Robert Pattinson, the young actor who became a superstar thanks to the vampire saga “Twilight”, felt early on not only the weight of popularity on his shoulders, but also the power of the pitfalls of a single character. To escape it, he still tries to stay away from the romantic vampire image.
There are attempts to prove that he can play other roles, and Pattinson’s fimography certainly contains some. For example, in the drama A Handful of Ashes (2008), he played a young Salvador Dali, who realised his genius early on.
In Guy de Maupassant’s classic novel Dear Friend (2012), Georges Durua, the protagonist, chooses the most enjoyable of all the career options – to satisfy the sexual desires of rich women and to parasite at their expense.
In the contemporary drama Remember Me (2010), Pattinson’s Tyler, a student who is unable to fit in, resembles the famous post-war rebel Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of J.D. Salinger’s cult book Rye by the Abyss.
The actor has also surprised with his new talent in David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis (2012) and The Way to the Stars (2014), and in the bleak existential drama The Lighthouse (2019, directed by Robert Eggers).
10. The Devil all the Time (2020)
The Devil all the Time started on Netflix. All the characters in this film are sinners; almost every character is either a predator or a prey. This pessimistic view of the world is not new to the talented director Antonio Campos, whose previous films include Afterschool and Christine, disturbing psychological dramas. The media has not shied away from criticising his films and their power for a mass audience. This director’s work has received a lot of attention for its choice of subject matter, leaving the audience in a moral dilemma to decide whether the protagonist is still ‘good’ in the end.
Based on a carefully plotted 2011 novel by Ohio-born author Donald Ray Pollock, The Devil is a dark film with episodes that can be both interesting and a little draining: lots of twists and turns and betrayals and horrific acts of violence. A sophisticated thesis about the banality of evil and the abuse of power – especially among Christian evangelicals. This may make The Devil is Always Near sound as if it touches on the present, but it takes place in the past, mostly in the 1950s. The script, co-written by director Antonio Campos and his brother Paulo Campos, first introduces a man called Willard Russell, played by Bill Skarsgård. He lives in a small Ohio paper mill town called Knockemstiff. The traumas Willard suffered as a soldier in World War II have given him a powerful, sometimes disturbing set of religious beliefs: Willard believes that he can influence God’s will if he simply prays hard enough and sometimes performs a blood sacrifice, such as shooting the family dog. One of the more difficult themes in The Devil is Always Near is how sin and trauma are often passed down from generation to generation. So Willard passes on the violence to his 9-year-old son Arvin.
The story is told through the prism of the characters and God. How the actions are judged by the characters themselves, how they are judged in religion, how they feel before God. Suffering is often depicted by crucifixion (fleshly and spiritual), so there is a lot of allegory, metaphor and symbolism.
The state of Alabama was one of the main filming locations. In the centre of Anniston, where the environment had to be supplemented only by vintage cars. Digital work was done to remove modern street signs from Noble Street (such as disabled parking spaces and cycle path signs). The church scenes with Reverend Preston Teagardin, played by Robert Pattinson, were filmed at Pine Flat Presbyterian Church in Dinesville. The character he embodied is an extraordinary one in his acting career, allowing us to see him in a completely different light.
The film is steeped in metaphors, from the plot to the technical, barely noticeable details. The director is renowned for his filmmaking style, which he also urges the audience to pay attention to. (I.J.)
9. Tenet (2020)
To mark the 10th anniversary of Inception, director Christopher Nolan returns to cinema screens with a new film full of suspense, speed and drama. This time, he surprises us with complex plot twists, a gripping story and thrilling characters.
This film stars John David Washington in the lead role, challenging him to stop the Third World War. Accompanied by secrets and his own professionalism, the special services agent travels through a story that takes your breath away, forcing you to think not only about existential questions, but also to consider the moral issues raised in the film, to fight against adversaries with unequal forces, to uncover a conspiracy theory that threatens the whole of humanity.
From the very first moments, the film draws the viewer into a sinister and corrupt world of violence, secrets and lies. Obscure enemies and even more obscure friends encourage you to stay with the story for a minute.
Action occupies an important central position in the work. But this action is not just any action. Every movement of the characters has an enormous meaning that unfolds throughout the film. It should be pointed out that the film is overloaded with special effects, but they complement the film quite well, without tiring the viewer.
Special forces are used and there is a flavour of spy films. The plot is full of mystery, and here the director has played a genius role in identifying the viewer with the protagonist. The feeling is that the protagonist is unravelling the mystery along with the audience, without fully understanding what is going on himself. When everything becomes clear to the protagonist, it becomes clear to the observer.
The depth, the subtlety, the excellent acting of Pattinson and Debicki only comes out when you realise where the plot is heading, or at least where it should be. Still lost? Don’t be. Or be and enjoy it.
Throughout the film, there is a sense of the filmmaker’s connection to the famous film Inception, which featured dreams and a complex story. “In Tenet, we can once again enjoy a plot that intrigues and encourages us to follow it with concentration. Since this is not the first time that a director has used complex theories and made a great film out of it, one can feel his improvement.
The film is not just a thriller where someone is out for revenge or trying to achieve a personal goal. It raises a number of moral questions that many of the special services have to face, for example, is the importance of the task, the mission, higher than human morality? The protagonist in this film is challenged by this dilemma, provoking the viewer to follow the plot not only with his mind but also with his heart. (J.P.)
8. Cosmopolis (2012)
Canadian director David Cronenberg’s thriller is based on the book of the same name by the famous American novelist Don DeLillo. Like many serious films, it was first screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012. Although experts have expressed mixed opinions and this is only Kronenberg’s second time writing a screenplay (his first film was 1999’s eXistenZ), Cosmopolis is a pleasant surprise for anyone who decides to treat themselves to a good film.
The story is about a 28-year-old young millionaire. It explores the different aspects of his daily life: his visits to the doctor, his relationship with his wife and other women, his reactions to his surroundings.
The story follows this young man, Eric, as he travels in a flashy limousine through the traffic jams of Manhattan just to get to his favourite hairdresser. Starring Robert Pattinson, Paul Giamatti, Samantha Morton, Sarah Gadon and Kevin Durant.
Robert Pattinson, a well-known actor for his iconic role in the Twilight saga, gets the lead role in this story as the millionaire Erik Packer. Pattinson’s ability to act without emotion is on display, which can be a serious challenge. At times, I would have liked to achieve a better result, but the director was sceptical.
Robert later commented on this seriousness of Kronenberg in an interview: “This director has a strange sense of humour. You’re so used to things like that as an actor, and after filming a scene, you ask, ‘Can we try it again? And then David would seriously ask: “Do you think you can do better?”
Many may be surprised by the way the main character speaks and reacts to what happens in his life. He is cold with his wife and cold with his mistress. Erik does not seem to like to show any emotion.
A cold mind is necessary to maintain one’s wealth, as the film makes clear. Analysis is needed every minute. Throughout the story, the protagonist seems to be analysing conversations or events rather than participating in them.
Of course, such things bother even hardened millionaires, so it is no surprise that the man has a mistress. In his quest for new experiences, he has even once asked to be shaken with a powerful taser, which paralyses the nervous system. The question is, are these just ways of maintaining calm logic or does the man have a secret agenda?
The film is an excellent example of what capitalism is. It is not just about turnover in millions or losses, it is also about luxury cars, clothes and so on. The limousine of the protagonist is the ideal representation of a rich man’s space: impeccable cleanliness, sterility, the luxurious appearance of the machine.
People seem to react particularly angrily to such displays of power. People who are anti-millionaire are protesting. Unlike in other films, there are no clashes with the police. People just march through the streets, wreaking havoc, destroying. They go to fancy places and express their annoyance at the current order. ( J.P.)
7. Maps to the Stars (2014)
Those who have long been interested in the work of director David Cronenberg know that the master of psychophysical horror is bound to make you feel like you are immersed in an eerie dream, with characters undergoing incredible metamorphoses or falling victim to fantastic mutations. Fans of the director are also familiar with his trademark humour, known as the subversive or black humour, but it is often this humour that gives a story that has escaped all logical boundaries the appearance of a paradoxical absurdity or an intelligent parody.
Cronenberg’s preference for film plots about physical and moral degeneration (projected onto the reality of a degrading world) is still true in The Way to the Stars, where the spike of vicious satire is directed at Hollywood. There are many films which, as if in a distorted mirror, portray the rules that reign in the “Dream Factory”. Cronenberg’s version, as usual for this director, balances between a painful reality and a nightmarish dream.
It is clear that the rules of Hollywood do not inspire any enthusiasm in Cronenberg. That is why it is common to describe The Road to the Stars as an angry Hollywood satire.
An important dimension of The Way to the Stars is the relationship between reality and the spirit world. While admitting that he doesn’t believe in ghosts, the director said: ‘I sometimes see my long-dead parents, hear their voices. Of course, these are not ghosts living in the real world; they live only in my memory, but psychologically and emotionally I understand the characters feeling similar things. And let’s not forget that ghosts are an integral part of Hollywood.”
The idea for the film was conceived almost two decades ago, when screenwriter Bruce Wagner was working as a taxi driver in Los Angeles and dreaming of a career in film. Fighting for his place under the Hollywood sun, he knew more than just the glamorous side of the world’s cinema capital, which is why he spared no effort to provide stark contrasts to the grotesque vision of City of Angels.
Robert Pattinson plays a very similar character, the chauffeur-turned-actor and screenwriter Jerome Fountain. As in Cronenberg’s other film Cosmopolis, the actor spends a lot of time in a luxury car. Only this time, not in the back seat, but behind the wheel of a luxury car. As a result, he sees much more (G.J.)
6. The Childhood of a Leader (2015)
The young American actor Brady Corbet played over two dozen roles before taking on his first film, Childhood of a Leader. His career seems to have taken off, especially after his appearances in films by the masters of contemporary cinema, Michael Haneke (2007’s “Crazy Games”) and Lars von Trier (2011’s “Melancholia”).
However, in 2015, Brady Corbet put his acting career on hold (he hasn’t acted since) to try his hand at directing.
His first independent film, The Childhood of a Leader, was criticized (for a supposedly immature concept), but praise was also lavished on the debutant: his “first pancake” reviewers, who were in favour of the debutant, saw in the film the influence of Kubrick, Haneke (especially in his White Ribbon), and even P. Pasolini and Tarkovsky.
The credibility (and three awards at the Venice Film Festival) is really solid. Now, it is only with his next mature works that Brady Corbet should prove whether he will become the leader of the new generation of directors (he was born in 1888).
“The Childhood of a Leader, as is now becoming fashionable in cinema, is divided into three large parts with an epilogue. Like a musical fugue, the themes of all three parts are interwoven and repeated, with little attention paid to the development of the plot itself (hence the claims of a supposedly immature concept).
The events in the film, real, fictional and freely interpreted, take place between the wars, 1918-1939. The screenplay, written by the director and his wife Mona over a period of ten years, was inspired by the biographies of the most famous dictators of the 20th century.
The main motifs of despotism, tyranny and violence in The Leader’s Childhood are developed from several sources – real biographies of 20th century dictators. The title of the film is borrowed from Jean-Paul Sartre’s short story “The Leader’s Childhood”, published in the 1939 collection The Wall. The film’s final credits should be studied carefully: they mention, as if they were a scholarly work, the sources used by the authors, such as the British postmodernist writer John Fowles and the German philosopher and author of the theory of totalitarianism Hannah Arendt,
Robert Lansing, the US inter-war lawyer and diplomat, Robert Musil, the Austrian writer, etc.
In 1918, seven-year-old Prescott (an impressive debut by Englishman Tom Sweet) arrives in Paris with his German mother and American diplomat father, an advisor to President Wilson (Liam Cunningham), who is mediating the US government’s signing of the Versailles Treaty. Although the boy is still too young to understand the intrigues of the great politics of the time on his own, the home environment subtly shapes the maturity of the future “leader” and produces yet another political monster.
Angelic in appearance (more like a pretty curly-haired girl), the boy has no friends and is mostly left alone, unsupervised by his busy parents, with only an occasional chat with the overly gentle French teacher Ada (French actress Stacy Martin, who played the role of Nymphomaniac).
With his strange games and dirty jokes, Prescott slowly becomes a great manipulator. Prescott’s rebellious behaviour and sadistic tendencies are subtly influenced by discussions, negotiations, conversations and intimate intrigues at home. And the frequent fits of rage form the child’s terrifying ego.
Robert Pattinson stars as Charles, a frequent visitor to the family, who politicises with his father at the pool table. And in the totally unexpected finale, which seems to come from a completely different film, it is Pattinson’s character who embodies the psychological complex of anger, rebellion, defiance and anarchy that has been built up since childhood, and which gives birth to all sorts of “leaders” (usually of a fascist nature). (G.J.)
5. The Lost City of Z (2016)
Popular actor Robert Pattinson seems to be comfortable with the atmosphere of the early 20th century, and often chooses films that evoke this period.
The film that attempts to unravel the mystery of the dictator phenomenon, The Childhood of a Leader (2015), is set in 1918, when the victors of World War I are about to sign the Versailles Peace Treaty.
The gritty biographical drama Queen of the Desert (2015) stars the famous British archaeologist Gertrude Bel (played by Nicole Kidman), who cleverly combined her profession as a scholar of Eastern culture with her mission as a spy, and the Bedouin-robed Pattinson as the legendary British explorer Tom Lawrence.
And in the adventure drama “The Lost City of Z”, Pattinson played the explorer Henry Costin, who in the early 1930s accompanied Colonel Percy Fossett, a member of the Royal Geographical Society, on his perilous expedition through the vast Amazon. The Colonel believed he was destined to find in the jungle evidence of an Inca civilisation that had not yet been discovered by mankind.
Since ancient times, people have longed to know where the mysterious country of Eldorado is, or where the fabulous Atlantis should be found in the depths of the ocean. While romantics only dream of such feats, scientists infected with the virus of discovering new territories are getting to work. They study clues from surviving written sources and fragments of amateur maps to earn the right to call themselves the people who blazed trails into previously unknown territories.
A similar desire gripped the British military man and explorer Percy Fawcett (repeatedly featured in National Geographic): in order to get his stalled military career moving, he embarked on a perilous expedition to Bolivia, from which he returned with a map of the Rio Verde. He is not at peace for long after hearing the story of a mysterious city in the jungle and seeing with his own eyes artefacts belonging to an ancient civilisation.
In 1925, overwhelmed by his passion for exploration, the colonel sets off with his eldest son on a third – and fateful – expedition. He last saw them on 29 May 1925 in the Brazilian area of Mato Grosso.
The filmmakers are not after sensationalism. They are only trying to imagine the dangers the travellers encountered. But the question of what makes people risk their lives to doom remains unanswered.
In an attempt to escape from the familiar look of his characters, Pattinson is less easily recognisable here. Fossett’s bearded, fearless, soft-spoken companion, Henry Costin, hides behind his gruff exterior an intellectual nature and the scientific thrill of discovery that characterises scientists. (G.J.)
4. High Life (2018)
French filmmaker Claire Denis’s Life on High is a science fiction work that interweaves philosophical reflections on the meaning of humanity’s earthly existence in the context of an infinite universe with a crime fiction. The action unfolds at a leisurely pace in outer space beyond the solar system. Here, a crew made up of dangerous criminals is sent on a special mission on a spacecraft.
We have already seen films about a future world in which extremely dangerous criminals are isolated by exile in space prisons. But Life on High addresses a different problem. The doomed travel towards a black hole that threatens the population of Earth. But this is probably just a front. Secretly from most of the spacecraft’s occupants, another scientific experiment is underway to create the ideal human being through artificial insemination in space. After years of biological experiments, only two people remain on board the spaceship: the reclusive Monty (played by Robert Pattinson) and the girl Vilou, born from his fertilised sperm. (G.J.)
3. The Batman (2022)
On 4 March, the latest attempt to “freshly” imagine the beginnings, suffering and cost of superhero Batman’s heroism was released on the biggest screens around the world and in Lithuania. This film reboots the Batman film franchise once again. It has already grossed USD 600 million globally, making it financially one of the most successful films of 2022.
Batman teams up with Inspector Gordon in a three-hour film to try to catch the serial killer, the Riddler, a maniac who is wreaking havoc on both Gotham’s dignitaries and the general population. Like everything. I will discuss the Riddler’s motivations in the text a little later. The film also features Catwoman here and there, a much more interesting Penguin who does little, the boring Alfred, a few mafia bosses, and a few other minor characters.
I have to admit that the film looks really impressive visually. The cinematography and camera work are of high quality, the eye-pleasing, memorable shots and the vivid neon colours give the film a stylistic distinction. It rains almost all the time in Gotham.
Ben Affleck was originally attached to the new Batman film, but later withdrew from the project. When it emerged that the new Batman would be the handsome Robert Pattinson, who rose to fame during the Twilight saga and is now trying to cling on to more serious roles, the internet was shocked, with Batman fans finding it hard to imagine him in a superhero film.
Every successful protagonist needs an antagonist, or, in other words, a story’s villain. It could be argued that no good film exists without a good bad guy. A good bad guy or bad girl is a core part of the plot and the story, because without him/her the protagonist is meaningless. The Riddler, Batman’s legendary foe, is portrayed in this film as a serial killer who seeks to expose the extent of Gotham’s corruption, and therefore, in a sense, even has a noble goal.
We learn that, like Bruce, the Riddler, whose real name is Edward Nashton, lost his parents as a child, but unlike Batman, grew up in an orphanage where he suffered deprivation and neglect. For these reasons, he began to hate Bruce’s father, and when he died, he took his hatred out on Bruce. Sounds somehow unconvincing. The portrait of the enigma in this film is inspired by the Zodiac Killer, one of the most famous serial killers in the USA, whose identity has not yet been revealed. This is not the most unsuccessful portrayal of a villain in a comic book movie. The riddles are truly creepy, and Paul Dano has played his part superbly. (A.N.)
2. The Lighthouse (2019)
“The Lighthouse”, screened for the first time in Lithuania at the Kaunas International Film Festival, is impressive for the fact that it stars Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe in the lead roles, both of whom demonstrate the highest level of acting skill. Willem Dafoe has not been questioned before. Just think of his virtuoso performance in Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ” or his Vincent Van Gogh (“At the Gates of Eternity”, 2018). Another is the young Robert Pattinson, who is now increasingly struggling with the romantic vampire amplitude imposed on him by the “Twilight” saga.
“Lighthouse director Robert Eggers came to attention four years ago when he presented his first horror thriller, The Witch: A New-England Folktale (2015), to audiences and critics alike – the story of a husband and wife and their five children trying to survive on a lonely farmhouse in the 1630s near the woods, and their confrontation with the forces of an unexplained evil.
“The Lighthouse could also be described as another spooky tale, similar to those that have filled the mythology of real sea wolves throughout history. The director’s emphasis this time is on the now outdated 35 mm film (the old-fashioned, almost square, 1.19:1 aspect ratio) and the contrasting black and white image.
There are two main characters. In 1890, a young man, Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson), arrives on a remote island because he has got a job as an assistant lighthouse keeper. His new boss, Tom Weick (Willem Dafoe), looks like a real windswept sea wolf, reminiscent of both Jack London and Ernest Hemingway, as well as of the brave Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick or the adaptations of the same book (in one scene, Ephraim even refers to the lame Tom as Ahab).
Horror stories often feature a mysterious room that is off-limits to outsiders. There is such a place in Robert Eggers’ film: right at the beginning of the encounter, Veeck strictly forbids the newcomer to go to the very top of the lighthouse, where the spotlights are.
The depressing environment, the unpleasant company and the monotonous daily routine soon take their toll: the handsome, quiet, hard-working, dutiful young man, who has never consumed alcohol before, gets drunk within the first two weeks (and what’s there to be drunk against?), starts drinking so much that he sees mermaids, and when the whisky supply runs out (one of Veik would have had enough for longer, of course), they both start using kerosene for other reasons than its intended use.
The Lighthouse fan-critics have already described the film as a gothic noir, and it’s not really worth arguing with this opinion. The film is indeed very stylish and has all the key elements of a classic Gothic horror film – a plot full of mystery and mysticism, phantasmagoric hallucinations, Hitchcockian creepy birds and contrasting characters that seem to have stepped straight out of a classic German Expressionist film.
Finally, The Lighthouse is an excellent methodological tool for psychoanalysts, who are given enormous opportunities to reflect on how, in a closed environment, a person cut off from civilisation inevitably degenerates, goes mad, or turns into a monster beyond the control of common sense. The audience falls quite quickly into the trap of such psychological degradation and after a while, together with the characters, begins to lose the ability to distinguish reality from paranoid visions.
The film is based on an original screenplay (written by the director himself and his brother Max), but throughout the entire screening one is never left with the feeling that one is watching an adaptation of classic literature, because what is happening on the screen is reminiscent of the prose of Washington Irving or Nathaniel Hawthorne, of the eerie short stories of Edgar Poe or the unfathomable horror of Howard Lovecraft. (G.J.)
1. Good Time (2017)
The young and up-and-coming filmmaking duo of brothers Josh and Ben Safdie have presented a very original crime drama for fans of good cinema – “Good Time”. The title certainly reflects what you will experience throughout the film. This is a film where it is not just about the visuals. The soundtrack by American composer Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) adds so much tension and intensity to the film that you will want to open your eyes wider and catch every moment without wanting to miss anything. At the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, this crime drama was nominated for the Palme d’Or, the main award, and the composer won first prize in the Best Soundtrack category for his unique music.
The main character, Connie Nicolas, is portrayed by the well-known vampire from the Twilight Saga, Edward Pattinson. Throughout his career, it has been difficult for this actor to prove to audiences that he can break away from that teenage idol image and take on serious roles. However, in the eyes of the critics, Connie Nicolas is the best performance of Edward Pattinson’s acting career so far.
The film opens with a scene in which we see Nick (Ben Safdie), Connie’s younger, mentally retarded brother. Due to his medical condition, he is forced to attend therapy sessions with a psychologist, during which it becomes clear that Nick cannot control his aggression. In the film, we can clearly feel a real brotherly bond between Nick and Kony, who takes care of his younger brother in his own way – without thinking about the future consequences and his brother’s condition, he takes Nick along to rob a bank. Of course, robbing a bank is not as easy as the brothers think. Even when they got the money, they didn’t enjoy it for long – the paint in the bag exploded, rendering the notes worthless and painting the brothers in such a bright colour that it would be impossible not to see them in the street. While Connie tries to resolve the situation, Nick gives himself up to the police and is caught and locked up in a cell. Kony’s longest night begins.
Gediminas Jankauskas, Augustė Nalivaikė, Indrė Jucytė, Justas Pridotkas
