My
crime
-
To
see
Comedy by François Ozon, 1h42
In a reconstituted Paris dominated by the quiet strength of a patriarchal power that has never been questioned, the young and pretty Madeleine Verdier (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), a penniless actress, is accused of the murder of a famous and libidinous producer.
Helped by her best friend Pauline (Rebecca Marder), an unemployed lawyer, the actress seizes on crime and brandishes it as a banner of virtue.
Public opinion immediately takes up the cause for this charming ingenue.
Ozon cleverly knits together a plot of real fake boulevard theater conducted at a beating pace, fast and fluid, boldly assuming its artificiality.
But beyond the twirling dialogues, the cascading twists that give this baroque and joyful farandole its hectic rhythm, pierces a certain gravity.
Under the burlesque and shimmering varnish, Ozon orchestrates a real plea in favor of female emancipation.
The film exercise is well shot, controlled, as light as it is serious.
With this little touch of cunning which wins the support of the spectators.
OD
Read alsoOur review of My crime: the evil pleasure of François Ozon
The Whale
-
To
see
Drama by Darren Aronofsky, 1h57
Charlie (Brendan Fraser) can't leave his house.
He lives on his sofa, breathes with difficulty, stuffs himself with pizzas that he drowns in mayonnaise, makes himself sandwiches as tall as skyscrapers.
The way to stop it?
He has blood pressure, suffers from heart failure and obviously does not have health insurance.
Getting up is a feat.
Despite the walker, walking one meter is like a marathon.
Then lands his teenage daughter whom he once abandoned.
Their reports are electric.
His ex-wife briefly pops up.
The resentment is there, intact.
From a play,
The Whale
disturbs, jumps at the throat, causes contrasting feelings.
The square format adds to the claustrophobia.
It is the portrait of a man trapped in his own body, the story of redemption.
Darren Aronofsky is not afraid to tackle extreme cases or resort to capital problems.
From a clinical object he makes a tragedy of overweight and guilt.
Brendan Fraser embodies the whole curse of losers, a martyr to bulimia.
Dr. Aronofsky's draconian diet will undoubtedly earn him an Oscar.
It must be admitted that his talent is not small.
IN
Read alsoOur review of The Whale: monster without company
Tengo sueños electricos
- To see
Drama by Valentina Maurel, 1h43
Eva, 16, looks like any teenager.
She has a cat, a little sister who still wets the bed, a mother who interprets dreams, separated parents.
His father is more iconoclastic than average.
He writes poems.
He has bouts of violence.
Eva helps him look for a new apartment.
They criss-cross the neighborhoods of San José, a not very pleasant city, far from the postcard of Costa Rica.
He prefers to squat with a friend.
She accompanies him to a meeting of bohemian artists where a woman reads a text entitled
"Vulva"
.
These adults are immature, funny, disturbing too.
Eva would like to lose her virginity but not her innocence.
Not easy with this unpredictable and fragile father.
Tengo sueños electricos
is reminiscent of the recent
Aftersun
, by Scottish Charlotte Welles.
Around the world, a daughter's relationship with her father is a mixture of repulsion and fascination.
For her first feature film, Valentina Maurel examines this filiation with impressive rawness and lucidity.
ES
In full fire
- We can see
Thriller by Quentin Reynaud, 1h25
Under the oppressive heat of a summer evening, the inhabitants of a Landes housing estate, not far from Vieux-Boucau, scan the cloud-laden sky.
Eyes up, hands outstretched, the hero, Simon (Alex Lutz), whispers,
"Again, again... Just a few drops..."
But the rain doesn't come.
The next day, the three bells of the fire siren sounded.
“This is not a drill!
grumbles
Joseph (André Dussollier, terrific grumpy father, retired naval officer).
Fire threatens.
We have to evacuate.
In the car, Dussollier picks up in real time, depending on the frequency, the conversations of the firefighters or that of the police.
Father and son are quick to grasp that the inferno of flames is gaining ground... For his third film,
Fifth Set
, Quentin Reynaud sets out to film a stifling camera in a stationary car stuck in a traffic jam on a Landes road surrounded by forest.
The two men are trapped as the fire approaches.
The tension is palpable.
The heat is suffocating.
Shot a year before the violent Landes fires of 2022, this premonitory film, devilishly effective, despite some scriptwriting clumsiness, sends shivers down your spine.
OD
Read alsoOur review of En plein feu: colors of the fire
Women Talking
- We can see
Drama by Sarah Polley, 1h44
In an isolated religious community in North America, reminiscent of Mennonites, women realize that they and their daughters have been drugged and raped by men.
The latter went to town to pay bail for those who were arrested.
In their absence, three matriarchs and their daughters gather in the village barn to decide: should they forgive?
Should they take revenge?
Should they leave?
How to reconcile their faith with the sordid reality?
Claire Foy (enigmatic and impenetrable in
The Crown)
portrays Salome, the most belligerent of women.
If
Women Talking "would not have been possible without the awareness of #MeToo, which makes possible and audible such exchanges on the relationship between men and women"
, Claire Foy believes that the story does not oppose the sexes and even encourages better coexistence, like August (Ben Whishaw), the teacher who records the minutes of the debate without ever intervening.
The force of argumentation, dialectics and radical democratic experience lie at the heart of
Women Talking.
CJ
Read alsoOur review of Women Talking: Queen Claire Foy rebels
And love in all this ?
- You can see
Romantic comedy by Shekhar Khapur, 1h49
Zoe, documentary filmmaker, and Kazim, surgeon, are childhood friends.
At 30 years old, their sentimental life is a dessert.
Zoe (Lilly James,
Pam & Tommy
) racks up nightmares on dating apps.
She falls from the clouds when Kazim (Shazad Latif,
Star Trek Discovery
) explains that he asked his Pakistani parents to find him a wife in their country of origin.
A process of "assisted marriage" that she decides to chronicle for a documentary.
The opportunity to confront the divergent points of view between West and East on what makes the accounts in a couple and the nature of love at first sight.
And love in all this
?
embraces cultural differences and has fun constantly referencing genre classics,
Love Actually
.
The parents of the young heroes are not left out.
Starting with Emma Thompson as an eccentric retiree.
CJ
Scream VI
- Avoid
Horror-Horror by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, 2h02
After terrorizing the Californian town of Woodsboro and Hollywood, this sixth installment takes the
Ghostface
to New York this time.
But where Wes Craven, who died in 2022, was reflecting on the genre of horror film that he had helped to popularize by blasting the codes, this sixth episode is going a bit in circles.
Young Jenna Ortega (defector from Tim Burton's Netflix series
Wednesday
) brings a little fresh blood to an intrigue already steeped in meta-cinema.
The whole struggles to convince, too many calls, too stuck in a complicated genealogy that would lose even the biggest fans.
It must be admitted that this new episode is still superior to the previous one, which we thought had definitively buried the franchise.
Basically, we should not be surprised by this opportunistic resurrection: it is inscribed in the very DNA of the saga!
OD
