Air (2023)

Direction: Ben Affleck
Country: USA 

Air marks the return of Ben Affleck as director, seven years after the disappointing Live by Night. Although he also stars here as Phil Knight, the billionaire CEO of Nike Inc., the central figure of this decent-enough sports biographical drama is played by Matt Damon. He is Sonny Vaccaro, a basketball scout and marketing executive who will trigger a unique historical shoe deal by approaching the young star Michael Jordan to sign with Nike - against his favorite Adidas. It’s the famous Air Jordan shoes we’re talking about here. The year is 1984, and the film brings plenty of nostalgia through music and some transient sequence of images.

Even so, you don’t have to be interested in basketball or Jordan, who doesn’t speak throughout the whole film, since the story is told with enough conviction and transparency to connect with people who are not into the NBA. Because more concerned with the characters and their personal goals than with the sport itself, everyone should be able to enjoy it. 

The film’s main strength is precisely that it's a great story. It’s also well acted by a cast that includes Viola Davis, Jason Bateman and Chris Messina in strong supporting roles. For his part, Affleck keeps the narrative moving at a nice pace. 

Narrative-wise, though, Air doesn't have an original bone in its body - the film falls into typical American standards of emotional tension - but, being entertaining and informative, it succeeds at bringing an usually forgotten part of sports history into the minds of today's audiences.

A Thousand and One (2023)

Direction: A.V. Rockwell
Country: USA 

In its modest package, A Thousand and One, a painfully realistic drama from debutant writer-director A.V. Rockwell, leaves us with a moral dilemma and the real anxieties of life. 

The story, set in New York in the mid-‘90s, follows Inez (Teyana Taylor), a venturous woman in her early twenties, who, days after being released from prison for stealing, kidnaps a six-year-old (Aaron Kingsley Adetola) from the foster care system. Although doing her best to be a good mom and staying out of sight, she struggles to find financial stability and keep her home safe from the abhorrent New York City gentrification. 

People grow emotionally and change with time. And that's the case with Lucky (Will Catlett), Inez’s boyfriend, whose posture toward the child redirects from indifferent to a helpful father figure. In a way, it serves as a moving reminder that there are people out there who can change the life of someone. 

One notes some dubious aspects to this story, which could have been better developed at some point. Yet, all in all, this is an engaging drama from a new filmmaker who dabbles in the themes more than explores them. It also provides a meaty role for the Harlem-born 32-year-old R&B singer/actress Teyana Taylor, who proved to have strong acting skills. 

Even dwindling in intensity in the last quarter, the film will leave you prostrated with its thoroughly wired reality, making for a heartfelt alternative to the more traditional documentary-style approach. Soundtrack and cinematography are added values.

Godland (2023)

Direction: Hlynur Pálmason
Country: Iceland

With Godland, Icelandic Hlynur Pálmason (A White, White Day, 2019) signs a sensory piece of cinema that bears some similarities with Ingmar Bergman and Carl Dreyer, not so much in the visuals but rather in the topic, severity of the mood, and depiction - both physical and emotional - of the main character. However, the sharp square-framed images recalling the photographic process known as daguerreotype and a masterful direction make Godland feel like an unexplored land in cinema.

Elliott Crosset Hove is Lucas, a Lutheran Danish priest who is sent to Iceland with the mission of building a church and photographing the population. The Nordic island was under the Danish crown rule in the late 19th century, when the story is set, and the clash of temperaments, habits and language is pretty evident. Taking the longest route in order to photograph the scenic views, Lucas feels the callousness of Ragnar (Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson), a somber Icelandic guide, right from the start.

Not only his body succumb to the harsh environment but do does his mind. It’s gradual but conclusive. The deeper he sinks into this unforgiving landscape, the more he falls into temptation and sin. 

Godland is filled with sensations that come from the physical world and from the soul. You’ll feel the poetic, sometimes magical realism on one side, and the fear, transgression and fatality on the other. This rare reflection on the colonization of the Far North deserves visibility.

Rye Lane (2023)

Direction: Raine Allen-Miller
Country: UK 

This heartwarming first film by Raine Allen-Miller is not a trifle. It’s a British romcom with a cool urban touch and modernly kitsch visuals that manages to deliver the requisite laughs and romantic heat. 

Dom (David Jonsson), a young accountant emotionally affected by the recent breakup with his girlfriend, exchanges a few words with the spirited Yas (Vivian Oparah) while in toilet partitions of a gallery. Minutes later, they meet in person and spontaneously decide to spend the day together. They will experience a few unexpected situations while walking leisurely through the Rye Lane Market - there's this weird lunch with Dom’s ex; a karaoke moment that starts embarrassingly regrettable and ends successfully motivating; a big quarrel whose apparent origin is the record The Low and Theory by A Tribe Called Quest; a scrumptious tortilla prepared and served by Colin Firth (a cameo appearance); and more. 

It’s easy to see there was no cut corners in the production values - customs, scenarios, props, and soundtrack are proper and appealing. Moreover, the two leads harmonize perfectly on screen, playing an endearingly light duet in tones of pink and violet. 

Sometimes Rye Lane wanders, almost with a carefree zeal, following a plot that, even sagging, has no decline in amusement. The viewers’ expectations are ultimately met, making us wonder what Allen-Miller is planning to do next.

Creed III (2023)

Direction: Michael B. Jordan
Country: USA 

Creed III is the third installment in the Creed boxing film series and the ninth in the Rocky franchise. Actor Michael B. Jordan, here promoted to director, tries to impose his own style but couldn’t eradicate some of the exhausted formulas that marked the Rocky saga. 

In this chapter - without Sylvester Stallone in the cast - Adonis Creed (Jordan) retires from boxing in glory, dedicating his time to family and the boxing academy he runs with Tony ‘Little Duke’ (Wood Harris). They keep busy preparing and promoting their undefeated world champion, Felix Chavez (played by the former welterweight champion José Benavidez in his debut acting role). Life is good until Adonis’ ambitious childhood friend, ‘Diamond Dame’ Anderson (Jonathan Majors), is released from prison after 18 years. Surprisingly, and despite his age, he asks for a chance to fight for the title. 

Even with some adrenaline rush occurring inside the ring, there’s no attribute that stands out from the common lot. Repeated clichés and melodramatic bait are found in a plot that slowly unravels with each implausible turn, making Creed III excessively artificial. 

Many of Jordan’s options in the plot and direction are questionable. Take for example his decision to mute the sound and make the audience disappear during the final clash. It just removed all the energy built before, curbing the enthusiasm for the rest of the fight. What really concerned me was his inability to set this work apart from the better films that inspired it.

Nothing really motivates us, both emotionally and scenario-wise, and many will throw in the towel. Adonis, maybe it’s time to really hang up the gloves!

Robe of Gems (2023)

Direction: Natalia López
Country: Mexico

This visually intriguing, harshly told, and drastically sad tale directed by Bolivian-born Natalia López (the wife of Mexican director Carlos Reygadas and editor of two of his most known films - Silent Light and Post Tenebras Lux) is infected with dark tones, baffling connections, and a tragic cruelty that makes hard for viewers to follow it in the first place. 

Robe of Gems tells us about three women - the wealthy and emotionally unstable Isabel (Nailea Norvind), her housekeeper Maria (Antonia Olivares), and a defeated police chief, Roberta (Aida Roa) - whose paths connect and unfold within a rural Mexican community that is passive in the face of crime, violence, and systemic corruption. They are condemn to eternal misery in a somber film that causes anguish at all times, a fact reinforced by its laconic narrative form and glacially slow sequences. 

With tension underlying each scene, this is a restless cinematic experience that ends brutally shocking, leaving us with a bitter taste in our mouths. There’s no innocence in this picture, where the the images - multiple medium close-up shots are used - can make an impact but the dialogues are often uninteresting. Obscurity and pain are part of the scheme in a film incapable of offering a small  glimpse of happiness whatsoever. Yet, there is some point and truth in what it tries to say, and that will probably reflect in the way you think about the film after the credits roll. A hard one to watch; some mixed feelings.

Of an Age (2023)

Direction: Goran Stolevski
Country: Australia

Directed by Goran Stolevski - who stunned us last year with You Won’t Be Alone - Of an Age tells the love story of two young men who meet up in uncommon circumstances. When Kol Denic (Elias Anton), a Serbian living in Australia, receives a call from his best friend and ballroom dance partner, Ebony (Hattie Hook), saying she woke up in a distant beach after a night party with no recollection of what happened, he resorts to her brother, Adam (Thom Green), to drive him there. On their way to the coastal side, the two share music, film, and book interests, but also a physical attraction that ends up in a 24-hour romance.

Of an Age is as elusive as the remarks about Borges and Kafka during the protagonists’ awkward conversation. It’s also visually bland to the point of making us wonder what happened to the director since the release of his abovementioned debut feature, whose images truly haunt. The eclectic soundtrack, in opposition, sounds great, including Cesária Évora, Cardigans, and French singer Barbara. 

After a lukewarm yet tolerable first part, the second - depicting the reunion of the two men a decade later - fails to succeed. It loses not only the subtle naivety but also soul, and never bothers to recover it. The predominant wistfulness in Stolevski’s film is curdled underneath, resulting in a stunted effort with plenty of lachrymose regrets and a few other problems. What started off promising ended melancholically pointless.

Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game (2023)

Direction: Austin Bragg, Meredith Bragg
Country: USA 

Considered a game of chance in the 1970’s, pinball was banned for 35 years in New York. Roger Sharpe was the man who managed to overturn that drastic measure when he moved to the city with the intent of becoming a writer. This true story is at the center of the Bragg Brothers’ biopic Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game.

Active since the mid 2000’s, the pair of directors finally make their debut feature with a biographical comedy that, following traditional narrative procedures, gains momentum with enchanting well-written dialogues and a smart structure. It’s also romantic in its own way, and an optimistic confection, sometimes frothy, sometimes exceptional, that feels like it might have sprung from the era it portrays. 

Creatively told, the story acquires a dazzling motion while purposely exaggerating the documentary within the film versus the facts, realistically expressed by Mr. Sharpe of our days (Dennis Boutsikaris). The young Sharpe, owner of a peculiar mustache and vivid manners, is played by Mike Faist (West Side Story, 2021), who makes a wonderful pair with Crystal Reed (Teen Wolf: The Movie, 2023), the love of his life. 

The Braggs inject a few drops of acid into what would be a simple story, turning it somewhat cartoonish but seductively amusing. Pinball won’t be among your standard biopics but rather a favorably low-key portrait whose well-oiled mechanisms intend to divert as much as inform.

Revoir Paris (2022)

Direction: Alice Winocour
Country: France 

In her newest film, writer-director Alice Winocour (Augustine, 2012; Disorder, 2015) offers a modestly engaging account of severe PTSD and a possible path to recovery. Revoir Paris is a fictionalized story about a terrorist attack and the profound marks left on those who survived, undeniably bringing to mind the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks in the French capital.

Three months after experiencing the attack in a Paris bistro, Mia (Virginie Efira) remains in limbo, a stranger to herself and to the city. By returning to the place where all happened and where she was hidden for nearly two hours, this Russian translator makes an effort to remember the details that will allow her to heal and move forward. The taciturn accumulation of emotions finds some illumination in the optimism of Thomas (Benoit Magimel), another survivor who, on that grievous night, was celebrating his birthday. 

Circumspectly shot, this heartbreaking yet timid description of how to overcome trauma is centered on the victims, not the murderers. The images are poignant, the sound is effective, and Efira is striking, but after some truly frightening scenes, the film falls into a kind of torpor that has its reason to exist. Each character is assigned a function that works within the dramatic construction.

By turns moving and horrifying, Revoir Paris might not be a massive hit but manages to carve out an identity.

The Innocent (2023)

Direction: Louis Garrel
Country: France

Louis Garrel, the son of esteemed director Philippe Garrel for whom he has acted several times over the years (Regular Lovers, 2005; Jealousy, 2013; Le Grand Chariot, 2023), wrote, directed and starred in The Innocent, his fourth feature and most rewarding film so far. This project took five years to mature and bears a very personal stamp as it was inspired by his mother, the actress Brigitte Sy, who actually married a prisoner in the penitentiary where she was giving theater workshops. Louis was 18 when that occurred.

Here, he impersonates the taciturn Abel, who freaks out when informed about what his mother (Anouk Grinberg) is planning to do. In panic, he starts to investigate all the moves of his suspicious father-in-law (Roschdy Zem) with the help of his best friend, Clemence (Noémie Merlant). 

This romantic comedy drama, brilliantly served with a slice of heist thriller on the side, takes a somewhat familiar concept and applies it to the story of mother and son. The well-crafted plot entertains without upsetting, and the film is carried out with remarkable ease. It's all very charming (thanks to the fantastic ensemble cast and some decent chemistry between them), gloriously dramatic (the scene at the restaurant is memorable) and, at some point, thrilling. Garrel ultimately finds the perfect equilibrium between genres, guaranteeing narrative fluidity at all times.

Narrative cleverness and adroit editing sustain us through a story that, being irremediably elemental, simple and light, succeeds in its efforts as it is also graced with a typically super performance by Merlant and an effective direction by Garrel. Delivering that pure pleasure of cinema we thought already lost, they will put a smile on your face.

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Direction: James Cameron
Country: USA

Avatar: the Way of Water, the sequel to Avatar (2009) and the second installment of a series of five, was again co-written and directed by James Cameron (The Terminator, 1984; Titanic, 1997). The events in this episode occur more than a decade after the first story, and tells how Jake Sulli (Sam Worthington) and his united family work collectively to beat an eternal human rival, the recombinant Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). 

The film goes for a broader canvas - with a lot of technology - and adopts a Star Wars side that isn’t always favorable. Even with a strong dramatic center rooted in family, survival and environment, this is a blatant example where the visual spectacle (it can dazzle but also fatigue) swallows up an unexceptional story.

The sequel starts awfully, charged with artificial visuals and heavy content, but gains some tract along the way, becoming slightly more compelling when the action moves to the sea. This particularity offers Cameron a new playground and visual exploration from the point of view of colors, textures and fluidity of the scenes. The beautiful friendship between Jake’s younger son, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and Payakan, an outcast Tulkun, brings the best moments to the screen. All the rest of it is more of the same in a tiresome film that suffers from an extended duration, repetitive messages, and clichéd dialogues.

Cadejo Blanco (2022)

Direction: Justin Lerner
Country: Guatemala / Mexico / other

Cadejo Blanco works more or less in the way it's supposed to, but in its grave meditation on the banality of evil and gang insensitivity, it reflects excessive mechanical behaviors. I felt a bit detached because the narrative was never stimulating.

The story revolves around the disappearance of a teenager who never returned home after a night out in Guatemala City. Sarita (Karen Martínez), the missing girl’s courageous sister, is certain that her disappearance is related to Andrés (Rudy Rodriguez), a gang boy who was dating her. Through him, she manages to infiltrate the gang in the coastal town of Puerto Barrios in order to get some answers. Yet, the acts of violence she’s forced to commit and the oppression she endures will change her life forever. 

Wallowing in the mire of an innocent infiltrated that seeks revenge, the film displays a simple, adequate scenario, but the episodes are not quite believable. Martínez reveals excessive emotional control and a chilly coldness when acting. Although she might not be worthy of our sympathy, it’s not just revenge she’s eager for but also survival that is in question. 

It’s easy to say that writer-director Justin Lerner - this is his third feature, following Girlfriend (2010) and The Automatic Hate (2015) - and the pair of young actors showed dedication to the material, but it’s unfortunate that the tactlessness of most of the scenes hinders the final product.

Lord of the Ants (2022)

Direction: Gianni Amelio
Country: Italy

With Lord of the Ants, Italian director Gianni Amelio is far from his glory days, built on the basis of films such as Lamerica (1994) and Il Ladro di Bambini (1992). His newest effort is a biopic of the Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law. He was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of duress against an 18-year-old student who would become the love of his life. 

The cast is not outstanding, apart from Luigi Lo Cascio (he made his debut in 2000 with Tullio Giordana’s One Hundred Steps) who plays the title character with intellectual superiority. The relationships between the characters seem contrived or detached from emotion in a somewhat cold, chewy film that doesn’t get better with time, not even when the camera is turned to a courtroom. 

Amelio simply chronicles the facts and lets naivety take control of things. The dialogue goes from philosophical and poetic to sloppy and banal, while the characters don’t pull enough truth from a story that really happened but surely with a lot more intensity than it’s presented here. Lamentably, Lord of the Ants, even demonstrating solid values at its core, loses its voice to torpidity.

Tori and Lokita (2023)

Direction: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Country: Belgium / France

Picking two non-professional actors who have never acted before to play leading roles in their socially aware new film, the Dardenne brothers continue to provide the same raw feelings and narrative straightforwardness that marked their previous works. Yet, in this ultra-realistic immigrant tragedy set in Belgium they probe a new approach that reveals the darkness and evil behind modern slavery. Whomever this gripping drama is for, it still feels like an observant drama film from the directors who made Rosetta (1999), L’Enfant (2005), Lorna’s Silence (2008) and Two Days One Night (2014).

The inseparable Tori (Pablo Schils) and Lokita (Mbundu Joely) arrived in Sicily from Benim but end up in Belgium, where they are forced into drug crimes and subjected to many forms of exploitation by the heartless owner of a pizzeria (Alban Ukaj) that employs them illegally. Pretending to be siblings, they suffer together with the injustice of the social services and the undeserved punishment inflicted by their exploiters. 

The long singing scenes provided by the protagonists are the weakest moments of the film as they break the chain of events. There’s also unnecessary emotional bait in the redundant final scene. Yet, because the script also manages to pack a punch, I believe you’ll be prepared to forgive it. This is a poignant cry of revolt against the fate of minor migrants in Europe. The young actors project a special authenticity that engages the viewer in an emotionally resonant story of true friendship and hope for a dignified, honest life that ends tragically.

Rimini (2023)

Direction: Ulrich Seidl
Country: Austria 

Co-written, directed and produced by Ulrich Seidl, an inveterate provocateur who captured the attention of the media with his audacious Paradise trilogy, Rimini is a comedy drama about decay in every sense. Although freckled with cheesiness, shenanigans and nostalgia, the film is generally absorbing with its strong performances and intoxicating subversion. Its visuals, thoroughly mesmerizing, depict the life of a washed-up romantic pop artist and occasional gigolo, Richie Bravo, impeccably impersonated by Michael Thomas. Seidl created this role specially for him after seeing him singing Sinatra’s “My Way” during the shooting of Import Export (2007).

The backdrop for the story is the northern Italian title city whose gloomy winter weather makes the story even more punishing. With fatherhood as a key topic, we get a glimpse of Richie’s relationships with his nationalist, dementia-struck father (Hans-Michael Rehberg in his last film role) as well as his daughter, Tessa (Tessa Göttlicher), who, after 18 years, claims what he stole from her and her mother. Yet, his money - most of it coming from sexual services for retired fans - barely covers his alcohol addiction.

This acerbic Dolce Vita is not an easy film to watch, but worth the effort as it is a brutal and insolent viewing experience. Seidl can still hurt with his ferocious filmmaking style. He extracts a mix of caustic humor, corny drama, unseductive raw sex, and a sort of painful numbness from many of the scenes. If this is your cup of tea, take a look at Sparta (2023), the follow-up to Rimini, which focuses on Richie’s brother, Ewald.

The Worst Ones (2023)

Direction: Lise Akoka, Romane Guéret
Country: France

Embracing a docu-fiction style that works for most of its time, The Worst Ones - the first feature from directors Lise Akoka and Romane Guéret - is designed to trigger emotional responses with disarmingly honest portrayals. It’s a sympathetic, interestingly structured mise en abyme carried by young non-professional actors. The film, which took more than three years to come to life, is an extension of their 2016 short film Chasse Royale.

The directors focus is the backstage of a painstaking casting process (they actually assessed hundreds of youngsters’ acting improvisations) and subsequent filming in the underprivileged Picasso neighborhood located in the Northern French city of Boulogne-Sur-Mer. Four teenagers - considered the worst ones by the local people - are chosen by a questionable Belgian film director, Gabriel (Johan Heldenbergh). They are Jessy (Loïc Pech), who had problems with the law; Ryan (Timéo Mahaut), who lives with his sister and never cries; the moody Maylis (Mélina Vanderplancke), who is not sure if she wants to participate in the film; and Lily (Mallory Wanecque), who earned a bad reputation at school after losing her little brother to cancer. Despite the interesting characters, I found the director to be the most intriguing of them all. 

The film’s main victories come from its magnificent ability to move the focus from children to children captured in their own environment, and its unwillingness to fall back on convenient labels and the usual soap operatics. Yet, there are a few awkward moments that stem from the fabricated shooting scenes. Wanecque and Mahaut win us with their performances, and the worst become the best as their candor emerges in front of an observant camera that is avid at capturing their reactions, whether spontaneous or imposed.

One Fine Morning (2023)

Direction: Mia Hansen-Løve
Country: France 

In Mia Hansen-Løve’s romantic drama One Fine Morning, Léa Seydoux (Blue is the Warmest Colour, 2013; France, 2021) is Sandra Kienzler, a widowed, avid-for-love interpreter who finds herself at a serious emotional crossroads. She tries to cope with the anguish that stems from her father’s health deterioration and the joyful possibility of a new love. The film pulsates with desperate, even miserable passion as Sandra gets closer to Clément (Melvil Poupaud of Eric Rohmer’s A Summer’s Tale and Raul Ruiz’s Time Regained), a married old friend and cosmochemist who usually spends months away in Antarctica and the North Pole. They have one children each and their relationship is not without indecision and consecutive ups and downs.

Ingrained with melancholy and shot in 35 mm, the film doesn’t exactly take your breath away, but it’s not afraid to state that life can be often messy and unfulfilling. It’s a simple yet powerfully acted drama that flourishes because of the protagonists’ charisma. These two lonely souls manage to go beyond their existential ennui.

Hansen-Løve, who was partly inspired by her father’s illness and wrote the script when he was still alive, takes a more transparent approach in opposition to the more ambiguous tonalities of her last film, Bergman Island. One Fine Morning has a few floundering moments, especially those when illness is involved. And yet, with sorrowful tears in her eyes, Sandra keeps us connected with her irrepressible hope.

Living (2023)

Direction: Oliver Hermanus
Country: UK

Living is an impeccable period drama handled by South African director Oliver Hermanus who, after the well-accepted Moffie (2019), brings us a re-reading of Akira Kurosawa's 1952 masterpiece Ikiru, which he transposes to the post-war London of the same period. 

In the first minutes, especially if you don’t have a reference of the original film, you might be inclined to think that the protagonist is Peter Wakeling (Alex Sharp), a young newcomer who joins his bureaucratic peers at the London County Council for his first day at work. But soon, we realize that the man to follow is his boss, Mr. Rodney Williams (Bill Nighy), a stiff, bored widower who does his job quietly without paying attention to the ones around him. His life suddenly changes  when he is diagnosed with a terminal cancer. From then on, unable to get the attention of his own family, this lifeless man decides to shirk work in order to live what he had never lived before. He confides in two persons: an insomniac bohemian writer (Tom Burke), who takes him partying, and Miss Harris (Aimee Lou Wood), a cheery former employee. 

Living is both inspired and inspiring. It’s also risky as it steps on classic territory. Yet, the core of the film is completely soluble in the contemporary with the exception of the piles of paperwork, which no longer apply to our technological era. 

Although this reflection works as a stinging satire of the bureaucratic mind-set of that time, the film’s best quality remains its emotional honesty. With an appropriate mise en scène and  technicolor photography giving it a deliciously old-fashioned charm, Living is a tastefully poignant story of deep human emotion wrapped up in a retro British wall covering. It’s sad, but in its awakening consciousness, it reminds us all that it’s never too late to embrace life.

Are You Lonesome Tonight? (2023)

Direction: Wen Shipei
Country: China 

Are You Lonesome Tonight? is a slow-paced but stylish debut effort from director Wen Shipei, who was partially inspired by his father, a small-time criminal in the 1990s. A mood piece with haunting visuals that stands between the poignant drama and the neo-noir crime thriller.

The story - co-written by Shipei, Wang Yinuo, Zhao Binghao, and Noé Dodson - follows Wang Xueming (Eddie Peng), an air-conditioner technician who accidentally runs over a man on a dark summer night. His first instinct was to flee due to panic but guilt and remorse makes him connect with the victim’s widower, Mrs. Liang (Sylvia Chang). To his surprise, he finds her not sad at all but enjoying the time for herself. 

Sometimes off-beat, this slice of crafty sleuthing shelters more surprises in the form of twists, which can transpire from hazy flashbacks or sharp realities. The immersive first part, even carrying clumsy fighting scenes, was better than the second, which revealed weaknesses. Yet, the film captivates with an appropriate use of light and tone, intermittently recalling the cinema of Wong Kar-wai (dark alleys illuminated by red lights), Edward Yang (Elvis Presley song "Are You Lonesome Tonight?” is a staple of his A Bright Summer Day) and Tsai Ming Liang (the constant pouring rain and a sense of desolation), but there’s no minimalism in the storytelling.

Nonetheless, at the core, the way both portions of humor and plot spins are infused sets this work apart from those master filmmakers.

The Son (2023)

Direction: Florian Zeller
Country: USA

In his second feature, French director Florian Zeller doesn’t repeat the masterstroke of his debut. If The Father (2020) - starred by Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman - was a powerful drama that left me disarmed with astonishment, then The Son - with Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern and Zen McGrath in center roles - made me eye-rolling several times. Zeller based himself again on his own stage play, having raised the bar too much to be reached. He failed roundly in this clumsy, gloomy melodrama that ends up irritatingly supplicating and artificially tearful.

The story, set in Manhattan, New York, is devoted to the topic of adolescent depression and the difficulties of parents understanding it. At 17, Nicholas (McGrath) seems to be aimless, no longer being that luminous child who always smiled. He harms himself, living in constant anguish and anger. This started to happen after his successful father, Peter (Jackman), had left home. Unable to communicate his feelings with his mother (Dern), Nicholas asks to live with his father and his new wife, Beth (Vanessa Kirby), with whom he recently had a son. 

The Son sticks to an appalling linearity, poor staging and a heavy-handed sentimentality that provokes more indifference than pity. The film is suffocating, especially when Nicholas is pleading (McGrath’s lines are terrible and we have trouble sympathizing with him), but there’s also this dancing scene at the sound of Tom Jones that feels awkward, and corny flashbacks that help to anesthetize every feeling. Closer to a TV movie with a simplistic shooting structure than of a real drama, The Son is not recommended.