The film begins with a woman receiving a call from the police, informing her that her home is being invaded, but the law officers will do their best to control the situation. ​She grabs a gun for defense, and gets worried for her infant daughter. Then, it is revealed that this call was a prank from the aforementioned group of young pranksters, one of many they do to upload on their successful website. 

​One afternoon, Sam and Brady reunite in Sam’s home. They are both alone, since Sam’s parents are away for the weekend. Sam is a little frustrated by virtue of his situation with his girlfriend, Peyton. So Brady decides they should grab the phone, and do some prank calls, to improve Sam’s mood. 

One of their first pranks is to a neighbor. They call to a pizza-delivery service, where their friend, Jeff Mosley, works, as well as Peyton. Pretending to be Sam’s neighbor, they ask the pizza to be delivered in his address. When Mosley appears to deliver the pizza, the boys call Sam’s neighbor, telling him that several robberies have been taking place in the neighborhood, most of them by an assailant dressed as a pizza delivery guy. When the neighbor sees Mosley, he assumes him to be a criminal, and persecutes him. Mosley, suspecting the prank, crosses the street and confronts Sam and Brady. To appease their friend, they buy the pizza from him. 

After doing several more prank calls for their personal amusement, a stranger calls them. Despite telling both very bizarre things, Sam and Brady decide to shut off the call, dismissing it as an ordinary joke. Nevertheless, the stranger calls a few more times, and finally succeeds to attract the boys’ attentions, after telling them their complete names, and the addresses of their homes, to their total dismay.    

At first assuming their friend Mosley is behind the prank, in Brady’s mobile phone he receives a message saying it’s not Mosley. Both get surprised to discover that the prankster has Brady’s mobile number, and for rapidly assuming their suspicions concerning their friend. Suddenly, Brady realizes that a picture was also sent to him. In the picture, it is possible to see two persons tied to chairs. Brady soon recognizes them as his parents. 

Realizing they are in great danger, the two friends are progressively strained in a labyrinth of despair. Eventually, they dial 911, and hysterically tell to the attendant everything that is happening to them. Unfortunately, for their astonishment and unpleasant surprise, the person talking to them in the other side of the line reveals itself to be the mysterious prankster, who is effectively exerting control over every communicating device inside the house, including the television, by which he starts to send images of Brady’s parents. Sam also realizes that Peyton’s car is outside the house, which is strong evidence that she was probably captured by their mysterious aggressor. She had visited the two briefly in the beginning of the afternoon just after Mosley had left.      

The mysterious assailant – who attends by the alias of “Mr. Lee” – soon reveals itself to be in complete control of the situation, and succeeds in viciously putting the two friends against each other. The mysterious prankster tries hard, in different occasions, to stimulate disagreement between them, even engaging in an effort to make the boys resort to murder each other in a secretive deal, first offering redemption to Brady if he kills Sam, and then to Sam, for killing Brady, but he fails both times. Nonetheless, he manages to increase the terror generated by his constant menaces, affirming that he is disposed to kill the boys’ loved ones, for he has nothing to lose. When analyzing, though, the images in the screen, Sam sees a clock behind Brady’s parents, with a two hour gap, indicating that they were seeing recorded, and not live images. As they were practically receiving calls from the mysterious prankster all the time, their communication was constant through the speakerphone, and Sam demands to see proof that Mosley and Peyton are still alive. In the meantime, Brady begins to suspect that his parents are no longer alive. Soon thereafter, the mysterious assailant talks to both Brady and Sam onscreen. When he leaves, it is possible to see Brady’s parents dead, both having their throats slit, much to the complete horror of both.  

In several occasions, Brady has threatened to leave the house, and call the police, despite severe warnings given by their antagonist that they shouldn’t, under the menace of drastic consequences. Discording over this matter, Sam and Brady begins an argument, that escalates to a physical altercation. Managing to subdue Brady, Sam handcuffs him with a nylon strip to the handrail, limiting his movements, and preventing him from leaving the house. The assailant, nevertheless, manages to put Sam against Brady one more time when he uploads a video of Brady having sex with Peyton. When Sam sees the video, he gets terribly disturbed, and another serious fight, more aggressive this time, ensues between the two.     

The attacker then shows them that he has, in fact, their friend Mosley in his power, and suffocates him with a plastic bag, for Brady and Sam’s complete shock. Suddenly, Sam sees in the screen the picture of a little girl, which was the profile picture of a person who requested his friendship in a social network earlier. Upon searching the personal page of this individual, he sees on the profile several pictures of him and Brady, as well as Peyton, Mosley, and a lot of their friends, several of them going as far as a year ago. Terrified, they conclude that they had been watched for months, or possibly, more than a year. 

The two friends begin to suspect the mysterious assailant to be inside the house, or nearby, and they decide to check it out. Sam frees Brady, they arm themselves with a baseball bat and a knife, respectively, and decide to confront the maniac that is harassing them.   

For his shock and horror, Sam discovers Mosley’s body in the back door, with a plastic bag all over his face. Mosley’s body falls when Sam opens the door, but the corpse is tied with a rope to the door frame. Desperate, thinking there is a chance of Mosley being alive, Sam rips off the plastic bag from the face of Mosley, and pulls it off from his head, just to discover, in horror, that his throat has been slit, and the tape around his neck securing the plastic bag was also preventing him from bleeding. In a matter of seconds, Mosley bleeds profusely and dies, to Sam’s complete affliction. Brady, by this point, gets exceedingly traumatized as well.

Brady demands Sam to leave the house and call the police. With the prerogative of verifying the vicinities, pretending to go with him, Brady manages to lock Sam out of the house, and insist for Sam to save his life and to ask for the help of authorities. Sam initially is angered, and hits the door furiously, pleading for Brady to open the door. Since Brady ignores his pleas, Sam, despite the heavy rain, decides to inspect the neighborhood, and sees a suspected van parked outside his house. Checking the van, he sees Peyton bound and tied up, and frees her. Suddenly, both hear a scream, and decide to go check it out what was happening, supposing that Brady was attacked.  

Returning to the backyard, Sam and Peyton see a masked assailant going their direction with a knife, trying to attack them. Sam manages to counterattack their aggressor, and stabs him with his own knife, killing him. Suddenly, he recognizes a tattoo in the arm of the assailant, the same tattoo Brady had shown him when he recently had arrived at his house. Desperate, he removes the mask of the attacker, and sees Brady, with a duct tape on his mouth. Realizing that he has killed his own friend, Sam cries in desperation.  

Suddenly, the true attacker arrives, and reveals himself. When Sam asks the motive for all that aggression he has been inflicting on them, the mysterious assailant reveals the reason behind his actions. He was married to the woman victim of the prank shown in the beginning of the movie. When they called her, with the prank that their house has been invaded, she grabbed a gun in order to protect herself and their daughter. By the orders of the pranksters – that she thought was the police – she moved a balcony in front of the bedroom door, to protect her from the supposed invaders, since she hasn’t a key to lock the door. She put her cell phone above the balcony, but it fell off to the ground underneath the bed, when she moved the furniture again, to clear her way to her daughter’s bedroom, since she became desperate to check upon her child. No longer holding her cell phone, she hasn’t heard when the pranksters announced that everything was a joke. Unbeknownst to them, she wasn’t aware that she was the victim of a prank. Truly believing that her house was being invaded, she grabbed her gun, and decided to check upon her daughter. Seeing that she wasn’t in her bedroom, she panicked. When she heard the door next to her opening, she became frightened and gave a shot directly through the door. To her desperation, she shot her own daughter – who had only gone to the bathroom –, who died instantly. Profoundly disturbed by the tragedy, the woman put the gun against her chest and committed suicide. So the aggressor, identified as “Mr. Lee”, was the man taking vengeance upon his wife and daughter. 

Sam cried in desperation, saying that it was never their intention to hurt anyone. Then the man stepped over Sam’s face, and a gunshot was heard. Suddenly, its morning, and we see Sam alive, waking up. He has a knife on his hand, and a gun on the other. Next to him, he sees the body of Brady, and going outside, the body of Peyton, who had been shot in the head. He doesn’t release neither the knife, nor the gun, suggesting that they might be stuck in his hands. In the living room, the video of Brady having sex with Peyton plays nonstop. Suddenly the police arrive in the scene, and the news is already noticing the terrible manslaughter that took place. Apparently, as the footage suggest, the massacre was executed by a sadistic young man, jealous of discovering that his best friend had cheated him with his girlfriend. 

In the end, we see the photo of the little girl, used as picture for the profile “Mr. Lee” uses on the social network, making a friend request to another member of the group of pranksters, suggesting that he will continue his journey of vengeance.         

Although this is not exactly a masterful movie, Don’t Hang Up has audacities and qualities that deserve to be praised. The movie has a cohesive story line, a plausible expectation of possibilities, credible plot scenarios and evaluations, good acting and a very genuine approach in what concerns the main elements of fear and tension.

Undoubtedly, while this movie can be considered, at least, in a more broad analysis, just one more flick, it is unquestionable the fact that there is a creative level and a consistent element of mordacious originality here. Although the central theme of an individual getting revenge from an inconsequential adolescent prank gone wrong has been explored in movies before, certainly this is one of the best exemplars released so far. Despite the conciseness of the story, the whole concept is intriguing, works out very well, is definitely coherent, and doesn’t disappoint, although there are some predictable aspects in the story as a whole.   

Don’t Hang Up is not an extremely fascinating movie, and will not change your life. Nevertheless, certainly can be regarded as a minor gem precisely executed, and a marvelously good work of art. On this movie, we see two young adults having to deal with the consequences of a catastrophic wrongdoing, and gradually discovering the result of a tragedy for which they were the major responsible agents, but totally ignore the level of malevolence for what they have done.

With splendorous moments of tension, an inquisitive demand for affliction and wonderful components of dreadful expectation, Don’t Hang Up certainly will delight you with an amazing time of entertaining exhilaration. You can’t afford to miss this interesting thriller.         


Wagner Hertzog

After seducing a beautiful girl in a local bar – being himself a charming and seductive individual –, they go to her place using a Ryde driver. There, pretending that they will have sex, he coldly and violently kills her, stabbing the girl in the bathtub. After cleaning up the scene, the killer starts the Ryde app, and the same driver that drove them before appears to pick him up. 

Pretending to be just a regular customer, the killer tells the driver to leave him at his house, asking the driver to wait for him. After changing clothes and collecting weapons, he returns. The ride continues and both engage in interesting conversation. After some minutes, the killer request the driver to stop for him to smoke, and invites the driver to join him. 

When they return, the killer murders the driver, puts his body on the back of the car, and takes his place. Attending by the fake name of Karl, at the course of the night, the killer went to reclaim several more victims: unwary passengers that mistakenly think the killer is just a regular Ryde driver. As the night begins for the killer, he deliberately engages in a vicious and cruel rampage. 

In one of his drives, the killer is stopped by a police officer, demanding to see his license and registration. Asking why he was being checked out, the officer tells him that he has parked in a forbidden zone. Suddenly three girls enter the vehicle, and demand the officer to be gentle with the driver, saying they were to blame for his fault, as he was waiting for them. When the driver is ready to leave the scene, the officer demands him one more time to stop, and to open the trunk, saying that the back lights of the vehicle were irregularly blinking. He offers himself to fix it up the cables, as a favor to the driver, preventing him from being pulled over by the police for a second time in the same night. Since the body of the real driver was there, the killer faced the danger of being caught. So he discreetly lowers himself down to pull a knife he has on a sheath attached to his foot, when suddenly the officer tells him that the verification is no longer needed, as the lights were slowly stopping to blink. 

So the killer drives the three girls to the luxurious home of one of them. As they find him attractive, two of them try to seduce the driver, and invite him for a private party in the pool, where, initially pretending to engage in sexual activity with them, he murders them both. A third girl, too drunk to understand what has happening, was spared by the killer, that carries her to bed.    

Everything gets more exciting when the killer drives a couple, arguing for the fact that they have to attend two parties that same night. He clearly gets an interest in the girl. After leaving the couple in the place of their destination, the killer continues his night rides and his murder spree. Nevertheless, after some hours he encounters the same girl in a street food tent, pretending to find her coincidentally. After she recognizes him, they engage in mutual conversation, and the killer offers to drive her to her place, and she accepts. Guessing that she would be alone, her boyfriend, leaving the club upon which they were attending the party earlier, which was near, suddenly appears. Their discussion is intensified, but he decides to go in the ride with her.        

Surprisingly, when the same girl needs a ride again, the driver appears one more time to collect her. Visibly upset by virtue of the discussion with her boyfriend, she stays more silent than in the occasion before. The driver, being exceedingly charming and sympathetic towards her, offers her an opportunity to talk about her problems, and encourages her to see him as a kind of “therapist”, to which she politely denies. Nevertheless, he is persistent, and after he compliments her good looks, she starts to feel threatened. At first, she demands him to return, affirming that she may have forgotten something at the party, and then she asks the driver to stop, saying that she is feeling sick and wants fresh air.

When he stops, he gets close to her, and tries to kiss her. She rejects his advances, and a fight ensues. After a hideous physical altercation, the killer subdues and ties her, and they continue the ride. Inside the car, the girl attacks him, and the killer loses control of the vehicle, colliding with an abandoned car in a stretch of deserted area. 

The girl awakens in the hospital. Her boyfriend and her best friend are there. The physician tells her that she is pregnant, and her boyfriend apologizes to her. As they reconcile, an LAPD detective approaches her, and tells her that she needs to identify the body of her assailant in the morgue. As they go to the mortuary, the girl sees a badly burned and disfigured corpse, but affirms positively that the body is not that of her attacker. As the camera gets close to the body, the spectator can see that the body is, in fact, of the real driver, murdered by the killer, and put in the trunk of the car.     

This movie deserves a very good and sincere evaluation. Although Ryde is not exactly a fantastic or splendorous movie, it is, indeed, a very good one, with tense moments, an afflictive story line, and a very cohesive plot. Good interpretations and dense character impersonations guarantee a dramatic, intense and exceedingly realistic approach. Some very profound and poetic moments – like a majestic and very cinematic scene when the main character is in a nearly empty cafeteria in the dead of night, with a perceptive look in his eyes that transmits his cold void feelings looking anywhere in his singular universe of mortifying nothingness, with a very beautiful woman that strongly and romantically flirts with him getting disappointed after he ignores her and unexpectedly leaves –, emphatically exhibits a glimpse of the character’s disturbed mind, as well as his personal world of destitute desolation, violence and bestiality.

Despite the fact that Ryde, for the most part, can be seriously defined as a very regular movie, it is a majestically effective, masterful regular movie. There are no flaws and no mediocrity in this production. From the technical devices to the acting to the whole concept of the story, everything was greatly executed. If you want to see a good thriller film, Ryde certainly is highly recommended. I can personally assure you will be thrilled with this movie.               


Wagner Hertzog 

Since turning into a major name in Hollywood in the late 90’s, what most people don’t know about Ben Affleck it’s that he started his career as a child actor, in the early 80’s, when he was only eight years old. Now, 44, and a successful actor and director, the major Hollywood star seems to be far more interested in politics than everything else. 


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After a string of major successes in his career – specially Argo, in which he stared and directed – and on the most recent Gone Girl, having shared the screen with sexy co-star, British actress Rosamund Pike, Ben Affleck struggled to prove his talents and capabilities in front as well as behind the cameras, and today, being hugely successful on such an aggressive and competitive field of work, he can breath and rest a little, since his accomplishments are, more than ever, no dust in the ground.

Being an enthusiastic and ardent political and humanitarian activist as well, Affleck discovered fame has its ups and downs, since, everywhere he goes, paparazzi are following him, struggling to get the best angles for photographs, with the hopes of selling them for the best tabloid publications. Nonetheless, his victories and relevant filmmaking efforts in the industry in the last decade redeemed him for a string of terrible and mediocre movies in the nineties, that lasted to the early 2000’s, when he was struggling for a place in the spotlight, hoping and auditioning for movies he saw it could make the difference, but with no better prospects, taking parts in the worst flicks, just to make a salary.  

Having had his share of relationship publicities, especially his well-documented relation with J-Lo – being dubbed “Bennifer” at the time by the media outlets – Affleck has divorced his wife of ten years, actress Jennifer Garner, with whom he had two daughters and one son. They shared the screen in the 2003 movie Daredevil.  

After playing Batman in two movies, Affleck will reprise the role in the upcoming Justice League feature film. But, by the way things are going right now, if things in the upcoming movie didn’t get along well, at this point of his career, Ben Affleck can endure very well the low points of his journey, way better than he did when he was just trying to make it or break it. After all, successful, confident and easy-going at middle-age, if things went wrong at the box office, he just have to shake the dust of his feet, and move along to the next project.  


Wagner Hertzog

Le Capital is a very interesting French movie, directed by renowned filmmaker Konstantinos Gavras, starring Gabriel Byrne and Gad Elmaleh. Elmaleh plays Marc Tourneuil, a highly intelligent individual of the financial market, that is promoted to head of Phenix, an increasingly valuable high risk bank of Europe, that rises to be a giant of the financial system. 

Marc Tourneuil, married to Diane (Natacha Régnier) is a very skilled and intuitive pawn of the financial market, that is promoted to president of the Phenix Bank as soon as the current president becomes sick. He is chosen in a hurry by a select group of the board committee, that constitute the elite of the European financial system, which already elaborate plans to substitute him as soon as the former president – a sort of mentor for Tourneuil – dies. Acknowledgeable, determined, lucid, very wise, and assuming that he will become a sort of puppet at the hands of the shareholders, who detain the real power behind the bank, Tourneuil immediately employs a private detective to work for him, with the intention to discover who his real enemies really are, who are the ones he can really trust, and the ones he can’t. 

As soon as he assumes the presidency of the bank, he gets close to Dittmar Rigule (Gabriel Byrne), a very unscrupulous individual, that knows how to present himself as lovable, trustful and friendly. Likewise, Tourneuil, on dealing with extremely dubious persons, learns how to perfectly play the game in the financial market, never satisfying the demands of the real detainees of the power, but never disappointing them either. When he gets involved with a very beautiful and exotic, but promiscuous international top model, he immediately suspects that this could be an arrangement made by the bank elite, to blackmail him in a future occasion, in order have him fully controlled, to act as the head for their illicit ordeals, under the threat of ruining his personal life and marriage. Nonetheless, always one step ahead of his enemies, Tourneuil knows that, one way or another, he will be used as a puppet for all kinds of fusions and financial transactions. Having no alternative, besides being astute and intelligent, he becomes a master at the corporative cat and mouse game, with the fraudulent acquisition of a Japanese bank becoming the apex of his vengeance against the leaders of the financial market, that orchestrates his downfall behind his back. In a world where luxury, money, greed and power games are at the forefront of the coffee table every day, the winner is the one who always thinks ahead of his enemies, knowing that you have no friends or allies to support you whatsoever.    

Bright enough to absorb the professional dynamics of the financial market, Tourneuil rapidly acknowledges each and every possible aspect of the environment. Travelling constantly to close deals and arrange an equilibrium between his hold on power, and the constant demands of the shareholders – specially Dittmar – Tourneuil soon learns that he is playing a game that no one can really win. In the end, to postpone his downfall, and to delay the attack of his enemies on him, is the best he can do. Nonetheless, he arranges the Japanese bank deal to be fully and embarrassedly compromised, threating to expose the fraudulent ordeal involving the acquisition. 

Le Capital is a very good movie, that really captures the attention of the viewer from the very beginning until the last scene. Showing literally all the wild interests that lies behind a corporative organization, and all the sordid intricacies that revolves around the financial market, and how this affects us, ordinary human beings, the film is very honest about all the dirtiness, political intrigues, struggles for power, emotional tensions and corrupt schemes of the economic system, exposing the perfidious rottenness of a machinery that feeds itself from the very own greed of human ambition, in a parallel pursue of power, influence and fortune, that never rests, until someone is hurt, or finally out of the game. 

With incredible performances, amazing dialogues, systematic realism and a very graceful lust that seems to contaminate each and every character within the movie – specially Tourneuil, the lead character – Le Capital is a formidable, imaginative, intriguing and very crude portrait of what really happens in the financial market: a real den of wild animals – specially tigers and lions – eager for victims, disposable flesh, and ready to devour themselves vehemently, and without any compassion or consideration. The movie shows a system where no one have any kind of friends or colleagues, only explicit and implicit enemies, and the ones who are kings today, probably will suffer a tremendous and unpredictable downfall tomorrow. A major, superb and very drastic movie, Le Capital has everything an excellent movie about the financial market is expected to have: tension, emotional affliction, intrigues, inevitable conflicts of personality, collisions of interest, and a vast amount of illicit schemes. If you like this genre of movie, you certainly can’t afford to miss Le Capital.    



​Wagner

The Disappointments Room is a 2016 American supernatural horror film, starred by Kate Beckinsale and written by Wentworth Miller. Kate Beckinsale plays Dana, a woman who moves with her son and her husband to a new house in the countryside, just to discover a hidden room in the place, that is submerged in the mysteries and secrecies of a dark and turbulent traumatic past. 

When Dana and her family move to a new house in a very small provincial town, initially everything went exactly as they wanted. The happiness, joy and excitement of a new life surrounds them, and, although some rooms in the house are in ruins, in need for serious repairs, the family of three is satisfied, and ready to initiate a new chapter in their lives. 

Nonetheless, everything changes when Dana discovers in the attic a mysterious room, which is locked, and she can’t manage to open the door. When she finally finds the key to the mysterious room, which was above the doorframe, Dana enters what appears to be a very large and abandoned empty space. Stricken by intuitive bad thoughts and feelings, Dana becomes eager to discover the real purpose behind the hidden room, so she goes to the town library, and starts doing a full research. With the help of the elder local librarian, she finally discovers that the hidden room in her house was used by its former residents as a disappointments room: a common habit within wealthy and aristocratic families in the past, they used to hide relatives that had some kind of morbid congenital disease or grotesque physical deformity in a secret place within the household, preventing the isolated family member to have any kind of social interaction. This measure was adopted by the family as a means to avoid social shame or shunning, and the secluded relative had completely denied the possibility to have a normal life. Tormented by visions from past events related to the family that has lived in the house several generations ago, Dana starts to feel the suffering inflicted by a mysterious man on an innocent deformed child, that probably was related to him. The visions achieve a climax, when Dana sees the mysterious man killing the deformed child. Suddenly, she starts to feel that a very unwanted and sinister presence is hidden somewhere within the house, putting herself, her husband and her son’s life in danger.   

The Disappointments Room is a movie very difficult to evaluate precisely, because it’s as good as it is bad, having its share of good moments, in the same amount of bad moments as well. Undoubtedly, the story is intriguing. With potential, and a very promising and interesting premise, the overall plotline eventually falls in several tiresome and predictable genre clichés, and sometimes seems to revolve around literally nothing. With very intrinsic dynamics, the movie alternates between very intense and interesting moments, and scenes where literally nothing happens, finishing in extremely obvious plot devices. Almost everything revolves around Dana – Kate Beckinsale’s character –, with everything created to gravitate around her, or towards her. Nonetheless, several elements of the plot are frozen in a very obvious atmosphere, specially her relation concerning the bad things that had happened in the disappointments room, and the visions she has related to it.

In general, The Disappointments Room can be considered just another ghost movie, with a more intriguing and sophisticated plot, that falls into a generic and predictable storyline. Nevertheless, the major flaw of the movie is the fact that it is too short. The entire movie feels like a large and compelling introduction, and when you think that the movie will finally begin, in fact, it abruptly ends. Conclusively, what you really have in this movie is an interesting beginning with a very peculiar premise. But as the movie progresses, the story eventually falls in a series of clichés and obvious plot devices, that in the end turns the movie into something a little less than a total waste of time.
 
The Disappointments Room ended up as a major disappointment, being scorned by critics and audiences alike. The final product is better described as a very interesting premise, wasted in a very ordinary movie. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not completely terrible. If you are an intelligent and lucid spectator, you certainly manage to absorb some fragments of good art here and there. But generally, it doesn’t worth the time. Actor Wentworth Miller, though, is revealing himself a talented screenwriter. He had also scripted Stoker, a far more decent, somber and clever movie, which was released in 2013, starred by Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode. Unlike The Disappointments Room, Stoker is totally worthwhile watching it. 


Wagner

Ray Liotta has always been one of my favorite actors, and his presence in a movie is enough for me to watch it. Having entered the show business in the late seventies, Liotta rose to prominence as Henry Hill in the 1990 biographical crime-drama film Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese, where Liotta divided the screen with highly acclaimed legendary actors, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. As Liotta wasn’t a very well-known actor at the time, he auditioned for the role, and persistently persuaded Scorsese and the producers of the film for the part of Henry Hill, who is the main character and narrator of the movie. Eventually, Liotta himself had met the real Henry Hill, who was an associate of the Lucchese crime family of New York, from the mid-fifties until his downfall and subsequent imprisonment in the eighties, whose incarceration had finished the criminal careers of several of his mafia partners as well. The movie covers extensively all these decades’ long periods in Henry Hill’s life, beginning when he joins the mob, until his eventual arrest.  

Despite being best known for his part on the Scorsese biopic, Liotta is a very prolific actor of movies and television, working occasionally as a narrator of documentaries, and appearing in commercial advertisements as well. Usually playing very tough guys, mainly corrupt cops or very dubious and immoral law officers, he can be seen regularly playing both decent and evil characters. 

With more than eighty movies to his name, despite the fact that he is sixty two years old, the veteran actor born in 1954 in Newark, New Jersey, apparently is eager to work more frequently than ever. Like Christopher Walken, he hardly refuses to participate in a project, and can be seen regularly in movie festivals and events worldwide. Frequently seen in movies where he is the lead, he also heavily participates in secondary and minor roles. The genres upon which he is mostly seen are crime, drama and cop thrillers. Personally, if you ask me, I remember him mostly for his parts as extremely corrupt police officers, and I can describe a lot of examples. In the 1997 movie Cop Land, upon which he worked again with De Niro, Liotta shared the screen with Sylvester Stallone, Robert Patrick and Harvey Keitel. In this movie, Stallone plays the sheriff of a fictitious small town, who has to deal with extremely corrupt and abusive NYPD police officers. As the authority figure of what is usually called a “dormitory city”, Stallone’s character has to deal with cops who work in New York City, but live in the neighboring small town. They frequently engage in abuse of authority and blackmail, amongst many other illicit activities. Determined to break this chain of corruption, although he is frequently ridiculed by his role of sheriff of a little community, the character of Stallone decides to stand against the criminal cops, and Ray Liotta’s character is one of them. In the more recent Blackway, a movie on which Liotta shared the screen with Anthony Hopkins, he plays the title character, a brutal, perfidious and very insidious local crime lord, who was a former police officer. In Street Kings 2: Motor City, he played a very pervasive and furtive cop, thoroughly involved in serious crimes. In The Place Beyond the Pines, Ray Liotta had played a very malevolent and corrupt cop as well. In the classic 1992 movie, Unlawful Entry, on which Ray Liotta co-starred with Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe, he played a very ambiguous, immoral and delusional cop, who develops an extremely sick obsession by Karen, Madeleine Stowe’s character. In The Son of No One, co-starred by Channing Tatum and Al Pacino, Liotta one more time played a very dark and malevolent law officer. Although evidently there was a lot more movies than this one, I only remember Ray Liotta playing a very good, honest and decent cop in the movie Suddenly, on which he co-starred with famous actor Dominic Purcell, whose character is the antagonist of the story, that revolves around a very deadly premise. Purcell plays a double agent, whose mission is to kill the US President, expected to attend a public commitment in the small city upon which Liotta’s character is the sheriff. Purcell and Liotta had previously worked together in the movie Bad Karma. 

In the 2002 movie Narc, co-starred by Jason Patric, and in the 2011 movie The River Murders, co-starred by Christian Slater, Liotta played more down to the ground law officers, that try hard to be good coops, but eventually fall under the pressure of their own moral flaws, as well as the evil that surrounds the profession. 

Another of his memorable roles was the one Liotta took on the movie Identity, co-starred by John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Pruitt Taylor Vince. A more sinister and ambivalent thriller, Identity tells the story of prospective victims of a very shadowy and mysterious serial murderer, that gather together to eventually discover that they have far more things in common, than what they could possibly have imagined.  Amongst his recent major movies, 2011 The Entitled also deserves mention. In this movie, Canadian actor Kevin Zegers plays an individual who kidnaps three young adults from rich parents. Ray Liotta plays the father of one of the individuals kidnapped. The other two are the son and daughter, respectively, of his two wealthier friends, who are also successful businessmen. Nonetheless, the son of one of them is fatally killed, and Ray Liotta’s character, who has been in fact financially broken, elude his friend that his son is still alive, just to deceive him to loan him money, for having the chance to pay the ransom for his own son. A very amazing and exceptional movie, The Entitled is a major and compelling thriller, that deserves to be seen very attentively, from the beginning until the end.  

Having started his career in a soap opera, in the early eighties Liotta moved to Los Angeles, in the hopes of getting roles in the movie industry. This proved to be beneficial for his career, as in a matter of time movie roles were being offered to him. From then on, his hardworking ethics would compensate. Now, regarded as a formidable Hollywood actor, he always has a lot of roles in movies and television at his disposition, waiting to be played by him. With an extensive and very respectable filmography, Ray Liotta has really conquered his well-deserved space in the movie industry, and has proved the extensive range and amazingly realistic skills of his acting abilities.  


​Wagner

Although this film has won a fair share of awards, I'm sure it hasn't been seen by enough people. So here's a review. 

Have you ever heard of Doel? It translates as purpose, goal, target or meaning and that's one of the reasons why the story of Doel is heartbreaking. Doel is a small village near Antwerp, on the left bank of the river Scheldt, at walking distance from our nuclear power plant. The harbour of Antwerp on the right bank has been expanding since, let's say, the year 1200 and it has a rich history. Nowadays it's the second largest harbour of Europe. To compress recent history in one sentence: this harbour likes villages for breakfast. In the 1960s four villages in the north have been devoured after an extremely brutal session of Belgian expropriation politics - some dead-end roads and the upper parts of two church towers patiently witness of what is no more. One of them just stands amidst the containers, can you imagine? The other tower top, more findable, arises from a field of grass on a corner of two streets that can't handle all the road traffic. If you stand here amidst the noise and gasping for some oxygen, in vain, feelings of misanthropy assail you like famished lions - if you have a heart or give a shit, at least. This is the reason why I've never visited Doel, seeing it just might add the last drop in my bucket... But I've been wanting to watch 'De Engel van Doel' (The Angel of Doel) for a long time now, and there it was, in the library. And I saw Doel, and the bucket overflowed indeed. At this moment, writing this review is the only remedy for this state of mind. I hope you can handle watching better than I did, but this thing really is a must-see. Why? I'll tell you later.

"Docks!" this harbour has been screaming since, according to wiki, 1550. "Locks! More docks and more locks, more, more, more, for larger container ships so we can import and export more stuff than we could ever imagine! Even more docks and locks in the years to come, larger, deeper, oh man, we're such a proud city! We say that we create jobs so we believe that the people have no other option than worshipping every fart we let. Meanwhile, let's fill our time by counting our money and by looking forward to getting even more money. Moneeeeeey!!!" (insert Pink Floyd tune)

That money's not even yours, you bunch of cunts. Keep your yaps shut for once, wipe those reports you never read anyway off your desk, along with those bottles, whores, drugs and piles of money. Listen to what John Public, poor and unhealthy because of you, has to say. Learn by watching 'De Engel van Doel' for example, in your big-ass mansion with your loved ones. I wonder whether you are capable of loving, I really wonder.

Anyway, to continue our little history lesson, since the 1990s the left bank of the river Scheldt also got gnawed by the hungry beast. The harbour started nibbling on Doel.

The film maker has followed Emilienne between 2006 and 2011. She's an older widow living in Doel. As the years go by, so do her neighbours and friends. They're pestered out of their houses by official Kafkaesque letters. Politicians give false hope, very well aware that they're lying, as usual. Emilienne doesn't want to move - don't replant an old tree, as a Flemish saying goes. She also doesn't want to participate in the protests organised by left-wing young people, maybe because she knows that those are just drops of water on a red hot plate - another saying, sayings have a lot to say. The elderly priest has cancer and is unable or unwilling to give what's left of his herd false hope. He knows. They all know. Resistance is futile, the stomach of the harbour is growling, and money makes the world go round. 

The film has a very welome slow tempo and the scenes are filmed by a steady camera. The colour is grey. Luckily there's subtitles, also in English, because you have to know the dialects to fully comprehend what's being said. Not a single event gives the impression of being acted, what you see is very probably what has happened. John Public in his natural habitat, the last drop being pressed out of the lemon, and you're standing in the middle of it.

In one scene, Emilienne's dog appears at the kitchen table. He must feel what she feels: it really is over now. His eyebrows move up in a try to get her attention, only to let her know: "I'm here for you, no matter what." She does not react to him, because she's in a discussion with a friend about the letter on the table. The morning after, she refuses to accept the same letter - this time it's registered - from the mailman. "I am staying anyway." He refuses to have a seat and a cup of coffee because he's too busy. "Young people, (grand)children included, are too busy", says Emilienne's best friend while they're peeling beans or something at the kitchen table. She's right. A demolishing crane drives at the town, seen from the broken window of one of the long-abandoned homes. Another house bites the dust. In the middle of the street, there's a donkey eating hay and wearing a banner that goes "(name of politician), you're a shame to my race". Emilienne's last friend doesn't want to say goodbye because she doesn't want a tear jerking party. Emilienne and I cry our eyes out, she's all alone on her doorstep and I'm on the sofa. My cat tries to get my attention just to let me know: "I'm here for you, no matter what." I do not react to her because I'm looking for a handkerchief and want to know what happens next, but I appreciate the gesture. There's a lot we can learn from the animals.

According to Einstein, the injustice in the world doesn't exist because some people commit it, but because most people just look away. 

Food for thought.



Eline

Black Water Vampire is a 2014 Found Footage Horror Film, directed by Evan Tramel. Exceedingly interesting, certainly can be regarded as one of the best in the genre. The plot device follows four friends – two girls, a director and a producer, and two guys, a cameramen and a sound engineer – that heads towards the community of Black Water, Washington, to shoot a documentary about four mysterious murders that occurred in the region, all in mysteriously bizarre, but similar circumstances. For the last four decades, four girls had been found murdered – one every ten years, all killed in the winter solstice – in the woods of Black Water. All the four victims have been found with bite marks on the neck, completely drained of blood and with a mysterious symbol drawn in blood on their skin. One man has been imprisoned, found guilty and convicted for these murders, and he was sentenced to death. Believing he is innocent, the girl leading the group and shooting the documentary wants to discover the truth behind the crimes, and to find the one who is really responsible for them.  

Heading towards their destination, first the group interviews one of the detectives that originally investigated one of the murders. Then they stopped at the penitentiary upon which Raymond Banks (Bill Oberst Jr.), the criminal incarcerated for the murders, is serving his sentence. A sinister figure, with prominent scars on his face, he reveals that he became a scapegoat for the crimes, upon discovering what the villagers where really doing in the woods. Telling the group that he has been slowly poisoned throughout the years, in the hopes of dying faster – and he proves his claims by grabbing a portion of his hair, showing that is easily falling off his head – the convicted individual is mysteriously explicit and ambiguous at the same time, about the bizarre events that for so long had been unfolding in the darkness of the woods in Black Water. 

When they arrive at a cabin upon which they had rented to calmly rest, and keep their baggage and equipment, the next day the group is prepared to enter the woods, and start shooting the documentary. In the first day, they seem to be doing fine, as everything seems to be happening according to the plan. But at night, when they are sleeping on the tent, they hear alarming and unidentifiable screams, becoming fearful that their lives might be in danger. When they leave their tent in the morning, they become terrified on seeing painted in what appears to be blood – in front of the tent –, exactly the same mysterious symbol found painted in blood on the victim’s bodies. 

Determined to go on in their search to find the truth, the group becomes lost in the woods. With the help of a map, they try to figure out where they really are, but rapidly the situation deteriorates, and discussions and misunderstandings broke out between them. Feeling something weird is going on, the sound engineer feels an urge to go back, but the cinematographer encourages him to accompany them further. Telling him that they have walked for almost one day and a half, it would not be easy for him to find his way out of the woods. He says that it’s better for all of them to stay together; soon, the documentary will be shot, and everything will be over in a matter of hours. If he starts to feel bad again, they will completely understand and approve his wish to go back. The sound engineer, upon insisting that he could easily find his way out of the woods, agrees to stay with the group.

But very soon, the situation goes bad again. The sound engineer walks away from the rest of the group, and becomes lost. Several hours pass by, but he doesn’t return. Soon afterwards, the other three are struck by despair, as the night falls, and they haven’t found their friend. The cinematographer and the two girls have a discussion about whether it’s better to search for him, or to set up the tent, sleep, and look out after him in the morning. They eventually chose the last option, which is safer, as they really don’t know what dangers may lurk in the dark, and literally their visibility will be severally compromised by the darkness, turning fruitless any attempt to search for their friend and collaborator in the night. 

But this turns out to be the occasion upon which everything falls apart. Deeper into the night, they hear again the same growls they have heard in the previous night, but these time appears to be louder and closer. They are eventually attacked by a bizarre, dreadful and ferocious creature, that eventually captures the girl that is the leader of the group. The other two, the movie cinematographer and the producer manages to escape, but the producer wants to go back to rescue their friend. The cinematographer strongly objects, and the two wander in the forest, in a desperate attempt to avoid the creature.      

Walking until the day breaks, they eventually find their friend, the girl responsible for the movie project, completely naked and disoriented. She has a terrible bite mark on her neck, and seems to be in shock. The cinematographer puts out of his backpack several clothes for dressing her, and they rapidly try to go out of the woods. But as their friend reveals herself to be in a week and fragile condition, they fail to advance in a fast pace. To make matters worse, they wander completely lost and without any notion of their whereabouts, realizing that leaving the woods will be almost impossible. Soon, they realize that their friend, the girl that has been attacked by the creature, is not only week, but she is experiencing a strange sickness too. She says that she feels an unexplainable thing inside her, and on grabbing up her blouse, she shows up her belly, and is clearly possible to see something moving beneath her skin. In a rage of despair fuelled by his survival instinct, the cinematographer screams with the two girls, saying that he will leave them, but after just a few moments, he is surprised and killed by the mysterious creature, at broad daylight. The two girls, shocked by the killing, do their best trying to escape.

As the night falls again, they see the mysterious symbol – the one that appeared in the bodies of the four murdered girls, and that was also drawn at the entrance of their tent – drawn apparently in blood in several trees surrounding them. They manage to encounter a strange and ruined cabin, upon which they hide. But soon the creature locates them, and they are forced to leave the cabin. Soon the girls are outdoors, and they see a lot of the townsfolk people surrounding them, but their hostile faces make pretty obvious that their intention is not to help. The producer tries to escape, but is killed in the process. The only surviving member of the group, the girl attacked by the creature, is thrown in the floor by the group of stalkers, and they strongly hold her into the ground. She soon starts to scream, and appears to be giving birth, as one woman that was part of the group of deranged stalkers, off camera, seems to be doing the work of delivering the baby. 

Soon, one year later, we see a group of people gathering in the dark, inside of a cabin, celebrating with a cake the birthday of one year of a baby. They are all the same community members seen before, that killed the producer girl, and delivered the baby of the girl impregnated by the Black Water creature. We see here the woman that rented the cabin for the group of filmmakers in the beginning of the movie, and we see, with an extremely unhappy face, the girl that wanted to shot the documentary, the only surviving member of the fatal ordeal that victimized her three friends. She was impregnated by the mysterious creature, with the blessing and the collusion of the townspeople, and apparently, is now a member of their community. The film ends showing the hybrid baby creature, half-human and half-monster.

For a found footage film, Black Water Vampire is simply amazing. Doing the best to avoid and to escape the clichés of the genre, this is a serious work, with a truly genuine and unexpected cinematic feeling. One of the best movies of the genre that I have seen, Black Water Vampire is filled by an atrocious atmosphere of the unknown, that really captures, evaluates and explores the validity of a deep sense of undeniable anguish throughout its entire run. At first, as suggested by the title, you may think that this is just another boring and ordinary vampire movie. But we should never judge a movie by its title, the same way we should never judge a book by its cover. Black Water Vampire manages to be an intelligent mindset of unrestrained, embracing and sensible captivity of surreal – but exponentially realistic – horror. The movie slowly builds on its deleterious urge a sinister, malevolent, fearful and lucid atmosphere of agony and affliction, as you delve deeper and deeper into the mysterious secrecies of a forest that you soon perceive to be held by a hostile and malevolent force, that doesn’t want anybody to wander on its premises. 

Although the overall center of the plot is simple, and the formula upon which the movie unfolds is typical of the found footage genre, the atmosphere upon which the story reveals itself relies on a sinister background that manages to be not just genuine, but authentic and functional, slowly increasing, and showcasing its potential, as the movie progresses. The fear generated by the danger that subtlety reveals itself within the story is exceptionally grotesque, and as the danger becomes more plausible and palpable, the agony becomes more evident, lacerating and hurtful, to the point that you almost see yourself as part of the story, wandering what could you do to possibly get out of the forest alive.  

Evidently, Black Water Vampire is a lot similar to several other found footage films, in instances like structure, style and the unfolding of events. But here, you have a cohesive story, intelligent movie making devices, decent technical skills, a salutary and well-elaborated plot, and a coherent and credible acting, as well as a lot of other qualities. Nonetheless, they are inserted so subtlety, that if you’re not really paying attention to the movie, you will probably miss some of the details that, combined altogether, managed to make this movie superior from other movies of the genre. Although the story unfolds calmly, it has the ability of slowly involving you in a wider spectacle of affliction and apprehension, that becomes deeper and deeper as the movie progresses, to the point where you firmly believe that you don’t have any more the opportunity to escape.   

Don’t get me wrong. You may not be surprised at all at first, but if you really see this movie, appreciating it in the calmness it deserves, you will positively be captured by the genuine atmosphere of horror that this film wonderfully creates, and more marvelously, liberates towards its audience. 

As typical for the genre, the movie is shot by the perspective of their participants, with the four main actors taking turns in recording the images (although the actual scenes were obviously recorded by a professional cinematographer), so you mostly see only three of them at a time, and less, as they begin to disappear. Departing from the prerogative of an adventurous endeavor, they leave for their destination towards an atrocious fate, upon which there would be no return. An excellent movie, despite its simple premise and common ground rhetoric that at first seems to be equal to other movies of the genre, Black Water Vampire certainly can be regarded as one of the best found footage films ever made.                               

       
 Wagner

A Case of You is an American romantic comedy film, starring Justin Long and Evan Rachel Wood. Directed by Kat Coiro, with a script written by Justin Long, his brother Chris and actor Keir O’Donnell, the movie tells the story of Sam (Justin Long), a stagnant New York City writer, who is willing to do absolutely everything he can to earn the attention and the love of Birdie (Evan Rachel Wood), a girl for whom he is deeply infatuated.  

Sam is a New York City writer with no inspiration, who mechanically writes novelizations for movies aimed at teen audiences. Nevertheless, he aspires to be a serious writer, and wants to write the great novel of his life, tough he struggles with a lack of inspiration very hard to overcome. When he meets Birdie, a girl that works in a coffee shop close to his home, he suddenly becomes captivated by her astoundingly free and quasi-hippie urban charm. Coming up with a plan to win her heart and affection, Eliot, Sam’s roommate, suggests him to visit her Facebook profile, to discover all the things she likes, and work from there.

Following his friend’s advice, he starts to visit her Facebook profile regularly, and involves himself in all the things she’s interested in, like climbing, martial arts, guitar lessons, dance classes and many more. One day, after seeing on her Facebook that she will attend an event at a performance art club, he accidentally fakes a meeting by chance with Birdie, and they start a very cozy conversation. After both discover the many things they have “in common”, a friendship develops, and very gradually, they become close. Nonetheless, he vehemently continues the ritual to constantly visit her Social Media, and gets more and more involved in her many interests.

Sam’s plan surprisingly works very well, since he learns everything about her, and  pretend to have a great degree of affinity to all the things she loves. Although his strategy is a little unorthodox, to say the least, his intentions are genuine, since he is deeply committed to do everything he can to win her affection. Meanwhile, Birdie appears to be very surprised with the fact that both have so many things in common, and develops feelings for Sam, starting to believe that they are soul mates. His plan is such a success, that, after spending a very meaningful time together, upon which they became very close, Birdie eventually declares her love for Sam. Excited and thrilled with joy and amazement, Sam’s life enters such a high point that he is able to finally overcome his writer’s block, and starts writing a very good novel, based on his relationship to Birdie. Unfortunately, at some point Sam gets tired of following her extremely active life, and becomes disturbed with the fact that she doesn’t know him well. After telling her that, being very rude to Birdie in one meeting that she prepared very gently for both, to have a special time together, he realizes how awful he was, and, after cooling down, he gets the righteous perception that it is not her fault that she doesn’t know him well. After all, he chose to pretend being someone he wasn’t, in a desperate attempt to please her, and win her heart. In a dance competition, he decides to apologize, and finally reveals to her that he has been watching each and every interest of hers that she posted about on Social Network, to which she replies – to his complete surprise – that she already knew what he was doing, as she posted interests on her profile just to see if he would say soon that he liked exactly the same thing. Forgiving Sam for his previous rudeness, both declare their mutual love for each other, dance, and live happily ever after!    

Well, what can I say, besides the fact that this movie is marvelous? Evan Rachel Wood and Justin Long are astonishingly great together, being the sweetest couple I have ever seen in modern movies! They have an amazing chemistry, and the love and the sincerity that their respective characters are able to achieve onscreen are simply too good to be true, but it is! Both transpire some kind of light drama, sincere happiness and a very wishful desire to live life at the fullest, in such profound characters, filled with joy and expectation, with eyes shining bright towards what the future reserves, that you cannot be indifferent to the intensity that both convey into the screen. The amazing plot, the funny scenes, the romantic drama and their personal struggles are very well combined, being able to deliver a very decent, funny, incredible and creative story, filled with love and sentimental redemption, but without the weight of real life drama and darkness, having the distinction of not being just another alienated romance movie at the same time. With a great profusion of humorous scenes and light moments as well, that combines all the great elements essential for an awesome movie, A Case of You easily escapes the clichés of the genre, being very lucid, original, and laughable at the same time.     

Unlike the vast majority of modern movies, who tend to ignore it, Social Media plays a very important part in the plot devices, although always subjectively, exploring how people can easily connect to one another in the web. A great cast of actors and actresses play little parts in the movie as well, like Brendan Fraser, Sam Rockwell, Sienna Miller and Vince Vaughn.    

Although some things in this movie are really implausible in real life circumstances – a man would hardly learn how to climb, take martial art classes, read poetry or learn how to become a master in French cuisine to please a woman [well, primarily, because it will be necessary to quit his job to have the time, and also own a very decent bank account to pay for all this] – all these plot arrangements are reasonably combined and structured brightly together, working really well in a very appealing, funny and sensitive story, that will make you laugh hysterically, and cry deeply, all at the same time. And when the movie is over, you will be dying to see it again! Surprisingly, the movie was not well received by critics and the public alike, receiving generally very unfavorable reviews in movie websites. 

Regardless, this movie really deserves five stars! Even more, so to speak! As long as I can remember, I have never seen such an excellent and wonderful romantic comedy, although I could be labeled a partner in crime here, since I really love Evan Rachel Wood, and Justin Long, for both have the ability to portray real life characters with really difficult problems in such a light, serene and easy mood, without being shallow or artificial! They are so profound and cool at the same time, that, for the first time in my life, I wished a movie to have a sequence! Oh, for sure, this movie would certainly deserve one. Check it out, you will not regret! 


​Wagner

Exposed (originally titled Daughter of God) is a 2016 American crime drama thriller film, starring Keanu Reeves, Ana de Armas, Mira Sorvino and Christopher McDonald. Directed by Gee Malik Linton (under the pseudonym of Declan Dale), the plot concerns a detective, Scott Galban (Reeves) who is assigned to investigate the mysterious murder of his partner, New York City cop Joey Cullen (Danny Hoch). 

When his partner is stabbed and murdered in the New York City subway, experienced detective Scott Galban is assigned to the case. Unbeknownst to him, the case would reveal itself to be far more complicated than what appearances may suggest. When is uncovered the fact that Joey Cullen was corrupt, the rottenness inside the NYPD is threatened to be exposed, in an environment of illicit ordeals where literally everyone can be compromised. Even Scott Galban, who is having an illicit affair with Cullen’s wife, Janine (Sorvino) reveals himself to be an ambiguous person. Nonetheless, Galban is not as corrupt as the others, and is exceedingly determined to discover what really happened to his former partner, willing to go to excruciating extremes, no matter how compromising this can be for the New York City Police Department. 

Galban eventually discovers a potential witness to the case, a young Hispanic girl, Isabel de La Cruz (Ana de Armas). As the movie follows two apparently unrelated plot devices, one is showing Scott Galban on his extensive investigation to find the truth, while the other shows the Hispanic girl apparently losing her quest on sanity. She begins to have strange visions, and all of a sudden, discovers that she is pregnant. Meanwhile, what we see is the picture of a very quiet and seemingly normal girl. Isabel is a teacher, that loves all the children in her class, and her family life seems to be happy, satisfying and fulfilling. Her soon to be husband is far away, apparently serving in the army somewhere in the Middle East, but he communicates regularly with the entire family via webcam. Her family is a very religious one. Isabel herself is an ardent catholic believer. Nonetheless, her family is terrifyingly shocked when she tells them that she is pregnant. Knowing that her fiancé cannot be the father, given the fact that he has been far away for too long, all of them become extremely disappointed with her. And when she says that she had been impregnated by the Holy Spirit, like Mary, mother of Jesus, they become even more distressed and disdainful. But the surprise seems to be the fact that Isabel herself deeply believes what she is telling to her family.   

Nonetheless, as Galban deepens into the underworld, unraveling the mystery that revolves around his former partner, his path and Isabel’s eventually converges. Dwelling deeper into the mystery, he eventually finds the terrible and excruciating truth about Joey Cullen and Isabel de La Cruz.

This is a very good movie, but you have to be patient to be contemplated by the good and exponentially pervasive nature of the story. I had to see the movie two times, to be fully aware of this, as you have to submerge yourself completely into the narrative, to be delighted by the subtle prerogatives of its plot. At first, the movie seems to be very tedious, and since Exposed it’s not the typical police procedural story, you don’t have a lot of action. Focusing on human drama and police bureaucracy – although one of the plot devices really has detective Scott Galban investigating the mystery behind his partner’s death –, if you really want an action movie, this is not the case. With a slower pace, a dark and drastic storyline, and a cohesive plot centered in an urban setting that unravels towards the idiosyncrasies of human behavior and the alienation of police corruption, Exposed is far more about the exhilaration of human malevolent impulses, and how this affects a person that becomes victim of the evil present in the human nature.   

While this is not a marvelous movie, it’s a very good one. But like I wrote some lines above, you have to be very attentive to the storyline, otherwise you will be definitely bored. As the length and the calmness upon which the story is told, fulfilled by sideline details and a non-conventional style of storytelling, that implicates a more humanistic approach – opposed as being just another investigative story backed by a fully police guided crime thriller – Exposed can be considered an interesting and refreshing cinematic experience, full of intriguing nuances, perspectives and expectations. And I really mean this: I thought the movie was pretty mediocre the first time I saw it, but the second time, as I dwelled deeper into the story, I really understood better the grievances of the characters, the reflexive hardline of the story and the poetic, sometimes hazy and melancholic appeal of its plot. And I am seriously considering watching this movie a third time.

The end of the movie can be surprising as well, but this seriously depends on the spectator, and the capacity one has to judge and imagine or consider what is really happening. While it’s not something too difficult to decipher, on the other hand, it is not that obvious either.

Exposed had some problems in the post-production. Apparently, executives of the studio diverged on several questions. The original plot was, accordingly, far more complex than the final product, but movie executives wanted to highlight Reeves presence in the movie, since his character, at first, was just one tool for the story frame, and not the epicenter of it. Since the studio made significant changes in the editing process, director Gee Malik Linton asked his name to be completely erased from the project, so a pseudonym, Declan Dale, features in the directing credits.  


​Wagner