Thursday, November 17, 2011

Cinemanila Film Festival Reviews # 5

(This is the final installment of the series as the festival ended today. In past years, some films have enjoyed special extended screenings at certain times but with the upcoming release of Breaking Dawn Part 1 this week, that is highly unlikely to happen this year)

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethkathul) ***1/2 - A dying man gather together his loved ones including the ghost of his dead wife and his son who returns to him as a large ape with glowing red eyes as he recalls his different past lives. A strange, quirky film to be sure but oddly mesmerizing just like the second half of the only other film I've seen of "Joe's", Tropical Malady. It's not for everybody but a fascinating entry into the pantheon of world cinema. 

 Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life (Joann Sfar) **1/2 - This is actually a biopic of French musician Serge Gainsbourg. I actually know next to nothing of him apart from the fact that he's some sort of musician and the dad of Charlotte Gainsbourg. It actually starts out very promisingly with quirky tidbits that seem to promise an unconventional, quirky and unique biopic but alas, such things don't happen often enough and it quickly falls into the conventions of a typical music biopic. But the performances are topnotch and it did hold my attention althroughout (extra points for finding an actress who really does look like a Brigitte Bardot).

8 comments:

A said...

Both interesting, but watching them wouldn't be high on my priority list

Sub Radar (Mike) said...

Breaking Dawn is quite good at being an absolute waste of space.

Good reviews though, shame this festival had to make way for vampire garbage.

Anonymous said...

They look interesting!
(:

Anonymous said...

Good movies!

Anonymous said...

The art on the poster for Boonmee is pretty awesome.

DWei said...

Hm, not sure any of these really appeal to me. Sorry.

Mark said...

The first one sounds kind of psychedelic.

Outcast said...

These both sounds a really good watch to me, I think I'd actually like to go out of my way to check them both out!