Gorgon Reviews

We Can Be Heroes was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Tuesday, May 14th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

See, I could go straight into making a reference to the David Bowie song. That is what the movie is referencing, right? Right? But we also had a film just a few years ago come out with the same title. You know, the strange sequel to The Adventures of Lavagirl and Shark Boy? A bout a bunch of kids of heroes, having to save the day because all of their parent heroes get trapped.

And that is sort of what this documentary is about too! But presumably these kids in questions are just the offspring of regular normal people. Maybe nerds! Maybe not. (Probably nerds). And these kids, these outcasts, if you will (I wouldn’t that is mean), meet up at a camp in the state of New York over the summer, where they get to create characters that they would rather be, with their own rich backstory, costumes and moves. And work together to tell an overall giant story, where they are able to live action role play together. That is right. LARPing. This is a documentary about a LARPing camp for kids.

There are quite a few kids in this documentary that get to have a small focus on them, but really our focus is on three kids in particular. We have Cloud, who loves to sword fight and is excited for her first time to go to this camp, even though she is on the younger end of the age range. She wants to fight, make a name for herself, try out the dark side, and make sure she leaves her impact on the camp.

We have Dexter, who is every stereotype notable for a kid who might go to this camp, including a slower droll and neurodivergence, but who has a strong fantasy mindset. He also is afraid of getting ticks on him, and is hoping on his return to camp his crush from the previous year returns, so he might even get to exchange numbers with her.

And finally we have Abby who is on her final year at camp. She is about to age out, and go to college, and is excited about doing something special. Another thing that has happened to her recently is she was diagnosed with a disease (I forgot which one), and she has a feeding tube that she has to carry around with her and a backpack, almost all the time. And she has the fear of real actual death, and almost couldn’t go to camp, but they found a way to make it work.

These three, along with many others who are going to discover they have bigger talents than they once knew, with oration, creativity, and finding harmony with other kids.

The kid with the horns is really holding this whole thing together.

I want to go to a LARPing camp. I imagine anyone reading this wants to go to a LARPing camp. That sounds great. Is there an adult one, or do I just need to help organize LARPing events in my community. I hate organizing…

Anyways, this documentary is of course a documentary, but they also go out of their way to tell the fictional story that is created by these kids. The camera changes aspect ratio, gets very crisp, when all of the kids are in character running around. And you get to live their experience with them. It makes what they are doing seem very badass. Probably significantly more badass than it was in reality. And it was a cool nifty feature they added to the story, to make it a more fun experience.

For our three kids, I was immediately annoyed with Cloud (although my kids liked her), and did feel justified in that way based on events of the documentary, although all of them would be defended. That is *fine*. Dexter was especially nerdy and awkward, and I am glad that the documentary didn’t show his crush at all or try to shame her in anyway for not being swept off her feet over his awkwardness.

The real stars of the documentary was of course, Abby, and also secondly another girl(I think it was Miranda, who wanted to just be a princess for once). What can we say. Uplifting people with strong personalities make documentaries good. In fact, what I think this documentary really needed the most was just a stronger focus on MORE of the people at the camp. For a few people, we returned to them a few times throughout to see where they grew and what happened for them, but it was just snippets. We could have easily fit 4-6 stars in this documentary, and lessened the main three a tad bit, to give us a bigger range of kids.

Overall, hooray for LARP camps, and a documentary that decided to showcase them in a totally on point and creative way.

3 out of 4.

Gloria! was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Sunday, May 12th as part of the festival, and it was the North American premiere of this film! You can see my interview with Margherita Vicario, the director/writer, here! 

Let’s talk about Gloria. Well, Gloria isn’t a character, so we can’t. It is however a common name/word used in religious songs, especially in Italian. You know, Gloria in Excelsis Deo? It means Glory really, but Gloria is also a nice name.

Instead we will talk about Lucia (Carlotta Gamba), who is at a school for choir music training, somewhere in Italy, in the 18th century. Like a lot of girls brought to the school, she was an orphan and so it is also an orphanage, bringing these girls to devout religion but also providing them food, shelter, and a service they can give back to their community. Lucia is also mute! That doesn’t really affect her hearing at all though, so she can still play instruments, she just cannot sing.

Oh, let me reiterate. Lucia can HEAR really well. In fact, she can imagine music all around her, in the everyday mendacity of life. Mr. Music would be so impressed. She also knows music can better than how it is currently presented, slow and dead. It can be upbeat, it can be fresh, it can have many different instruments providing different elements, and yes, even the human voice can be used to greater lengths.

But she is a woman, in a man’s world, and because this is holy music, it has to be done a SPECIFIC way. But with an upcoming visit by the Pope, yes, THE Pope, she thinks it is time to rebel, to spread new music, and to present to his greatest holiness what music could really be like.

Also starring Maria Vittoria Dallasta, Galatéa Bellugi, Veronica Lucchesi, Sara Mafodda, Paolo Rossi, and Elio.

Get up loser, we are going to pop-ify these sounds. Gloria is such a cute movie! Rahhh! And I just need that to be known.

It looks amazing, from the costumes, the set, and the cameras used. It is portraying a dull religious school, but we can still see color when its needed, even in the darkest of moments for the characters, who are going to fight to overcome whats shackling them down. Overcome what? We are going to fight the patriarchy! And hell, even fight the papacy too! Men telling women what to do, how to think, what is right and wrong, its gone now! Let them live their lives!

Okay, yes, this is a work of fiction, and Lucia herself is not based on a person from history. And it is very unlikely that the sort of songs made in this movie, would have been made 3 to 400 years ago. But that is okay, because the point really is that these women were creative, and were not able to express their creativity. And apparently, thanks to some Napoleon nonsense at some point, works that were created by these women composers became lost. At the end we find out this film is dedicated to those women, who likely had a voice, but it was silenced at some point and aren’t people in the history books as a result.

That is a good enough cause for me.

Like I said, it is a very great looking film. But also, it is just fun. It is a good time to be had, while shining light on a real unspoken part of history. It is silly, it is modern, but the cast of characters feel distinct enough and well. They just want to have fun.

Gloria! is fun.

3 out of 4.

Excursion was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Tuesday, May 14th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

Iman (Asja Zara Lagumdzija) is just a girl, trying to do her best in upper middle school, whatever grade that is officially I am not sure. Just the last one of the middle school in that country. Every year the kids get to go on an excursion to another country or area, and it is a long process to figure out. They have parental involvement, a lot of politics, and a lot of worries about the price. Because sure, they could go somewhere fancy, but if the whole class cant go because its too expensive, then maybe it shouldn’t be a trip.

They mostly want to go to Italy, despite the fact that it is expensive. They are worried about going to a poorer country and getting taken advantage of, or in trouble.

But back to Iman. She is a smart girl, she studies and gets As, and helps her bestie cheat. What a friend. During a game of truth or dare, she agrees with a question that, according to another boy, they had sex. Yes of course this is true. Shocking to everyone. But it is true! This lie of course, has to be believed, so it leads to more and more lies, making things more uncomfortable, until the obvious starts to spill over.

Also starring Maja Izetbegovic, Izudin Bajrovic, Mediha Musliovic, and Nadja Spaho.

Just kids lying and being kids I guess. Excursion is a very tame film. Fun fact, by the end, you won’t see the excursion happen. That isn’t like half of the film, it is zero of the film. But the discussion of said trip is a large portion of the plot, usually involved with just parents and teachers, but it pads this movies run time. It is barely over 90 minutes, and it really needs that padding.

The films other plot, about Iman’s lies are just…disappointing. This giant blow up never really occurs either. People hear the rumors and spread them as kids. There was talk of an abortion occurring. Some of the teachers also become aware of it. But nothing ever really boils over into the “this is too much” area of the film that one hopes this would build up to!

In fact, this is an independent film that really feels like it had the idea for the story, but not the idea on how to end said story. Too much is left unresolved, and this overall just feels like a bigger waste of my time. The story is unexciting, and neither of the main plot points are resolved. It was just a small look into the life of this group of kids. And sure, films like that exist. But it is wild how many independent films just decide they can end it suddenly and say that is what they were going for. At some point, you have to call it out, and that is what I am doing for Excursion here.

A waste of time, a story that doesn’t live up to its plot outline, or its title.

1 out of 4.

The Quiet Maid was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Sunday, May 12th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

Ana (Paula Grimaldo) is a Colombian who finds herself in Spain! She is here to work as a maid, to earn more money, because her sister is going to go to medical school, but they need money for it. She finds a family who needs maid services, and can sponsor her living in the country.

They promised that soon, in September, they will work on getting her the papers she needs to be a permanent citizen, which would mean a higher salary, and an ability to make more money. But first, the whole month of August, she is with this same family in their big vacation home. They need her there every day, 7 days in a row, none off, and if she does will during their vacation, she will be given a lot more time off and money with the family back at their regular home.

But, of course, this family is a bunch of rich fuckers. The dad doesn’t trust her. She is constnatly talked about like she isn’t there from the son’s horndog friends. She can’t go out and have fun ever, like Gisela (Nany Tovar), a fellow Colombian maid from a different house nearby. Gisela pushes her to date, to dance, and more, but Ana knows one wrong move, she could be fired, and sent back out of the country.

The family sucks though, and eventually Ana will realize that they are not going to necessarily keep their words. So she is going to have to make her own way through this month, for herself, and for her family back at home.

Also starring Ariadna Gil, Luis Bermejo, Pol Hermoso, and Violeta Rodríguez.

Sometimes you need a break to just play with your pussy.

Yes, this is another fuck the rich movie. But this one does it the best, of ones I have seen so far at SIFF. A bit satirical at times, and a little bit over the top. Certainly a potentially strong pro-woman message about a woman doing things her way, and accomplishing despite men and spiteful women trying to break her.

According to the trivia, this is the first European film to be fully funded by NFTs. Which is something I really hate to hear, and it makes sense a few of the plot elements in retrospect. I won’t let that take away anything from the actual movie, but NFT’s just feel scammy to me, so I wonder if anyone got scammed as a result of the making of this film. That would drive me nuts.

Grimaldo as the lead does a lot with a little. After all, she is *quiet*, not loud. She is an observer, and makes plans in case things blow up. She speaks up for herself when she realizes that these papers can likely never come, but is also forced into many uncomfortable situations thanks to the nature of her job. She can’t really say “No” a lot for reasonable tasks that would fall under her umbrella, and if she agreed to be with them every day, she has to be with them in their good and their bad moments.

I think this film is a bit funny, despite the drama and serious moments. A good tale of gleeful revenge and perseverance by the end. We are all Ana at points, and its good to see when good people come up on top.

3 out of 4.

Seagrass was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Monday, May 13th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film! You can check out my interview with director, Meredith Hama-Brown, here!

Judith (Ally Maki) and Steve (Luke Roberts) are going through something. Judith is a Japanese Canadian, and Steve is “White Canadian”, and being an interracial couple comes with a lot of difficulties other couples never have to face or talk about. But they are now working on couples therapy. The one they picked is actually many days long and a vacation spot, with other couples. A nice destination to air out their issues and work together to find their love again. In a beautiful area!

And this is one that is for the whole family. They have two kids (Remy Marthaller, Nyha Huang Breitkreuz), who also have their own problems growing up, being of mixed ethnicities, and their identity. But on this vacation is an area with a lot of kids, and kids activities, so they have plenty to do and fun to be had, while their parents are having a bit less fun.

The catalyst for this story is that Judith’s mom died recently, and Judith has been in a funk ever sense. Hopefully they can work on their issues. Hopefully the last decade wasn’t a waste. Or was it?

Also starring Sarah Gadon and Chris Pang, as another Asian/White couple at the resort, with their genders swapped from our two leads. Although notably, the man is Chinese Canadian, not Japanese.

Scenic cool cave shot but don’t worry, the cave MATTERS. Seagrass is a film that is one step away from being a thriller, purely for tense moments in their drama. Honestly, I wondered if this might turn into a murder story. Or a ghost story. Or something. I was a bit scared at times, as they really ramped certain events at the end. And the camera work. The camera really liked to linger, or do some far away shots, and it had me wondering if something was going to pop out and the genre was going to switch.

I think that can all be attributed to the wonderful acting and script for this story. While its not as tense as films that make you clench early on and never let go, it gives subtle hints of a potential ending disaster, and you never know if this is going to be the time for a boiling over point.

Maki does a lot of great work here specifically. Roberts is a good standard dull white guy, who isn’t unable to understand view points outside of his own. But Maki has to put in the full range here. And she is wonderful for it.

I didn’t know exactly where Seagrass was going with its story by the end, but it chose a very nice path, with some powerful final words. I am also glad that the 1994 Vancouver Hockey riots were a part of the story as well. Always important to include those into movies, if at all possible.

3 out of 4.

Solitude was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Sunday, May 12th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

Gunnar (Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson) is an old man, who lives off on his own large land, with his horses and other animals. He likes it like that. He is self efficient. It is reliable. And he has turned down many offers to sell his land, because he just wants to stay there until he dies. Well, the government won’t wait for him, and because he didn’t negotiate, they bought his land from him anyways due to government legalese stuff. And his land was such a good place and need, he is getting $150 million, which is a lot for a dude that old, to do anything he wants in his life.

So he moves to the city, even though he never wanted to, in Reykjavík, and gets a quick apartment to exist in. Has its own furniture. Now what?

Well, the first person he meets is Ari (Hermann Samúelsson), a 10 year old kid and neighbor, who wants to sell him a newspaper. Literally this is his only human contact, and its frequent enough, so that when he is locked out of his house, he asks Gunnar if he can wait in his for his mom (Anna Gunndís Guðmundsdóttir) to return. Hell, he even becomes a babysitter, and a very nice friend to the family.

But Gunnar is just not used to people so much, he is not used to common social norms, and doesn’t know what actions are inappropriate. He just wants to help people. And when people think he is a nefarious old guy, then that is the only thing he can be to them.

Also starring Jóhann Jónsson and Jóel Sæmundsson.

He’s about to drop the hottest new track of 2024. I think the actor who played Gunner here was a pretty solid dude. He carried pain in his eyes, and felt like he was truly going through these experiences. I think the story is a good idea for one, a nice clashing of generations, and a desire for more innocence in the world. A desire for people to just be good to each other.

But the film didn’t do enough to get that ending. We had a small bit a conflict, and almost no closure, because that is life or whatever. I think there was a lot more drama that could have been explored, and this movie left too much on the table. And that should be a compliment. I wanted more of Gunner and his story about acclimating into city life at his old age, and we just get so little. The snippets we get are good. But why leave it at the simple story? Why leave it so incomplete.

I am not sure what else I can say here. It is overall just disappointment, compared to anything else. Because there is a lot of shit movies out there, and I just want those with potential to really deliver, and not waddle around. For example, the refugee plot line was great! It showed so much character, and had the potential for a lot more. But it was brushed aside so fast that we could barely even have a moment to focus on it with Gunner.

Oh well. If I am alone in this rating, maybe I will be the real solitude.

2 out of 4.

399: Queen of the Tetons was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Sunday, May 12th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

Bears Bears BEARS! Who doesn’t love a bear? Presumably someone who is not lost in the woods and surrounded by them. As long as the bear doesn’t have cocaine on its brain, you are threatening it, should be cool, right?

This documentary is about bears, but also a famous bear. 399 is her name. Given to her from whatever research study tagged her with that number at some point the past. She lives in Wyoming, and she is a GREAT mother bear. She has been popping out cubs for over a decade, and everyone knows about it. Why? Well, it turns out the greatest threat to a bear cubs life is…adult male bears. Because when they want to mate, if they see a lady bear with cubs, they will try to kill those kids. Because the lady bear has mother duties and doesn’t have time for sex. But, if her kids die. Then she will go to heat, and he can score. Life is really fucked up sometimes.

Bears don’t like strangers though. Or people. Or traffic. So they will avoid things like roads. But 399 realize that she can go next to the roads with traffic, and people, and male bears will leave her and her cubs alone. She can protect her cubs, by just being by people. Wild. So she does that. And has for years.

So 399 has become the most famous Grizzly bear in the area, and has hundreds of fans, who hang out and take pictures of her and her children, post hibernation, eating running playing and learning. And this has been true for a long, long time. However, when hanging out with people, and cars. There comes its own danger. And when cars and people gather and grow, to see the bear, that can put a lot of things in harms way, and be bad for the bears overall.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH BEEEEEEEAAAAAAARS!

Now, what this documentary, eventually, is about is the want and need to keep Grizzly Bears on the protected species list. Because there is growing movements in these states to give them an official bear hunting season. And no one is going to argue that bears shouldn’t have their population maintained, but most groups want to wait for these two distinct groups to start spreading their genes out more, which has not yet occurred. The other issue is: Once bears get a hunting season, then the famous bears that like people and become well known, are going to be the ones who have to pay the price.

Imagine a famous bear for 18 years or so, and then someone just comes along and legally shoots her. When people have their whole career and focus on that bear and nature photography and bringing along conservation practices. That would be a kick in the gut, or, maybe a shot.

Now I am a big fan of not killing bears until their population levels are much higher. But I can’t do anything about those states who vote on this. I don’t think the documentary spent nearly enough time on this topic, since it seemed like the main goal. Instead, we get a lot of time on 399, sweet bear shots and videos, and interviewing some of her bigger fans. Which is fine. But I wasn’t a fangirl before, and don’t think I will suddenly rush off and join the bear cult now. (Too far away, give me a local bear cult and we will see…).

Although I do think I need to point out, that one rancher interviewed, who wanted to be able to defend his property from bear attacks by killing them, decided to say it in a way that is reprehensibly racist towards asylum seekers coming to America. It was wildly inappropriate, and you can tell it is something he says all the time, without realizing how dehumanizing he is being at all. And so of course I cannot ever be on a side with someone like that.

In conclusion. 399 bear is great. Documentary is just fine. Even better if you want to see bears running around.

2 out of 4.

Admissions Granted was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Sunday, May 12th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this documentary!

Getting into college can be hard! After all, before you can even qualify, it takes most people at least 12 years to finish high school first. That is a big time commitment. If you don’t do it early on, who knows, you might run out of time. But finishing high school isn’t the only thing you have to do. You also have to take extra tests to show you are smart. You have to stand out, so might need to show you volunteered. Or participated in clubs. Or excelled in the arts. Or had hobbies. Or might need to be a great writer. Who knows!

But then colleges have to pick you. And they look at all these standards. And if they are public a certain percentage need to be in state. They need to make sure they have a diverse student body, and diversity can mean a lot of things. Now for one group of students, who had high marks, perfect scores, and extracurriculars, they had their eyes set on Harvard, and got denied. Now these students, realizing a lot of them were Asian American, founded the “Students for Fair Admissions” (SFFA) group, and decided to sue Harvard, for not including them because of their race. Using affirmative action AGAINST them.

This lead to bigger law suits, and multiple attempts, and eventually UNC got grouped together with it as well, for a lawsuit that would go against the Supreme Court, and threaten to end Affirmative Action forever.

This case was a good poster child for race war.

Now, this case did happen literally summer of 2023. So you might already know the result. If you care about this, you knew the result. But this let you know a lot of the players involved, and hear both sides talk passionately. And how many years this took, waiting for a majority supreme court to be Conservative. At this same time, there is talk of groups being used for alternative purposes. And using the people, even if they don’t care about them, because they just want Affirmative Action to go away.

And this documentary goes into SO MUCH DETAIL. Like, yes, they both sides the argument. And that both sides have legitimate points of view, but not always the full story. For example, just having the best test grades does not mean one is going to be picked for college. There are so many factors involved, and the school is painting a giant picture, that there is something more, and SHOULD be something more. Similar to how the best person who applies for the job might not always get it. Because building diverse groups with different backgrounds and talents makes sense, you don’t want a team of all clones.

This is a frustrating thing, because there is clearly a right side, but the other side has valid points, and it doesn’t mean the absolute destruction of a program. It just means more clarity and changes are needed. But wildly enough with this documentary, there was a line or two at the very end, about asking some deep, deep questions about Harvard and their resources in general, that is such a mind blowing statement, I want a documentary purely on that.

In the end, Harvard isn’t the end all be all of places that must exist. There are so many good places, it shouldn’t be on a pedestal. I love how fair this documentary felt. No one was a bad guy. Well, one lawyer clearly was. But outside of that, people were people, even when yelling in each others faces protest chants outside the Supreme Court.

3 out of 4.

Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Sunday, May 12th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

Long winded titles about wind are long winded. What is this, some modern fantasy book series?

Well, yes, in the movie it is.

You see, Juliette and Carmen are sisters, and they are at a babysitters house, and bored! Well, Juliette is bored. And their babysitter is taking a quick nap, even if it is Juliette’s birthday. Also, this person has wrote the fantasy series Sirocco and the Kingdom of Winds. Eventually, some toy creation pops out, and makes a magical portal, that of course Juliette decides to jump into, forcing her older sister to follow.

And hey look, they are now weird cat people! And they are in the world of the books. Thankfully it isn’t scary, it is cool.

Until these goblin creatures find them, capture them, and break the toy so they cannot portal home. Oh, and then they also get separated. The older sister to be married off to the head goblin’s son, and the younger kid to be a maid to a visiting singer, Selma. The good news is, Selma is awesome, and powerful, and wants to help the girls. But the real person to help with the toy is going to have to Sirocco, and he is scary and controls big giant storms.

These goblin people look like they like to party though…

I was excited to show my kids their first FRENCH cartoon, and they still did get to see it. But unfortunately, it was dubbed. Oh no! Still a French cartoon, but the people who did the English voices aren’t noted anywhere, so I couldn’t tag them.

As for the movie, it is basically a Studio Ghibli’esque film. A giant focus on the child characters, and their feelings and facial expressions. Some danger, but nothing we think will actually win over at any point. A world of whimsy and strange shapes and structures. It hits all the marks, just is less anime and more whatever this style of French is called. I think if you like Ghibli films a lot, you would love this one.

Both of my kids enjoyed it a lot, including my youngest who made it very clear that she didn’t think she would like when I showed her the trailer, but she dug it a lot.

For the adults? Well, the story is relatively basic. And it is fine. But it is not something groundbreaking in any level. A tiny, cute story, that is relatively short. A nice break from the hardcore films of death and destruction out there.

2 out of 4.

Bonjour Switzerland was watched as part of the Seattle International Film Festival 2024! It had its showing on Saturday, May 11th as part of the festival, and it was the Seattle premiere of this film!

Hello, Switzerland! Yes, I know a little French, be impressed.

To set the stage for this film, you need to know about Switzerland. And you know what? I am going to quote Wikipedia here. “Switzerland has four national languages: mainly German (spoken natively by 62.8% of the population in 2016); French (22.9%) spoken natively in the west; and Italian (8.2%) spoken natively in the south. The fourth national language, Romansh (0.5%), is a Romance language spoken locally in the southeastern trilingual canton of Grisons.”

Four languages is a lot, but not really for Europe. A big German population, by a lot. Well, in this film, there is a referendum being brought up to change Switzerland from FOUR languages, to just ONE language. And it has gained some steam, but most people think it is absolutely silly. They like how unique everything is. And the way the law is on the ballot, they have to pick if they want it to take effect or not, and if they want it to pass, which language should be the one remaining?

Well, shockingly it passes. And due to apathy and other reasons, it looks like FRENCH is the winning language. This pisses off most people. As now many folks have to learn French, more than expected. And our main character, a cop (Beat Schlatter), is struggling to learn, and he will need to, to do his job.

He actually gets a big job, to go down to Ticino, an area of Switzerland that is mostly Italian speaking, because they are rising up and talking of separating from their country. Forming their own tiny nation, and will fight and attack to get it going. Oh boy. Politics, amirite?

Also starring Vincent Kucholl, Catherine Pagani, Silvia Jost, and Leonardo Nigro.

I don’t know if this is a Switzerland specific joke or not. But, tiny car and many people is still funny. Okay, first off, let me tell you about what I learned about the title as it is in Switzerland. It is called “Bon Schuur Ticino”. So, first off, Ticino is that one area with the Italians. They can be specific to them in the title, since they would know that, while us filthy Americans do not. But Bon Schuur? That is nonsense technically. It is how a German speaking Swiss would likely pronounce Bonjour. So a German speaking Swiss, speaking French, poorly. That is pretty clever, and something I never would have gotten on my own (thank you Swiss friend who saw this and laughed about it).

Now, onto the story. It is quite a very silly one. We have terrorism, and deceit. We have bombs going off and people getting kidnapped. We have old people potentially getting arrested or fined for just wanting to do their own thing. That’s right, we have a satire.

And like any satire, you have to know everything they are satire-ing, to get the full picture. That can be hard to get with a foreign flick whose own politics and social norms are so unlike your own. I am assuming there is a LOT of this movie that I just didn’t get and would have found it to be a lot more funny if I did. But alas, that is the problem with culture sometimes. As I am not a Swiss Scholar, I couldn’t even get the joke in its title.

Overall I can say it is an interesting and amusing movie. There are parts that still made me laugh, but a lot of parts that just fell flat, and I can only think to blame it on the fact mentioned above.

2 out of 4.