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Stone Cold Cowards

Posted by Sa Gouveia on May 6, 2012

A young woman is brutally murdered. We find her body inside a building in a pool of her own blood. It’s night and the stains on the sidewalk look black. She is dead lying on her stomach alone in a town, which seems to be fast asleep. Then we hear the police sirens, the blue and red...

Our Happy-Go-Lucky!

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Apr 30, 2012

Once in a while the capacity some filmmakers have to surprise me still amazes me. In the rare case of them being Portuguese it raises that surprise to pure delight and utter satisfaction. It so happened this weekend with the latest film by Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra. Cat’s...

Let’s get physical

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Apr 11, 2012

What makes an action movie particularly good? Nowadays, in a world bent over CGI effects, 3D effects and comic book remakes, one could almost say…the machines. Now well, that is one depressing thought. So, when we get a chance to see an action movie like Haywire we have the tendency to...

Paradise Lost

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Mar 10, 2012

There’s something big in some small films, usually the ones which talk about little things in a big way.The Descendants opens with a man opening his heart about his life in paradise. Not being a particularly religious film, he is clearly talking about Hawaii. This is done with a...

Mr. Ed goes to war…

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Mar 1, 2012

I was never a big “animal” pictures fan. Although I shed the proverbial tear before Bambi’s mother dying at the age of six, I always thought Lassie was silly, Skippy was nerdy, Benji was clueless, and so on… …And then of course there was Mr. Ed. That ironic horse from...

Bad Cop Blues…

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Feb 18, 2012

Rampart is a slow paced movie that at the end leaves us with the indistinct feeling of being run over by a ten-ton truck. Set in Los Angeles in 1999, it tells us a story of a morally clueless cop, a man who has is own ideas about what justice, society and self-conduct should be and all of...

J. Edgar… Over!

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Feb 16, 2012

It began to tell just after Gran Torino, a simple yet charming movie about a man fighting decadence whilst trying to make a difference. Truth be said, it was far from being perfect but it was nevertheless a good movie. After that, Clint Eastwood, one of the most talented American actors/...

A lesson in bittersweet.

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Jan 27, 2012

The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo opens on a frenzied videoclip-like montage in contrasting black and white, thorns and flowers, digital and organic textures, all boomed up by a powerful Trent Raznor/ Atticus Ross song that will keep all 9 Inch Nails feeling well and alive. All the others...

The Good Spy.

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Jan 22, 2012

There is a wrongful idea that spy movies always tend to loud and fast paced. Fearless strung out spies performing impossible car chases and big shootouts, all ending with fanfare disclosures. In fact, a good spy movie is something very quiet, as quiet as a secret. John Le Carré is very...

Our Money’s Worth!

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Jan 9, 2012

As most Europeans, I’m not a big fan of baseball movies,the reason being quite simple: although I’ve tried, I could never understand the poetry of the game, let alone its rules. And although I have been baffled once by a huge crowd’s passion for the game at Dodger Stadium, I admit I...

That annoying feeling…

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Nov 24, 2011

We live in troubled times. When being civilized becomes out of fashion we opt out via politically correct, overdose bound. In these times of hidden carnage it was with pure delight I watched the latest Roman Polanski movie. Carnage is based on Yasmina Reza’s play and it’s as...

Love Labour’s Lost

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Nov 5, 2011

Restless, the new film from Gus Van Sant, could be a great movie. It isn’t. Unfortunately for us, it lacks a little of everything and has a surplus of narrative redundancy that almost transforms its title into boredom. Does it have great moments? Yes, it has. Van Sant’s...

Flying over a cuckoo clock.

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Oct 26, 2011

Some people disregard documentary as a commercial genre, capable of conquering audiences and appear at the box office. Vol Special, the new documentary from Swiss director Fernand Melgar is doing just that. For now, it is happening in Switzerland, but with proper marketing it should be...

The sound world of silence.

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Oct 9, 2011

The idea is not new. Mel Brooks did it in 1976 and called it Silent Movie, a feature film with no spoken dialogue, exception made to a “!non!” loudly spoken by the world’s best know mime, Marcel Marceau. The film, which included a fine roster of stars like James Caan, Liza...

From a whisper to a scream!

Posted by Sa Gouveia on Oct 2, 2011

Howl is a little movie that could be Great. If only it didn’t rest so much on self-indulgence. Yes, the main character is Allen Ginsberg (a cool performance by a very talented James Franco) and what is at stake is the fact that the poem’s editor could go to jail to sell obscene...

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