"Anatomy of a Fall" movie trailer/new cinema
Four new and worthwhile movies worth seeing
1. "The bar keeper": a fun and funny action movie to watch at home
"The Bar Keeper" is a fun movie, which made headlines under unpleasant circumstances.
Its director Doug Liman, who previously signed hits like "Identity in the Trap" and "Edge of Tomorrow", threatened to boycott the premiere at the SXSW festival.
The reason: Amazon, who were behind the film, decided that it would be a one-time cinema screening, and it would skip commercial distribution and go directly on their streaming service.
That's what happened in the end.
One can guess that if it had been released in theaters, it would have become a blockbuster in Israel, where people still keep faith with the action genre to which it belongs, but here, too, "The Bar Keeper" was released directly on Amazon Prime Video.
Not pleasant, not bad.
Personally, I am of the minority opinion that, basically, every movie deserves the big screen, but even purists like me will agree that such an unpretentious action thriller can also be honored on the small screen.
The film is of course based on the eighties hit of the same name, which starred Patrick Swayze.
Here, he is replaced by the more muscular Jake Gyllenhaal, in a rare case where a Jewish actor gets to play a Hollywood action hero.
Hollywood is finally letting Hollywood do the talking.
Jake Gyllenhaal in "Bar Keeper"/Laura Redford/Amazon Prime Video
The plot is similar to that of the original.
Gyllenhaal plays a lady who gets a new job - a selector in a pub where unwanted guests recently started going wild, and over time it turns out that they are connected to the conspiracy of a criminal organization.
This time the plot moved from the southern United States to Florida, which promises more beautiful landscapes.
Also, the hero got a different backstory.
This is a former UFC fighter, suffering from a trauma that we will understand its meaning little by little, through flashbacks.
Despite this mental complication, the new "bar keeper" is not heavy at all.
On the contrary: he is funny, even very, very funny.
Gyllenhaal reveals here not only his muscles, but also his comedic talent.
From the very beginning, every beating scene, however violent it may be, is seasoned with black and witty humor.
This lightens the situation and also the viewing, and makes it clear that the film does not take itself seriously, which of course increases the sympathy for it.
The comic dimension only gets stronger when none other than Conor McGregor enters the picture, in his first film appearance.
The famous MMA fighter plays here a psychopathic mercenary who turns out to be the only one who is able to fight back against the hero, and does so in a way that is unbridled, completely crazy and entertaining most of the time.
"The Bar Keeper" reminds in many respects of "The Beehive", the big action hit of the year, but unlike it, its plot does not go too far and in all directions.
She knows her place and keeps the limits of logic and good taste.
The film is not short - almost two hours - but enjoyable throughout.
And most importantly: in such a discouraging time, he offers us a space where the good win, and mow the bad's ass.
I wish it was like that in reality.
2. "Anatomy of a Fall": The film that won the Golden Palm and an Oscar is coming to Israel
Finally, almost a year after it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, "Anatomy of a Fall" is released in commercial distribution in cinemas in Israel.
In the months that have passed since then, he has also managed to win a number of other awards, including the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Justine Treya, who also directed, wrote it together with her partner in life Arthur Harari.
They deserved this statuette, and in fact they deserve every possible award.
This is an amazing masterpiece - one of the best films of recent years.
As the name implies, the film is about a failed writer who falls to his death.
His partner, a much more successful writer, is required to prove her innocence.
On the face of it, it's a court/true crime drama investigating the circumstances of the death.
In fact, it's a film about much more than that - about the fragility of the male ego, about power relations in a relationship and that there are always different points of view for every story.
Teria, who has already demonstrated in her previous films that she is one of the best directors in France, is good at jumping between perspectives and despite what the name implies, "Anatomy of a Fall" shows a supreme use of all means of expression - directing, editing, acting, music and so on.
If you have already watched it - want to see it again on the big screen.
From experience, the film only gets better on second viewing.
And if you haven't seen it yet - what are you waiting for?
A film full of transcendence.
From "Anatomy of a Fall"/Cannes Festival (courtesy of New Cinema)
3. "One soul": Anthony Hopkins moves as a follower of the nations of the world
Holocaust Day will only come in a month, but already now, if you go to the cinemas, you will find two fresh "Holocaust films" in them - the Oscar-winning "Zone of Interest" which came out a few weeks ago and caused a great resonance with us, and "Nefesh One"
which will be released at the end of the week.
The films complement each other - "The Area of Interest" deals with the Nazis, and "Nefesh One" deals with followers of the nations of the world.
It deals with the story of Nicholas Winton, a British banker, who went to Prague in 1938 and took it upon himself to save hundreds of children just before the start of World War II.
Most of the refugees he helped were Jewish, but the film is careful to obscure this and its international marketing campaign completely hid it, which illustrates that "Jew" has become a dirty word in world culture and media.
Still, "One Soul" is worth watching.
Winton was a humble and noble man who never pursued honor and recognition.
The film does a good job of jumping between the thirties and the dawn of his days, in which he finally received recognition for what he did, in an unusual and special way that he neither planned nor imagined.
Of course, we won't find out what it is about.
Let's just say that this drama builds its ending in an incredibly exciting way, which will not leave a dry eye in the hall.
Anthony Hopkins plays the hero and as usual does it masterfully.
The film was directed by James Hawes, who signed, among other things, episodes of TV series such as "Slow Horses" and "Black Mirror".
Unlike Jonathan Glaser, his compatriot who created the "Zone of Interest", he has no pretensions.
"Nefesh One" is a correct and unpolite film, which will not win awards and probably not the critics' praise either, but it manages to move and inspire.
It is debatable whether the world needs more films like "One Soul" but it certainly needs more people like Nicholas Winton.
4. "Madame Web": whoever said this was the worst movie of the year was completely crazy
The superheroine film "Madame Web" was released a month and a week ago, crashed at the box office and received particularly terrible reviews.
What didn't they say about him?
We were assured that this is not just another failure of Marvel, but a creation that will enter the pantheon of cinematic horrors, and for decades more Stalins will sit and laugh in front of it.
A week ago, with great speed especially in light of its failure at the box office, the film went up on VOD, and guess what?
Of course the rumors about its quality were about as reliable as any other information currently floating around the web.
People are actively looking for materials for like-generating posts and videos on Tik-Tok, and this is the result.
So I'm sorry.
"Madame Webb" is not the "Citizen Kane" of the failed comic book movies, and no psychedelic experience awaits you in front of him.
It's just another lovable movie and anyone who says otherwise is looking for even more of a tsumi than Kirill.
Madame Web is a character from the Spider-Man Expanded Universe, who himself does not appear here due to rights issues that we will not go into.
The film, as usual in the genre, is the first film project that focuses on her, and as usual in the genre describes her background story.
Played by Dakota Johnson, she turns out to be the daughter of a researcher who died in the Amazon, works as a paramedic in New York after 9/11, and suddenly gains superpowers.
Fate brings her together with three young women, one of whom is played by Sidney Sweeney, who has recently been seen everywhere - and they also have special powers.
In front of these four heroines stands an arch-villain played by Taher Rahim, who started his career in French indie films and has since made his way to Netflix series such as "The Snake" and now also to this film.
More in Walla!
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To the full article
One of the leading criticisms against "Madame Webb" was that its villain was pale and lukewarm.
Why, do you have a problem with a Muslim in a leading role in a Hollywood movie?
Rahim is excellent as usual, sleazy and dark and yet also complex and vulnerable, and in fact he is one of the more successful arch-villains we have seen in comic films in recent years, not that the competition is difficult.
Beyond that, "Madame Webb" is not "Oppenheimer" but it is reasonable, enjoyable here and there and certainly no worse than dozens of other films of its kind.
The effects don't reinvent the wheel, but to begin with the film's budget and pretensions are not in the sky.
The presence of Johnson and Sweeney is always welcome, and the film deals beautifully and interestingly with biological and alternative motherhood and female sisterhood.
Behind the camera was SJ Clarkson, a British TV director who is making her first feature film.
Sorry for the progressive trolling, but would the film have received such a wash if it had been called "Mr. Webb" and had been directed by a man?
I'm pretty sure not.
Kitchels and Shavit debate the "area of interest" and pick the best costume movies ever
Movies that you really don't want to see
"Pure": Yes, another movie with Sidney Sweeney
Sidney Sweeney everywhere.
She is in the "Madame Web" we have just mentioned;
In "Only You", the huge hit that is still showing in cinemas but is also available on VOD;
And now also in "Tahora", which was released at the end of the week.
The truth is, it may be that if it weren't for the presence of Sweeney, who stars in the film and also produced it, "Tahora" would not have been released here in the Jewish state.
After all, this is a very Catholic work, which also requires familiarity with Christianity.
For example, I saw it in a pre-premiere screening open to the public in a city with a high concentration of Catholic population (Boston).
The host of the event asked before raising the curtain, "Who here has been to a Catholic educational institution and remained traumatized?"
Half of the audience raised their hands and the moderator's response was, more or less, that only they would understand the film to the end.
For Catholics only.
From "Tahora"/Forum Film
Sweeney plays in "Tahora" a young American woman who goes through a severe trauma herself, then joins a convent in Italy.
She bothers to do a lot of things but doesn't learn Italian, so for Hollywood convenience, the movie is in English.
The new nun discovers that she is pregnant and then fell victim to a conspiracy, the details of which are far-fetched but also expected, and mostly unoriginal.
The film is too similar to the masterful "Rosemary's Baby" and pales in comparison to it in every respect - including when you compare Sweeney's performance against Mia Farrow's.
Pales before "Rosemary's Baby".
From "Tahora"/Forum Film
Horror movies obviously need a horror atmosphere.
Director Michael Mohan fails to produce one, and tries to cover it up with cheap scares and graphic horrors involving pregnancies and chickens.
Before the start of the screening I said to myself - great, a film about nuns, at least here they won't exploit Sweeney's well-known and well-known breasts, but of course "Tahura" very quickly finds a way to show her in a transparent shirt, and by the way, the Italian actress by her side as well.
Contrary to its name, "Pure" is a very dirty and inferior film, but this is not something that prevents Sweeney's films from breaking the box office - and it is also a box office success.
It should also be noted that the Christian men who sat next to me enjoyed themselves very much.
It's not clear if it's because of Sweeney's chest, because of their Catholic trauma treatment or both - but either way, cheers.
More on the same topic:
Dakota Johnson
Timothy Shalama
Jake Gyllenhaal
Amazon Prime Video
Anatomy of a fall
Anthony Hopkins