Filmfetish Friday: The Ides of March, All Stars 2: Old Stars, Restless

Filmfetish Friday: The Ides of March, All Stars 2: Old Stars, Restless

Oct 21, 2011 |  by  |  Art, Event
About the author
As a freelance journalist, Anouk (26) usually writes about what other people do or like. In her precious spare time she watches arthouse films. Not a few. A lot, thanks to her trusted Cineville pass. Here she can finally share her film-fetish with the world.

To watch or not to watch? I will tour around Amsterdam’s cinemas and answer this crucial question every Friday. Without mercy, of course. Sucky movies will be slaughtered, cinematographic pearls will be appreciated as such. Or the other way around. After all, good taste is in the eye of the beholder.

The Ides of March

My friend and I were looking forward to this film. Why wouldn’t we? A new political thriller by and starring George Clooney, and other great actors like Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti. But right before the film started we looked at each other, saying: ‘what the hell does “ides” mean?’ Well, my friends.. it refers to the killing of Julius Caesar, in the middle –the ides– of March. It proved itself as a very good title, because The Ides of March shows the nasty intrigues of political campaigning in the States in a tremendous way. Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) is hoping to become the Democratic candidate for the presidential elections, while Stephan Meyers (Gosling) tries to be as honest and straightforward as possible as Morris’ ‘campaign guy’. He truly believes in his boss. It appears that Meyers is way too naive. Naive, but not stupid..

Watch this film in Cineville’s Kriterion and Cinecenter. Also in Pathe (City and Tuschinski).

All Stars 2: Old Stars

All Stars is great. I loved the first film (1997) and I loved the television series (1999- 2001) about the amateurish soccer team ‘Swift Boys’. I was pleased to hear that director/screenwriter Jean van de Velde was working on a sequel. The script was as good as finished when disaster struck: Antonie Kamerling, one of the leading actors in All Stars, committed suicide. At the insistence of his relatives, Old Stars was made anyway. I don’t know if that is a good thing. The first half of the story is nice, very funny, very charming. But after a while the jokes get more silly and childish. (Burqas and a German nudist camping site, I won’t say more) What also annoyed me was the totally random death of one of the characters at the end. Probably just written in to commemorate Kamerling in an indirect manner. There’s one good thing about that scene at the graveyard: you see the true emotions of the actors that have known Kamerling for many years.

Watch this film in Cineville’s Het Ketelhuis. And in Pathe (all of them).

Restless

Apparently, Gus Van Sant (Elephant) made a new film and I didn’t know about it! Although De Volkskrant isn’t that lyrical, I’m still very curious about his ‘teenage love drama’. Especially since the leading guy (Henny Hopper, yes.. Dennis’ son) has a weird set of hobbies, like going to funerals of people he doesn’t know at all. Yup, got my attention there!

See this film in Cineville’s The Movies. And Pathe (Tuschinski).

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