Sicario (2015)

Denis Villeneuve’s next HIT film after the success of Prisoners (2013). With veteran cinematographer Roger Deakins, he made something suspenseful.

I like how this film brought a simple idea about the Mexican border drama into something scary and very satisfying thiller-drama.

Emily Blunt was right for the cast – as a person that can be identified as us, who always tries to do something “by the book”. Especially Benicio Del Toro, he made a comeback from playing some high-dude collector in Guardians of The Galaxy (2014). His mysterious character made the film looked more than a simple thriller. My dad, usually predicts what a character might do, but he couldn’t predict him. Watch the climax of the film, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Also the cinematography was great. The technical side of the film was very complex, but yet looked realistic. The old man really knew what he was doing since the 1980’s.

Besides that, I really like to hear the film’s sound design and foely, it sounded so realistic. It build more of the suspense.

As for the writings, there were plot twists all over the place, but the most surprising one was on the climax. We really don’t know what Benicio Del Toro’s and Josh Brolin’s character motivation for ¾ of the movie. Once we knew it, OH SHIT, this is fucked up.

I bet this film would be in one of Oscar’s nomination.

The Verdict:

Sicario is one of the most suspenseful film of the year, with strong cast, plot twists, and technical (cinematography and sound).

The Little Prince (2015)

Honestly, I didn’t really care about this movie. But the poster said it was the official selection on Cannes Film Festival. So this film wasn’t just any film. Adding it – my friend, Stefanie was really excited with the movie. She told me that the film was based on a novel or a children’s book (you choose) with the same title. Well I don’t really know the book, I already bought it but still waiting for it to arrive at my doorstep. Maybe I’ll make an updated version of the review after I have read the book. So as Stefanie told me, I’m was thinking about the book to be as smiliar as Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist – both book hit people on the dreamy-psychology side.

From the technical side, this film didn’t achieve many modern improvements. But what actually made me excited was the stop-motion figures vs the animation. They were fun to watch.

Well, from the writings. I have to remind you that I haven’t read the book. I only read the first paragraph of the book’s plot in wikipedia. I won’t compare it drastically.

The story was bookend with another story from outside the novel – the story of the little girl and her mother. The pilot was old, but still kicking. We learn much more of the book’s message from this point of view – making it simpler and easily identified. I don’t know if you will agree with me, I see this film as the sequel of the book.

I’m going to discuss the ending of the film so..

SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Elisa told me something depressing but yet interesting. We discuss the fate of the girl after she fell from the second floor.

Elisa brought up, that the film ended with the girl’s death and the conclusion of the film is the girl is in Heaven – living up her dreams with a simple good ending. We can see this by looking at some hints, we sometimes ignore them (even I). For example, the pages at the end of the film were not taped.

But, I don’t like the film if it has a bad ending. So I concluded that the film DID have a good ending. Because as a filmmaker, WE OFTEN TEST OUR AUDIENCE – either they are optimistic or pesimistic people.

Here’s my argument. This film is an animation film. So the movie used imagination rather than realism. I believe that anything could happen in animation. The filmmakers have more possibilities. I even believed that the ending of the film did happen: the girl search the little prince and restored the stars.

SPOILER ENDS HERE!

But, believe me, for someone who needs something to cope with the hardship of life, this is a film for you.

The Verdict:

The Little Prince (2015) is full of fresh ideas and rewriting the whole story into a new modern one with an ambiguous ending (you decide).

The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015)

Guy Ritchie’s blockbuster summer movie is out! This time he adapted the movie from a tv series, which was very popular in the 70’s.

Guy Ritchie – the guy who made Sherlock Holmes films (starring Robert Downey Jr.) – once again wanted to make a ‘smart’ movie. But this time, he failed.

The movie lacks of the intelligent side of the story. If you compare it to his previous films, this film is the dumbest. The film tried so hard to make a twist every time it turns. But its efforts are not good enough.

This film once again wants us to be a stupid person. I hate this kind of movie.

But surely you can praise its art direction and editing. It has style. And it’s great!

The verdict:

This film is like Tron: Legacy (2011), great to watch, bad to consume.

The Martian (2015)

A Ridley Scott film – starring Matt Damon – tells a story of a stranded austonaut in Mars. The film was compared with Nolan’s Interstellar, which later I will share my thoughts about it.

The film was GREAT sci-fi film – touching, inspirational, funny, but with high suspense, and mostly accurate with science.

Matt Damon was incredible. He made the character looked very much alive and surviving.

The scenery or the visual effect was incredible and well placed. I saw a lot of movie with fucked-up visual effect – especially sci-fi. But, the really nailed it with this movie!.

The scoring – which was made by Harry Gregson-Williams – was also great. I mean when you hear it, the score feels like it was made for an every day living drama. But, how amazing Williams put it on another planet! Also the soundtrack! HAHA! They’re hillarious!

Now, I’m going to compare it with Interstellar (2014).

Overall – for me – Interstellar was still winning with its genius director, Christopher Nolan.

The Martian (2015) can’t defeat Intertellar’s puzzle and mind-fucked situation. But The Martian won because of the characters – they are easily identified. We usually know what our next emotions would be as the film ran. Interstellar lacks of this, we don’t know what the emotions are next. Because of the puzzle of course.

On the technical side, Interstellar used traditional technology – which is still very effective. The actors can feel more of the real atmosphere. The Martian used green screen – nuff said.

Also the scoring. How can you defeat Hans Zimmer? I still like to hear Interstellar’s ORIGINAL music. The Martian lacks of its originality of music.

But I still like both of them as sci-fi movies. These two movies proofs themselves to me that they are both intelligent. Even though they lack at some point.

THE VERDICT:

The Martian is smart, funny – with high suspense – with strong cast and very effective use of science.

*note: if you like Interstellar (2014), I think you will like this.

ToBa Dreams (2015)

Film ini dibuat oleh anak negri, dari anak negri, untuk anak negri. Film ini menceritakan tentang hubungan antara hubungan anak dengan ayahnya yang rumit. Menggunakan budaya Batak – film ini tepat dalam menunjukkan budaya tersebut secara utuh dan baik. Film yang mendapat nominasi di Film Festival Indonesia 2015 ini, berjalan selama hampir 2 jam 30 menit.

Nah pasti Anda berpikir, apakah film tersebut layak masuk ke dalam jajaran film terbaik tahun 2015? Untuk pembukuan Indonesia, ya. Untuk pembukuan internasional, TIDAK. Mengapa?

Film ini kekurangan motivasi dan pemikiran dari setiap langkahnya. Mulai dari skenario sampai pelaksanaan lagu.

Skenario dari film ini menurut saya sangat menarik, namun film ini tidak menciptakan “film” yang baru. Sebaliknya film ini menyontek film lain yaitu, The Godfather (1972). Beberapa teknik dari skenario, editing, dan phasing terasa sekali contekannya. Bahkan dari font judulnya menggunakan font style yang sama dengan film The Godfather (1972). Seorang pembuat film seharusnya tidak melakukan ini. Mereka seharusnya membuat film yang baru lalu menemukan referensi yang mendukung film tersebut. Bukan sebaliknya, kesannya pembuat film tersebut hanya membuat ulang dari referensi film tersebut. Beberapa adegan juga terlihat murahan – hanya membuat orang nangis secara cuma-cuma.

Acting dari film ini saya akui sangat aneh. Orang Batak memiliki ciri khas yaitu, berbicara dengan nada tinggi – telah dikonfirmasi lagi dengan teman saya, Rio (thanks, btw). Ya memang karakter-karakternya berlatar belakang orang Batak, namun, tidak semua orang Batak kan? Tetapi di film ini, hampir semuanya seperti orang Batak, padahal sebenarnya bukan orang Batak.

Melalui Acting para pemain, SETIAP adegan terasa seperti adegan KLIMAKS dari film tersebut, karena phasing dari film ini labil – naik turun tidak jelas. Selama 2 jam 30 menit itu, saya berasa lelah karena saya tidak diberikan waktu untuk “bernafas”. Lalu masalah phasing lainnya dapat kita lihat dari perkembangan karakternya. Hampir ¾ film ini hanya berfokus pada si anak dan melupakan si ayah. Potensi dari perkembangan si ayah seharusnya bisa menjadi nilai tambahan untuk memperjelas atau mempercantik budaya Batak. Bahkan hal tersebut bisa menjadi perbandingan dari dunia si anak dan dunia si ayah. Sayangnya film ini tidak seperti itu.

Penggunaan lagu dari film ini juga terlihat seperti bermain-main. Lagu-lagu dari film ini tidak mendukung suasana (mood) dari adegan dan tema dari film.

Kemudian yang paling parah – Cinematography. Penggunaan pencahayaan dari film ini tidak digunakan secara maksimal. Motivasi dari pencahayaan tidak jelas dan kadang terlihat bodoh. Ada satu adegan yang sebenarnya cahaya itu cukup terlihat, namun si anak malah menyalakan senter. Lainnya, terlihat dari peletakan kamera. Motivasi dari peletakan kamera tidak ada motivasi SAMA SEKALI. 180 degree rule di langgar begitu saja, pergerakan kamera yang tidak mendukung motivasi, dan tidak adanya inovasi dari framing.

Kesimpulan:

Film ini cuma bikin nangis mainstream audience, TITIK!