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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.
Shame
Being a sex addict seems like a non-problem. I mean, what’s the big deal, as long as you don’t shoot crack while doing it? Apparently, it’s a problem in cities like New York. Director Steve McQueen wanted to make Shame in London, but there were almost no ‘experts’ to talk with. In New York, there were. And that sex addiction is a problem, makes McQueen, who’s been living in Amsterdam for years, painfully clear in his newest film. Luckily there are treatments for those addicted to sex…
After Hunger, which I still really want to see, McQueen made a film with Michael Fassbender again. The waspy Brandon bends his life around sex, even his work and younger sister are less important. It’s clear that he needs help and so does his sister (a slightly boring Carey Mulligan). In the meantime, the city of New York plays a beautiful part as the cold, idle town where loneliness is around every corner.
Watch this film in Cineville’s Cinecenter, The Movies and Kriterion. Also in Pathe (City and Tuschinski).
The following weeks Hunger is showing in Kriterion every Friday- and Saturday night.
The Descendants
George Clooney, I love him. And I don’t mean that in the ‘he’s so cute and handsome’ way, but in the ‘he’s such a good, charismatic actor’ way. Just to be clear. Clooney is not disappointing in The Descendants, but the script is though. Director and writer Alexander Payne raised the bar high because of Sideways and About Schmidt, but his latest work didn’t really live up to my expectations. It’s all just a little bit too much like ‘this is drama, but not too sentimental, this is just like real life you know, yet with a twist’. Jeez…
It’s not all bad however; I liked the kids (I never like the kids) and the whole story keeps you interested after all. Who’s the guy Clooney’s wife cheated with? She can’t tell, she’s in a coma.
Watch this film in Cineville’s Cinecenter and The Movies. Also in Pathe (all of them).
Black Out
Director Arne Toonen (Dik Trom) is clearly inspired by films like Snatch and Pulp Fiction. Fast cuts, cool music and colourful characters. The storyline is simple: ex-criminal Jos Vreeswijk (Raymond Thiry) wakes up next to a dead body and doesn’t remember a thing. He also doesn’t get why everybody, including his ‘old friends’, keep asking him about 20 kilograms of coke. Thiry is great as the man who got out, just like I expected. What is more surprising is that Willie Wartaal and Kempi are actually quite funny as two cokedealers with a trimming salon for dogs. As for the sisters Schuurman, they’re not thát cool, like Toonen wanted them to be (I guess). Anyway, Black Out is an awesome trip along weirdos and weird situations. Toonen just wanted people to be well-entertained. He absolutely succeeded.
Watch this film in Cineville’s Het Ketelhuis. Also in Pathe (Arena and De Munt).
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