Our Man In Berlin – part 2
More from the Berlin Film Festival, reviews courtesy of Jon Barrenechea
With almost no sleep somehow I managed to carry on throughout the day – but indulged this morning in a little bit of extra sleep so my Tuesday might be light on films. Here are some reviews:
IF I WANT TO WHISTLE, I WHISTLE
This has been getting rave reviews here and I wouldn’t be surprised if it won the top prize, but this Romanian film left me cold. A cliched story about a young prisoner who is pushed into desperate measures to save his little brother, I found it beautifully shot and acted, but ultimately unsatisfying.
EL MAL AJENO
A slick Spanish supernatural medical drama (a new genre?), this was produced by Alejandro Amenabar (THE OTHERS) and stars his favorite actor Eduardo Noriega as a doctor who discovered he has the power to cure people by touching them. The how and the why is both complicated and irrelevant. Don’t watch this if you’re a hypochondriac, as almost every scene features a medical procedure. For ER fans.
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP
The amount of buzz this is getting was evident in the screening – huge excitement and clearly lots of laughter and applause for the street artist Banksy’s film debut. The very hype that the feature is getting is exactly what Banksy is spoofing in EXIT, and I do understand the point he is trying to make, I just didn’t find it very interesting. That said, I do think that audiences will love this, particularly in Brighton.
