22 December 2023. By Neptune NEXT GOAL WINS **1/2 The serious Irish/German actor Michael Fassbender (“Hunger”, “Inglorious Basterds”, “Twelve Years a Slave”, “Macbeth”, “The Killer”) in a wacky comedy doesn’t seem likely, but here it is. He plays a struggling football coach who just lost his last job and has to accept an embarrassing position […]
FILM: THE HOLDOVERS **** a fine Christmas gift
15 December 2023. By Neptune THE HOLDOVERS **** It never fails with an Alexander Payne film, for his works all have troubled human relations in common, with a deep understanding of the hidden pains in his characters, often with a gentle humour to them. These qualities were in his early, sparkling “Sideways”, about a bachelor […]
FILM: MAESTRO – grand biopic with a major subject – Leonard Bernstein
8 December 2023. By Neptune MAESTRO **1/2 This is an Oscar-bound, grand biopic with a major subject – Leonard Bernstein, famed New York composer and conductor. It has Bradley Cooper, the wonder boy actor/director of Hollywood, directing and acting the main character as he did in his hugely successful “A Star is Born”. It even […]
FILM: WISH **
1 December 2023. By Neptune L’ARCHE DE NOÉ *** (vo French) A fellow looking for a job stumbles into a chaotic home, actually a haven, for messed-up LGBTQI people who don’t know where they belong in the bigger scheme of things. Each character is so beautifully drawn, with all their foibles and charms, that one […]
FILM: PERFECT DAYS – the best film of the year
24 November 2023. By Neptune PERFECT DAYS ***** (vo Japanese) How does Wim Wenders do it? How does he go from his German films of the 80s (“Wings of Desire”) to exceptional documentaries covering countries from Cuba – “Buena Vista Social Club”; Brazil – “Salt of the Earth”, on the great photographer Salgado; to Italy […]
FILM: HOW TO HAVE SEX ***
17 November 2023. By Neptune HOW TO HAVE SEX *** This film by first-time director Molly Manning Walker should have been called ‘How NOT to Have Sex’. It’s about three English teenage girlfriends who go off to a Greek party resort to literally “get laid”. They’re terribly excited and the place is full of rowdy […]
FILM: A Century of Devotion
10 November 2023. By Neptune L’ABBÉ PIERRE – UNE VIE DE COMBATS (A Century of Devotion) ***1/2 (vo French) This man could be a modern-day St. Francis. Born to a wealthy bourgeois family in Lyon in 1912 as Henri Groués, he fought all his life for the poor and helpless people he saw around him. […]
FILM: MARIA DE BUENOS AIRES – go to the opera!
3 November 2023. By Neptune This week – an unfortunate film and a magnificent evening at the Opera… COMPLÈTEMENT CRAMÉ *1/2 (vo French) Three fine actors – Fanny Ardant, John Malkovich and Emilie Duquenne – are wasted here in a too clichéd, simplistic tale of an English gentleman who pretends to be a butler to […]
FILM: THE OLD OAK – a Ken Loach film
27 October 2023. By Neptune Two completely opposite films this week – the first about basic decency and humanity, the other about the cold life of a contract killer. Take your pick – they are both from top directors. THE OLD OAK *** One always recognises a Ken Loach film. There are the ordinary people, […]
FILM: ANSELM **** a masterwork on the subject of creativity
20 October 2023. By Neptune ANSELM **** Fantastic white dresses with paraphernalia coming out of the shoulders instead of heads. Bicycles with wings, totems in fields, hundreds of books with flapping pages, oversized paintings resembling crumbling worlds. And haunting, soaring music to accompany these visuals in a truly necessary 3D to enhance the deeper experience. […]
