7 January 2025.
This week has two Oscar-nominated releases which we have been waiting for – unfortunately I was underwhelmed by both. But you will probably want to see them, and as everyone views a film with their own feelings and baggage, we might differ in our opinions.
THE BRUTALIST **1/2
I am going against the grain on this one and against the snowball effect of almost all the critics rating it as a masterpiece. And especially against it having received 10 Oscar nominations this year.
This is a good but not great film about the hardships of acclimatising to immigration, especially after the tragedies experienced in WWII. It concerns a Hungarian Jewish architect (played by Adrien Brody) of the Brutalist school (another form of the architectural Bauhaus movement) arriving in Philadelphia, waiting for his wife who is still back in Europe. Lost in his loneliness, he has to take meagre crumbs from family until an interested millionaire (an excellent Guy Pearce) recognises and invests in his talent. A bit reminiscent of “The Fountainhead” from 1949.
With all its highs and lows, the story at times begins to feel like a TV soap opera, after having started off in an almost operatic manner. It also has too many melodramatic threads connecting the different characters, which dilutes its intended force. Here one could say ‘less is more’ to so much overload. And it has an exhausting 3 and 1/2 hour length with an intermission of 15 minutes – more operatic format. This is meant to be the odyssey of a man struggling to urge his revolutionary architectural visions upon this new land in which he is not completely integrated, yet the aforementioned intrigues negate its impact.
And finally, this is not a true story though it is filmed in such a manner that one would think the renowned Lazlo Toth really existed. He did not – he is merely a compiled creation of the director, Brady Corbet.
MARIA **1/2
Of course, most opera lovers will run to this film for it has two divas – the grand, tragic Maria Callas and Angelina Jolie portraying her. Personally, I don’t think Jolie ever becomes Callas, as their resemblances are too disparate, and she never envelops Callas’s soul as Timothée Chalamet managed with the latest Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown”.
I have always had a problem with the film’s Chilean director Pablo Larrain, for as an aficionado of biopics ( “Jackie”, “Neruda”, “Spencer”) he takes only a segment of his subjects’ lives and completely distorts their images, creating his own moments and emotions that may never have existed. That is a travesty of their real lives, especially as they are no longer around to defend themselves.
This film is sumptuous in its cinematography as it presents Callas’s lonely and drug-addicted last year in 1977 Paris. Some of her memories seem concocted while the Parisian moments are overly dramatic and staged. For me, the two domestic helpers in her household steal the show – Pierfrancesco Favino as her faithful butler and Alba Rohrwacher as her loyal housekeeper. Their simple humanity gives this mannered film its anchor.
SEPTEMBER 5 ***
Almost in documentary style, this austere yet potent film recounts the events around the 1972 hostage taking of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games from the point of view of the ABC TV crew covering the games.
Directed by Tim Fehlbaum, with excellent acting and constant tension, the film shows how this one team of American journalists in Munich tried to cover the shocking, unfolding story with both care and professionalism.
Steven Spielberg told the story of the revenge aftermath of the tragic event in the 2005 film “Munich” in his own meticulous, spectacular style.
PADDINGTON IN PERU **1/2
Paddington Bear is an absolute charmer. This cleverly animated, popular bear (even Queen Elizabeth did a sketch with him!) is on his third film. This latest one takes us back to his origins in Peru for some wild adventures with his family and Antonio Banderas, who runs a sightseeing boat there and has a somewhat dangerous dual character.
This is of course a film for the whole family. Though it’s at times a bit silly, Paddington himself is always a hoot. For me, Paddington 2 was the most delightful of them all, when our little hero ended up in prison with a grumpy cook played by the fabulous Brendan Gleason, and a nasty Hugh Grant. That was the tops, this one is good fun.
Happy surprise – Hugh Grant will be back for the fourth installment.
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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