Colors of Time.

    

    A French melodrama simultaneously played in two epochs: Paris' belle-epoch of the 19 century and the modern situation very much borrowed from Clooney's "The descendants". Namely, four grand-grand-grandkids of a long-dead village woman have to decide whether to sell her farm to the developers when it turns out that she may have left a multi-million dollar Impressionist painting in her possession. In the 19th century scenes one meets  Sarah Bernhardt, Felix Nadar, Victor Hugo and a score of other celebrities met by an abandoned daughter of a society prostitute. Protagonists in the 21 century communicate with their ancestors with the help of hallucinogenic drug (ayahuasca). Lovely, but short on depth of characters. Lindon is luscious. 

A poet.

    

       Americans encounter foreign movies mostly during transoceanic flights. So was "A Poet", absolutely depressing saga of personal defeat and degradation coming from Columbia. The movie is a series of unfortunate events in the tropics. The problem with its protagonist, the poet who published two thin books of poetry getting some critical approval in his younger years, was fired from the university for alcoholism and working in a second-rate school as a teacher of literature is that absolutely everything he attempts, usually with the best of intent, ends in disaster for him and the people who surround the misfit. When he finally decides to quit drinking and get a job, he is accused of molesting his student, the only one in class with whom he has any rapport. Only his mother who probably dies at the end of the movie who unconditionally supports her ne'er-do-well son, honest and well-intentioned despite all misfortunes. The movie shows a bleak picture of Columbia, where kids in most ordinary families do not have a father or live with a random boyfriend of the nearest female relative. 

Sheep detectives.

 

Zany comedy-whodunit much more cohesive than the glorified fashion show with Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep. Much more psychologically motivated, too. 

Project "Hail Mary"

 

       As is the story goes with all movies made after Weir's books they are thick on technical details (hard sci-fi) and short on human conflict. But all cinematic stories, even the animal documentaries, are ultimately about people. The movie would benefit from a farewell sex scene between protagonist (Ryan Reynolds) and tough-as-nails captain played by Sandra Huller but, maybe, the need to keep it PG-13 precluded the producers from any hint of sexual nature of attraction between them. 

    Equally lacking is the alien contact story. It has no moral or conceptual divide between the world of the stone spider alien and a human. Yet, a burning of an alien in oxygen atmosphere is quite realistic and can be scientifically explained. Unlike the PG cartoon message of the movie. 

Hoppers

 

O'K movie with fine animation of nature. Some complexity is added because the villain is not a "capitalist" mayor or mad scientists but a nature queen who suddenly acquired human powers. 

Scarlet

 

Another "girl power" anime, probably reflecting powerlessness of women in the Japanese society. Yes, a current Prime Minister of Japan is a woman but Elizabeth I and Katherine II were absolute rulers, yet their position did not signify a feministic streak in 16th century England or in 18th century Russia. 

The movie is beautifully done and has a very interesting idea of an afterlife. In the afterlife, people die turning to "nothingness", achieve Paradise on the Gold Mountain, or remain in limbo continuing some version of their previous lives. 

Zootopia 2.

 

A long blue serpent is hardly a credible good guy in the animation intended for children.