Le Figaro
offers you its selection of films released this week online, on VOD or on streaming platforms.
To have
Night Coming
, drama by Frédéric Farrucci, 1h35
Jin fled China.
From Paris, this undocumented worker is moonlighting for the Asian mafia.
In the evening, he drives a VTC.
He has a debt.
He has three weeks left to pay it off.
While driving, he keeps his headphones on.
This former DJ composes his own tunes.
One night, Naomi gets in her car.
This lap-dance dancer asks her to become her assigned driver.
It's forbidden, but he accepts.
They go to a concert, put together projects.
Going to Marseille, seeing the sea, that is their goal.
The headlong rush is inevitable.
Frédéric Farrucci shows Paris eaten up by night, a world of empty hangars, smoky gambling dens, laundromats, populated by men in leather jackets who seem to never sleep.
It presents a successful mix of
Taxi Driver
and
Lovers of the night
.
This film, which unites lyricism and sobriety, tracks two solitudes.
His characters are real, and even plausible, which is even less common.
We look at them as puzzles.
They are running after their fate.
He watches them around the corner.
>> Read the full review here
>> Available on Orange, FILMOTV, CanalVOD and Univers Ciné from 4.99 euros
In a garden that looks like eternal
, dramatic comedy by Tatsushi Ōmori, 1h40
In Yokohama, in her twenties, Noriko (Haru Kuroki) and her cousin Michiko (Mikako Tabe) are still looking for each other.
After a family suggestion, they decide to learn the art of tea.
Madame Takeda's (Kirin Kiki) classes infuse their personality.
Over the hours, then days of intensive learning, the young women understand that "
patience and length of time are more than strength or rage
".
Haru Kuroki and Mikako Tabe bring angelic sweetness to their character.
Firm hand in a velvet glove, as Master Takeda, Kirin Kiki, who died in 2018, is still just as fair.
Tatsushi Omori takes the time to observe his characters, praises slowness as a craftsman practices the love of a job well done.
Philosopher, the director relies on the traditional tea ceremony to draw two young women who everything seems to oppose but who will remain united.
>> Read the full review here
>> Available on Orange, CanalVOD and Univers Ciné from 4.99 euros
The Woman of the Steppes, the Cop and the Egg
, detective comedy by Quanan Wang, 1h40
It all starts with the body of a woman found in the middle of the steppe.
A novice policeman is assigned to monitor the corpse and the crime scene, while waiting for an ambulance to come.
He is joined by a shepherdess, who came to support him after bringing in his sheep.
The next day is the first day of a new existence for each of the protagonists, or of an irreversible loss.
A work with a minimalist plot, very little dialogue, but of breathtaking beauty and subtle subversion.
Quanan Wang recalls here certain universal truths.
Men don't understand much about women.
Faced with this mystery, they are clumsy, ridiculous or violent.
The desire for a child can cause mountains to rise, even in a plain landscape.
>> Read the full review here
>> Available on Orange, FILMOTV, CanalVOD and Univers Ciné from 4.99 euros
Black Beauty
, family drama by Ashley Avis, 1h48
Separated from her family, Beauty will find her alter ego in the person of Jo.
Orphan (played by Mackenzie Foy seen in
Interstellar
), this teenage girl was taken in by her uncle who was a horse trainer (Iain Glen,
Game Of Thrones
).
Between the fierce beast and the fiery and wounded young girl, the bond is immediate.
The separations to come will be all the more painful.
Anchoring her initiatory story in America today, Ashley Avis filmed the few hordes still in the wild in Utah and Arizona, and examines the unenviable fate of racehorses and their fellows who pull horse drawn carriages in Central Park.
His plea in favor of animal welfare, his call for benevolence fulfills the expected specifications but is coupled with a delicate evocation of mourning, which elevates
Black Beauty
beyond simple children's tales.
>> Read the full review here
>> Available on Disney +
Uncle Frank
, drama by Alan Ball, 1h35
In 1973, Beth (Sophia Lillis) then a teenager came to study at New York University where her uncle Frank (Paul Bettany) taught.
Coming from a believing family, she will discover a completely different reality concerning Frank, who hides his homosexuality.
When the family's grandfather dies, Beth and Frank decide to attend the funeral.
His uncle will then have to face the demons of the past.
With
Uncle Frank
, Alan Ball (
American Beauty
) shows a profound America in full change on the question of homosexuality.
Audience Award at the Deauville American Film Festival, the feature film takes Frank's character to the point of explosion without lacking in poetry and sensitivity.
Both touching and charismatic, Paul Bettany holds here one of his first major roles, once again demonstrating all his talent.
>> Available on Amazon Prime Video
You can see
The Call
, thriller by Chung-Hyun Lee, 1h52
Seo Yeon is 28 years old and decides to move into the abandoned family home, his father having died suddenly ten years ago and his mother suffering from cancer.
She then discovers a telephone.
When it starts ringing, Seo Yeon quickly realizes that the person on the phone, Young Sook, also lived in this house, but ten years earlier.
She will also quickly understand that it is not necessary to play with her past.
Then ensue a clash and a race against time ten years apart.
Typical of South Korean cinema,
The Call
is a thriller with ideas.
The staging is intended to be effective and even allows for beautiful transitions when time plays with the butterfly effect, sometimes bordering on the fantastic.
As for the story, the film manages to merge the two temporalities to form one story in a clear manner.
Easy on paper, much less in practice.
The two actresses, Shin-Hye Park and Jong-seo Jun, wage
a fierce battle
in
The Call
without ever falling into exaggeration.
>> Available on Netflix
Mosul
, war film by Matthew Michael Carnahan, 1h26
After
Tyler Rake
, the Russo Brothers (
Avengers
) take on the war against ISIS by producing
Mosul
.
The feature film based on a true story tells the frenetic fight of an Iraqi special forces unit, SWAT, in the streets of Mosul in order to destroy Daesh.
The story begins when the team welcomes a young police officer, Kawa, played by French actor Adam Bessa.
Numerous scenes of war ensue to achieve an unknown objective.
With
Mosul
, director Matthew Michael Carnahan does not offer a classic war film.
He breaks the codes.
The soundtrack is discreet, the acts of bravery non-existent, the stylistic effects to absent subscribers.
All that remains are the ruins of the Iraqi city.
The feature film is raw.
The violent, spontaneous and ruthless action scenes.
When the fight is not topical, time seems to stand still as the streets are deserted.
The character of Kawa, at the heart of this endless conflict, will then transform.
The performance of Adam Bessa is remarkable there by its silence and its firmness.
>> Available on Netflix
To avoid
The Vigil
, horror film by Keith Thomas, 1h28
Yakov, a New York Jew who tries to get rid of the grip of his Orthodox community, agrees to be a “shomer”, that is to watch over the body of a Holocaust survivor the day before the funeral.
A Jason Blum production that heavily revisits the theme of the haunted house.
>> Available on CanalVOD, FILMOTV, Orange and Univers Ciné from 4.99 euros
Terrible Jungle
, comedy by Hugo Benamozig and David Caviglioli, 1h31
A great anthropologist (Catherine Deneuve) goes to the Amazon in search of her researcher son (Vincent Dedienne).
Authors who wanted to make people laugh bored.
The actors were treated to an extraordinary adventure on Reunion Island.
>> Available on Orange and CanalVOD from 11.99 euros
Why not them
Downhill
, drama by Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, 1h27
How an avalanche in the Alps plunges a seemingly perfect family into disarray.
Will Ferrell and Julia Louis-Dreyfus play two parents in turmoil in this American remake of the excellent Swedish film
Snow Therapy
.
The copy is unfortunately not up to the original.
>> Available on Orange and CanalVOD from 4.99 euros
The Third Woman
, drama by Ash Mayfair, 1h36
In 19th-century rural Vietnam, 14-year-old May becomes the third wife of wealthy landowner Hung.
She quickly realizes that she can only achieve status by establishing herself as a woman capable of giving birth to a son.
May's hope of changing status becomes real when she gets pregnant ...
>> Available on Orange, CanalVOD and Univers Ciné from 4.99 euros
The Tax Collector
, action film by David Ayer, 1h35
David and Creeper work as "tax collectors" for a crime lord named Wizard, getting their share of the profits from local gangs.
But when Wizard's former rival returns from Mexico, his entire business is turned upside down, and David finds himself having to protect what matters most to him, his people.
>> Available on Orange, CanalVOD and FILMOTV from 4.99
Yes, God, Yes
, comedy by Karen Maine, 1h17
During the year 2000, Alice, a young naive teenager attended a Catholic high school.
She learns there that all sexual activity must have procreation as its goal, otherwise she will suffer eternal damnation.
While a false rumor circulates about her and a relationship she allegedly had with one of her comrades, Alice has no choice but to join a religious retreat.
Against all expectations, it is in this context that she discovers her body and its pleasures.
>> Available on CanalVOD, Orange and Univers Ciné from 3.99 euros
The Wretched
, horror film by the Pierce brothers, 1h35
After his parents separate, Ben, a rebellious teenager, is sent to his father for the summer to gain maturity and discipline.
But his problems become more and more worrying when he makes a frightening discovery about the neighboring family.
A malicious spirit has taken hold of the parents and now attacks the children ...
Read also:
The Wretched
, the horror film that terrorizes American Drive-In
>> Available on Orange and CanalVOD from 9.99 euros
The Beast
, action film by Ludovico Di Martino, 1h37
When his daughter is kidnapped, a retired soldier with post-traumatic stress disorder pursues the kidnappers, and himself becomes a suspect.
>> Available on Netflix