PhilSalamone

While Cyanide kept my attention throughout, I ultimately found it difficult to connect with its central character. Achille, portrayed as a troubled young man grappling with his strong feelings toward his deadbeat father, never quite escapes the shadow of being an intolerable brat. The film clearly wants the audience to sympathize with his struggle and root for his emotional resolution. But several scenes lack focus or are completely irrelevant and undeveloped.

Despite several attempts to peel back Achille's layers, the story never fully delivers on its promise. Instead of gaining insight, I was left with more questions than answers. The film has its moments and maintains enough intrigue to keep you watching, but its emotional payoff feels haphazard and incomplete.

Finding Twarz Aniola with English subtitles was almost a journey of its own. I spent hours digging through versions online, most of them without subtitles, and finally stumbled across a Polish copy. After about twenty attempts, I finally managed to sync an English track well enough to follow the story. In a strange way, that struggle set the tone for the experience: this is not a film that comes to you easily, and maybe it shouldn't.

The movie is based on the real and deeply disturbing events involving the forced labor of children during Nazi-occupied Poland. That historical grounding gives the film an emotional gravity that never lets up. The choice to shoot in black and white isn't just stylistic. The stark contrast mirrors the bleakness of the setting, the moral void of the perpetrators, and the numbing reality of survival in a world stripped of color.

The lead actor deserves particular praise. His performance feels painfully genuine, restrained, human, and completely believable. There's not a moment where it feels like acting; instead, it becomes a lived experience unfolding on screen. That authenticity is part of what makes the film so hard to watch at times. It doesn't sensationalize trauma, but it refuses to soften it, either.

Yes, Twarz aniola is disturbing. But it's also powerful, haunting in the right ways, and crafted with a clarity of purpose. Despite (or because) o of how difficult it is emotionally, it has earned a solid place in my top ten films of all time. It's the kind of film you don't simply watch; you absorb it, wrestle with it, and remember it.

What I thought was your basic coming of age familiar script, was everything but. St. Vierja Academy is a poignant and powerful return to the pains and hopes of youth, following physician Toño as he revisits the prestigious 1970's boys' school where bullying, humiliation, and institutional cruelty shaped him in ways he's tried to forget. The film balances its darkest themes of abuse, ridicule, blackmail, and the dangerous pursuit of social acceptance with moments of tenderness and quiet resilience, making Toño's struggle deeply human and widely relatable. His journey, both as a vulnerable boy and as an adult forced to confront his past, resonates especially with anyone who has ever felt out of place or desperate to belong. Beautifully directed by Jose Stoute, the story avoids easy resolutions and instead delivers an honest, emotionally layered experience that is as heartbreaking as it is cathartic. I enjoyed every part of the nearly two-hour runtime, and like many viewers, I saw pieces of my own childhood revealed in Toño's story.