These are the premieres that hit the theaters this March 27:
By Jordi Batlle Caminal
Among many other things, cinema has the gift of unforeseen coincidences, which the most suspicious will undoubtedly attribute to industrial espionage. In 1992 (there was an excuse: the V Centenary) two blockbusters about Christopher Columbus were filmed. We also had two movies about Robin Hood in the same season, two about Wyatt Earp, two about Truman Capote, two about Alfred Hitchcock, etc.
And not only is there simultaneity of characters, but also of literary adaptations: Choderlos de Laclos released Dangerous Liaisons and Valmont at the same time, by two gentlemen as respectable as Stephen Frears and Milos Forman. And now, just three weeks apart, we have received two films inspired by The Beast in the Jungle, the short novel written in 1903 by Henry James, an author widely adapted to the screen and brilliantly by filmmakers of the caliber. by Jack Clayton, William Wyler, James Ivory or Peter Bogdanovich.
Bertrand Bonello's version is as fascinating as it is abstract, elusive, impenetrable. It circulates arbitrarily for three periods (1910, 2014, 2044) and in all three the same characters, or their reincarnations, live a delayed love story but with very varied nuances; a love, then, that crosses, as in Coppola's Dracula, oceans of time. And time is, obviously, the central theme of The beast.
Time and destiny, uncertainty, fear of the future, of catastrophe. The hermetic nature of its structure can be an obstacle to understanding, but it is essential to willingly immerse oneself in a multifaceted spell that mixes melodrama, science fiction, horror and, as an antidote to its disturbing pessimism, occasional touches of humor.
There is beauty and romanticism in the scenes from 1910 (the visit to the doll factory or the lovers' walks, similar to those of Daisy Miller), coldness and asepsis in those from 2044 (this is what Artificial Intelligence has) and a fragment in 2014 where the protagonist experiences an episode that recalls Drew Barrymore's prologue in Scream. Presided over by a magnetic and sensual Léa Seydoux, a Léa Seydoux of genuflection, The beast could be seen as the exciting meeting between Resnais, Borges, Lynch and the Jonathan Glazer of Under the skin: nitroglycerin for the brain.
Por Philipp Engel
The character that Marcelo Subiotto roams freely – starring for the first time and justly awarded at the San Sebastián Festival, like the script of this magnificent film – has something of Stoner, the antihero of John Williams' novel: both are university professors , dwarfed by life, timid to the point of pathology, refugees in stoicism, dignity and discretion, incapable of action.
But if Stoner was unfathomably sad, Puan never stops being a comedy, a transcendent (and hilarious) comedy, with just a slight bitter aftertaste. The political philosophy professor played by Subiotto also has something of Larry David, starting with his bald head, and continuing with his ease of getting into “shitty” situations: excuse the crudeness, but the film contains the best “poop” joke ever seen. in eons. Hilarious.
And it turns out that philosophy combines well with eschatology, especially in times like these, when the destruction of culture - of a cinema like the Argentinian one, in its best historical moment, and of a public university, like the one that gives the title to the film, a reference for the entire continent – has been a successful electoral program. Yes, Puan, as it was When Evil Stalks, is also a prophetic film: the backdrop is political cinema in the Nanni Moretti style, casual, but no less committed, in this case with the fight of a public university for its survival .
In the foreground, the doubts and reservations of Subiotto, pushed to succeed his mentor – who died while running in the park –, and his rivalry with the character of Leonardo Sbaraglia, his nemesis: attractive, verbose, a pianist and with languages, always willing to monopolize attention, and fresh from giving lectures around the world. A delicious comedy, somewhere between intimate and popular, as exciting in Subiotto's personal transformation as in his hopeful spirit of vindication.
By Salvador Llopart
Giant monsters, huge monsters, monsters over a hundred meters tall. So big that there are no sizes for them in the monster warehouse; In fact, there is no warehouse that contains them: they destroy them with a slap of the hand. As in their continuous battle among themselves, they destroy the pyramids in Egypt, reduce Rome to rubble and pulverize skyscrapers everywhere, leaving ruins wherever they go. Including Rio de Janeiro and Cádiz, where Godzilla takes the opportunity to take a bath in the Atlantic. This is the scale of the destruction in Godzilla and Kong: The New Empire: a wholesale rubble film.
Direct continuation of Godzilla vs. Kong, filmed by the same director in 2021, where they discovered the good couple that the giant monkey and the atomic lizard made. In this new installment of their adventures, Godzilla and Kong destroy together, which unites a lot. And they do so for reasons linked to their monstrous origins. In an attempt to put together a complex story of its origins, which includes lost civilizations and trips to the center of the earth, a la Jules Verne. But any story pales when the cakes start, that's what happens. Godzilla and Kong: The New Empire will be a gift for those children who want to destroy everything. And also, for that matter, for the inner child of adults, the one they say we always have inside us.
By S. Llopart
First Vincent, a famous successful businessman, successful and apparently hedonistic, although in reality he is a loner, obsessed with work. Vincent suffers an acute attack of anxiety and in his escape from the madding crowd he bumps into Pierre, the other main protagonist of the show, as sparse in words, withdrawn and simple as the inhabitants of the forests must have been decades ago...
Now, I imagine what you're thinking: another buddy comedy that's predictable to the point of exasperation. And it is like that. And yet, although it may seem contradictory, Simple Things ends up leaving a smile on your face and a comfortable warmth on your body (can you say "in the heart" without being corny? Well, that's it). The secret of such a film, as stereotyped as its production itself and as lacking in originality as its own script, is the chemistry established between its two protagonists: two greats of French cinema such as Lambert Wilson, as the hypochondriac Vincent, and Grégory Gadebois, who embodies that man who, from his silence, seems to hold the secret of existence. Two very different actors, in physique and style, who complement each other wonderfully. Okay, predictably until enough is said. But also entertaining, innocuous and friendly.
Por Ph. Obstacle
Like the documentary produced for Paramount Milli Vanilli (Luke Korem, 2023), this powerful dramatization of the scandal that shook the music industry in 1990 is told from the point of view of Fab Morvan, the survivor of the duo that achieved celebrity singing in play-back, and also tries to humanize them, offloading all the blame for the deception on the producer Frank Farian (he had to be German!), King Midas of the dance floor, who had already made gold with another group where the male voice was amazing: Boney M.
As Rob Pilatus, the other Milli Vanilli, died of an overdose at the age of 33, like a martyr of show business, today we have to empathize with that pair of acrobatic disco dancers dressed in biker shorts, dressed in tacky jackets and crowned with fake braids, who got to ride around Los Angeles in a borrowed Ferrari for a couple of summers. The most striking thing about the case was always that they never seemed like real singers, although most pretended to believe it. It could have been a great movie about the stupider side of fame, and the tons of money it generates, but its redemptive desire leaves it too superficial in approach.
