Hateful Eight

★★★★☆ (personal opinion)
I'm not even sure what to say about this one. It's a Quentin Tarantino movie. That's exactly what it was and there's no better way of summarizing it. If you like his other stuff you will in all likelihood like this one. If you were hoping for a 180 in his style you might as well keep hoping. I generally like his stuff, I have to say I like Pulp Fiction better and I think Inglorious Bastards also left a stronger impression on me. I fairly enjoyed this film, because I knew what to expect and could just sit back, relax and watch the weird graphic show unfold.
So lets make a list:

Ridiculously,theatrical, almost hilarious blood baths with red pools everywhere - ✓

Lavish use of the N - word - ✓

Long seemingly deep dialogues that are really, in all likelihood just a bunch of nonsense  - ✓

Bastards getting shot - ✓

An incredibly gross over the top scene that no one really wanted to see, but that I did see coming by now - ✓

Spoilers!

I pretty much disliked most of the characters so it was a really nice refreshing ending to have them all die. The only people I actually liked were Minnie, who looked surprisingly exactly as I expected her to look after all other characters had spoken of her without really mentioning her appearance, I also liked Judy and Gemma and maybe, I even liked Daisy a tiny tiny bit. So maybe I liked all the female characters. I liked Pete up to a point, but maybe it was just because he was so British next to all the Americans who were being - very American.

Joy

I decided I want to give stars. For now. 

★★★☆☆

When a movie is called "Joy" and it's not a Pixar or a Disney movie or in general something for children you might as well bet it's not going to be anything joyous. In fact you might even think of the title as sarcasm. But in the current case Joy is the name of the main character, portrayed by the lovely Jennifer Lawrence. She has the life of a Cinderella, every single person in her life, besides her grandmother, seems to use her, take advantage of her kindness, treat her unfairly and lack faith her.

Spoilers ahead

The only thing that changes this story from a Cinderella one os that there is no prince to go after, no fairy godmother to help, if you don't count the grandmother the woman has to handle things on her own. What could and probably should be an inspirational feministic story of a woman working her way up the business ladder ends up feeling me rather depressed. Yes, she succeeded after a lifelong of battling and having been put down by everyone, but all I can think about was how unfair her life was to begin with. Even the happy ending doesn't seem all that happy to me. Yes, she's a big boss now and she managed to maintain her humanity and kind personality, but in the tough business world of America - can she ever really be at peace?


The story is based on the stories of real women and that is it's strongest point. It is depressing and watching it didn't make me feel good, but at least the film was realistic. It was real to the end and Joy is kind and smart and clever. There are a couple of charming characters too, next to the terrible father and evil sister there is a kind girlfriend and a sweet ex-husband. It's not my favorite movie, but it might still be a good one.

The Ghost mountaineer - Must alpinist

English (Peaks eesti filmile ikka mingi hetk eesti keelse arvustuse ka tegema/I should do Estonian at one point as it's an Estonian film)

Estonian films have really gone a long way in the recent years - whereas in my teen years every Estonian film was a drama about drugs, sex, violence and spoiled youth mixed in with every kind of swear words imaginable now we are beginning to have interesting captivating stories that aren't all the same and there is even a variety of different genres! Truth to be told - Estonian films weren't always bad, quite the opposite, there are some pretty cool and solid films made before I was born, but somehow there was a serious downfall when I was young.

This was the first time I've seen an Estomian horror film before and I loved this one! I've voiced it before how I always seem to care more for those stories that are based off real life and what's scarier than a horror film based on real life events? Some foreign critics have claimed that this movie is kind of stuck between genres - not quite horror, but not quite thriller or mystery either. I would argue that real life is never of one genre and that only adds believability to the whole plot. I think the mixing of genres made the film more layered and interesting. The dream sequences were cool and added that element of horror while the fact that they were just dreams meant that the whole thing was still believable. It was a great movie with some of the horror added by the realization of  how scary the Soviet times really could be once you accidentally got in the way of authority. There was constant suspense and thrill.

I also feel the need to voice my stance about whether Priit Pius looks more like Benedict Cumberbatch or Matt Damon. Seeing as that has become a real question with the help of foreign critics. I'm not sure about Matt Damon, but from certain angles he does indeed look like Benedict a bit. Well decide for yourself

Priit Pius

Benedict Cumberbatch