The Christmas Tale: Peliculas para no dormir

Cuento de Navidad (71 min)
Seen on the 29th April 2008.

"A nadie, nunca, nada, ni de esto, ni de mi, ni de ninguno de nosotros". This is a chilling story of 5 friends leaving childhood and innocence. It is the classic tale of children being cruel and taking things beyond expected. Moni, the girl of the club, finds somebody to rescue in the woods. It is all well except that the person found is a fugitive with 2 million pesetas with her.

Mixing reality with zombie tales, two boys of the group decide to pay her dear for freedom and practice voodoo with her. They starve her almost to death and demand the full payment of the 2 million pesetas for her freedom. The other club members cede to such brutal treatment but agreed to take the money and free her at the earliest opportunity. What will happen to the group?

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (116 min)

Seen on the 24th April 2008

It is great. In truly Burton style, I think Johnny Depp does one of the best performances of his career. The opening of the film could not be darker: Sweeny Toad having travelled the world comes back to London. His companion, young and optimistic, notes a tone of bitterness in Toad’s references to life in London. From there on, things unfold in the darkest and funniest way. You get to know the world’s worst pastry house, Mrs. Lovett’s, and also a cast of characters taken out from horror stories.

Having been a barber in his previous life, Mr. Toad embarks in a revenge mission, not dissimilar to Beatrix’s in Kill Bill, which teaches him a lesson in life and love. He wins an impromptu competition against an Italianesque barber, brilliantly played by Sasha Baron Cohen, which gives him a place in the city. Having won and lost the favours of an influential judge, he then sets his eyes on him to try to recover something of his previous life. Despite being a musical, I truly enjoyed this film which has some touches of Opera, Hitchcock and Edward Scisorhands. Brilliant!

Spectre - Peliculas para no dormir

Regreso a Moira (Spectre, 75 min)

Seen on the 22nd April 2008

A series of short Spanish terror films under the name of "Peliculas para no dormir", Spectre or Regreso a Moira is the first deliver. Tomas lives a marriage plagued with memories from his early youth or late teens. Growing up in Franco's Spain, religion intolerance and sleepy town gossips seem to be the normal context for him. Later in life, he returns to the same town but at least 40 years later after his wife Greta dies.

He starts remembering the time when in his village the rumour of a witch performing black magic on the hills spreads around. Soon it is clear his relationship with Greta has been overshadowed by a mysterious pact and the proof of this is a card that he's had in his hands all this time. His closest friends seem to remember something shameful surrounding Tomas life and marriage. Did he see the Devil. Did he played with fire..

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas (76 min)
Seen on the 19th April, 2008

Another brilliant animation from Tim Burton. Jack is going through a disenchanted phase since every year Halloween is celebrated in the same mean, monstrous and deathly fashion as usual. His friends, death people, a two-faced mayor and a limp-less, lovely Sally, look for Jack since he was last time say with his dog Zero.

In a truly inspiring, sense-making search, he reaches the conclusion Jack wants to become the major player in what discovers, is a very happy time for human beings: Christmas time. He then decides to capture the malevolent Sandy Claws and put him in the hands of the horrible Oogi-Boogie for torture. His adventures teach him the value of friendships and that some things are best as they are.

Half Nelson

Half Nelson (106 min)
Seen on the 19th April, 2008

This is a very interesting film dealing with issues of liberties, class and education. The main character, cleverly played and directed by Ryan Fleck, is a high school History teacher. He seems to have chosen to teach less privileged children in a city that reminds the viewer of all and none of the US north industrial cities. He is dealing himself with personal issues of loss and drug addiction that seems to get worse when his ex-girlfriend announces her engagement.

Dan, trapped between his problems and his responsibilities in the high school, develops a highly personal relationship with one of his students. She seems to be a clever and serious girl, but the viewer soon discovers her family is broken, her father is nowhere to be seen and the brothers, one in prison, are drug dealers. A great film where the civil liberties announced in the US are put face to face with a broken (family, class, race) society in contemporary US.

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (121 min)
Seen on the 13th April 2008.

This film tells the story of two brothers fighting for Ireland's independence from the UK in 1920. The brothers have very different personalities and there is a sense of a long history between them when they are first captured by UK forces. Teddy, the elder brother, the fighter and local Irish independence hero, is looking for a solution to the long term British occupation in his country. His means are sometimes pacific which leads to the agreement with Winston Churchill which did not give, in totally, Ireland freedom.

The youngest brother was a well behaved and serious young man who is persuaded to fight for Ireland a minute before leaving to London for the first time. He somehow does not feel up to his brother's capacities and has always lived on his shade. It is this brother who takes up a more active role in the defence of Ireland which ultimately separates the destiny of the two brothers. In a re-enactment of Cain and Abel, which brother has defended Ireland the most? An interesting film.