by
Julien Faddoul
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
The surviving Resistance faces the First Order once more in the final chapter of the Skywalker saga.
The outcome of an anguished cultural democracy, clearly designed to appease a fanbase that wants to soak in nostalgia and nothing else. The result is an epic, garbled mess, playing as a series of box-checking salutes to previous installments, with characters spending most of their time recounting what just happened in the previous scene. This is movie-making with a giant tail wagging a tiny dog; with artlessness being less of an unfortunate consequence and more the proud, explicit ambition.
d – JJ Abrams
w – Chris Terrio, JJ Abrams, Derek Connolly, Colin Trevorrow
ph – Dan Mindel
pd – Rick Carter, Kevin Jenkins
m – John Williams
ed – Maryann Brandon, Stefan Grube
cos – Michael Kaplan
p – JJ Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan
Cast: Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Domhnall Gleeson, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Richard E. Grant, Lupita Nyong'o, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran, Ian McDiarmid, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Bremmer, Dave Chapman, Jeff Garlin, Greg Grunberg, Brian Herring, Billie Lourd, Nasser Memarzia, Dominic Monaghan, Simon Paisley Day, Matt Smith, Jimmy Vee
Jumanji: The Next Level *
The gang is back but the game has changed. Hijinks ensue.
Although this is merely a retread of the former film in this franchise, one must admit that the body-switching humour this time around – centred mostly around senior-citizen jokes – proves slightly more amusing. If anything, it provides a rare opportunity for Hart to speak at a pace slow enough to finally be audible.
d – Jake Kasdan
w – Jake Kasdan, Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg (Based on the Book by Chris Van Allsburg)
ph – Gyula Pados
pd – Bill Brzeski
m – Henry Jackman
ed – Steve Edwards, Mark Helfrich, Tara Timpone
cos – Louise Mingenbach
p – Matt Tolmach, Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, Jake Kasdan
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Awkwafina, Nick Jonas, Alex Wolff, Ser'Darius Blain, Morgan Turner, Madison Iseman, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Colin Hanks, Rhys Darby
Richard Jewell
The true story of Richard Jewell, hero and then suspect of the 1996 Olympic Park bombing.
Fickle, nebulous dramatic retelling in which Eastwood and Ray take every opportunity to engage in such tortured and superficial arguments on the dubiousness of the media.
d – Clint Eastwood
w – Billy Ray (Based on the Article by Marie Brenner)
ph – Yves Bélanger
pd – Kevin Ishioka
m – Arturo Sandoval
ed – Joel Cox
cos – Deborah Hopper
p – Jennifer Davisson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Clint Eastwood, Jonah Hill, Jessica Meier, Kevin Misher, Tim Moore
Cast: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Nina Arianda, Ian Gomez, Dylan Kussman
Klaus *
When a new postman befriends a toymaker, their gifts melt an age-old feud and deliver a sleigh full of Christmas traditions.
Splendid animation – utilizing volumetric lighting and texturing – can’t compensate for an uninvolving script, with predictable narrative beats and lame jokes.
d – Sergio Pablos
co-d – Carlos Martínez López
w – Zach Lewis, Jim Mahoney, Sergio Pablos
pd – Szymon Biernacki, Marcin Jakubowski
m – Alfonso G. Aguilar
ed – Pablo García Revert
p – Gustavo Ferrada, Mercedes Gamero, Jinko Gotoh, Mikel Lejarza, Sergio Pablos, Marisa Roman, Matthew Teevan
Cast: Jason Schwartzman, JK Simmons, Rashida Jones, Joan Cusack, Norm Macdonald, Will Sasso, Sergio Pablos
The Report *
An Idealistic Senate staffer is tasked to lead an investigation into the CIA's post 9/11 Detention and Interrogation Program.
Dry procedural that never ventures to compose any kind of formal dexterity outside the televisual but does prove engaging for at least half its length.
wd – Scott Z. Burns
ph – Eigil Bryld
pd – Ethan Tobman
m – David Wingo
ed – Greg O'Bryant
cos – Susan Lyall
p – Scott Z. Burns, Jennifer Fox, Danny Gabai, Eddy Moretti, Kerry Orent, Steven Soderbergh, Michael Sugar
Cast: Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm, Ted Levine, Maura Tierney, Michael C. Hall, Tim Blake Nelson, Corey Stoll, Linda Powell
Waves
Traces the journey of a suburban family – led by a well-intentioned but domineering father – as they navigate coming together in the aftermath of a loss.
Obnoxiousness par excellence; a cacophony of sound and images signifying nothing other than the director’s understanding of how to operate these specific tools. The attempts at racial apperception only further crystalize the film’s hollowness.
wd – Trey Edward Shults
ph – Drew Daniels
pd – Elliott Hostetter
m – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
ed – Isaac Hagy, Trey Edward Shults
cos – Rachel Dainer-Best
p – Trey Edward Shults, Kevin Turen, James Wilson
Cast: Kelvin Harrison Jr, Lucas Hedges, Taylor Russell, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Sterling K. Brown, Alexa Demie, Neal Huff, Clifton Collins Jr, Krisha Fairchild
Atlantics *
In a popular suburb of Dakar, workers on the construction site of a futuristic tower, without pay for months, decide to leave the country by the ocean for a better future.
Skin-deep, frustratingly didactic disquisition on the socio-religious complications of modern-day Senegal, told as an unclad ghost story. Diop seems far more interested in filming the Atlantic Ocean than in molling through her baffling narrative.
d – Mati Diop
w – Mati Diop, Olivier Demangel
ph – Claire Mathon
m – Fatima Al Qadiri
ed – Aël Dallier Vega
cos – Salimata Ndiaye, Rachel Raoult
p – Judith Lou Lévy, Eve Robin
Cast: Ibrahima Traore, Mame Bineta Sane, Aminata Kane, Fatou Sougou, Amadou Mbow, Abdou Balde
Ash is Purest White ***
In China’s underworld, a dancer who fired a gun to protect her mobster boyfriend during a fight, sets out to find him after being released from prison after 5 years.
A conspectus of Jia’s themes on the globalization of China and the different roles that both men and women are playing, saturated with impeccable use of sound and colour. More pulpy than his previous films, it gains immeasurably from an extraordinary performance by Zhao Tao, in three different time periods.
wd – Jia Zhangke
ph – Eric Gautier
ad – Weixin Liu
m – Giong Lim
ed – Matthieu Laclau, Xudong Lin
p – Shôzô Ichiyama
Cast: Zhao Tao, Liao Fan, Feng Xiaogang, Xu Zheng, Zhang Yibai, Diao Yi'nan
I Lost My Body **
A pizza delivery boy becomes smitten with a girl who works in a library. In another part of town, a severed hand escapes from a dissection lab, determined to find its body again.
Pensive, imaginative animated film that tells its story in a non-linear, bifurcated manner: The latter tale of the detached hand is superior to the romance, which relies on predictable chocolate-box misunderstandings.
d – Jérémy Clapin
w – Jérémy Clapin, Guillaume Laurant (Based on the Novel by Guillaume Laurant)
pd – Jocelyn Charles, Jérôme Florencie
m – Dan Levy
ed – Benjamin Massoubre
p – Marc Du Pontavice
Cast: Dev Patel, Alia Shawkat, George Wendt
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