Oh Iran Riddling You With Goals...

Offside(dir. Jafar Panahi)
It's amazing how seamless this film is in it's construction. Jafar Panahi discusses on the interview with him on the disc how he presents the material in a real-time manner and how some people actually thought he shot the whole film in one day. Since I watched the interview before viewing the film, I thought it was just people trying to flatter the director with these comments, but once I saw the film, it becomes understandable how one could think that. It's also amazing how compelling this film is given that it's mainly just a bunch of conversations with little variety in terms of setting. Richard Linklater should seriously take some notes while watching this film because this easily trumps anything I've seen directed by him. It's strange that I always end up becoming really fond of politically-tinged films since I'm pretty ambivalent when it comes to politics and I hate the notion that cinema, at least American cinema, can be viewed as "important" to society. Maybe, it's because most of the films that are labeled as "important" are usually Oscar-baiting pieces of shit. The reason I think I enjoy films like this, Battle of Algiers, and so on is most likely due to the filmmakers being passionate about what they're filming. There's a reason why shit like TMNT is shit because why would anybody give a shit about that shit? The film truly glows when it shows the celebration of the detainees along with their fellow countrymen after Iran's victory over Bahrain and perfectly drives it's message home. Why can't people just be able to celebrate together without restrictions that deny them their rights to expression and happiness? It's a masterpiece.
**** out of ****
Paprika(dir. Satoshi Kon)
Aqua Teen Hunger Force > this. It's hard not to compare the two since they're both animated mind trips, but where ATHF is bizarrely charming and engaging, this is just dull and pretentious. I don't hate anime craziness. I remember catching an episode of FLCL (pronounced Fooly Cooly to all those folks out of the loop) and being mesmerized by it's insanity. This, however, has no sense of spontaneity to it's craziness to mesmerize the viewer in any sort of way. It's much like Stardust in how the film expected the spectacle of it all to do all the work. I liked the music and it's kind of cool to look at, but in terms of containing anything remotely engaging, it falls flat. It equating film to a dream shared between a collective is interesting, but overall, it is mediocre.
** out of ****