Afire

The actor Thomas Schubert deserves much of the credit for making "Afire" work as well as it does. He plays a self-absorbed, petty, insecure writer who's so myopically obsessed with the book he's writing that he's oblivious to the world around him. In other hands, it would be a big ask of the audience to spend two hours with such a tiring character, especially since he's in virtually every scene of the movie. But Schubert is able to make this character not only tolerable, but relatable. We're all guilty of missing the bigger picture because of our individual preoccupations. The ending of "Afire" feels a bit overly dramatic. It's like something that would feel right at home in one of those Southern gothic plays by Tennessee Williams or Eugene O'Neill. But I did enjoy the irony of its conclusion -- once our main character starts paying attention to the trauma around him, it's something he uses to write better books. Grade: A.

Literally a slow-burn !! Picks up pace and turns out to be a really good story having depth, subtlety and character developments despite being only 100 odd minutes long. It is so easy to assume and present things from a third person's perspective but when it becomes a first person's point of view, things are not the same. This forms the basis of this movie. Also this has a serious environmental message about negligence and indifference. Liked how the forest fire becomes the silent unsung element through the course of the story as the relationship between the characters develops and progresses.

This had potential, there is a good movie inside this movie, just not the one i watched. It's like this movie has a beginning and an end but not anything in between. This want to be a "character study" but there is not a smooth transition in this leading character's development: He is always immature and suddenly he supposedly has an epiphany. There is no chemistry between him and Nadja, are we suppose to believe that she is attracted to him? Why? How? And the ending is just lazy writing. Symbolisms are naive. And it's "easy". Big events are easy. A more lowkey approach would be better. Having said that, this is a somewhat good slowburn drama, not a "heavy" drama, neither a comedy as it labelled. I loved the song. Kinda interesting, some intense moments, subtle and well acted. As another reviewer mentioned, "That works up to a point, but there was too much missing from the puzzle for me to really find myself engaged with any of them".

This is a current offering on Criterion. I saw the "award winning" and was intrigued. For a film not coming out of Hollywood/US it has every fatal flaw of a Hollywood movie. I can't think of a story line more played out than this one. I'm not doing any spoilers so not much more to say. I kept hoping for an ending that came and then when it did it was overridden by what I might think was an add-on. Such a shame. This is a current offering on Criterion. I saw the "award winning" and was intrigued. For a film not coming out of Hollywood/US it has every fatal flaw of a Hollywood movie. I can't think of a story line more played out than this one. I'm not doing any spoilers so not much more to say. I kept hoping for an ending that came and then when it did it was overridden by what I might think was an add-on. Such a shame.