The trailer of the movie "My Fat Friend"/Transfax
"My Fat Friend": A domestically produced romantic comedy starring on Netflix
There are already quite a few Israeli films in the local catalog of Netflix, but most of them were released a decade or more ago.
It's rare that a blue-and-white movie comes to service within a year of its release.
It happened with "The Victory Picture" and now it's happening with Goodis Schneider's "My Fat Friend", a romantic comedy that spent a short time on our big screen, and now gets a new life.
It went up on Netflix this week and Hish-Kel jumped to first place in the list of the most watched films in it (in Israel).
The film is a kind of local and meaty version of "When Harry Met Sally".
This time Harry is Jami, played by Tzachi Sadan, an Israeli guy who does not fit any accepted model of beauty - he is not thin, not shaved, and not dressed properly.
During his military service, Jami meets Alik, played by Mi-Ran Manx, an attractive girl by all accounts, who is also aware of this, and successful in every other respect.
She is the best book woman we have seen on the big screen this year, and a big fan of Karl Ove Knausgaard.
Nothing happens between them, but since we are a small country, they meet a few years later, this time when they live in Tel Aviv.
A friendship with high sexual tension develops between them, but something separates the two.
In previous Israeli films about love on the test, what stood between the heroes was ethnicity.
Here, it's the weight.
"My Fat Friend" depicts all this with a lot of sensitivity, with dialogues whose wit does not compromise their credibility, and in general in an incredibly authentic way.
Perhaps this is only required, because the film is based on Schneider's personal story.
A beefy blue-white version of When Harry Met Sally.
From "My Fat Friend"/Transfax
Aside from the director's experiences, "My Fat Friend" also draws from the tradition of the Hollywood romantic comedy, but it is clear that in the United States they would not dare to produce it nowadays for reasons of political correctness.
Evidence for this is that at the American festivals where it was screened, his chubby Israeli name was seen as problematic and was replaced by the generic name "Alic and Jamie", as the names of the two main characters.
Also in Israel, by the way, "Haaretz" published an article that accused this comedy of champagne, although not a single viewer complained.
All this did not prevent Netflix from purchasing the film for its Israeli catalog, and perhaps it will not prevent it from starring in its viewing charts.
After all, there are hardly any proper romantic comedies these days (and no, "just no you really don't count"), and there certainly aren't any made in Israel - so here, get one.
More in Walla!
"I wish skinny people would stop towering over us. They have problems just like fat people, you just see it less"
To the full article
"Such poor people": the most Oscar nominations, except for "Oppenheimer"
One of the most talked about films of recent years, which we will cover a lot more - tomorrow with our full review, and later this winter when it continues to win awards.
He arrives in Israel with the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in his possession;
11 Oscar nominations, more than any other film except "Oppenheimer" and with representation in all the main categories;
Two Golden Globe Awards, in the Best Comedy/Musical category and Emma Stone for the leading actress in this type of film, and more and more.
Shall we continue listing all the decorations and medals?
We don't have all day.
The film was written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek director who since "Teeth of the Dog" and "The Lobster" has become one of the hottest names in the world of cinema, and he returned to collaborate with Emma Stone, who starred with him in the celebrated "The Favorite" as well.
The actress, who is also making waves this year in the series "The Curse", plays here a pregnant young woman who lived in the Victorian period and ended her life.
Style scientist Dr. Frankenstein, played by Willem Dafoe, collects her, takes the brain of the fetus that was in her womb and implants it inside her.
11 Oscar nominations.
From "Such Poor People"/Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
© 2023 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved
And so, the film's heroine comes back to life, but with the brain of a baby girl, so that now she has to discover the world anew.
She embarks on a cross-continental journey, during which she will learn the wonders of the body and the lust of the flesh, but also the dark side of the world - the injustice and inequality between classes and genders.
The world will change her, but she will also change him.
As usual these days, the enthusiasm surrounding the film is a bit exaggerated, yet it cannot be denied that it is a cinematic event.
The artistic design requires viewing on a large screen, the cinematic expression is virtuosic, and the entire process is impressive and invested.
Emma Stone sinks her teeth into the bold role, which provides her and the rest of us with some of the wildest sex and nudity scenes we've seen in commercial cinema in recent years.
Unlike most Oscar movies, "Poor People Like That" also has a sense of humor, so you won't come out of it as poor - you'll probably enjoy it.
And if "Such Poor People" made you want to watch the previous collaboration between Stone and Nathymus - great, the film appeared this week in the Israeli catalog of Netflix and is available there.
And here's another bonus: our interview with Lanthimus about one of his first English-speaking films, "To Kill a Sacred Reindeer".
"The next goal wins": finally a good football movie worthy of the championship
The last period is full of films with a connection to the world of sports: the Israeli hit "Running on the sand" takes place against the background of the local soccer world, the South American hit of Netflix "Brotherhood of the Snow" deals with the disaster of a rugby team and the American film "The Wrestlers" takes place, as its name suggests, in the wrestling ring.
This group is now joined by "the next goal wins", and also in his case the name betrays its plot.
The film was released last week in cinemas in Israel.
It is based on a docu of the same name, which came out a decade ago and featured the story of the American Samoa soccer team, which recorded the biggest loss ever in the World Cup qualifiers when they lost to Australia 31-0, and that's another game where their goalkeeper excelled!
In an attempt to rise from the unprecedented abyss, the local businessmen recruit the American-Dutch coach Thomas Rongen, who needed an unusual challenge to deal with a personal trauma - the death of his stepdaughter in a road accident.
What they ask of him is a simple thing: not to win the World Cup, not to qualify for it, not even to win a qualifying match, just to finally score a goal.
Behind the film is Taika Waititi, who until now has been Hollywood's top scorer and recorded success after success - for example "Jojo Rabbit" and "Thor: Ragnarok".
Next Goal Wins, however, failed overseas both critically and commercially, perhaps because that's usually what happens to soccer movies.
Failed at the box office in America, but deserves a chance.
From "The next goal wins"/by Hilary Bronwyn Gayle.
Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures.
© 2022 20th Century Studios
But as a soccer fan who is also a bit of a movie fan, I really enjoyed watching "The Next Goal Wins".
In many ways, it belongs to the sub-genre of sports movies about underdogs and uses all the usual conventions of the genre.
However, it has some unique features: Watiti's brilliance, language and name finds original ways to present the story;
The presentation of Michael Fassbender's acting as a coach, one of the most impressive actors in Hollywood in recent years;
And of course also the extraordinary story of American Samoa, which beyond the record defeat contains all kinds of other unique aspects, including the fact that the team featured the first transgender player in the early history of the World Cup, Jaya Salua.
The love-hate relationship that develops between Saloa and the coach is one of the main and successful storylines in the film, which makes good use of the strong characters, the interesting story, the Samoan culture that is not often represented in Western cinema - and of course, the beauty of football.
Championship film.
"How to have sex": one of the most important films of the year
Since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival last May, Molly Manning-Walker's debut film has become one of the most talked about films of the year.
He won one of the most prestigious awards in the Riviera and since then he has added many more decorations to his wardrobe, and now he is also showing in movie theaters in Israel.
It's a British film, which could easily have been an Israeli film.
Its plot and the characters and images in it echo the Aya Napa case and other cases.
A must see, screen and discuss.
From "How to have sex" / Cannes Film Festival
The film follows three girls flying to Crete.
One of them is a virgin and determined to have sex even though she doesn't know how - a common convention in youth films, which this drama deals with in a way we haven't seen before;
In a more authentic, more original and above all more moral way than previous cinematic treatments.
Through a series of directorial decisions that are fascinating from an ethical and artistic point of view, the British director is good at illustrating how the fun vacation turns into a painful experience, physically and mentally.
I wish "How to Have Sex" would be required viewing in high schools, accompanied by a discussion of the concept of consent.
.
"The Moonflower Killers": Martin Scorsese's epic
Apple produced Martin Scorsese's The Moonflower Killers, and made this ambitious project possible - a nearly three-and-a-half-hour film, with a budget of two hundred million dollars, that deals with non-commercial issues such as genocide.
They waited patiently with him: the film was first screened at the Cannes Film Festival last May and hit theaters in October.
Only now, half a year after its first screening, it has been streamed on Apple TV Plus around the world and here, and it does so with a host of nominations and statuettes, as well as countless mentions in the charts of the best films of 2023. Soon
, "Killers of the Moon Flower" will also star at the Oscars , with a bunch of nominations and apparently also with Lily Gladstone winning the leading actress award, and his parents must be proud.
Apple can say that they have in their catalog one of the most talked about films of recent years, something that Netflix can only envy.
The investment paid off.
Based on David Grann's non-fiction book, the film is about the Osage murders.
This is one of the shocking stories in contemporary American history: a systematic murder of Native Americans that took place in Oklahoma at the beginning of the last century, in an attempt to take over the oil royalties of the Osage tribe.
Scorsese presents the story through three central characters.
Two of them are girls: an unrestrained businessman played by Robert De Niro, and his easy-to-maneuver nephew, who is released from the American army and immediately joins his uncle's army, played by Leonardo DiCaprio.
The third, played by Lily Gladstone, is a member of the Osage tribe, who becomes his partner and therefore also the victim of the liberated soldier.
"The Moonflower Killers" is not Scorsese's longest film - it lasts 206 minutes, so "The Irishman" is three minutes longer, and if we include documentaries then he had even longer works.
However, this is probably his most cynical and critical film.
On the weight of "they also shoot horses", it can be said that in this film horses are also shot, as well as dogs, as well as women and children.
According to the film, white America had one goal.
The goal was money and the goal justified the means.
"Killers of the Moonflower" presents the history of America as a history based on three foundations: fraud, destruction and robbery.
More in Walla!
"We grew up believing that there would not be a second holocaust, but here it has happened to us again"
To the full article
Very long, too long.
From "Killers of the Moonflower"/Cannes Festival
"Killers of the Moonflower" is very long and too long, but it presents a fascinating and shocking story in an almost unimaginable way, and concludes the tragedy with a brilliant and dizzying climax.
Scorsese doesn't just get so much credit, and shows some cinematic brilliance, including ones we haven't seen throughout his long career.
De Niro, for his part, proves once again that he is one of the greatest actors of our generation, and also one of their most uninhibited - he plays with uncompromising coldness the embodiment of absolute evil.
Above all, "Killers of the Moonflower" is topical and terrifyingly relevant.
He reminds Harvard professors and other righteous people that concepts like genocide, colonialism and white settlers are taboo in the name of the United States, and this is a fact that cannot be denied - neither in cinema nor in streaming.
More on the same topic:
Martin Scorsese
Leonardo DiCaprio
Robert De Niro
Taika and Ititi
Michael Fassbender
World Cup qualifiers
Cannes Film Festival
Emma Stone
Mi-Ran Manx
Yorgos Lanthymus
Such poor people