Interstellar

Original, brilliant and intense are the only words needed to describe Interstellar, one of the most anticipated movies of the year 2014 and having Christopher Nolan as a director and co-writer was an enough reason for that. This anticipation was met with an amazing movie that will surely satisfy every cinema lover: the curious scientific geeks, the action enthusiasts and emotional sensitive people.

A smart twisted plot, perfect scenery and mind-blowing sound and visual effects are combined together and completed with fine performances from all the actors, especially little Mackenzie Foy and Jessica Chastain in the role of Murph who immediately became my favorite character in the movie. 

The story flows smoothly through the three hours running time that some might find too long, but believe me when I say that you won’t check your clock; the events develop very fast and you have a lot to process and think about. At the end of the film, I thought: “Can Nolan be the next Jules Verne? Does the human imagination have any limit?”

Maybe one day, I’ll be able to have an answer and to be a part of a loop that will mix my present with my future and past. At that day, time will become a refundable, controllable and quantifiable entity or even a currency.

Rating: 4.5/5

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Review: Lucy.

Lucy 3.5/5

Luc Besson is by far one of the most entertaining writers and directors today. From The Fifth Element, to Leon: the Profeesional, Taxi, Taken and many other, his movies never fail to attract action lovers, but also never fail to introduce good ideas, simple emotions and a wide imagination. His latest movie, Lucy, fits perfectly into this description.

Lucy builds its story around the widely known myth* that humans use only 10% of their brain and imagines what could happen if a human used his full brain capacity.

The movie starts slowly and becomes faster as the events unfold and in the end unstoppable when the idea is fully developed. The director/writer doesn’t leave you unsatisfied; on the contrary, he stretches his imagination and gives you a fulfilling closure, and that is what I liked the most in this film.

Scarlett Johansson delivers a straight to the point performance. The intelligence and self-existence awareness evolutions of Lucy convinced me: her fear and ignorance at the beginning, struggle and adjustment in the middle of the crisis and the peace and acceptance at the end when she reaches the ultimate knowledge and enlightenment.

 Lucy might not be a perfect movie, but it’s surely entertaining, fun, witty and daring. When it ended I couldn’t keep the smile out of my face and I felt definitely more curious about life.

*Many scientists refute this theory and new studies on brain damage prove it wrong.

Abir Lebbos

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Maleficent

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It’s not the first time that a traditional fairy tale is introduced to us in an unconventional way.

After Snow White and the Huntsman and Frozen, Disney brings us Maleficent, the story of the “evil” fairy, the sleeping beauty and most importantly of the true unconditional love between two different souls. 

The film mainly tells the story Maleficent, the character that is always forgotten in these types of tales; the one who is usually depicted as the source of darkness that wishes to disturb the peaceful lives of the humans. It tells the causes of her actions, her thoughts and feelings. 

This time, the movie points out to the real evildoers on the planet: human beings filled with greed and blinded by power and it delivers an ending that despite being predictable is also pleasing. However, I must admit that the persistence to keep it secret as long as possible is understandable; after all, the traditional path of story must be respected.

Although the plot is a little bit obvious, the film has many positive aspects like the glorious costumes and makeup, the cool effects and direction and the gorgeous presence of the one and only Angelina Jolie, who sadly, was dropping hints that she will retire from acting after her next big project "a biopic of Cleopatra".  

Objectively speaking, the movie is not a masterpiece and it doesn't claim to be. It’s entertaining with good plot, interesting ideas, simple dialogue (occasionally funny) and satisfactory performances.
Maleficent is now showing in Lebanese cinemas, watch it, you’ll have fun.   

Maleficent 3.5/5 

 Abir Lebbos

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Her

Her 4.5/5

“Her” is the most bizarre yet familiar movie I have ever seen.

The idea of falling in “Love” with an operating system is a very improbable event for anyone of us, but what if it could just happen?

Think for a second about your relationship with your cell phone or with the internet. How do you describe it? Is it normal, healthy or very reliant? Note how all of these descriptions are humanly relevant, which makes me seriously wonder.

People have become more and more dependent on technology in every aspect of their lives. Some are becoming isolated and introverted and they tend to communicate indirectly via social media.

This is an issue that needs to be more addressed and that’s what the writer and director Spike Jonze  tries to do, by sharing with us a phase in the life of Theodore, a lonely unsocial writer, struggling with his feelings during a hard divorce. Theodore buys a smart Operating System (O.S.) and decides, to his bad luck, to give him a female voice. The O.S., which chose to name herself Samantha, will expand quickly and will soon become an entity, but not only a binary code one, but someone with feelings and personal ideas. It’s not long before Theodore falls in love with her virtual perfection.

What is really smart in this movie is that the director approaches this “love relationship” as if it is very normal. He places it in a society where it is very usual for someone to talk to his computer while walking on the road and he shows that all traditional phases of a two human’s relationship apply to it.

This movie presents an interesting idea and a phenomenon that is starting to form in our societies with a clever approach using a high caliber cast including Joaquin Phoenix, Scarlett Johansson (playing the role of Samantha- we never get to see her in the movie)  Rooney Mara and Amy Adams who all deliver a outstanding performance.

This movie carries a very smart/ interesting message to us, something we miss to notice or to remember in our quick modern life “even the smartest operating system fails to understand the complexity of the human’s feelings and to satisfy his emotions.”

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Noah

Questions are very simple to ask, but it is the answers that consume a person's time and energy.

Who is Noah? Many, including me, vaguely know the story of Noah. For me, he is a man chosen by God to save Life from a flood which purpose was to punish humans for their committed sins.

However,Darren Aronofsky does not only ask questions, he thinks hard to try and answer them. His movie is a journey in the life of a simple man with a great burden to hold and a heavy task to achieve. 

The story that we know is very general and does not explain the ways in which he accomplished his mission, nor the feelings and difficulties that he suffered while doing it. It is general to the extent of undermining one's common sense. Aronofsky did not accept that  because he saw in Noah a fascinating character, someone worth travelling into the depth of his complexity. Apart from the religious view, or myth for some, no one knows what really happened in that ark and everyone has the right to imagine it and try to understand it. Darren Aronofsky does that in a magnificent way. 

His imagination is far beyond the story and his approach to the unknown is very realistic in terms of the human's psychology and very creative in terms of the ways in which Noah built his ark. He respects the intelligence of the viewer.

As for the acting, Russell Crowe depicts the struggle of a man with a huge responsibility, convinced that all humans, including him and his family, are evil and deserve to be punished by death, a man absorbed by the task in hand and blinded by his will to serve his Creator. Jennifer Connelly and Emma Watson were not much impressive; they deliver a passable performance that could have been better in some scenes.

I appreciate an unconventional movie and a director who does not aim to please the masses and Noah did not disappoint me.

Rating: 4/5

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Frozen

                  “Some people are worth melting for.”

And if they are worthy, you'll happily sacrifice.

Frozen is a movie that is setting a new trend in animation movies, especially the ones with princesses as lead characters.

P.S.: I should note that “Brave” was a good example in that matter.

As a girl, I've grown up on the stories of Cinderella, Snow White and Rapunzel and I have never really understood why there is always a woman who is jealous of another woman (who always happens to be very beautiful), then the evil woman would try to kill or take advantage of the other one to win. Finally, the prince will come and save the innocent and poor heroine.

Those were not the women I wanted to look for growing up as a kid. I needed someone to tell me that I can solve my own problems and that not all women are to be divided into two types: the poor beautiful who will be saved by the prince and the ugly evil whose faith is doomed at the end. This is not the real world.

Anna and Elsa are the role models that I want my children to watch because they both sacrifice for something very important: sisterhood.

They tell this generation that you can find love in the most unexpected places during the strangest adventures and in different ways. Love is not labeled in boxes, you just need to open your heart, search and not be fooled by appearances.

All these messages are told with an extraordinary way. The magnificent atmosphere and the wonderful songs create a sense of belonging to the story that speaks to the child in you using the cutest characters like Olaf, the snowman who loves summer. As for the animation, Walt Disney Studios delivers an amazing imagery in a very exceptional artistic style.

It was not surprising that the film won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go").

Check the song below:

If you need a boost of positive energy filled with hope and lightness watch this movie, it will certainly cheer you up.

Rating: 4.5/5

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