3 March 2023.
By Neptune
CREED III **1/2
We are in the footsteps of “Rocky” in this umpteenth chapter of a string of boxing giants, created originally by Sylvester Stallone. There’s obviously a great deal of brutal, bruising boxing scenes for that’s the leitmotif of this whole franchise. But somehow this one seems more character-driven and somewhat more genteel, if that’s at all possible.
The film traverses time, from the youth of two close friends to their encounter years later when one had been a boxing world champion and is now a successful promoter, while the other has just been released from years in prison.
There is that vast social chasm between them and some heavy, unspoken reasons for a festering tension between the two old buddies. It’s the contrast of the rich and happy lifestyle of the successful one, and the rough, almost hoodlum life of the jailbird.
Directed by Michael B. Jordan, the film once again features Jordan as Creed, the decent promoter with a lovely wife and a sweet daughter who happens to be deaf but well-adjusted and much-loved. I was pleasantly surprised at the mellow look and tone of this latest instalment, which, by-the-way, has Stallone as a producer.
LA SYNDICALISTE (The Sitting Duck) ***1/2 (vo French)
Isabelle Huppert seems to be in every other French and international film these days, and she is looking impressively young and refreshed for her almost 70 years (on March 16th). Who, oh who, is her magician doctor? But beyond appearances, kudos for her talent and her long, illustrious career.
In this film, based on the true story of Maureen Kearney, an Irish woman married to a Frenchman, Huppert portrays that union leader who risked her life trying to get through the mire of big business and international politics while working with a French multinational nuclear conglomerate. Under duress and threats to her struggle to protect her union members and her investigation into the dubious connection between her company and the Chinese, she was viciously assaulted in her home in 2012. During the ongoing police interrogations, this fearless whistleblower gradually and incredibly became a suspect rather than the victim.
This excellent investigative work, directed by Jean-Paul Salomé and also starring Yvan Attal, Gregory Gadebois and Marina Fois, is both a thriller and a moral stance against the corrupt dealings in business and politics. It’s also a witness to the power of a determined woman. This is a film to be seen!
EMPIRE OF LIGHT **1/2
Despite having superb, multi award-winning director Sir Sam Mendes (“American Beauty”, “Skyfall”, “1917”), and Oscar and Bafta-crowned actress Olivia Colman (“The Favourite”, “The Father”), there is something missing from this film.
Set in the early 1980s in the sleepy English seacoast town of Margate, this film is about the employees and the running of a grand old cinema called The Empire. Despite trying to touch on important issues such as mental illness, sexual exploitation and racial violence, Mendes seems to have lost his exquisite, passionate touch in evoking those themes. Even the central interracial winter/summer romance doesn’t ring true, nor does Colin Firth’s slimy character.
The problem might be that Mendes has written his own script, which is the weak backbone of this well-intentioned but lacklustre film. Mixing moments somewhat reminiscent of “Cinema Paradiso” with scenes of brutal racial cruelty by the skinheads of those years, it never quite reaches its goal. Pity, for all the ingredients are there, like a well-planned party gone flat.
This is a film that I feel is lacking (because of my awe of Mendes’ huge talent) in the brilliance it could have had, though audiences may nevertheless be moved by it.
Such a waste when great talents go awry, as in these 2 next examples :
THE SON *
Remember Florian Zeller’s brilliant last film “The Father”, starring Anthony Hopkins, which deservedly ran off with so many awards? Well, this one is nothing like it. It has the same writer and director, and is once again a huis clos (Zeller comes from a theatrical background) about a dysfunctional family. But the premise of a very troubled teenager not being able to forgive his parents’ divorce comes off as exaggerated, as is the stilted overacting of Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern as the divorced parents.
And let’s not even touch on the tormented youngster (Zen McGrath) who should have our sympathy but is so overwritten that he becomes cringeworthy. This supposed tragedy tries for a lifeline by bringing in Hopkins in a cameo scene, but that also falls flat. And Jackman really plays the tear-jerking card, to no avail. It’s just predictable and embarrassing.
AFTERSUN –
For some reason, critics have decided this small, experimental first feature film is an exceptional work.
It’s the story of a father and his adolescent daughter on holiday in Turkey. The camerawork is hazy, shaky and erratic, the story is disjointed – we sometimes get glimpses of the daughter as a young woman remembering that summer. Nothing is explained, it feels like an amateur video memento of a low-cost vacation.
It is banal memory, as boring as the dull trip it is. The direction and editing feel non-existent, the acting is marginal, yet Paul Mescal as the father has garnered an Oscar nomination for his performance. Why?
Seriously, where is the excellence in this numbing work, by someone called Charlotte Wells?
Why this snowballing of critics’ accolades from Sundance to Cannes?
I desist, and say it’s unfair to those who have real talent and do not get the credit they deserve.
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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