La Ciénaga

Wonderful cinematography, but I wish the uniqueness of the opening would have been kept up throughout the film. Not enough of a story, begins to feel like a documentary or a reality show.

Textural and beautiful sound-image. Would’ve preferred more thematic guidance but it’s lyrical as a series of moments. Reminded me of Ratcatcher for some reason.

I appreciate some of what the film does, but it's a tedious slog to watch with wholly unlikeable characters. It's a film about middle class decay and familial chaos, but everything is thrown into the pot with only contextualizing clues to fit the pieces together. While the ambiance it creates is really accurate, and things are laid out well enough that you can piece the relationships together eventually, it lacks the ability to make me feel anything other than disdain for these characters.

Chekhov my ass. Wants to make some kind of social statement about the waning fortune of Argentina and the zombie like stupor afflicting the population at large, but after a strong opening scene repetition starts to set in and Martel's lack of ideas becomes increasingly apparent. She does convey a strong sense of stasis and decay, and there are some effectively awkward moments that stick, but her vision of bourgeois malaise is too meagre and micro to resonate on a deeper level.

Not many movies can portray a total lack of perspective like this one. The viewer is thrown upon a pessimistic portray that actually bothers (a lot) throughtout the entire film...

Decadence and carelessness in Argentina. A reasonably well-done drama about things that happen, don’t happen and might happen, which features good performances, carefully-observed details and some strong scenes, but the final moments are perhaps a little trite and underwhelming.

Lucrecia Martel's excellent debut reminds me of the "magic realism" of older Latin American literature. Her meticulous, if seemingly effortless, reproduction of every minutiae of real life situations, tinged with a nagging oddness, is trying to watch but ultimately endearing. You'll look back at this movie and like it more and more.

On its own, the curiosity of fear becomes life's bottomless pit as one is unable to endure it's surrounding. Latching on to any hope in arms reach; religion, material, love - the purgatory becomes a moggy pool that one may never leave, be it intentionally or not. A dense, natural texture to this that I admire.

yönetmenin yeteneğine hayran kalmakla birlikte filmin adı ve film boyunca takındığı "alın size metafor" tavrından etkilenmedim. hani nbc'nin son filminde bir fransız halk oyunu olan menage a trouis'in alaturka versiyonunu anlatması gibi, festival jürisine göz kırpılmış hissi verdi. ayrıca, hikâye ve yaklaşımları farklı olsa da carla simon'un alcarras'ı yaratırken bu filmden çok etkilendiğini düşünüyorum. alcarras'ı sevenler bunu da sevecektir.

Malisima

I appreciate the craft that went into this, but it was quite the test of patience to sit through.

Viewed April 19, 2017.

A gloomy and textured look at bourgeois decay that does some remarkable things with framing and sound design. Scattered in a way that illustrates the slowly forming chaos of its universe and that gives way to some thoughtful commentary on race, class, and gender. Really good!!!!

Star Rating: ★★★★★

Wet Hot Argentine Summer. The family of two cousin moms meet during the summer, only to form a series of uncomfortable, inappropriate, macabre, smelly, sweaty, lazy situations. Adults drink/smoke, teens sleep or stare at each other, kids play with dangerous stuff, there is a pool that looks like a swamp, everyone seems nervous and stressed out, kids drive cars or handle shotguns. A wild ride to the heart of Argentina through the eyes of two crazy families.

Tall glass of pants

General discomfort. Accidents waiting to happen. You'll have someone's eye out. Etc. I appreciate the intention and it's well achieved but not my tea.

20 Kasim 2018

Realistic, and beatiful filming. Wonderful in a detached perspective.

I just found this boring. There's some okay stuff and it's not offensively bad or anything, but it is not as interesting as some of the descriptions sound. It's generally well made and everything, but just not for me.

Un retrato naturalista de la vidas interconectadas de dos familias. Captura perfectamente todo lo que quiere capturar, sea la humedad asfixiante, la apatía crónica, o la desesperación por lo que será (o no). Refleja también el racismo latente que corre por las venas de este país.

I love Chekhov, but he did not come to mind when I saw this. The story and characters just didn't feel as universal as one's in Checkov's work.