From the movie "The Sunshine Coast"/Disney Plus
"Sun Beach": a charming movie on Disney Plus
The Sundance Film Festival, the flagship event of independent cinema in the United States, has a clear image: a hotbed for gritty indie films, which then give way to cinematographs, if anyone even hears of them.
But he also has another face.
An example of this is one of the films that premiered two weeks ago: "Suncoast", a communicative and quite commercial drama for the whole family, which is already streaming.
With us, it is available on Disney Plus.
In one respect, "Sunshine Beach" does resemble most of the films at Sundance: it is director Laura Chin's debut film, based on her personal experiences.
His heroine is a girl, whose brother is dying of cancer, and whose single mother spends most of her time with him in the hospice.
This situation adds to the usual difficulties that accompany puberty and intensifies them.
The one that goes up and the one that goes down.
Niko Parker and Laura Linney in "The Sunshine Coast"/Eric Zakhanovitch
In many ways, "Sun Beach" is a typical coming-of-age movie.
Two things distinguish him.
First of all, the willingness to deal with issues such as dying, euthanasia and death.
The second thing is the acting performance in the main role of Nico Parker, who at the age of 19 stands out as one of the refreshing discoveries of the past year.
The young star is the daughter of Tandy Newton, but proves here that she earned the role by merit rather than nepotism.
She has an extraordinary presence, and it is likely that we will hear a lot more about her.
On the other hand, veteran Laura Linney gives one of the weakest performances of her great career as the mother.
Woody Harrelson also appears, as an eccentric man who meets the heroine by chance and serves as her mentor, and his character is not the strongest thing here either.
Despite the flaws, "Sun Beach" is definitely a recommended movie for all ages, and if you watch it with your family, you might also have something to talk about.
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"Staying for the holiday": an instant classic in cinema
Alexander Payne shone as one of the most prominent American filmmakers of his generation with "About Schmidt", "Byways", "The Heirs" and "Nebraska", experienced a decline with "Living Small" and now makes a big comeback with "The Holdovers", which is nominated Oscar in five categories - including best film.
After a successful distribution in the rest of the world, this film comes to us in theaters this weekend.
Paul Giamatti, in one of his best roles, plays a professor at a prestigious prep school who is stuck with the student he hates for Christmas break.
"Staying for the Holiday" is a film whose plot takes place in the 1970s and looks as if it was made then, in the golden age of American cinema, when films were films and values were values.
"Staying for the holiday" is a story that enters the heart and stays in it, about two people who, precisely at Christmas, learn what it means to be a manz.
Five Oscar nominations.
From "Remaining for the holiday"/Tulip Media
"A letter to a pig": the Israeli film nominated for an Oscar goes to yes
Two weeks ago it became known that "Letter to Pig", the short and beautiful animated film by Tal Kantor, is nominated for an Oscar.
The immediate reaction of many was the question - and where can you see him?
So now there is an answer - it is now available on yesVOD and +STING.
The film is based on a childhood memory that haunted the director.
Her class met with a Holocaust survivor, who told them that a pig saved his life.
Although the animal is considered impure in Judaism, in his case it turned out to be a guardian angel, and its body separated him from the Nazis who were looking for him.
The Jewish survivor of course did not forget the pig, and years later wrote him a letter of thanks.
This unique story intervened in Kantor's dream, and these memories left a strong impression on her.
He didn't let go of her even in her adulthood, until a few years ago she decided to turn them into a cinematic piece that would deal with the meeting of the Holocaust survivor with the pig, and the meeting of the schoolgirl with both.
The result is this animated film, and the rest is history - which now hopefully ends with a statuette.
In the meantime, don't miss the opportunity to watch "Letter to a Pig" - a masterpiece film, which manages to deal with the memory of the Holocaust in a mesmerizing way, from a new angle.
The script is complex and full of layers - and the animation, which the creator worked on for five years, is a work of thought full of details and expression.
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From "A Letter to a Pig"/The Hive Studio, Miyu Productions
"This City" and "The Winners": two surprising musical films made in Israel
Two years ago, after the stinging failure of "Neighborhood on the Height" and "The Story of the Suburbs", the trend was to eulogize the musical.
Now, it seems the maligned genre is once again taking center stage.
The musical version of "Bad Girls" was released last week, the musical version of "The Color Crimson" will be released in two weeks, and Israeli cinema is also singing and dancing.
It started with "This City" by Amit Ullman, which went down in history as the detective rap opera in the history of Israeli cinema in particular and world cinema in general.
After enjoying rave reviews, including ours, and after being an impressive success at the local box office, it is now available on VOD of the various platforms.
And those who leave the house can see "The Winners" on the big screen, the first long feature film as a director of Eliran Peled, who became famous thanks to the series "The Unimportant" in Han 11. This is also an unusual film in the local scene, with musical numbers and choreography that we have not seen before .
This is a kind of Israeli "La La Land", which takes place just after the Six Day War.
His heroine, played by the discovery Yael Stulman, is a young woman who wins the lead role in a new musical that reflects the Israeli euphoria after the end of the war, but also deals with the post-trauma of her partner, and with the grief of her best friend, whose partner was killed in battle.
All this, of course, against the background of lots of dancing and singing.
Many of the numbers are original, but a highlight includes an unforgettable rendition of "You, Me and the Next War" by Hanoch Levin.
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From "The Conductors"/Saar Mizrahi
"My Fat Friend": Not everyone likes the Israeli hit on Netflix
Finally some action in Israeli cinema!
"My Fat Friend", a romantic comedy made in Israel, didn't leave a special mark when it hit the theaters a few months ago, but that changed when it joined the local Netflix catalog about two weeks ago.
The film climbed to first place in the viewing charts and subsequently also started to stir up discussion.
An article in Time-Out came out against him and led to a response article by Liat Elkayam, the partner of the director Gudis Schneider who participated in his work.
Reactions on the net accused him of shenophobia, which led Mi-Ran Manx, who stars in him, to publish posts against this reading, which has some of the superficiality and automaticity that characterizes political correctness these days.
Finally some action.
From "My Fat Friend"/Transfax
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.
There are hardly any proper romantic comedies these days (and no, "just not you" really doesn't count), and certainly there aren't any made in Israel - so here, get one.
"Such poor people": the most Oscar nominations, except for "Oppenheimer"
A week and a half ago, "Such Poor People" was honored with no less than 11 Oscar nominations, more than any other film except "Oppenheimer", and with representation in all the main categories - film, director, leading actress and so on.
Two weeks ago, it appeared in movie theaters in Israel and became the talk of the day, at least among movie fans.
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".
More on the same topic:
Mi-Ran Manx
Yorgos Lanthymus
Jason Statham
Disney Plus
Woody Harrelson
Alexander Payne
Paul Giamatti
this city
Amit Ullman
Tal Cantor
Oscar