Change Your Image
memons-83705
Reviews
Beasts of No Nation (2015)
Beast of No Nation Review
The Netflix original movie, Beast of No Nation, directed by Cary Fukunaga is about a young boy, named Agu, that joins a militia group and gets brainwashed into killing people on his journey. During this film, children are being recruited to be child soldiers and are fighting for this Commandment and this rebel group. They don't really know why they are fighting and who, but they get orders from the capital. The movie starts by Agu and his family living peacefully, but then there is a warning that troops are attacking so the family splits and the father, brother, and grandfather stay. The family is captured and Agu watches as his family is slaughtered. He then joins a rebel group and takes revenge and brainwashed by this group. He does these terrible things and at the end the group surrendered to the UN and Agu lives in this missionary school. This film mostly focuses on revenge and brainwashing children to become these child slaves. The director of this film is Cary Fukunaga and he is an American director from California. Some of his other films and TV shows are True Dectective and Jane Eyre. this movie, Beast of No Nation was picked up by Netflix for a reported 12 million dollars and had an effort to make it into original films. He directed and wrote the script after working on it for 6 years. He then came across the Beast of No Nation novel and was inspired by the Sierra Leone Civil War. he wanted to translate what happened in the book and base the ideas into movie to people that never read it. The film is a historical fiction because it is not set in a real place and just says a western country in Africa. Some people might find that annoying because like the settings and why this is happening. The movie escalated quickly with the family enjoying life and then all a sudden is war torn and the kid family dying. The audience doesn't have time to recuperate what is happening and the movie keeps going. You never get the age of the kid or why there is a fight going on. During the film, the audience get to know that the group is the NDF and are getting orders by the capital. Then, it leaves the audience to guess if Agu joined the same men that killed his family because it never specified who those men that killed his family were. But, past those points the plot was amazing and the actors portrayed those characters well. They had the best of the best actors like Idris Elba, who played in Thor, Star Trek Beyond and The Jungle Book, and Abraham Attah, which was casted in the new Spiderman movie. These people made the audience feel like they were in the moment and felt the intensity. The action in the movie was suspenseful and horrific. The graphic scene with the machete captured the brutality of the moment and what was going on then. The director tried and he succeeded into making this movie as realistic as possible and gave the audience a brutal, but meaningful movie. The movie is not biased in any way because there weren't really a good guy versus bad guy. The audience couldn't really tell and that is what audiences are going to guess about since it it is in a unspecified war and country. The director goes on both sides when it comes to picking a side for the biased. He does capture Agu's side, but also deals with the NDF side and why they are killing. The director does a very good job trying to twist the story a little from the actual event. This movie was inspired by the book he read about the Sierra Leone War. If you look at the history of that there was a civil war and rebel groups just like the film. Also, in the film a lot of people died and in the true event over 50,000 people passed away. So the director does base this movie off that event and some may say that it is from that Civil War, but no one is for sure. It might be a mix of countries due to the geography or even their history of wars. Also, in the film they were mining gold and if you look at the history of the Sierra Leone War they were also mining for minerals and gold. That is why this film is called a historical fiction because of the events and the fictional characters. Therefore, overall this film did an amazing job capturing the events and the brutality Agu had to face and also the acting didn't disappoint. It made the audience feel the intensity of this war and the emotional roller-coaster of the hardships people faced in the country where they lived. I would give this movie a 8 out of 10.
The 33 (2015)
An Emotional Roller coaster
In 2010, the unthinkable happened. 33 miners were trapped in an unstable mine for 69 days. In the beginning of the film the 33 miners go into the mine thinking it is an ordinary day mining for gold, but it soon turns out for the worst. The mine begins to collapse and everyone panics. They drove to the refuge, which was a safe space where there is food and water. For 14 days they were low on food and everyone was restless. Finally, the people that were up top trying to get the miners drilled into the refuge and could finally communicate to the miners. They sent food, drinks, iPod, and magazines to the miners to keep them occupied. The people on top said it would take 3 months to extract the miners. They ran into difficulties, but in the end all 33 miners were saved.
The director of the film is Patricia Riggen. She went to Columbia University and received her masters in screen writing and directing. She was asked to direct a Disney Channel original movie Lemonade Mouth and also Girl in Progress releasing in 2012. Then her next project was The 33. The movie was released in August 2015, 5 years after the accident, in Chile. While directing this film she wanted the cast and crew to get the full experience on what these miners through. So, her cast and crew spent a total of 35 days filming in salt mines. Some of the desert scenes were in Chile and two mine scenes where in Columbia. She wanted to show that a girl can direct a movie that is so masculine. The next movie that she did was Miracles of Heaven. The theme of these movies is to not give up hope and keeping going. Patricia Riggen made this film to remember the accident and the pride that Chile has to keep going. She wanted to show what the miners actually went through because many people don't know the hardships those men went through. The reasons for the film is explicitly stated because the miners are stuck in a cave and they struggle. They don't give up hope and try to survive with little help and while the supplies were low. It was until the workers got to the miners that the struggle and hardships were real. The miners had little food everyday and it was getting to a time where the miners were going at each other. But, the character Mario kept everyone in line until help arrived. This film was made for the world because this was a live event that was on TV and not many people understood why this happened or what is happening. In the movie they showed why they were stuck and the problems on why they couldn't get them out. Now they showed what happened people know what it is like. There are many historical errors in this film. During the drilling of the rescue. The movie said that 2 drills broke down and couldn't help anymore. In the real event the drills were still working, but they were back up drills on the side for if anything happened to the main drill. Also, the 33 men after they got rescued were taken to the hospital right after and the movie said that they walked around and stayed with the families. Also, the mine afterwards closed after the event. The director does not omit important topics of this film and does a very good job going through the event. It is somewhat biased because it shows the mine is a bad guy in the film and that the President of Chile does really nothing to this event in his own country. He biased things does not get in the way of the film because they don't focus on those points and the story moves along. The characters are believable because they showed raw emotional when they were stuck in the mine and even when they were reunited with their families. The acting is really good and the language was appropriate for this time period. The language was somewhat Spanish and many spoke in English, but with a Spanish accent. Some ways to improve it is to get rid of biased and focus on the story. Also, when the mine was going to collapse it was hard to follow who was who, and where the refuge was. The setting was dark and even though they had lamp lights, they didn't use them. Some parts the miners had background light even though they were really far underground. Overall, this movie was really good and the event was on point with the acting and the emotional feeling of this film.
Allende en su laberinto (2014)
Allende Film Review
The movie "Allende en su laberinto" directed by Miguel Littin, the main subject is that there is a dispute between United States and Chile and the taking over of the President's Palace. The director, Miguel Littin, is a Chilean film director, screenwriter, and a novelist. He created this movie because it relates to his background. Back when he was young he was exiled in Mexico after the military coup in Chile took over, which ousted President Salvador Allende back in September 11, 1973. So with this memory he wanted to create a movie that captured that day which changed his life and other Chilean people. He is a renowned director that created many famous films but this film was not one of them. It made America look bad and there was not much history behind this event. The history part of it was that Allende was a socialist and America didn't want a person in office that helped Russia with the idea of communism in the Cold War. The main points in this film was that President Allende got word that the military is going against Chile and siding with the US. They want the President dead and to do that is to storm the president's palace. Allende and his men defended it as long as they could and refused to give up even them knowing they will probably all die if they keep resisting. Many people come and go in this film and stand by Allende and his men. In the end the palace is breached and the president is dead. The final scene is the original footage of the palace burning down. One thing that left the audience wondering was how did he die. Did he get shot by the military? Did he commit suicide? (Spoilers) The film just ends with him on the floor dead and the audience has to guess. The reasons on why the military is doing what they are doing is right in the beginning because Allende describes the situation and blames Nixon. The director is biased in this situation because he is from Chile and even if this was made in the US. it would come from the Americans side. This time it is from the Chilean side which makes the event look 100 times worse than it is. People for sure have to look up the history behind this film because if not, they will question why this is all happening and hate the people and countries that were involved in it. This film builds up the pride that the Chilean people have and showing that they don't give up like in one scene when the President is yelling he won't give up.
The movie is classified as a historical film, but there are some things they did good and bad. The director showed the bombing which happened and the whole movie is the military trying to invade the palace. But, some things are not correct. The film didn't show Allende killing himself. It was confirmed that he shot himself in the event back in 1973. Also, the boy that died in Allende's arms was made up for the purpose of the story. This moves into the special effects, performance, and the time period and the setting. The special effects were horrible. There were bombs going off and none of the windows were breaking even though they had glass breaking. Also, there was just random fire in spots and no one cared that it was there. There was one scene when the kid dies in the arms of Allende and the audience wondered where the bullet came from because the room was secured. The performance of the actors was really good. The guy who played Allende was okay and there was some cheesy parts to the acting. The setting and the props were on point because they didn't show any cell phones and had landlines and old school recorders. The scenes and the directing style was good, they showed the last part with Allende in the hall at the beginning and they showed what lead up to that. Therefore, the movie "Allende" was okay, but not the best move that he made. It was on the low scale for special effects and the history.