Circle of funeral pyres

The Danish district of Nørrebro in Copenhagen is bustling. Accusations are flying about the disappearance of a young boy and the underworld is starting to sort things out. A bag of cocaine has also disappeared. A crime film with a surprisingly bland plot, but impressive enough in execution to be worth watching. A surprising ending, although it's watered down by the fact that it's pretty ridiculous.

Adversity builds character

A bit of a nostalgic filmmaking feel. Paul Hunham teaches privileged boys at an elite New England prep school and he has to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit a few students who can't go anywhere. Not exactly a dream job for this gruff teacher. Makes a cinematic eye candy. The comedy in the film is warm-hearted, ingenious and, in places, downright funny. The acting (Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa and Da'Vine Joy Randolph) is absolutely top-notch. Directed by Alexander Payne.  

We're very fragile creatures

World War II. A young Frenchman, for no real reason, joins the German police force to fight against the French resistance, his fellow countrymen. In his sense of power, he imagines that he has the right to do whatever he wants. However, falling in love with a Jewish girl is against Nazi ideology. Lacombe, Lucien is a classic by Louis Malle from 1974. Unfortunately, the career of the main actor Pierre Blaise was cut short by a car accident in 1975, at the age of 20.

Somewhere beyond the sea

A textbook romantic drama that balances joy, sadness and immense tragedy in waves. An Italian couple and their friends experience different phases of life over a period of 10 years. The film's jumping around between different time periods is a bit annoying at first, even confusing, but it gets better towards the end when you start to get a sense of the film's message. Still, it's far from Paolo Genovese's best work.

Only the dead bereave

A unique sci-fi film. The space freaks have found themselves in a rather strange Estonian apartment block where the everyday lives of a few people change quite a bit. The Black Hole is a bit too stretched out and therefore boring in places, but it could have been made into quite a cult hit if it had been edited better. The film's satire simply doesn't have the bite. And the wackyness turns into annoyance.

Guns have their uses

An old-school action flick, a thing of beauty. It's easy to forgive the clumsiness and naivety of these films. This is honest movie rock'n'roll, straight-up action where the bad guys are real no-good villians and the honesty of the good guys wins. For many, the action films of the 80s and 90s are the true golden age of cinema. Final theatrical film of Charles Bronson, he was 71 when Death Wish V: The Face of Death was filmed. 

God bless the wicked

What a tedious piece of shit. Unfortunately, this movie will only be remembered for the incident in which Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed one of the film's crew members, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. To honor her memory, they should have made an intensely captivating movie. But it was left undone. 

Deeper demons

Hopefully the Serbian horror scene has better things to offer than this. A very confusing and therefore meaningless story about two estranged brothers and a small village that is entangled in a mystical pagan cult. One of those completely useless horror films that has no entertainment value. Complete nonsense. 

A single cell of energy that explodes with a bang

There's nothing wrong with the acting (Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli) and the director (Paul Schrader) is already a respected one, but it's a boring movie! An idealistic and eccentric documentary filmmaker and professor talks about his life to other filmmakers on his deathbed. And there's absolutely nothing interesting in it.

One well placed bullet can change the world

A John Wick spin-off. There's really nothing here but skillfully choreographed fight scenes with firearms, knives, axes, grenades, everything possible to harm another person. You can watch it for a while, but the repetition is exhausting.  

We were just here gravedigging

It's quite fun to watch. Started out interestingly and the pleasant tension continued for a while, but towards the end things got out of hand as the story was being woven together in a terrible hurry. Still, a sufficiently gripping thriller with a bit of Hitchcock-esque features.