Movies Posts Tagged as 'Foreign: Spanish'
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Parallel Mothers (2021)

When Almodovar embraces Hitchcockian ambience it is sublime but when he attempts a Spielbergian signature it deprives the film of a punch. Two mothers, both strangers share a common thread that conflicts with their lives. Even though the outcome is easy to determine, the presentation is a shivering buildup. Penelope Cruz maintains her hold until Almodovar gives up. Her mother doesn't crumble as the film's psychology implies. She wraps it up without a challenge. The ending is part Schindler's List and part Indiana Jones/Jurassic Park. I welcome a latin Spielberg inspiration with cheeky heroes and dinosaurs but I can't forgive a spanish mother that doesn't wreck. A spanish mother is the T-Rex of emotion. 23-Apr-2022
Wasteland, The (2021)

I can't identify with a child that wakes his parents up so daddy can walk him to the latrine which is terrifyingly one block away. To piss. Why didn't he just piss in any corner of the house except where mama hangs laundry? It debates whether parents should compromise a boy's sensitivity by forcing him to become a man if the times deem it necessary. It's a future where woke people are forced to eat animals named Fluffy to survive. Suicidal grandpa daddy grants himself an early reprieve by getting a conscious in between bouts of "I don't give a shit! and "I want to die!" Daddy did not deserve a vacation. Mother madness is spooky with minimal slaps and torture towards children. She did good with killing animals, though. I didn't understand it. "The monster is made of trees, branches and bad lighting, maybe. You imagined the whole thing. You're just like us. Nuts." The child riled us up but the director couldn't grant us a reason for any of it. 08-Jan-2022
Don't Listen (2020)

A latino Jeff Lewis moves his wife and his vitamin D deprived child to a haunted flip. This is the big one. Every cent is embroiled in this project and there will be no crying about hearing voices, premeditating people's deaths or telling your mother that I hate you. Son has been in quarantine for a long time and that's the reason the adults say he invents such magnificent lies. The thing that happens early to shock us awake was the thing that kept it running. It sputters with no engine. 01-Dec-2020
Chosen Ones, The (2015)

Conning underage girls into sex trafficking by boys/men realizing the fairy tale expectations that mothers inculcate. The subject is severe but the director does not exploit it. He keeps it creative with unseen cuts and human sounds that make the heart race. The heroes are also victims of an establishment that will never recognize a woman's purpose and therefore are powerless to do anything but abet the enemy or become one. Real and disturbing. 20-May-2020
Madre (Mother) (2016)

An expectant mother with a virulent special needs child, becomes overwhelmed until she meets and hires a kindly filipino grandmother who claims to have cured her own. The treatment consists of communicating with him in her native tongue, pampering him like a favorite child and emotionally distancing him from his natural mother. The boy recuperates, learns to speak filipino and clamps himself onto the mother (nanny) he desperately needs. Mother has her discomforts, daddy is relieved and the household finds much needed bliss. Mother marches along, suspending her doubts and chalking the old woman's takeover as relief. As soon as madre decides to use an app translator to discover what the nanny is communicating to her son, the mama wars begin. Daddy is gaslighting, mama is hallucinating and racial political correctness is straining. The film makes a point that the intent to make everyone legitimate renders safety mute. It's a nail-biter I don't recommend to expectant mothers... unless they want to drop early. 02-Apr-2020
Son, The (2019)

A husband thinks his wife's environmental overprotectiveness towards their son is the reason she's keeping the boy from him. Everyone is intense, suspicious and naturally creepy. You clench to the finish line waiting in exasperation to find out who's what. It satisfies and saddles a surprisingly happy ending that complements the horror. 17-Feb-2020
Heroes of Evil, The (2015)

Revenge boomerangs, bullying turns you serial and little boys do fucked up things. 15-Dec-2019
Animas (2018)

Friend of a friend starts experiencing supernatural episodes after her friend starts dating. For the majority of it, it follows typical horror terrain where nothing makes sense and the end is sure to be crappy but when they explain it, it all falls into place. 15-Nov-2019
El Angel (2018)

The angel is a pretty boy thug serial menace. The treatment is enamored of its subject, diluting his gay tendencies and celebrating every crime as a cute inspired revolution. Lorenzo Ferro keeps the character charged and the film pulsing but the consequences for heinous are overlooked. I could smell the 70s. 24-Oct-2019
Roma (2018)

Cuaron's acute respect for the latino community grants the actors a flow of naturalness. He stills the camera and holds us down but the punches are seldom. His scrupulousness doesn't allow the story to move forward, to be appreciated or ingested. Black and white is an art trick that binds it to a timeless blur. 20-Dec-2018
Abracadabra (2017)

Her piggish husband has been possessed by a gentler woken ghost. What is a woman to do? Half the fun is figuring it out and celebrating the film's laughs, zestful anterior American tunes and "no bullshit" relationship conclusions. I might've chosen wrong for her but she didn't. 10-Jul-2018
Veronica (2017)

If you are going to push a movie's intensity by how fact based it is, you can't let mumbo jumbo lead. The scares are laid out but never trimmed. The director seems unaware that it is precise cuts that grip and shake. 13-Mar-2018
Me Estas Matando, Susana (2016)

Boy loses girl, man ventures to get her back. Gael Garcia Bernal tackles deep gut reflection on what an asshole a man can be and the worth they forget to assign their wives. Veronica Echegui clasps his brilliance and spars effectively. I think it deserved an ironic ending but the laughs, the heartbreak and the politics are real. 01-Mar-2018
Brillantes (2014)

It's an ode to American action farce from another time except the makers weren't privy to any of the good ones. The leads have bygone ethnic daddy squish, chemistry and lashes of quick wit. The film has a reset button, treats women like chess pieces and has no identity. I'm not figuring it out for them. 20-Feb-2018
La Pantalla Desnuda (2014)
The director/writer Florence Jaugey establishes grit and exasperation from effortless fine points. Somehow youth is the real victim as it establishes that God apprehension, child bowing or dissent and unconsciousness from adults is what triggers the self loathing and self destruction of teenagers. There is no punishment for the evil done as the film piles heartbreaking consequences against our young lovers, but that may be the reason the abomination lingers. 13-Jul-2016