For (young and old) children
Super 8
, when Abrams does (well) Spielberg
It's the story of a bunch of kids who spend their summer shooting a Super 8 zombie movie with daddy's camera.
We are in 1979 in a small village in Ohio.
As our “Spielberg apprentices” shoot a poignant farewell sequence in a disused station, they witness an incredible train disaster.
In the confusion, the camera fell from the tripod, but the camera continued to film… a totally incredible sequence.
Suddenly, what is on that piece of Super 8 film becomes very dangerous and at the same time very exciting.
The next day, strange phenomena begin to occur in the city before the American army finally disembarks.
Nine years after its release, the
Super 8
by JJ Abrams hasn't aged a bit.
He always sees himself again with pleasure and has even improved over the years.
In this spectacular and family entertainment, the director of
Star Wars VII
affirms his desire to make above all a film that takes you back in time, to an era that everyone can remember with a little fondness.
Super 8
refers to teenage comedies from the 1980s such as
Richard Donner's
The Goonies
or
Rob Reiner's
Stand by Me
.
The film features scamps eager to experience their own adventure.
Since
The Club of Five
by Enid Blyton, we have not done better in terms of romantic promise.
Abrams simply adds this desire he had to be able to talk about first love, this desire to capture the first adolescent emotions.
Read also:
Super 8
: back to the future of JJ Abrams
Available on Canal + VOD
Soul
, overcome your fears
Joe Gardner, a black New York musician, does not have the success of his pianist father.
When he lands a concert with the star quartet Dorothea Williams, much to the chagrin of his mum who prefers job security to the life of an artist, he is unlucky to die falling into a manhole cover.
When Joe returns to New York with the soul 22 (yes, that's weird) and finds himself in the skin of a cat (weird too), the fantasy comedy gets to "
jazz
"
a bit
, gimmick that seems to mean that life is only worth living without sparks.
But Docter, by dint of throwing out leads, ends up not quite knowing which one to follow.
Soul
tries to ward off two deeply human and uniquely American fears.
The fear of failure and the fear of death, decidedly at the heart of most of the latest Pixars (
En avant
,
Coco
).
Why not.
But the means he implements to achieve this are only half convincing.
Read also:
Soul
, a new age vision of existence and life after death
Available on Disney +
Coco,
a jewel by Pixar
Sometimes it is appropriate to let a story settle, so that it can gain intensity.
Directors Adrian Molina and Lee Unkrich (already author of the very moving
Toy Story 3
) had the wisdom to spend six years deepening the project and refining the script.
The film is splendid and reserves a last third on the thread of emotion, which will push some spectators to take out their handkerchiefs.
Coco's story sets up a young hero, Miguel.
For several generations now, music has been banned from his family.
Which turns out to be a real heartbreak for him because he feels that deep inside him an instinct pushes him to become a musician, like the famous mariachi Ernesto de la Cruz, who has decided to give up everything to give free rein to his passion for music.
To read also: Coco: a Disney-Pixar of hell
Available on Disney + from January 15
Flora and Ulysses
by Lena Khan
Even though theaters are closed, Disney is spoiling its youngest viewers with this comedy where a greedy squirrel with prodigious physical strength helps Flora overcome her parents' separation and depression (Ben Schwartz and Alyson Hannigan from
How I Met Your Mother
).
Taken from Kate DiCamillo's illustrated book, the adaptation shows that there is always a way to have fun with the superhero genre, even in the animal kingdom.
Ulysses looks a bit like Chris Pratt in
Guardian of The Galaxy
.
This invitation to abandon cynicism is not always a very light metaphor (especially in its last act).
But this film appeals to our childish hearts and our wonder in front of this flying rodent full of resources.
Filmmaker Lena Khan also uses a
Tom and Jerry-
style burlesque
sitcom
.
Ulysses is often chased by a city cleaner.
“I wanted a film that speaks to everyone, about the economic difficulties of parents, of those who are losing ground.
Children are always aware of this regardless of their age, ”
points out the director.
“In this time of pandemic, many people no longer see the beauty of the world.
May Ulysses make them want to fight again ”
, notes the one who has studied many videos of squirrels before reproducing her own in 3D.
She apologizes in advance to the parents who will now face requests to adopt squirrels.
Available on Disney +
Comedies
La Daronne,
patience and the art of selling
Patience Portefeux (Isabelle Huppert) bears her first name badly: she is
"fed up with everything"
.
Feels weary of his rather lonely existence.
She lost her husband several years ago.
And watches over his mother installed in an nursing home.
Fortunately, she sees her two balanced daughters growing up.
And appreciates his work.
Patience is a Franco-Arab judicial interpreter for the narcotics squad.
She is also close to her boss, who has the advantage of being in love with her (Hippolyte Girardot).
But the cup is not full enough for Patience, who is waiting for something else out of life.
Something that excites her, transports her, helps her find a place, her own.
His childhood is no stranger to his quest.
The spark flew without warning.
Following a combination of circumstances, she finds herself at the heart of drug trafficking.
Outlaw.
Transvestite as a
"village girl"
like Isabelle Adjani in
Le monde est à toi
, by Romain Gavras, in 2018. Roll the police and the thieves.
To read also: La Daronne: stunning Isabelle Huppert
Available on Canal VOD, Univers Ciné and Orange
Palm Spring
, loop
Do you find that between confinement and curfew, our days are alike?
So pity poor Nyles.
Trapped in a time loop, the nonchalant thirty-something always wakes up on the morning of the wedding of Abe and Tella, distant friends.
These nuptials, which take place in the middle of the Californian desert, always end with the infidelity of Nyles' girlfriend.
On this scenario modeled on
Un jour sans fin
with Bill Murray, Max Barbacow, whose humor turns out to be much more schoolboy and trash like
American Pie
, grafts a delicious twist: Nyles is not the only one to relive tirelessly these 24 hours of debauchery.
He dragged the grumpy Roy (JK Simmons delighted to lose his mind) and the beautiful Sarah (Cristin Milioti) into this galley.
In its first part,
Palm Springs,
which sparked record bids at the Sundance Festival, has fun showing the thousand and one ways in which the omniscience of Nyles (Andy Samberg, prodigious dilettante) and Sarah allows them to spice up and spoil. celebration.
From the declamation of the perfect speech to the most improbable accidents.
The duo's futile attempts to escape the attraction between them are equally joyous.
And is perhaps the key to their freedom.
Where Bill Murray was trying to line up a perfect, selfless day, Nyles and Sarah seem to be wondering.
What is the meaning of life when you have eternity in front of you?
Available on Prime Video
The Arnacœur,
the love of Paradise
To earn a living, Alex (Romain Duris) shatters all his relationships.
This James Bond of seduction works with his sister and his brother-in-law (amazing and funny Julie Ferrier and François Damiens).
Their job?
They investigate, hide, put microphones ... In short, they use all the weapons of perfect secret agents to respond to requests that are not always very clear.
Their new mission: Juliette (Vanessa Paradis) who is about to get married.
Our equipment must shake its feelings, its certainties.
To disgust her with this marriage.
For this, all blows are allowed.
Only, Alex had not expected that he would fall in love with his target.
A romantic comedy sparkling with humor and fantasy, wonderfully interpreted by the duo Paradis-Duris.
To see again in love or to dream of a deconfined adventure.
Read also: Vanessa Paradis, moving target in
L'Arnacoeur
Available on
Prime Video
Ma Loute
, unrecognizable Luchini
Always where one does not expect it, the author of
P'tit Quinquin
(the successful miniseries of Arte) returns with
Ma Loute,
a funny film in costume against a backdrop of class struggle at the beginning of the 20th century.
As he has been used to since his debut, Bruno Dumont has hired many non-professional actors for this feature film.
But to embody the head of this bourgeois family of the Belle Époque, the filmmaker immediately thought of Fabrice Luchini.
“
It had to be made up and physically altered.
The spectator should not recognize it at first glance.
He also changed his way of speaking, he forced his accent.
Same job for Juliette Binoche and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.
“
What interested me was to upset them and reveal something unexpected about [them].
" Successful bet.
The metamorphosis is total and the performance bluffing.
Against a background of police investigation, earthy and burlesque, mixed with mysticism, all these little people take a visible pleasure in playing the agitated bourgeois of the jar or the wild prolos.
Entertainment guaranteed.
To read also: The film to see tonight:
Ma Loute
Available on Prime Video
The classics to review with the family
Jurassic Park
, the start of a new era
With
Jurassic Park
, which he directed in 1993, Steven Spielberg revolutionized the seventh art.
Adapted from the homonymous novel by Michael Crichton, this first film in the franchise - will follow
The Lost World.
Jurassic Park
, in 1997, and
Jurassic Park III
, in 2001 - not only sparked a renewed interest in prehistory, but also took the film industry to a decisive step in the field of special effects.
Thanks to advances in computer science, computer-generated images have brought life-like tyrannosaurs, triceratops and other dinosaurs to life on the screen.
"
It was the first time in a movie that we used computer effects to create something that looked like a living animal
,
"
said Dennis Muren, one of the special effects team, who won a Oscar in 1994
.
“
We didn't know if we could do it, it was a first.
We had done
Terminator 2
two years before and we were close to the goal.
In the end, it worked
”.
This blockbuster remains one of the greatest commercial successes in the career of the brilliant Spielberg, who is presiding over the 66th Cannes Film Festival this year.
It was the first film in history to cross the 900 million dollars in earnings (920 million, while it cost "
only
" 65 million).
Read also: Jurassic Park: 20 years old and all his teeth
Available on Netflix
Back to the Future,
Zemeckis' masterpiece
Co-written by the awesome Robert Zemeckis and his buddy Bob Gale, Marty McFly and Doc Brown's Time Travel is back on Netflix.
“The idea is dazzling.
A pretext for comedy, it is also for the reflection of philosophers.
With Back to the Future, you have the opportunity to laugh frankly or to meditate deeply.
There is here a kind of tale that Diderot could have invented, because it mingles an absolute logic and an imagination which snorts between irony and the fantastic.
All propelled by a cheerful energy that ignores downtime
,
”
wrote the late Claude Baignères in the columns of
Figaro
in 1985. It must be said that upon its release, the first part of the saga had captivated critics and the public.
The feature film with an exemplary screenplay, or the quintessence of “
set-up, pay-off
”, certainly suffers today from some slightly “
old-fashioned
”
special effects
, but remains a first-rate entertainment with refreshing innocence, justifying without hardly its status of "
cult film
".
Read also: Back to the future: what Le Figaro thought in 1985
Available on Netflix
Dramas
The Richard Jewell case
, the case is not in the bag
He does not have the physique of the job.
The heroes are not the obese bad at themselves.
Yet despite his overweight, Richard Jewell was one for three days.
Afterwards, things turned sour.
In 1996, this security agent, curled up in his clothes, thwarted an attack during the Olympic Games in Atlanta.
It was he who found an abandoned backpack containing a bomb.
The lives he saved can be counted in the tens.
Glory to him.
He is entitled to the headlines.
The televisions invite him.
A publisher offers him a contract (naturally, a negro will be needed).
Oh, easy.
Funny feeling.
It no longer touches the ground.
His modesty suffers.
Be reassured, the crowds loving nothing so much as to burn what they adored, he is soon suspected of having organized everything to advertise himself.
The national idol turns into a monster.
The fall is cruel.
It portrays the customs of this time well.
The subject was waiting for someone like Eastwood.
In his films, he has always stood up for individuals.
Institutions are not his cup of tea.
It is not the first time that he is inspired by a news item.
This allows him to paint the portrait of an innocent, a clumsy.
Jewell has nothing for him.
He lives with his mother in an ordinary apartment, swears by law and order, has a knack for creating enemies.
It is not for lack of wanting to be of service.
His zeal plays tricks on him.
Read also:
The Richard Jewell Case:
The Massacre of an Innocent
Available on MyCanal
Judy's
rise and fall
1968, Judy Garland is a shadow of herself.
Alcoholic, insomniac, addicted to pills, the ex-teenage star of the 1940s does not even have enough to pay for a hotel room for her children who perform with her.
When an English manager offers her a series of concerts in London, the cornered actress accepts, even if her voice falters.
The reception of the British capital is triumphant, enough to spark yet another rebirth, an ultimate love (Finn Wittrock, gigolo at will).
But Judy's demons are never far away.
Taken from
Peter Quilter's
End Of The Rainbow
, Rupert Goold's film interweaves Renée Zellweger's vocal prowess with moments of frenzy and distress.
Flashbacks showing how the studios ravaged Garland's psyche and body.
Renée Zellweger fades in the guise of the star without ever disappearing completely, transforming the story into a timeless and disturbing Hollywood fable.
The camera, this unsatisfied ogre.
Read also: Judy Garland, the song of a lifetime
Available on MyCanal
The Dark Hours,
a biopic by Joe Wright
This pillar of Parliament may be brilliant and witty, when he is appointed Prime Minister at 65, not many people bet on him.
His party, that of the Tories, supports him with lip service.
As Hitler threatens to invade the UK, should we negotiate a peace treaty with Germany or fight?
In a subway train, Churchill meets the British people, ready to do battle.
The scene is bombastic and efficient.
The most fervent Nazi would crush a tear.
Churchill, revitalized, has only to convince the war cabinet where Chamberlain and the Viscount of Halifax oppose him.
And to rally the deputies to his cause, while 200,000 British soldiers are trapped in Dunkirk.
Like
The Speech of a King
,
The Dark Hours
wants to demonstrate that the war was won by the power of the word.
The art of oratory would be stronger than the art of war.
Or one would be nothing without the other.
Recently, in
Dunkirk,
Christopher Nolan took charge of
filming
Operation
“Dynamo”
, filming the fighting on land, at sea and in the air.
A retreat, not to say a defeat, staged as a victory.
Joe Wright takes care of putting it into words here, through those of Churchill, lyrical and persuasive.
Read also:
The Dark Hours:
a man of his word
Available on Netflix
Moonlight
, minority report
Awarded three times (notably in the “
best film
” category) at the 2017 Oscars, Moonlight tells the story of a young black homosexual in a disreputable district of Miami.
A portrait in three stages which corresponds to three ages of life: child, adolescent and adult.
Three sharp ellipses.
Three formidable actors who give a face to a suffering which does not speak its name.
Writing that Chiron is homosexual does not mean anything since
Moonlight
shows with infinite delicacy a sexual identity killed, bullied, repressed under the muscles and the virile codes of masculinity.
Barry Jenkins knows what he's filming;
the black filmmaker was born and raised in Liberty.
But he is not homosexual.
He hesitated for a while to adapt Tarell Alvin McCraney's play to the origin of
Moonlight
.
“
Some stories deserve to be told in the first person,”
he admits.
Chiron and I had the same childhood.
Same neighborhood, same mother addicted to crack and cocaine.
But I am straight.
I could identify with him perfectly, except to hold the hand of another man in the street and endure looks of hatred for it.
Can I truly understand this character if I can't really experience how he feels?
This story was written by another and I had to get to know this person.
I'm talking about Tarell Alvin McCraney, who is like a brother to me today.
If I can keep his voice, then maybe I am the right person to tell this story.
"
Read also:
Moonlight
: the ghetto is not gay
Available on Prime Video