The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Cinema releases of the week: »Simply something nice«, »The Menu«

2022-11-18T18:05:52.916Z


Karoline Herfurth presents the next relationship comedy after »Wonderful«, Oscar winner Alejandro Iñárritu despairs of his own fame, elsewhere class struggle is on the menu - these are the film starts of the week.


Enlarge image

Ulrike Kriener and Karoline Herfurth in »Simply something beautiful«

Photo: Warner Bros.

In cinemas since November 17:

»Just something nice«

It's not often that a director releases two films in one year in which she also plays leading roles.

Karoline Herfurth's tragic comedy »Beautiful« was shot in 2019, but due to the pandemic it only started this February and was a great success.

Now the 38-year-old from Berlin follows up with »Simply something nice«.

In it she plays a radio presenter who, after many failures, has almost given up hope of finding the right man.

However, because she is approaching 40, the famous biological clock is ticking and she wants a child, she is thinking about artificial insemination - which is partly due to the lack of understanding of those around her.

And as if that weren't enough, she runs into a really nice guy (Aaron Altaras), who is over ten years younger than her.

Herfurth, who always works on the screenplays of her films, talks about women and the problems they face in finding happiness in this society in an entertaining yet serious manner.

The accuracy with which she sets punchlines or nuances, with which she sometimes makes her audience laugh and sometimes touches their hearts, is admirable.

One or the other gag in »Einfach mal was schönes« may have turned out to be a bit flat.

But the emotional depth she achieves in some scenes is amazing.

The character she embodies is sometimes annoying because of her overexcitedness, but you go through all the ups and downs with her.

Lars Olav Beier

»Simply something beautiful«, Germany 2022. Director: Karoline Herfurth.

Screenplay: Herfurth, Monika Fäßler, Tim Hebborn.

With: Herfurth, Jasmin Shakeri, Nora Tschirner, Aaron Altaras, Herbert Knaup.

116 minutes.

»Bardo, the invented chronicle of a handful of truths«

It's not easy being a successful aging artist person.

The Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu tells what many cinema fans have probably guessed with a shrug of the shoulders, thoroughly and a bit self-pityingly, using the example of a television journalist.

He is played by the handsome, vain actor Daniel Giménez Cacho ("Zama").

The grumpy hero embodies a former TV presenter who has just received a great award as a documentary filmmaker, lives temporarily in California and falls into a deep life crisis.

The crisis is staged as a surrealistic dream trip.

Iñárritu once won an Oscar for best director with »Birdman« (2014) and immediately afterwards another one for »The Revenant«, with the main character of »Bardo« he means himself, of course. The film is a three-hour autobiographical reckoning of the 59-year-old filmmaker with himself. Sometimes the hero turns into a gnome who faces his own father, who died long ago.

Sometimes he pushes a child that died as an infant back into his wife's stomach.

As fantastic as this round dance is staged, it is also overflowing and self-absorbed.

And so the suspicion could arise among the viewers that a director is doing self-exploration here, which he could very well do on his own.

Wolfgang Hoebel

»Bardo«, Mexico 2022. Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Book: Nicolás Giacobone, Iñárritu.

Starring: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid.

159 minutes.

»The Menu«

Who do you hate more?

The settled educated middle class, which prides itself on its good taste, but only consumes what is exclusive and expensive?

Foodies who would rather photograph their food for Instagram than enjoy it?

Tech bros who work so hard that in the few minutes they have free time, they make even more money and louder?

Or rather the gastronomic critic who is so enthusiastic about her own expertise and cosmopolitanism that she is no longer open to the essentials - namely whether a meal is worth the money or not?

Luckily, with Mark Mylod's lifestyle satire The Menu, you don't have to choose: you can hate the full gamut of snobs and snobs.

He gathers them in a three-star restaurant on a desert island and subjects them to the whims of celebrity chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes).

What these whims consist of is staged by Mylod, previously successful as a TV director of series such as »Succession« , similar to a tasting menu: he comes up with lots of small ideas and surprises that, taken individually, are not satisfying, but in the fast-paced sequence have fun.

The ending isn't as socio-politically rich for Mylod and screenwriters Seth Reiss and Will Tracy as they might think.

You don't have to digest »The Menu« with difficulty, but can simply appreciate that entertainment cinema is becoming more political again and that social conflicts are escalating instead of playing them down.

Hannah Pilarczyk

»The Menu«, USA 2022. Director: Mark Mylod, script: Seth Reiss, Will Tracy.

Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Fiennes, Hong Chau, Nicholas Hoult, Janet McTeer.

106 minutes.

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2022-11-18

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.