louisekiev
Attenberg is a weird movie. Greek cinema is full of this kind of film, and it don't make of any of it movies less impactive. The films may be a little hard to common audiences, but there is a certain delight in it.Director Athina Rachel Tsangari puts her female look in a Greece at an imminent crisis, a Greece that still the mother of western culture, but more and more is excluded of the own context, weirdly. Attenberg is original, strange, brave, funny and even reflexive. The situations in the film may be presented in an unconventional way, but it's not hard to discover how universal they are. Marina (brilliantly interpreted by Ariane Labed) may not be the typical character, but see the her world from inside may be a very interesting experiences.
SnoopyStyle
23 year old Marina (Ariane Labed) has a best and only friend Bella (Evangelia Randou) living in a small Greek seaside town. She has a job driving a visiting engineer around for the big factory. Her dad is dying and she's growing out of her shell.It's a cold deadpan delivery from everybody. Starting from the awkward opening scene where the two women try tongue kissing, this is an experimental film bent on provoking something from the audience. However the one emotion provoked in me is boredom. That's even true for the weird dance number. The monotone style really wore me out. Ariane seems like a compelling actress. Her story with the father has good potential. I just got bored waiting for things to happen.
Katia_H
When I first saw the film I was confused and I left the theater thinking about it. That's something I always enjoy in a film and I gave it 7/10 at the time. But thinking about it and seeing it again I felt a lot that it was a superficial film masked with a meaningful exterior. The themes in this film are something people can identify with. Loosing a parent, finding your sexuality, jealousy among friends and friendship in general. But further than that it had nothing to say. No point of view, no real reason for it's existence. Just a presentation of facts. It would be better as a documentary. So pretentious and fake. From the directing to the acting and the script it was shallow and meaningless. I think the director simply wanted to show off.Don't waste your time. There are really good independent films out there. This isn't one of them.
doppelganger_muse
Difficult. That's what cult stands for in this situation. Greece's highest creations come from a group of people where they recycle and create via a type of rotation. The producer of Dogtooth become a director, the director an actor and so on. Not bad at all. Follows the artistic aspect of Dogtooth, showing a story on adulthood and dealing with loss and what you are. An unconventional human being (with a touch of Asperger's syndrome), a loving and caring father, a slutty best friend and a partner almost like an alter ego, resembles to her father, and mirrors herself. Honest, familiar yet artsy, method-ish and pretentious from time to time. But still opens up to the viewers, where the twisted is welcome, no one judges and offers himself to the public effortlessly, honestly almost unconditionally. A new era, post modern, unlocks the contemporary social establishment.
AD
