nigivysh Reviews

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Cringey Irony (No Idea How to Rate it)

[11 August 2022]

Bodies Bodies Bodies is a new film by A24. At this point I'm ready to watch anything they make no matter what it is. If you know the cast before you watch this movie, you probably know that it's going to be terrible. Even if you just look at the poster, you'll pretty much know what the movie will be about.

A couple of horny 20 year olds and an older war veteran whom one of the horny 20 year olds met through Tinder have a party at a distant house. They decide to play a game called Bodies Bodies Bodies where there's a killer who has to haunt others. They're having fun but suddenly one of them actually dies so they have to figure out what's going on.

When it comes to the characters, the actors did a great job depicting parts of the extremely annoying and clueless American teenage culture and I've had great laughs about it because it's something that's been annoying me on a daily basis ever since I moved here. Although I am sure that in Bodies Bodies Bodies it's all irony about similar movies and said culture and that this was the main purpose, I am not sure whether this film achieves anything with it. Everything that this film says I had already had in my head for some time before I watched it and even though I've had some great laughs, I still wouldn't say that Bodie Bodies Bodies is a good film even with its ironic context.

It's extremely difficult for me to rate this film, so I'm just going to say that in my head its rating can vary from 3 to 8 out of 10. I don't think that you have to watch it. It is more dumb than it is funny but that's also the point so I have no clue whether to recommend it or not. I will say that A24 are rockstars of filmmaking, 5/10.

Die große Liebe (1942)

Outstandingly awful film with an awful message

[1/10 · 23 April 2022]

Die große Liebe is a movie made by the Nazis during the second World War. Naturally, the plot is going to be a minor concern for the creators compared to the idea that they need to bring to the table: Germany and war over anything. War over life, war over love, war over happiness. Risking your life for the Nazi regime should be your happiness.

And this message ended up being extremely successful among the Germans. They loved it so much that the movie became the most successful movie of the Third Reich financially. This is how you know why people don't really talk about the propaganda cinema of Germany. If Die große Liebe is their most successful pro-Nazi project, there isn't much to talk about.

An opera singer in Berlin falls in love with a pilot in the German army and they try to get married over and over again, yet their wedding is always postponed, because every time he has another military mission. And it's not like he is ordered to go, he wants and chooses to go, disregarding the woman he wants to marry.

It feels like there wasn't any thought invested into the plot. The love story between the two main characters alone is extremely odd and she literally fell in love with him even though he was a complete stalker and overall a really sketchy guy. On top of their love story, the film offers two more people that are in love with the main character, making this a love square.

The Great Love (Die große Liebe) is not what you feel towards the love of your life. It's what you feel towards Nazi Germany. Can't get much worse than that, can it?

The acting in the movie is also outstandingly unremarkable. I know that the standards for the 1940s were significantly lower but at no point in the history of cinema could this have been considered good acting.

This could very well be the worst movie I have ever watched along with the worst message that I have ever seen in any movie. I highly recommend skipping this film at all costs. 0/10.

Odessa in fiamme (1942)

Unexpected style of anti-Soviet propaganda

[6/10 · 21 April 2022]

"It is us and our world, not the ideas, who have created so many murderers."

Odessa in Fiamme is a Romanian and Italian movie that was made during the second World War. It tells about the events that happened between the Axis powers (Germany and Romania) and the Soviet Union in the early 1940s in Odessa.

If you judge this movie by the historical accuracy, it can be thrown into the trash can without any regrets. However, accuracy wasn't at all what the movie was aiming at, just like any other film made during the second World War.

The plot is rather simple. It tells about an opera singer, who is separated from her husband and child due to the terrible deeds the Bolshevik soldiers are doing in Bessarabia. Odessa in Fiamme shows how Soviet soldiers terrorize innocent people and poison their youngsters by trying to spread their communist ideology.

Rather than trying to convince the viewer that all the Bolsheviks were trying to damage the world's lives and ideals, it promoted some sort of heroism on a local level for Bolsheviks who redeem themselves by standing up against their regime, which is really interesting and unusual for that time period. This is something I definitely haven't expected from the film and I give it some credit for that.

I also give Odessa in Fiamme some credit for its allusion to Eisenstein and his Odessa steps. That I have expected even less than the soft propaganda that they have used.

Odessa in Fiamme was a pretty average piece of propaganda cinema for its time with some remarkable things. I'd recommend watching it if you're interested in the Axis' propaganda and allusions to Battleship 'Potemkin'. Otherwise, definitely a skippable film. 6/10.

The Oppenheim Family (1939)

Important anti-Nazi film

[9/10 · 20 February 2022]

Semya Oppenheim tells the story of a Jewish family Oppenheim in the 1930s in Berlin, as the Nazis are becoming a stronger power in the whole country. The main character of the film is Berthold Oppenheim. He goes to a regular German school. His teacher, who is a Jew, gets killed by a fascist. His new teacher is also a fascist and he strongly dislikes Berthold for his race and beliefs that aryans are not the supreme race in the world.

Berthold's father has his own furniture store that is threatened to be taken down because it carries the name Oppenheim. Berthold's uncle has been working in a hospital and doing surgery on German soldiers' eyes for 20 years and he is also threatened to lose his job because of his race.

Berthold and his new Nazi teacher get into a severe conflict over Germany's culture and values. The teacher gives Berthold the choice to apologize in front of the whole school and give up his beliefs or get expelled. Overall, the whole family is facing threats and they don't know if they will be fulfilled. They're stalling and as the Nazis are talking more social power, things keep getting worse for them.

Semya Oppenheim came out in the Soviet Union in 1939, the year when the Second World War started. What it manages to do is show perfectly what Nazi Germany was up to and raise awareness of what's already happening to Jews who have a German citizenship. An important remark would be that this film came out when Germany and The Soviet Union were on pretty good terms.

Semya Oppenheim managed to do exactly what it was supposed to - it demonstrated why people should fight against the Germans. It showed their cruelty towards literally anyone who is not a perfect aryan. And many Soviet people might not have known how serious this is.

Amazing movie with its funny and sad moments. Most importantly, this film was historically perfectly timed. The creators knew what they were doing and what they were doing it for. Recommend watching, 9/10.

Aktrisa (1943)

Non-typical film made during WW2

[8/10 · 20 February 2022]

Aktrisa tells the story of a famous Soviet operetta singer during the Second World War. Zoya Strelnikova works in the theater and therefore travels a lot. In one of the cities, she needs an apartment to settle for some time. There she meets an old lady whose apartment it is she is going to be living in. The old lady doesn't like Zoya in the slightest because she thinks that at this very moment everybody should be helping in the war. If somebody who is capable of doing so doesn't help, they don't care about the people who are dying.

This makes a great impact on Zoya and she decides to leave the scene and become a nanny in a military hospital to help in the war. This is where she meets a blindfolded wounded soldier. They quickly get along and start spending more time together talking about various things.

The soldier completely disagrees with the mindset that everybody has to be participating in the war. He thinks that the moment art will be gone from the soldiers' lives, everything will get even worse. The two fall in love with each other.

When the soldier gets his eyes unfolded again and goes back to fight in the war, Zoya starts traveling along the frontier and giving concerts for the soldiers.

Aktrisa is a pretty simple movie but one with a great meaning. That art will always have to be there to help us remember the good things even during the bad times.

The acting is great, the screenwriting and directing are also very good. That's a great movie to have during a World War. Recommend watching, 8/10.

The Red Ghost (2020)

Russian here, don't recommend this one

[3/10 · 4 September 2021]

The Red Ghost is a Russian historical thriller about the Second World War. It is set in Siberia during a cold winter in the year 1941. The red ghost itself is a myth in the German army about a Russian soldier who kills fascists by the hundreds all by himself. A whole army of well trained soldiers is sent to kill him and destroy the myth as it terrifies the Germans.

What has caught my attention about the movie in the first place was an article emphasizing the similarities between The Red Ghost and movies written and directed by Quentin Tarantino mentioning good comedy and plot twists.

The intriguing beginning of the story combined with the alleged Tarantino's style of writing and directing made me want to watch the movie and believe in it despite it being made in Russia.

I'm a big fan of Tarantino and his writing/directing style, he always manages to find the middle ground between absurdity and realism which makes his movies hillarious.

The director of The Red Ghost, however, didn't manage to do so, the absurdity stands out too much along with the sketchy jokes. I mean those kind of 'Here's a story of how a random Russian soldier showed that he is smarter and overall better than a French and British soldier' jokes.

You know that things get bad when the protagonist and the antagonist, who are desperately trying to kill each other, start a sword fight using their rifles instead of trying to shoot each other (at war).

It seems like at some point the director just stopped caring at all, because in some dialogues of the German soldiers their phrases aren't translated right. So, a German soldier says something in German, then you hear the translation (the official translation in the movie) in Russian, and it is a completely different phrase. It is pretty irritating to hear if you understand German.

There were two things I liked about the movie, though: The final scene actually has some meaning in it (anyone can be a hero, greetings from the Dark Knight).

The poster, it looks pretty cool

I fell for a well advertised, but poorly written Russian movie for the last time.

For the last time, right?

I do not recommend watching this movie, 3/10 from me. ❌