Bad Tales (Favolacce)

American film buffs who criticize the movie as "disorganized" and "illogical" simply don't understand cinematic art. It is superbly organized to imitate the boredom of low-to-middle class suburbia populated by the Italian red necks as the murderous swamp. Its immutable logic leads to attempts at murder and, finally, collective suicide. 

The ensemble--mostly consisting of kids--plays superbly. Not a single mediocre acting job, and Ileana d'Ambri in a role of mildly retarded soup kitcheness, and Elio Germano in a role of a red neck factory supervisor--stupid, brutish--but loving and caring husband and father are shining. Ileana d'Ambri even may in future substitute Anna Magnani as a neorealist heroine for the XXI century. 

This is also stumbling American critical multiverse--the absence of obvious heroes and villains--just the people with their big anxieties and small victories. 

The Italian cinema is back after a long hiatus following murder of Pasolini, slow journey of Michelangelo Antonioni into the night, and the death of Fellini! 

Enfant Terrible.

The Oscar Roehler movie depicts R. W. Fassbinder practically as a cult leader, abusing, psychologically, physically and sexually his group of devotees. I watched it expecting the story of his trouble with anti-Semitic theater performance, which was completely glossed over by Roehler: "Cologne Jewish community protesting, after which the show was canceled" appears as an afterthought during a drink. Also, his heterosexual side was made completely sterile at the expense of his numerous (and abusive) homosexual affairs. But suave Andy Warhol appearing in MOMA episode with Fassbinder destroyed the lives of everybody he touched. Violently rude Fassbinder elevated most of his collaborators into the stars of the German cinema and theater. 

Roy Andersson. On Endlessness.

 

An apocalyptic view (with "I saw" refrain) of sterile prison landscape of modern Sweden and, sometimes, 1945 Germany, in a color scheme of a postmodernist office space--pink-beige and 50 shades of grey. Somebody's absurdist idea of hell as an endless boredom. 

Mare. HBO.

            The fact that, judging by her interviews, a ridiculously self-centered, upper middle class British airhead can produce and credibly play a strong, troubled woman from rural Pennsylvania is remarkable by itself. Unlike other modern fare, e.g. "Nevers", the plot is well constructed and logical. 🥀🥀🥀

Lodz

 Somber part-documentary elegy of the pre-war and post-war Jewish life in Lodz. 

Lapsis by Noah Hutton.

Lapsis is a fine movie; as far as indie fair is concerned and Noah Hutton made his mark as a promising director. But I am not sure why critics called it a "satire". There is zero use of "humor, exaggeration, ridicule or scorn", which defines satire in vocabularies. I would characterize its genre as a techno-punk thriller. 

Some Kind of Heaven

I rented this movie tempted by mordant Darren Aronofsky as a producer. What I got instead was a soapy opera about well-heeled (mostly) retirees living in a artificial paradise created by the State of Florida on the backs of mostly illegal immigrants who build these properties, water and manicure their lawns and take out trash. They are unseen.