I am a mathematician and a dad who tries to watch films in my (few) spare hours.

I am done with travelling but had another kid some weeks ago :) Nonetheless I am catching up with movies.

Movies watched in July and August :

X-Men: First Class (Matthew Vaughn) 3/10: Oh dear.

Bridesmaids (Paul Feig) 6/10: Believe it or not this was on a night out with Filipa before Tomás was born. The movie is funny.

The King of Marvin Gardens (Bob Rafelson) 6/10: Lots of drama and it rings 70’s all over.

Next Door (Pal Sletaune) 6/10: The only movie I ever saw which was clearly inspired by Lost Highway. The movies are similar but, unlike Lynch, there was an effort here to be conclusive.

Pistol Opera (Seijun Suzuki) 4/10: Not a fan of Suzuki and this movie did not help at all. Looks like Schrader’s Mishima in the eyes of a 5 years old.

After Life (Hirokazu Koreeda) 7/10: Really good film about souls stuck in the Limbo which have to pick the one memory they want to take to eternity. The movie develops in an almost documentary style until drama occurs.

True Grit (Coen brothers) 7/10: Jeff Bridges is awesome on this one.The movie is a straightforward western like they don’t do them anymore.

Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse) 10/10: Absolute masterpiece. It is impossible to describe it in such a short note. The final scene is literally divine.

Late Chrysantemums (Mikio Naruse) 8/10: Naruse movies show life as it is. There are no winners nor losers, victory or defeat. Each individual is a complex entity where analysis or explanations are redundant.

Inception (Christopher Nolan) 4/10: Most complicated movie I ever saw. It should come with a textbook.

Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton) 5/10: Why? I bought a Blu-ray player and there are not many movies available which I haven’t seen.

Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood) 8/10: Saw it again. This could be the last good movie that Eastwood will ever do. It is his “Gertrud” and I truly appreciate its sincerity.

Citizen Kane (Orson Wells) 9/10: Saw it again. There is nothing one can write about this movie without sounding pretentious.

A Ostra e o Vento (Walter Lima Jr.) 7/10: Very good movie. It has the same oneiric feel of “Portrait of Jennie”.

Eclipse (Herbert Brödl) 7/10: Sooooo unfairly obscure and forgotten. Set in Amazônia, it is a great love story told in flashbacks.

Centurion (Neil Marshall) 6/10: Effective roman-genre movie.

The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko) 7/10: Hilarious left-wing californian fantasy.

Essential Killing (Jerzy Skolimowski) 6/10: An animal behaving like an animal. I know that is not the point but the plot is preposterous.

The Lincoln Lawyer (Brad Furman) 6/10: Still in awe with my blu-ray player.

The Eagle (Kevin Macdonald) 6/10: It is amazing how without noticing I have seen all the movies of this guy. I am tempted to say that he is quite good within this type of movies. You see them, enjoyed them, and then forget them without wanting to have your money back.

Ballast (Lance Hammer) 8/10: Outstandingly good movie about a poor kid in the south. I would love to say that in the US no one lives like that but unfortunately it is not true. The colors, the pace, the acting are just perfect.

Confessions (Tetsuya Nakashima) 6/10: Choosing Radiohead for the soundtrack was genius because I wish as much he had stopped the movie after the first 30 minutes as I wish Radiohead had stopped after OK Computer.