guisreis

The adaptation by some of the stories of Boccaccio's Decameron by Pasolini produced a very unique and amusing movie, full of dark humor, sexual content and Neapolitan dialect. Set in the Middle Ages, but changing Northern Italy for Mezzogiorno, the film shows a great collection of very amoral characters, deviating from the supposedly very strict moral code imposed by the Catholic Church. Greed (and fraud, and theft) and lust (and debauchery, and even harassment) are portrayed as widespread, in stories which vary from hilarious to disturbing. The quite old places that compose the setting and the well made costumes and deformed teeth transport spectator to medieval period, although behavior is as contenporary as it can be.

Everything is hilarious in this movie, but also seriously dramatic. While the whole situation seems absurd, the movie also explores the complexities of the mind and its strategies to overcome difficulties. And what a great psychologist is Dagmar Berman! And how kind is sister-in-law Karin. Also very interesting to see the gradative change of the relation between brothers Lars and Gus. Excellent performance by Ryan Gosling (besides Elimy Mortimer, Paul Schneider and Patrica Clarkman, all of them excellent in their roles). As the story advances, it is beautiful to see the town (which is almost itself a character) showing warm silidarity and love. That is the way to go on and succeed. Very nice and innovative film.

Adapted from role-playing and first-person shooter video game, the movie has both trais in its action and mission-based script. It is visually appealing and ensembles a great cast, but is also extremely generic and, I must add, emotionless. There is nothing there that you have not seen before. Indeed, it seems somewhere between Mad Max and Star Wars. I was a little bored with its absolute lack of innovation in the beginning, but, when I adapted my expectation, my very perception became a little better. As a matter of fact, overall bad rating surprises me, as the flick is certainly not worse than current avarage action cinema and it is deffinitely better than, let me say, Denis Villeneuve's new Dune or, for sure, Zach Snyder's Rebel Moon.