These are the releases that hit movie screens this September 22:
Por Philipp Engel
Perhaps it does not matter too much, when evaluating this film, that Maïwenn's interest in Madame du Barry, Louis XV's last favorite, is so transparent: she married Luc Besson, King of the box office, at the age of sixteen, and The presence of his films on La Croisette, such as Polisse (2011) or My Love (2015), have always caused inevitable whispers among the Cannes court, since, if there has to be a female quota, there are much better options. The same with Johnny Depp, who came, wrapped in a millionaire halo of eau Sauvage, from his controversial trial against Amber Heard. But the truth is that, in this psychoanalytic couch session, disguised as a great historical fresco, the two of them are precisely what grates the most: she because she exudes a narcissism translated into a thousand tics to centralize attention, and he because, with his lost gaze, , seems to be thinking about his pending gigs with his decadent rock band. You can't talk about chemistry or sensuality, it's more of a professional disagreement.
For the rest, the film benefits from the very low expectations generated after opening Cannes and having been massacred for it. Less hysterical than his previous films, it accommodates itself to historical academicism without a desire for risk – unlike that pop fantasy of Sofía Coppola (María Antoinette, 2006)–; takes advantage of the photogenicity of Versailles, inspired by the naturalistic lighting of Barry Lyndon (1975); He surrounds himself with an army of infallible people, in this case, secondary ones –Melvil Poupaud, Pierre Richard, India Hair...–, although he corners them openly, and even champions a story of empowerment and survival, around a woman of low extraction, dedicated to prostitution, but also to reading, who comes to turn the court upside down with her impudence and her loose hair, her direct looks and her Marlene Dietrich-style pants. But, as much as we know that it is nothing more than a vehicle for the Duke of Richelieu to enter the royal bedroom, the political gains of the maneuver remain unclear. Slightly amusing when Benjamin Lavernhe teaches Du Barry the ways and customs of the palace, it is still a pleasant film to watch, even to endure.
By Salvador Llopart
Two casual lovers who neither know nor want to say goodbye, and an intermittent passion beyond the diffuse concept of polyamory or the most obvious promiscuity. A couple who search for each other over time - for years - as if they were a KitKat for each other, like a pause, a respite, like a mere truce in their - few - fragments of shared life.
Truce(s) tells us about these passing lovers and their missteps, their half-truths and endless stories, and it does so in the course of a brief encounter lasting just over one night. Since she is an actress and he is a screenwriter, she has this debut in the feature by Mario Hernández, something of a small format American Night. Where the cinema within the cinema is evident. They, who we know from the start because of their intertwined bodies, are called Ara and Edu. And saying Ara is like saying Bruna Cusí's precise diction, her serene presence, and Salva Reina's muttering, self-defense humor. Two different styles that sometimes squeak and sparkle and other times complement each other, illuminating between clashes and complicities a story of begging for love.
The two of them, Cusí and Reina, are the movie. They and their rhetoric, because when the bodies are released and untangled they begin to speak and do not stop. They are not united by the unleashed romanticism of Linklater's Before..., nor by the violent harshness of Sorogoyen's Stockholm, to recall two films about couples, chatting and endless walks. They move through charming corners at night, but they do not intend to seduce each other. They are two supposed lovers who speak with apparent lightness about bottomless abysses, and it is appreciated that they face the complex with the necessary complexity. The song Sinmigo by Mr. Kilombo, sung - well - by Bruna Cusí, provides the necessary counterpoint to her words. You have to listen to it carefully. She talks about everything that in Truce (s) is conspicuous by its absence. She speaks of honesty and sincerity, without going any further.
By S. Llopart
Suggestive, disturbing and tender at the same time. Falcon Lake, a mature and wise proposal of measured ambiguity, talks about the seduction of a teenager by a slightly older friend. It has as its background the majestic landscape of Canada, with its immense forests, where it is easy to see the premonitions typical of the horror genre. With a measured and sure step, in no hurry to get anywhere, Charlotte Le Born, its director, reaches the hearts of teenagers with raging hormones in the summer of their lives.
By S. Llopart
The frozen landscape of Iceland is the most attractive and true aspect of an action film that refers too much to the clichés of the genre. We are faced with a giant with feet of clay (or ice) against a woman who leaves her house - pursued by villains - with what she is wearing and who, however, will give a lot of play, with or without shoes. It entertains while the MacGuffin, the thing that moves everyone, remains a MacGuffin. When we know what he's about, because we end up finding out, the thing is hopeless.
By Jordi Batlle Caminal
These adventures of four dogs who talk, and a lot, digitally could be described as a family comedy (a well-used label that should be reviewed). But the very stupid plot that supports it banishes the adult audience. And its excess of dialogues about decidedly dirty sex, masturbation or a collective defecation scene do not make it suitable for children. The teenager, perhaps? Who knows! Most notable, the stoicism of the dog with a cone on its neck.
Por Philipp Engel
While waiting for Jonathan Glazer to say the last word on Auschwitz with his long-awaited adaptation of The Zone of Interest, by Amis, comes an unexpected detour from the topic with the story of the deportee who survived thanks to his talent as a boxer in a ring improvised by the SS. Levinson, an efficient craftsman at the service of the stars (the opposite of his son Sam, the creative creator of Euphoria), provides a conventional narrative and formal story, which, however, tears the sky every time it appears. Vicky Krieps.
Por Philipp Engel
The friendship between the director, Carol Polakoff, and the writer Alan Jolis, on whose youthful memories the film is based, is not an obstacle for us, between the Pamplona setting and the Machi-Elejalde duet, to imagine it as a spin-off of the successful franchise Eight surnames, crossed with another installment of the saga 2 francs, 40 pesetas, that sentimental drama about Spanish immigration signed by Carlos Pepelu Iglesias. There are moments that bring us closer to emotion or laughter, and others to after-dinner tedium.
