film critic journal | by ares

[CAT] C oco  és una pel·lícula que té el seu punt de partida en la història d'una família que viu a un llogaret, en castellà "aldea" de Mèxic, Santa Cecília. Només amb el nom fictici d'aquest llogaret tenim una pista del fil conductor i l'essència del film, la  música . Així doncs, ens trobem amb una família, fabricants de sabates tots ells, que - per una raó que s'explica al principi del film - tenen vetada la música en tots els àmbits de la seva vida. Tanmateix en Miguel, el més jove de la família, és un gran fanàtic d'Ernesto de la Cruz, qui sembla ser el més gran dels cantants mexicans de tots els temps. Per aquest motiu ell vol "viure el seu moment" i esdevenir músic encara que això suposi enfrontar-se i allunyar-se de la seva família. Durant la pel·lícula, Miguel aprendrà a veure des d'una prespectiva el significat d'estimar i a valorar la seva família i també veurà quines són les conseqüències del pensament basat en la ide...

[CAT] Tren de nit a Lisboa és una pel·lícula que gira entorn un llibre i el seu autor, d'origen portuguès i, com moltes altres, està basada també en un llibre. Sota el meu parer, a més, la manera com es narren els fets en ella, la fan una pel·lícula que és una mena de "llibre visual". Hi ha diversos temes que es tracten en el film que, especialment, em recorden a la manera en què estic últimament percebent les lectures que faig i potser per això l'he qualificada de llibre visual.  En primer lloc, m'agradaria destacar la idea del viatge , similar que seria una "road movie" on els personatges troben el sentit d'allò que estaven buscant realitzant aquest viatge al seu interior, i a un indret nou.  En aquest cas no hi ha carretera, ni diverses parades, si no que només n'hi ha una, Lisboa. El protagonista, Raimund, un professor d'escola divorciat amb una vida que ell descriu com "avorrida"- i percebem que sense gra...

A monster calls, the movie directed by J.A Bayona that talks about us.Yes, about us, about our inner I and, especially, the fears that we have and those fears that, sometimes, we don't know how to master.  The protagonist, Conor, is a boy that lives in a world with practically no support. His parents ara divorciated, he suffers from bullying at school and her mother has cancer. Despite that, he tries to live his life as a boy of his age.  However, every night, Conor has a dream and always wakes uo at the same moment, at the same time. We do not know how the dream ends, and he seems like either.  Nevertheless, this story, that combines reality, fiction, aquarelas and dreams (or nightmares) is a metaphor of what we do not want the world to know about us, because we think it isn't correct or ethic or even a metaphor of those things we don't even face ourselves.  It is a novel, a poem and film, all in one. -- [CAT] Un monstre em ve a veur...

The Jungle Book is the "real" version of the Disney movie from 1967. It is a fable about animals and the balance between them. However, Mowgly is a human that lives with them and combines the human intelligence with the animal instinct.  This story shows us that we can be whatever we want to be and we just have to believe and work in order to achieve it. Mowgly is a human and the law of the jungle does not accept a human. Despite that, Mowgly proves that he is different and that this fact doesn't have to be a barrier in order to live with the animals.  On one hand, he just loves being with the animals and learns from all of the creatures. On the other they comprehend that there has to be no fear of Shere Khan (the tiger) because if they stay united there's nothing to worry about.  The film does not draw on the music of the original animated version but it still has the magic of the tales that Rudyard Kipling wrote and it's essence, that it doe...

"Julieta", by Pedro Almodóvar is a movie that I didn't plan to watch and I think that, as it has happened to me with the few last movies I've watched, it gave me a valuable lesson about life,  family, friends, in fact about us, humans.  Julieta is a humanist, she teaches ancient greek culture (literature and mythology) when, in a train,  she meets "prónos" a man named Xoan, who is a fisherman from the north of Spain that will change her hole life. They become a family when Artía, their daughter, is born and their story seems to be perfect.  Nevertheless one day, everything changes, because Julieta discovers that his husband, Xoan has been always seeing her previous wife best friend and spending some days with her when Julieta was visting her parents. That day, Xoan leaves forever and Julieta has to deal with her daughter and the guilt of the situation.  Even though Artía seems to understand and help out her mother in everything with no c...

Barcelona nit d'hivern , the sequel of Barcelona nit d'estiu, captures de spirit of Christmas, when everything is possible. The film follows the life of various couples, families, friends  and people that spend the Christmas night in Barcelona. Some of them fall in love, others try new things, and some others share a secret they were hiding for a long time...  In the movie everyone learns something about life, family or love... in fact, the magic of Christmas is always present. It is romantic, but you also real and magic and you laugh a lot as well.  A perfect film for these holidays

The movie starts as it does the book, with the same words that F.Scott Fitzgerald wrote in the beginning of The Great Gatsby.  Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) keeps his low profile as it does in the novel. He is an observer of all the actions around him, but he does nothing; so he is the narrator of another person story, Jay Gatsby’s story ( Leonardo DiCaprio). In the movie it seems, though, that everything is a flashback that Carraway does every day in different moments. This fact, though, does not appear in the book. In fact, Baz Luhrman uses Nick as a narrator from a different point of view of Fitzgerald’s narrator.  The director of Moulin Rouge shows us a crazy Carraway in a shelter as if the roaring twenties and the non-love story between his Jay Gatsby and Daisy had been the cause of his craziness. The rest of the film is similar to the book and Luhrman emphasizes two aspects. The first one is the roaring twenties. This decade was, precisely, one of t...

Nowadays, that in almost every job experience is required, we wouldn't be thinking of a senior doing the typical tasks an intern does.  Well, this film shows us that besides young people seeking for experience to find decent job there's also seniors who don't know what to do with their life when they're done working and family, friends and trips aren't enough to fill the days.  Ben (Robert De Niro) is one of those seniors who needs to work and do something in order to find sense to his life after having traveled around the world and being widower. He finds an intern workplace at About the fit, a company founded by a young passionate entrepreneur, Jules (Anne Hathaway) who didn't even knew this posts were offered.  When Cameron (Andrew Rannells) tells Jules that she's going to have an intern that is 70 years old, she isn't really convinced but as the movie goes on, the viewer is going to see that sometimes we need someone to support and ...

A masterpiece. Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke are outstanding in the performance of their characters and Richard Linklater has done a work of art. A must see, the story of a boy who becomes and adult does not comprehend just him but his family and friends. The story of a mother that fights for his family, a father that wants to be a part of them and a soul that wants to find his place on earth. 

If you like music, you'll like this film because it is a story about love for music, there's also time for other love, yes, but the main purpose of the film is showing the love people have for music and how this thing can help you overcome things and change your live. I've heard some critics say that this movie "has a soundtrack for every love story" and "a movie for those who live life as if it was a playlist" and I also would define it like this. If you don't like music, or it is not one of your most loved interests, this film makes you appreciate it. The places where the music is made captivate the viewer and the songs make you spend some good time watching the movie.  As for the story itself, the base, I wouldn't define it as groundbreaking story because if it wasn't for the music component, it could have been entertaining - because it is not a film about how a music star is born- but it wouldn't have been that good. As said...