Filmfetish Friday: Hesher, Abrir Puertas y Ventanas, Alles Van Waarde

Feb 24, 2012 | by Anouk | 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.

Hesher

I saw this film a couple of months ago during the ‘Jameson Film Experience’. That evening, the whisky brand made it crystal clear that they know more about booze and marketing than about cinema. To put it short: Hesher was one of the worst films I’ve seen in 2011. And now, as if the film programmer of Kriterion has lost his common sense, it’s showing in the oldest arthouse cinema of Amsterdam. WHY?? It may be an independent film, but this appears to be no guarantee for quality. The story about antisocial heavy metal fan and weirdo Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who comes into a mourning family uninvited is implausible, unsympathetic and not funny. Probably the opposite of what director Spencer Susser wanted it to be. That Natalie Portman plays a part in it makes some scenes a bit less annoying to watch, but that’s about it. I really have no idea why Portman also found it necessary to be the producer of this film. So see this text as a warning, my friends. Don’t spend your time and money on this crap.

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

Abrir Puertas y Ventanas

I have three sisters and that’s why this film interests me. A sisterly bond is hard to explain, so I’m always interested in how other people try to do that. The Argentine-Swiss film maker Milagros Mumenthaler made a film about three sisters who have just lost their grandmother. They now have no guardian figure left (their parents died many years ago). What are they going to do? ‘Open doors and windows’ is a small drama with a thin storyline, but I think I’ll like it nonetheless.

Watch this film in Cineville’s Rialto.

Alles Van Waarde

Yes, one of my favourite Dutch documentary makers made a new film! I don’t know if the subject is that appealing to me, but hey, it’s Frans Bromet. His newest work is about his annoyance with the modern ‘management culture’. In Bromet’s opinion Holland is run and ruined at the same time by managers who have the power to decide almost everything. And they don’t do a very good job, of course. In discussions with friends and his daughter, who is a city councillor for Groenlinks, he expresses his frustration about contemporary society. Bromet makes politics personal.

Watch this film in Cineville’s Het Ketelhuis and Studio K.