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Extraction (2020)
Routine actionner with nice Asian exotism
The director is a former stuntman and stunt manager. The script follows the pattern of John Wick: a retired, depressed (due to past trauma, of course), alcoholic ex-something is called in by an organization to retrieve hostages. There are a lots of plot schemes like this. But the fact that our hero is depressed helps to set the scene for some suicidal sequences. And Chris Hemsworth obviously loves it. The film is also set in various Asian countries, providing exoticism and spectacular scenery.
All in all, this set of schemes is only as good as the action sequences: brutal, bloody, spectacular, often at human level.
Sisu (2022)
A total spectacle, hyper-violent and exhilarating
Sisu is the confrontation between a lone Finnish soldier and a group of defeated German soldiers. The year is 1944, in the wilds of Lapland. The Germans have the bad idea of stealing the soldier's gold (which has turned him into a gold digger). A mistake. The legendary soldier (supposedly immortal) pursues the Germans at all costs to get his gold back.
The film has very little dialogue (the main character only has one line in the last shot of the film). It also has a lot of violent deaths (landmines, cannon, machine-gun, knife) and fights, all original and very spectacular, bordering on the comical, but we understand that this is an important component of the film's artistic gesture.
All in all, it's a total spectacle, hyper-violent and exhilarating, which evolves into an unreal dimension that we soon forget.
Prey (2022)
Respect for the franchise and true originality
This latest instalment in the Predator franchise comes as a pleasant surprise. The film takes up many of the elements of the original film, adapting them to the North American Indian milieu, i.e. Fearless hunters who have to face up to a new animal, a new beast that looks bigger than a bear.
The film takes advantage of this to introduce elements of feminism, building dramatic intensity and driving the film from the point of view of a young Indian girl, who understands that abnormal things are happening, and who would like to become a hunter like the men, and who of course ends up facing the beast (like every episode in the Predator franchise).
In the end, the film's success lies in making a film that is indeed a survival film, where humans, in this case Amerindians, have to face a different kind of wild beast. And the film works perfectly. In fact, it joins ipso facto the top 3 of the franchise, and is no different from the first Predator. Moreover, the choice of the young Indian woman, whose physique is the opposite of Arnold Schwarzenegger's, is also a very good idea. A great success.
Cry Macho (2021)
More subtile than it seems
With Cry Macho, it might be possible to see the film in the vein of The Mule, Grand Torino or Heartbreak Ridge. But no, here we are in the vein of The Outlaw Josey Wales or A Perfect World or even Honkytonk Man, i.e. At least two masterpieces.
But it's impossible to understand this film without knowing the whole body of work created by Clint Eastwood.
Macho is about a teenage rooster that the old cowboy has to bring back from Mexico to his father in Texas. A road movie, then, with its adventures involving encounters with more or less sympathetic characters, and a long forced passage through a small Mexican village, which will change the life of our cowboy, but also that of the teenager. These are the film's most successful sequences, evoking the theme of family at the heart of the aforementioned films.
Clint Eastwood plays this old cowboy, a character the same age as the director-actor. It's hard to evaluate this film without thinking of Clint Eastwood's body of work, in particular the aforementioned films. And as such, the film is a thing of beauty. With its magnificent photography. With its limpid yet simple style, which never lapses into pathos, whatever the characters' situations.
Paul Sanchez est revenu! (2018)
Standard plot with original treatment
With this film, Patricia Mazuy composes a story that still remains mysterious. Laurent Laffite thinks he's Paul Sanchez, or maybe he is Paul Sanchez, which means he's constantly on the run from the police, committing robberies, living in the mountains and running away from everyone else. Because Paul Sanchez is wanted by the police for murders committed in the past, and he hasn't been caught.
A young policewoman is fascinated by this Paul Sanchez character and investigates this reappearance played by Laurent Laffite. She investigates alone, to the point of obsession, and to the point of not respecting investigation protocols, and no longer obeying the orders of her hierarchy.
All these people come together to form a story that is always intriguing, never needlessly explanatory, and that keeps the film a permanent mystery and a climate of absurdity bordering on the comical, almost unreal as we fail to understand what Laurent Lafitte's character is up to.
A truly original success on very common themes.
Super (2010)
A very nice super hero, and pathetic too
Super is a poor, miserable guy whose girlfriend has left him for a bad boy, whose life he's not happy with, and who, out of frustration, decides to become Super, the delinquent killer with a wrench. He tackles everything from the smallest delinquents (someone double-crossing in a cinema queue, for example) to the biggest (a drug dealer).
The film is surely a message about superheroes and their role in the psychology of individuals. Has James Gunn based his work on psychological studies? No matter. The film is a success, because this character is pathetic (special mention to Rainn Wilson, who plays Super) and endearing at the same time, and also thanks to his partner, Elliot Page, who proves to be more deranged than he is in his character as Super's partner.
Augure (2023)
A real signature with an original ambiance
The film has an original tone in keeping with its setting in the Congo, as well as with its theme of beliefs and superstitions, which are a mixture of Christian superstitions and local tribal beliefs and superstitions. As usual, superstitions only impress those who believe, and the film seems artificially dramatized. Even if our character suffers greatly from it. But it has to be said that the script integrates all these elements perfectly. One regret as a viewer is that Marc Zinga's wife has no place in the second half of the film.
Nonetheless, the film has its original features, in particular the atmosphere, the settings of the places where it takes place in the Congo, and the various cultural elements it brings to the fore. It's worth noting that it's not an advertisement at all, but rather a repudiation of this country, where people don't seem to have any free will and, above all, are caught up in the shackles of superstition.
Nonetheless, the film has a real signature and hysteresis.
Damaged (2024)
A top-notch piece of dreck
It's a top-notch piece of dreck on a crime-movie canvas about murders several years apart that have to be solved.
The film is ugly and framed for television or mobile phones. Not surprising, since Terry McDonough has only worked with this format. The script is artificially convoluted to maintain interest. It's all the more appalling that three screenwriters are credited...
We have very little faith in the story of any of the characters, whether Samuel Jackson, Vincent Cassel or the local cop. We can't tell whether we're leaning towards the ridiculousness of the characters or the ham-handedness of the actors (who probably do what they can with the dialogue they're given).
It's still a dramatic canvas in which we are presented with the moods and psychological or family backgrounds of each of the police officers. And we don't care.
If we take the culinary metaphor, the film resembles a cake that doesn't set and that's a failure, despite perhaps interesting ingredients at first glance, i.e. In this case, confirmed actors and a dramatic framework of several murders that must be solved. A very bad crime film.
A Family Affair (2024)
Routine romcom, but it works
Zac Efron is a superhero movie superstar. He behaves like a diva. He has one female conquest after another. He crosses paths with the mother of his assistant, played by Nicole Kidman. She's older than him, and a love affair begins, much to his assistant's dismay.
In the romantic comedy genre, we have an example that works, without being revolutionary in form or script. As for the cast, we're delighted to welcome back the all-too-rare Kathy Bates.
Richard LaGravanese is an established screenwriter and no newcomer to directing. Cinematography is by the equally experienced Don Burgess. The film is very professional, solid - perhaps a little too much so, in the sense that it lacks a little craziness and doesn't break out of the patterns we might imagine. The cast is solid. All tech credits are at the top. The film doesn't surprise. But it works, and the viewer is drawn in to find out how it will end.
Blood & Gold (2023)
The thirst for gold
It's a war film set during the German rout around Dresden in 1944. The Allies are approaching. A group of SS troops returns to a small village to search for gold ingots belonging to a Jew who has been deported. Some of the villagers knew about the ingots, and don't take kindly to this.
The climate of the end of the war and the debacle, where everything is permitted, and the lure of gold, will lead all the protagonists to kill each other, betray each other or create alliances. With its share of violent deaths and bloodshed.
The film is a minor success, thanks to its no-nonsense script, with no phoned-in twists and turns, allowing the viewer to follow the adventures without a hitch.
This is a rare war and costume film of a very high standard, in which all the technical elements are perfect. Acting is sometimes lacking in finesse. But perhaps the subject doesn't lend itself to this.
Dalva (2022)
A success on a difficult subject
Dalva is a twelve-year-old girl who dresses like a woman to please her abusive father. This is the starting point of the film, which immediately draws us into the story. The film begins with her father's arrest. The viewer doesn't immediately understand. Dalva doesn't understand. For the rest of the film, we follow Dalva's evolution in this situation and her perception of things. The film evokes her relationship with children her own age in the institution where she is placed, her relationship with her mother, her relationship with her father, her relationship with her educator (Alexis Manenti). Her relationships are often based on seduction.
Emmanuelle Nicot has chosen a difficult subject, which is dealt with justly, i.e. Without unnecessary pathos, without judgment for the little girl, in small touches. And it's true that Zelda Samson, in the role of the little girl, is a real eye-catcher. A film with a strong subject and a strong form.
Rien à perdre (2023)
A dense and fearsome tragedy
Delphine Deloget composes a poignant film in which a mother has her young son taken away from her because the state considers her incapable of raising him. The son is disturbed. The mother works evenings in nightclubs and is financially precarious. The elder brother is independent, but looks after his younger brother in the evenings. She is helped to a greater or lesser extent by her two brothers, who are not the solution - quite the contrary for one of them. The film also highlights the difficulties faced by state employees who find themselves in the position of having to take a child away from a mother.
Deloget's film succeeds because it does not descend into excessive pathos, even though all the scenes could lend themselves to it. With Virgine Effira, who powerfully embodies this mother, who goes all the way, who has nothing to lose, as the film's title suggests, to get her son back. Even if the mother's character isn't all white, the viewer empathizes with her, and the dramatic progression builds on this.
The film contains very little music, which makes the images and Virginie Effira's turpitude and tragedy all the more powerful.
Le syndrome des amours passées (2023)
Well written and both light-hearted and profound
This film is a great success on a difficult subject. A couple who are unable to have children, find themselves looking to sleep with their former partners. This is the therapy advised by their doctor. We don't know if this is based on a real medical-psychological protocol, but it's obviously a good idea for a film script.
To their credit, Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni succeed in making a film that is both light-hearted and profound about what unites and defines a couple. It's never boring or scabrous. The film is very well written, and each of the secondary characters is portrayed quickly and effectively. The search for these past loves won't be a simple one: what's become of them? Will they agree? Will it have an effect on the couple themselves? The strength of the script lies in its serious treatment of this argument, which may or may not seem far-fetched! Even if many sequences contain humorous elements.
The use of slightly esoteric montage sequences is a good idea and adds a dimension to the film. Just like the wall of past loves in front of which our couple take stock.
A light-hearted yet serious comedy, brilliantly carried by the duo Lucie Debay and Lazarre Gousseau.
The Black Book (2023)
Nollywood revigoriting the genre
Nollywood appropriates the screenplay canvas of the retired ex-killer or mercenary who must return for revenge (e.g. John Wick and Equalizer, both from 2014, for recent franchises, but there are many other films). Here it's Richard Mofe-Damijo, very good, all pent-up rage, who is a deacon, but whose son is mistreated, to say the least, by the local police. Corrupted police, as the film seems to suggest to many. Police, media, a retired mercenary, a journalist looking for a sensational story, and women - these are the film's ingredients. Because women play an important role in the film: journalists, police commissioners, soldiers. It's the women who will have the greatest impact on our hero as he seeks to avenge his son.
The film works thanks to its setting - Nigeria, the city of Lagos - its rich plot, its well-articulated screenplay and, of course, Richard Mofe-Damijo's charisma, all of which keep viewers curious about what's to come next (we wait for the sequel). A film that reinvigorates the genre.
Silent Hours (2021)
A masterpiece of nonsense
It would appear that this turnip is a montage of several episodes from a 2017 mini-series. So much for recycling images to make a new film from existing scenes. The porn industry has been doing it for years, so why not series for streaming?
The film is a breviary for the phallocrat's apprentice. All the women are obsessed and want nothing more than to have sex with the hero. The hero is as unsympathetic as they come, not to mention his folding-chair charisma. It makes you wonder if the creator(s) aren't living out their fantasy of sleeping with all women.
The television origin (a miniseries) results in flat images, devoid of any artistic sense. On the other hand, its use of gore (severed heads and limbs) regularly wakes up a sleepy viewer. The plot: murders, a serial killer and a private detective (the main character, the hero). Uninteresting.
Stöld (2024)
Nice drama with documentary elements
We're in the reindeer herding region. These are the Sami, an indigenous people of Sweden, who make their living from reindeer herding. They have to cohabit with the locals, who want the region to be developed for mining. There's also a non-Sami native who enjoys killing the reindeer. But the police are not investigating. A young Sami woman tries to move the investigation forward against the police's will.
We're constantly in the cold, in the snow. The pace is slow. So is the pace of the film. But the plot, simple on the face of it, contains twists and turns (the mistreatment of women is mentioned, for example) that mean we're not in an investigative film with a false culprit to distract the viewer. The culprit is known very quickly, the plot being that the police never manage to catch him. So this is not a detective film, but a drama. With little vignettes of local life in the Sami community. The film has a realistic tone, which makes it a little slow. But it's coherent. Rather than being slow, it takes its time to develop the plot, articulated with local life.
Note that the music is far too present. It insists in a heavy-handed way to make the film seem suspenseful.
Voici le temps des assassins... (1956)
A complex & fluid plot
Jean Gabin runs a restaurant in Paris. He manages his team. He has an adopted son, Gérard Blain. There's his mother, who runs a guinguette on the banks of the Marne. His ex-wife's daughter appears; his ex-wife is dead and his daughter doesn't know what to do, so she comes to see him in Paris. It's Danièle Delorme in the role of femme fatale, who returns with designs that we'll gradually come to understand thanks to the script, which moves forward slowly but surely, with points of no return at every turn. She's going to turn Jean Gabin's world upside down.
Danièle Delorme carries the film. Jean Gabin is quite credible as the restaurant owner. Gérard Blain is more monolithic. The life of Jean Gabin's character is turned upside down by all these women: his deceased ex-wife, his ex-wife's daughter, his mother. We could even say that they are all femmes fatales, such is their influence on the various characters. This is a film noir.
It's a good thing that the music is sparse and not overdone like many films of the period. This makes the film even stronger. A very pleasant surprise.
Le procès Goldman (2023)
Enjoying trial film
We enjoyed this trial film. The trial of Mr. Goldman, a left-wing revolutionary, who finds himself accused of murder, which he denies. The film's interest lies in this character, who doesn't deny some of his misdeeds, who refuses to be defended because he is innocent (according to him) of the murder of which he is accused. The film is in Arieh Worthalter's formidable work, in this character who possesses certain endearing characteristics. The film is also in his responses to the prosecutor's attacks, but also in his relationship with his lawyer and his lawyer's pleadings. The result is a film we can follow from start to finish, thanks to these formidable actors, as well as to the rather subtle screenplay, which manages to create a story by stringing together scenes of court pleadings that at first glance may look the same, but each time the information helps to clarify the character. Cédric Kahn constantly avoids the jurors' point of view, even during their deliberations.
The decision not to use music makes the actors' interpretations even more powerful, and forces viewers to concentrate on the characters at all times. Monsieur Goldman is an astonishing character, unsympathetic according to the thinking of the time (the 70s in France), but with enough elements to make him interesting today.
Zorn I (2010 - 2016) (2017)
Immersive and exciting
Mathieu Amalric filmed John Zorn and his musicians over a period of 12 years. The result is these three documentaries in which we see John Zorn in rehearsal, performance and concerts. An extremely prolific composer who gravitates towards various styles related to jazz and contemporary music, to put it simply.
It's always fascinating to see enthusiasts and experts at work. John Zorn is more than passionate, a genius or an eccentric who's constantly creating music, but above all he comes across as a child who's always having fun. Whether in rehearsal, the most interesting parts where we see him reacting to interpretations or making comments (he doesn't conduct directly, but comments in order to go where he wants), or in concert where he watches or participates himself, or whether solo on the organ, which is an instrument he's passionate about.
What's missing are the moments when John Zorn explains how he creates, what his internal algorithms are, there are a few where we see him on his tablet, but these moments are a little lacking to complete, to have a confirmation of the genius or maybe it's a laborious person who spends all his time on it.
The 355 (2022)
Routine and efficiency
It looks like a product for a streaming platform, with its motley cast designed for almost every continent (India, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be represented...). The framework is that of a big-budget espionage blockbuster, with multiple technological elements, settings and plots we've already forgotten (there must be a villain out to destroy the world, or something equivalent). No matter, what counts for this kind of product is the regular cadence of action cells (shoot-outs, chases, hand-to-hand combat, etc.). The film meets these specifications. Its originality lies in its all-female cast, but this remains meta, the plot and dramatic elements being either very weakly feminized or very standard and similar to franchises of the same canvas (James Bond, Mission: Impossible, and their clones).
In the genre, the film is effective, meets the specifications, and is sufficiently fast-paced not to generate boredom. It's no better or worse than any film in the James Bond or Mission: Impossible franchises, for example. And it more than lives up to the comparison.
Elle est des nôtres (2003)
An unusual mix of tones
This is an extremely thoughtful film: we can imagine a great deal of intellectual work behind it.
The main character is a temp whose life is empty and who doesn't know how to exist without others. But she turns out to be a psychopath and a criminal. She invents a life for herself when she talks about herself with others. She tries to socialize and relate to others. Her quirkiness makes her interesting to others. In the end, it works, and she climbs the corporate ladder to a management position.
The form of the film is extremely detailed: from the soundtrack, which is extremely well crafted, subtle and haunting, to the performance of Sasha Andres, who gives her character the charisma of a llama. With a multitude of unusual shots in the cinema: for example, the murder of Catherine Mouchet with her cries of pain in a long sequence, or the idea of two policemen speaking at the same time, an anachronistic element of burlesque that could be found in a comedy but which provokes a mixture of tones, welcome here.
We sense a great deal of work that could be a meeting of Michael Hanneke for a form of nihilism and Jean-Luc Godard for certain elements of form and offbeat humor.
Àma Gloria (2023)
High emotions with a stunning very young actress
A little girl's nanny is forced to move to her home country, as her mother has just died. The nanny is from Cape Verde. For the little girl, this is a heartbreaker, as her mother has died, and her nanny is an important part of her life. Her father sends her to her nanny's house for the summer vacations, where she learns to live with the nanny's real children, and is confronted with her nanny's everyday life, whose concerns are different from her own, and her everyday life in another universe.
The film's greatest quality is the formidable Louise Mauroy-Panzani, as full of emotion and subtlety as the film itself. Even if the dramatic progression is not subtle, it's easy to guess: the dramatic cells maraud between each member of the family. His daughter, her son, the nanny herself, each always interacting with the little girl.
The film contains an interesting formal idea: the use of cartoons for the transitional montage sequences. This provokes the viewer's curiosity while advancing the drama. In eighty-three minutes, the director conveys a multitude of subjects and micro-dramas, without appearing slapdash, and often eliciting emotion from the viewer.
RRR (Rise Roar Revolt) (2022)
Impressive, with a mix of the spectacular and the unseemly like Art
The aesthetics of Tollywood films (and many other Indian cinematographies) are in full effect here: actors and actresses constantly overacting, no real sound recording and the sound is reworked unrealistically in the studio (the voices are ridiculous), the bad guys are very bad (and English, the bad guys back up a ton to show they're bad), the good guys are very good, use of slow motion in the action sequences, unsynchronized dubbing during the singing passages (which are distracting), ridiculous moments (the dance contest, or the montage sequence with song about the friendship between the two main characters), ultra-redundant and insistent dialogue, an inability to tell a story through direction, excessive use of CGI porn with no concern for realism (at times, it's a cartoon aesthetic: the tiger sequence, or the series of explosions at the end). Another element that abstracts the film from all realism is the physical abilities of our two main characters, which are unbelievable and worthy of a superhero, or rather that of a super-heroic character who fears nothing.
Ram Charan as Raju, who has a secret quest that we gradually come to understand, especially late in the film. It's a charismatic role.
N. T. Rama Rao Jr. As Bheem, whose quest is clear from the start of the film. He is searching for and must bring back the little girl the English have taken from his village.
As usual, the female characters are a dime a dozen. Here we have Alia Bhatt, her husband's enforcer. And Olivia Morris, who plays the only English character who is not excessively caricatured.
But the film does contain some terrific sequences, such as the capture of the tiger, or the sequence of the bridge and the train bursting into flames.
Dogman (2023)
A fine piece of work, with subtle dialogues for the two main characters
Even if the pachydermic dramaturgy is still there, Luc Besson introduces subtlety into his cinema. And he writes some fine dialogues for the two main characters, Caleb Landry Jones and Jojo T. Gibbs, i.e. The DogMan of the title and the psychiatrist who interrogates him at the police station, for scenes of dialogue between these two characters, which are very successful. The richness of the film lies in the beautiful scenes in the police station between these two characters. The film is a succession of flashbacks in which Caleb Landry Jones tells his story to the psychiatrist. Also noteworthy are the psychiatrist's dialogues with her mother: a fine performance by Jojo T. Gibbs as the psychiatrist. Very fine writing.
The film is full of emotional moments, with both main characters moving in turn. The screenplay avoids certain clichés (the psychiatrist's tension with her ex could have led to the DogMan dealing with the ex, but it doesn't). As does the ending, which takes the film into a certain unreality.
The film is a pleasant surprise. The richness of the two main characters, the idea of using dogs, the performance of Caleb Landry Jones, all rest on a classicism of form; there's no hysteria about the form. Just a story of his life told by Caleb Landry Jones. His childhood (a rather unsubtle passage, but it's hard to be light-hearted), books and Shakespeare, cabaret and so on.
A calm, thoughtful film.
Vår tid är nu (2017)
Season 1 & 2 : fine piece of work with a lots of themes
The choral film is perfectly supported by the format of the TV series, here in the form of ten episodes of fifty to sixty minutes each. The dramatic life of a family - the mother, two sons and a daughter - revolves around the family restaurant, the wait staff, the kitchen staff, the supplies, the competition, everyone's family, and the passage of time (from the forties to the fifties).
The scriptwriters manage the drama perfectly, and the challenge for the viewer is to guess what dramatic event will disrupt the happiness of each of the characters. It's a principle of dramaturgy: as soon as things are going well, they have to go badly. What's going to happen? Who will betray? Who's going to die? Over time, it gets a little boring.
The historical context is the Second World War and the immediate post-war period in Stockholm, and the themes are manifold: adultery, racism, concentration camps, rationing, trade unionism, homosexuality (male and female), the family, capitalism, corruption, feminism, the workings of a kitchen or the dining room of a top restaurant, to name but a few. A multitude of subjects.
The whole is perfectly executed by actors and characters we want to follow, despite the systematic use of parallel editing and the regular occurrence of drama (we know the happiness won't last).
A fine piece of work.