Les Beaux Jours/Bright Days Ahead

In many ways a typically French film about a spring and autumn love affair between Caroline, a retired 60 year old dentist and a 30 something IT teacher called Julien. Predictable in its dizzy growth and predictable in its demise as well. The main merits here are the actors and in particular Fanny Ardant, a little gone to seed with her dyed blonde hair but still one of the greats among contemporary French actresses.  Usually cast as immaculate, coldish women, here she is throwing off these shackles to relax into a forbidden relationship with all its sensual joy and in the process learning to explore herself. The meetings of this tryst are flats and cars in Dunkirk and this North Sea city is also a protagonist in the movie, interesting to see.  Finally Patrick Chesnais as Caroline’s husband who is a bit of a grouch but also someone with a clear idea of what is going on, provides a nice counterweight to Ardant and Laurent Lafitte, the charming younger man.  Watchable without offering anything that new.

★★★

Viva la libertá

Many of the North American critics I have read have damned this with faint praise.  I found Roberto Andó’s movie of his book to be a charming and wise film with a number of merits raising it above the standard fare.  The idea of a political leader being replaced by his mad twin brother who in fact manages to inspire the party faithful and the public more than his “safe and grey” brother is a bit far-fetched but not entirely impossible.  Here Enrico is replaced by Giovanni who calling himself Enrico dares to do and say what his brother doesn’t and quotes Brecht and dances tango to charm and bamboozle the opposition.  Meanwhile, the real politician is holed up in Paris finding himself and sorting out a relationship he had 25 years previously with a girl he shared with his brother. Toni Servillo is excellent in the double role, one of the comic acting performances of the year for me and Valerio Mastandrea gives great support as his private secretary who has to keep it all covered up. Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi adds her always pleasant presence as the ex.  Great script and a well-directed film of just the right length.

★★★★+

1000 Times Good Night

This could have been a brilliant film but somehow it falls short with a self-consciousness and a rather earnest desire to make a point.  Rebecca Thomas is a war photographer who risks life and limb to get photos of conflict around the world to make people think about the suffering of others.  She is kind of obsessed and unable to measure the dangers sometimes and especially the emotional effect on her family.  Husband and marine biologist Marcos (effective Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) has had enough of the anxiety and having to protect their two daughters and after Rebecca’s latest war adventure resulting in a punctured lung after filming a suicide bomber, he issues an ultimatum.  It’s your career or the family. Rebecca tries to understand this and put family first but the lure of the snap is too strong and she gets involved again in a conflict scene with her daughter in Kenya.  Older daughter Steph (Lauryn Canny) is ambivalent and wants to understand her mother but finds it a real challenge.

The war scenes are great and the opening sequence of her accompanying the suicide bomber is one of the best starts to a film that I have seen in recent times. The problem is that much of the action in Ireland: family talks, reconciliation between Marcos and Rebecca, break up again, etc, etc tend to be rather overly didactic and long. What saves the film is Juliette Binoche who composes a character who is not easy to understand or particularly like and whose response to the family demands for more real compassion and understanding are met with her own inability to real get in touch with her feelings. She is not that kind of person and her job has heightened her ability to switch off and just focus on doing what she needs to do.  Binoche, aided by the director’s decision to focus on her face for long moments shows us a woman who is struggling inside herself to understand others but who is different per se.  And she doesn’t know how to resolve the situation she is in.  Definitely interesting but the lack of exploration of some of the moral and political motives behind her actions also left us a little bereft of the meat that would have made this a first rate movie.  Good photography, rather obvious music and a clear sense that we were being taught a lesson.

★★★★

Feriado

Small coming of age and coming out film from Ecuador about an adolescent who doesn’t fit into the rough monied world of his banker uncle (this latter is involved in bankruptcy and dirty dealings) and befriends a slightly older man who saves him from a beating.  Juano works repairing tyres and is straight but Juampi doesn’t discover this until later.  Meanwhile this new crush leads to adventures and a new maturity in Juampi. Quite nicely made without great pretentions and a dash of freshness.  Juan Arregui is convincing in the lead with Diego Araujo keeping the momentum going.  Nothing great nor original but watchable.

★★

La Isla Minima

Major winner in the Spanish Goyas, this is another highly attractive film set in the marshlands of Andalucia in 1980.  It works on various levels.  One is as a thriller as the two mismatched cops (Javier Gutierrez and Raúl Arévalo) try to solve a series of mysterious murders in this remote corner of Spain where secrets lie well buried (it is like the Deep South in the US).  The thriller part and the piecing together of the evidence is well done and not entirely predictable.  Then there is a political level: the country is newly democratic again and the strains between the Francoists and the younger generations are also evident especially in the relationship of the two leads. The advent of drug smuggling and prostitution as means of escaping these poor rural economies are also shown.  The film is well directed and recreates the period and the atmosphere very well.  Alberto Rodriguez directs.

★★★★+

Betoniyö/Concrete Night

A relatively simple Finnish film beautifully shot in black and white (Peter Flinckenberg) about Simo (Johannes Brotherus) a 14 year old boy whose mother asks him to accompany his older brother on his last night before going to jail.  Brother (Jari Virman) is a tough melancholic type whose girlfriend is already cheating on him with the help of mum (Anneli Karpinnen) who, in turn, is a worn out soul trying to find solace and a future in a new man. The major achievement of the movie is to create a desolate mood in the underside of Finland’s urban centres with their concrete block towers and oil installations and the constant damp of falling rain.  The end of the film drags a bit but there is no doubt that director Pirjo Honkasalo has made a competent film with much sad natural beauty.

★★★

The Myth of the American Sleepover

It may be a small meandering coming-of-age film about the last day of summer in Michigan but in the style of Dazed and Confused, the film has plenty of merits.  You may not like the pace as it saunters between different stories, mainly involving high-school and soon-to-be college kids looking for love, lost loves, desperate loves but it has beautiful photography, good acting from a host of newcomers and a non-sensationalist approach.  Amanda Bauer and Claire Sloma star in particular, but I liked all the characters in their way and appreciated how many were typically shy unarticulate adolescents rather than mouthy camera conscious kids.  Ultimately the film peters out to a quiet ending and that will frustrate many and it is true that some more dramatic oomph could have been found somewhere but on the whole this was a satisfactory debut by director/writer David Robert Mitchell.

★★★

Trash

Critics have dubbed this Slumdog Millionaire meets City of God and there is a lot in that.  The story of three slum kids who sift through rubbish and discover a purse with money and information that the police clearly want, it is a rip-roaring adventure as the evil policeman (Selton Mello) will stop at nothing to capture the boys who have the key to data about political corruption and drug trafficking at the highest levels.  Along the way we see Martin Sheen and Rooney Mara become involved as missionaries in the slum area.  So, generally good acting all round, snappy pace, and all the elements of a good thriller but it is all a little too optimistic in its ending and does have some plot holes which fail to convince.  Beyond that, the portrayal of this bitter life in the favelas makes one think that nothing much has changed in the 30 odd years since we saw Pixote. I am not sure whether this type of movie, directed by Stephen Daldry of Billy Elliot fame does much to help besides showing us that some amateurs can really act.

★★★

Relatos Salvajes

I wanted to like this as much as the critics the world over and audiences in Argentina have and unfortunately felt that this fell short of such praise despite some good features.  A so-called portmanteau film of 6 short stories, the connection between all of them are rage, lack of control and vengeance in a society dominated by material success.  There are some good observations in all this and some very good acting but I am not convinced that the director’s choice of pacing, script and message was always the best.

The first story aboard an aircraft with all the passengers realizing they knew the same person who had just taken control of the cockpit and was heading towards a crash is of course more gruesome after Germanwings and needed a less hasty set up for me. Ditto the second story about revenge with rat poison in a café. Rita Cortese was excellent in this clip. Number three about road rage on a rural road and featuring Leonardo Sbaraglia is one of the best and shows how crazy people can become.  It also has elements of bad taste but as a “fantasy” film it is good.  Ricardo Darín as the engineer whose car keeps getting towed away and who seeks his own form of revenge works due to him but does seem exaggerated.  The fifth story about a rich man paying off people so his son doesn’t take the rap for a hit and run is all rather sobering rather than enjoyable and a good example of dirty money and no scruples and the last about a wedding with a twist is also fantasy like but does have some nice twists with Erica Rivas, an effective bride.  So, enough to like but I was not sure its rave material.  That is speaks volumes about human behaviour and especially Argentine behaviour there is no doubt!

★★★