Goodnight Mommy (2015 - Austria)

(German Title: Ich Seh Ich She)

Directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz

Written by Veronica Franz and Severin Fiala

Starring Lukas and Elias Schwartz and Susanne Wuest

Throughout the world, different cultures make for different tastes in many themes and genres. For instance, a film that American’s might find funny and entertaining may fly right over the heads of audiences in Great Britain. It’s not that either is wrong or right, but rather than comedy is purely subjective. And what one person might find relatable, another person from another country might find it random. Comedy is not Universal.

On the other end of the spectrum is the horror genre. Horror transcends cultures and terrifies us all regardless of where we’re from or what language we speak. We are all afraid of what goes “bump” in the night. Regardless of one’s background, it is near impossible to not feel a sense of unease when presented with the unknown. And, apparently creepy little kids.

In this Austrian film, a pair of identical twin boys, Lukas and Elias, struggle to settle back home when their Mother returns home from having cosmetic surgery. Her face hidden by bandages, her increasingly odd behavior fuels the boys’ nightmares. Their fear and paranoia takes control as they seek to find out the true identity of the woman beneath the gauze.

In a film that could just as easily rely on loud noises and quick cuts to cause the viewers heart rate to rise, on the contrary, the filmmakers opt for slow moving shots and force you to listen to the silence for clues. A delicately constructed film, you more or less need to watch every frame in order to see and understand every little nuance created for the story. “Goodnight Mommy” won’t scare you, per say. But it will certainly make you feel uneasy straight away.

This film was very difficult to review because there is so much to say. Yet saying anything more would give too much away.

In order to understand the films true story and not just the one presented in the trailer, you need to see it for yourself. It is so much more than it lets on.

My Rating: 8/10

Woman in Gold (2015)

Directed by Simon Curtis
Written by Alexi Kaye Campbell based on the life story of E. Randol Shoenberg and Maria Altmann
Starring Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds, Danil Brühl and Tatiana Maslany

Based on the true story of Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, takes on the Austrian government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.

The inspiring true story of the emotional impact that the holocaust still has fifty years after the fact and the attempt to regain what was stolen from her family by the Nazis, this is a story you don't often hear regarding World War II. 

The vast scale of work that is art restitution was lightly touched by the 2014 film "The Monuments Men", but didn't have the emotional impact that this film had. "Woman in Gold" captures what inanimate objects can mean to humans simply based on the history with the people we love. It also captures how infuriatingly tedious and unjust the so-called "justice" system can be.

What seems like an open and shut case can be drawn out and be pushed onward ever so slowly simply because of the stubbornness of a few people, who, other than monetary gain, have no connection to the object whatsoever.

Using flashbacks of Nazi-occupied Vienna, this movie does a great job of breaking down the case at hand, and showing the audience what happened to the Bloch family as well as countless other Jewish families during World War II. To see not only the lives destroyed, but also the objects with intimate memories of their loved ones stolen by a hateful government and claimed to be owned by the state is heartbreaking.

This is truly an inspiring and heartwarming piece that shows almost equally the evil and the good that man can do. Sprinkled with light hearted humor and very charming characters, "Woman in Gold" is a film that I feel can touch the lives of everyone.

My Rating: 7.5/10