Letterboxd — Your life in film

30 Films from 30 Countries, nr10: Bulgaria

Filmed in a grayish tone of black and white, probably in sink with the titular substance, Zift is a sort of neo-noir where our protagonist has been wronged by a few people and probably his woman, a gorgeous femme fatale.
It starts after the fact, with him in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and then we follow him in his struggles to make things right. I really liked it, and it has a lot of great characters, but then I'm a sucker for almost any noir.

30 Films from 30 Countries, nr8: South Africa

I wasn't looking forward to putting on yet another African "gangster" movie after Viva Riva, but Jerusalema is in a whole other league.
Sure, much of this is already done to death, but location, culture, music, language and society helps Jerusalema bring something new to the table. The direction is pretty lazy, but there's enough going on to help divert the attention. Should have ended 10 mins before it did, though.

30 Films from 30 Countries, nr7: Congo

Fun as a look-in to an exotic and chaotic nation (continent), but this is a mess. The actors, if you can call them that, aren't helped much by the script, but it is pretty hard to sit through this, I must admit. The lead guy should consider being an Omar Epps impersonator, because he's sure as hell not an actor.

30 Films from 30 Countries, nr6: Finland

Just your basic, run of the mill, Nordic crime novel adaptation. Feels like a tv-movie in every aspect. This really should have been a part of a tv-show rather than a movie, but the last 10 minutes at least have an inkling of tension.

Star studded comedy with musical elements that completely weirded me out.....

As a film pretty much dependable on its ending it sure takes its sweet time getting there. It is worth it, though.
Sol Kyung-gu is an amazing actor and he delivers yet again as the pathologist being forced to help a murderer who's kidnapped his daughters.
The way the story is portrayed does have its problems, and some of the structure doesn't make sense. It's structured in a way as so to make it as suspenceful as possible, but stretches the believability too much.
It does have it's inspiration sources, but talking about them would involve spoilers. Seven is a pretty obvious one, of course.

30 films from 30 countries; nr4: Romania

Well, that's what I call a misleading poster.....
I appreciated the story, and what it wants to say, and for a while it is intriguing enough. unfortunately towards the end it seems like they didn't know where to go with it. The finale thus ends on a disappointing note, but still a decent entry into the new wave of Romanian film.

Better than nr2, but that's no great feat. And funny, thanks to Shane Black ("I loved you in A Christmas Story btw." Hahaha, that was hilarious), but of course also Downey jr, but by now I get the sense he's so into this character he's more or less on autopilot. Nevertheless, I never got immersed into the universe, and two hours really is too long for these types of movies. Hopefully this is the last and both Downey and Black can go on to more exciting projects.