Monday, December 26, 2011

Weekly Round-Up (12/18/11 - 12/24/11)


Little Sister (Robert Jan Westdijk) **1/2 - This is an interesting little Dutch film made around 1995, and it definitely shows. It was one of those films with the characters filming themselves. Once you get past the already tired gimmick, there are some good stuff in there. It's about a guy who tries to reconnect with his estranged sister with whom he has shared a traumatic incident in childhood. The film goes to all sorts of directions, some of which could render one queasy. But the performances are pretty good and the way it handled its subject matter is tasteful. This film strongly reminds me of Chuck & Buck in a way. I wonder if the latter film took inspiration from the former film.


Calle Mayor (Juan Antonio Bardem) ***1/2 - It's always nice to discover hidden gems. This is one of them. It's a Spanish film about a spinster (only in her mid-30's but considered an old maid in this particular time and place) who is a target of a very cruel prank by a group of bored middle-aged men. They get a guy to court her and propose marriage to her. The guy tries to back out when she falls in love with him for real. American actress Betsy Blair plays the woman and her dialogue was dubbed into Spanish but still her great performance shone through. It's a wonderful little-known film.

7 comments:

Mark said...

Characters filming themselves can be a bit of a tired gimmick but I wonder if it still was back in 96.

Anonymous said...

I'm going to watch these films!

Outcast said...

Great reviews as normal buddy, I'm honestly not sure if either of these are worth the watch but they sound a little tempting to me, we'll see. Thanks for the reviews regardless man.

Unknown said...

I like the idea of the second one. Worth checking out. Looks like we follow some of the same people. Followed you.

Anonymous said...

I need to watch these.

Anonymous said...

Good films.

Anonymous said...

Sound's pretty cool, sadly I don't think I have time to allocate.