Babylon (2022)

Direction: Damien Chazelle
Country: USA 

Suffused in eccentricity and delusional grandeur, Babylon is a product of writer-director Damien Chazelle’s creativity. The film, working both as a love letter to cinema and a fierce disapproval of its excesses, is the result of 15 years of research, conveying an unrefined, buffoonish vision of the transition from silent to sound film in the late ’20s. 

Shot in anamorphic format (35 mm), this technically stunning exertion boasts a curious, rambunctious point of departure, but Chazelle's intentions and energy slowly rots along the way, taking the audience to exhaustion well before the end. The director of Whiplash (2014) and La La Land (2016) is more interested in shocking than providing a finely structured story. His complacent Hollywood pastiche flirts with sparkling euphoria and wild scenarios, taking good advantage of feverish jazz music and staging intensity. But if the surface shines here and there, then the interior borders the grotesque. 

Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and the charismatic Diego Calva are not responsible for the failure of a movie that competes and loses against the sweetness and elegance of Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. It’s also a weirder and more mundane beast than Ostlund’s ostentatious satire The Triangle of Sadness (a rival for the best puking moments); and a less clever, more pompous option than Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. There’s nothing personal or profound in this messy imagination of the early movies; it’s just a spectacle reduced to tics and gimmicks.

The Woman King (2022)

Direction: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Country: USA 

Between the historical African ballad and the feminist epic, The Woman King advances unspectacularly academic, annoyingly predictable, and blatantly contrived. The basic and uninteresting screenplay by Dana Stevens drove me away, making the proceedings misfire in its archetypes as quick as they attempt to connect. 

A bit more tension, characterization, and drama were required, while the unassertive directorial approach of Gina Prince-Bythewood (Beyond the Light, 2014; The Old Guard, 2020) makes it less impactant than it should. Viola Davis (The Help, 2011; Fences, 2016), in the role of General Nanisca - leader of the Agojie, the all-female group of warriors of the African kingdom of Dahomey - still conveys appreciated bravery, but the film is hermetic to its political and historic consideration, being reduced to a mediocre effort with the delicate topic of slavery at the front and an ineffective twist as an attribute.

The Pale Blue Eye (2023)

Direction: Scott Cooper
Country: USA 

Based on Louis Bayard's novel, The Pale Blue Eye is an austere mystery thriller shrouded in gothic mist. It's written and directed by Scott Cooper and stars Christian Bale (American Hustle; The Dark Knight; The Fighter) in the role of inspector Augustus Landor - a widowed, alcoholic and tortured veteran assigned to investigate a sordid murder case in the US Military Academy, and Harry Melling (known for several Harry Potter installments) as the morbid young cadet and future writer/poet Edgar Allen Poe. This is the third time that Cooper directs the incredibly adaptable Bale, following Out of the Furnace (2013) and Hostiles (2017). 

With the gloomy mise-en-scene and wintry atmosphere making it even colder, the film, set at the West Point in 1830 New York, tells a macabre story that oozes mysticism and blood. However, if its first part is solid and entertaining, the second is wobbly, marked by a descending curve in the script until crashing in an arguable final twist. 

Although not producing real brilliance, the systematized gothic tones and oppressive heaviness produce a quietly gripping surface. It’s a visually wow-inducing whodunit - with cinematography by Cooper’s regular Masanobu Takayanagi - that feels dour and slow at times.

White Noise (2023)

Direction: Noah Baumbach
Country: USA 

In White Noise, Oscar-winning writer-director Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, 2012; Marriage Story, 2019) probes a different style, attempting to charm with adventure, crime thriller, and family comedy. The outcome of his first-ever adaptation is too theoretical and uneven to subsist. With Don DeLillo’s novel of the same name in mind, and showcasing an excellent pair of actors like Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, Baumbach couldn’t quite handle the odd material. The course of events is perhaps excessively elaborated and the dramatic stakes feel rather low.  

The story, set in the 1980s, focuses on the Gladneys and how they react to a hazardous cloud of deadly chemicals, the fear of death (who thought of Woody Allen?), and the physical and psychological effects of an experimental drug not listed in the pharmacies. Jack (Driver) is a Nazism expert and professor who enjoys knotty chatting with his Elvis-devotee fellow, Murray Siskind (Don Cheadle); Babette (Gerwig), who normally reveals and confides, is visibly depressed as she goes through a difficult phase marked by insecurity and obscurity.

With its derivative style and witless plot-twists, the film aspires to be grandiose, comprehensive, and clever but falls flat. Baumbach quickly loses control of his film and often struggles to keep the story afloat, leaving us on the sidelines. White Noise is a disjointed and deliberately delirious monument, whose ambition is overburdened with messed-up ideas and genres, and whose required excitement becomes a tricky thing to pull off. In the end, this offbeat journey has no discernible point, and the only thing one can enjoy is the actors’ qualified performances.

The Swimmers (2022)

Direction: Sally El-Hosaini
Country: UK / Syria / other

Sally El-Hosaini’s The Swimmers is an effective dramatization of the true story of two teenage Syrian sisters - Yusra and Sarah Mardini - who fled their country to the Greek island of Lesbos in awful circumstances. Once in Germany, their final destination, Yusra (Nathalie Issa) resumes her swimming practice and joins the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio de Janeiro, while Sarah (Manal Issa) opts to aid other refugees who had to go through the same hazardous journey across the Aegean Sea. 

There are moments of sadness, panicking, excitement, and joy to be felt; at the same time, the film brings out the exploitation exerted by the greedy human smugglers, as well as the multiple dangers the migrants are exposed to in route. Although never boring or pointless, the film deals with its own adversities, sometimes numbed by a few sloppy transitions and the need of extracting emotion from every scene. Maybe for that reason, the film may feel a little extended and gradually less intense as the clock keeps running. 

Having said that, The Swimmers could have been a sentimental film, but it's not, because El-Hosaini bothered to assemble a canny combination of elements that resulted more fruitful than was expected. Taking advantage of a neat production and strong performances, she puts the focus on the refugees’ problem and gives it extra seasoning with a personal conquest in sports.

Glass Onion (2022)

Direction: Rian Johnson
Country: USA

Referencing a song of The Beatles, Glass Onion is the anticipated sequel to the well-received mystery film Knives Out (2019). The latter, without being brilliant, happens to be better than what it is offered now by the writer-director Rian Johnson, whose directorial peak occurred in 2012 with the ingenious Looper. 

Daniel Craig reprises his role as the low-key detective Benoit Blanc, who travels to the private Greek island of tech billionaire Miles Born (Edward Norton) to unravel a silly mystery involving five of his colorful, wealthy friends. 

Slackened by a low flow of energy, the film is reduced to a series of diffused circumstances that just want to prove how eccentric these characters are. It's not hard to find your way around, but the film offers no clever touches and there’s nothing really new. Occasionally, the dialogues proliferate across the general monotony with moderate invigoration, especially when hitting celebrities, but this drawn-out crime episode lacks the investigative depth required to surpass superficiality. 

Linearly plotted, Glass Onion is stunningly unfunny and desperately wacky; a barely coherent mess moved by a silly game with no thrills and no real mystery. The resolution of the puzzle is simply vomited without a gradual crescendo, making this second Knives Out installment a flat response to what was demanded by the fans of the original.

Alcarrás (2022)

Direction: Carla Simón
Country: Spain 

Alcarrás is an aptly mounted and realistic drama that, even without echoing long after its ending, deals passively with a family of peach farmers confronted with modern day’s changes under the veil of progression. Facing eviction from the land they’ve been cultivating for ages and losing their game to big companies and economic interests, the Solés have their livelihood threatened in the small rural village of Alcarrás in Catalonia. 

In order to make her sophomore feature more genuine, director Carla Simón chose to work with non-professional actors, inhabitants of this region of Spain who speak a very specific Catalan dialect. The relatively extensive ensemble cast in this film mirrors her own family, and it is by measuring the impact on family that she finds the heart of her film. She aims right but without surprise. There's a touch of contrivance to the set-up, but the performances strike some balance between heartfelt and hand-wringing. We have seen this before and done better, and yet, the intention is sincere if not too soulful or demonstrative. 

The personality of each adult comes to fore, while the children, always getting in the middle of things and living in their own world, create more friction during an extremely difficult situation. The actors end up being the true catalyzers of the story. 

Faithful to a naturalistic approach, Simón engages in repetitive scenarios to give substance to the sad reality of an incomprehensible precariousness.

Aftersun (2022)

Direction: Charlotte Wells
Country: UK / USA 

From the first sequence of Aftersun, the remarkable directorial debut by Charlotte Wells, when the 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) asks her dad, Calum (Paul Mescal), if his current life matches the one he dreamed of when he was her age, one can tell that something is wrong. Father and daughter spend some good time together in a resort in Turkey. It’s clear that Calum, who is in his 30s, will soon leave home and his family. Having a strong bond with Sophie, who shares a deep understanding of his volatile emotional states, he does everything to make their summer vacation perfect. But every little annoyance seems to affect him more than it should, and his mood darkens as the days go by.

There’s a languishing warmth here but also something so sad and melancholy that we feel it deep inside our chests. Watching this is like having a constant lump in your throat; memories that break your heart; a nearly consummate rendering of an affectionate remembrance. It’s a genuinely moving and mature film where the precision of feelings and the subtlety of the states of mind are precious. After acknowledging the success of the Scottish director, both in form and content, I felt the urge to revisit her film and extract more from the remarkable simplicity and delicacy with which is made. Everything here suggests an autobiographical story, but personal or not, the result is so complete and with a contemporary bent that the names of Joanna Hogg and Mia Hansen-Love crossed my mind.

Aftersun is a ripe, sensitive and slightly mysterious drama film served by great actors and crystallized by a rigorous staging and a deeper sense of observation. Evolving slowly but with enchantment, the film will reward patient viewers with its magnificent unfolding and nostalgic conclusion. Crediting Barry Jenkins, the director of Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk, as one of its producers, and boasting a stunning soundtrack, Aftersun is simply memorable at all fronts. The purity of look makes it a 2022 highlight.

Holy Spider (2022)

Direction: Ali Abbasi
Country: Iran

Holy Spider, Ali Abbasi’s third feature film, didn’t have the desired impact in me because of its narrative process. The director, who teamed up with Afshin Kamran Bahrami in the script, based himself in the real serial murder case that led Saeed Hanaei, an ultra-religious bricklayer and ex-war vet, to kill 16 women between 2000 and 2001 in the holy Iranian city of Mashhad. Abbasi, who marveled many cinephiles in 2018 with Border, deliberately deviated from the facts in an attempt to give misogyny a broader sense. He shot the film in Jordan.

The relatively unknown Iranian-French actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi plays the journalist who would be key in the capture of Saeed, impersonated without brilliancy by Mehdi Bajestani. Even when resisting thrills, this rote serial-killer thriller work minimally, but Holy Spider is too programmatic and a bit academic in its effort to denounce Iran’s religious fanaticism and discrimination against women. Methodically paced, the film keeps you squirming in your seat, but then the characters feel a bit superficial and the homicidal rampage seldom surprising. 

Nadim Carlsen’s artfully unsoiled cinematography adds an air of suffocating rectitude in a sick machismo manifesto that, alternating strong and fragile sections, piles up crime scenarios with intermittent tension. The coldness of the director’s gaze ends up freezing our blood. This is aggravated by the fact that we know upfront who the killer is. The semi-fictional account could have benefited from darker atmospheres, while the legacy of blood and murder left by the proud killer is somewhat turned lighter by the end. Holy Spider doesn’t add up to a fully realized thriller.

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Direction: Martin McDonagh
Country: Ireland / UK / USA 

This funny, incisive blend of absurd dark comedy and period drama is sometimes uncomfortable to watch and somewhat cruel at the core. The Banshees of Inisherin was written and directed by Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 2017), who elaborated a severe reflection on the human condition with depressing sadness and existential despair. On this account, he probed low-angle shots inspired by John Ford and Sergio Leone’s westerns.

 The story takes place on the fictional island of Inisherin, a mix of the West coast Irish islands of Inishmore and Achill, where the film was shot with local support. Lifelong friends, Padraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), find themselves at an impasse when the latter decides to end their friendship in a precipitous way. Padraic doesn’t accept his decision and invariably attempts a reconnection. His insistence, however, impels his resolute former friend to take radical measures.

The escalation of violence goes hand in hand with the slow passing of time in this peculiar remote island pelted with boredom and pride. Each shot, magnified by the beauty of sumptuous virgin landscapes and natural settings, makes tempting to say that the film is a case of style over substance. Yet, a lot of essence is found in this stylish depiction of frustration, abandonment, and loneliness, while pertinently questioning our humanity. 

Gleeson and Farrell, the same duo that starred in In Bruges (2008), shine in their extraordinary offbeat roles, heavily contributing to a beer-sipper of an entertainment that comes in the form of a borderline experience. Insensitively dark, peculiarly humorous and wildly depressing, The Banshees of Inisherin touches the puerile, the hilarious and the creepy.

Moonage Daydream (2022)

Direction: Brett Morgen
Country: USA / Germany 

Moonage Daydream is an imperfect but ultimately satisfying documentary about David Bowie, a true artist from the stars, staunch experimentalist, beatnik traveler, and innovator with a unique personality and multiple personae, whose music continues to haunt and influence generations. Bowie’s fantastic path in arts and life is depicted as a psychedelic trip with flamboyant visuals, archival interviews, personal statements and ideas, and never-before-seen excerpts of live tours. 

Bowie’s favorite theme of isolation, deliberate androgyny (characteristic of his ‘70s phase), and self elusiveness are well addressed here, maintaining that mysterious appeal that not even his death was capable to erase. We have a vivid sense of his relationship with the universe and life, and between art and feelings.

In 2018, American documentarian Brett Morgen (Cobain: Montage of Heck, 2015; Jane, 2017) had access to the British singer's archives via the Bowie Foundation. What resulted from there is uplifting and will serve the curiosity of the musician’s followers, making them look at him with fresh eyes. But there’s a chance the others be disappointed with the way it was mounted. In my case, and without being dazzled, it was, at least, inspiring to see the alien rockstar romping majestically across the stage and flirting with many types of art.

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

Direction: Guillermo Del Toro
Country: USA

Carlo Collodi’s world-famous novel, Pinocchio, has been subjected to many versions lately. After Roberto Benigni had directed and starred in the abominable version of 2002, it was Matteo Garrone who attempted the feat with triumphant results in 2019 (curiously, the film also starred Benigni as Geppetto). 2022 brought us two opposite Pinocchios: a failed live-action remake by Robert Zemeckis, and an enjoyable, lush-looking stop-motion animated film by Guillermo Del Toro, who co-directed with the debutant Mark Gustafson.

The stubborn, super-energized wooden boy (voice by Gregory Mann) disobeys his unconsolable father, Geppetto (David Bradley), and skips school, ending up in a carnival show ran by the exploitative and authoritarian puppet-master, Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz). The story, set in the fascist Italy of the ‘30s, is narrated by Sebastian J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor), who looks after the living puppet, and also includes other interesting characters like Spazzatura (Cate Blanchett), a devilish monkey turned Pinocchio’s unlikely friend, and the sisters Wood Sprite and Death (Tilda Swinton).

The magical and moving approach of Del Toro gives the title character a fresh meaning in a delightful story that, filled with perils, joys, sorrows, and compassion, works as a life lesson. The musical aspect (entrusted to French composer Alexandre Desplat) didn’t match the technically stunning visuals, but this fable comes with enough humor, poetry, and grimness to justify the director’s childhood obsession. Extra dark tones contribute a personal touch to the least faithful rendition of Collodi’s tale.

She Said (2022)

Direction: Maria Schrader
Country: USA

Maria Schrader’s investigative drama, She Said, tells the important true story that exposed the system protecting abusers in the industry of cinema. The screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz was based on the book by New York Times' reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, played here by the talented Carey Mulligan (An Education, 2009; Never Let Me Go, 2010) and Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks, 2012; The Big Sick, 2017), respectively. The actress/activist Ashley Judd (Ruby in Paradise, 1993; De-Lovely, 2004) plays herself as one of the victims who first came forward to denounce the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein as a sex offender.

Smartly structured, if lengthy, the film keeps the tension simmering but leaves us wanting something more in the end. Unlike the work of the journalists, this film feels almost unfinished due to repetition; all the twists and turns feel the same. Less inspired than Nina Wu (2019) and The Assistant (2019) - two other fictional dramas pertaining to the same subject - She Said is, however, the first film to openly mention Weinstein, who was accused of sexual harassment and assault by more than 80 women - actresses, models, assistants, and collaborators.

The film depicts the meticulous collection of information, and the very long work of persuasion of the journalists to encourage the victims to speak out. The investigation, which helped to launch the #MeToo movement, is far from being a great gesture of cinema, lacking a bit of air and dramaturgy. It’s no Spotlight (2015) for sure, and gets too sentimental in spots. As a film, She Said declines to aim for anything other than the factual narrative, doing it with a mix of courage and relative panache.

Bones and All (2022)

Direction: Luca Guadagnino
Country: USA 

Bones and All, the first English-language film from Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, was filmed in the US and feels very American. The story, set in the 80s, is an adaptation of the 2015 novel by Camille DeAngelis, and reconnects the director with the actor Timothée Chalamet and the screenwriter David Kajganich, after Call Me by Your Name (2017) and Suspiria (2018), respectively. Contrarily, the young actress Taylor Russell (Waves, 2019) and the celebrated actor Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, 2015; The Outfit, 2022) work with Guadagnino for the very first time here. 

It’s hard to resist a good cannibal movie, and this one has daring moments and poetic attempts. As a tone poem of dangers and transgressions, the film retains the romantic and melancholic density of the director’s signature, focusing on the unspoken complicity between a couple of drifting young cannibals who have to deal with a lonely, cunning, and more experienced “eater”. 

The emotion surfaces tardily in a film that intermingles drama, teen romance, and gory horror. Filming with paradoxical gentleness, Guadagnino captures his ravenous characters with assurance, but the mix of styles is not always winning. Even when working outside the typical genre conventions with occasional reference to films from the canon, the film lacks the spark that would set fire to such a carnivorous road trip.

This horror doesn’t bite to the bone and should only work for those willing to accept the tenets of Guadagnino’s doomed cannibalism and dark romance. In my eyes, the ultimate success of this experience comes from Rylance’s creepy performance, and not so much from the cannibal teens.

The Eternal Daughter (2022)

Direction: Joanna Hogg
Country: UK 

Deftly written and directed by Joanna Hogg, who stunned us with works like The Souvenir (2019) and Archipelago (2010), The Eternal Daughter is a slow-burning study of loss and dependence. It’s a double role for the unmatchable Tilda Swinton who plays mother and daughter with unfailing consistency as they stay at a remote haunted hotel - once their former family home - where creaking doors, long dark corridors, rattling windows, and occasional ghostly figures create a chilly atmosphere that fades with the time. It spins its wheels with subtle psychological disturbance, which is a reflection of unhealthy filial ties.

The place revives all sorts of memories in the mother, and creates some emotional turmoil in the daughter, a filmmaker who is trying to write her next project based on their relationship. Although the rooms seem to hold stories and secrets, the process is somewhat repetitive. Whereas the eeriness decreases considerably, the climax falls victim of some momentary disclosing flashbacks that work as inhibitors of surprise. 

The outside night shots are intensifiers of the intended mood, as well as the ambiguous side characters - a carefree receptionist (Carly-Sophia Davies) and a gentle caretaker (Joseph Mydell) - who prove to be irrelevant in the end. And the apprehensive music soars, highlighting both enigmas and emotions.

Definitely a minor Hogg’s, The Eternal Daughter is like a poignant melody packed with pathos and a sumptuous staging; a purge of guilt and memories that, without taking the form of a labyrinth of artsy manipulations, never hits too hard. I wish I would have been more spooked here.

Corsage (2022)

Direction: Marie Kreutzer
Country: Austria 

Staged with maturity and discernment, Corsage is a moody fictional period drama focused on the restless 40-year-old Empress Elizabeth of Austria, who, tired of conforming with the immaculate figure she had promoted in her youth, becomes an object of criticism, gossip and rumors. Impulsive and unfaithful, the princess is seen with distrust by the society and her family, often embarrassing her husband, the Emperor Franz Joseph I (Florian Teichtmeister) and children. Although Sissi’s erratic behavior makes impractical a salutary public image, she exhibits a compassionate personality for the war-wounded men and mental patients.

Perpetually commanding in the lead, Vicky Krieps is impressive in the role. Corsage serves as another showcase for the amazing acting skills of this confident actress who also managed to unearth strong and complex characters in Bergman Island (2021), Hold Me Tight (2021) and Phantom Thread (2017). 

Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer (The Ground Beneath My Feet, 2019), besides taking some liberties in the script and form, avoids unnecessary entanglement and has no use of sentiment in a story mounted with enough self-destructiveness, mordancy and rebelliousness for us to enjoy it bitter. Even if sparse in surprises and quite unconvincing as a depiction of the 19th-century aristocratic life, the film keeps us interested, with a story that, being as stiff as the Empress’ corset tightness, carries a lot of metaphor regarding modern women. It deserves some attention for its tenacity and provocation.

The Wonder (2022)

Direction: Sebastián Lelio
Country: Ireland / UK / USA

From the director of Gloria (2013) and A Fantastic Woman (2017), The Wonder won’t make you energized as it engages in a slow cooking process with lack of spices. The film, based on the book by Emma Donoghue and co-written by Lelio and Alice Birch (Lady MacBeth, 2016), is a lugubrious and uninventive mystery film soaked in mysticism and contemplation that, without betraying its lyrical style, never grips tightly. The lukewarm, spiritless atmosphere refuses to leave until the end, following a script in need of more paradox and a less debilitated conclusion. On the other hand, it raises deep questions about religion and its interpenetration with human realities.

Set in a rural 19th-century Irish village, the story depicts the arrival of an English nurse (Florence Pugh), hired by a committee of curious men - believers and skeptics - to observe a devotee 11-year-old girl (Kíla Lord Cassidy) who survives without eating. Is she a saint, a witch, or a haunted person? The hidden secrets are revealed with the help of a journalist (Tom Burke) willing to write an article about the case for the Daily Telegraph. 

Having a faltering narrative rhythm as its worst enemy and the cinematography as its strongest quality, The Wonder is more an exercise in mood with no visible threats. It will leave you with less than what you demand for a story of this nature.

Lady Chatterley's Lover (2022)

Direction: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
Country: UK / USA

Embroiled in a sheer monotony that results from the director and the screenwriter’s lack of vision to adapt the famous D.H. Lawrence novel of the same name, Lady Chatterley’s Lover feels too darn old-fashioned for a contemporary audience. It’s a pointless and utterly forgettable misfire from French filmmaker Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, whose directorial feature debut, The Mustang (2019), has drawn some positive reactions. 

The three main performances from Emma Corrin, Jack O’Connell and Matthew Duckett are so mannered that it's hard to feel anything but discouragement and ennui. The non-existent chemistry between the lovers reinforce the idea that this film is on automatic pilot. A romance that never catches fire within a dramatic plot that fails to innovate and engage. If you’re looking for a more exciting and cinematically engaging version of the novel, try Pascale Ferran’s, released in 2006.

Till (2022)

Direction: Chinonye Chukwu
Country: USA 

The true story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was lynched for racial reasons in Mississippi in the 1950s, is told with a disturbing edge in this thoughtful and fully explanatory biographic drama directed, executive produced and co-written by Chinonye Chukwu (Clemency, 2019). The work, classic to the core, also underlines the important step given for the civil rights movement and black community as the racial hatred was exposed like never before. 

Simply told with limited theatrics, Till is effectively dramatic without achieving the state of masterpiece. It’s worth seeing, if only to soak up the positive presence of Danielle Deadwyler, who plays Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, with intrepidity. Getting both press and public attention, she resolutely seeks for justice to make the two white murderers pay for their horrendous crime.

Although it doesn’t always avoid the pitfalls of filmed theatre, the film retains all the drama's thematic force, being bolstered by some good supporting roles and carrying uncomfortable feelings and heavy emotion. 

The Nigerian-born director is totally committed to her subject, but I’m convinced that the power of the film doesn’t totally match the power of the message.

The Fabelmans (2022)

Direction: Steven Spielberg
Country: USA 

The Fabelmans, a notably sharp semi-autobiographical drama mounted with proficiency, evokes Steven Spielberg’s youth years, dwelling in his great-to-watch family dynamics and early passion for cinema. Spielberg's declaration of love for the seventh art is sincere, funny and tender, with some magical moments that will easily conquer the viewers’ heart. 

Never in the same vein of his previous works, Spielberg shows how versatile he is, a fact confirmed through his alter ego, Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle acts with class and gravitas), who makes low-budget westerns, WWII battles, and homemade movies with the same acuity. We follow him with amusement from age seven to 18, a specific life period that starts in New Jersey, passes by Phoenix, Arizona, and ends in California. Observant, Sammy captures a secret within the family that confounds, hurts and scares.

After the disappointing and unnecessary remake of West Side Story, it’s good to see master Spielberg back in business with an intimate, personal chronicle that is as much endearing as it is eye-popping. The melancholic grace of the image is superb and benefits from the obvious pleasure of staging, while the story itself - another successful collaboration with playwright/screenwriter Tony Kushner (Lincoln, 2012; Munich, 2005) - contains real finds, intense moments of happiness, and painful struggles proper from the adolescence.

The Fabelmans is forged with a developed sense of narrative, harmonious composition, and an unblemished command of the actors, with my favorite episode occurring in the final minutes, when the young filmmaker meets the renowned director John Ford (impeccably impersonated by David Lynch) at CBS Studios. Spielberg hasn’t lost sight of the engaging, practical nature of his style, and benefits from the excellent performances of LaBelle, Paul Dano and Michelle Williams.