Film tips: »The 355«, »Lamb«, »Bad Tales - Favolacce«, »Suddenly in the Country«, »The Tender Bar«

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Jessica Chastain in "The 355"

Photo: Robert Viglasky / Universal Pictures / Leonine

"The 355"

What a great idea to have five female stars play a team of agents to save the world. In

they fight and shoot wildly until there are only dead men on the floor: The actresses Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong'o and Fan Bingbing get a lot of guys with sinister in the film Look in front of the shotgun. The fact that you can recognize the bad guys immediately has advantages - because otherwise you as a viewer could quickly lose track of the chaotically choreographed and cut action scenes.

The screenplay by director Simon Kinberg and co-author Theresa Rebeck has little to offer the actresses.

It forces them into schematic roles and puts inexperienced dialogue sentences into their mouths.

“Jammed,” Chastain exclaims after the viewer sees that her pistol is jammed.

The fact that the five stars make this botch shine shows their charisma and their art of making quite a lot out of almost nothing.

This film is a real celebration for the Federal Intelligence Service: The new building in Berlin is celebrating a majestic crane ride.

Sylvester Groth plays a chief official of the agency who is apparently ready to sacrifice himself for the good of humanity.

And the great Diane Kruger as tough agent Marie Schmidt shoots the floppy hat image of the BND in short and small.

In the cinema, »The 355«, USA 2022. Director: Simon Kinberg.

Book: Simon Kinberg, Theresa Rebeck.

With: Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong'o, Fan Binbing.

124 minutes.

"Lamb"

An Icelandic peasant couple floats in the long-awaited baby happiness, their newborn sleeps protected in a cot - initially no thriller material. But head and body do not go together in this child. A fairytale mixture of man and sheep is kicking around here: that's how much María (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) wanted offspring. When one of their animals gives birth to a hybrid, they promptly adopt it as their own. The story becomes increasingly bizarre with the visit of Ingvar's brother Pétur, who is not the only one who refuses to accept the lamb in the family - the consequence will be a power struggle between man and nature.

"Lamb"

, Valdimar Jóhannsson's feature film debut, was recently on the Oscar shortlist for best international film. The Icelander only lets his three characters speak very carefully - the foggy expanse in the (sometimes completely silent) fantasy drama is depressing, but it doesn't get really scary. The film insists on a seriousness that just can't stand the silly sight of a lamb in dungarees. Even if some subtle horror elements work, the narrative lacks pace and message: if you have accepted its absurdity and engaged in the slowness of dialogue, picturesque landscapes can make up for some weaknesses.

In the cinema, »Lamb«, Iceland 2021. Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson, script: Valdimar Jóhannsson, Sigurjón Birgir Sigurðsson.

With: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson.

106 minutes.

"Bad Tales - Favolacce"

Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl's films have been out of fashion for several years.

At some point it was probably good with the bad children and the bad media, the grotesque bodies and the stupid religion.

With his second work

the Italian brothers and directors Damiano and Fabrio d'Innocenzo are now trying to update the hostility towards Austro.

And what must say?

Even dog days look better under the Italian sun.

The heat is relentlessly pressing on the minds in the anonymous suburb of Rome. The adults suffer from the inadequacy of their suburbia existence, which only the next barbeque party among neighbors holds in store. The children meanwhile suffer from the adults. Just one bad mark on the year-end report card and blows threatened. But as it is with families: Children learn from their parents even the worst habits, and soon the greatest aggression on the part of the children threatens to discharge.

»Favolacce«, the original title, celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale 2020, the last regular one before the pandemic.

There the film won the award for best screenplay.

Almost two years later, the film almost hits a nerve that is too sensitive.

Because family clusters at the limit - you will have that in every house in the third Corona year.

Perhaps the only consolation that remains is the Italian sun, as always.

In the cinema, »Bad Tales«, Italy 2020. Script and direction: Damiano and Fabio d'Innocenzo.

With: Elio Germano, Tommaso Di Cola, Giulietta Rebeggiani.

98 minutes.

"Suddenly in the country"

In times of Corana, when wellness oases are threatened, there is consolation: French feel-good comedies reliably ensure comfort. Julie Manoukian shows in her directorial debut

not only a feeling for the emotional needs of her audience, but also an almost visionary foresight. In the film, which was shot in 2019, she tells of a young doctor who actually wants to get into virus research, but is gripped by the lust for the countryside and finds fulfillment as a veterinarian in the provinces.

Paris, money, career - forget everything quickly after looking a puppy deep in the eyes. The film never pretends to be progressive, it celebrates the return to the places of childhood unbroken as real life. Alexandra lets the viruses be viruses and, after initial doubts, throws herself into her task with full force to succeed her uncle in Burgundy, who was extremely popular as a veterinarian, but now wants to enjoy his old days.

As a viewer in

(original title: »Les Vétos«) you look in vain for a plot and surprises, but what the heck, you are looking into a pretty beautiful area. Manoukian knows how to dose her pictures of all kinds of cute animals well and counters threatening sweetness with black humor. Alexandra is into you and you with microorganisms, but less with people. Children and their desire to have a living instead of a dead pet are completely alien to her at first.

In general, you like to follow the film thanks to the wonderfully brittle leading actress Noémie Schmidt.

And in addition, it also provides a little relief for all the many people who want to move from the city to the countryside but cannot find anything there because everyone is looking for it.

In the cinema, »Suddenly in the Country«, France 2019. Written and directed by Julie Manoukian.

With Noémie Schmidt, Clovis Cornillac, Carole Franck.

92 minutes.

"The Tender Bar" (on Amazon Prime)

A highway, one of those elegantly sweeping American cars from the 1970s, with “Radar Love” by Golden Earring on the soundtrack - it couldn't be more American than in the introductory shot of “The Tender Bar”.

George Clooney made a film about "The Tender Bar", the maudlin autobiographical novel by the journalist JR Moehringer, which topped the bestseller lists not only in the USA for months.

It is quite possible that George Clooney felt similar to many people who are currently despairing of the inner turmoil of the USA when making this film: In the rearview mirror of nostalgia, the cultural home that it offered people all over the world seems all the bigger and more beautiful .

Nostalgia, of course, is not necessarily good fuel for a story, and no one will claim that Clooney's eighth directorial work is a masterpiece.

The story of a boy who grows up without a father in a dysfunctional but loving family is too indecisive and too persistent in reproducing familiar patterns.

The family as a sacred unit, however unholy it may behave, is part of it.

And the old camels of the USA as the country of unlimited dream fulfillment and identity finding.

But Ben Affleck plays the smoking uncle and pub so convincingly, and Clooney stages his American dream so hugely that one likes to sink into it for an hour and a half.

Waking up, that much has to be said, is all the harder afterwards.

"The Tender Bar", USA 2021. Director: George Clooney, book: William Monahan.

With Ben Affleck, Tye Sheridan, Christopher Lloyd, Lily Rabe.

106 minutes.