This week has not been like others. This week the Oscar nominations have been announced. The revelation of these candidates has left ‘The power of the dog’ as a great favorite, which is the one that monopolizes the most. It is closely followed by the unsuccessful remake of ‘West Side Story’, the successful ‘Dune’ (unusual for a sci-fi film) and the stupendous and highly recommended ‘Belfast’.
Will the Oscars recover their pulse? Will they be in tune again with the public’s taste? Will Netflix finally achieve recognition as one of the majors? Will the Bardem-Cruz marriage make history and become the first to receive the Oscars? two prizes at the same time? How will the elections in Castilla León go? (sorry, that slipped my mind). After so many questions, let’s start with the reality of today’s releases and the certainty that the first one will be a blockbuster, because forty million people have played the game on which the film is based.
‘Uncharted’ is a film flawed, an entertaining adventure vehicle about the search for a treasure by two good-hearted thieves, persecuted by a bad guy played by Antonio Banderas (who has made a pact with the devil to be so young). It is a prequel to the game of the Play.
Mark Wahlberg is the veteran who teaches a brash young apprentice played by Tom Holland. Wahlberg is overshadowed by the glittering star of the latest Spider-Man, and for good reason. Holland is more than an accomplished gymnast, he’s a fine actor who still has some way to go. The action scenes are as impeccable as they are incredible, and the humor. and not taking the thing too seriously, makes you forget any but that you can put. It is pure and wonderful cinema of fun and escape that, what do you want me to tell you, I (and the popcorn vendors in theaters) need from time to time.
Now we jump from the blockbuster to the almost arthouse films, as the boomers would say. It is one directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, a director as peculiar as he is profound (with the cadence of Ismael Serrano’s song but without being so boring), who has managed to carve out a unique filmography but I haven’t gotten the point. I admit that his works are visually formidable, and his way of narrating is suggestive, but it always seemed to me that he kept a prophylactic distance with his characters. On this occasion, perhaps because it is a semi-autobiographical portrait, the protagonists are endearing, giving them a varnish of affection and warmth that is uncharacteristic of him. Because
‘Licorice Pizza’ It is his best film.
The love between two teenagers forty years ago is clumsy, equivocal, fickle and eternal, and it does have the familiar aroma of pizzas spread out in cardboard boxes, with melted cheese stuck to the lid. Those in charge of giving life to those two who suffer from an explosive cyclogenesis in the heart are a couple of interpreters with the face of neighbors next door, who will have to be followed, Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman. Sean Penn and Bradley Cooper provide backing vocals in the perfect film for a Valentine’s Day as nostalgic as it is realistic (all of us who have loved unrequitedly will enjoy it).
Today’s last movie
‘The visitor’, is a Spanish fear that flirts with the thriller. It’s about a traumatized girl, in a relationship crisis, who has no better idea than to overcome that bump by going to a manor house in the middle of nowhere and where strange phenomena begin to happen (these people are very brave, the first thing happens to me what happens to her in such a place and I don’t stop until I am a thousand kilometers from the chalet).
The thing does not give for much more. Cat scare movie jumping suddenly, with a plot and a production with more holes than democracy in Russia, but we must admit that at least they make you want.
The highlight of the week will take place on Sunday, the day on which the Goya awards are presented. In its 36th edition, it doesn’t matter if ‘El Buen Patron’, ‘Maixabel’ or ‘Madres Parallels’ wins, the only important thing is the Goya of Honor for the enormous José Sacristán, the last of a golden generation of Spanish cinema. He will be accompanied (in spirit) by López Vázquez, Landa, Fernán Gómez, Gómez Bur, Florinda Chico, Ozores, Gracita Morales, Aparicio, Rabal, Rafael Alonso, Saza, etc.
May you have a week, and some Goya, of cinema.