Film Reviews & More
★★☆☆☆ “An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,” Percy Shelley once wrote in his sonnet England in 1819. He was firing his barbs at King George III but the words could just as well be used for any number of English monarchs including Henry VIII.
★★★★★ Turkish master director Nuri Bilge Ceylan returns to the Cannes Croisette with About Dry Grasses, a wonderful wintry meditation on male fragility and the way we often make our own hells and then deceive ourselves that we’re trapped.
★★★★☆ From sub-Saharan Africa to Afghanistan, Syria to Iraq and Iran, the climate crisis, drought, war, and oppression has created a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It is treated as an ethical conundrum, but it isn’t. Either we wish to save those who are in danger of dying, or all our talk of human rights is just so much hot air. This is the core concern of Green Border.
★★★★☆ With Luca Guadagnino’s terrific Challengers, the acclaimed director of Call Me By Your Name brings us the sub-genre we never knew we needed: the erotic tennis thriller.
★★☆☆☆ Directors Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett’s “Abigail” mashes up crime caper and monster movie, but fails to deliver fear or humor. Spoilery trailers and unoriginal characters overshadow promising elements, resulting in a dull, lifeless experience lacking creativity and wit.
★★☆☆☆ Maïwenn’s French period drama Jeanne du Barry is the perfect opening salvo for the 76th Cannes Film Festival. It is as glitzy and gaudy as the festival itself, with its vacuous politics drowned out by the thunderous sound of it slapping its own back.
★★★★☆ Amidst the most rapidly-ageing population in the world and following a string of violent attacks against the elderly, the Japanese legislature passes a bill to legalise assisted suicide over the age of 75. Hayakawa Chie’s debut feature is an emotionally nuanced human drama as well as an accomplished study of the banality of evil.
★★★☆☆ Serving in the aftermath of the Second World War, Nathan Hilu was assigned as a guard at the Nuremberg war trials. After he left the army, Hilu discovered art as a way of expressing himself and telling his story, earning a career as an illustrator in New York.
★★★★★ Returning to South Korea after being adopted in France as a baby, Freddie (Park Ji-min) embarks on an epic journey of self discovery and reinvention. His third feature, Davy Chou’s Return to Seoul is a visceral, astonishingly assured work, compelling, rarely predictable, and vital.
★★☆☆☆ Korean-American director Christina Yr. Lim’s latest is a sweet family drama headed by two charismatic leads and nicely drawn, criss-crossing relationships. Sadly, dangling narrative threads, a few overcooked performances and undeveloped themes keep For Taylor firmly on the b-side.
★★★☆☆ Lola Quivoron’s debut fiction feature is an affecting and vital hybrid picture, part crime drama, part character study. Rodeo follows the exploits of Julia (Julie Ledru), a somewhat delinquent youth who boosts dirt bikes for the thrill of it, before falling in with a gang of bikers who help her hone her skills as both a thief and a rider.
Ridley Scott’s 2000 epic Gladiator is one of the best-loved historical movies of recent times, with Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, and Oliver Reed among the actors turning in excellent performances in this tale of revenge and redemption. With a sequel announced and on the way, what comes next for the franchise?
Albert Serra is a filmmaker with uncompromising vision. Whether he is reworking Cervantes’ Don Quixote with Honour of the Knights (2006), throwing together Dracula and Casanova in Story of My Death (2013), or depicting the final days of an aging monarch in The Death of Louis XIV (2015), Serra’s singular perspective shines through.
★★★★☆ In French Polynesia, High Commissioner De Roller (Benoît Magimel) manages the delicate tensions between islanders and the establishment, moving through society’s strata. Writer-director Albert Serra’s latest is a hazy fever dream of post-colonialist politics and ambition that, in its final minutes, lurches into apocalyptic mania.
