Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl

The decision to keep things as simple as possible has paid off in spades. At only 64 minutes, the film is a short but sweet introduction to the work of Portugese auteur de Oliveira, and that it has a wonderfully droll sting in its tale is the icing on the cake.
Rating: 4.0 starsHoopla Factor: 3.5 stars Continue reading Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl

Yuri’s Day

Rappoport does a fine job of her rather thankless role, given she is allowed barely an ounce of natural appeal and her character arc goes from obnoxious to insane. She rarely waivers, hitting each mark for her director, and given this is a character study and the focus must remain on her from beginning to end, she really does perform well.
Rating: 1.5 starsHoopla Factor: 0.5 stars Continue reading Yuri’s Day

The Class

Several long shots add to the sense of immersion in a real classroom rather than spectating a staged scene, and director Laurent Cantet seems to know just when they’ve reached their natural end. This is particularly evident also in the introductory sequence in which the teachers are meeting one another at the start of the new school year.
Rating: 4.0 starsHoopla Factor: 4.0 stars Continue reading The Class