21 October 2022.
By Neptune
LYLE, LYLE, CROCODILE (Enzo le Croco) ***
There are films that simply make you happy, whatever their genre. This one, aimed mainly at adolescents and families, is one of those. Like the delightful “Paddington 2” or the sweet “Stuart Little”, its main character is an animated creature, whereas the rest of the film is live action, with always a youngster and his family to connect and protect the overwhelmed animal.
And it’s these animals, with their amazingly expressive eyes and moods, that go straight to one’s heart. Here we have Lyle, who is adopted as an adorable crocodile pup by Hector, an exuberant magician, played by the always brilliant Javier Bardem (Oscar, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Cannes and Venice best actor awards…), who proves here his comedic talents and that he can also sing and dance.
Lyle’s way of communicating is with his singing, voiced by the teen favourite Shawn Mendes. Lyle loves to sing, but only for himself and those close to him. When the ambitious Hector wants to create a duo act with him, he freezes in front of the public. So Hector goes away for a while to recoup his losses and leaves Lyle up in the attic. All this eventually creates havoc in the heart of New York City, in a cozy townhouse with various characters, both good and nasty. But the film is really about family, friendship, loyalty and adventurous fun.
Do yourself a favour and catch this joyous entertainment that is for kids from 5 to 95!
LE RETOUR DES HIRONDELLES (Return to Dust) ***1/2 (vo Mandarin Chinese)
This slow, delicate tale of two lonely souls who get married by arrangement in a barren Chinese countryside is heartbreakingly beautiful.
They are both downtrodden characters who have always been used and abused by those above them, and this mutual suffering seems to gradually bind them together in a gentle, giving love. They become each other’s strength, especially as the woman has various ailments and the man is periodically called upon to donate his blood for the municipal boss, whose greedy son acts like a modern feudal lord.
By small gestures and actions a deep affection and need grows between them, despite the various troubles that descend upon them in this rural outback. Chinese director Li Ruiju creates the feeling of love emerging in the most miserable of situations, making this simple film glow like a shiny, flickering candle in the dark.
(Showing only at the Grütli cinemas)
LE NOUVEAU JOUET **1/2 (vo French)
Like the “Lyle” film above, this one is also a feel-good comedy with the likeable French/Moroccan comedian Jamel Debbouze as the plaything. Based loosely on the classic 1976 film “Jouet” by Francis Veber, this one has Debbouze chosen as a live toy by a rich man’s spoiled son. In fact, the father is the richest man in France, played by Daniel Auteuil, who happens to own the department store where the son goes to pick out his birthday present.
Debbouze has just gotten a job there as a security man, badly needing money to cover his debts and support his pregnant wife. But the boy takes a shine to him and insists on having him around 24 hours a day as his new toy. And here’s where the differences in class and lifestyles come to the fore. As the saying goes, ‘everyone has his price’.
It might be clichéd and a bit too sentimental, but it’s a humorous, heart-warming adventure with a fine moral lesson for the young.
BROS **1/2
This is one bold, gay romcom! A nervy, militant podcast host (Billy Eichner), who never stops ranting about the homosexual cause, thinks he’s (sort of) happy with just meeting men on Tinder dates. Then he notices and keeps bumping into an attractive, far more relaxed fellow (Luke MacFarlane), and his guard starts to come down. It’s a clash of two opposite characters as a mutual attraction begins to develop between them.
An eye-opener, the film is honest, amusing and unabashedly sexual, telling a tale of love in the midst of an ever-evolving, multi-faceted segment of society. If only the language and the explicit sex scenes could have been toned down.
BLACK ADAM **
A new DC comics hero is born, Black Adam is his name, and it seems he’ll be around for a while. He’s now added to the already crowded stable of action heroes like Superman and the Hulk, who keep the Hollywood coffers full and the producers laughing all the way to the bank.
Through all the destruction, the continuous, tiresome battles and mixed-up messages about tyranny, foreign interventions and uprisings for freedom in an imaginary city called Kahndaq, the film’s saving grace is Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam, risen from the dead after 5000 years. Johnson has a hefty presence and here he resembles the long-deceased star Yul Brynner, while the silver-maned Pierce Brosnan pays a classy cameo visit, along with the lovely Persian/American Sarah Shahi as a concerned mother and revolutionary.
This will thrill the 15 to 25 year-old crowd who crave evermore inventive and magnified violence.
VEDETTE * (vo French)
This is probably one of the dullest documentaries you’ll ever have the bad luck to fall upon. Don’t believe the snazzy title – it’s not about an exciting show person, but just the name of one of the massive Swiss cows who are called Reines (Queens). She is being put out to pasture after competing for years in horned clashes in front of huge audiences.
P.S. All the critics left halfway through the press screening…
(At the Grütli cinemas)
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Superb **** Very Good *** Good ** Mediocre * Miserable – no stars
By Neptune
Neptune Ravar Ingwersen reviews film extensively for publications in Switzerland. She views 4 to 8 films a week and her aim is to sort the wheat from the chaff for readers.
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