Four Minutes (3.5)

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2006 German Drama

An old woman teaches piano to female prisoners, one day she meets a talented girl but her success will come at a price for both the teacher and the student.

This movie was intense and really messed up at some parts. There is a lot that is happening and the main character goes crazy at random and frequently.

Hannah Herzsprung played the prisoner and she was fantastic...she actually freaked me out a lot of the times. This chick could really play crazy, almost too well. Monica Bleibtreu was the teacher and while it's hard to compete against a crazy, loud and violent co-star she held her own and was a good match for Herzsprung.

Sometimes I felt like there was too much going on that some of the more important parts of this film were lost under the pile of extras, previous scenes and conversations that didn't seem to be of importance but you didn't realize this until a few scenes later. There was a lot of supporting characters that interacted with the main characters that it was hard to follow the main story, if there was one at first...

I wanted to like this movie more than I did. It is a really strong script and was interesting but they tried to force too much story into the movie and it made the core plot muddy and hard to follow at times. Main characters were great but the ending wasn't as emotional or powerful as I wanted it to be. There was so much build and then only a tiny bang...lame. Really cool piano playing though.

I caught a glimpse as to why it won some awards but I don't think I liked it as much as Netflix told me I would ('cause you know you can always depend on suggested ratings...ha).

3.5/5 ADSENSE HERE

Between the Folds (4)

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Origami.

Most of us have done this ancient art form when we were children, or some may still do it for fun, but what about those people who do it full-time? Scientists, artists and enthusiasts world wide come together in this documentary about the modern life of origami artists.

Thank you Netflix for this delicious gem. It's short and sweet and a wonderful film to watch. I had no idea paper could fold, bent and move in such beautiful ways. I also never took into consideration how mathematical and scientific folding is and how it is found in every single thing we look at. Very cool. The art is just the beginning...

I liked the people they chose to interview. I enjoyed the layout of the film, almost as if allowing you (the audience member) the chance to discover all these sides of origami on your own. I thought it was strangely powerful even though it didn't necessarily make me want to become an origami artist or start folding everything I see, but for some reason it resonated with me.

Only annoyance was the unnecessary zoom on peoples faces during interviews. I wanted to see the entire person as they worked and spoke so I could make out their physical character and better attach my attention to their movements and therefore focus on their hands and arms as they worked. Didn't happen all the time but enough that I got distracted.

Solid documentary and very interesting. Lovely, simple, original and straight to the point. Well done Vanessa Gould.

Okay, maybe I do want to go fold things.

4/5 ADSENSE HERE