Tag Archives: 2011

Scarlet Road (2011)

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Scarlet Road
Director: Catherine Scott
Seen on: 8.6.2017

“Plot”:
Rachel Wotton is a sex worker who specialized in working with (physically) disabled clients. At this intersection of taboos – sex work and seeing disabled people as sexual beings – she became an activist who is fighting for the rights of sex workers and the rights of disabled people.

Scarlet Road is an interesting look at a topic that’s usually not talked about. It – rightly – centers the perspective of the people at the heart of the matter, that is: disabled people and sex workers and shows what the topic means to them, making it very insightful, especially when you’re neither a sex worker, nor disabled.

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Meine Schwester [My Sister] (2011)

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Meine Schwester
Director: Sascha Bigler
Writer: Sascha Bigler, Axel Götz
Cast: Christiane Hörbiger, Maresa Hörbiger, August Zirner, Simon Schwarz, Cornelius Obonya, August Schmölzer, Edita Malovcic, Stella Butz
Seen on: 16.5.2017

Plot:
Katharina Wallner (Christiane Hörbiger) owns a small shop. Much to the chagrin of her landlord Heinz Ortner (August Schmölzer) she has a contract for life. He would rather have her gone, so he can rent out the shop on better conditions. It’s just when he starts to put increasingly more pressure on Katharina that Katharina’s long lost sister Hannah Laval (Maresa Hörbiger) returns to Vienna. And Hannah isn’t as nice as Katharina, not by a long shot.

I stumbled into the film and since the cast wasn’t bad, I stuck around. It’s a rather solid TV production, but it’s really not a must see film.

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Fucking Different XXX (2011)

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Fucking Different XXX
Part of: Transition Festival
Seen on: 14.11.2016

Fucking Different XXX is a queer porn anthology where the lesbian directors tackle the gay sex and the gay directors the lesbian sex.

I liked the idea of this anthology, but unfortunately the result wasn’t really my thing. Apart from a few moments, I didn’t really enjoy it. Also, for an anthology that is all about switching and queering things up, it felt pretty tame. There was only one segment, Offing Jack, that features a nonbinary person and a fat guy, that really manages to break through the mold of usual, if mostly homosexual sex.

After the jump, I’ll talk about each segment separately.

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Re-Watch: The Deep Blue Sea (2011)

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The Deep Blue Sea
Director: Terence Davies
Writer: Terence Davies
Based on: Terence Rattigan‘s play
Cast: Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, Simon Russell Beale, Barbara Jefford
Part of: Viennale
Seen on: 24.10.2016
[Here’s my first review.]

Plot:
Hester (Rachel Weisz) is married to William (Simon Russell Beale), but left him because she fell in love with Freddie (Tom Hiddleston). Now the two of them are kind of living together, but actually it’s more like they are continuously tearing themselves apart. It gets so bad that Hester tries to kill herself, which leads the three of them to finally confront the situation they find themselves in.

I already liked the film the first time round, but it was even better to watch it a second time. It’s fascinating to see myself reacting differently to the film again (it’s not been that long that I saw it for the first time) and to see the film again with new eyes.

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A Second Chance (2011)

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A Second Chance
Director: Clay Glen
Writer: Clay Glen
Cast: Emily Morris, Nina Pearce, Adam Tuominen, Carmel Johnson, Amy Handley, Lilly Blacker, Julie Kay Lumasag
Seen on: 16.9.2016

Plot:
Maddy (Emily Norris) loves nothing more than doing gymnastics and she is pretty good at it, though she lacks confidence. When their old trainer Beverly (Carmel Johnson) becomes ill, Kate (Nina Pearce) takes over the team to train. But at their first competition together, things don’t go well for them. Head of the jury is Sally (Amy Handley) who shares a long history with Kate – and it’s not a positive one. And Sally uses that against Maddy and her team. Both Kate and Maddy are ready to give up, but Beverly suggests that they should get the help of Shane (Adam Tuominen), the boys’ coach, and give it another go.

Good grief, people. It is actually embarrassing that this is a professionally made film, proving that people more often than not just don’t give a shit about quality if it’s a film made for kids. And – since I watched it only because it was my niece’s favorite film at the time – that kids often don’t care, either.

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What’s Your Number? (2011)

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What’s Your Number?
Director: Mark Mylod
Writer: Gabrielle Allan, Jennifer Crittenden
Based on: Karyn Bosnak‘s novel
Cast: Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Ari Graynor, Blythe Danner, Ed Begley Jr., Joel McHale, Chris Pratt, Zachary Quinto, Martin Freeman, Andy Samberg, Anthony Mackie, Aziz Ansari
Seen on: 4.9.2016

Plot:
Ally (Anna Faris) has been dating for a while but so far she wasn’t very lucky. But then two things happen that makes her tackle the issue more aggressively: she gets fired from her job and needs to re-orient herself and she reads an article that says that women who sleep with more than 20 men usually don’t get married. After a quick count, Ally realizes that she slept with 19 men so far – and so she decides to look up all her old boyfriends to re-date them and not add to the list. To track all of them down, Ally gets help from her neighbor Colin (Chris Evans) who in turn gets Ally’s help to get rid of the girls he brings home all the time.

What’s Your Number? does pretty much everything wrong that a RomCom could possibly do wrong (apart from getting Chris Evans naked a lot, that’s excellent), but at least Ally and Colin are surprisingly likeable. But when that’s the best thing you can say about a film, it’s probably clear that the film really doesn’t need to be seen.

whatsyournumber

[Slight SPOILERS]

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Re-Watch: The Mechanic (2011)

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The Mechanic
Director: Simon West
Writer: Richard Wenk, Lewis John Carlino
Remake of: the 1972 Charles Bronson film
Cast: Jason Statham, Ben Foster, Donald Sutherland, Tony Goldwyn
Seen on: 29.8.2016
[Here’s my first review.]

Plot:
Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) is a contract killer, the best there is. Even when his next assignment is his mentor and best friend Harry (Donald Sutherland), he only waits to see the evidence that Harry is guilty until he kills him. Yet, afterwards he takes on Harry’s son Steve (Ben Foster) as an apprentice, despite all his doubts about Steve as a person and social proximity in general, and teaches him everything he knows.

I completely missed that a sequel to this film was coming, so when I saw the posters for that, I was all excited and decided that I really needed to re-watch the first film – and then I missed the sequel because they didn’t show it at decent times in the original version and how can I watch a film with the Stat without hearing his voice? Does not work. In any case, watching The Mechanic a second time is as entertaining as watching it the first time, which is to say: very.

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Puncture (2011)

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Puncture
Director: Adam Kassen, Mark Kassen
Writer: Chris Lopata
Cast: Chris Evans, Mark Kassen, Marshall Bell, Brett Cullen, Jesse L. Martin, Vinessa Shaw, Roxanna Hope Radja, Michael Biehn, Kate Burton
Seen on: 14.8.2016

Plot:
Mike (Chris Evans) and Paul (Mark Kassen) have a law firm together, but their lives are looking very different: while Paul is a settled family man, Mike loves nothing more than to party – with drugs. They meet nurse Vicky (Vinessa Shaw) who contracted HIV/Aids froma patient by way of a needle he stabbed her with, and who introduces them to a safety needle that would make infections like hers impossible but that the hospitals refuse to buy. They know that somebody has to fight on her side. But suing the company who runs the hospitals in the area is a huge undertaking and who knows whether they’ll be able to keep up with it.

Puncture tells a big story, but unfortunately it tells it in such a boring way that I could barely make myself pay attention. Despite Chris Evans in suspenders (and often without a shirt), which is really saying something.

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Re-Watch: Hanna (2011)

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Hanna
Director: Joe Wright
Writer: Seth Lochhead, David Farr
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett, Eric Bana, Tom Hollander, Olivia Williams, Jessica Barden
Seen on: 18.4.2016
[Here’s my first review.]

Plot:
Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) grows up with her father Erik (Eric Bana) in complete seclusion. He trains her to be the perfect spy and she grows up knowing that once she leaves her solitary life, she will be hunted down by Marissa (Cate Blanchett). Nevertheless Hanna wants to head out into the world and finally Erik also agrees that she’s ready. So the first thing Hanna does is to head out and try to kill Marissa, before Marissa can kill her.

I was rather disappointed in the film when I saw it the first time – I just didn’t think it lived up to its potential. So I hadn’t planned on watching it again but then it was part of my curriculum at uni and I decided to give it another try. With my expectations dialed down, I was able to enjoy Hanna much more than the first time.

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Uncle Kent (2011)

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Uncle Kent
Director: Joe Swanberg
Writer: Kent Osborne, Joe Swanberg
Cast: Kent Osborne, Jennifer Prediger, Josephine Decker, Joe Swanberg
Seen on: 16.9.2015

Plot:
Kent (Kent Osborne) is working on an animated film. His life is rather withdrawn. He gets occasional visits from his nephew Joe (Joe Swanberg) and otherwise spends a lot of time online. Direct personal encounters usually end rather awkwardly. Through ChatRoulette he meets Kate (Jennifer Prediger). Since she has to spend the weekend in the city, Kent offers that she can stay at his place. Kate accepts. Although she has a boyfriend, it becomes clear pretty quickly that Kent would like their meeting to become romantic.

Uncle Kent is a weird film, somewhere between fiction and reality. I probably would have never seen it, if the /slash Filmfestival hadn’t announced that they’d be showing the sequel. But I am glad I did.

Uncle_Kent

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