Watched in the cinema (197th visit in 2024)
It is now 85 years since Sigmund Freud died. But his fame is unbroken, even those who are not familiar with the field of psychoanalysis are familiar with the name of the influential thinker. And so, every now and then, films and series are released that refer to him in one way or another. With "Freud's Last Session", another movie is now being released.
There are no murders here like in the…
Watched in the cinema (179th visit in 2024)
Hardly any other animal instinctively triggers as much disgust or fear in many people as the spider. This naturally makes the little creepy-crawlies ideal antagonists in horror films, where they are allowed to scare the audience. Whether classics such as "Kingdom of the Spiders" and "Arachnophobia" or the more recent horror comedies "Eight Legged Freaks" and "Lavalantula", there are a whole series of examples in the genre of what something like this…
Watched in the cinema (177th visit in 2024)
Writing synopses for movies is always a tricky business. How much can I say without it becoming a spoiler? How much do I have to say so that the audience knows what to expect? The usual thing is to simply describe the initial situation, on which everything else is built. But sometimes even that is difficult, as the case of "Strange Darling" shows. The beginning here is not the beginning of the…
Watched in the cinema (171st visit in 2024)
When you read about the internet phenomenon of Red Rooms, it sends shivers down your spine. Allegedly, these are websites on the darknet where people are murdered, tortured or sexually abused via live stream. Spectators can take part for large sums of money. The actual existence of these sites has never really been proven; in fact, streaming within the darknet would not even be technically possible. The rumours are based on a…
Watched in the cinema (159th visit in 2024)
Bertrand Bonello is one of those directors where you never know exactly what he will shoot next. His films are mostly dramas. But it is remarkable how diverse the themes and settings in his works are. In 2014, for example, he told the story of the excessive lifestyle of fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent in "Saint Laurent". In "La Bête", the French filmmaker's latest work, he now takes off completely when he…
Watched on Amazon Prime Video from October 12th until October 16th
Schocktober 2024 #16
Stories about serial killers are very popular on streaming services. Netflix is of course leading the way with its countless true crime productions, which are released almost weekly. But the competition is also happy to join in the hunt for bloodthirsty viewers. Two years ago, Apple TV+ launched "In With The Devil", in which a criminal seeks the company of a psychopathic girl killer. So it's…
Watched in the cinema (151st visit in 2024)
You don't have to be a traumatized ex-alcoholic like Jessica Chastain in this film to panic in a situation like following: When an unknown guy follows a woman home, it's more than just creepy. His dementia may perhaps be a little understanding, but it's not enough of an excuse. And the fact that the paranoid Sylvia ends up befriending the man in a roundabout way does seem rather unusual.
But well. Sometimes…
Watched in the cinema (145th visit in 2024)
A hail of bullets, shelling from all sides: Lee Miller (Kate Winslet) is running for her life during the fighting for the Breton port city of Saint Malo. Then there is a violent bang, a shock wave throws the woman to the ground and a GI pulls her out of the danger zone at the last second. She has a helmet on and a uniform, but no gun in her hand. Her…
Watched in the cinema (140th visit in 2024)
In recent years, autism has become a surprisingly common theme in films and series. From Germany, for example, came "Wochenendrebellen", which is based on a true story about a boy who desperately wants a favorite football club and therefore travels all over the country with his father. Now we have another movie, "Ezra", this time from the USA, which has a few things in common. Once again, it is a tragicomic road…
Watched in the cinema (120th visit in 2024)
August 2024 is a real merry month for western fans. Two weeks before the first chapter of Kevin Costner's rather conservative saga "Horizon" is released in German cinemas, Viggo Mortensen's second directorial effort "The Dead Don't Hurt" opens. This film is also a western, but only a classic one at first glance. On paper, the story of carpenter Olsen (Viggo Mortensen) and French-Canadian Vivienne (Vicky Krieps) offers everything that characterizes the original…
Watched in the cinema (111th visit in 2024)
Sometimes fiction is overtaken by reality. When the screenplay for "I.S.S." appeared on the famous Black List in 2020, the list of the best unproduced screenplays to date, it all still sounded a bit like science fiction. A nuclear war between the USA and Russia - why would such a scenario be attempted again some three decades after the Cold War? And even if such a military strike has not yet taken…
Watched in the cinema (106th visit in 2024)
Richard Linklater naturally enjoys a great reputation as a director. Over the last three decades, the American has made many wonderful films, some of which have achieved cult status. Now, after a few forays into streaming, "Hit Man" is once again a feature film that actually has everything it takes to be a hit - at least in Germany, where the comedy is actually being released in cinemas instead of being buried…