A Most Wanted Man (2014) or Beautiful Spies

He was drinking his whisky anxiously. He needed to calm down. Other spies, mightier and with more efficient networking qualities (what other people call ass-licking qualities) were way ahead him. With a fiasco in his pocket -defeated by the Americans, can you imagine?- he had to do it right this time around. 

Sin City 2: Where Blood is Coloured White

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) is a sequel some were impatiently waiting for, for almost a decade. Did it worth the anticipation/hype? More or less. Did it catch us by surprise?  It certainly didn't, as it's hard for a sequel to bring new elements in the game, but we loved it anyways. Sin City brings back nearly forgotten heroes and monsters from an era long gone.

Performances & Characterisation

Ex Dark Angel Jessica Alba is more stunning than ever. And oh-so-innocent. Contrapuntal Eva Green is the archetype of femme fatale, trying to beat her predecessors in classic film noirs. No matter how impressive the looks, she doesn't win the competition with the likes of Lana Turner and Barbara Stanwyck. She ends up an amusing caricature though, a devouring sex goddess with such a harsh/ exaggerated outline that makes thinking men unable to fall/kill for her (at least in real life). Same goes for the whole gang: their traits, whether physical or character ones are seen through the magnifying glass -something which accommodates us. It accommodates our politically-correct selves -we find it hard to identify with them, thanks God. But, one cannot expect subtlety in the adaptation of a graphic novel, right?

Shock Tactics 

Beware: this is R rated material. Banned in Iran, while in fast-forward Canada 14 year olds are allowed in screenings, the film is not a valid choice when in chill out mood. Highly sensitive souls will have to cover their eyes for the biggest part of the movie (sic) and they will still be agitated nevertheless. Of course, it's not the "sexual content, nudity or short drug" use we disapprove of.  It is the "strong brutal stylised violence throughout". Those sequences must have been a pain to shoot and I appreciate cast and crew and extraordinary stuntmen for their contribution, but, guys, that was so intense an experience that I was unable to sleep until four thirty in the morning.  

Lady in the Lake (1947)

Seeing everything from the protagonist's  point of view is not an easy thing; especially if the protagonist is Philip Marlowe, a private detective, who goes through a set of weird situations, some of them involving unusual degree of physicality.

To cut a long story short, I was never punched in the face before. This was the first time in my life, and it was quite upsetting. Even if I didn't actually feel the pain in my face, I was literally taken aback, jumped on my cinema seat dressed in red and shouted. Yes, I was the only one in the audience who shouted, but I am well-known for my unusual degree of identification with two-dimensional heroes and anti-heroes alike.

Mr. Montgomery was successful in his choice of the subjective camera/point of view in what was his directorial debut, Lady in the Lake (1947). An unusual choice indeed, disorientating at times, but it drags you into the action all right. We don't mind at all that the camera itself is the main character, who is in fact visible only in reflections; his hands or other part of his body are visible sometimes, but that's enough. Montgomery is, after all, not the most handsome Marlowe that ever saw the light of day -Humphrey Bogart's representation is unbeatable. Raymond Chandler's book with the same title was good material to start with, even if Chandler himself was not happy with Montgomery's effort to recreate his atmosphere, what's more, without using the script he provided to MGM.

Great experience, good acting from icy slash brainy Audrey Totter -who becomes as tame as a sheep in the end of the film, to my surprise- and a very original and experimental way of filming, that apparently inspired Gaspar Noé in his film Enter the Void (2009). Peter Bradshaw explains it all coherently, even if he snubs the original attempt of the camera viewpoint in favour of the latter. Well, Gaspar Noé is known for treating provocative material, so there's a bigger shock factor there. But, shock factor alone cannot make a good movie, Peter, dear.

Good to meet you, Walter Mitty

Not sure why I have/had a more or less snobbish attitude towards american comedy (that statement doesn't hold true in the case of rom coms, which I rather enjoy watching with my sisters). Thinking about it, I reach the conclusion that I was rather dragged to different genres of movies as a result of my hanging out with not exactly the members of humour appreciation society. On my way to change this (sounds like a good new year's resolution, doesn't it?), the first movie for 2014 has been high spirited one, almost a comedy (but not quite).

A lot has been written on Walter Mitty. They called it mediocre, they called it bad, as well as "the oddest film of the season" -film critics can be mean, when they are let down. But, I also saw Mitty in a list with the 50 best films of the year. The film opened on Christmas day in States and it definitely has some charm, even if it falls short  of fully adhering to a genre. It's classified as both drama and adventure on IMDB. It's classified as comedy, too. Based on a famous (American-literature-wise) short story by James Thurber, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty has had  an earlier version of its main character in flesh and bones in the 1947 adaptation.

The film may be narcissistic and all that -it's a trap one can rarely escape, when directing and starring in the same film like Ben Stiller does here; but it's also funny and sweet and tender. It may have nothing new to offer, it may be highly unrealistic in its portrayal of a dull Life's employer who is fantasising most of the time, instead of taking action, until he becomes almost a superhero, but it's more than a decent film. Personally, I found it had a good pace, some very funny moments and good acting. It could draw me into it, which is a factor to be taken into consideration. But, who knows, maybe that was only because I am a Walter Mitty of sorts.