Platoon (1986)

United Kingdom/USA
written and directed by: Oliver Stone
starring: Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen
seen on 27th November, 2020

There was a couple of brilliant moments, but it did not work for me as a whole, as a work of art. The author knows what he's talking about but at the same time it seems as he does not know what he's trying to say exactly. It is reflected in the protagonist who switches his personality in every scene (and they are not mood swings or anything like that, he just keeps changing his character) and Charlie Sheen is just too wooden to convey why. In conjuction with the bland voice-over it all seems like a school assignment on the topic of "war is bad". But damn, Willem is so angelically beautiful.

-"Feeling good's good enough."

Delicatessen (1991)

France
directed by: Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
written by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro, Gilles Adrien
starring: Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Karin Viard
seen on 18th November, 2020

It might be a series of almost unrelated skits at first sight, but everything has its place and is indeed shown to have been planned very carefully, from the Australian to the twice mended condom. 

Little Women (2019)

USA
directed by: Greta Gerwig
written by: Greta Gerwig + Luisa May Alcott (book)
starring: Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Timothée Chalamet
seen on 14th November, 2020

Oh my god. I hate it. I hate Emma Watson for the way she acts, I hate Greta Gerwig for her depiction of "rebellious", I hate Florence Pugh for reasons I cannot clearly describe yet (but I guess it's either her being miscast or I just find her character adapted too ham-fistedly, because I did love her in Midsommar), I hate the colour palette of costumes and set design and I especially hate the absolute daftness of Alexandre Desplat's soundtrack. 

But after calming down a bit and stopping being so overrun by emotions, I very honestly don't know what the film was supposed to be about or should I say what was Greta's point by making this. By constantly jumping timelines she prevents the viewer from making any sort of connection with the characters or getting any sense of their development and maturing, especially since nobody visibly ages or changes in any way. It is thefore not a simple retelling of a story of a bunch of little women, it's being mercilessly manipulated. But it also is not a reflexive commentary of the historic reality of the author writing her novel and the publisher forcing her to make "popular" edits to satisfy convention, because that only appears in one brief scene of the husband-chase and no other part of the film shows signs of this self-awareness. There is also very little political context and the film even does not explore what makes the Marches different from the general public regarding their beliefs and social views. 

I have no choice than to declare the final product as seeming to be clumsy, unfinished and unsophisticated. It on the other hand seems to be rather loud and noisy. Laurie's love for Jo, for example, is only present because "that's what happened in the book" but never once does the film actually slow down and become intimate enough to show something, anything, developing between the two of them. I would argue that even the relationship between Beth and grandpa Laurence got more space and was better explored than that arguably central relationship. 

In short: the film left me with no positive notions and I simply do not get what was it supposed to be. It's not story centric, it's not a commentary, it does not seem to be worthy all the fuss it made.