Marketa Lazarová (1967)

IMDb Listing
I’m not going to lie – even though this has been called one of the great (if not the greatest) Czech films of all time, I had a difficult time with it. It’s about a skirmish between two clans in medieval times, one of which has converted to Christianity and the other of which is said to have descended from werewolves … obviously still pagan. It’s a visually striking film, shot in widescreen black and white and filled with stark landscapes and seemingly authentic medieval locations. But the narrative was extremely difficult for me to follow, even though each chapter of the film is preceeded by a title card explaining what we’re about to see. I feel like an idiot writing that, but it’s true, and I overheard several other people at the screening mentioning the same thing. Among other problems, the dialogue is very poorly dubbed (few foreign films at the time had sound recorded on set, and it was added later in postproduction), and it’s very difficult at times to know who’s talking. Mostly, though, it’s simply a film that requires very close attention due to its fragmented storytelling style. I can’t hold that against it, but at the same time, it’s hard for me to be enthusiastic even though I’m glad I saw it. Maybe future viewings, if I get the chance, will be more rewarding. 7/10

Super 8 (2011)

IMDb Listing
J.J. Abrams has directed three movies now, having made Mission: Impossible III and Star Trek previously, and all three share the same basic qualities to me. They’re all action movies with competent technical work but they’re also very by-the-numbers and curiously unexciting. This movie is about a group of kids who witness a train crash and get caught up in the mysterious and possibly dangerous aftermath. It’s so obviously pitched as a throwback to late-70s and early-80s adventures like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, and The Goonies that it comes across as a high-class forgery. Even that would be alright, though, if the movie had a little more sense of wonder and spirit of adventure, but instead Abrams indulges in the tiresome monster/horror tone of Cloverfield (which he produced), and, unlike those movies, his attitude towards his characters and especially the kids often seems condescending. Furthermore, I thought the look of the film was all wrong – it’s set in the 1970s, but the cinematography and color timing screams modern day digital to me, even though it was apparently shot 35mm. I did like the performances of the kids, especially Elle Fanning and Joel Courtney in the lead roles, but this is a pale imitation of much better (or in the case of Cloverfield, about as good) movies that came before it. 5/10