The Welcome Mat

:610: 176 - Valkoinen kaupunki / Frozen City (2006) - 6/10 - A taxi driver has to look after his three small children after his wife leaves. Things get worse when she returns. There were parts of the film that were interesting, but too much of it was a downbeat slog to get through. :710: 177 - Varas...

:4510: 170 - Levoton veri (1946) - 4.5/10 - Two sisters love the same man and he seems to have some feelings for each of them. He marries the older sister and things seem to go well, but when their son dies in an accident, the older sister blinds herself with poison and the other two start to cheat ...

:6510: 163 - Neitoperho / The Collector (1997) - 6.5/10 - Eevi is a mentally deranged woman who steals her sister's car and goes on a road trip when things aren't going her way. Woe betide those who meet her during her journey. :7510: 164 - Niskavuoren Heta (1952) - 7.5/10 - Heta is a prideful and u...

:6510: 160 - Flamin' Hot (2023) - 6.5/10 - The 'true' story of how Richard Montañez rose from being a janitor at Frito-Lay without a high school diploma to inventing Flamin' Hot Cheetos. The story is formulaic and seems highly exaggerated, but is still fairly entertaining. Not a great film, but it i...

:7510: 153 - The Zone of Interest (2023) - 7.5/10 - Rudolf Höss and his family live in a villa just outside Auschwitz, the camp that he commands. Life proceeds normally for them as the war and the Holocaust goes on. It's pretty good, but didn't wow me. :7510: 154 - Past Lives (2023) - 7.5/10 - Nora ...

:710: 146 - Elina: As If I Wasn’t There / Elina – som om jag inte fanns (2002) - 7/10 - In the 1950s, a young girl has been at home recovering from tuberculosis for a year and is finally well enough to go back to school, though she will be in a class with her younger sister. The girl likes to spend ...

:710: 143 - Inspector Palmu's Error (1960) - 7/10 - A wealthy man is found dead in the bath with the door locked. This was after having a number of guests over the night before. Inspector Palmu investigates in the mystery comedy. I was enjoying it quite a bit early on, but I started losing interest ...

:710: 134 - Aliisa (1970) - 7/10 - An elderly woman has to survive on a small national pension. She lives in a small, old apartment and has no money for luxuries. When she receives word that her building is going to be renovated and that she must vacate the apartment, she has nowhere to go. The film...

:710: 133 - Onnen maa / The Land of Happiness (1993) - 7/10 - The tango is popular in the rural Finnish area where this film was set in the early 1960s. A man returns home to his parents' farm after a long time away at the city. His father is ill, but his brother is steadfast in keeping things going...

:810: 129 - The Holdovers (2023) - 8/10 - Paul Giamatti stars as a teacher at a private boarding school in Massachusetts as Christmas approaches in 1970. He is tasked (punished) with chaperoning the few boys who remain on campus over the Christmas holidays. One of the boys in particular stands out a...

:610: 127 - May December (2023) - 6/10 - Natalie Portman stars as an actress who inserts herself into the lives of a couple (Julianne Moore and Charlie Melton) who have been married for 23 years in a relationship that started when the wife was 36 and the husband was 13. The actress stirs things up q...

:310: 122 - The Idiots / Idioterne (1998) - 3/10 - A group of people try to embrace their inner idiot by going out in public and acting as if they are mentally disabled. I didn't like it at all, though I can see why some might. :6510: 123 - R (2010) - 6.5/10 - The film starts with Rune being taken t...

:310: 116 - People Meet and Sweet Music Fills the Heart (1967) - 3/10 - This is a sex comedy about a man who follows a dancer to Brazil. It jumps in and out of role play and fantasies with different characters ending up suddenly in bed. The plot jumps around a lot and is fairly nonsensical. Visually...

:610: 112 - Silent Heart (2014) - 6/10 - A family gathers together to celebrate Christmas early with the understanding that the elderly mother will be committing suicide after they leave due to her terminal disease getting worse. It's a serious subject, but the film is overly melodramatic and the tw...

:5510: 106 - The Ballad of Carl-Henning (1969) - 5.5/10 - Carl-Henning is an immature young idiot who works at a dairy. He always seems to be fooling around and doing one dumb thing after another. The movie isn't really all that great and I didn't care what happened to Carl-Henning during the film. ...