“While it might be easy to assume that films like ‘Natural Born Killers’ and ‘Funny Games’ simply demonise their audiences as wanting the thrill of violence without thinking about the consequence of it, the films instead ask questions, instead of only providing answers.”
“Fathers make sense when we can reduce them to symbols, but the actual business of parenting is so defined by ‘feminine’ qualities — emotional openness, compassion, gentleness, patience — that we often struggle to correlate them with a father figure.”
“The close proximity of sudden, shocking violence to the humor challenges viewer expectations, and despite a few notable exceptions in the movie’s later sections, Stearns successfully pulls off his tricks.”
“‘Year of the Dragon’ offers little comfort, and when it does, Cimino heavily suggests its victories are hollow and insincere. It is a dark-mirror exercise in genre fragmentation that shatters the vigilante cop thriller into thousands of pieces and lays its ugliest instincts frighteningly bare.”
“‘Spider-Man: Far from Home’ is a sophomoric attempt to capture the visual flair and look of the old comics; Watts fails to capture the bite and necessary substance.”
“Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ trilogy has become THE Batman interpretation, heralded for its gritty realism. But in my book, ‘Batman’ is the better comicbook movie.”
“‘Death Proof’ is too singularly grindhouse, but it works as a fun, trashy flick, and a cool female empowerment story.”
“All in all, ‘the 4th film by Quentin Tarantino’ is a wild, eclectic action movie with visual flair, great performances and personality up the wazoo.”
“‘Fonotune: An Electric Fairytale’ can’t escape feeling like a zany music video concept, lacking the energy or plot to sustain a feature.”
“As a whole, ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’ is a fun romp and continues the Greek/pulp mythology set up in ‘John Wick: Chapter 2.’ In future installments, Stahelski might want to tone down the campiness, otherwise the series will lunge into self-parody.”
“One of the greatest pleasures of ‘See You Yesterday’ is that the challenges and complexities of the jumps get better as the story unfolds.”
“By viewing a family over three generations, the audience can see patterns that the characters themselves cannot, and then see patterns in their own lives as well, hopefully.”
“If ‘The Wandering Earth’ is China’s first step in big budget space adventure, it promises a giant leap not far down the line.”
“Rodriguez’s battle scenes and the performance capture acting of Rosa Salazar (Alita) are shining aspects of the film, but not enough to render it praiseworthy overall.”
“Cagney’s sadistic lead in ‘White Heat,’ a searing 1949 crime drama from director Raoul Walsh, is something well past the norms of a conventional male protagonist — or antagonist, for that matter.”
“Fargeat is almost saying, ‘well, if you want to look at her, you must look at her no matter her condition.’ It is a grotesque way of calling out the male gaze, but it is an effective one.”
“When it comes to sheer quantity of triple-crosses, double agents, remote control gizmo toys, one-liners, stunts and rubber mask fake outs, ‘Mission: Impossible — Fallout’ outdoes its predecessors. The big question now, however, is whether the longevity of this franchise is finally taking its toll on the overall quality.”
“‘Revenge’ is not quietly revolutionary. It makes its message quite clear. Loud, brash, neon-colored and shot like a music video, the flick is unabashedly cool.”
“The vomit moment in ‘Dead Bang’ is unfailingly human.”
Jaime Grijalba on Santiago Festival Internacional de Cine