New movies in three lines: the best and worst of the week #3
From Infinity Pool to Empire of Light: three-line reviews 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 2, you can catch up with it here.
Infinity Pool by Brandon Cronenberg
I loved every patch of skin, every drop of blood, every piece of flesh: it may be the last name, or the family dinners he grew up with, or simply the presence of contemporary new horror deity Mia Goth (her latest work, Pearl, presented in Venice, we mentioned among the best movies of 2022) but young Brandon Cronenberg after three feature films confirms himself, if not his father’s worthy heir, at least a guarantee.
Watch out though, definitely not for everyone: you can tell already from the trailer.
Sharper by Benjamin Caron
Between reflective surfaces and architectural geometries, trapping and splitting (not surprisingly, the entanglement will be resolved en plein air), the best thing about this con-artist movie is how it plays with the viewer’s expectations through the faces and bodies of the cast, used almost as narrative turns at key points in the script.
After many episodes of excellent TV series (Andor, The Crown, Sherlock) and lots of theater, an excellent feature film debut for the British director as well, available now exclusively on Apple TV+.
Empire of Light by Sam Mendes
Today’s advice is to always beware of movies whose posters promise ‘a splendid and touching story,’ and in this specific case we feel like adding: why?
Pinky-raised film that looks with pseudo-austerity and flat romance at the world’s most mundane issues, debased by mise-en-scene that makes everything amped up. The pornography of the beautiful in the ugly: even if one made an effort, one would not be able to understand the utility, so one might as well not make an effort at all and avoid it in a hurry.
Holy Spider by Ali Abbasi
Ali Abbasi will be found in a few days. to directing the last two vibrant episodes of The Last of Us (by the way, here is a preview review of The Last of Us, whose weekly programming continues exclusively on SKY and NOW), but in the meantime, if you had loved Border around this time in theaters comes his new film, Holy Spider.
Which is Kaouther Ben Hania’s dark version of Beauty and the Dogs and which looks like an Asghar Farhadi-esque social drama directed like a William Friedkin thriller, or vice versa: simply unmissable.
Aftersun by Charlotte Wells
More than the great sentiments, what makes the difference (and therefore a great film) is the way it has of inserting them between images, between their fades. They play two different sports, it should be noted, but along with Chloe Okuno’s Watcher this is one of the best recent debuts for a female director.
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