeze in a few more before my return to normalcy, where I might dip off for awhile and barely get one per week in. I'm hitting writers block. Not every day the movie provides the language for me.
So, anyone going to see My Summer of Love now?
Makeshift, you know I got you to see BE last year. Lets see what I can work on you for 2005... :wink:
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| Tue Jun 21, 2005 1:38 am |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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Me and You and Everyone We Know
http://www.worldofkj.com/Galia-Meyoueveryone.php
Quote: Installation artist Miranda July takes aim at merging her art form with a dramedy love story fit for the big screen in Me and You and Everyone We Know. Her film about a recently separated shoe salesman Richard (John Hawkes) who meets, surprise, an aspiring artist, has both its pedantic and brilliant moments...
Me and You and Everyone We Know would most likely appeal to audiences in their afterthoughts. Throughout the film, the tonal range is limited, and the severity in which everyone down to the six-year-old treats their respective situations produces an effect similar to taking antihistamines. July explores many themes including alienation, teenage sex, internet kink, and contemporary art with an ambition to relate them all to human disillusionment and redemption. Thankfully, July is not a fatalist, and her ultimate vision of finding love, embracing memory, and coming to grips with modernity are refreshingly in stark contrast to her characters’ personalities...
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| Sat Jun 25, 2005 12:38 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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Tropical Malady
http://www.worldofkj.com/Galia-TropicalMalady.php
Quote:
...2004’s Cannes Jury Prize winner and Golden Palm nominee Tropical Malady is Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethahul’s noble attempt to lead the march forward. Like its predecessors, Malady is plagued by uneven narration and a redundant love story, however it remedies the pain by rewarding audiences with a truly cerebral after-experience and moments of lush visual pleasure...
Last edited by dolcevita on Sat Jul 16, 2005 3:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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| Sat Jul 09, 2005 3:40 pm |
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JURiNG
ef star star kay
Joined: Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:45 pm
Posts: 3016
Location: Cairo, Egypt
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dolcevita wrote: Tropical MaladyQuote: There is something consistently demanding, somewhat disappointing, and certainly very hopeful about the film world’s attempts to represent timelessness. Perhaps it’s the patience audiences are expected to exhibit as directors wander through myths traditionally rendered in words? Or perhaps it is the non-linear musings that meander across the surface of a screen still formatted to run from minute one to minute one hundred? Never-the-less, efforts to weave contemporary society with its cultural roots is the challenging path that more filmmakers should and currently are walking.
2004’s Cannes Jury Prize winner and Golden Palm nominee Tropical Malady is Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethahul’s noble attempt to lead the march forward. Like its predecessors, Malady is plagued by uneven narration and a redundant love story, however it remedies the pain by rewarding audiences with a truly cerebral after-experience and moments of lush visual pleasure.
Weerasethahul’s Vietnamese tropical haunts are not for the feint of discipline. He rarely provides independent story moments for his viewers to hold onto, and one must wait out the entire running time to leave with any reward. Tropical Malady is a film where all that is experienced early on is only re-examined in the final scenes. The first half is a simple, saccharine love story of two young men. Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee) is an illiterate yet intelligent villager who begins a relationship with Keng (Banlop Lomnai). Keng is a military man, but is very sincere and flirtatious one at that.
Their relationship is proof positive that other countries have an equally cheesy tradition in romance films as Hollywood. Their exchanges, including a far too long ten minute karaoke love scene and way too many cute references to the heart, is uninspiring. Those hoping for signs of relationship tension or even fun banter will be disappointed. Weerasethahul is simply rehashing the symbols long since established internationally as “love.â€Â
Thankfully, the backdrop against which Keng and Tong’s relationship unfolds saves the film’s first half from utter ruin. This is the new face of Vietnam, and it is well contextualized. Keng and Tong travel between Tong’s village home and the big city. Viewers are granted introductions to a local village shop owner who owns a lucky dildo and whose son studies abroad, giant mega-malls, and breathtaking cattle grazing lands. The inclusion of military personnel, an advanced veterinary hospital, and questions of literacy and upward mobility is the material that allows Tropical Malady to stand head and shoulders above films of a similar nature. When Malady slowly evolves into a mystical jungle scene equipped with centuries old tales of spirits and shape-changers the transformation doesn’t mangle Vietnamese modernity.
The comparison to 2001’s Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner), a similar folklore tale set in an Inuit Village begs for attention. As a study of contemporary Inuit possessions, The Fast Runner failed. Without a single sign of modern culture, clearly present if local film makers are even producing such movies, Atanarjuat may very well just remain a tale set in the past. For audiences who felt the Ulysses-like tale of the fast runner returning to his loved one was contemporary, they may have gone so far as to assume the Inuit today live in isolation of modern technology and social habits. In Tropical Malady, the error is not repeated. The distinctly modern setting is perfect. The isolation of the woods and the transcendental wood-folk truly capture timelessness rather than simply confusing one’s era.
When local cattle start disappearing and Tong is nowhere to be found, Keng goes into the overwhelming jungle in order to track down a local legend that may be responsible for the arising trouble. Weerasethahul provides twenty minutes of Big Foot and Blair Witch-type suspense as Keng follows enigmatic paw prints so deep into the jungle that he loses his way. Finally Tropical Malady starts to become engaging as a visceralexperience. Keng’s flashlight weaving through thick vegetation has a very fantastical feel to it. Small hand drawn pictures relaying the tale of the haunting spirit were-tiger expertly break up the first two days of the wilderness journey. As Keng becomes increasingly obsessed with tracking the spirit, Weerasethahul forgets about the magical elements of the story and returns to a realism that falters when the spirit and Keng get into a fist fight like 4th grade schoolboys. Luckily when the spirit flees, Tropical Malady finally goes into full fledged sensory overload.
An hour and a half into the film and audiences may finally stop checking their wristwatches for the time. Monkeys begin to talk to Keng, fireflies light up an entire tree, the spirit of a dead cattle emerges and slinks through the vines in splendid white, and a tiger stares through all-seeing eyes at the entire procession from its tree-limb perch. Keng and the Tiger Spirit’s final confrontation is nothing short of breathtaking and mesmerizing. Their encounter changes everything that has played out before it as the tiger speaks of centuries of love and desperation.
Their encounter may be too little, too late, for many. For those who can sit through the straightforward and mundane narration of Tropical Malady’s opening while focusing on the backdrop of Vietnam’s East-meets-West evolving landscape, the climax of the all-seeing spirit’s eye is perfect. My friend just has seen it, he don't understand anything.. and he's Thai 
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| Sat Jul 09, 2005 7:28 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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Murderball
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/Murderball.php
Quote: ...As Soares, Zupan, and fellow athletes expose their personalities on screen, Murderball becomes more than just some saccharine triumph story. It soars to heights of true humanism.
This is not a story of perfect, but rather very real men. You may like one of them while finding another one rather annoying. You may not be able to muster up complete love for any particular one of them, as they are not easy to project onto. They are not blank slates for the audience to write upon. Most assuredly however, you will find their interwoven stories as the countdown towards Athens unfolds to be intriguing, uplifting, and incredibly memorable.
Last edited by dolcevita on Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:56 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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| Sat Jul 16, 2005 2:57 pm |
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Dkmuto
Forum General
Joined: Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:00 am
Posts: 6502
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Murderball is looking to be, along with March of the Penguins, this year's surprise documentary (you know it's got something going on when it's at 100% at RT and dolce likes it). 
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| Sat Jul 16, 2005 3:03 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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2046
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/2046.php
Quote: ...In lieu of the slightest hint of plot is scene after scene of raw emotion. To Wong’s credit, the feel of his films will always elicit a stronger visceral response than most of a similar nature. His broken down cityscapes remain lit in a halo of nostalgic glamour. His women hearken back to the divine elegance and dark lips of noir. Tony Leung oozes a certain charisma not oft to be found gracing the big-screen today. Yet it is also because Wong’s talent for reviving the visual skin is so adept that 2046’s missing skeleton is so disheartening. Splendor is no more than skin-deep, and as all know that beauty becomes dull all too quickly.
Last edited by dolcevita on Wed Jul 27, 2005 12:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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| Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:33 am |
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Maximus
Hot Fuss
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:46 am
Posts: 8427
Location: floridaaa
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Shame.
Beyond the beauty I was hoping much, much more.
Fabulous review, Galia. Fantastic! I'm still going to rent this, but all too often I end up agreeing with you..
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| Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:43 am |
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Maximus
Hot Fuss
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:46 am
Posts: 8427
Location: floridaaa
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Also- I can't access your review of La Dolce Vita. I'm going to rent it soon and I wanted to reread it....
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| Wed Jul 27, 2005 1:44 am |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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My hero. La Dolce Vita? Sweet Hereafter?
I went through my old ones. They're all not available right now. Must be the site switchover. I hope Eagle and bABA have them back up soon. If not, let me know before oyu watch it and I'll try to send it to you. I'm on a new comp then I was using then, and I don't have them saved on here yet. I will try to sift through my old sent box and see if I can download it from when I sent it to Karl.
You are the light of my life for saying you'll watch LDV.
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| Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:15 am |
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publicenemy#1
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:25 am
Posts: 19411
Location: San Diego
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YAY! I gave the same grade! \:D/ For those of you who have no idea what 2046 is, just check out In The Mood For Love. :wink:
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| Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:55 am |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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Zach. Try now. I've updated all the ones in the first post (though not the addresses riddled throughout the thread). Also, just go to the Reviews section of the main page, and mine, loyal's, rogue's, and zingy's should all be listed under personal pages.
Everyone let me know if one of the addresses doesn't work still.
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| Wed Jul 27, 2005 5:26 pm |
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Maximus
Hot Fuss
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:46 am
Posts: 8427
Location: floridaaa
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dolcevita wrote: My hero. La Dolce Vita? Sweet Hereafter?
I went through my old ones. They're all not available right now. Must be the site switchover. I hope Eagle and bABA have them back up soon. If not, let me know before oyu watch it and I'll try to send it to you. I'm on a new comp then I was using then, and I don't have them saved on here yet. I will try to sift through my old sent box and see if I can download it from when I sent it to Karl.
You are the light of my life for saying you'll watch LDV. Are you kidding?! I have to see this. If you gave it an A+, it must be good!! I almost always agree with your reviews, down to the grade!
After seeing The Sweet Hereafter (Great stuff), I can't wait to give this a try, too!
Oh, and thanks sooo much for getting these links fixed. The reviews are a treat. :pop:
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| Wed Jul 27, 2005 11:18 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/ ... actory.php
Quote:
Tim Burton has always laid a heavy hand to his films. A man clearly enamored with both the bright colors and dark undertones of vaudeville, his chocolate factory tourists feel sourced in the forced comedy and heightened artistry of the stage. His final confection is flawed, but it is also respectable. So many re-makes today lack the ingenuity of fresh insight or for that matter, fresh filling. In an era were remakes have become formalized methods in which to draw money with marginal creativity and an over dependence on nostalgia, Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is truly new. It is certainly different, and most assuredly the labor of a man who loved Roald Dahl’s famous story. Good riddance the nostalgia factor for the exemplary 1971 Willy Wonka favorite. Burton could care less if Gene Wilder or Johnny Depp is “better†as the sweet mad man. His oompa loompas are grating, and their water and land musical numbers leave a distinctly uncomfortable and perhaps even boring after-taste. But this is, without a doubt, the new Chocolate Factory...
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| Sun Jul 31, 2005 3:51 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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Broken Flowers
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/ ... lowers.php
Quote: ...Broken Flowers certainly suffers from the problem of trying to weave the two styles together. Previously, up through even Ghost Dog and Coffee & Cigarettes, Jarmusch has kept the two styles distinctly separate. Either the people have no knowledge of each other but exist simultaneously, or they only have each other, and wander through isolated landscapes responding to only their surroundings and themselves. As Broken Flowers brings the two into one mid-life crisis, viewers are granted the gift of both visions but are denied the nuances of either. Those nuances are what truly made his past works so demanding. Yes, this is Jim’s most accessible movie in both a promising and disheartening way...
Last edited by dolcevita on Wed Aug 17, 2005 1:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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| Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:05 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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The 40 Year Old Virgin
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/40YOV.php
Quote: ...The 40 Year Old Virgin certainly has its moments. They are in large part due to Andy’s entourage which should have just been the primary focus of the movie to begin with. David has a rotten time getting over an ex-girlfriend, and resolves to abstain from sex as a way to build deeper relationships. He doesn’t last all too long however and soon has a hilarious little breakdown in the store. Cal is just the straightforward guy who admits sex is about aura before proclaiming he’s not exactly the greatest sight on eyes, but still gets around. Paula approaches Andy several times assuring him she’s thought of a great resolution to his problem. Unfortunately, all these moments add up to about 20 minutes of genuine humor. 20 minutes does not a movie make. Between the boredom and stereotyping of the other hour or so, the second hands on watches everywhere seem to freeze up...
Last edited by dolcevita on Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:12 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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| Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:13 pm |
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Dr. Lecter
You must have big rats
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 4:28 pm
Posts: 92093
Location: Bonn, Germany
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So Keener isn't good in this one? She was a blast in Being John Malkovich.
_________________The greatest thing on earth is to love and to be loved in return!
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| Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:34 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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Intervista
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/Intervista.php
Quote:
...At a ripe old age, perhaps the king of Cinecitta grew nostalgic? When faced with his own and compatriots’ decades of work wearing across their faces and bodies, he returned to the sentimental and sympathetic undertones of his early productions. Gone are the sarcastic cuts at labor in Orchestra Rehearsal, the aloof challenges to wealthy excess so addressed in Satyricon and Roma, or the homage to bored aristocratic playboys frolicking through the Monarch courts or aspiring to the contemporary equivalency on the Via Veneto. Almost all of Fellini’s late productions return to his roots in solemn stage and circus performers’ stories. It is Intervista that stands out as the most intelligent and yet most sentimental of all Fellini’s late works. Truly a space envisioned by his relationship to his cast members, his life as film auteur, his love of location, and of course, oh so many of those theatrical clowns...
Last edited by dolcevita on Wed Sep 07, 2005 12:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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| Fri Aug 26, 2005 10:47 am |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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Junebug
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/Junebug.php
Quote:
...Junebug is bound to elicit some laughs with its quirky culture-clash humor and some tears at its most dramatic heights. It’s a space in which everyone has their faults, their strength of character, and operates in an ever-increasing space of fervor, isolation, and small moments of endearing nature. Junebug does not explore either the history of this lifestyle, nor does it pass judgments or anticipate the culture’s future. These are all the strengths and weaknesses that may make Junebug feel distant yet incredibly palpable.
Last edited by dolcevita on Wed Sep 07, 2005 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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| Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:19 pm |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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The Constant Gardener
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/ ... ardner.php
Quote: ...But visuals suffer from the same fate as economics when it comes to conspiracy, and The Constant Gardener drags its roots in cycles of the emotionally overcome European couple trying to “save just one life.†The marital tension of the two with such deep secrets never quite explodes, nor do any buses or buildings. Instead we are handed a pleasant reminder that outside interests and big business dehumanize. One would most likely even be shocked by the blatantly unethical pharmaceutical practices suggested early on in this film if they had, perhaps, slept through grade school as youths. Had it not been for the documented reoccurrences of similar practices stemming as far back as the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, The Constant Gardener’s plotline and tediously thin message about race relations might even have seemed outright grande.
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| Fri Sep 02, 2005 1:06 am |
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dolcevita
Extraordinary
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:24 pm
Posts: 16061
Location: The Damage Control Table
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The Corpse Bride
http://www.worldofkj.com/reviews/Galia/CorpseBride.php
Quote:
There may not be much of a story in this stop-animation big screen danse macabre, but what there is in the Corpse Bride is breathtaking scene after scene of the most timeless waltz of the ages. The Victorian old rosy aesthetic of pale skin and paler personalities is brought to life in Tim Burton’s subdued lovers Victor Van Dort (voiced by Johnny Depp) and Victoria Everglot (Emily Watson). Meanwhile the celebratory mingling of skeleton and skin sprouts forth from its roots in medieval iconography...
Last edited by dolcevita on Wed Sep 21, 2005 8:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
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| Sat Sep 17, 2005 11:57 pm |
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