Ernest_Carpenter-Baggins Reviews

Cosi (1996)

Another seriously good film misbilled as "hilarious" comedy

[9/10 · 24 June 2012]

"Cosi" is not a comedy. It has funny moments, amusing moments, wry moments, and even one or two belly-laughs, but it is not a comedy. Just ask the pigs - and there is one of the pointers to the fact that this movie is not about being funny.

This is a film about being human, and the limitations of being human; most of all, it is about transcending those limitations. The fact that the focus is on the distressed and distressing inhabitants of a nut-house (I'm not much of one for being politically correct) is to emphasize that there is no human being who is incapable of transcending their handicaps.

There is romance, and awkwardness; misunderstandings abound. This film about an opera staged by the incapable is itself grand opera. Viewers, however, who are too attached to their personal world-view and their personal values, and therefore are unwilling to have their assumptions challenged, will find one or another part of this film uncomfortable. I guess that's why, overall, it doesn't seem to rate so highly. For my part, I gave it a 9/10.

District 9 (2009)

Contributory comment

[9/10 · 22 June 2012]

With over a thousand user reviews already in, there is just one thing I feel strongly about which I want to add, and that is this: Unless you lived in South Africa during the apartheid years you cannot - you really can't - fully appreciate what Neill Blomkamp has achieved in this film. His satirical artistry is near-perfect. The odyssey which Wikus must complete is a multi-layered reflection and examination of what it means to be human. An apartheid-era civil servant journeys to an understanding of the Other - from the inside. Whether you are black or white or crustacean, being human depends on whether or not you are a whole person on the inside - and on whether or not, and to what degree, you are capable of recognising the person on the inside of another exterior. The different characters in the movie, whichever side of the divide they are on, or whether they are caught in between, show their individual degrees of humanity.

The only reason I took a point off a full ten is that the degree of in-your-face violence, blood and guts is somewhat stomach-churning (although justified in the context). So it is a brilliant movie which has some distinctly unpleasant moments. It remains brilliant.