REVIEW: Au hasard Balthazar [1966]

The road cured him. I was told that Robert Bresson‘s Au hasard Balthazar was a heartbreaking story that could stir the emotions of even the most jaded audience member. By the end, I guess I proved them wrong since it left me cold for the duration. I get it, though. This metaphorical depiction of Christianity by way of the seven deadly sins is constructed in such a way to demand a reaction. Tragedy after tragedy occurs as men refuse to see the error of their stubbornness and villainy before ultimately…

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REVIEW: Memory Box [2022]

We eat with the dead and ghosts. Christmas Eve was supposed to be a nice quiet evening for three generations of women: Alex (Paloma Vauthier), her mother Maia (Rim Turki), and her grandmother Téta (Clémence Sabbagh). Like has been happening so often, however, the youngest found herself home alone. Mom was working. Téta had yet to arrive. Alex was left wondering what her father and his new family were doing while conversing with friends via a group chat on her phone. And then a package arrives from Lebanon with a…

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FANTASIA22 REVIEW: Incroyable mais vrai [Incredible But True] [2022]

There’s a jewel? We all get older. It’s a part of life. Some do so gracefully. Others racked with fear. What’s interesting, and a major component of Quentin Dupieux‘s latest absurdist comedy Incroyable mais vrai [Incredible But True], is that few know which they are until they confront a potential avenue to cheat aging altogether. That’s the case with Alain (Alain Chabat) and Marie Duval (Léa Drucker). If we asked them how they felt about the subject at the start of the film, they’d probably say they hadn’t really thought…

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REVIEW: Sous le ciel d’Alice [Skies of Lebanon] [2021]

No one is brave enough to stay. When historical events are too complex and sprawling to do them justice in a ninety-minute film, the best thing to do is shrink the aperture. So, rather than try to cram in years’ worth of religious, political, and geographic conflict such as that of the almost two decades-long Lebanese Civil War, focus on its impact instead. What was it like to live in Beirut as an emotionally and culturally rich life is suddenly turned upside-down by bombings and gunfire as numerous militias are…

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FANTASIA22 REVIEW: L’employée du mois [Employee of the Month] [2021]

The most dangerous thing here is you. It’s review day and everyone is laughing about what raises and bonuses they’re going to request this year. Nico (Alex Vizorek) jokes about asking for an SUV and money because it worked for someone else in the past. And why not? EcoClean Pro’s manager Patrick (Peter Van den Begin) decided to give his latest intern (Laetitia Mampaka‘s Melody) a stack of papers to shred on her first day, so it’s not much of a leap to assume the books have been cooked to…

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REVIEW: Avec amour et acharnement [Both Sides of the Blade] [2022]

But you know that. Director Claire Denis says Sara (Juliette Binoche) “flips a coin” when it comes to seeing her ex-boyfriend (Grégoire Colin‘s François) after more than a decade. She’s built a life with his best friend (Vincent Lindon‘s Jean), a former rugby player and ex-con struggling to get this latest chapter of his professional life started. So, she knows it will be awkward. She knows that she still loves François despite also loving Jean. Will a new encounter therefore rekindle those feelings to a point of no return? Or…

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REVIEW: L’événement [Happening] [2021]

What do I label it? I’m not saying you can’t create a film as unflinchingly raw as Audrey Diwan‘s L’événement [Happening] without having a true-to-life source, but the starting line is surely closer when you do. Not only did Diwan and co-writer Marcia Romano have Annie Ernaux‘s memoir of what happened forty years prior to draw upon, they also had the author herself to talk with and glean additional context to ensure the authenticity of a twenty-three-year-old literature student discovering she’s pregnant weeks before her final exams in 1963. This…

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REVIEW: Vortex [2022]

Stop scaring me. The woman (Françoise Lebrun) at the center of Gaspar Noé‘s Vortex is steadily losing her battle with dementia. Her husband (Dario Argento) is a few years removed from a stroke and saddled with a bad heart that does him no favors when trying to keep a clear head as far as care goes. And neither wants to leave their home no matter how sensible doing so proves. She’s a psychiatrist whose lucidity has her believing everything is under control. He’s a film critic desperate to finish his…

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REVIEW: Les amours d’Anaïs [Anaïs in Love] [2021]

Everything is possible if you want it. There’s nothing discreet about thirty-year old Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier). We meet her as she’s running to greet her landlady. Anaïs is two months late on rent and her live-in boyfriend has moved out, yet she’s unafraid to let the woman graciously allowing her to stay despite no real evidence that she won’t have to throw her out in a week know this agreed upon conversation is cutting into a party for which she’s also late attending. Candid to a fault, this graduate student…

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REVIEW: Les Olympiades, Paris 13e Paris, 13th District] [2021]

No need to shout. The lighter side of writer/director Jacques Audiard—known for some pretty heavy dramas—comes out courtesy of graphic novelist Adrian Tomine’s modern romances. Audiard and his co-writers Léa Mysius and Céline Sciamma adapt three-to-four (I’ve seen competing numbers) of Tomine’s stories into a poignant and satisfying look through the private windows of Les Olympiades, Paris 13e [Paris, 13th District]. First there’s Émilie Wong (Lucie Zhang) and her new roommate Camille (Makita Samba). Then there’s Camille and his new real estate colleague Nora Ligier (Noémie Merlant). And, finally, there’s…

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REVIEW: Gagarine [2021]

We’re dying here. Being the first man to travel into space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin’s name became a global commodity. Even a housing project within a communist municipality outside of Paris took it as its moniker and invited the hero to come by and receive the cheers of the French people gathering outside on their balconies for a look. That was 1963, however. A complex possessing 370 apartments like Cité Gagarine was destined to take a beating once infrastructure and economics collided. Its disrepair cemented an eventual demolition by 2014; its…

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