Ready Player One (2018)

Directed by Steven Spielberg
Country: USA

Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One” is a busy sci-fi adventure punctuated by dark atmospheres and cathartic agitation in the form of wild action sequences filled with flashy, rowdy, and usually tiresome battles. The script, co-penned by Zac Penn and Ernest Cline, was based on the latter's 2011 novel of the same name. Despite the intelligent story, which alerts for current concerns about the addictive power of the ‘unreal’ world of the Internet and video games, the film’s visuals are hyper-saturated, assaulting our brain with the same uncontrolled trepidation as when you loop vertically on a rollercoaster.

Set in 2045, the story follows Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), an 18-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, who lives fascinated with an immersive virtual world called The Oasis, where he is one of the many compulsive players. As a place of the imagination, the Oasis allows you to be who you want to be, do anything, and go anywhere under the guise of an avatar. That way, you can feel every emotion of the experience while escaping from the desolation of the planet.

Our hero chose the Arthurian figure Parzival as his imaginary incarnation, here depicted with a David Bowie-ish hairstyle. He is prepared to plunge into a gaming contest in the Oasis that can change his life forever. The creator of the massively popular game was the venerated James Halliday (Mark Rylance), a quirky dreamer whose posthumous message to the world stated that his fortune and control of The Oasis would be given to the winning player of The Quest, a tough multi-phased contest. With the support of his team, The High-Five, Wade will explore many unknown and dangerous places, as well as fighting personal battles on both sides, the virtual and the real. 

The competition will also serve as a rebellion to free the Oasis from the hands of Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), the cunning CEO of a video game company, and his evil allies i-R0k (T.J. Miller) and F'Nale Zandor (Hannah John-Kamen), bounty hunter and operations assistant, respectively. In addition to the challenge, an extra motivation turns up when Wade falls for Samantha Cook (Olivia Cooke), the clouded woman behind the well-known player Art3mis, even before seeing her real face.

The film makes a nostalgic cult to the 70's and 80's, giving it a special flavor. An amazing soundtrack, rich pop-culture elements, and a horrifying recreation of Kubrick's “The Shining” with bloodbath and everything, are some of the good aspects you'll find.

It’s understandable that Spielberg wants to ride the fashion waves of trendiness, after the sobriety and formalism of meritorious dramas such as “Lincoln”, "Bridge of Spies", and “The Post”. However, he does with sensorially exhausting pyrotechnics. In the end, I couldn’t agree more with Halliday: “the real world is the only place you can get a decent meal.” Maybe there’s some truth in the film's tech prognostication, but for now, I rather focus on our planet, where huge problems have urgently to be fixed. Especially when the virtual world depicted wasn’t so attractive.

The Workshop (2018)

Directed by Laurent Cantet
Country: France

This fiction centers on a teacher-student relationship that becomes a dangerous game as the characters discover more about each other. French helmer Laurent Cantet earned credit with works such as “The Class”, “Time Out”, and “Human Resources”, observant considerations about France in the 90’s and 00’s. After the modest comedy-drama “Return to Ithaca”, he’s back with the humorless “The Workshop”, a film he co-wrote with Robin Campillo (“120 BPM”), which, toggling between the human drama and the slow-burning thriller, tackles France’s social reality in an interesting yet volatile way.

Marina Fois is Olivia Dejazet, a celebrated novelist who takes the challenging task of coordinating a summer social integration course for teenagers. The goal is to have the young group of participants writing a fictional noir novel set in their Southern town, La Ciotat, having the long-gone industrial prestige of the city and possibly some real experiences, helping their effort.

Because the young participants are mixed-race, the exchange of ideas sometimes brings tension, and the main ‘agent provocateur’ is Antoine (Matthieu Lucci), a sullen French-white solitaire who often shocks his colleagues with an aggressive posture marked by extremist ideas and pretentious coldness. Antoine is very intelligent, but the constant ennui in his life makes him a detached, radical person. He is strongly influenced by his cousin Teddy, whose ideas corroborate with the extreme right-wing party. They have a fixation with guns that impels them to shoot at the stars at dawn with their faces camouflaged with dirt.

In a preliminary phase, the film is dispersed and disarticulated, regardless the heated debates and the efforts of the non-professional cast to ring spontaneous. Things change gradually as the story evolves into something deeper. However, Cantet’s inability to assume a risk-taking posture never made him dug to the very bottom. Even addressing current socio-political issues of extreme importance in the group’s discussions - from ISIS to the Bataclan incident to the immigration crisis - this is all about murder, and how one can kill without a real motive.

Little by little, Olivia becomes excessively curious, even fascinated, by the self-reliant posture of her rebel student. Can he be a real threat to her and his mates? Definitely! And Olivia knows that. Still, she wants more from him, especially after hearing his keen if unpleasant remarks about one of her novels. In a way, Olivia tries to use him. She invites him to her own house and interviews him in private. She is in command, attempting to extract ideas that would serve to feed some fresh fictional character in her book. Is she helping him being a better person? Here is where exploitation bites hard, questioning a strange mutual attraction that was never too dark to impress.

If a sordid episode takes you to a dispassionate climax, the finale tries to tenderize even more what had happened. It’s a hopeful, and yet, too immediate conclusion. 
Both Fois and Lucci deliver competent performances, becoming the pillars that support Cantet’s enterprise. All the way through, “The Workshop” keeps oscillating between the good and the average.

Lover For A Day (2018)

Directed by Philippe Garrel
Country: France

Philippe Garrel’s “Lover For A Day” allows us to immerse ourselves in a complex situation lived by father, daughter, and his lover. Gilles (Éric Caravaca), a philosophy professor, is openly dating and living with 23-year-old Ariane (Louise Chevillotte), one of her former students. She totally aimed at him, ultimately vanquishing the fierce resistance he was putting on her advances for one entire semester. It has been three months since the couple is living together in Gilles' Paris apartment, but an unexpected visitor, who is not exactly a stranger, changes somehow the dynamics of their lives. I'm talking about Gille’s daughter, Jeanne (director’s daughter Esther Garrel), who is the same age of her father’s girlfriend and was suddenly kicked out of her boyfriend’s apartment. Heavily disappointed and broken-hearted with her first amorous disillusion, she struggles to recover the balance, sank into a depressive state that makes her attempt to jump from a window. Unfortunately, this particular scene happens to be the less fruitful of a film that manages to catch our eye through the spectacular black-and-white cinematography by the veteran Renato Berta, a regular choice of Alain Resnais and Louis Malle in the past. The melancholic plot actually serves as scaffolding for these visual impressions.

Ariane becomes closer to Jeanne after saving her at the last minute. Knowing about each others’ secrets, they agree to keep Gilles misinformed - Ariane doesn’t mention Jeanne’s almost-fatal weakness while Jeanne doesn’t tell her dad that Ariane is the cover of an adult magazine.

It's obvious that these women want something different from their relationships. Unfaithful and luxurious, Ariane enjoys freedom in an open relationship that reveals to be ineffective in many ways, whereas Jeanne only wants her boyfriend back, remaining tied up to that afflictive agony that keeps bringing into her mind that she was dumped without prior notice.

Unfolding with an articulated storytelling and resorting to an occasional voiceover for that purpose, the film deals with love, infidelity, jealousy, and even risks throwing in some political ideas involving the Algerian war for independence. 

Excavating moods and expressions, Garrel, who addressed these same topics in “Regular Lovers” and “Jealousy”, trails a bumpy road in this examination on the volatility of love and relationships. What you will see is classy cinema, framed with a stylish retro glow, but not devoid of a few uneven passages that feel more prosaic than poetic. Even dismaying in its conclusion, the auteur crafts it with sufficient élan to deserve a favorable mention.

Paradise (2017)

Directed by Andrei Konchalovsky
Country: Russia / Germany

Russian veteran Andrei Konchalovsky’s new drama, “Paradise”, centers on three persons whose destinies cross during the World War II. Co-penned by Konchalovsky and Elena Kiseleva, the script follows a mixed structure of fictional account and documentary-style interviewing, with the camera fixed during the first minutes on the self-reliant Jules Michaud (Philippe Duquesne), who, after introducing himself, starts to talk about his wife and his guileless son Emile. Even if he doesn’t seem an evil person, Michaud works in the French Police Department as an informer for Nazi Germany, being responsible for the capture of 80 thousand Jews.
 
Now he has a new case in hands regarding Russian-immigrant Olga (Yuliya Vysotskaya), a member of the French Resistance and fashion editor for Vogue Magazine in Paris. She was arrested for hiding two Jewish children in a friend’s apartment. At Jule’s office, where evidence of physical torment is undeniable, she asks “will you torture me?”. The tone implicit in the counter-question - “do I have a choice?” - made her realize she might have a slight chance if she could use her body. And she wasn’t mistaken because Jules was completely fascinated with her strength and manipulative charm. Unfortunately, the plan is impeded when Jules succumbs to a successful Resistance operation. 

To this point, the French glamour hadn't worked so well, but the film was going through an intriguing phase. After enticing us to know more about this woman, the attentions veer to a noble German aristocrat and high-ranked SS officer, Helmut zu Axenburg (Christian Clauß), who really prefers a good Chekov reading than chasing people around. Occasionally, he helps some Jews of his neighborhood, preventing them from being taken to concentration camps. Yet, just like his superior and friend, Heinrich Himmler (Viktor Sukhorukov), he believes in the creation of a German paradise, in which he has a brilliant future. That’s why the cruel, fundamentalist officer Krause (Peter Kurth) is so envious of his success. This man is in charge of the German concentration camp where Olga was sent. Unsurprisingly, we learn that Olga and Helmut are not strangers, with the film winding back a few years to a sunny summer day in Tuscany, Italy, when she fell into his arms.

Unable to ignite an emotional fire, the story fades gradually as the limitations of its uneven parts force me to abandon the characters. This ungoverned ship got lost in explanative rumination and trivial details that could have spared the film from that annoying overlong feel. Hence, the impeccably contrasted black and whites set by cinematographer Aleksandr Simonov nothing could do to save it from the wreck. As a matter of fact, the visual aspect becomes what impels us to look at the screen since the periodic interruptions in the narrative flow in order to include the characters’ monologues become a bit tiresome.

Konchalovsky was awarded the Venice Silver Lion but was incapable to give a proper sequence to a few good ideas, allowing both the tedium and the disorganization to circumscribe a plot that brusquely decays half-way.

Happy End (2017)

Directed by Michael Haneke
Country: France / Austria / Germany

German writer-director Michael Haneke earned cult status with gut-wrenching dramas such as “The Seventh Continent”, “The Piano Teacher”, “The White Ribbon”, and “Amour”. In his most recent work, sarcastically entitled “Happy End”, he addresses depression and suicidal tendencies as he depicts a French middle-class family, at the same time that faintly glances at the European migrant crisis. The story is loosely tied to the Oscar-winner “Amour”, which, like this one, also starred Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant as daughter and father.
 
Its premise, smartly steeped in technology, shows us an absorbing sequence of images recorded on a smartphone. At first, we see a woman being filmed while in the bathroom, and then unconscious due to a mysterious drug poisoning. Afterward, that overdose is transferred to a hamster, which ends up stiff in his cage, intoxicated with anti-depressives. The author of the videos is Eve (Fantine Harduin), a 13-year-old who, even admitting her guilt in both cases, never passes the sensation of evil or darkness. With her mother in the hospital, she is going to live with her estranged father, Thomas Laurent (Mathieu Kassovitz), his new wife, Anais (Laura Verlinden), and their baby.

However, the camera turns momentarily to Anne Laurent (Huppert), Eve’s aunt, a divorced workaholic who has to keep an eye on her demented octogenarian father, George (Trintignan), and her demotivated son Pierre (Franz Rogowski), who is facing a drinking problem. While Thomas is a well-established doctor, Anne and Pierre run the family business, a construction company in Calais that has been going through serious financial difficulties. Their disquietude associated with rescuing the company expands into a panic when a dangerous landslide occurs in one of the construction sites they were operating, causing a worker to be injured. 

The emotional turmoils arrive from many fronts. Pierre is not getting better, feeling useless and ashamed of himself and attracting trouble in every move; Eve is becoming as much depressive as her mother was and finds out that his father is having an extramarital affair with a cellist; after eluding his caregiver Rachid (Hassam Ghancy), George flees from home in a car to commit suicide, but the best he can do is restraint, even more, his moves by becoming wheelchair-bound. He’s a stubborn man, though, and will study other ways that could make him end his sufferable existence. The only 'normal' situation seems to be Anne’s engagement with a British lawyer, Lawrence Bradshaw (Toby Jones).

The scenario is ideal for Haneke’s wry observations, who depicts the usual emotional fissures and inner sufferance with a disarming dark humor that keeps the film on its feet, even in the most strained situations. 
The aesthetic maturity of the static long-shots don’t compromise the emotional strength of the tale, but rather compensate the numerous close-ups that intended to dig deep into the characters’ broken souls.

While the ridiculously funny finale is quite clever, pumping up a film that had fallen in drowsiness for a while, the ultimate confessions and empathic understanding between granddaughter and grandfather is, perhaps, the most questionable scene of the film.

Even familiar in tone and less effective than Haneke's previous material, “Happy End” feels destructive inside out, and the Austrian helmer shows it with a sardonic artistic touch.

Keep The Change (2018)

Directed by Rachel Israel
Country: USA

With her own award-winning short film as a reference, director Rachel Israel has an auspicious debut on feature-length film with “Keep The Change”, an offbeat rom-com and urban fiction that worths every minute of your time.

Set in New York City, the story stars the newly-arrived Brandon Polansky, whose true experiences were at the base of the script, and Samantha Elisofon, as two gorgeously weird Jewish New Yorkers whose personal troubles are attenuated whenever they are together. He is David, a sensory-overloaded stressed man with a charming posture who belongs to an upper-class family. She is Sarah, a modest, super talkative, all-smiley 24-year-old woman who suffers from a learning disorder. She also loves to flirt with men and sing. Both meet in the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where they attend a support group session for adults with disabilities. Most of the idiosyncratic attendees of these sessions are super funny individuals, but Sammy (Nicky Gottlieb, a natural improviser) is the one who occupies the top of the list as a flamboyant theater aficionado. When asked about which dream he would like to come true, he sensuously described a sexual encounter with David’s cousin, Matt Cone (Johnathan Tchaikovsky), who is a celebrated Broadway actor.

After driving away his Internet girlfriend, Angie (Anna Suzuki), in their first date with an obnoxious rape joke, David is stalked by Sarah, who insists on a previously agreed homework assignment that forces them to take a trip to the Brooklyn Bridge. On their way, and while in a cab, their contrasting personalities and social status become salient again since he likes his mother’s chauffeur to drive him wherever he wants, whereas she only feels at ease when on the bus that takes her to her grandmother’s house, where she lives.

Disregarding differences, the couple shares an unarticulated yet enthusiastic first kiss and then strolls through iconic places like the Central Park, Times Square, and Coney Island, where David’s fears and weaknesses surface in the form of nervous tics. This peculiarity becomes hilarious while they ride on a carousel for children, and the issue is only mitigated with the help of Sarah, who compassionately shows to be there for him. In this scene, she gives rise to the film's most tender moment.

Unfortunately, David wasn’t able to demonstrate a comparable sensibility or consideration when Sarah starts to sing in the presence of his cousin, after having shamelessly disclosed some details regarding their first sexual experience. His embarrassment and reprimand hurt her feelings, compromising a relationship that was precociously inclined to marriage. Would he be able to live without her?

The spontaneous performances of the duo are half the battle for the success, but definitely, Ms. Israel is also influential and decisive as she merges both the comedy and drama genres with gracious artistry. Additionally, the jokes work pretty well, and the street images, sleekly captured by cinematographer Zachary Halberd, glow with a warm color temperature that is visually arresting.

The New York-based company Kino Lorber acquired the rights to the film for distribution in North America. Hence, the ones fancying unconventional romantic tales should not miss the chance of watching this little gem on the big screen. Besides the good laughs, “Keep The Change" enchants with the authenticity, zaniness, and warm-heartedness that naturally emerge from the sympathetic characters.

Annihilation (2018)

Directed by Alex Garland
Country: USA

English filmmaker Alex Garland has a penchant for intellectual sci-fi thrillers. The follow-up to the well-received “Ex-Machina” is another uncanny puzzle entitled “Annihilation”, the first installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy, originally penned by novelist Jeff VanderMeer. Garland adapted it for the screen, calling Natalie Portman to impersonate a biology professor and former soldier who joins a female team of military scientists to undertake the oddest mission ever.

As a premise, the film presents us Lena (Portman) under interrogation by U.S. Government agents about a classified expedition into an unearthly, abnormal phenomenon known as The Shimmer. She was the only survivor from a psychedelic experience that also involved psychologist/team leader Dr. Ventress (Jennifer Jason Leigh), paramedic Anya Thorensen (Gina Rodriguez), physicist Josie Radek (Tessa Thompson), and geologist/surveyor Cass Sheppard (Tuva Novotny). Former military incursions into the affected area, which covers a national park, were unsuccessful, and no one ever returned to tell the story, except for Sargent Kane (Oscar Isaac), Lena’s husband. However, he seems to have lost his memory and falls gravely ill with multiple organ failure, most likely due to virus or radiation exposition. The rumors are that, once there, people lose their memories and then are mysteriously killed, or get delirious and start killing one another.

Thus, there's plenty of bite here, even before the team steps into the iridescent electromagnetic field that identifies The Shimmer. Once in there, confronted with several technical problems and time lapses, they observe that the landscape and all types of life form are mutating. It’s not uncommon to find plants with a human shape and they even see trees made of crystal. However, if this certainly won’t scare you, punctual grotesque encounters with wild, abhorrent, carnivorous creatures will make you twist on your seat. Possible hallucinations? The dreamlike tones are properly set to make us alert as we penetrate in this chimerical world of horror and beauty. Macabre footage by the precedent explorers is found in an old warehouse, which bemuses the brave women even more.
According to the ice-cold Dr. Ventress, who shows there's something wrong with her as she lectures Lena about self-destructiveness, the goal is to reach a lighthouse at the center of The Shimmer.

We’ve all seen this type of story many times before and its moods are not a novelty either. Still, Garland, who has the capacity to develop ideas beyond the superficial, conquered me with a magnificent last part, superbly represented through visually mind-blowing images drowned in gorgeous special effects. It’s the psychological side of the story that is challenging as it also brings thrills and excitement.

Fusing elements of “Alien”, “Predator” and “Arrival”, “Annihilator” is a dark-tinged equation whose resolution whets our appetite for the upcoming sequels.

Red Sparrow (2018)

Directed by Francis Lawrence
Country: USA

After three installments of "The Hunger Games" franchise, director Francis Lawrence teams up once again with the charismatic actress Jennifer Lawrence for a sexed-up espionage thriller that, lacking depth, still finds a compromise between the satisfying action and the inglorious thrills.

Set in modern-day Russia, the story follows Dominika Egorova (Lawrence), a superb Bolshoi ballerina whose career ends abruptly after a serious injury. Overwhelmed by an unclear future, she is maliciously approached by her surreptitious uncle, Ivan (Matthias Schoenaerts), an agent for the Russian intelligence who assigns her a perfidious mission before sending her to Sparrow School. Once there, she is subjected to an intensive and sadistic training, learning to use her body and mind to seduce possible targets. Dominating the art of manipulation, Dominika will become a reliable agent, but her efficiency and determination soften after she bumps into Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton), an American CIA operative who is trying to save the same mole - identified as Marble - she was ordered to seek and destroy.

Soon, Dominika becomes a double agent. She does it out of love and as a response to the brutal assassination of another Russian female spy, a warning to all agents in an attempt to prevent leaks of secret information.

Directing from a script by Justin Haythe (“Revolutionary Road”, “The Lone Ranger”), based on the novel by Jason Matthews, Francis Lawrence plays with overused counter-espionage tactics while trying to gain some more points through a faulty Russian-American romance. "Red Sparrow" packs an imperfect punch that only becomes effective during the brief yet violent interrogations and a well-mounted scene involving unmerciful stabs.

Modest appearances by Charlotte Rampling and Jeremy Irons as the headmistress of Sparrow School and General Vladimir Andreievich Korchnoi, respectively, weren’t enough to push the film into the limelight. We are left with a few lurid episodes, abundant lust, and… Jennifer Lawrence, who, better than Charlize Theron in “Atomic Blonde”, plays this brave if cunning spy with the right attitude and a sexy look. 

The Death of Stalin (2018)

Directed by Armando Iannucci
Country: UK / other

Not all the filmmakers have the capacity of gathering sensitive political and historical material and turn it into a pleasurable satirical parody that stirs our intellect in a totally different way. With just a couple of feature-length films, Italian-born Armando Iannucci is surely one of them, asserting his gift with comedies such as “In The Loop”, and now “The Death of Stalin”, a tongue-in-cheek caricature of the post-Stalinism struggle for power. Its conception was based on the French graphic novel of the same name.

In 1953, the paranoia related to Josef Stalin's dark list consumes the nerves of common civilians, red army soldiers, and high-ranked politicians in Moscow. There are numerous arrests, tortures, and deaths, which become more and more exaggerated as they kept being ordered by the tyrant Russian leader (Adrian McLoughlin) and his feared right arm and NKVD’s head, Lavrentiy Beria (Simon Russell Beale). Rumors are that the duo has already locked up half the nation.

In order to give us an idea of how improper things work around there, the director fabricates a scene of a classical music concerto whose recording is unexpectedly required by Stalin through an unusual direct phone call. Because nobody had recorded it, the artists were forced to play the Mozart recital again while the audience was encouraged to applaud even more. However, pianist Maria Yudina (Olga Kurylenko), an opposer of the regime, refuses to play and had to be bribed to step on stage for the second time. 

Following Stalin’s cerebral hemorrhage and consequent death, the main members of the Central Committee - the cynical Beria, the slippery first secretary Nikita Krushchev (Steve Buscemi), the conspiring foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov (Michael Palin), and the vain deputy general secretary Georgy Malenkov (Jeffrey Tambor) get ready to fiercely dispute the leadership. Other ministers join the four vultures in a ceremonious if hilarious funeral that is further disturbed by the presence of Stalin’s drunken son, Vasily (Rupert Friend), the unwelcome yet invited ultra-orthodox bishops, and Zhukov (Jason Isaacs), the authoritarian marshal of the Soviet Union who is also scheming in hopes to hold sway.

By employing a wry, British-like humor, Iannucci, who co-wrote with David Schneider and regular collaborator Ian Martin, satirizes the episodes with whirlwinds of tension and mordant tones, regardless the historical inaccuracies that his script may contemplate. 

The narrative is no slack and there’s always something happening that keeps us alert and grinning from ear to ear. As the farce moves forward, it becomes irresistibly chaotic, zany, and jocular, ingredients one should expect from this type of provocative comedy. The ensemble cast was so daredevil in their absurdist roles, and the sequence of events so wild, that the film was banned in Russia and other former members of the Soviet Union.

Final Portrait (2017)

Directed by Stanley Tucci
Country: UK

“Final Portrait”, the first film of Stanley Tucci in 10 years, not only brings about a few interesting aspects about the personality of the Swiss multidisciplinary artist Alberto Giacometti, but also stages his relationship with James Lord, the film narrator and art critic who exhaustively posed for him in an impeccable suit, delaying consecutively his trip back to New York.

British cinematographer Danny Cohen did an excellent job, giving the picture the monochromatic tones that had marked the artist’s painting style while capturing Giacometti's decrepit, and often messy, studio and the 1964 Parisian atmosphere.

Geoffrey Rush ("Shine", "Quills", "The King's Speech") and Armie Hammer ("Call Me By Your Name"), embodying Giacometti and Lord, respectively, become the true artisans of a passable biopic whose mood kept oscillating between the diverting and the unaspiring. There were brief moments where I could engage with the characters, while on others, I expected much more as I started to react with indifference to the repetitive swearing proper of a perpetually unsatisfied genius.

“I will never be able to paint you as I see you. It’s impossible.” Says the artist to his model. A bit neurotic and sometimes radical in his attitudes, the temperamental Giacometti keeps his large income at home, confesses he thinks about suicide on a daily basis, only cares about his miserable wife (Sylvie Testud) when he’s sick, and burns all his money with a young hectic prostitute named Caroline (Clémence Poésy), his primary model, inspiration, and obsession. Sometimes, dominated by frustration and impelled by furious attacks, he throws his valuable art in the garbage.

Tucci’s ideas, together with Rush’s acting abilities, were enough to minimally shape the artist, but this biographical drama has no place among the best I’ve seen lately. 

Loveless (2017)

Directed by: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Country: Russia

Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev has become one of the most sought-after storytellers of our time, and his acclaimed works are usually significant and pungent. Following the masterpieces “The Return”, “Elena”, and “Leviathan”, the prodigious filmmaker turns his stinging criticism to Putin’s unruly Russia and a virulent household, in a cold-hearted missing-child drama. Thus, the title “Loveless” fits hand-in-glove with the material addressed.

This aching absence of love can be sensed at many levels and goes through many layers. The camera captures the ways of a middle-class couple, Boris (Aleksey Rozin) and Zhenya (Maryana Spivak), who is about to divorce. They have a 12-year-old son, Alexey (Matvey Novikov), who is often left on his own, neglected, and without any supervision. Hurt with the embarrassing atmosphere lived at home and on the verge of being sent to a boarding school, the unhappy Alexey is clearly a nuisance for his parents, who are both having affairs with new partners. Boris is inclusively expecting another child from his insecure and often inconvenient girlfriend, Masha (Marina Vasileva).
 
One day, Alexey didn't return home from school. Despite missing for nearly two days, his father remains too busy working, while the mother keeps enjoying time in the company of a new bourgeois, Anton (Andris Keiss). A police investigation is launched, not without the expected bureaucracy, and the doubts fall into three different possibilities: murder, kidnap, or just a runaway teenager? 

Religion appears as another sharp observation about modern Russia. Boris could only be able to work for an ultra-orthodox company because he was married, but now with the divorce, his position is at stake. Nothing he couldn't fake, says a workmate. With Zhenya, who was always unloved by her irascible mother, the things were completely different. She got married out of love to escape the hell she was living at home.

The movie immerses you in its web of ambiguity, and yet, all the mystery created around the story is almost totally suffocated by the negligence, cruelty, and selfishness of the adult characters. There’s so much pain, regret, and bitterness in this tale that one can’t help being dragged into a miserable emotional state.

Wintry and autumnal woody landscape, fantastically captured by the lens of cinematographer Mikhail Krichman, infuse an extra sense of abandonment in a story that, little by little, starts to mess with your head and emotions. Zvyagintsev is a true master of these techniques, and he does it with a clear vision, sharp intention, and cultivated proficiency.

Deservedly nominated for the best foreign picture by the Academy, “Loveless” left me completely parched and infuriated in the end. Darkness will live forever in the chest of this mother and father, who choose to live their lives as if they were victims instead of responsible parents. It’s frustratingly unbearable, for the film’s sake.
 
The filming process occurred in Moscow and was completed with international financial support after “Leviathan” has been disapproved in 2014 by the Russian authorities. Nothing new regarding censorship; just like it's not a novelty the ability of Zvyagintsev making outstanding films.

A Fantastic Woman (2018)

Directed by Sebastián Lelio
Country: Chile

Strongly anchored in the priceless acting skills of Daniela Vega, the Chilean drama “A Fantastic Woman” paints a modern portrait of struggle, independence, confidence, and resilience. 

The film’s central focus is Marina Vidal (Vega), a transgender woman in her late thirties who works as a waitress during the day and sings in a nightclub at night. She suffers a deep emotional blow when Orlando (Francisco Reyes), her 57-year-old partner, dies at the hospital from an aneurysm. The incident occurred on the same night that she moved into his apartment in Santiago. Thus, Marina has no place else to go, which motivates Orlando’s rude son, Bruno (Nicolás Saavedra), to insinuate she might have something to do with his father’s death. Bruno’s pugnacious mother, Sonia (Aline Küppenheim), is very explicit when stating that her ex-husband embarked on a perversion, forbidding Marina to attend his funeral. Among the members of the family, only Gabo (Luis Gnecco), Orlando’s benevolent brother, accepts Marina, even saving her from additional imbroglios with an inquisitive police officer at the hospital. However, he couldn't prevent an unsmiling female police detective (Amparo Noguera) from stalking her and demand humiliating physical exams to clarify a hypothetical suspicion of aggression. 

Throughout this oppressive journey, she gets some help from her sister, Wanda (Trinidad González), but didn't gain the sympathy of her sarcastic boyfriend, Gaston (Néstor Cantillana). The real support comes from her singing teacher (Sergio Hernandez), who finding his emotionally torn student in pain, offers a friendly shoulder.

Argentinean-born Chilean director Sebastian Lelio, who gave us the memorable “Gloria” last year, composes the picture with depressive tones, a slow and steady pace, and a few redundant scenes, which, clearly intending to define the character’s personality, ended up more strained than reasonable. On one of them, Marina forces a man out of a taxi, justifying the demeanor with an emergency, while in another, the wind blows so forcefully that she can barely walk, a symbolic yet dull representation of the stagnancy that dominates her life at this point. 

The screenwriters, Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, created a mysterious, opaque fog around the core of the story that simply didn’t work. Their vain supernatural suggestions, planned to make the difference, revealed to be ineffective, even time-consuming.
 
Ferociously punching the air to release the stress, Marina shows an insusceptible inner strength and self-determination in the face of prejudice, vexation, and loneliness. And yet, despite bending on many occasions, her self-identity was never put in question. This is the strongest aspect of a film that, unlike "Gloria", and despite the best intentions, is not going to be missed.

The Untamed (2017)

Directed by Amat Escalante
Country: Mexico / other

The work of Mexican director Amat Escalante has been considered as provocative, violent, and emotionally disturbing. This was mirrored in “Heli”, with which he won Cannes' best director, and it’s easily observable again in his latest feature “The Untamed”, a risky piece of cinema that borrows some influence from Andrzej Zulawski’s “Possession”. It gave him another reputed best-director prize, this time in Venice.

Embracing that similar depressing atmosphere as in his previous work, Escalante raises expectation for this one as he adds elements of sci-fi and erotica to pepper a solid family drama. This combination, not always successful but undeniably trendy, should bring him some more followers. Still, this disquieting canvas painted in dark hues may repulse the most sensitive ones through the gloominess that encircles the story from minute one.

The film, written by Escalante and Gibran Portela, follows two different stories that converge at some point. Alejandra (Ruth Ramos) is a dedicated mother of two who lost sexual attraction for her knavish husband, Angel (Jesús Meza). She keeps showing signs of tiredness due to his improper ways, heavy drinking, as well as possessive behavior. In fact, she has every reason to be concerned because Angel, who adopts a homophobic posture in front of her, is having a homosexual affair with Alejandra’s nurse brother, Fabian (Eden Villavicencio). However, the latter is willing to discontinue these dishonorable encounters, especially after he meets Veronica (Simone Bucio), a young woman in need of special treatment due to a deep wound in her belly inflicted by a multiple-tentacle alien that landed on our planet with a meteorite.

This abhorrently weird creature relies on Mr. Vega (Oscar Escalante), a scientist, and his wife Marta (Bernarda Trueba), to find young women to fulfill its concupiscence. “It only gives pleasure and never hurts”, says Veronica, but this is only accurate until it gets tired of playing with the same person. The women who experience it, describe this bizarre yet addictive pleasure as sublime, attaining a primitive and pure state of the sexual act itself.

When Fabian falls into a coma due to a brutal sexual aggression, the mysterious tones of the story intensify while the doubts linger in our heads.

Even demanding my attention in several sections, this was not an attractive story at all, given that some of the images can be truly somber and disgusting. Besides, it doesn’t take you anywhere beyond the superficial.

Standing somewhere between the art-house explorations of Tsai Ming Liang and Brillante Mendoza, the film presents ever-shifting moods, going from the poignant drama to mild crime thriller to restrained sci-fi horror film. The topics are also diverse, touching homophobia, misogyny, hedonism, and human ignominy. 

Slippery and sly, “The Untamed” boasts some originality.  In spite of that, the extra-sensorial extraterrestrial fiction that Escalante tries to sell becomes more subfusc than scary as the film moves forward.

Suburbicon (2017)

Directed by George Clooney
Country: USA

George Clooney’s film noir “Suburbicon”, a weird crossing between “Double Indemnity” and a Shakespeare’s tragedy, holds a grip until a certain point but ultimately fails to deliver. The first film directed by Clooney in three years had everything to succeed if it wasn’t for its predictability and tackiness in the vain attempt to throw in serial crime episodes, racial injustice, and social satire in the same bag without mixing them well first. Not even the magic touch of the Coen Brothers, who took care of the script alongside Clooney and Grant Heslov, avoided a muddled tale that was only timidly sparked by the great cast.

The film was loosely based on a factual case occurred in Levittown, Pennsylvania, 1957, when a black family moved to a hostile ‘white’ neighborhood. Its central character is an unscrupulous man, Gardner Lodge (Matt Damon), who schemes to kill his wheelchair-bound wife, having her insidious twin sister, Maggie (Julianne Moore), as an accomplice and future partner. The main motive behind such a repulsive plan is to get a large sum of money from the accidental death insurance. Trouble arrives when the two hired thugs that perpetrated the crime start to feel threatened by Gardner's young son, Nicky (Noah Jupe), who could easily identify. The latter, who has no clue why his father is covering them up, is ultimately rescued by uncle Mitch (Gary Basaraba), the one who loves him like his own child, after being enlisted in a military academy.

In parallel, we follow the hardships of Mrs. Mayers (Karimah Westbrook), an African American woman who moved to Suburbicon with her family in hopes of a decent life. Sadly, she only found intolerance coming from the cruel white inhabitants who don’t waste a chance to humiliate her. This description might rouse some curiosity, but, incredible as it may seem, this segment of the film was even feebler than the murder case, which, at least, and with the help of a greedy insurance agent (Oscar Isaac), slightly stirs some tension. Failing to deliver that dark humor that everybody was expecting, Clooney and his associates were also unable to integrate the two stories in the film. It's excused to say that none of them worked well individually either. 

Having the right performers for each role and created the right looks to fill the background, Clooney nothing could have done in terms of direction or tone to ameliorate the written material, which had already been born defective. Hence, the outcome, not putting him into a shame in terms of filmmaking, is utterly unsatisfactory in terms of the message as well as highly inconsistent in the art of entertaining.

Gook (2018)

Directed by Justin Chon
Country: USA

One can’t deny there is artistry in the way writer-director-actor Justin Chon mounted his multi-cultural indie drama “Gook”. Shot in black-and-white, the film paints realistic scenarios and uses a fierce bittersweetness as its dominant flavor.

Set in the 90s, the story follows Eli (Justin Chon), a Korean American shoe-store owner who struggles to make his business thrive after his father’s death. The first minutes of the film are intended to show how tough life can be in a violent Los Angeles neighborhood where people of distinct ethnicities generally don’t get along. The environment can be quite hostile, which makes Eli and his brother Daniel (David So), his partner in the store and R&B singer wanna-be, to experience racism almost every day, whether coming from the Hispanics or the African-Americans. Detested for no reason, they struggle to protect their goods from being stolen while the fear steps up with the tension and violence escalating in South-Central due to racial frictions, economic deprivation, and social marginalization.

Despite the conflicts, the brothers have a special friendship with Kamilla (Simone Baker), an 11-year-old African-American orphan who loves to sing and skating. She frequently skips school just to hang out with them at the store, helping with the customers and filling their lives with a contagious energy. In any case, her intractable older brother, Keith (Curtiss Cook Jr.), is the main responsible for the Koreans’ headaches since he can easily shoot his gun for a pair of new sneakers.

The dynamics are stirred whenever Kamilla teases Mr. Kim (Sang Chon), a Korean liquor-store owner who doesn’t stay put when he sees somebody stealing from his store. Those hilarious situations usually end up with Eli confronting him. Yet, Mr. Kim, who abides by the rules except when driving, suddenly changes from villain to ally when the brothers’ safety is put in jeopardy.

Because hatred and violence always lead to disgrace, Chon envisioned passing that message during the emotionally disturbing final third. Though exciting in many ways, the film’s tail is characterized by a strained acting sequence whose melodramatic edge touches the limit. It feels restrictive instead of enriching.

Still, there are so many things to behold in “Gook”: the emphatic cinematography by Ante Cheng, a lovely soundtrack that ranges from hip-hop to guitar-driven melancholy to Hall & Oats’ Man Eater, and the story itself, fabricated with both feel-good and unsettling moments.

6 Weeks To Mother's Day (2017)

Directed by Marvin Blunte
Country: USA

Especially now, in a time that the world needs righteous deeds to balance the frenzy that keeps escalating a bit everywhere, it’s comforting to focus our attention on honorable projects done by solicitous people who dedicate their lives to help others in need. This idea gains further emphasis when the people who are benefitting from these efforts are children.

Documentarian Marvin Blunte captures with a self-assertive sense of admiration, the wonderful assistance and guidance given to the impoverished children that reside at Children’s Village School, a 35-year institution located in a remote jungle of the Kanchanaburi province, Thailand. As an alternative to the public school system and the first democratic school in the country, it gives the opportunity for 150 underprivileged children to experience several tasks, from cooking to art making to clean, while learning the basics of life from a remarkably open-minded program. Afterward, according to their natural skills, the students can freely choose what they want to be and do in the future. As explained by the school’s principal and co-founder Rajani Dhongchai aka Mother Aew, endless patience with and love for these kids who were abandoned, abused, or simply let go due to extreme poverty, are the keys for success.

Both former and current students don’t spare words of gratitude and praise to their benefactor, who, despite struggling with her own health problems, is constantly smiling and treating her foster children with the love and respect they’ve never had at home.

Blunte's starting point is six weeks prior to the Mother’s Day. At the Children’s Village, all the teachers are called Mom, but the one who is being honored is the big-hearted Mother Aew, who left her regular job as a public teacher to focus on this grandiose accomplishment alongside her husband Pibhop.

The school is exemplary in its educational discipline, touching a variety of fundamental subjects such as democracy, sexual education, birth giving, human rights, freedom of speech, environmental consciousness, and many others. The kids can openly express their sexual orientation, like it happened with Pao, and participate in a sort of court emulation, a fair process to deal with misconducts and complaints. Teachers and students suggest possible punishments for the wrongdoers, which are posteriorly subjected to a vote.

Before the festive day arrives, the film crew follows two twin siblings in a sporadic visit to their real parents. Alcoholic and miserably paid for their work in a sugarcane plantation, mother and father act disparately in front of their children. While the mother gets emotional, the father, visibly depressed and ashamed, is inexpressive, almost indifferent to their presence. This scene is particularly excruciating and heartbreaking.

The director showed unity and efficiency in his moves, portraying Mother Aew and her heroic achievements as remarkable examples to be followed worldwide. “6 Weeks To Mother's Day” has the ability to fill our hearts with optimism and gratitude.

Sundowners (2017)

Directed by Pavan Moondi
Country: USA

Three years ago, I was impressed with a little indie gem called “Diamond Tongues”, a tragicomedy with sharp observations about the film industry. The film was co-directed by Toronto-born, Los Angeles-based filmmaker Pavan Moondi, who recently released his not-so-appealing third feature, “Sundowners”, starring Phil Hanley and newcomer Luke Lalonde in the main roles. They play Alex Hopper and Justin Brown, respectively, two solitary buddies who, fed up of their common lives and daily financial struggle, see an unexpected opportunity to shoot a wedding in Mexico as their temporary salvation. However, while Alex is a full-time videographer with years of experience, Justin, who was supposed to photograph, doesn’t even know how to change the aperture in a camera. 

The assignment came from the agency for which Alex works. His discreditable boss, Tom (Tim Heidecker), also a notorious boaster, is the best the film has to offer, believe it or not. Posing as an asshole yet funny in his lines and posture, this is the typical guy who acts tough in the presence of his employees but cools down his voice when talking to his wife. With all the nerve in the world, he advises Alex not to mix business and pleasure, but plays guitar in his office while bullshitting about the wages he owes him.

While none of the wedding’s tribulations are a novelty, the boys’ strong sense of adventure is uplifted. Still, the situations that swirl around them don’t ring true. As an aggravating factor, we have the pointless dialogues, which roundly fail to engage in all its modesty.

This is a messy attempt to invoke “The Hangover” and fuse it with “Wedding Crashers”. Pavan Moondi already showed he could do much better than what he did in this mind-numbing trifle.

Oh Lucy! (2018)

Directed by Atsuko Hirayanagi
Country: Japan / USA

In her debut feature film, “Oh Lucy!”, Japanese writer-director Atsuko Hirayanagi successfully expands her award-winning 2014 short film of the same name and delivers a more-than-ordinary drama that is a loud shout for existential freedom.

The central character is Setsuko Kawashima (Shinobu Terajima), a single, middle-aged office worker who lives a lonely and unfulfilled life in Tokyo. Despite a rough cough that makes her workmates uncomfortable, smoking cigarettes is perhaps her unique daily pleasure. Still, she's the sarcastic type, a fact that can be confirmed during a co-worker’s retirement party, where she unleashes all her accumulated frustrations.
Prior to the cited occurrence, and while waiting for the train on her way to work, a man jumps into the tracks after whispering ‘goodbye’ in her ear. Although traumatic, the situation didn’t seem to upset the resilient Setsuko on a large scale. The only thing she seems incapable to overcome is the fact that her ex-boyfriend left her a few years before for her competitive sister, Ayako (Kaho Minami).

After spending a good time in the company of her careless young niece, Mika (Shioli Kutsuna), who takes the opportunity to borrow money from her, Setsuko decides to follow her suggestion and enroll in English classes at a freakish, unorthodox school.

Desperately in need of attention, she gets very well impressed with John (Josh Hartnett), the American English teacher, who is also a hugger. John makes her impersonate a more extrovert fictional woman he calls Lucy, and introduces her to a widower, Tom (Kôji Yakusho), a security consultant and former detective, whose true name is Takeshi Tomori. During class, the students are only allowed to speak English and are urged to wear lame wigs to better embrace the fantasy of their new personalities. This particular phase of the narrative, devised with enough intriguing moments, made me heavily interested in the people hanging around there.

Ironically, Setsuko and her estranged sister end up making a long trip together to the outskirts of Southern California, after realizing that Mika had secretly escaped with John, her lover. 
Ironically, Setsuko and her estranged sister end up making a long trip together to the outskirts of Southern California, after realizing that Mika had secretly escaped with John, her lover. 

The American experience becomes unforgettable for our heroine. Besides quarreling with her sister in a diverting way, she learns that her niece went to San Diego after leaving John, who is now facing eviction. That makes her craving even more hugs from John, to whom she is visibly attracted. Will he be willing to satisfy her needs? Everything is possible after smoking a joint and the desperate-for-love Setsuko will jeopardize her integrity and also her family affairs. Self-seeking or deluded? Leaning on the emotional side, her American dream has a bittersweet flavor.
 
Hirayanagi surfs the subject with confidence, stringing together a series of misadventures with wit and pathos. Moreover, she takes the time to establish the characters so their personalities and intentions can be easily apprehended and evaluated. No plot excesses were found and the peculiar ambiance accompanies the confident narrative flow. 

Standing on its own as a sympathetic cross-cultural drama, “Oh Lucy!” deserves an extra point for the ability to eke out unexpected laughs from the most painful scenarios.

Félicité (2017)

Directed by Alain Gomis
Country: Senegal / France / other

“Félicité” rejoices with the vivid colors and the enthralling sounds of Africa, but also saddens us with the deep struggles of the local ordinary people, here represented by the title character (Véro Mputu), a single mother and a respected singer in Kinshasa, Congo. She manages to live a tranquil life until her 14-year-old son, Samo (Gaetan Claudia), has suffered a motorcycle accident that puts her on the verge of a breakdown. He needs an urgent and costly operation to save his smashed leg, but Félicité doesn't have how to pay for it. In a desperate situation, she puts away any embarrassment or pride and hits the road to get financial help. She first goes to her son’s resentful father, who violently accuses her of having created a thug, and then to the wealthiest man in town, who, after demeaning her, gives her a little money out of contempt. These scenes truly hurt, showing how inconsiderate and disdainful a human being can act before a vulnerable person.

Meanwhile, we learn that Félicité died at the age of two, suddenly awaking from the world of the dead when she was already in the coffin. Her name, meaning ‘our joy’, was given to her after that inscrutable occurrence. 

The only friend she can count on is Tabu (Papi Mpaka), a regular customer of the bar where she sings, who loves the nightlife and ends up repeatedly involved in quarrels. Despite nurturing deep feelings for her, he is not so reliable with regard to women, especially when wasted. A faulty person, for sure. Yet, observing the respect he has for her pain, we almost forget his vices.

French-Senegalese writer-director Alain Gomis packs the drama as a compound of vibrancy, intoxication, dejection, and anguish, resorting to sharp close-ups and likable imagery. However, some sloppiness was detected when dealing with the handheld camera. Some of the passages are particularly appealing, like those fragments of conversations in the bar with the topics varying from women to booze to children kills and spiritual life. There’s also some surrealism in the form of dreamy, enigmatic passages in a forest that are a fruit of the heroine's imagination. Its mysticism is meant to blur the line between the imaginary and the real.

Although orchestrated with powerful notes, “Félicité” shows some uneven parts, which make the narrative drag for certain periods of time. Still, it elaborates an honest portrait of an independent African woman who, even in the most intractable situations, keeps the life going with resilient obstinacy.

With the newcomer Véro Mputu onboard, Gomis didn’t restrain himself from sailing this boat with courage and emotion. By expeditiously capturing the moods of the city, he passes the idea of an undermined society within an undisciplined country. 

God's Own Country (2017)

Directed by Francis Lee
Country: UK

“God’s Own Country”, a British drama film focused on sexuality, addiction, and unhappiness, has the lonely landscapes of Yorkshire, North of England, as a backdrop. First-time director Francis Lee, who also wrote the script, saw his work facilitated by the impressive performances of Josh O'Connor and Alec Secareanu, who play two strangers turned intimate friends.

Johnny Saxby (O'Connor) is far from the old happy days of his adolescence after being engulfed by the real world. Seen as an irresponsible good-for-nothing by his conservative father (Ian Hart), an aging sheep-farmer who got debilitated after suffering a stroke, Johnny is forced to work many hours alone in the fields, taking care of the sheep and making sure they have the proper conditions to give healthy births. After all, it's the business that sustains the family.

However, in order to smother the loneliness and his repressed homosexuality, John refuges himself in the alcohol night after night. He is unable to keep the work flowing as he wakes up late and heavily intoxicated. Thus, tension is constantly present at home or whenever his father is around.

Things take a turn after a Romanian migrant worker, Gheorghe Ionescu (Secareanu), is hired to give him a hand during the lambing season. At first, he is mistreated by Johnny, who puts some airs while calling him ‘gypo’, but then, boss and employee are moved by a magnetic attraction, embarking on a homosexual relationship that will make the young farmer reliable and available again. Yet, because life is never too simple and constantly tests us with difficulties, Johnny spoils everything with another weighty night of drinks that ends up in betrayal, jealousy, and ultimately anguish.

“God’s Own Country” is raw and sometimes rough in its manners, being a much less-polished exercise than the Italian “Call Me By Your Name”, a refined coming-of-age drama which addresses homosexuality, personal emotions, and working processes in a contrasting way. Still, if the cited Italian drama ends in tears, the British one ends with an optimistic smile.

The compelling narrative matches the plausible scenario and the actors remain sober in their roles. O’Connor's first big move here can function as a door opener for future possibilities.