See You Up There (2017)

Directed by Albert Dupontel
Country: France / Canada

French post-war drama film "See You Up There" develops with shades of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Louis Malle. This stylish period drama, set in France in the 20’s, addresses topics such as friendship, war and family trauma, corruption, and survival. Actor/director Albert Dupontel ("Bernie") adapted Pierre Lemaitre’s novel The Great Swindle and gave himself the main role. He is Albert Maillard, a former accountant who tells his peculiar WWI story in a Moroccan police station. 

Maintaining a moderate to fast pace and leaning on an objective storytelling, the film displays a French funny side regardless of the sadness associated with the fictional account. Yet, we can glimpse a bit of the American classic mood in its demeanor. The merit goes to Dupontel, whose charming performance always brings some natural humor in the way he talks and moves.

In 1918, soldier Maillard was able to survive the brutal German attacks, without ever imagining that the biggest trouble would come from his own superior, captain Henri Pradelle (Laurent Lafitte), a monstrous tyrant. Seen as a sanguinary sadistic, the latter didn’t want the war to end and, in a pure act of madness, starts shooting his own soldiers from behind, confirming his heinous conduct as a leader. While trying to escape the unscrupulous captain, Maillard falls in a deep, narrow trench where there was a dead horse. It was his good friend Edouard Péricourt (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart), a talented draughtsman, who saved his life. During this process, Edouard is shot in the face, becoming facially disfigured.

Taken to an infirmary, the speechless man gesticulates to ask his friend to kill him since he doesn’t want to be sent back home. He begins to panic at the thought of seeing his father again, the bitter president Marcel Péricourt (Niels Arestrup). But of course, anyone could tell that Maillard was not tailored to kill not even a fly, so, he managed to give his friend a false ID and hide him in a secret place, informing his family that he had died like a hero while serving the country.

In the meantime, Maillard is forced to steal morphine from other handicapped war veterans to give it to Edouard, who, refusing any type of surgery, hides his face behind a mask. In order to communicate, he uses a personal ‘translator’, a neighbor kid named Louise (Héloïse Balster), who understands him better than anyone. Despite spending his days pacifically drawing, he becomes anxious after finding out that Pradelle, who decided to make a living with a corrupt business involving soldiers’ corpses, is on the verge to marry his sister, Madelaine (Émilie Dequenne). Struggling to eke out a decent existence, the two friends decide to set up a con scheme, using the artist’s brilliant drawings as a source. 

Despite the conventional storytelling, there’s a lot to like in Dupontel’s best film to date. In addition to the noticeable costume design, the mise en scene is memorable and the rich cinematography feels vivid. The pans and zooms operated by the camera are quite active and efficient, whether in its dynamic or rigid modes, and, fortunately, the war depictions were never too visceral to superimpose the aggravating family trauma. Even heartening at the end, there is a bittersweet taste that fills our mouths when we think how easy it is to destroy a human life.

The Great Buddha + (2018)

Directed by Huang Hsin-yao
Country: Taiwan

From Taiwan, and mostly shot with a lucid black-and-white mesmerism, “The Great Buddha +” is an appealing comedy-drama bolstered by the noir tones of crime. Its story develops slowly yet assuredly. 
Exploring both the philosophic side of life and the mundane world of concupiscence, the debut feature of Huang Hsin-yao, who occasionally narrates at his convenience, was expanded from his 2014 short film of the same name, depicting friendship in a zany way, but with enough personality to make us care.

Crane-games aficionado and day-time recycling collector Belly Button (Bamboo Chen) is often timid, but loses any inhibition whenever he is in the company of his friend Pickle (Cres Chuang). The latter works as a night watchman in a Buddha statue factory where he spends incessantly rainy nights around adult magazines together with his friend. Pickle’s wealthy boss, Kevin Huang (Leon Dai) is usually away, amused with his new sweetheart Gucci (JC Lei), a mixed-race beauty who loves to be called ‘puta’ when having sex in the car. However, his former lover, Yeh Feng-ju (Ting Kuo-lin), a mature yet possessive woman in her forties, demands more attention from him. The imbroglio ends up in a hideous crime, which Pickle and Belly Button had the opportunity to [witness] through the colorful images captured by a dash-cam placed in Kevin’s luxurious Mercedes.

It’s curious to see how different the two friends are. While Belly Button can’t refrain curiosity, becoming genuinely astonished by the course of events while yearning for Kevin's colorful lifestyle, Pickle is a modest man who never complains about anything. He is more concerned with his sick octogenarian mother and prefers not to meddle in his boss’ business.

Even with a few uneven episodes, the satire focuses on social class gaps and shapes into an important statement against political corruption and abusive influence in the contemporary Taiwanese society. Darkly funny and with an uncanny finale, “The Great Buddha +”, the sensation of the 54th Golden Horse Awards, provides an unusual yet incisive look at the mentioned predicaments. 

I Am Not a Witch (2018)

Directed by Rungano Nyoni
Country: UK / France / Germany / Zambia

Witches in Zambia can't roam freely in Rungano Nyoni’s satirical debut feature "I Am Not a Witch". They are confined to a witch camp in the middle of the desert and their main activity, besides guessing who are the culprits of anything bad that happens in the rural village, consists in farming the fields. A ribbon that goes from their back to a spool restricts their movements as a form of preventing them from fly and kill people. In other words, these women, dressed in blue and with her faces painted in white, are the touristic attraction that fills the pockets of the greedy government official Mr. Banda (Henry BJ Phiri). This bribable figure, married to Charity (Nancy Murilo), a young former witch, now faces another witchcraft case that is causing aversion in the village's population. 

8-year-old Shula (Maggie Mulubwa) is being accused of being a witch due to a minor incident. She has no family or friends, and nobody knows where she came from. Without confirming or denying the accusation, Shula is found guilty and sent to the state-run witch camp, where she is told that if she ever cuts the ribbon and tries to escape, she will be turned into a goat.

The talented director, who was inspired by real cases and wrote the story after a research trip to a Ghanian witch camp, funnily blends traditional practices and beliefs with touches of modernity. To give you an example, Banda’s wife is a sophisticated witch who goes to the supermarket wearing high heels. Moreover, some of the witches attempt to buy fancy wigs, with the styles varying from Beyonce to Rhianna, and pay them with the presents that Shula gets for her outstanding guessing capabilities. 

The kid starts working directly with Banda, who uses her to sell rain in a drought season and eggs with her name stamped. However, the only time we see this child smiling is when she attends school. The young Mulubwa’s expressive eyes do the magic, exhibiting the sadness of an emotional suppressed girl, whimsically picked by nefarious people to suffer for the rest of her life.

Humor and tragedy combine effortlessly in this sensitive, mindful, and stylish look at the roots of a distant African culture and the unjust burdens that mark its society. For a first film, Ms. Nyoni not only shows intelligence in the way she addresses the topic, but also reinstates hope in the African cinema through a moving yet never sloppy storytelling and impactful imagery - the staggering cinematography is by David Gallego, who did wonders in Ciro Guerra’s “Embrace of the Serpent”.

Arrhythmia (2017)

Directed by Boris Khlebnikov
Country: Russia

Sad realities are usually desirable topics for observant films whose intention is to alert the world for specific circumstances. “Arrhythmia”, the sixth feature-length by Moscow-born filmmaker Boris Khlebnikov (“Roads to Koktebel”; “A Long and Happy Life"), follows exactly that premise, portraying the profile of a married couple in a relationship lacerated by alcohol addiction.

Oleg (Aleksandr Yatsenko) and Katya (Irina Gorbacheva) started dating in med-school and have been married for a few years. He is a paramedic who goes all over the city in an ambulance, jumping from house to house to provide emergency medical treatment for those in a critical condition. However, he has a serious drinking problem that sometimes prevents him to perform the tasks at his full capacity.

Much more ambitious and reliable than he is, Katya is a dedicated junior doctor who becomes more and more upset with Oleg’s irresponsibility. The situation was already bad, but her patience reached the limit during her father’s anniversary lunch, where she got visibly disturbed and embarrassed with Oleg’s impertinence. She still loves him, though, and yet, the situation seems out of control, getting her tired and frustrated. So much that she still doesn’t know how to address the problem, communicating her decision to divorce him by text message. Oleg doesn’t take her seriously at first but starts sleeping in the kitchen until he could find a new apartment, which he never does.

Meanwhile, the things at work are not famous either, with Oleg being subjected to various complaints. Sometimes he overdiagnoses, other times he doesn't follow the rules he is obliged to, and some other times he doesn’t respect the patient’s decisions or beliefs. This situation only gets worse with the arrival of the insensitive new head of the Emergency Medical Agency substation, who imposes twenty rules to be followed tightly, disregarding the human factor that this type of job should consider. 

The romance, holding down a down-to-earth emotional weight, feels very authentic, for which much contributes the tight performances of Yatsenko - best actor at Karlovy Vary - and Gorbacheva. This is also bolstered by the confident direction of Mr. Khlebnikov, who keeps the film controlled while consciously takes it to a nonjudgmental path. The objective camera doesn't seek props or embellishments but rather captures a distasteful social reality without extravagant stratagems. It gives us the raw environment within the household, at the working premises, and in streets bursting at the seams with traffic congestion.

Feeling as emotionally strong as conceptually simple, “Arrhythmia” was handsomely crafted with powerful, thrilling scenes, showcasing not only a Russian medical predicament but perhaps even a worldly one. There’s optimism as a response to the imperfect world it describes, and genuine love seems to be the global solution.

Revenge (2018)

Directed by Coralie Forgeat
Country: France

Luxurious in its first minutes and viciously brutal in the remaining time, “Revenge” is a heavy, breathtaking ride that will make fans of horror/action genre rub their hands with glee.

The film, a product from the mind of newcomer Coralie Forgeat, thrives with devoted performances by Matilda Kutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe, and Guillaume Bouchede, who were able to convey all the distress, trauma, alertness, and resentment required to make the film succeed. Other fundamental aspects include the intermittence of Rob's disturbing score, which keeps alternating with suspenseful silences, and the super sharp cinematography by Robrecht Heyvaert, which comes filled with impressive close-ups and medium-range shots. The quality of the editing, carefully handled by Forgeat, Bruno Safar, and Jerome Eltabet, is especially noticeable in Jennifer's nightmares sequences. 

The plot is very simple and direct, yet, the way it was executed turns the film into one of the biggest blood soaking baths of the year. The sculptural Jennifer (Kutz), an American socialite, follows her wealthy French lover Richard (Janssens), a married man, in his annual hunting trip to the desert, where he retains a house. Her plan was to stay for two days with her sweetheart before the hunting begins. However, Richard's friends, Stan (Colombe) and Dimitri (Bouchede), arrive one day earlier than expected, getting utterly fascinated with Jennifer’s beauty. When Richard leaves the site for just a couple of hours, the uncontrollable Stan doesn’t resist his sexual impetus and rapes her, having the impassive Dimitri, an avid marshmallow-eater, ignoring the scene. 

Refusing money as a compensation for the traumatic experience and threatening Richard, Jen is pushed off from a cliff after trying to escape the three madmen. Although gravely wounded with a tree branch stuck into her belly, she survives and considers no other option rather than revenge.

Memorable scenes include Jennifer’s unimaginable beer-brand tattoo made under the effect of a hallucinogenic drug, several painful attempts of taking out external objects from inside their bodies, and the thrilling final cat-and-mouse game around the house’s narrow hallways.

Overwhelming emotions and feminist prowess are drawn from the visceral, agonizing, and often-cartoonish images that hold this sick n' ferocious film together. Even if excessively sanguinary, it runs at a dazzling pace and boasts impeccably mounted episodes.

This Is Our Land (2018)

Directed by Lucas Belvaux
Country: France / Belgium

Belgian cineaste Lucas Belvaux, author of "Rapt" and "Trilogy: One, Two, Three", returns with "This Is Our Land", a piercing political drama set in a small Northern French town.

Emilie Dequenne is Pauline Duhez, a dedicated, unselfish nurse and single mother of two, whose tranquility is shattered after an invitation from her family doctor and personal friend, Phillipe Berthiez (Andre Dussollier), to join his populist party and run for local mayor. The party dangerously believes in a France exclusively for the French, but Pauline, seduced by the idea of a radical change for the better, seems too flattered to really pay attention to the possible consequences. Her initial reluctance in accepting the invitation was immediately overcome after going to an election rally of the party where the persuasive, self-confident leader, Agnes Dorgelle (Catherine Jacob), the daughter of a neo-nazi, convincingly exposed her political intentions. This faction is enthusiastically supported by a discontented local minority, which includes Pauline’s best friend, the fanatical Nathalie (Anne Marivin), but is also fiercely contested by many who demonstrate on the streets, opposing to their obnoxious principles.

After her media baptism, Pauline starts losing patients and is frequently insulted on the streets. She is seen as the quiet puppet of Agnes and Phillipe, who didn’t even discuss the party’s program with her. The situation gets even more delicate when Pauline, who had divorced from her husband five years before, starts dating with an ex-high school boyfriend, Stephane Stankowiak (Guillaume Gouix), without knowing his violent political past as a radical nationalist militant. Moreover, she gets devastated when her communist father, Jacques (Patrick Descamps), cuts ties with her due to the impossibility to cope with the idea that his daughter is a fascist.

Webs of lies encircle this misguided woman as she gradually discovers the real intentions of those who surround her, including her beloved Stephane. Despite the contradictory feelings, she ends up choosing love in detriment of politics, living the illusion that he is a changed man.

Even with the violent scenes in need of a more convincing impact, the film, co-written by Belvaux and debutant Jerome Leroy, was mounted with a consistent narrative flow while its emotional grip is maintained until the last minute. The writers were inspired by the shocking political ascension of Marine Le Pen during the French presidential elections in 2017, and managed to slightly disturb through a few sharp observations.

The sad transformation of Pauline develops plausibly with the character constantly oscillating before a proud vanity for being chosen and a blind discomfort for the reactions around her decision. Filthy political strategies, inflamed slogans, speculation, and forceful poses, all of them contribute to the social decay of a naive nurse.

Isle of Dogs (2018)

Directed by Wes Anderson
Country: USA / Germany

Wes Anderson’s new stop-motion animation film is a kitschy Japanese canine adventure with a cool posture and deadpan humor. The celebrated filmmaker, author of cult comedies such as “Rushmore”, “The Royal Tenenbaums”, “Moonrise Kingdom”, and “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, co-penned the story with regular partners Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman, but this time also counted on Kunichi Nomura in the script and voice. Besides the latter, the ensemble voice cast includes Courtney B. Vance (narrator), Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Harvey Keitel, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Yoko Ono, and many more.

The story is set in Megasaki City, where the authoritarian mayor Kobayashi (Nomura) orders the capture and extradition of every single dog to Trash Island after a mysterious dog-flu outbreak. The smelly dogs have to fight each other to impede starvation on a filthy island that is merely a pile of garbage filled with chemicals, toxic waste, and hundreds of rats looking for food.

Spots (Liev Schreiber), the faithful dog of Atari Kobayashi (Royu Rankin), the mayor’s 12-year-old nephew, is the first dog officially deported from the city. The brave Atari flies to the island to retrieve him. His plane crashes, but he is rescued by a pack of five dogs led by Chief (Cranston), a stray that never sits or fetches and usually bites the humans who try to pet him. Against the odds, man and dog embark on a frenzied adventure threaten by Kobayashi’s robotic dog-machines and the uncorroborated presence of wild aboriginal cannibal dogs.

In the meantime, Dr. Watanabe (Akira Ito), the one who invented the dog-flu serum is assassinated in a conspiracy theory unmasked by American exchange student Tracy Walker (Gerwig).

Delightfully atypical, and conveying a deliberated laid-back narration filled with a bunch of political metaphors, “Isle of Dogs” disconcerts with a decaying spectacle of images that, even not so colorful or stunning, go well with the impeccably stylized, surrealistic atmosphere. Just like “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, this is another funny, clever, and imaginative animated fable.

In The Fade (2018)

Directed by Fatih Akin
Country: Germany / France

Turkish-born German filmmaker Fatih Akin, author of gems like “Head-On” and “The  Edge of Heaven”, thoughtfully returns to the drama genre after last year’s so-so coming-of-age adventure “Goodbye Berlin”.

“In The Fade” stars Cannes-awarded actress Diane Kruger (“Unknown”, “Inglorious Basterds”, “Disorder”) as Katja Sekerci, a woman living in Hamburg, whose happy life is suddenly shaken by the assassination of her husband and 6-year-old child in a Nazi conspiracy consummated with a nail-bomb attack. The first images show us Nuri Sekerci (Numan Acar), a Kurdish living in Germany, being applauded as he leaves his prison cell all dressed up to get married to Katja. Although convicted for drug trafficking in the past, when the film advances to the first of its three chapters, we see him completely rehabilitated, managing his own tax office, where he also helps fellow countrymen with document translations.

A certain day, Katja arrives at his office, located in the Turkish neighborhood, to drop off their son before going to meet her best friend Birgit (Samia Muriel Chancrin). On her way out, she notices a young woman, later identified as Edda Moller (Hanna Hilsdorf), placing a brand new bike in front of the office and then walking away. The bicycle was purposely left unchained. Later in the evening, she went to pick them up, but was informed there was an explosion in that specific area. It was an agonizing shock when the two unrecognizable bodies of a man and a kid were confirmed to be the members of her family. This harrowing reality impels her to take drugs in order to numb the pain. 

Officer Gerrit Reetz (Henning Peker) is the one leading the investigation and wonders if Nuri was still working for the Turkish Mafia as a dealer. Was this a retaliation? If not, who could have done such an evil act? The Eastern Europeans? A Nazi faction? 

Following a dramatic court session where the culprits are nauseatingly acquitted of the killings using a false alibi, Katja, in the impossibility of appeasing her soul and find relief, chases them down, traveling to Greece with a radical plan.

Akin’s approach favors as much the tense moments as the emotionally disturbing ones, only sporadically deflecting to unimaginative territories through superfluous maneuvers. Probably the most gratuitous scene happens when Katja attempts to kill herself, saved at the last minute by the phone call of her lawyer and family friend Danilo Fava (Denis Moschitto). 

Still, “In The Fade” was conceived with strong performances and never softens up, even when giving signs of momentarily wobbling. After the tragic, visceral finale, and before the closing credits, the director points out the xenophobe crimes committed by the members of Neo-Nazi group National Socialism Underground.

Pass Over (2018)

Directed by Spike Lee
Country: USA

Spike Lee’s unconventional storytelling and theatrical dramatization go beyond the cinematic, yet mixed feelings may arise from viewers who peek at his latest work, “Pass Over”. The film intends to elucidate audiences about the sad reality experienced by the African American community in the US.
 
Having Antoinette Nwandu’s story as the source, Lee literally films a play where two young black men, Kitch (Julian Parker) and Moses (Jon Michael Hill), captivate our attention for nearly 75 minutes, showing us some abominable truths captured by a competent and nimble camerawork.

Although a bit reluctant during the first minutes, I was completely involved in the conversations and misadventures of the friends, who hang in the corner of E 64th St and King Drive in Chicago. Lee shot the film in this city at the Steppenwolf Theater.

Instinctively throwing themselves on the ground whenever a noise is heard, these men are victims of the white men's prejudice, and their top 10 Promised Land game means just their dreams flowing, misleading the emptiness of their stomachs and the general unhappiness of life.

Their tete-a-tete is disturbed by a well-groomed white folk named Mister (Ryan Hallahan), who was heading to his mother’s house. He carries a basket replete with food and wears a white suit and red bowtie, having a constant smile on his face. Despite apparently harmless, the discomfort in the black folks becomes inevitable - is he a Mormon, a policeman, or a gangster? After an interesting conversation about the ’N’ word, he leaves pacifically, giving his place to an aggressive white cop, Ossifer (Blake DeLong), who only asks two quick questions: ‘who are you?’, ‘you going somewhere?’. The former is self-answered with ‘stupid, lazy, violent, thug’, while in regard to the latter, a ‘nowhere, sir’, uttered by one of the men, seemed to get the intolerant satisfied.

This dangerous game takes a U-turn, becoming a tragicomic manifesto that attempts to denounce the racial inequalities that keep infecting our world. Spike Lee did it artistically explicit.

Love, Simon (2018)

Directed by Greg Berlanti
Country: USA

Although smartly adapted from Becky Albertalli’s novel Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, “Love, Simon” felt too standardized and over-polished to impress. Director Greg Berlanti could have had the best of the intentions, but his coming-of-age drama film, despite warmhearted and inspiringly educational, played below my expectations, exclusively delivering the expected as the story develops with a crowd-pleasing, soap opera-ish comportment. 

Simon Spier (Nick Robinson), 17, is a closeted high school gay living in Atlanta, who feels a sudden urgency of identifying himself publicly as a gay, obviously a very demanding task. He gradually falls for an anonymous classmate who, under the pseudonym ‘Blue’, wrote an online confession regarding his homosexuality. While trying to physically meet with Blue, whom he suspects is the sympathetic Bram (Keyinan Lonsdale), Simon keeps hanging out with his old pals Leah (Katherine Langford) and Nick (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), and a brand new friend, Abby (Alexandra Shipp).

Even believing he would be all right at school in the case his secret is disclosed, Simon has his doubts when it comes to his family since his cool yet intrusive father, Jack (Josh Duhamel), occasionally makes some depreciative jokes about gays. Even not coming directly from the heart, this behavior hits Simon, who has his mother, Emily (Jennifer Garner), as a supportive and attentive ally.

The emotional involvement among the friends becomes knotted when Martin (Logan Miller), considered a tedious imbecile, gains access to Simon’s email account. He threatens to leak the sensitive info if Simon refuses to help him conquer Abby. Imbroglio after imbroglio, the film, an undeniable charmer, advances with the happy vibes of a pretty decent soundtrack and the lightness of contrived episodes that never attain profound emotional levels besides the average entertainment. 

Regardless the moderate collapse as a cinematic effort, it can easily work as an inspiration for many people going through the same process of affirming their true identity.

Submergence (2018)

Directed by Wim Wenders
Country: Germany / USA / other

72-year-old Wim Wenders is one of the inevitable figures of the European cinema. His work includes masterpieces such as “Paris Texas”, “Wings of Desire”, “Kings of the Road”, and “Alice In the Cities”, which deserved all the accolades they got. However, the current phase of his directorial career is not so strong, with the fictional films failing to match the much more compelling documentaries like "Pina" and "The Salt of the Earth". This fact hampers him from standing out again as a primary filmmaker.

Based on the novel of the same name by J.M. Ledgard and with a questionable adaptation from Erin Digman (“The Last Face”), “Submergence” depicts a bitter memory of a fine romance lived in the French Normandy between Danielle Flinders (Alicia Vikander), a biomathematician, and James Moore (James McAvoy), a Scottish agent under the cover of a water engineer. While she is on the verge of embarking on a pioneering diving into the deep Atlantic in a submersible to collect valuable samples, he is heading to East Africa in a classified mission. Once there, Somali jihadist fighters make him a hostage, and torture becomes a painful endurance.

Immersed in flashbacks, the drama lacks intensity, being progressively engulfed by irregular, often dispassionate waves of longing. The anguished Danielle can’t focus on her work since James became unreachable. In her mind, she questions if he just lost interest in her or is simply stuck somewhere with no communication. Yet, after some time, she lets go the latter possibility. James’ imprisonment, filled with numerous backs and forths and torturous oscillations, fails to engage us in its dualities: friend or enemy, salvation or perdition, compassion or aggression. Also, the pace doesn't facilitate our empathy.

The episodes involving the characters have no other link tying them besides the ephemeral love affair, and Wenders couldn’t avoid falling into a protracted, unexciting, and often sloppy exercise that never brought much satisfaction or hope.

The emotional agitation resultant from lovesickness could have pushed the film forward, but the heavy-handed narrative together with Spanish-born Fernando Velázquez’s annoying score make us all stuck too, waiting for the pointless ending to arrive.

The Fever and The Fret (2018)

Directed by Cath Gulick
Country: USA

Bolstered by an impactful score and stern black-and-white images, "The Fever and the Fret" is a low-budget art-house drama whose viewing can become utterly painful due to its heavy story. However, I found it completely engrossing as we keep crossing the thin line that separates the real from the surreal.

Cath Gulick’s debut feature centers on the Bronx dweller Eleanor Mendoza (Adelina Amosco), a depressive 14-year-old student of Asian descent with two large birthmarks on her face, who is a constant victim of bullying at school. Her grandmother (Shirley Cuyugan O'Brien), with whom she lives with, has to remind her every morning about going to school, a very difficult step to the teenager, who prefers to work at the restaurant of her cousin Alex (Rod Rodriquez) for three or four dollars an hour than have to confront her obnoxious colleagues. Is Alex who supports her, and the pressure of still being a virgin impels her to make a first sexual move in his direction.

This troubling reality is mistily expanded by the weird dreams that assault Eleanor whenever she gazes at her intriguing artistic paintings. Her grandmother frequently sees her work as a representation of the outer space. Contrasting with the rest of the film, these oneiric sequences are presented in color and always begin with two mountains placed next to each other with the sky filling the remaining spots of the frame. 

The inclusion of gracious gestural movements opposes to the affliction of laboring alone, whereas the sight of a newborn evolves to the happiness of having a child in her arms. The power of the mind always brings pictorial tranquil landscapes where the water is abundant. In her dreams, she also enjoys the company of a look-alike, who exhibits identical strange birthmarks as she does. This fantastic Malickian complexity is exciting, mirroring some of Eleanor’s desires but also the lack of her self-esteem. They are the sad consequence of a lamentable emotional desolation that, persisting for years, is driving her dangerously close to madness.

After another incident with Carly (Vanessa Carmona), a spiteful girl who torments her at school, Eleanor is arrested under the charges of assault, truancy, possession of an illegal weapon, solicitation of sex, and threatening to burn the school down. No images confirm the accusations, and no images deny it, but this time around, not even her teacher and protector, Miss Gutierrez (Kathleen Changho), seems to be on her side. Everything gets as much blurred for us as for the miserably lonely Eleanor, who doesn’t remember anything that day and pushes her grandmother to an existential crisis.

Ms. Gulick, who aims well at both the traumatic extremity and the tricks of a disturbed mind, uses magnified close-ups to redouble the terrible sensation of pain her protagonist keeps enduring. Conversely, Carly is flawless in conveying falsehood and malice. In addition to some terrific urban shots, the director elegantly stages an absorbing court session that ends the film with a strong grip on reality. I suspect this dark, immersive, and disturbing exercise is just the beginning of a beautiful filmmaking career.

Scary Mother (2018)

Directed by Ana Urushadze
Country: Georgia / Estonia

I found agreeably surprising this disturbing opus orchestrated by Georgian filmmaker Ana Urushadze. “Scary Mother”, her auspicious feature debut, is not a horror film but could definitely have been. Instead, Ms. Urushadze devises a tense psychological drama film, addressing trauma, repression, male domination, and mental nebulosity in a controlled way.

The story, set in Tbilisi, follows Manana (Nato Murvanidze), an undisclosed yet genial middle-aged writer who lives with her husband and children in an old apartment building, which, despite looking like an old pre-war factory from the outside, offers all the comfort in its interior.

Manana owns a sublime imagination, being capable to create astonishing tales that effectively combine the fantastic and the obscene. They are the consequence of dark, destructive, and sanguinary ideas, which she writes on her arm in maniacal impulses, a strange habit that comes from her loveless childhood. The character is so delirious, insecure, and cryptic, that our interest is incessantly turned to her.

The only person she trusts to share her novel is Nukri (Ramaz Ioseliani), a stationery shop owner who lives across the street. As a literary critic and editor, he eagerly pins for publishing her work since he’s quite sure to have a masterpiece in hands. However, this intention is thwarted by Anri (Dimitri Tatishvili), Manana’s intolerant husband, who gets embarrassed with her filthy, cheap pornography, as he likes to describe it. Exceedingly censor in regard to her looks, Anri constantly mentions carelessness in his wife’s behavior to make her feel terrible.

At the time she had to choose between writing and family, the traumatized Manana visited her father, Jarji (Avtandil Makharadze), an estranged, insensitive translator who never loved her. To make things worse, the hallucinatory attacks assault her more often, and we find her ‘reading’ the tiles of her shower with impressive descriptive precision. In urgent need of a new environment to write and gain mental stability, she moves into Nukri’s and an unprecedented love scene is memorably depicted.

Usurping most of the screen time, Ms. Murvanidze proved to be a great fit for the role, winning the Asia Pacific Screen Award for best performance by an actress. I wish her ‘madness’ were taken to those extremes where we would be able to address “Scary Mother” as a creepy film.

Even with fear encircling the story, I had the feeling that the director, besides clarifying the obscurity with a too descriptive finale, could have gone deeper in the real/imaginary duality. Still, her work comes filled with uncanniness and several neurotic moments boosted by Konstantin Esadze’s glowing cinematography and Nika Pasuri’s eerie score.

Modern Life Is Rubbish (2018)

Directed by Daniel Jerome Gill
Country: UK

Debutant director Daniel Jerome Gill snatched the title from Blur's second album of originals, “Modern Life Is Rubbish”, but, unlike the British rock band, was unable to find the originality to elevate this romantic comedy to higher standards. The film, an expansion of his 2009 short film of the same name, was written by Philip Gawthorne and stars Josh Whitehouse and Freya Mavor as a romantic couple whose uncontrollable passion for Blur’s music reinforced their mutual attraction for ten years.

Liam (Whitehouse) is a London vocalist/guitarist and songwriter who struggles to take his rock trio, Head Cleaner, to the place they deserve. Natalie (Mavor) is a sympathetic graphic designer who loves CD covers, sharing the same musical tastes of her boyfriend. 
Sounds awesome, right? Yet, the film doesn’t kick off with a happy couple. The first minutes show how painful a separation can be, and how different a man and a woman react to the situation. While Liam keeps simulating indifference, the visibly upset Natalie literally shed tears out of frustration and disappointment. This is all about priorities in life. More mature, she wants to raise a family, progress in her career, and have a comfortable life, willing to make sacrifices now for a better future. In turn, he has no idea of what’s going on, panics with the idea of a regular job, and blames the society for all his impasses and failures.

Things get out of hand when Liam appears drunk in the gallery where Natalie had been assigned for a presentation, jeopardizing her work. Tactless and petulant, the musician amuses himself in a furious yet stagy scene that leads to the rupture.

Embracing a dull nostalgia, the good moments of the past are reconstructed through several flashbacks, which emerge surrounded by the light glare of Tim Sidell’s cinematography and a few decent indie rock songs, two positive aspects of the film.

As for the rest, everything remains unimaginative, unfunny, and formulaic, in an absurd attempt to compensate the tedious musical part with the insipid romance and vice-versa. It’s a groundless, vicious cycle aggravated by monotonous lines and clichéd postures. Not even the experienced Ian Hart (“Liam”, “Michael Collins”, “Backbeat”), as the band’s stylish yet demanding manager, could prevent this song from playing wrong jarring chords.

The Wound (2017)

Directed by John Trengrove
Country: South Africa

South African filmmaker John Trengrove received rave reviews at Sundance and Berlin with his debut feature “The Wound”. The capable drama, beautifully photographed by Paul Ozgur and set in the rural mountains of the Eastern Cape, South Africa, focuses on the Xhosa initiation ritual, which consists of traditional circumcision and initiation into manhood of teenage boys under the guidance of their respective caregivers. According to sources, ‘what happens on the mountain stays on the mountain’.

The plot, co-written by Trengrove, Malusi Bengu, and Thando Mgqolozana, centers on a conflicting love triangle involving a city boy, the initiate Kwanza (Niza Jay Ncoyini), who was dragged by his father in hopes to get him tougher, his caregiver, Xolani (Nakhane Touré), and the latter’s childhood friend and secret lover, Vija (Bongile Mantsai), also an experienced caregiver.

Xolani is in love with Vija, who, every year, during the initiation process, gets sexually involved with him but without paying much attention to his feelings. The astute Kwanza, easily perceiving the forbidden relationship between the two men, defies the Xhosa ways with his rebelliousness. Besides seducing the hypocrite Vija and criticizing Xolani due to his lack of acceptance and closed homosexuality, Kwanza also refuses to speak up in front of the elders, which is a mandatory module to be followed. The threesome embarks on a tense dance that quickly adjusts from bitter to tragic.

“The Wound” is a singular sexual film whose dramatic force is undeniable. Culturally informative, the film stirred controversy when the crew and cast were subjected to death threats and violence after the film’s premiere in the East Cape province.

Trengrove, whose career was leaning toward the TV, delivers an auspicious, revelatory first feature that has all the ingredients to make you alert from start to finish. An agile camerawork, dexterous storytelling, and competent performances helped define the psychological conflicts of the characters in a film that never oscillates in tone while unveiling hidden aspects of a closeted practice.

The Endless (2018)

Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
Country: USA

Trendy directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (“Resolution”, “Spring”) return to their trippy hallucinations deeply connected to enigmatic cults and sinister characters. However, their induced fear of the unknown, otherworldly paranoia and suicide fascination simply don’t convince me.

Both filmmakers star as two brothers who, not happy with their turbulent childhood in the UFO death cult, from where they escaped ten years before, decide to return to find the closure they need. Allured by a cryptic video message they step into the secluded Camp Arcadia, which holds unexplainable forces and secrets. Reconnection with old pals brings some good memories from the past, which can't prevent them from becoming trapped both in grueling time loops and dangerous beliefs that pose clearly a threat to their lives.

While Aaron seems happy with the experience, mostly because of Anna (Callie Hernandez), to whom he has always been attracted, Justin is not particularly convinced about the benefits of the faction. For him, the camp is not just bonfires, family ties, and good food. The people there are really bizarre, with Shitty Carl (James Jordan) probably being the most intriguing one since he strides like a deranged, has a restless look, and screams like a possessed man. The young manipulative leader, Hal (Tate Ellington), is the one whose tranquility seems unshakeable. However, his sweet talk wouldn't fool a kid.

Drowned in old videotapes, supernatural puzzles, and magic tricks, “The Endless” is pure hypocrisy. The strangest sensation I had while watching the film was that Benson and Moorhead were tricking the viewers, precisely like the cults do when preaching some crazy ideology. Apparently, they have been successful, but I’m glad I didn’t follow the flock in this illusory worship of a cinematic artifice.
 
With more estrangement than any astute twist, the film becomes linked to “Resolution” when the action is taken to the woods. Still, its turnarounds were more like dumbly existential and painfully dragging than anything else.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Directed by John Krasinski
Country: USA

“A Quiet Place” is the boldest work of American actor-turned-director John Krasinski, who abandons the redundancy of minor comedy dramas such as “The Hollars” and “Brief Interviews with Hideous Men” to embark on a post-apocalyptic horror thriller that will make you breathless throughout.

That’s because the story, written with visionary élan by Bryan Woods and Scott Beck, tells us about a family - father (John Krasinski), mother (Emily Blunt), son (Noah Jupe), and deaf daughter (Millicent Simmonds) - that has to live noiseless in the countryside to avoid extermination by alien creatures with a hypersensitive auditory ability. Years before, one of those horrifying monsters, which can switch from idle to attack mode in seconds, had killed the couple’s younger son, a situation that not only created much grief in the family but also an obstinate guilt in his conscious sister. However, the couple still dances with headphones at the sound of Neil Young’s breezy songs because they were blessed with a new pregnancy. Although happiness and hope are installed in the house, the situation has much to think about and requires planning not to let the baby put everyone in danger when crying. A bunker, a small wooden box, and an oxygen mask are the key elements of their strategy. Moreover, mom has to be silent during labor, which is another motive to amplify anxiety.

Because the film is 99% wordless, the level of exigency required from the actors is mostly related to conveying everything via actions and expression. The characters use gestural language to communicate, only breaking this rule when behind a waterfall, where the noise is natural and they can remain undetected.

I see this film as a game of the senses, a conviction bolstered by the fact that the creatures are blind and the little girl is deaf. Her father insists she has to wear her an aiding ear, even broken. Who knows when it may start working again? 

An old man who prepares to commit suicide after his wife’s execution is the only human to be found. Ironically, he just has to scream and… voilà! Despite these happenings, we are not told about what happened before or where the creatures came from. That vagueness, together with the silences and the power of the images, takes the horror to another level, simply because you’re dealing with the unknown.
 
In a couple of scenes, I wanted to start screaming out loud, like if I would alleviate the characters’ oppressive pain. Yet, that would have spoiled the film. Silence is imperative if you want to completely absorb the mood, even when Marco Beltrami’s ominous score is present to inflict further intimidation.
Regardless some minor quibbles here and there, “A Quiet Place” is original, atmospheric, tragic, and thrilling.

You Were Never Really Here (2018)

Directed by Lynne Ramsay
Country: USA / other

The dramas of Glasgow-born filmmaker Lynne Ramsay always have something special in addition to its rawness. So far, her short filmography comprehends four features, equal parts heavy and memorable, with the prevailing themes of youth, misfit, family, guilt, and grief. Even if her filmmaking skills and idiosyncratic style were pulsating with life in "Ratcatcher" and "Morvern Callar", her first two works, it was with the disturbing "We Need To Talk About Kevin" that she earned a massive recognition. Now, she returns in big with "You Were Never Really Here", a sunless thriller that exquisitely blends corrosive tension and morbid humor to create gripping scenes of alienation and redemption.

Ms. Ramsay, who wrote the script based on the short story of the same name by Jonathan Ames, summoned Joaquin Phoenix, who, in top form, impersonates an enigmatic, violent, and lethal hitman whose favorite weapon is no pistol nor knife but a ball-peen hammer. Heavily traumatized by an abusive father and a merciless military service, the bearded Joe is very reliable when it comes to ‘wipe out’ a man. After each job, he always goes back to his elderly mother (Judith Roberts), with whom he lives in New York City.

In a new assignment, he vouches to free Nina (Ekaterina Samsonov), the teenage daughter of an important NY Senator, who was abducted to work in a dirty sex business in which major politicians are involved. The operation is dangerous and Joe is perfectly aware it can cost him friends and family, however, he’s not a give-up type guy. With some madness in his eyes and facing each setback with a disarming calmness, the tenacious hitman finds in Nina the force he needs to accomplish the mission and inflict the deserved punishment on the child abusers. 

Immersive and intriguing, the film develops with the tones of a neo-noir but ultimately glows with hope in the end. Even painful when imagined, the violence was never too explicit or extremist, making this revenge tale much more accessible than the intense shockers "Blue Ruin" and "Cold in July", which could easily upset your stomach. At least, the clouded Joe fights for some justice.

Even eschewing plot excesses, Ramsay wouldn’t be so successful without the arresting cinematography by Tom Townend, the brilliant score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, and the unblemished editing by Joe Bini. They worked well together so that the packaging could look great while thrillingly grim moods were captured through a lens darkly. On another plan, Phoenix makes you enjoy every moment of his sinister role with a quiet assurance.

Those Who Are Fine (2018)

Directed by Cyril Schäublin
Country: Switzerland

Cyril Schäublin’s feature debut, “Those Who Are Fine”, renders a scam story involving elderly women as preys in today’s Internet world. Following four short films, the young Swiss director imagines a female call center employee who tricks a few grandmothers using a false quest for urgent financial help as she pretends to be their granddaughters.

Alice Turli (Sarah Stauffer) is one of the 'inhumane' call center representatives at Everywhere Switzerland, an Internet service provider that offers up one of the most competitive prices in the market. She is a lonesome girl who takes advantage of her job to obtain extra information from wealthy elderly targets. In addition to questions like “how fast is your Internet connection” or “how often do you use the Internet”, Alice queries about their date of birth, bank account type, and approximate current balance. We follow her scamming the good-willing Mrs. Oberli (Margot Gödrös), who, despite the bank’s laborious security procedures, was more than happy to withdraw 50 thousand francs for her granddaughter. A meet up is scheduled, but instead of the latter is Alice who shows up to receive the money, exhibiting a mix of satisfaction, underestimation, and contempt in her face. 

Schäublin uses the camera in a curious way, opting for sharp close-ups, medium-long shots with half-body characters occupying only one side of the frame, and a few high-angles where she captures the austerity of the streets, the urban architecture and busy traffic in the unattractive outskirts of Zurich.

Intertwining with Alice’s path, we hear conversations among a group of policemen assigned to carry out security checks at certain locations of the city. The topics of their conversation include Internet speeds and prices, health insurance, and movies, whose titles nobody remembers. Ironically, one of them croons Elton John’s ‘Your Song’, and in a different occasion, another one interrogates and frisks Alice, whose fraudulent ways needed another type of strategy to be unmasked. 

The guileful, achingly unemotional swindler opens a bank account with a large sum of dishonestly-earned money. That doesn’t weigh a bit in her conscience. In this aspect, debutant actor Sarah Stauffer was perfect, emulating the imperturbability of her character through a casual acting style. But because the more money you have, the more you want, Alice has no plans to stop and approaches her next victim, a senile woman living in a dementia caregiver center.

The drama relies on an interesting idea that never develops into something completely satisfactory. Regardless of a possible posterior connection, many scenes feel derivative, lost in redundant dialogues that drag the story to its limits. Even the finale promised tension but ended up wrapped in a melancholic apathy. Drowned in passwords, codes, and missing film titles, “Those Who Are Fine” runs at slow speeds and only intermittently connects. It would have easily been a more stimulating short film than a feature.

Where Is Kyra? (2018)

Directed by Andrew Dosunmu
Country: USA

Andrew Dosunmu’s focused yet pessimistic drama “Where Is Kyra?” marks the return of Michelle Pfeiffer to the big screen. Embracing a demanding role and dominating the scenes with a distinctive gravitas, she plays the title character, an unemployed middle-aged divorcee living in Brooklyn, who takes care of her elderly mother (Suzanne Shepherd). The camera silently lurks into the rooms with a compassionate passivity, capturing desolated facial expressions and silhouettes with predominantly dark tonalities. The tactic serves to highlight the depressive moods, yet love and affection are detected in the plausible story co-written by Dosunmu and Darci Picoult (“Mother of George”).

Even with the job interviews oscillating between disastrous and inconsequent, Kyra seems unpreoccupied because she receives her mother’s pension monthly. Nonetheless, she suddenly falls into a downward spiral of bad luck after her mother’s passing. The impossibility of cashing the checks from then on hauls her into a new inconceivable situation. Facing the tough reality of eviction and poverty, the desperate Kyra embarks on a dishonest scheme. The only thing she needs to succeed is to disguise herself as her mother and play her part at the bank.

Meanwhile, at a local bar, she engages in casual conversation with Doug (Kiefer Sutherland), a solitary cab driver who knows her mother well and how much effort she has been putting on taking a good care of her. Both need a strong drink to cope with their lives, and after a few shots, they end up having sex. Will he be able to help her, even disagreeing with her fraudulent methods?

This reflection on economic deterioration holds a constant sense of desperation, yet never shaping into a true emotional commotion. Humiliation and shame are stabbing, and this is strongly felt when Kyra is forced to ask her ex-husband for financial help.

Dosunmu seems self-satisfied in securing the gloomy spirits, never excelling in fighting lethargy. Hence, “Where Is Kyra?” remains melancholically low-key from start to finish, failing to deliver in crucial moments, including its climax.

While Pfeiffer and Sutherland show raw and intact acting capabilities, the dramatic side of the story decreases with time, becoming plodding and monotonous. Tenaciously pronounced is Philip Miller’s score, whose jarring sounds were able to create tension galore.