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Actress Issa Rae in Revenge Texan: What the Hell Am I Doing Here?
Photo: Courtesy of Karen Kuehn / Focus Features / Universal Studios
In cinemas since January 19th
"Revenge in Texan"
A New York hipster journalist comes to Texas and has to give a eulogy at the grave of an ex-lover he has long forgotten.
From this rather simple basic constellation, the director and main actor BJ Novak makes a stunningly funny society and media comedy that is up to date.
Novak became known, among other things, as an actor in the US series »The Office«.
In his big-screen debut, he marvels a smug pseudo-leftist wiseguy at the wit and charm of Texas' supposedly reactionary hillbilly.
Urban journalist Ben (Novak), a hit in the popular true crime podcast genre, first asks himself, like many intellectuals who have been pulled out of their bubbles: What the hell am I doing here?
Then he suddenly decides
to investigate the alleged murder of the almost unknown young Abilene (Lio Tipton), with whom he apparently had sex only once.
Ben is remotely controlled on his adventures in the wild South by his New York podcast producer - the actress Issa Rae, who is also known as a director, embodies her captivatingly as the most hardened of all media women.
The film is half "Welcome to the Sch'tis" in American and half the clever US version of a Böhmermann prank.
In this film one sees grandiosely horribly dressed, but refreshingly half-mad people at the rodeo chat and the nocturnal drug use in the pampas.
The family of the dead appears as a funny club of proles, Ashton Kutcher as a country music producer in a white cowboy dress is the most obscure gangster far and wide.
Many smart and a few screwed up punch lines make Novak's crime satire surprising fun even in the outrageous late twists.
Wolfgang Hoebel
»Revenge Texan«, USA 2022. Written and directed by BJ Novak.
Starring: BJ Novak, Lio Tipton, Dove Cameron, Ashton Kutcher.
107 minutes.
»Babylon – intoxication of ecstasy«
Director Damien Chazelle has been considered Hollywood's child prodigy since his success with the musical film »La La Land« at the latest: In 2017, at the age of only 32, he became the youngest filmmaker in the history of the award to receive an Oscar for best director.
His new work »Babylon – Rush of Ecstasy« tells of the transition from the silent film era to talkies at the end of the 1920s.
Chazelle spent years digging, reading and researching Hollywood history for his three-hour film;
his flaming love for cinema can be felt at every moment.
Brilliant in timing, precision and drama are, for example, silent film starlet Nellie LaRoy's (Margot Robbie) first attempts at speaking roles, where everything on the set goes so hysterically wrong that you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Or a scene where gossip columnist Elinor St. John (Jean Smart) calmly tells desperate actor Jack Conrad (Brad Pitt), a superstar of the era, that his time in the spotlight is over.
Chazelle, who also wrote the screenplay, modeled his characters on role models such as silent film stars Douglas Fairbanks or Rudolph Valentino, while Margot Robbie found her inspiration for the role in the fate of it girl Clara Bow.
The characters coke, drink and enjoy the turbulent party goings-on behind the scenes, only to squash a tear in front of the camera the next day, as if by pressing a button, or to fabricate a kiss in front of a sunset backdrop with devotion.
Pure Hollywood magic!
But only a few make the leap into the new world of speaking roles.
Despite its juicy and violent spectacle scenes, its stars and its pounding swing house soundtrack, the film leaves one strangely cold.
One is mesmerized by the images and their beauty, but also struck by the breathless Razzle-Dazzle that Chazelle ignites.
Andrew Borcholte
»Babylon – Intoxication of Ecstasy«, USA 2022. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle.
Starring Morgiot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Tobey Maguire.
185 minutes.
»The Hamlet Syndrome«
In early 2015, young Ukrainian Slavik was among the last soldiers attempting to defend Donetsk airport from Russian-backed separatists.
In 2021 he will be on the stage of a theater in Kyiv for the documentary »The Hamlet Syndrome« and will tell how comrades were buried under rubble.
How he himself was taken prisoner.
How an enemy soldier put a pistol to his head and tried to force him to shoot one of the other prisoners.
In the summer of 2021, the Polish filmmakers Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski brought five Ukrainians together in the former "Tram Drivers' Culture House" in Kyiv to develop a play there.
Based on Shakespeare's drama »Hamlet«, they were supposed to process their traumata in it.
There is actress Oxana, who is struggling with whether or not to leave her country.
Or Roman, who as a medic in the war in eastern Ukraine experienced much more death and violence than he could handle.
Or Rodion, whom police officers threatened to rape with a baton.
In the famous "To be or not to be" monologue, Shakespeare's hero asks himself which would be better: to live or to die.
Niewiera and Rosołowski wanted each of their protagonists to develop an individual monologue.
It is gripping and moving to watch as they try to find words and gestures to share their experiences with others.
The film is a social experiment in which people with very different biographical backgrounds want to overcome the borders that exist between them.
Lars Olav Beier
»The Hamlet Syndrome«, Poland/Germany 2022. Written and directed by: Elwira Niewiera, Piotr Rosołowski.
85 minutes.
In streaming
The Menu (Disney+)
No cooking metaphors now.
When it comes to films about cooking, critics are always quick to rave about drinkable screenplays or lukewarm dramaturgy.
Yet chefs trying their hand at being pop stars have long been a plague, as have shows like Chef's Table, which act like making tomato sauce is rocket science.
So it's wonderful to see how the film »The Menu« dissects this fuss in a dark satire.
A handful of well-to-do important people are invited to an island for a multi-course meal created by celebrated star chef Julian Slowik.
First there's the usual foam and seaweed, then scissors stuck in a chicken breast, and from there the guests realize this evening isn't going to end well for them.
Ralph Fiennes plays this chef with his own grandeur as a brilliant artist who suffers from the mediocrity of his audience and turns out to be a psychopath with a perfidious plan.
He asks a guest who is devoted to him in canine admiration to hang himself with his tie, which he dutifully does.
In places, the screenplay wants too much and remains too imprecise with its shock attacks, but as a satire on the star cult, this film definitely tastes good.
Oops cook metaphor.
But don't worry: The critics get the worst of this film.
Oliver Kaever
»The Menu«, USA 2022. Screenplay: Seth Reiss, Will Tracy.
Directed by Mark Mylod.
With Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor Joy, Nicolas Hoult.
108 minutes.
