6 February 2026
RENTAL FAMILY *** (English and Japanese)
Brendan Fraser, who won the Best Actor Oscar for his powerful performance in 2022 for “The Whale”, plays here an American actor who is trying to make a living in Japan, where he first came to make some commercials. He stayed on, learned the language, now lives a quiet life and picks up any odd jobs that come his way.
His life changes when he finds employment in an agency that offers emotional help to people who need a father, a traveling companion, or any moral boost that will enhance their lives. All he needs to do is to portray these figures for a certain time.
This delicate film from the Japanese director known as Hikari is being labelled as a love letter to Japan. And it certainly is, as Fraser is the only Western character in this story that takes us into the different facets of modern Japanese life and the many layers of their culture and comportment.
This gratifying tale of human connections may have you smiling with a lump in your throat.
LE GÂTEAU DU PRÉSIDENT **** (vo Arabic)
Lamia, a 9 year old girl in 1990s Iraq, lives a simple life with her grandmother on a river beyond the cities. In the classroom, her teacher picks her to bake a cake for Saddam Hussein’s birthday. This is both an honour and a huge weight on her shoulders as she doesn’t have the means to buy all the ingredients for the cake.
This beautifully filmed odyssey of her trip to the city to somehow find the ingredients brings in both adventures and the heavy climate and hype of the dictatorship.
Lamia loses her grandmother among the crowds, but finds her classmate Saeed to help her as she dodges all sorts of impediments in her desperate search.
This film by director Hasan Hadi rightly won the Caméra d’Or (award for a first feature film) in Cannes for its sweetly innocent and deeply felt look at the plight of a determined little girl.
Both delightfully entertaining and an eye-opening glimpse into a little-known world, this is the mark of exceptional cinema. Not to miss.
EDDINGTON *
We’re down in Eddington, New Mexico during the Covid pandemic and there’s a great deal of trouble and hostility in the air. There’s the mayor of the town, played by Pedro Pascal, and the local sheriff, played by Joaquin Phoenix. They hate each other for some past reasons and it all results in outrageous violence, which is the usual wont of the unhinged Ari Aster (of horror films and the atrocious “Beau is Afraid”), the director of this whole mess.
Even more added stars like Emma Stone and Austin Butler can’t save this savagery masquerading as a satire.
It’s supposed to be about the miserable state of the country and its fascination with power and corruption, but it’s done with such ferocious ugliness that you really should try to miss it. Unless that’s your thing.
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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