Spaceman (2024)

Direction: Johan Renck
Country: USA

Adam Sandler takes on the role of a solitary Czech astronaut in Spaceman, tasked with a research mission to the edge of the solar system to investigate a mysterious interstellar cloud. As he spends six months isolated in his ship, he becomes increasingly anxious about the possibility of his pregnant wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), leaving him. Amidst this emotional turmoil, he encounters an intelligent ancestral creature—a giant space spider—that helps him confront his selfishness and grapple with feelings of loneliness, guilt, and regret. 

Based on Jaroslav Kalfar's novel Spaceman of Bohemia, the film adaptation, helmed by Chernobyl’s director Johan Renck and written by Colby Day, fails to delve beyond the obvious, offering a forgettable space journey masquerading as a couple’s therapy. Despite attempting to create impact with an ambiguous open ending, the film ultimately falls short, missing the mark on its potential for depth and exploration.

One of the film’s most dispiriting aspects is the mediocre character development and absence of tension. Neither shaping as a real sci-fi adventure nor grounding itself in a compelling romantic drama, Spaceman falls into a middling territory, promising more than it deliveries. Its slow narrative pace, coupled with verbose sequences that prioritize cerebral musings over genuine insight, results in a film that struggles to maintain logical coherence and foster empathy. It’s a half-interesting, half-baked illustration weighed down by a listless melancholy that sedates more than inspires.

Origin (2024)

Direction: Ava DuVernay
Country: USA

Directed by Ava DuVernay, known for Selma (2014) and 13th (2016), Origin is a wobbly biographical drama based on Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Caste: the Origins of our Discontents, published in 2020. 

Grappling with family loss, Isabel (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) decides to spend more time researching the cultural divides of caste and racism across different continents, the topic of her new book. She travels to Germany and India to better understand the Nazi regime and the Dalit situation, respectively. Comparisons with segregation in the United States are analyzed. 

Despite noble intentions, this dramatization crumbles due to a disjointed, bumpy narrative. Rigid in the moves and broken in structure, Origin is turned into a film-lecture, whose content and ideas don’t really gel on the screen. More interested in a didactic presentation and in defending its point of view than being compelling, the film soon becomes erratic, displaying more heart than mind. Pathos and sentimentality are often potentiated by Kris Bowers’ mellow musical score. 

The message DuVernay aims to convey doesn’t come across clearly, and the results instead of reaching any state of maturation, feel merely superficial. It’s surprising how tame the film is, taking into account its weighty subject matter. Origin may be informative in some aspects but not to the point of making us remember it as a powerful statement.

Drive-Away Dolls (2024)

Direction: Ethan Coen
Country: USA

Drive-Away Dolls marks Ethan Coen’s first directorial solo feature without his brother Joel, but unfortunately, the results are disappointing. With both the screenplay - written by Coen and his wife Tricia Cooke - and the campy tone providing less than what it should be, this fairly basic lesbian hymn, infused with an unintriguing crime subplot, comes across as more hysterical than funny, denoting more showoff than real insight. With imbecilic humorous lines left dangling, it feels too much like an empty and repeated exercise in style. 

Despite a promising premise, the narrative goes overboard with improbable coincidences, goofy behaviors, and sexual pleasures, interspersed with dreamy states depicted through psychedelic imagery, bluesy guitar licks, and greasy pizzas. It all begins when, on a whim, two lesbian best friends, the uptight Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) and the free-spirited Jamie (Margaret Qualley), embark on a road trip from Philadelphia to Florida, incidentally bumping into criminals. The characters are turned into caricatures, resulting in a cartoonish exaggeration that comes across as simple-minded. 

Coen films with edgy, alienating teen-like angst, but doesn’t surprise. The final part of the film gets totally out of hand, combining elements of a myopic noir thriller with a shabby rom-com. Clocking in at a tight and merciful 84 minutes, the film lacks fun and the performances from Qualley and Viswanathan, while competent, are unable to elevate the material. Overall, Drive-Away Dolls is a jumbled mess that tries to be both tactlessly offbeat and attractively endearing, missing the mark.

The Boys in the Boat (2023)

Direction: George Clooney
Country: USA

The Boys in the Boat, George Clooney’s ninth directorial venture - as a filmmaker, he’s known for Good Night and Good Luck (2005) and The Ides of March (2011) - is a sports biographical drama chronicling the triumphant journey of the University of Washington men's rowing team, representing the United States at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 

The narrative follows Joe Rantz (Callum Turner), a working class-student who overcomes familial abandonment to excel as a rower. In supporting roles, Joel Edgerton and Hadley Robinson play the protagonist’s demanding rowing coach and supporting girlfriend, respectively. 

Despite its grandiose sporting achievement, the film suffers from unexceptional performances and overly formal direction, resulting in a pedestrian storytelling experience devoid of brilliance. This disappointing lack of originality, typical of formulaic biographical films, partly stems from Mark L. Smith's uninspired adaptation of Daniel James Brown’s book of the same name.

While visually polished, the film relies increasingly on melodramatic contrivances rather than exploring character depth, with Clooney sugarcoating Rantz’s predicaments without delivering the necessary emotional impact. The Boys in the Boat offers modest excitement during the competitive sports scenes but falls short in other aspects, running out of steam well before its conclusion. Viewers are left craving more than just a trivial account of the facts.

Eileen (2023)

Direction: William Oldroyd
Country: USA

Directed by William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth, 2016), Eileen is an adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s debut novel of the same name, with a screenplay by Moshfegh herself and Luke Goebel. It’s a soggy slow burn depicted with formal pomp and impressive cinematography that, gradually, goes from intriguing to banal.

The plot follows Eileen (Thomasin McKenzie), a bored and lonely young woman who lives with her alcoholic father (Shea Whigham), a troubled ex-cop, and works in a juvenile detention facility as an assistant. Her routine takes a strange turn when Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), a confident psychologist and graduated from Harvard, arrives at New England, bringing some fantasy into her life but also chaos. Both women share a special interest in Lee Polk (Sam Nivola), a kid who mysteriously stabbed his father to death in his sleep. 

Eileen is better characterized than Rebecca, who appears more enigmatic, and the flatness of the story is intermittently interrupted by the former’s grace. However, as a noir psychological thriller, the film fails to raise its staging to exceptional heights, remaining more or less nailed to the ground. It’s all done mechanically, without the brilliance that would have captivated the audience. 

Sensuality, desire, and depressive insanity are predominant factors in a story that recites all the commonplaces of the genre without possessing the sophistication of its models. Despite incorporating some twists that force changes in direction, Eileen falls short of being exciting, concluding with a rushed ending that lacks surprise or shock. What remains is just the idea of something uncomfortably bland.

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (2023)

Direction: Raven Jackson
Country: USA 

Counting on Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight (2016) and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), as a producer, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt marks the directorial debut of Raven Jackson, a poet and photographer from Tennessee. The film is a contemplative drama that serves as a memoir spanning 50 years, recounting the story of Mackenzie, a Black teenage girl who grapples with an unexpected pregnancy in Mississippi. 

The film’s interesting premise deteriorates due to a sluggish pace, monotonous conception, and sparse dialogue. The floating structure and dreamy aura contribute to a sense of sadness, but they may hinder a deeper exploration of the elements at play, and the long shots and quietness dip the film in exasperation. It’s an overlong experience that tests the audience's patience while struggling to make a lasting emotional impact.

Even radiating intimacy at times, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt fails to validate a lasting claim on the heart. The narrative, relying heavily on images rather than words, could be told in ten minutes. As a result, there’s simply not enough here to really engage.

Wonka (2023)

Direction: Paul King
Country: USA

In Paul King’s Wonka, a musical comedy that serves as a prequel to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), a younger and creatively inclined Willy Wonka, portrayed by the French sensation Timothée Chalamet, takes his first steps in the art of making chocolate and magic. To establish his own business and make it prosper, Willy must contend with exploiters Mrs. Scrubitt (Olivia Colman) and her partner Bleacher (Tom Davis), along with a trio of envious businessmen and saboteurs controlling the Chocolate Cartel. Success might be elusive without the help of Noodle (Calah Lane), a young orphan girl, and Oompa-Lumpa (Hugh Grant), a small human who feeds on cocoa beans.

Visually sumptuous with deluxe, colorful settings, Wonka struggles to win hearts with its cardboard characters. The movie appears to lack a genuine sense of humor, and the script by King and Simon Farnaby relies on questionable options, resorting to overused cinematic tricks and treats.

As a sanitized tale that succumbs to the weight of its budget, Wonka comes across as formulaic and uninspiring. The excessive use of old-school songs becomes tedious, and the story lacks the expected magic and soul that usually populate this type of picture. The film falls short across the board, and even Chalamet's charm fails to elevate the bland cinematic flavors. At the very least, the film may leave you craving chocolate.

A Male (2023)

Direction: Fabian Hernandez
Country: Colombia

A Male, the debut feature by Colombian filmmaker Fabian Hernandez, unfolds as a modest low-budget drama set in the unforgiving streets of Bogotá, dominated by gangs. The protagonist, Carlos (Dilan Felipe Ramírez Espitia), is a 16-year-old who lives in a youth shelter. The central character, Carlos (Dilan Felipe Ramírez Espitia), a 16-year-old residing in a youth shelter, grapples with a girly face and a fragile physique in the predominantly masculine and violent neighborhood. His sole aspiration revolves around surprising his incarcerated mother with a visit on Christmas Day. 

The premise holds promise, and we feel grateful for this is not your typical gangster or coming-of-age flick.  However, the potential dissipates rapidly as the narrative fails to build sufficient tension, never culminating in a compelling climax. The lonely boy's struggle to assert his toughness lacks the depth needed to resonate emotionally. While sensitive to the mix of sadness, bravery, and resolution within Carlos, the film stumbles in handling a subject that doesn’t cope well with melodramatic insistence. 

I was unable to connect with the protagonist and what he was going through. Perhaps the director lacked the skills to coax a psychologically complex performance out of the debutant actor. Hence, the film doesn’t deliver enough as each development is unadorned and plain, lessening in emotional power and culminating in an unsatisfying ending. Hernandez's exploration of a misfit in conflict with the toxic masculinity of his environment ultimately misses the mark.

Jeanne du Barry (2023)

Direction: Maiwenn
Country: USA 

Jeanne du Barry, a historical fresco directed, starred, and co-produced by Maiwenn (Polisse, 2011; Mon Roi, 2015), struggles to generate excitement. She shoots the over-the-top costumes and the exuberant Palace of Versailles with a sharp eye, however, the film is totally forgettable. 

The narrative follows Jeanne Vaubernier (Maiwenn), a modest woman with aspirations of social ascent, as she becomes the mistress and favorite of King Louis XV (Johnny Depp). The scandalous romance might have shocked Versailles, but here fails to break free from the constraints of a tightly constricted period drama, resulting in a muddled storytelling experience. Sadly, the potential for vast dramatic possibilities is stifled by a squared and monotonous narrative. 

With predictable plot contours, even the envy and gossip, expected in the French courts, are played too safe. Maiwenn manages to transform the manners and behaviors of the time into effective humor, but the film suffers from a disinterested, passionless performance by Depp, which contributes to the film's plodding pace. This way, the audiences are deprived from the engagement needed to appreciate its historical context.
The various parts of Jeanne du Barry are too uneven to form a decent whole, while the elegiac finale brings even more tedium. 

Fingernails (2023)

Direction: Christos Nikou
Country: USA

Christos Nikou, known for his impactful directorial debut in Apples (2020) after working as an assistant director on notable films like Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth (2009) and Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight (2013), falls short with Fingernails. This low-stakes fiction attempts to blend sci-fi, romance, and drama but doesn't quite hit the mark. The central concept revolves around a machine determining one's true feelings for a partner, an idea that, while initially intriguing, comes off as rather silly. The film ends up breaking its own spell with repetition, totally missing the pounding pulse of truth.

The script centers on Anna (Jessie Buckley) and her husband, Ryan (Jeremy Allen White), who score a perfect 100% in their love test, yet their relationship appears to be dwindling. Doubt creeps in when Anna meets Amir (Riz Ahmed) at the love testing institute that she secretly started working for. Fingernails becomes a slow descent into torpor with not enough style or swagger to make it big. It feels like the work of a young director trying to impress without having fully formed ideas. 

Despite potential in the machine-versus-heart dynamic, the film falters, and even Jessie Buckley's charm can't salvage an underwritten story that yearns for more depth. Regrettably, the execution feels too slick and fabricated to convey authenticity, the romance comes across as feeble, and the emotions fail to reach the heart. Alas, I didn't buy a word of it.

Flora and Son (2023)

Direction: John Carney
Country: Ireland 

Irish writer and director John Carney has a track record of successful music dramas in his filmography, with films like Once (2007) and Sing Street (2016). However, his latest effort, Flora and the Son, falls flat. It’s a crowd-pleaser that lazily resorts to cheesiness in an attempt to compensate for its plot limitations. The film suffers from an artificial quality, and the sickly sweet songs, while trying to tug at the heartstrings, contribute little to the overall substance.

The story revolves around Flora (Eve Hewson), an angry and frustrated single mother from Dublin who is struggling to find her way in life after separating from Ian (Jack Reynor), a once-successful musician whose career hit a roadblock when his band broke up. Flora’s delinquent teenage son, Max (Orén Kinlan), frequently challenges her, and seems condemned to spend time in a correction facility. However, Flora, who works as a babysitter, discovers the transformative power of music when she starts taking online guitar lessons with L.A.-based teacher Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The latter reveals his own personal insecurities, but becomes the catalyst for Flora and her son to forge a bond that never had existed before. 

Carney seemed inclined to embrace the realism of directors like Ken Loach, but then gets too busy honey-coating musical sequences marred by cloying sentimentality. Sadly, they never fill you up. By failing to provide deeper dimension to his characters and their life struggles, Carney's film loses its appeal with each passing scene. Manipulative and superficially constructed to escape monotony, Flora and Son repeatedly hits the same uninspiring notes throughout its duration.

Rheingold (2023)

Direction: Fatih Akin
Country: Germany 

While German writer-director Fatih Akin’s early films, such as Head-On (2004) and The Edge of Heaven (2007), are compelling choices, Rheingold - a tale of immigration, violence, and music based on the biography of German rapper Xatar - falls short of the mark. The movie chronicles the journey of Giwar Hajabi (Emilio Sakraya), a young Kurdish-Iranian immigrant who turns to a life of crime and drug trafficking before gaining notoriety as a music artist while incarcerated. However, both the segments portraying the street gangster and the musician prisoner prove to be tedious and unengaging.

Spanning 30 years, the narrative initially sparks interest but gradually loses its grip by resorting to standardized routines often seen in gangster action dramas. Rheingold struggles to offer moments that feel particularly original or inspired. The film is marred by a messy structure, lackluster storytelling, choppy editing, and dull action sequences. Frankly not likable, it lacks the excitement needed to leave a lasting impression. 

In summary, this amalgamation of gangsta-rap and gangland themes is a soulless misfire from a director we know capable of delivering better.

Full River Red (2023)

Direction: Zhang Yimou
Country: China

Whenever Chinese helmer Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, 1991; Hero, 2002; House of the Flying Daggers, 2004) releases a new film, audiences expect dense plots, epic battles, and dazzling visuals. However, his latest venture, the action comedy mystery film Full River Red, delivers some of these elements unevenly and goes overboard with self-indulgent gimmicks. As is often the case, the story is set in an ancient era but this time comes marked by an excess of twists to the point of nausea.

When a Jin diplomat is mysteriously assassinated at the house of Song grand chancellor, Qin Hui (Lei Jiayin), the latter appoints a smart low-ranking soldier, Zhang Da (Shen Teng), and a brave young commander, Sun Jun (Jackson Yee), to solve the case. An important letter is also reported missing, and the conspiracy seems much bigger than initially thought.

Failing to ramp up the drama of things, Yimou adopts a jocular tone that, never fully committing, leaves the film feeling dull. The investigation runs out of steam too early, mired by a convoluted plot that falls into repetitive patterns. It’s hard to see past the glossy surface here, so fans seeking interesting characters should look elsewhere. Moreover, the music playing in the chapter transitions is detestable, and each action scene, sly as it tries to be, feels artificial and terribly monotonous. 

More corny than enthralling, and constantly overacted, Full River Red fails to emotionally invest the audience in the narrative. Lamentably, Yimou didn’t put enough effort into this one to provoke or engage the viewer.

Dumb Money (2023)

Direction: Craig Gillespie
Country: USA

This biographical comedy-drama depicting the stock short squeeze of video game retailer GameStop in January 2021 leans more towards being laughably tame than audaciously bold. Directed by Craig Gillespie (Lars and the Real Girl, 2007; I, Tonya, 2017) and written by Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo, the film represents a feeble adaptation of Ben Mezrich's book, The Antisocial Network.

Although it’s an ensemble cast that populates the screen, Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood, 2007; Love & Mercy, 2014) takes central stage as Keith Gill, a modest financial analyst and YouTuber operating under the moniker Roaring Kitty. Those who followed Gill's strategies had the potential to amass an unimaginable amount of money in the unpredictable game dictated by the stock market's ebbs and flows. Personal decisions played a pivotal role.

Had the filmmaker dared to dip below the surface, and maybe we would have a better film. Dumb Money fails to adequately develop its characters, making them feel unrelatable and causing the narrative to drag. What are audiences supposed to do with this, anyway? In the midst of the constant buzz surrounding the stock market, Gillespie's film struggles to find its footing. 

His work fails to get under your skin because it's content with poking you in the eye. The material offered the potential to create something thought-provoking and didactic, but he squandered the chance by allowing an invertebrate scenario. Hence, there’s no need to go to the movie theater to measure the extent of the damage because what the film tells you in 104 minutes could be absorbed from reading a brief paragraph.

Rotting in the Sun (2023)

Direction: Sebastian Silva
Country: Chile 

While relaxing in a Mexican gay nude beach, Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Silva meets American comedian and social media influencer Jordan Firstman, who is a fan of his movies. Despite Silva’s initial reservations, they agrees to an artistic collaboration. The two personalities feast on caricatural portrayals of themselves and mock death in this shaggy-dog meta-narrative called Rotting in the Sun. The true standout in the movie is Chilean actress Catalina Saavedra, who skillfully reprises her role as a morally-resistant maid - a character that garnered critical  acclaim in Silva’s second feature, The Maid (2009).

The film unfolds in two distinct halves, and unfortunately, neither proves satisfying. The first part comes off as gratuitous, fixating on the visibly depressed director engrossed in Romanian author Emil Cioran’s book The Trouble of Being Born while contemplating existential struggles and suicide. It’s also pelted with drawn-out, unsimulated sex scenes that add absolutely nothing to the plot. The second part takes a bleak turn, dealing with real death and disappearance, and adopting an investigative and slightly more thrilling tone. However, it fails to shake off the programmatic nature that plagues the narrative.

Silva's direction falters while striving to shock the audience at every juncture, and the repetitive scenes never compensate the lack of ideas. What could have been a provocative satire ended up feeling excessively simulated, derailed by an uncontrolled impetus that only makes it further rigid and cold. In the end, the uninspired director delivers a poor reality-fiction hybrid that proves challenging for the audience to engage with. Unapologetically unpleasant, the film feels stale, like it has been left to rot in the sun.

Beau is Afraid (2023)

Direction: Ari Aster
Country: USA 

Beau is Afraid is a quirky Freudian odyssey with an unhinged mother/son relationship at the center and some elliptical Kafkaesque situations. Starting off well, it takes a descending curve over the course of a disjointed structure. This exhausting three-hour trip to the edge of madness stars Joaquin Phoenix as the title character. However, even shifting extraordinarily in attitude from child fragility to adulthood deliriums, he’s powerless in the face of an overstuffed script that serves as a lopsided vehicle for his outstanding acting skills. 

For a film by Ari Aster, who gave us horror gems like Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019), it is unspeakably disappointing. It would have been a better horror comedy if it didn’t suffocate in its own ideas. Everything appears to follow a sort of code that needs deciphering, and the systematic metaphors become tiresome as we delve into the real/surreal aspects of a neurotic man whose severe childhood trauma prevents him from finding happiness. Beau tries to reach his mother’s place in time, both before and after her death, but with no success. 

Playing with twisted dimensions and labyrinthine layers, Aster squanders the chance to lead a few good ideas to fruition. The result, much less fascinating than expected, is congested and appalling.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Direction: James Mangold
Country: USA

In the fifth installment of the widely popular Indiana Jones franchise, our eponymous adventurer (Harrison Ford) is retired, solitary and aging. However, he makes a final effort to adapt to a jumbled new world where even his young goddaughter, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), becomes an art smuggler addicted to cash. She operates with the backing of a smart kid, Teddy (Ethann Isidore), who can even pilot a plane without ever being inside one. The three join forces to prevent an old Nazi rival, Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), from stealing an invaluable relic. 

At 154 minutes, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny lacks a dramatic arc matching its length, being flat in the ideas and mechanical in the moves. Just like has been happening with the majority of Marvel spin-offs, there’s an attempt to overcome artistic laziness with technical prowess, which makes numerous action scenes feel insipid. Thus, we get that strange impression that Steven Spielberg - the director of all previous installments and just a producer here - would make this film more adventurous and entertaining than James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma, 2007; Logan, 2017; Ford v Ferrari, 2019). 

Hence, there are only hints of the old good salad but lots of mediocre dressing on this plate. The uninspired plotting comes with banal dialogue, while the action scenes, despite fast-paced, are pretty unimaginative regardless if they occur on land, air or water. Unless you have a thing for Ford, you're better off discarding this fun-free episode that typifies today’s obtuse contemporary movie culture.

Asteroid City (2023)

Direction: Wes Anderson
Country: USA 

Directed by Wes Anderson, Asteroid City blends romance, sci-fi, western, and comedy in an offbeat manner, but stumbles on a few metaphysical questions - death, human existence, the extraterrestrial - that leave us adrift. The bits and pieces of this uninspired chamber film are choppily assembled, with clumsy dialogue serving as a makeshift bridge for passionless scenes fabricated with an enforced mood and drowsy vibes. Here, everything is artificial, including the scenario. 

Anderson and his regular collaborator, the screenwriter Roman Copolla, worked together for the fifth time, drawing inspiration from films by Robert Altman, John Sturges and Paul Newman. The year is 1955. Days after the death of his wife, the confident photojournalist Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) begins a romance with the unenthusiastic actress Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson). He doesn’t get along with his father-in-law, Stanley Zak (Tom Hanks), and is proud of his shy little genius son, Woodrow (Jake Ryan), a Junior Stargazer winner. All these and other characters, along with all their moves, are products of the mind of Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), a renowned playwright.

With a convoluted scrip, fatuous characters, and obtuse comedic tones trailing off into alien-invasion nonsense, no dream cast could succeed in turning this fabrication into a hip and funny cinematic experience. Both its surface and essence are phony but, worse than that, is the movie’s inability to offer any insight about anything. Asteroid City is equal parts tackiness and boredom. As a result, I urge you to avoid being quarantined by this desert of ideas.

Padre Pio (2023)

Direction: Abel Ferrara
Country: Italy / Germany

Padre Pio, a German-Italian production directed by the peculiar Abel Ferrara (Bad Lieutenant, 1992; The Funeral, 1996; Tommaso, 2019), is a joyless, graceless faith-related drama that straddles between esoteric turmoil and political activism. Over the course of this biopic, the focus scatters into many directions, the handheld camera makes you dizzy, and the excitement is limited. 

Despite obstacles, the darkness of the era (the story is set at the end of World War I) is well portrayed and Shia LaBeouf ’s performance is positive. The most striking parts of the movie are those in which Pio, who had arrived at a Capuchin monastery in the poor city of San Giovanni Rotondo, opens up with his God. Suffering tremendously with what he sees (greed and slavery are devouring the town) and with what he hears (some confessions are nauseatingly perverse), he is often attacked by the devil himself. Still, he refuses to abandon hope.

The fearless Ferrara tries to tackle this fascinating character but loses traction in a film that, asking the right questions, never finds dramatically persuasive answers. There’s not enough zest to the storytelling, which rather moves bluntly between demonic horror and somber spectacle. Choppy, unpolished and undeveloped, Padre Pio will certainly divide audiences.

Scarlet (2023)

Direction: Pietro Marcello
Country: France / Italy / other

Following the critical acclaim of Martin Eden (2019), Italian director Pietro Marcello, who moved to Paris in 2020, has a hard time giving a meaningful expression to Scarlet, failing authenticity. His newest film is a gorgeously photographed but inept screen adaptation of the 1923 novel Scarlet Sails, one of the most known by Russian author Alexander Grin. 

In the aftermath of the First World War, Raphaël (Raphaël Thiéry), returns to his small rural village on the Picardy coast, to learn that his beloved wife died suddenly, leaving him a little girl called Juliette. Madame Adeline (Noémie Lvovsky), the farm owner who raised the girl, accepts him as a handyman. The years go by, not without difficulties. One day, Juliette (Juliette Jouan is a revelation) finds love, when an adventurous pilot (Louis Garrel) descends from the sky. 

Scarlet doesn't melt, but it drifts. Oscillating between historical realism and moony tale, the film still arouses some early curiosity that, unfortunately, doesn’t last long. Numerous plot holes and gray areas make it hard for us to get attached to the characters. Lacking nerve, this inefficiently executed story never reaches the required emotional power to work as a whole. 

The film’s musical parts are inconsequential and, for their brevity, ludicrously whimsical; the pedestrian romance is without passion; the sixth sense and witchcraft suggestions feel like jokes; and the archival footage - with colorized and sepia frames - creates a completely redundant, even distracting tonal mishmash. The cinematography by Marco Graziaplena is your best bet, but it’s on the bottom that this film sins.