bartverberne16

Mees Kees, which is shorthand dutch for 'schoolteacher Kees', is a kind-hearted primary school teacher in a small village in The Netherlands. He seems to have many ambitions, but is poorly judged by his boss, principal Juf Dreus. Also, Kees still lives with his mom, which constitutes one of the main plot lines as Kees is requested to learn to take care of himself by living on his own.

The characters are lovely and are well delivered by the strong cast. The problem with this movie lies in the script. It is very thin. Nothing much happens and the humor is sparse. I understand that this movie is for children, but this doesn't exempt the makers of putting a little more depth or creativity in. My own 2 kids (4 and 7 yrs) were also rather bored.

Under the silver lake is a film about a young man named Sam (Andrew Garfield) who becomes obsessed with unraveling the mystical disappearance of a young lady in the Hollywood hills. The movie is interesting in that it has an out-of-the-ordinary lead character and, above all, an out-of-the-ordinary plot. It is sometimes rather hard to follow what Sam is up to, and about what's meant to be real and what's not, however director David Mitchell manages to sustain a sufficiently intriguing atmosphere for most of the duration of the film. What I especially enjoyed were the original shot selection (camera angles) and numerous hints to classic movies and hall-of-fame directors.

A big minor of this film, I found, is that it is at least 15 mins too long. At a certain point you reach a level of saturation, resulting in confusion over what the movie is actually about. Because of some scenes simply got lost on me, and I am still wondering about the reason for including it in the film.

Nonetheless, this film is an original contribution, which is honorably venturous among the simple-minded, mega-budget action movies which fill up theaters nowadays.

'Borgman' tells the story of a drifter (Jan Bijvoet) that slowly but suddenly takes control of the lives of a young, wealthy family living in a beautiful mansion somewhere in the Netherlands. The movie begins with a scene in a forest, where Borgman, i.e. the drifter, and some of his associates are chased from their underground hiding places by a group of holy workers (lead by the-always-inspiring Pierre Bokma). Soon after their escape, Borgman alone seemingly randomly knocks on the doors of the houses of very wealthy people, asking if he can use bathing facilities in their house. In attempt to do good after a brutal beating by her husband (Jeroen Perceval), Marina (Hadewijch Minis) helps Borgman by giving him temporary shelter in the garden shed. That was all that the intimidating but darkly intriguing character of Borgman needed to unfold his diabolical plans...

Although Borgman is a layered surrealistic film, and probably therefore sometimes slow and hard to understand, its message is clear and the story is continuously compelling. Especially intriguing are the biblical aspects, which are always subtly present in the background, and which give the film a dark, tense character. Not being a religious person, the movie does trigger an interest in the spiritual, or better, meta-ethics, which won't leave you alone for several days afyer having watched it. The excellent performances of Jan Bijvoet and Hadewijch Minis are crucial in delivering the very strong script.

I highly recommend this film to anyone who seeks a tense thriller. Because, aside from the absurdist aspects, from start to the end the movie is very exciting.

8/10