Teacher: In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? If you are still confused, see the following example:
plot : two teen couples go to a church party , drink and then drive .
they get into an accident .
one of the guys dies , but his girlfriend continues to see him in her life , and has nightmares .
what 's the deal ?
watch the movie and " sorta " find out . . .
critique : a mind - fuck movie for the teen generation that touches on a very cool idea , but presents it in a very bad package .
which is what makes this review an even harder one to write , since i generally applaud films which attempt to break the mold , mess with your head and such ( lost highway & memento ) , but there are good and bad ways of making all types of films , and these folks just did n't snag this one correctly
.
they seem to have taken this pretty neat concept , but executed it terribly .
so what are the problems with the movie ?
well , its main problem is that it 's simply too jumbled
.
it starts off " normal " but then downshifts into this " fantasy " world in which you , as an audience member ,
have no idea what 's going on
.
there are dreams , there are characters coming back from the dead , there are others who look like the dead , there are strange apparitions , there are disappearances , there are a looooot of chase scenes , there are tons of weird things that happen , and most of it is simply not explained .
now i personally do n't mind trying to unravel a film every now and then , but when all it does is give me the same clue over and over again , i get kind of fed up after a while , which is this film 's biggest problem .
it 's obviously got this big secret to hide , but it seems to want to hide it completely until its final five minutes .
and do they make things entertaining , thrilling or even engaging , in the meantime ?
not really .
the sad part is that the arrow and i both dig on flicks like this , so we actually figured most of it out by the half - way point , so all of the strangeness after that did start to make a little bit of sense , but it still did n't the make the film all that more entertaining .
i guess the bottom line with movies like this is that you should always make sure that the audience is " into it " even before they are given the secret password to enter your world of understanding .
i mean , showing melissa sagemiller running away from visions for about 20 minutes throughout the movie is just plain lazy ! !
okay , we get it .
. .
there are people chasing her and we do n't know who they are .
do we really need to see it over and over again ?
how about giving us different scenes offering further insight into all of the strangeness going down in the movie ?
apparently , the studio took this film away from its director and chopped it up themselves , and it shows .
there might 've been a pretty decent teen mind - fuck movie in here somewhere , but i guess " the suits " decided that turning it into a music video with little edge , would make more sense .
the actors are pretty good for the most part , although wes bentley just seemed to be playing the exact same character that he did in american beauty , only in a new neighborhood .
but my biggest kudos go out to sagemiller , who holds her own throughout the entire film , and actually has you feeling her character 's unraveling .
overall , the film does n't stick
because it does n't entertain , it 's confusing , it rarely excites and
it feels pretty redundant for most of its runtime , despite a pretty cool ending and explanation to all of the craziness that came before it .
oh ,
and by the way , this is not a horror or teen slasher flick . . .
it 's just packaged to look that way because someone is apparently assuming that the genre is still hot with the kids .
it also wrapped production two years ago and has been sitting on the shelves ever since .
whatever . .
. skip it !
where 's joblo coming from ?
a nightmare of elm street 3 ( 7/10 ) - blair witch 2 ( 7/10 ) - the crow ( 9/10 ) - the crow : salvation ( 4/10 )
- lost highway ( 10/10 ) - memento ( 10/10 ) - the others ( 9/10 ) - stir of echoes ( 8/10 )
Solution: N
Reason: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").

Now, solve this instance: "
the celebration " is one of an elite kind of films that is completely absorbant .
you know , where you sit down to watch it , and no matter what you 've heard about it before ,
you just ca n't help but be totally drawn into its story and shocked by every single turn that occurs .
i prefer films like these because these are what the best kind of films are like .
i do n't really feel there are to be any real " rules " for cinema ; a film can do anything , as long as it makes it work .
but i do ask that all films have one thing in common : they create experiences .
when i watch a film , no matter what kind of film it is , i want to be able to take certain memories along with me .
"
the celebration " is great because it 's chock full of those .
it creates a world
so completely realistic that everything that occurs is as memorable as the little instances of life that catch your attention and stay with you for the rest of your life .
and then it makes things just a tad bit farscial , just to make sure you 're paying attention , which you are because what transpires is just
so goddam interesting that if you were to ever feel bored , then you 're of your attention span needs a bit of a tuning - up .
the story takes place at the extravagant home of an aging patriarch ( henning mortizen ) , who has just turned 60 and is having a party thrown for him .
all his friends and family turn up , and for the first half hour , we get introduced to everyone , simplistically and realistically ( no aggravatingly condescending posing for the camera deals here ) .
the eldest son , christian ( ulrich thomsen , looking a bit like a young malcolm mcdowell ) , is the first to be seen in the film , walking to his father 's home .
his brother , michael ( thomas bo larsen ) , drives by , pulls over , greets him , then kicks his family out of the car , forcing them to walk to the estate , just so christian can be comfortable .
we then meet helene ( paprika steen ) , their sister , a woman who always seems to be stressed - out , who invites the driver of her car ( gbatokai dakinah ) , an american , to to come join her at the party she 's going to .
once they 're all there and settled in , the party begins , and as custom , the eldest son has to make a speech to his dad , so christian stands up , at the head of the table , and reveals the film 's punchline : his father raped all his children at a young age .
but since this is a family / friends affair , his confession becomes more detested than the supposed truth , and is simply brushed off despite his efforts , and what transpires is sorta like jerry springer crossed with jean renoir , and
it 's all terribly interesting to watch .
twists occur , and soon the film has taken on a nearly - farsical nature , but still seems realistic because the people involved really feel like they could reach such ends .
the most notorious thing about this film , which has been getting the most notice , though , is that the director , thomas vinterberg has shot it in a completely awkward fashion .
as a member of the danish filmmakers clan , dogme 95 , a group that has vowed to oppose " the auteur concept , make - up , illusions , and dramaturgical predictability " so that they may " purge film so that once again the inner lives of the characters justify the plot .
"
i have not seen " breaking the waves , " the other notable film by a member of this group ( lars von trier , to be exact ) , but " the celebration " works exquisitely in this department .
it feels like reality , like you 're actually watching real people and not actors , and as a major pointer , has been shot on video .
as a result , it looks more like the home movies you never dare shot of your family than an actual film , but always wanted to .
we see key moments in people 's lives that they would n't dare show to the world , and it captures the farscial comedy of life so accurately and acutely that this style , as ironically - showmanship as it really is , works perfectly for the nature of the film .
the key , though , to this film , and the reason it 's not just a cool danish import , is because this film is not about revealing the truth as much as it is about the way people react to such an explosive truth .
throughout the film , we see a completely realized debate over the truth and the effects it has on the lives of those who have learned to live with lies , a debate so three - dimensional that it could easily blow oliver stone and his the - truth - at - all - costs reasoning out of the water
.
of course it was not right for the father to rape his children , and of course , they could n't have fought back then , and of course this has created scarring suppression inside them .
and yes , it 's thearapeutic for one to release the truth years later , when they know it could easily destroy the one who emotionally destroyed them earlier .
but then again , the father , after all , is not a totally bad guy , and we can see the emotional complications that arise thanks to a performance by mortizen which is just so great and touching that while we do believe that he could have raped his children years earlier
, we also see a man who has also learned to live with what he 's done , and deep down , feels true guilt that is only now beginning to surface .
the final scene , involving mortizen and everyone else , is utterly devastating , thanks to him and thomsen , whose performance is utterly flawless and equally emotionally complex .
everyone else is flawless as well - the actors never seem to be stepping into the shoes of their characters as much as they do walking comfortably in them .
the actors or writers have not made the mistake to judge these characters in the slightest : there are no whites or blacks but instead all grays , exactly like life .
as such , " the celebration " may be the one truly bizarro film of the year : a work of art so eerily close to reality that it 's utterly disturbing and utterly fascinating .
Student:
P