This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

What a wonderful film. 2 hours of discovery in the Amazon jungle. Beautifully shot in black and white. Minimal and stark. Contemplative and terrifying. Mesmerising.

Asked by a European scientist to track down a plant with reputed curative powers, an elderly native Amazonian recalls how he helped another Caucasian man on a similar quest four decades earlier in this Oscar nominated drama from Colombia. The film is lusciously shot in black and white with excellent attention to on-location sound and the performances of the four main players are very strong as the film flips between the present-day and past adventures as recalled by the Amazonian. Several interesting ideas surface in the first half of the film as the past scientist expresses reluctance to leave his compass behind with an indigenous tribe, lest it change their culture and understanding of the world, while at the same time oblivious to the fact that his own very presence is enough to provide a rift in their world. Is not, however, until over an hour in that the film truly takes off as the present-day scientist visits a tribe where the missionaries have been ironically crucified and a fake messiah (dressed to look like traditional images of Jesus no less) is worshipped. While this religious fanaticism angle sadly only lasts for around half an hour, it remains the high point of the movie, highlighting just how detrimental European presence has the potential to be in the untouched wild with the "worst of both worlds" come together. This might not be the easiest film to endure with deliberate pacing and many periods of sparse dialogue, but the impression it leaves is hard to shake.

Embrace Of The Serpent is a film about an amazonian shaman played by Nilbio Torres and two scientist looking for a plant that could supposedly heal people and they have to work with the shaman to try and find it.lets get this out of the way first, this movie is so gorgeously shot, there is this one tracking shot that transitions the two scientist together and it stunning. it was also so well acted, i actually did not see actors, i saw real men talking to each other and real men arguing and i forgot i was watching a movie, the best performance in this film was the older shaman played excellently by Antonio Bolivar.this movie has a non linear story line and i got so involved with these characters and the world they are in witch made this film perfect for me.A+

'EMBRACE OF THE SERPENT': Four Stars (Out of Five) The critically acclaimed Colombian historical drama flick; about the relationships between an Amazonian shaman (who's the last survivor of his people) and two different scientists (in the 1909 and 1940 Amazon). The film is based on the diaries of the two scientists, it depicts in the movie (Theodor Koch-Grunberg and Richard Evans Schultes). It was directed by acclaimed Colombian filmmaker Ciro Guerra, and it was written by Guerra and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal. The film has a 99% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (at the 2016 Academy Awards). I enjoyed it as well.Karamakate (played by Nilbio Torres and Antonio Bolivar, at different ages) is the last surviving member of his people. He lives in the Amazon, and protects it from intruders. In 1909 he's greeted by a German scientist, named Theo (Jan Bijvoet), who's looking for a sacred plant called yakruna. Karamakate reluctantly helps him. 40-years later he's approached by an American scientist, named Evan (Brionne Davis), who's looking for the same thing.The film was beautifully shot in the Amazonia region of Columbia, and it's gloriously presented in black-and-white visuals. It's both visually stunning to watch, and bizarrely strange to experience. The movie has a really classic feel to it, and the subject matter is involving (and quite disturbing) at times. I didn't really care for all of the performances in it though; it was made on a budget of just $1.4 million, and sometimes that shows (especially with the acting). Still, it is a very fascinating (and extremely weird) movie!Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://youtu.be/lcZBQp0HBZg