New movies in three lines: the best and worst of the week #2
From The Son to Marcel the Shell: reviews in three line of some must-see movies in theaters, streaming, and on home-video.
You can find a lot of more or less interesting films in theaters and on streaming platforms. Each week we will select a few to write very short reviews on them in a humorous and lighthearted tone. A useful and practical binder complete with quotes that will stick in Google’s memory. If you missed episode 1, you can catch up with it here.
The Son by Florian Zeller
Few of us had had the foresight not to tear our hair out in the face of ‘The Father,’ and this discombobulated and somewhat blackmailing ‘The Son’ perhaps proves us right: without a giant at center stage, everything kind of falls apart.
Zeller is evidently very ambitious, though, and while we’re at it, if he ever comes back for a third feature film I’d have a solution: after Father and Son, a film about the Holy Spirit with Anthony Hopkins in the lead again…you know the stuff that comes out.
The Plane by Jean-François Richet
Gerard Butler catches one of M Night Shyamalan’s apocalypse planes on the fly and lands it, because it’s Gerard Butler and he’s in the running for the top prize in the championship of the most heroic airline pilots in film history.
He deserves it all with The Plane, as he also finds a healthy justification for passengers’ applause when an airplane lands, an otherwise ridiculous practice that should be avoided at all costs in everyday life.
Jean-François Richet we are certainly not discovering now, but he had been gone for a while and here he returns to his best and builds a pedestal for his actor, who from his own up-and-down career can take this film and put it in first class, in the head section and by the window.
Argentina 1985 by Santiago Mitre
Mariano Llinas more and more a divinity of Argentine cinema, here once again authoring the screenplay for a Santiago Mitre film after ‘The President’:‘Argentina 1985,’ about the trial of members of the military junta of the bloody dictatorship that fell in ’83, presented in Venice and proposed to represent Argentina at the Oscars 2023
Already available on Prime Video, but if that’s not enough it will be released in theaters in the coming days distributed by Lucky Red after earning an Oscar 2023 nomination for best international film.
Whitney: A Voice Became Legend by Kasi Lemmons
The usual ‘actor-driven’ movie (which some use as a compliment, to me is the worst that cinema can offer because it means that besides the actor there is nothing), however, also a musical biopic so for two and a half hours all the secondary characters stand up squinting in wonderment at How good the protagonist is at singing.
I recommend reviewing American Psycho by Mary Harron, of which I offer an excerpt:
“Did you know that Whitney Houston’s debut LP, called simply Whitney Houston, had 4 number one singles on it? Did you know that, Christie? It’s hard to choose a favorite among so many great tracks, but “The Greatest Love of All” is one of the best, most powerful songs ever written about self-preservation, dignity. Its universal message crosses all boundaries and instills one with the hope that it’s not too late to better ourselves. Since, Elizabeth, it’s impossible in this world we live in to empathize with others, we can always empathize with ourselves. It’s an important message, crucial really. And it’s beautifully stated on the album.“
Marcel the shell with shoes on by Dean Fleischer-Camp
A supercazzola of inscandable proportions, yet it lasts less than ninety minutes. They seem like many more, and they are also annoying to boot.
Somehow it made it all the way to the 2023 Oscars, where it is nominated among the best animated films (though it almost isn’t): if it wins against Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio I will watch it a second time to hurt myself.
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