Winona

The story is known. From sunrise to sunset of a late summer day, four young women kill their time in a deserted beach. They are saying corny (let God make them) jokes, sing discordant songs, recite reams of non-sense together, talk a lot about Woody Allen, managing to say absolutely nothing (which is a feat by itself). They tear up and laugh by themselves, they put up sunscreen, dive into the sea from time to time and create pointless fictions about the only house overlooking the beach. I believe i am getting understood.

But wait a minute! There is suspense also. A car is there and they are probably being watched, but may be not. Probably there is something else going on also, and if this can't be deciphered from the movie, then there are those courteous cinema "critics" who point it out in their "critiques", so that the viewers will expect it and not leave in the middle of the movie. Of course, at the end of the film, even this "something else" is unclear whether it is happening or not. The emotions that the director probably aimed to are lost and sunk in the general boredom that he has successfully generated thus far. The viewer can't take seriously this new discovery, when the director is not taking it seriously himself. There are some Latin American movies that use the technique of the last minute revelation very skillfully and the director should probably want to go and look them over.

However, this movie has a real achievement at its disposal: 14 hours of cinema time are condensed into 2 hours of real time, but the viewer is sure that it is rather 24 hours that have passed by. Since it seems that the director/script writer likes cinema jokes, he should have called his movie "The Big Sleep" instead of "Winona".

This is a typical example of bad Greek cinema that is promoted by certain critics. It reminded me of "Blackout" (1998), that had also been promoted at its time by certain critics. However, "Blackout" had been, even unintentionally, amusing in its pompousness. "Winona" is unable to even offer this shallow compensation for the the two hours waste.

"Winona" (2019) is one of those films that you have a strong suspicion they will be really bad right from the first few minutes....and they don't let you down. Loaded with cacophonous music and nonsensical dialogue, the film plays like a bad imitation of Lanthimos, or maybe a failed experimental work of the 1960s. And at the end it tries to wring genuine emotion, which is very hard to do out of something so - deliberately - stilted and posè. At least the four women range from attractive (the redhead) to gorgeous (the one in the red bikini top), which, along with the secluded-beach setting, are the only things keeping you watching, really. 0.5 out of 4.

I wanted to add extra stars to Winona, the movie... People in the comments are getting a bit harsh. Sometimes the question is, why do you watch movies? Personally, I crave emotions-and Winona really gave me that! Some people comment that all of this was nonsense... but so is our everyday life: a break from routine, a form of exploration, a question and, at the same time, an answer to our identity. I think this movie is pure, not pretentious. More than that, movies are not meant to give us a precise mirror of our lives, but to give us reasons to daydream and expand our headspaces. Also, I believe that before writing a critique, it's better to have a full picture of the filmography and the artist's work.✨✨✨✨

The movie as a whole is not bad, the director though tried his best to do something a little bit unusual, a little bit confusing, i dont know exactly how to describe it without spoiling the movie but i got the feeling that it was tiring. The idea behind the movie is very good, especially in a emotional and psychological dimension. The problem for me is that the director overdid it with some lines and some scenes which were totally unnecessary, didnt help the plot they were used just to be used. A typical example of Art only for Art. Also this confusion between weird lines and weird scenes makes it hard for normal person to understand the movie, which is a pity because the movie as is said is good, but in a way it selfdestructs!

Pretentious lines, soulless recital of dialogue (which may perhaps work in Giorgos Lanthimos' films but in this case it just feels cheap), pop-culture references and name-dropping just for the sake of it. Just because the colours look pretty it doesn't necessarily mean that this films conveys the atmosphere and spirit of a lazy summer day. Just because something is shot on 16mm film, it doesn't equal great filmmaking. Definitely not worth sitting through this so you can get a semblance of plot for the last 15 or so minutes.