Baseshment
I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
filippaberry84
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
daniel Carbajo López
A dictatorship starts in Argentina, and Harry's family is against nowadays dictator, so, to avoid being killed, they have to hidden in a isolated place. How is this for a typical ten-year-old boy? how can cope with all the things that he is not yet unable to understand? This is the main point of the film, which is moving and interesting. Harry is the main character and he told us the story as he remembers it, so everything is from his point of view, the point of view of a kid that only wants to play and enjoy himself, but he can't due to his situation. The actors (all!) are perfect, with very specially emotive acting of Darin and Roth, how everything is going hell but they don't feel hopeless in any moment, they'll continue fighting until the end. as they take cover in Kamchatka, not the physical place, meaning and spiritual fortress, which is the place to resist, if you are there, anything can destroy you, because you will be free... The history is very interesting and it catches you from the beginning with a very great visual force that makes you to enter in the film and think what you'd do in their situation. As a bad aspects two thing to comment: You are not told what is happening in the world while the film starts, so you must know what happens in Argentina in 1978 in order to understand why are they hiding. In addition, and this is usual in Argentinian films, the rhythm is very very slow, which can bore some people. This time, however, the action demands to be slow, so it is not as bad as some other films. Tu sum up, a precious touching and interesting film of characters and great actors. Recommend to see it with something the dry your tears, they maybe came at some moments of the film.
alejandro-luque
(I think there will not be spoilers)For people who used to play T.E.G. (a society game) the power of a bridge-country in the world map is a well known stuff. Kamchatka is about the resistance of a family, just at the very beginning of 76's, in a recently militarized Argentina where too much people will disappear.Nevertheless, the story is not about the army, either not about physical tortures, or missing people. There is not any trace of documentary aim. Only a camera showing what could happened to a family involved into these sadly events and how could they keep its unity, in a human righted way.The plot is simple and moving. For Argentineans that lived these events at this time -as it was in my case at more or less the same age that the boy tells the story-, a lot of landscapes (cars, costumes, 'cigarettes', slang, ambiance, etc.) will touch them. But this is only an excuse to show the weird dynamics of a family running out of the new dictatorial and potentially murderer establishment. Dialogs are plenty of freshness and simplicity. Images of the village and the 'retiro' are also simple and quiet. One can follow the frustrations and discoveries of the older son without none violence or strangeness, at the same time that we can feel the desperation of the parents to survive. The camera is not exactly the eyes of the son, but a silent eye -judgeless- inviting us to participate to what is going on. The only critics to my eyes are about the playing of the older son, sometimes overacted. Main adult actors (Darin and Roth) are what they finally reached out: two good (may be the best) examples of what Argentina could deserve in play roles. There is something of inexorable maturity in their attitudes and compositions of the characters.Music is calm water all over the movie. No judgement either. Simple and melodic piano riffs, accompanying the different scenes (mainly in the 'huis clos' at the villa, or on the lonely 'praderas bonaerenses').And certainly, the message that wants to deserve Pineyro lays on the title, linked to the first slides and to the last scenes of this great movie. A must to be seen southern pearl. 9/10.
sympathique
This movie exudes the finesse and maturity of Latin American cinema of the new millenium. Long gone is the exploitation of magical realism and the cult of the exotic. The noble savage gives way to universal characters with very complex feelings.I'm so glad this old baggage of the victim's complex has been checked at the door. The result is a beautiful movie about a family on the run during the 1970's Argentine military junta crack down. Kamchatka is free of the cliches and over-acting of Latin American movies of yesteryear. National identity is no longer the main story line, but rather a subtle backdrop that brings about one of the best stories about political crisis anywhere, the dismembering of a family.Kamchatka has one of the most arresting final scenes that I have ever seen. This is a grand achievement of Argentine film.
figuko
Kamchatka is a terrible film. I believe what seems to pass for "understated" is its plain dullness, and the main character (a kid whose POV is nominally carrying the movie) doesn't show a single instance of child-like perception - save for a couple of commonplace animal shots, the kid sees the world exactly as the rest of Piñeyro's characters; a polite, well-framed shot by Alfredo Mayo.
Since "Caballos Salvajes" I've been trying to figure out who the bad guys are in Piñeyro's films (back then, bullets always came from outside the frame). I'm sad to report things have gotten even worse, since now we need to resource to _our_ (external) knowledge of the period to understand what's going on. He seems to get away with it because, sadly, not that much happens in the movie, anyway.Kamchatka might be worth seeing, however, if you're interested in recent developments in the political genre. It was interesting to me how, by trying to detach itself from the political movie tradition, it achieves the complete opposite: this is a film that couldn't possibly make sense unless you are not only aware of the external circumstances that affect the characters but also have already a clear position on the political conflict in case.As justified as the generic, elegiac tone of the movie may be in the real world, its fictional consequences are devastating. It leaves us with no real characters and not a single dramatic scene proper.Characters here are archetypes and, most of the time, it's not entirely clear of what. It doesn't help that the movie looks often derivative of other films that have successfully portrayed the specifics of perception in children (the soundtrack mimicking Thomas Newman is particularly painful in that respect).Piñeyro's former writer (Aida Bortnik, who also wrote The Official Story) used to be quite annoying to me, but at least she seemed to know and like drama as a tool.
