Toto the hero (1991)

Unique cinematography and great acting – combined witch a well developed plot – those are the reasons for which Toto the Hero gets high ratings in just about every movie list it is featured. The story is puzzle like and solving it becomes a trilling challenge for the viewer . The director (Van Dormael) use mulch-flashback techniques combined with surprising scenes to twist the plot and make the movie really vibrant and inventive.

The main character Thomas ( nicknamed Toto) is convinced that as baby, he was accidentally switched with another boy Alfred – who latter becomes his neighbor. From this very moment Toto feels deprived from his own life and devotes his life to fix this injustice.The story is presented from his viewpoint through an unforgettable exploration of his life – from birth to grave. Toto the hero could be labeled the ultimate coming of age movie – even through the viewer is left to decide if Thomas successfully completed the transaction from or his mind reminded captured in some state.

I could relate to the story as it showed how a single event and/or idea can shape the whole life of a person . While there are many years ahead of me until I reach an old age or anything even close to it there have been things and events who had their impact on my life – and some probably still does – not that this is necessarily a good or bad thing.

I highly recommend Toto the hero – it is by far the most original film I have ever seen.

http://youtu.be/GqTVr79pqEw

IMDB (link)

Cachorro

Cachorro is an amazing Spanish movie . I loved it ! Unfortunately you will have to be open minded (at least one bit)- or will end up not liking it ( a possibility that is). If you have seen Mala Educacion of Almodovar and any of similar European movies you won`t be shocked by the scenes in Cachorro – but would rather appreciate the directing talent of Miguel Albaladejo . (soon I am going to watch and review another movie directed by him – Volando Voy).

Pedro – a gay dentist enjoys his bachelor ways of life: living alone in a downtown Madrid`s apartment and having active sexual live spiced with drugs and wild parties. His sister is a hippie and is planning a trip to India – her 9 years old son Bernardo has to stay with someone for the duration of that trip and this someone happens to be Pedro. At first, they both did not seem very happy with this arrangement – but as time passes they get to know each other better.

An incident prolongs the stay of the mother – she is arrested in India for drug trafficking, changing the two-week vacation into a time indefinite absence. Pedro has to accept the responsibility of caring for Bernardo – which could mean changing his life a bit – being a father figure is not always easy. The young boy ( played brilliantly by David Castillo ) however is very open-minded and wise – which is probably resulted from him growing up in a rather liberal environment.

Up to this moment – the movie may remind you of Big Daddy or About a Boy – but it only gets better. The boys grandmother Doña Teresa enters the scene – apparently not happy with the new arrangements she is trying to get custody of Bernardo – using even blackmailing to achieve that. The story is full of twists and indeed its ending is quite surprising and open at the same time which will allow you to select the way to conclude the story.

The movie can be categorized as drama and comedy at the same time – some scenes heartbreaking , other really entertaining . The movie addresses several issues ,amongst them :

“1) Is it possible to balance an active/casual sex life with bringing up a child.
2) What makes someone a good parent/guardian?
3) Adoption of children by GLBT individuals or couples
4) The reinvention of what constiutes “family”
5) An introduction to “Bear” culture”

The acting of the actors is remarkable and the soundtrack is amazing. Cachorro is one of the best films I have seen and I highly recommend that you go ahead and watch it.

“Cachorro” draws on many texts … (including “The Jungle Book”, “Peter Pan”, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”, it has a man-all-of-a-sudden-finds-himself-having-to-look-after-a-child story that has echoes of “Three men and a Baby” and “Big Daddy”). {l}

Koktebel

Koktebel is a Russian coming of age drama – which has gained some recognition on festivals across the world. The way in which the movie is directed and filmed in similar way as the movies: The Return and Mirror . I liked the cinematography in the movie – the camera work is great and the scenes were pleasure for my senses. However the pace of the movie was a bit too slow for my liking -and whereas some my argue that such pace is necessary to describe the characters – I think that the story could have been told for half the time it was. One of the directors of Koktebel is psychologist and this clearly affected the movie – as the friend of mine I watched this movie noted – one has to think about the story , to analyze the events in order to fully understand the story. Koktebel is about a father and son who travel across the Russian wilderness – with a goal many people strive for ( me too) – start a new life. They travel by foot , train – stopping at places to work and earn some money for survival. During their journey they meet various locals and while interacting with them learn new things about themselves – the father for the boy and the boy for his father. The story is told in narrative style – mainly from the view point of the boy – which makes Koktebel a good coming of age movie. The true nature of the dreams is examined – and one can see that sometimes a common goal can shape the life of people.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqpurk_vTQw

IMDB

Sztuczki

Sztuczki is worth watching if only because of Damian UL’s talent, who played in the role of Stefek – a six-year-old boy who tries to retrieve his father. The cast is well selected, and their acting performance is first class which brings a feeling of spontaneity and uniqueness into the movie. Damian UL got an award for best actor in the International Cinema Festival in Tokyo for his performance in Sztuczki. The plot provides a mixture of hope, humorous moments and drama. The movie does an exceptionally well presentation of the everyday working-class life in the Polish countryside.

The directing of the movie was exceptional, and so it was the soundtrack. I have seen the movie twice – in the cinema theatre during a festival and at home. Sadly the director did not appear during the festival as it was announced as it would have been great if I could share my impressions with him.

A warm and amusing story, seen through the eyes of the boy Stefek.{L} Bravo to the director Andrzej Jakimowski for bringing such a masterpiece to us.

Canvas (2006)

I haven’t seen acting like in Canvas in a long time. The best actor in the movie is Joe Pantoliano in the role of a father who has to take care of his son while his wife is taken away to a mental hospital. In a few other reviews I saw opinions that Devon Gearhart, who played the son in the film, was not capable of showing the depth of his character, but I would rather disagree. To me, he did a really good job and I think that his talent will shine in the years to come. Of course I won’t neglect to mention Marcia Gay Harden – who has the most challenging job of portraying a woman with a mental disorder – and played the role brilliantly.

Canvas is the kind of movie I wouldn’t be surprised to see shown in Sociology classes at school. It has some really strong scenes – like the one in which the mother was taken into a hospital by police. Surprisingly, I felt tears on my cheeks while watching this scene. Learning how to be a real family – father , mother and a son – could be a tagline for Canvas. At the same time, I think that it would be better if the movie was more realistic (as Stephen Holden suggested in his review). It would have made an even better drama.

Canvas 2006 Official Trailer

httpv://youtu.be/Xi6ohZCwj2M

Martian Child

A friend of mine recommended this movie to me though My Space. I am glad that he did so because it did turned out to be a good movie. Its tagline “The story of a man becoming a father…and a boy becoming a son” draw my instant attention. After seeing it I could only add that Marcian Child is a real coming of age movies – that somehow reminds us that there is no universal age – some of us are coming of age every single days of our lives and that`s so beautiful. We are creating new miracles , exploring new words – learning to be human. And may be all shall have the stamp on the box in which the Martian child was hiding from the sun – a big stamp “Fragile ! Handle with care” – loving the person who gets us out of that box and still does what`s this stamp says .

The plot of the movie is based on the real story of a single parent who decides to adopt a child. That child happen to be a six-year old orphan boy named Dennis who thinks that he came from Mars to fulfill a mission on the earth. From the moment they first meet a new mission lies ahead of both of them – that mission is pretty well described by the movies tagline I mentioned above.

The good plot is there. There is book with the same name and a short story .The movie is based on the short story – although there are people who argue that its actually based on the book – only the sexuality of the single parent was changed – to make sweeten the film for the general audience. I have not read the book yet – so can not really comment on that yet. The acting is average – but rather good than not – and the movie has a really good soundtrack too. Martian child seems to be a nice family movie – which you could enjoy some cloudy Sunday afternoon ( just like I did). Similar but a bit better movie would be About a Boy – just so you have an idea .

http://youtu.be/Fo–9mYFpVM

The Nature Of Nicholas

I used to think that The Nature Of Nicholas is a cute movie. That`s the impressions that the clips from it in the video sharing web sites left on me. More over the main characters looks alike one of my classmates in the German classes . But after seeing the movie I have to say that it really surprised me . I have never suspected that I would see horror elements and will feel that confused after watching it. Its very so paced – I set the speed in my video player to 140% and it still felt like I am watching on a regular pace. There seems to be so many metaphors in this movies – and yet none as clear as it should have been . If you don`t know much about it – the movie that is , but you want to see it – I urge you not to read other reviews online because they would reveal much and you would miss the twisted surprised feeling which is guaranteed to you by the kind of plot The Nature Of Nicholas has. This movie won`t make it in my favorite list – but it sure made it in the weirdest movies I have ever seen. Yes it is a coming of age movie – a coming out movie too I guess at least that I was able to make out. I guess if I have to compare it with another movie it will be the Reflecting Skin and yet may be I was able to understand it more than this one.The acting in The Nature Of Nicholas was not very good either – especially the one of the adult actors – the one of Jeff Sutton and David Turnbull as the two main characters ( Nicholas and Bobby ) was at least bearable . The best feature this movie has is indeed the superb photography – and its nature scenes – again another thing that makes it similar to Reflecting Skin.

“”I just hope people pay attention to it and come up with their own ideas,” the director says. “Movies like this are complicated. “

IMDB (link) 2012 Update : A review by Phoenixeast at TheSkyKid.com

Vox Angeli

The first album of Vox Angeli was released few days ago (February 4, 2008) and it seems that it has gained popularity judging from the the amount of visits to this blog only due to the fact that I have bookmarked their official site . I will admit that until recently I was not familiar with the group Vox Angeli but knew about one of the six soloist in it – the young and very talented Louis-Alexander Désiré. Louis sings the Schubert’s Ave Maria solo which is featured as the sixth song ( out of ten) in the album. I had the chance to listen to all songs and am really impressed – the music is really touching and one easily can see why the name that the name of the album and the group is a right tag for the angelic voices of the girls and boys in the group. Actually I guess the more appropriate term for Vox Angeli would

be choir rather then group. Finding information about them in English is not an easy task – even their official web site is French only – which is a pity as it somehow it sets some limits to people who want to learn more about them. Vox Angeli has 6 members – 3 girls – (Lola, Iris and Claire) and three boys (Mathis,Louis and Etienne) – I have created a small collage for this post so you can have an idea who is who ( of course they do have biographies on their official page ). I have read opinions which compared them with Angelis same formation and similar image and I could only wish them to become at least as popular as Angelis are- because they really deserve that.

http://youtu.be/WEl16U5nJms

The Devil’s Backbone

I did not quite get the whole movie , but have to admit that it had brilliant cinematography. It is a well made movie – may be the abstract plot – a ghost story with a twist combined with rather unusual story telling caused my confusion at times. But with Pedro Almodóvar as producer- its obvious that it was not going to be your average movie. The movie director – Guillermo del Toro did a great job in the The Devil’s Backbone, which he claims to be extremely autobiographical movie for him

The story is set during the Spanish Civil War – young boy named Carlos is left in an orphanage by his tutor . His father is dead – but Carlos doesn`t know that. Everything is new for him and he has to adapt, to win the respect and friendship of the other boys living the orphanage. And as if that is not a real challenge itself – he has to learn to deal with his own fears.

Some other reviewers wrote that the movie is rather slow paced – but I disagree with that opinion. I enjoyed the development of the story as it allowed me to get familiar with the characters – their positive and negative sides , even their thoughts may be. This became possible thanks to the remarkable performance of the young actors and the rest of the cast. The The Devil’s Backbone is labeled as horror movie , but to me it offered much more drama than horror – despite the fact that it gets creepy at times. The ghost in the story is seen mainly by the kids – most of the time anyway. Probably that is what the director meant when saying:

“In so many ways, the movie tries to deal with the ghost of something from the life of the kids, a ghost of something that you lost, something that haunts you, something that you never did.” It is a metaphor for the ghosts that haunt one’s life, a universal understanding of fear.”

I could only add – that the movie did deal with all this haunted visions in one`s life – even in mine – at the house when I go upstairs sometimes I hear whispers , steps – may be this is just my imagination – but my heart beats faster and I run through the big hallway to the nearest switch and am getting calm as soon as the lights are on. I never through of this – but now after seeing this movie and reading what the director had said about it – all these experiences start making sense.

http://youtu.be/703hNsc5Bvg

The Kite Runner

Beautiful movie full of wisdom and emotions. I admit that there are still tears in my eyes after seeing this brilliant masterpiece directed by Marc Forster ( Finding Neverland). After seeing the final credits I really feel that this movie enriched my life. The plot is brilliant and provides many surprising outcomes – some scenes are disturbing , other draw tears in my eyes , and some evoked anger in me – I have said it before – it a movie makes you feel than its succeeded in its mission – to tell a story and suck the viewer into it. It is not an easy task to decide what this movie is about – friendship , betrail, lost innocence, forgiveness ,devotion….I can go on like that for a long time.

The Kite Runner is based on a novel of the name name written by an Afghan American author Khaled Hosseini. I liked the movie so much that I already own a copy of the book and am going to start reading it soon . I have heard that the book provides much more insights to the story then the movie does – which is usually the case with books. The script of the movie can be downloaded for free. On the same time you could also listen to the soundtrack – which is quite remarkable ( I got a copy of it as well).

The acting in the movie is really good – once again first time actors such amazed me with their talent and convincing performance. Zekeria Ebrahimi and Ahmad Mahmidzada who are the child star in the movie moved to Saudi Arabia because their family fears that they could be kidnapped or even assaulted because of of a disturbing scene in the movie. Actually the movie was delayed – because the studio wanted to ensure that the boys are safe . More info and links you can find on the movie`s Wikipedia entry.

I am not going to reveal much details of the plot as you will be able to get an idea about it from the trailer of the movie which I have included below. I hope that the review will be useful for you anyway and I urge you to see the movie when it gets released to your country. I really have to make a top 10 of my all time favorites – and I am sure that The Kite Runner will find its well deserved place there.

Blauvogel (1979)

Blauvogel was in my collection from quite some time – but I have not seen it – mainly because I was not sure if I could follow along without subtitles. The movie is German – but I found dubbed Russian version which made the viewing easier ( I am currently taking German I – but it would take time until I can watch and understand movies in it). Despite the worries I had the movie turned out to be an easy one to watch .

While I am a big fan of stories about American Indians – Blauvogel did disappointed me a bit. It is released in 1979 and may be this is one of the reasons for which the filming was not that good, the scenes convincing enough or even the acting believable ( well Robin Jaeger did well )- but I have seen other movies released near that year which turned better.

The story develops around 1850 when an English farmer settles in America with his family. His oldest son George ( 10 y.o) is kidnapped by the Indians and later on accepted in their tribe under the name Blue Bird. He faces many challenges – coming of age in this new environment . And when he becomes a man and the circumstances make him return to his English family he has to find himself once again – will he succeed?

The movie was not perfect , but I liked it never the less. Somehow it just felt like I am out there in the field playing the role of George ( I did that many times – being an Indian was one of my favorite fantasies ) . The coming of age element is considerable – as George develops a lot as a character – even through right after his childhood , we see him as 20 years old man.

I have read other review stating that there was an excessive amount of violence in Blauvogel – but I did not found this to be true.

http://youtu.be/8boO_tUn0WY

IMDB page (link)

D.A.R.Y.L.

Just saw this science fiction movie and decided to add my 2 cents to the opinions about it online. It is a good movie – for its time anyway ( 1985 ) – and somehow it feels like watching a prototype of Artificial Intelligence with Haley Joel Osmond. The movie has been recommended to me by a friend of mine who is obsessed with aircraft and is found of Barret Spencer Oliver who played the leading role of an eleven years old boy with artificial brain. I myself am not very familiar with the actor – aside from his role of Bastian in The Neverending story.

Still I think that he did well – and his acting in D.A.R.Y.L deserves a high five. The plot of the movie must have been very innovative for its time – and the movie succeeded to preserve some special appearance even nowadays ( the good movies have no age as we all know). I have to admit that I have seen better movies with similar thematic – but at the same time I am not really familiar with the movies released in the 80`s. ( then I have a favorite released then – ET). If I am to compare this movie with the most recent released Artificial Intelligence I would pick the second one as it somehow succeed to evoke more emotions in me.

D.A.R.Y.L on its own is a fun movie to watch – but I doubt I will remember much of it ( aside from the acting of Barret). The movie did rises some moral issues – like the one shall anyone destroy a machine if the difference between a man and it can not be seen or sensed ? I think that this would be barbaric – especially when this would involve hurting a youth ( as Daryl in the movie).

See this movie if you can – the enjoyment is guaranteed ! In the meantime check out its trailer below :

TheSkyKid.com

TheSKyKid.com