Winona

"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 rarely rate films this highly, but Winona got under my skin in a way few others ever have. Four outstanding actors play young women who have come together on an isolated beach for an unspecified reason. They swim, talk, play, read. Mostly they spin tales of a house overlooking the bay, of a car that seems to be observing them, and they imagine themselves the subjects of a film.

Over the course of the meandering first hour we become aware there is more that links these women than short-sightedness and a love of Woody Allen films. They are unnaturally close, intimate but not in a sexual way. Twice, maybe three times over the course of the day, heartbreak spills out into their lives. We feel there is something unsaid. Some might guess the ending - the clues are all there - but I didn't try, and it devastated me. I am not emotional as a rule, but I was so involved with this group, so comfortable with them, that the final scenes had me in tears. Even then, though, this quartet made me laugh with an insider joke about copyright (funny even if you have never encountered Greek bootleg CDs / DVDs).

Good cinema takes us out of ourselves and places us in a different world. Winona made me one of this group, and I am glad of the day I spent with them.

I really wanted to watch this one. The Boy (the director, acotr and the man behind the soundtrack is Alexandros Voulgaris, who is also a Greek singer called "The Boy". I learned about his songs the summer that past and I started taking a good look at his recent work and although it is totally weird and alienating, it was so fascinating and captivating, underneath the quircky lyrics and complex melody, there lied an honest person with a vision and a heart. That was what I got from his recent film, Winona, a story about 4 girls that spend their day in the beach doing what 4 girls usually do-tlak, play, sing , enjoy, swim, laugh and do dump things. I love this film. It just...it's such a lovely and easy-going film to seat through and it is a unique emotional journey.

Firslty, the visual storytelling. The movie was shot with a kodak 16mm film using film and it looks gorgeous. This movie manages to master the art of portraying a certain time at a certain season with certain people. This film IS summer anc I have not seen any other film portraying the colours and the melancholy of summer so vividly before ( ok , maybe Call me by your name). The sun, the sand, the sea, the clouds , the flowers, its texture is so soft and beatiful.

The dialogue is pretty lose from start to finish, but that's not bad at all. It's point is to portray a summer day and the relationships of the characters. It feels really playful and fun evne if there is no actual order of events or a clear view of the story, but that offers for a more relaxing movie experience. The dialogue blends fantasy with reality and it's vastly humorous and funny. It is an astonisihngly new way of blending hypothetical fantasieswhile telling a story. But, under the fantasy-based dialogue lies a sadness and this applies to the film in general. It is fun and has the summer shine, but it is also a melancholic pitcure and a haunting memoir of conversations, laughs, sadness,wonder and loss.

I wathced this film at Thessaloniki International Film Festival and the director and the cast were there to share their experience and answer to our questions. He said that the film has plenty of music because he really loves musical adn he lasways wanted to make one and although this movie is not a musical, musc is always present and adds a certain feeling to every scene. The songs are great and the score is magical. Also, the director is actually a really humble and cool guy. I asked for an autograph and he was so humble that he did not want to sign and I had plenty of conversaitons with him and he is really authentic and true and interesting. I look forward to experiencing more of his films- I actually watched Pink and it was really good and personal- and to his music and I believe htat Greek films should become more known to the public because there a lot of inspiring voices out there that need to be heard and The Boy is no exception. What a perfect day!

Winona is shiny, gorgeous, crispy, melancholic, salty and sad See it with sun-glasses and while making castles on the sand

Fought to stay awake through it.

Seemed like mediocre writers generated large volumes of inane, vapid dialogue hoping that some it would be good enough for the final script and all of it got used, even though almost none of it was any good.

Nonsensical dialogues, unbelievably slow and almost like watching a (bad) Lanthimos film. The acting was decent - maybe even it was quite limited due to weak plot.

Then you have the fact that the movie feels EXTREMELY pretentious. What I mean by that is at first that it's filmed in 2019, on 16mm film. Well ok, it's possible but to prove what?

Also it's completely unclear when does the film take place. Is it the 80's, the 90's or in 2019? We see an analog camera, a very old radio/cassette player, but at the same time a modern house on the hill. If it's set in 2019, what's with all this hipster aesthetic with the retro glasses and the retro tech?

To sum up the steps: Step 1: Get some young pretty actresses Step 3: Make them memorise all Woody Allen movies (insert Allen tribute here) Step 2: Let them (mainly) improvise Step 4: Add a few almost sexual and other provocative scenes Step 5: ???

Step 6: Profit

Clearly a film made on a budget - nothing wrong with that - but it just feels that it doesn't have what it takes to make you get absorbed.

Having a recognised director father does not mean that anyone can also become a director as well - it doesn't work like any other family business.