19 April 2024.
By Neptune
We have a highly varied selection of films this week – depicting unsettling violence, gentle wisdom and a surrealistic comedy – from different countries – U.S., India, Bhutan and France. Choose wisely…
CIVIL WAR **1/2
This is a brutal film in its frightening view of a possible future reality. But then it’s by Alex Garland, the English author, screenwriter, producer and director of such dystopian works and films as his breakout novel, The Beach, or the gripping 2014 AI film, “Ex Machina”.
Here he takes us into a disastrous future United States which is no longer united. California and Texas have come together in wanting to secede from the union and somehow a devastating civil war has started. Garland does not show nor explain how or why this furious free-for-all military conflict has started, nor does he take any political sides. He just puts to the viewer what a foursome of war photographers and journalists see as they drive through the country on their way to Washington D.C. and a final showdown against the president and the union.
The tension is not easy to take, the dialogue is banal compared to the action, and much of it is over the top. But that’s the idea….
As I said, it is brutal, bloody and not for the faint-hearted, though it is chillingly thought-provoking.
The final war scenes in the capital are amazingly executed. May this never come to be!
MONKEY MAN
Dev Patel has gone amok! The young English/Indian actor with such excellent, intelligent works in his filmography as “Slumdog Millionaire”, “The Man Who Knew Infinity” and “Lion”, has unfortunately decided to out-wick John Wick in his directorial debut. His film is bloodier and gorier than “Fight Club”, and more repulsive in its forms of violence than the Keanu Reeves’ “Wick” franchise.
And then one wonders why adolescents kill each other in schools around the world and why deadly knife attacks are happening randomly everywhere!
It’s unfortunate that there are morally blind film critics who are prepared to give the film 88% on Rotten Tomatoes.
In this film about the Monkey Man revenging the brutal killing of his mother by the chief of police, the premise seems noble for Patel shows the corruption of the powerful in politics and religion, and the gaping differences between the poor and the rich in India, the country of his forefathers.
But it has no tangible morality; it is just unadulterated, sickening violence and full of this rage for vengeance. One wishes for a resolution to all the outrageous mayhem, but it doesn’t come. I certainly expected a more worthy offering from the talented Patel. It is well done technically for its genre (and what a dangerous one that is), but I will not rate this film as it should not even be shown because of its gratuitous savagery.
THE MONK AND THE GUN *** (vo Bhutanese)
Now this film from the gentle country of Bhutan is exactly the opposite of the two previous works.
By Pawo Choyning Dorji of the delightful “Lunana, a Yak in the Classroom”, which went to the Oscars in 2022, this latest film is a sage, delicate satire of his country’s opening up to democracy in the year 2000. Many of the population of this peaceful country were against their king abdicating and knew nothing about the voting system.
So a female emissary of the government is sent out to the countryside to teach the locals about their rights and how to vote. Hearing of this, the venerable lama of the village sends his apprentice monk to get him two rifles for the coming full moon, when the election is supposed to take place. In the meantime an American gun collector arrives there, looking for an antique rifle for which he is willing to pay an enormous sum. There are the families of the village in turmoil, the mixup concerning the antique rifle and the tension around the lama’s intentions in this tongue-in-cheek tale of a happy, spiritual country entering the modern world. Wonderful!
(Showing only at the Grütli Cinemas)
DAAAALI! ***1/2 (vo French)
Did you say surrealism, surrealist? Oh how well they fit together – Dali and Dupieux! I’ve been a fan of Salvador Dali’s forever, and have been following each of Quentin Dupieux’s films since I saw his loony 2010 “Rubber” on the Piazza Grande in the glory days of Locarno. They both have had this eccentric way of seeing life, with tongue-in-cheek humour and a certain egomaniac philosophy.
Now Dupieux has come out with this delicious view of Dali, brilliantly portrayed, with his ultra-suave way of talking, by four different actors at intertwining moments – Edouard Baer, Gilles Lellouche, Jonathan Cohen and Pio Marmai. All four are chased by an amateur journalist, played by a wonderfully low-key Anais Demoustier, in her quest for an interview with the Master.
Surrealism is the key word here, as crazy things happen with no meaning nor connection, except for the fun of it. There may be a smile pasted on your face throughout this short, genius silliness.
Run to this playful film to wipe away the ugliness of the violence in these other works.
(Showing only at the Grütli Cinemas)
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.
For more stories like this on Switzerland follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
