Reviews

Would you sacrifice your privacy over security? Even in that case, would it mean you are completely safe? Would you hand over the power into the hands of a mega machine? The mini-series tries to answer these questions although some elaboration might be better. It's a well-written, terrifying story to some though, dystopian story we can all relate easily. There are obvious references to 1984 and Black Mirror, but this is a more hopeful story. Humans can outsmart the system created by themselves with the idea of having a flawless one. I guess they are too terrified to learn that the system can be tricked as well.

Think of an Italian mafia whose members are highly serious and professional. Then just imagine an opposite one: clumsy, serious-looking but it can make you burst into laughter any moment. Mortal Life is about a traditional Turkish mafia whose roots date back to centuries ago. The family seems to be working for an international organization without great perks. The head of the family, Gazanfer, played by Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, assigns his eldest son played by Alper Kul to run the operations, that is, kill the people. Serbest, a chatter-box son, reveals the secret about the family to his to-be lover and it triggers a train of events. Upon hearing rumors about infiltration into the workings of the organization, the mafia sends two investigators to handle the problem. To protect Serbest from being killed, Gazanfer kills them and they intend to flee to Ukraine. On top of the eight membered-family, the pregnant lover of Serhan, another son joins the gang whose intention and only salvation is to escape. Ali Atay, the director, gives the impression that he is a fan of Tarantino and Martin Scorsese in that characters are engaged in out-of-the-blue debates and never-ending discussions.

Whenever I feel like I should watch something to raise my spirit, I find myself looking through Woody Allen movies. This is one of those movies that leaves you entertained and amazed at his creativity and imagination. Imagine your favorite character walks out of the movie and comes to you to ask you out and you are so desperate because your marriage is a mess. Plus, he/she is so innocent, kind and good- looking. You are taken to a new level, a level that releases you from your real life pain. The audience is readily tempted to imagine himself in his shoes. This is a movie inside a movie and reality and fiction are hard to distinguish. The characters come and go back to the screen which is played as part of the plot. It must take imagination to write a piece like this, a piece Woody Allen easily comes up with. The hard line between reality and fiction is cleared at the end, though: The main character is deceived by the famous Gil Shepherd who makes promises and forces her to make a choice to save his reputation. Only when she opts for the real instead of the movie character will she realize that the real life is not that rosy.

The movie has a little bit of everything such as love, secret affair, betrayal, friendship, family tragedy, and coming-of-age, but it lacks a central focus and thereby, at the end of the movie the viewer feels like "I would have guessed this easily" and "nothing much has happened since the start". A good and riveting movie should attract the viewer into the film on its own despite being a sequel. Yes, there is a story, but it is so predictable and slow-moving. Besides, the characters are not elaborated throughout the movie. Hugo, the protagonist seems to be in agony, but only because of losing his best friend or having been dumped by Babi, who seems to be too shallow as a character. They should have gone deeper on Hugo's character and built a solid character. Side-line stories like the family tragedy of Babi's parents serve no purpose and they seem to have stolen from the main story. Because of not dwelling on the main story between Hugo and the girl he just met, it is difficult, as a viewer, to feel the love among this couple. Despite these lacking points, it can be a good shot for romance- lovers.

As this is about the dilemma a man faces, male viewers can, I guess, empathize with the young protagonist more. On the one hand, you have a very pure young lady, who is ready to give up everything for the man she adores. On the other hand, there is the seducing, mature and more skilled (at bed) woman. The point where the middle-aged woman seduces happens very quickly, which I think should have been detailed at depth. Towards the end, it is as if you want the young blood to go for the maid, Maribel Verdu as it seems the fair decision. And just when you think the man has made the right decision, she herself ends our anticipation by forcing him to take her life. She would rather die than let her love slip away from her hands like this. The scene where she asks him in tears to use his razor is one of the best parts of the movie. Her acting tops up.

I assume the viewers feel relieved when the final note says "The two were arrested three days later." On a final note, the movie also presents a dilemma for the audience: Do we want to see the young man follow his passion for the landlady or do we want to go to bed knowing that the justice takes place because the young man keeps his integrity and chooses the innocent maid for the rest of his life?

This beautifully directed movie is a test for movie-goers. This is a movie that requires utmost attention as it's a blend of real and surreal images. Sometimes it is easy to lose the track of what's real or what is a hallucination in Fenix's mind.

For one thing, it's amazingly creepy: arms cut off, blood pools, dying elephants. Still, it illustrates one of the basic but cruel realities: you gotta be tough to survive or else you are bitten into pieces. We can see this in many occasions. The beautiful scene where the dead elephant is thrown into scrapyard, people in the slum area attack and start splitting the elephant and eating. The mourning circus people were wearing black and these scavengers were wearing white. Such a paradox and contrast.

Of all Iranian movies, this is the only one which made me laugh and think about the little details about Islam and how people who claim to be so devoted to their religion might be dragged on by a thief. It was very amusing, full of irony and sarcasm. The thief always reveal his true nature in every single occasion, even his journey into Islamic local area doesn't make him a believer. I exploit it so cunningly and luckily that he gets away all the time. The movie takes us to decide whether he is a good person in nature or not. We get to the end of the movie just to learn the result. That's why the movie lets us inside and never let go.

It's a movie that tries to convey a variety of things such as unhealthy childhood in a family with everlasting fighting and nagging as well as a child who adores his father no matter what happens or what he does and the father who supports his son without questioning, then addiction to drugs, friendship and betrayal. The fact that the life story of the drug dealer is narrated by George Jung himself makes us be suspicious about the objectivity of the events. Yet, it doesn't still matter because the film illustrates how such a man can't reach happiness. Some may argue that things going on in the movie may inspire drug addiction or mafias but the final scene makes it questionable. The scenes cut in Colombia or other Latin American countries add a lot to the variety. It takes back and forth between USA and other countries. Penelope Cruz once again stars with a crazy woman representing a prototype. She excels in depicting unstable and neurotic women. George is depicted naive in the sense that he keeps trusting people even though they have cheated and betrayed him many times. The only people he's happy with are his father and daughter, who never visits him in the prison. It's not a great movie, but it deserves 8 out of 10.