by
Julien Faddoul
Black
Panther *
T’Challa, after
the death of his father, the King of Wakanda, returns home to the isolated,
technologically advanced African nation to succeed to the throne and take his
rightful place as king.
As Marvel
movies go, this one yearns to be taken seriously, with its scrutinizing, though
compromised, inspection on modern political problems and its stunning design
work. But the hosannas the film has received in certain circles is embarrassing,
much of it a reaction to said representational issues that have more to do with
the lack of diversity in modern-day big-budget cinema, rather than the film’s
accomplishments with plot, character, performance or aesthetic. The problems
that plague all these cookie-cutter superhero movies remain here, with no real
conceptual originality (borrowing narrative trajectories from Star Wars and
James Bond), inelegantly edited action set-pieces, dim humour and, in regards
to life and death, zero stakes. It’s disconcerting what people will settle for
nowadays.
d – Ryan Coogler
w – Joe Robert
Cole, Ryan Coogler
ph – Rachel Morrison
pd – Hannah
Beachler
m – Ludwig
Göransson
ed – Michael P.
Shawver, Claudia Castello
cos – Ruth E. Carter
p – Kevin Feige
Cast: Chadwick
Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman,
Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker,
Andy Serkis, Ashton Tyler, Seth Carr, Denzel Whitaker, Florence Kasumba, John
Kani, Atandwa Kani, Sterling K. Brown
The
Square *
A prestigious
Stockholm museum's chief art curator finds himself in times of both
professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new
exhibit.
Priggish,
not particularly enlightening or funny series of episodes that “satirically”
expose bourgeois behaviour. The ambition is obvious – for subtlety is utterly
precluded – but Östlund’s writing is just never up to snuff.
wd – Ruben Östlund
ph –Fredrik Wenzel
pd – Josefin Åsberg
ed – Jacob Secher Schulsinger, Ruben Östlund
cos – Sofie Krunegård
p – Philippe Bober, Erik Hemmendorff
Cast: Claes
Bang, Elisabeth Moss, Dominic West, Terry Notary, Christopher Læssø, Marina
Schiptjenko, Sofie Hamilton, Linda Anborg, Emelie Beckius, Peter Díaz, Sarah
Giercksky, Kolya Hardy
My Happy
Family **
In a
patriarchal society, an ordinary Georgian family lives with three generations
under one roof. All are shocked when the 52-year-old mother decides to move out
from her parents’ home and live alone.
Intriguing
dissection of family traditions in modern-day Georgia but one that, upon
reflection, suffers from a failure of nerve, with less screen time devoted to
the emotions involved than one would like.
d – Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß
w – Nana
Ekvtimishvili
ph – Tudor Vladimir Panduru
pd – Kote Japaridze
ed – Stefan
Stabenow
cos – Medea Bakradze
p – Jonas
Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo
Cast: Ia
Shugliashvili, Merab Ninidze, Berta Khapava, Tsisia Qumsashvili, Giorgi
Khurtsilava, Giorgi Tabidze, Goven Cheishvili, Dimitri Oragvelidze
Film
Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool *
Romance sparks
between a young actor and Gloria Grahame.
Fairly
unconvincing depiction of the last years of Gloria Grahame’s life, with only
Bening’s charisma a feature.
d – Paul McGuigan
w – Matt
Greenhalgh (Based on the Memoir by
Peter Turner)
ph – Urszula Pontikos
pd – Eve Stewart
m – J. Rlaph
ed – Nick
Emerson
p – Barbara Broccoli, Colin Vaines
Cast: Annette
Bening, Jamie Bell, Julie Walters, Vanessa Redgrave, Stephen Graham, Kenneth
Cranham, Leanne Best
Winchester
Ensconced in
her sprawling California mansion, an eccentric firearm heiress believes she is
haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle.
A stone cold
bore, tripping over every horror-movie cliché in the book, including unreasonable
behaviour from seemingly intelligent characters, children creepily singing
100-year-old songs and gaudy under-lit faces. Even Mirren is a snooze.
d – Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
w – Michael
Spierig, Peter Spierig, Tom Vaughn
ph – Ben Nott
pd – Matthew Putland
m – Peter Spierig
ed – Matt Villa
cos – Wendy
Cork
p – Tim McGahan, Brett Tomberlin
Cast: Helen
Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook, Angus Sampson, Laura Brent, Tyler Coppin,
Emm Wiseman, Finn Scicluna-O'Prey, Xavier Gouault, Brad Arnold
The 15:17
To Paris
Three Americans
discover a terrorist plot aboard a train while in France.
An
assemblage of odd ideas that completely fail: A retelling of a recent real-life
episode in heroism with many of the individuals involved playing themselves,
preceded by almost 70 minutes of backstory. It contains similar themes to other
late-period Eastwood films, especially his previous film Sully (2016), in its
interrogation of heroism. But where that had architecture, this one comes
across as an indolent, badly acted stunt.
d – Clint Eastwood
w – Dorothy
Blyskal (Based on the Book by Spencer
Stone, Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler, Jeffrey E. Stern)
ph – Tom Stern
pd – Kevin Ishioka
m – Christian
Jacob
ed – Blu Murray
cos – Deborah
Hopper
p – Clint Eastwood, Jessica Meier, Tim Moore, Kristina
Rivera
Cast: Spencer
Stone, Alek Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler, Ray Corasani, Jenna Fischer, Judy Greer,
Lillian Solange Beaudoin, Bryce Gheisar, Jaleel White, Tony Hale, William
Jennings, PJ Byrne, Paul-Mikél Williams
Brawl in
Cell Block 99 *
After working
as a drug courier and getting into a brutal shootout with police, a former
boxer finds himself forced to instigate violent acts that turn the prison he
resides in into a battleground.
A glorified
exploitation film, with an enormous amount of self-seriousness, which takes a
great deal of time going nowhere in particular. Despite this, Zahler always
makes sure to present his leitmotif with a winking eye, with the help of some
blatant anachronisms in the goings-on. The tone is unfocused, and the ludicrously
cartoonish violence only adds to the aloofness.
wd – S. Craig Zahler
ph – Benj Bakshi
pd – Freddy Waff
m – Jeff
Herriott, S. Craig Zahler
ed – Greg
D’Auria
cos – Megan
Stark Evans, Vanessa Porter
p – Jack Heller, Dallas Sonnier
Cast: Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don
Johnson, Udo Kier, Dion Mucciacito, Geno Segers, Mustafa Shakir, Marc Blucas,
Tom Guiry, Fred Melamed
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