Tag: review

September 19, 2023

Venice 2023 Recap: My Top 8 Favorite Films – Lanthimos & Linklater | FirstShowing.net

Post By zittrexstore Entertainment , , , , , , , , , No Comments

Venice 2023 Recap: My Top 8 Favorite Films – Lanthimos & Linklater

by Alex Billington
September 19, 2023

Each year, I am honored to have a chance to return to the beautiful city of Venice in Northern Italy to attend the Venice Film Festival and catch the latest films premiering there. This year’s festival is now finished, so it’s time to present my picks of my favorite films from Venice 2023. I’ve chosen 8 of the best of the fest films that deserve to be highlighted. This was my seventh year returning to Venice, I even stopped by back in 2020 during the pandemic as I didn’t want to miss it. In total, I watched around 32 films at Venice this year, and while it wasn’t the most spectacular line-up, I am always glad to have the chance to dive into this entrancing selection of new cinema every year anyway. The best of the festival this year, Poor Things, is also the same film that went on to win the Golden Lion top prize, awarded by a jury featuring the filmmakers Damien Chazelle, Jane Campion, Mia Hansen-Løve, Martin McDonagh, and Laura Poitras. I always do my best to watch as many films as I can, hoping to find the hidden gems and surprises amidst a diverse line-up.

As always, I keep my Letterboxd page updated with screenings and comments daily. And I have also been posting thoughts, photos, and more updates on my main Twitter account @firstshowing during the fest. And I’ve been writing reviews for a number of the films as well, already published over the last few weeks. Digging into the 2023 film selection, I prefer Priscilla over Maestro, despite both films being quite strong. Michael Mann’s Ferrari is good, at least I liked it quite a bit, though with time I have forgotten it. Nikolaj Arcel’s The Promised Land with Mads Mikkelsen is also really good, though quite depressing. I don’t think Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist is that good, it’s half of a film with a bad ending. I did not care for the Ross Brothers’ film Gasoline Rainbow at all, it’s junk. The Hungarian film Explanation for Everything is a surprising revelation, an underrated discovery, worth a watch even though it’s quite long. And Timm Kröger’s The Theory of Everything is a fascinating Austrian film, but too confusing to be great. I’m always up for chatting about any of the films from the festival, even the ones I didn’t like can be discussed further.

Below are my Top 8 films from the 2023 Venice Film Festival; these are the films that I enjoyed the most, or those that I couldn’t stop thinking about, and I hope everyone else gives them a look, too. My favorites:

Poor Things – Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

Venice - Poor Things

This certified Golden Lion winner is also my #1 film of the 2023 festival. And it’ll most likely find a spot somewhere on my Top 10 of the year as well. Yorgos! Yorgos! Yorgos! Everything about this film is fresh and fun and spunky and sultry. It’s witty and bold, a remarkably powerful modern feminist fable. It borrows from Frankenstein at the start, but it’s much more of an Alice in Wonderland-esque journey through the different realms of sex and satisfaction. I wrote in my glowing review that “it might be the raunchiest film of the entire decade…?!” With all the pointless debates on social media about sex scenes & nudity in cinema, Lanthimos has decided to dance in & decidedly say – screw that, sex is an important part of life and here is my glorious film taking us on a grand journey of sexual awakening & womanly emancipation. Emma Stone is outstanding, another unforgettable role in her remarkable oeuvre (she might end up winning a second Oscar for this performance). And the wickedly distinct score from Jerskin Fendrix adds another layer of mad genius to the cinematic experience. All-in-all a truly marvelous work of art from Greek maestro Yorgos.

Hit Man – Directed by Richard Linklater

Venice - Hit Man

Richard Linklater’s Hit Man is THE surprise hit of the festival this year. It was so exciting to experience this press screening, it’s rare to ever see a big crowd of tough European critics laugh this much and this loudly at an American comedy. But that enthusiastic vibe with the audience all in on this one is part of why it was such a delightful movie to discover late in the festival. Co-written by both Richard Linklater and Glen Powell, and directed by the masterful Richard Linklater, the story is actually based on a real guy named Gary Johnson. It’s yet another one of these bonkers how-is-this-true stories about an undercover cop. Aside from reminding the audience that “hitmen don’t really exist”, it flips a few of the tropes around, and borrows others but is playful with them in a way that enhances the entertainment. Best of all, Powell’s performance in this is one for the ages. It’s going to cement him as a massively talented movie star, capable of performing any role – serious, geeky, charming, sexy, weird, or wacky. He pulls off so many little roles in this, and he’s a perfect match with co-star Adria Arjona. Sexiest couple on screen this year? Yep, it’s true.

Daaaaaali! – Directed by Quentin Dupieux

Venice - Daaaaaali!

Dali! C’est un fou!! Absolutely loved Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaali!, such a delight. And it’s only 77 minutes long!! Mad crazy genius filmmaking from one-and-only Quentin Dupieux remixing the myths of Salvador Dalí, using different actors to play the quirky artist as he bumbles around for an interview. Or rather, as he tries to avoid an interview. It’s hilarious in about 100 different ways. Everyone at my Venice press screening laughed & laughed & laughed. I don’t even know what the point of the whole film is, but who cares, I just know I enjoyed it immensely. One of Dupieux’s best wacky films, with an unforgettable set of performances. Still chuckling thinking about him and all the crazy lines he has. You’ll never forget the way he pronounces his own name. You’ll never forget the mustache, or all the kooky things he does in this film. It’s not really a biopic, it’s more of an experimental let’s-fuck-around-like-Dali-did creation meant to make us laugh at how absurd and eccentric genius artists can be. I want to watch it again!! It plays so well with an engaged crowd.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial – Directed by William Friedkin

Venice - The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial

I can’t stop thinking about how incredible this screenplay is (let’s talk about it!!), and how amazing all of the performances are bringing it to life on screen. I already wrote about this in my full review. Yes, it’s a story told many times before in a few other films (based on based on Herman Wouk’s 1953 play of the same name, also based on the novel The Caine Mutiny by Wouk). And it doesn’t do anything new or different in terms of style or cinematography. But I will continue to talk about William Friedkin’s version of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial as one of the best plays as a film I’ve ever seen. It all takes place in one room, and it’s all about this one court martial, yet it’s as riveting and as smart (even moreso) as any Hollywood movie with massive sets and gigantic budgets spent on CGI or wardrobe. Kiefer Sutherland is exceptional as Queeg, Jason Clarke is also great again as another attorney (after Oppenheimer), Jake Lacy is unforgettable as Maryk. Whenever it gets released, I think it’s important to read between the lines with what’s really going on (and what Friedkin is actually commenting on) and analyze the final scene for more than only what is said.

Woman of… – Directed by Michal Englert & Malgorzata Szumowska

Venice - Woman of...

Another gorgeous film I can’t get off of my mind. I was profoundly moved by Michal Englert & Malgorzata Szumowska’s Woman of…, originally known as Kobieta z… in Polish. It is not easy to tell the entire life story of one person, nor is it easy to capture their heart and soul and feelings and sufferings and joys and experiences in a coherent and captivating story that anyone can connect with. Yet that is what this film has done, and even though it may not be as completely impactful in the end as it could be, it is still a superbly groundbreaking, elegant film about a trans woman in Poland. Starring a vibrant Malgorzata Hajewska as Aniela. Above all, the film deserves special praise for the astonishing cinematography, shot by co-director Michał Englert. Every single shot is lovely, but there are a few that took my breath away, framed perfectly with light shining through in just the right way. It’s awe-inspiring work that should be studied in great detail. It compliments the story by allowing a few stunning rays of light to shine in to Aniela’s life, to remind us how even in the toughest moments, expressing yourself honestly is always beautiful, always enlightening.

Priscilla – Directed by Sofia Coppola

Venice - Priscilla

This is one film where the more I think about it, the more it remains in my mind – even a week after first watching it. While they can’t rightfully be compared, along with Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, this film really stands out. Sofia Coppola’s film is an elegant, intimate retelling of the Elvis story – but it’s not really about Elvis of course. It really surprised me, better than I was expecting, though of course Coppola has this same light touch with her films when I think back about everything she’s made. Priscilla is actually quite light and sweet, all solely from Priscilla’s perspective, never drifting off to anything else with Elvis or anything that isn’t about her own experience with him while at Graceland. Cailee Spaeny as the young “Cilla” Beaulieu is tremendously good, deserving of the Best Actress Award from the festival. Jacob Elordi is also fantastic as Elvis Presley, in a role that is the complete opposite of Austin Butler in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis movie; never grandstanding or overwhelming, only playing the part as the sweet Elvis who seems to have a wild side that we (or rather Priscilla) never actually gets to see. It’s another highlight within Sofia Coppola’s filmography.

The Killer – Directed by David Fincher

Venice - The Killer

Even though pretty much everyone agrees that David Fincher’s assassin film The Killer doesn’t really try to do anything new or different, it’s still a damn good film. It’s hard to deny that. There’s just something about Fincher’s refined, meticulously precise filmmaking that fits nicely with a story about a refined, meticulously precise hitman. Plus it has Michael Fassbender being a slick, calculating badass who is always trying to stay ahead of everyone else. I just want to drift into the cinematography by DP Erik Messerschmidt and admire the perfectly shot, perfectly lit scenes. I’ll fully admit this is the main reason I am looking forward to rewatching The Killer, even if it’s at home on Netflix (so be it). There’s an impressive amount of gripping tension as “The Killer” makes his way around the world (and back) pulling off kills and staying ahead of everyone else every step of the way. Even if his killing isn’t your jam, watching him meticulously control & manage evidence and figure out how to outsmart all those that think they might outsmart him is engaging. I am choosing this one because it’s still better than a number of other bad films I saw at the festival this year.

Love Is a Gun – Directed by Hong-Chi Lee

Venice - Love Is a Gun

One of my favorite discoveries at the 2023 festival was this Taiwanese film, marking the feature directorial debut of a Taiwanese actor named Hong-Chi Lee. He has starred in many acclaimed Taiwanese films, but this is his first time behind the lens making one. There’s something about his style and his minimalistic filmmaking choices that really impressed me. Love Is a Gun tells the story of a young reformed gangster known as “Sweet Potato”, who returns to his small town after finally getting out of prison. As with every story about this kind of person returning, he’s quickly whisked back into the gangster lifestyle, even though he’s hoping to not fall back into his old ways. However, this film makes some subversive choices and allows him to pushback against this, going in some unexpected directions. It’s also just a beautiful film, with some seriously stunning cinematography. I hope Hong-Chi Lee keeps making more films, as I’m certain he’ll only get better and better with everyone he makes – and will probably end up winning the Palme d’Or or Golden Lion or some other major prize one day soon. Keep an eye out for this film – here’s the festival promo trailer.

Recapping the entire festival, it was another good year but I actually prefer the 2022 line-up more. There were a number of iconic all-timer films in 2022 (last year’s favorites here), with only one or two in 2023. Poor Things and Hit Man have earned their place in cinema history, but how many other films have? Venice programs such a wide variety of exciting cinema that of course they’ll inevitably have a few duds in the mix. Not everything that is super artsy turns out good, and some filmmakers are more interested in confounding experimentation than anything smart. I did enjoy watching most of the 2023 selection, though I found a few of the more prominent films to be mid – Ava DuVernay’s Origin, Matteo Garrone’s Io Capitano, Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro. They’re not the truly incredible films they could be, but they’re also not bad films either. I did hate Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast, which is some incomprehensible trash. And the Opening Night Italian submarine film Comandante was also terrible. I’m still sad that Luca Guadagnino had to pull Challengers, because that would’ve been the perfect film for the festival to kick off with. I’m always so lucky to cover this festival as press every year anyway. Thanks for reading my thoughts.

And that’s it for Venice 2023 (aka #Venezia80), wrapping up our updates from the fest for this year. As already mentioned before, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things won the Golden Lion – find the full list of 2023 awards winners here. My coverage wraps up with this list of favorites and final thoughts on the films this year. I’m very much looking forward to returning to Venice again in 2024, one of the best festivals in the world. I’m always ready to spend more time in this iconic Italian city and immerse myself in the latest films.

Share

Find more posts: Feat, Review, Venice 23



Source link

#Venice #Recap #Top #Favorite #Films #Lanthimos #Linklater #FirstShowingnet

September 16, 2023

A Haunting In Venice Review: Kenneth Branagh’s Classic Whodunit Breaks Genre Norms

Post By zittrexstore Entertainment , No Comments

Kenneth Branagh in a shot from the film. (Courtesy: YouTube)

A pensive but evocative take on a lesser-known, late-career Agatha Christie novel, A Haunting In Venice finds Kenneth Branagh, the director and the actor, in a far more subdued zone than the ones that he was in Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, his two previous Hercule Poirot adaptations.

In tone and tenor, Branagh’s third outing with the queen of crime is more ambience and atmosphere than flourish and vigour. Its visual style does not bank so much on scale and grandeur as it does on the specificities of location and mood. That works wonders and makes A Haunting In Venice the best that Branagh has done with Agatha Christie.

The 103-minute film is not only redolent of the period – a couple of years after end of World War II – but also of the mysteries of the nocturnal that seek attention when darkness descends on a dimly-lit Venetian manor that has seen better days.

Michael Greene’s minimalist screenplay relocates the action from an English village to the grand Italian city of canals and imposing edifices that dwarf the humans that dwell in them, alters many key details of Agatha Christie’s book (Hallowe’en Party) and endows several of the characters with attributes and back stories that they do not have in the crime novel about a murder victim whose spirit returns to haunt the living.

The changes in emphasis help Branagh to break generic confines and examine questions that go beyond a murder or two – the film has three – although A Haunting In Venice, notwithstanding it splashes of the spooky, remains a whodunit in the classic mould.

A Haunting In Venice, a couple of jump scares notwithstanding, may not chill you to the bones but as a story focused on the emotional and psychological fallout of a devastating war, it works brilliantly. It peeps into scarred souls trapped in a Venetian palazzo where mediums and magic, gods and ghosts, dread and deliverance jostle for space with the scorn that Hercule Poirot directs at the gullible.

Cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos uses skewed angles and apertures to lend the visuals an aptly haunting quality that enhances the funereal air hanging over Venice and the cold, forbidding vibes prevailing inside the building in which large parts of the film unfold.

There is neither death nor murder in the title, but the stench of war, pestilence and toxicity are all-pervasive in a film in which Hercule Poirot (Branagh) finds himself trying to solve a case that, in the eyes of the credulous, may be in the domain of the occult.

But before the detective can get to the bottom of the truth, using hunches and inferences rather than a gathering of irrefutable evidence, he must rid himself of all the irrational thoughts that cross his mind. Poirot, usually cock-sure and garrulous, is for once is assailed by doubts as inexplicable goings-on and voices threaten to shake his commitment to temporal logic.

Poirot (Branagh) has retired from detective work. He has hired an ex-policeman (Riccardo Scamarcio) as a bodyguard to keep potential clients away. The only outsider who has access to the now-reclusive sleuth is the baker. No more cases, Poirot is into cakes.

His splendid self-imposed isolation is broken by an apple carried to his door by an old friend and mystery writer Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), who lures him against his own good counsel to a gloomy, crumbling, baroque palazzo where a seance is scheduled to be conducted by a famed psychic Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh) on All Hallows’ Eve.

The manor – every building in Venice, somebody says, is haunted – is believed to be cursed because it was once an orphanage where the doctors and nurses left a large number of children to perish during the Black Death. Poirot, of course, has no belief in such mumbo-jumbo although he agrees that scars are not always of the body.

A Haunting In Venice proceeds to presents fragmentary proof of the tricks that the mind can play on places and people that have suffered, sometimes for no fault of their own. Poirot’s job, as always, is to identify the person, or persons, who are responsible for their own misery – and three “impossible” murders.

The palazzo is owned by Rowena Drake (Kelly Reilly), who no longer has the financial means to fix the leaks that decrepit building has sprung nor is she able to sell it off given its reputation. Joyce Reynolds, in the course of the Halloween night seance, establishes contact with Alicia Drake (Rowan Robinson), Rowena’s daughter who recently fell off her balcony and drowned in the canal.

Besides Poirot, Ariadne, Rowena and the medium Joyce Reynolds, the seance is attended by seven others – the religious housekeeper Olga Seminoff (Camille Cottin), Doctor Leslie Ferrier (Jamie Dornan) and his precocious son Leopold (Jude Hill, the lead of Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Belfast), natty chef and Alicia’s one-time fiance; Maxime Gerard (Kyle Allen), Poirot’s burly bodyguard Vitale and the Holland siblings, Nicholas (Ali Khan) and Desdemona (Emma Laird).

Each one of them is a suspect. And all of them have demons of their own minds to reckon with even as vendetta-seeking spirits of dead children are on the prowl. Poirot’s fierce disregard of superstition is put to the test as leads tumble out of the palazzo’s nooks and crannies.

Once the film takes us into the palazzo, we stay bound to the interiors that hold many a terror. Sporadic aerial shots of Venice establish the beauty and the inscrutability of a city that itself hides many a mystery in the depths of its canals and beyond the thick walls of its buildings.

Leopold, the little boy who reads Edgar Allan Poe at an age when he should be immersed in the world of fairy tales, knows much more than he is willing to let on. His brooding father, ex-army doctor, struggles to live down an unhappy past.

The only happy memories that Nicholas and his sister Desdemona, who lost their family in the war, have are of half of the Hollywood musical Meet Me in St. Louis. The siblings hope to leave for Missouri. The girl even has a Kensington address in mind. “I don’t know how it (the film) ends,” Desdemona says. “It ends happily,” Ariadne informs her.

Happiness is only an aspiration in the post-war world that we encounter in A Haunting In Venice. Branagh locates the sombre and the sobering in a well-delineated time and place, elevating the film above the tropes that are an inevitable part of what is essentially a genre exercise.

Cast:

Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey

Director:

Kenneth Branagh

Source link

#Haunting #Venice #Review #Kenneth #Branaghs #Classic #Whodunit #Breaks #Genre #Norms

September 14, 2023

Bambai Meri Jaan Review: The Actors Save The Day In Sporadically Gripping Underworld History

Post By zittrexstore Entertainment , , No Comments

Avinash Tiwary (L), Kay Kay Menon (R) in a shot from the series. (Courtesy: AvinashTiwary)

Another iteration of the oft-told story of the rise of Bombay mafia don Dawood Ibrahim in the 1970s and his flight from the city a decade before it became Mumbai, Amazon Prime Video’s Bambai Meri Jaan is the first web show that fictionalises the gangster’s early life.

The action-packed period crime drama – it plays out from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s with a few stray sequences set in the 1940s – is buoyed by an exceptional cast of actors who bring authenticity, if not high-voltage star power, to the ten-episode retelling of a saga that does a reasonable job of presenting an account of a megalopolis’ turbulent past.

Bambai Meri Jaan portrays on one man’s obsession with power and money. It also delves into the nitty-gritties of the policing of a city in the grip of unstoppable criminal gangs at war with each other. The series, marred by a gratuitous surfeit of foul language, rides on the spectacle of cops and criminals in a tight embrace as Bombay grapples with the depredations of a rampaging underworld.

Kay Kay Menon and Avinash Tiwary as a pair of father and son who do not see eye to eye lead the charge but there is much more to the series on the acting front than the two actors who turbocharge the show. Several of the supporting cast members – notably Jitin Gulati, Saurabh Sachdeva, Nivedita Bhattacharya, Nawab Shah, Vivan Bhathena and Kritika Kamra – throw everything they’ve got into a show that requires all the heft that they can bring to the table.

Produced by Excel Media & Entertainment and created by Rensil D’Silva and the show’s director Shujaat Saudagar, Bambai Meri Jaan rustles up a cocktail of organized crime, violence and vengeance and delivers it in a manner that focuses as much on the bloody gang wars on the streets and dockyards of Bambai as it does on the emotional dynamics that are at work in the life of a boy determined to change his and his family’s fortunes.

Bambai Meri Jaan, lit and lensed by cinematographer John Schmidt, captures the grit and grime of gang wars that leave behind a long trail of bodies and push a city to the edge. It pits a morally upright, God-fearing patriarch against a recalcitrant son who figures out that honesty does not pay in a world where fear is the key. The latter bamboozles his way into a life of crime.

Dara Ismail (Avinash Tiwary) seeks to dislodge the reigning underworld triumvirate of Haji Maqbool (Saurabh Sachdeva), Azeem Pathan (Nawab Shah) and Anna Rajan Mudaliar (Dinesh Prabhakar), who have carved up the city into three zones to share the spoils of their smuggling and extortion rackets run in collusion with corrupt segments of the police force.

A special task force christened the “Pathan Squad” is set up under Ismail Kadri (Kay Kay Menon), a cop of unwavering integrity, and charged with the task of reining in the mafia dons. The squad does everything in its power to justify its existence but neither its best nor the power at its disposal is good enough to accomplish the mission of wiping out the underworld.

The story of Dara Kadri is narrated entirely from the standpoint of his father, Ismail Kadri (Kay Kay Menon), who detests his rebellious son’s criminal activities and attempts to distance himself from him and the quagmire that he drags the family, which includes his mother Sakina (Nivedita Bhattacharya), elder brother Saadiq (Jitin Gulati) and younger siblings Ajju ((Lakshya Kochhar) and Habiba (Kritika Kamra), into.

Dara’s father is a tragic figure, a sort of last man standing in a crumbling world. He is honest to a fault but pays the price for a single indiscretion. Ismail Kadri’s fall from grace is swift. H is condemned to a life of great financial hardship, which forces him to accept the wily Haji’s inducements and compels Dara to renege against his father and take on the rest of the Bombay underworld.

Bambai Meri Jaan is a crime drama that hinges on the ups and downs of filial relationships, which sets it apart a bit from other similar generic offerings that usually come out of the Mumbai industry. The equations between Ismail and Dara is the show’s focal point but also important to the plot is the sibling ‘rivalry’ that arises between Dara and Saadiq (who feels he has always received the rough end of the stick) and the bond between Dara and his feisty kid sister Habiba.

Bambai Meri Jaan is also a love story involving a gangster and the city that is described his beloved. Dara is obviously no poet and he has no words of his own to express his passion for Bombay, for its underworld at any rate. The protagonist also has a more mundane love interest in Pari (Amyra Dastur), daughter of an Irani café owner he has frequently rubbed up the wrong way. Words fail him here too and he is barely able to profess his love for the girl he has been smitten with since he was a schoolboy. Neither Bombay nor Pari seems destined to be his in the long run but Dara isn’t one to give up without a fight.

Bambai Meri Jaan begins in 1986. Dara Kadri, cornered by the law, is all set to fly out of Bombay. It is evident that this prelude is where the show is going to end. The story jumps a couple of decades into the past – to 1964, to be precise – and homes in on the Kadri couple surviving on a policeman’s meagre salary and preparing for the birth of their fourth child. The financial strain worsens as the years go by and Ismail’s second son Dara begins to go astray with intent.

This is an avowedly fictional account inspired by true events. Most of the key characters, including Assistant Commissioner of Police Ranbir Malik (Shiv Pandit), who props up Dara Kadri with the aim of countering the clout of Haji and Pathan, have been drawn from real life.

The tale is hackneyed on two critical levels. One, the Dawood story has been documented on the big screen several times in the new millennium as well as given the documentary treatment as recently as early this year (in Netflix’s Mumbai Mafia: Police vs the Underworld), so <i>Bambai Meri Jaan</i>, despite all the action and dramatic twists that it musters up, struggles to deliver anything that could be deemed novel.

Even the language that Bambai Meri Jaan employs – the screenplay is credited to Rensil D’Silva and Sammeer Arora and the dialogues have been written Abbas Dalal and Hussain Dalal – adds no real value to the exercise. It is coarse, which may be understandable to a certain extent given the setting, and the profanities are way too over the top.

Bambai Meri Jaan is sweeping and sporadically gripping underworld history couched in a highly dramatic shell that stands on generalisations about criminality, policing and a sprawling city of dreams and nightmares. It is the actors who save the day for Bambai Meri Jaan.

Cast:

Kay Kay Menon, Avinash Tiwary, Amyra Dastur, Kritika Kamra, Nivedita Bhattacharya

Director:

Shujaat Saudagar



Source link

#Bambai #Meri #Jaan #Review #Actors #Save #Day #Sporadically #Gripping #Underworld #History

September 9, 2023

Venice 2023: Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’ Film Barely Scratches the Surface | FirstShowing.net

Post By zittrexstore Entertainment , , , , , , , , , No Comments

Venice 2023: Ava DuVernay’s ‘Origin’ Film Barely Scratches the Surface

by Alex Billington
September 9, 2023

“Caste is insidious and therefore powerful because it is not hatred, it is not necessarily personal. It is the worn grooves of comforting routines and unthinking expectations, patterns of a social order that have been in place for so long that it looks like the natural order of things.” I had such high hopes for this film. Going in to the very first press screening of Ava DuVernay’s film Origin at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, I wanted it to be a masterpiece, I wanted it to have the potential to change the world. I had a good feeling it might have that kind of real power. Alas, it is a let down… It’s not that isn’t a beautiful, soulful film made by a superbly talented filmmaker. It’s that there isn’t much being said. It’s just… so painfully surface-level and basic. It’s frustrating in how the blatantly obvious ideas are just repeated over and over. I honestly hate to say it, because it’s such a wonderfully made film, and it’s trying to be important, but after a while it gets so tedious and repetitive all of its real power fades away. I do still hope it has a great impact on some viewers.

Origin is filmmaker / writer / producer Ava DuVernay’s fifth narrative feature, following I Will Follow, Middle of Nowhere, Selma, and A Wrinkle in Time; along with the doc 13th. She has been making TV series over the past few years, telling important stories with “When They See Us”, “Queen Sugar”, and “Colin in Black & White”. Origin is an adaptation of the bestselling, highly acclaimed book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Isabel Wilkerson. It’s not really a direct adaptation, per se – DuVernay reworks the film into a story about Isabel writing the book. Aunjanue Ellis stars as Isabel; we follow her on a journey at a pivotal moment in her life as she travels to Germany and India to do research. Coming off of her previous (and very first book) which won her a Pulitzer Prize, she isn’t quite sure what to do next, and various publishers want her to write articles for them, but after a few major incidents in life she decides to go on this voyage for this book. However, the film also is an adaptation in that it takes the ideas from the book and brings them to the screen, visualizing the stories & connections between three castes around the world: America’s racism, Nazis hate of / murder of Jewish people, India’s ongoing social caste.

Unfortunately that is all there is to this film. With a running time of over two hours, the film stretches this concept way, way too thin – repeating the “everyone-already-know-this” stories of Germany and India and America without any meaningful analytical attempt at understanding them. It’s a story about Isabel figuring out how to reject racism as the catch-all issue to discover the bigger picture of hate worldwide (meaning it goes beyond just racism) instead focusing on “caste” as the key to understanding oppression. Yes, America and Germany and India are great examples of subjugation, and they are connected as references for caste and how humanity forcefully divides itself so that one can rule over the other. However, the film never digs any deeper than this. Once setting up these connections, DuVernay could’ve used this to make an incredible leap into showing many of the problems around the world and how all of it is connected. There’s no mention of Indigenous people, or Native Americans, or anyone other oppressed groups. There’s barely one mention of Palestine in a quick sentence. There are so many other oppressed people that really could’ve had a chance to be linked to this “bigger picture” but they’re entirely ignored. One could say, this is not the film for all of this, but I disagree – it is exactly the time and place and moment to go this far and make this connection.

Ultimately, DuVernay’s film is an elementary school lesson in history and humanity. When it should’ve been a university course, instead it is teaching us what we all know: Nazi Germany was bad, they burned books, they didn’t like others, they killed many Jews and used America’s racist laws as a legislation framework for doing this; India has a horrible caste system, it is still prevalent today after thousands of years, they can’t get rid of it no matter how hard they try; America is racist, Black people have always been treated poorly, White Americans have never been doing enough to prevent racism and address its awful past. Yes, and…?? There’s even a conversation in the film where Isabel’s mom her stops her in a conversation and says “please, say that again in English” even though what she had just explain was already entirely understandable and basic to begin with. That is essentially how the whole film feels… I appreciate the documentary style to it, where many prominent and important people are interviewed and provide their knowledge. I just wanted to see this get into so much more, and open the doors to showing how horribly divided most of the world is. It also fails in its conclusion by never offering a single hint of a answer to the most important questions of all: how do we stop this, what more can we do, what is necessary, how do we dismantle caste and end racism??

Despite my complaints, I still think Origin is a beautiful film. It is profoundly moving. Bolstered by stirring performances, authentic emotions, the wondrous humanity she captures – it’s all so lovely. Jon Bernthal stars as Isabel’s husband, but he’s barely in the film, and we never get to spend enough time with him to feel their connection despite his love being such a powerful force for her. Aunjanue Ellis is terrific in the lead role as Isabel, but the film skips around too much to allow her to dazzle us with her might. There’s a handful of good performances from other cast members who show up in a quick scene or two then disappear. The cinematography by DP Matthew J. Lloyd is not excessively showy or spectacular, it’s more grounded and inviting, bringing us closer to these stories and these people. The score by Kris Bowers is the highlight of the film, so emotional and dreamy and moving in its own ways. But it also feels like something that is added to fill in the gaps in the few times where the rest of the film lacks depth . Overall, Origin really could’ve been something much more remarkable – stopping short of achieve that cinematic greatness that it was aiming for. I haven’t read the book, but it seems like it’s worth picking up to actually dig deeper into all these ideas.

Alex’s Venice 2023 Rating: 6 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

Share

Find more posts: Review, Venice 23



Source link

#Venice #Ava #DuVernays #Origin #Film #Barely #Scratches #Surface #FirstShowingnet

September 9, 2023

Football (Sky Sports)

Post By zittrexstore Sports , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments



Moreirense


0


0


18:00



Braga




Alfreton Town


0


0


15:00



Boston United




Banbury


0


0


15:00



Warrington Town




Bishops Stortford


0


0


15:00



Darlington




Chester FC


0


0


15:00



Blyth Spartans




Curzon Ashton


0


0


15:00



Chorley




Gloucester


0


0


15:00



Farsley




Kings Lynn Town


0


0


15:00



Southport




Scarborough Athletic


0


0


15:00



Brackley Town




Scunthorpe United


0


0


15:00



Buxton




South Shields


0


0


15:00



Rushall Olympic




Spennymoor Town


0


0


15:00



Hereford FC




Tamworth


0


0


15:00



Peterborough Sports




AFC Totton


0


0


15:00



Hendon




Beaconsfield


0


0


15:00



Basingstoke Town




Bracknell Town


0


0


15:00



Tiverton Town




Didcot Town


0


0


15:00



Winchester City




Dorchester


0


0


15:00



Swindon Supermarine




Gosport Borough


0


0


15:00



Hungerford Town




Harrow Borough


0


0


15:00



Sholing




Hayes & Yeading


0


0


15:00



Poole Town




Merthyr Town


0


0


15:00



Chesham




Plymouth Parkway


0


0


15:00



Hanwell Town




Salisbury FC


0


0


15:00



Walton & Hersham




Billericay Town


P


P


15:00



Dulwich Hamlet




Canvey Island


0


0


15:00



Whitehawk




Carshalton Athletic


0


0


15:00



Concord Rangers




Chatham Town


0


0


15:00



Cray Wanderers




Enfield Town


0


0


15:00



Bognor Regis Town




Hashtag United


0


0


15:00



Kingstonian




Hastings United


0


0


15:00



Haringey Borough




Horsham


0


0


15:00



Cheshunt




Lewes


0


0


15:00



Folkestone Invicta




Margate


0


0


15:00



Potters Bar Town




Wingate & Finchley


0


0


15:00



Hornchurch




Atherton Collieries


0


0


15:00



Radcliffe




Bamber Bridge


0


0


15:00



Guiseley




FC United of Manchester


0


0


15:00



Bradford P A




Hyde


0


0


15:00



Lancaster City




Matlock Town


0


0


15:00



Marske Utd




Morpeth Town


0


0


15:00



Gainsborough Trinity




Stafford Rangers


0


0


15:00



Marine




Workington


0


0


15:00



Basford United




Braintree Town


0


0


15:00



Farnborough




Chippenham Town


0


0


15:00



Maidstone Utd




Havant and Waterlooville


0


0


15:00



Truro City




St Albans


0


0


15:00



Dartford




Tonbridge Angels


0


0


15:00



Taunton




Torquay United


0


0


15:00



Chelmsford




Welling United


0


0


15:00



Bath City




Weston-s-Mare


0


0


15:00



Hampton & Richmond




Worthing


0


0


15:00



Hemel Hempstead




Yeovil Town


0


0


15:00



Eastbourne Borough




Cobh Ramblers


0


0


19:45



Athlone




Source link

#Football #Sky #Sports

September 2, 2023

Venice 2023: Korine’s ‘Aggro Dr1ft’ is One of the Stupidest Films Ever | FirstShowing.net

Post By zittrexstore Entertainment , No Comments

Venice 2023: Korine’s ‘Aggro Dr1ft’ is One of the Stupidest Films Ever

by Alex Billington
September 2, 2023

This is going to attract more attention, unfortunately. I’m well aware that this headline on a review is going to bring in all kinds of people who’ll say this just makes them want to watch the film even more. Nothing I can say will dissuade these people, they’re curious no matter what. That’s how I went in to watch the film – I have to go see it just to see it, even if I’m fully expecting it to be shit. And it is shit. A worthless, shameful, trash film that doesn’t belong at any film festival. But a few of this year’s festivals programmed it anyway, because they couldn’t help thinking some “edgy” EDGLRD shit like this is necessary to show at a festival to be “ahead” of the next trends in cinema. Aggro Dr1ft isn’t going to have any impact on cinema, nor will it become a trend, nor will it even be remembered in a few more years anyway… Now I fully understand why rapper Travis Scott didn’t want to sign off on letting Harmony Korine release this film – he’s ashamed to be a part of it. And I can sympathize with him. It’d be better for everyone if they did just bury this film now.

The latest from director Harmony Korine, Aggro Dr1ft is an 80-minue feature shot entirely in infrared. This means it has a highly colorized, pointlessly obfuscated look to it (see the image above). Why shoot it like this? Why the hell not, I guess, was his thinking. There’s really no point to making a film this way. Did he just get super high and come up with this? I had to watch Aggro Dr1ft because maybe, just maybe, there is some thematic point to using this visual style. There isn’t. It’s miserable and has no function or purpose other than to piss off most people. Half of the auditorium walked out at my screening in Venice. When I was growing up and we got our first camcorder in the 90s, my brother and I would mess around with it and press all of the buttons on the side, turning on filters like “invert“. We’d try to film a few things this way, quickly realizing that it looks so dumb and no one would want to watch more than 30 seconds of any footage shot like this. Decades later, Korine has apparently come up with the “genius” idea to make a whole film like that.

I talked to a woman sitting near me who caught me at the next screening. “That was trash,” I emphatically blurted out. “Beyond trash,” she responded. Yep. I don’t quite understand how Korine could stoop this low and make something this repulsive. He’s made good films! I love both Spring Breakers and The Beach Bum, two films also about very stupid people but they still have some clever philosophical ideas worked into the commentary. The answer, it seems, is not that hard to find. Korine admitted in new interviews at this year’s Locarno Film Festival that he just doesn’t care for most movies anymore. “Watching a lot of this shit, you really feel the algorithms… [Whereas], I’ll see a clip on TikTok that is so inexplicable, so outside the realm of what I even imagine someone creating. Like, I can have an experience with a 30-second clip that goes so far beyond” what movies do for him (via Variety). This is a sign he has lost his damn mind and does not even care to do anything cinematic anymore. This lazy, disgustingly bad movie is the result of his disinterest in cinema – that should be enough to convince most not to waste their time trying to sit through Aggro Dr1ft.

The only defense I’ve heard from some other critics is that it’s all purposefully stupid to act as commentary on and break down the “assassin” genre and hitman tropes. Most of the movie involves two assassins, played by Jordi Mollà and Travis Scott, going around and repeating lines like “I am the greatest assassin in the world” over and over. Better dialogue has been scribbled in crayon by Kindergarteners just learning how to put together words for their first time. This supposed “breakdown” of violent hitmen is really just a vacuous amalgamation of scenes where they talk about violence and being badass and loving their family and making money and having a good time. They drive speedboats around and watch women twerk in hot tubs and show off their guns and swords and body armor or whatever the hell weapons they have. But you can’t actually see any of this, because, again, infrared bullshit. However, unlike with Alien in Spring Breakers, there are no actual characters in this script. It’s empty. And even if it is mocking and making fun of their stupid “I’m cool because violence is my job” ways, that does not make a single second of it entertaining or engaging to watch.

And that’s the greatest problem with this ragingly worthless film… It bothers me to be this negative, but I have to get all this off my chest. Even if you could look past the infrared cinematography (which is insanely hard to considering it’s oppressively vibrant and you can’t actually see anyone’s faces or any details in any shot at any time) there’s not a single shred or ounce or thread of anything worthwhile in the rest of the film. The characters are all immature, idiotic losers. The action isn’t even good. None of them are even talented assassins. The few lines that Travis Scott has are so “are you fucking kidding me?!” bad I’m surprised he hasn’t sued Korine to have himself digitally scrubbed from this film so he can forever not be associated with or connected to it anymore. None of the dancing or twerking or boat scenes are as “fun” to watch as their properly-filmed counterparts in Spring Breakers. Korine should’ve scrapped it and dumped the harddrives into the hot tub. Film festivals should be ashamed they screened it. Yes, it really is “beyond trash” awful.

There will certainly be some folks who will defiantly proclaim that Aggro Dr1ft is some brilliant masterpiece of innovative cinema, or whatever big words they can come up with. They’re being duped. These viewers are so high on the “novelty” of it that they can’t bring themselves to admit it’s as empty as a trash liner freshly unfurled in a trash bin on the side of a street. But let’s be clear – there is no novelty here. This “let’s put an infrared filter on some dumb people doing stupid things” gimmick is something that folks has been playing around with since cheap camcorders hit the market decades ago. Don’t be fooled by the faux “innovation” of Aggro Dr1ft’s existence today. Just because it’s not the same as some cheesy algorithm-created Netflix show doesn’t mean it’s any good. Korine is so cleared bored with cinema, and so obsessed with digital filters and the dim-witted content that fills social media severs, he can’t even see clearly anymore. There is no screen that Aggro Dr1ft belongs on… and no one should be forced to ever suffer through 80 minutes of this drivel.

Alex’s Venice 2023 Rating: 0 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

Share

Find more posts: Review, Venice 23



Source link

#Venice #Korines #Aggro #Dr1ft #Stupidest #Films #FirstShowingnet

August 28, 2023

Tennis Scores & Schedule

Post By zittrexstore Sports , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , No Comments


Tennis Scores & Schedule

























Skip to content

US Open

ATP World Tour / Men’s Singles / Round of 128

  • Ilya Ivashka of Belarus is currently playing Juan Manuel Cerundolo of Argentina. The current score is 6-2, current set: 6-6, at tiebreak. . Current server is Juan Manuel Cerundolo

  • J.J. Wolf of United States of America is currently playing Zhizhen Zhang of China PR. The current score is 5-7, current set: 4-3. . Current server is Zhizhen Zhang

  • Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, seeded 25 is currently playing Dominic Thiem of Austria. The current score is 3-6, 2-6, current set: 0-1. Current game: 30-G. Current server is Alexander Bublik

  • Richard Gasquet of France is currently playing Fabian Marozsan of Hungary. The current score is 3-6, 1-6, current set: 3-3. . Current server is Fabian Marozsan

  • Sebastian Ofner of Austria is currently playing Nuno Borges of Portugal. The current score is 7-6, 3-6, current set: 0-0. . Current server is Nuno Borges

  • Adrian Mannarino of France, seeded 22 is currently playing Yosuke Watanuki of Japan. The current score is 7-5, current set: 4-3. . Current server is Yosuke Watanuki

  • Pedro Cachin of Argentina is currently playing Ben Shelton of United States of America. The current score is 6-1, 3-6, 2-6, current set: 0-0. . Current server is Ben Shelton

  • Marcos Giron of United States of America is scheduled to play Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain, seeded 21, at 17:30. First server will be TBD

  • Jakub Mensik of Czechia, seeded Q is scheduled to play Gregoire Barrere of France, at 17:30. First server will be TBD

  • Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain is scheduled to play Holger Rune of Denmark, seeded 4, at 17:30. First server will be TBD

  • Casper Ruud of Norway, seeded 5 is scheduled to play Emilio Nava of United States of America, seeded Q, at 17:30. First server will be TBD

  • Rinky Hijikata of Australia, seeded WC is scheduled to play Pavel Kotov of Russian Federation, at 17:30. First server will be TBD

  • Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, seeded 18 is scheduled to play Titouan Droguet of France, seeded Q, at 18:00. First server will be TBD

  • Learner Tien of United States of America, seeded WC is scheduled to play Frances Tiafoe of United States of America, seeded 10, at 18:30. First server will be TBD

  • Laslo Djere of Serbia, seeded 32 is scheduled to play Brandon Nakashima of United States of America, at 19:00. First server will be TBD

  • Steve Johnson of United States of America, seeded WC is scheduled to play Taylor Fritz of United States of America, seeded 9, at 19:00. First server will be TBD

  • Zachary Svajda of United States of America, seeded Q is scheduled to play Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina, seeded 20, at 19:00. First server will be TBD

  • Jiri Vesely of Czechia is scheduled to play Enzo Couacaud of France, seeded Q, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Marton Fucsovics of Hungary is scheduled to play Sebastian Korda of United States of America, seeded 31, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Tommy Paul of United States of America, seeded 14 is scheduled to play Stefano Travaglia of Italy, seeded Q, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia is scheduled to play Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Roman Safiullin of Russian Federation is scheduled to play Marco Cecchinato of Italy, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Aslan Karatsev of Russian Federation is scheduled to play Jiri Lehecka of Czechia, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Bernabe Zapata Miralles of Spain is scheduled to play Ethan Quinn of United States of America, seeded WC, at 21:00. First server will be TBD

  • Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, seeded 15 is scheduled to play Mackenzie McDonald of United States of America, at 21:00. First server will be TBD

  • Sho Shimabukuro of Japan, seeded Q is scheduled to play Hugo Gaston of France, seeded Q, at 21:00. First server will be TBD

  • Dominic Stricker of Switzerland, seeded Q is scheduled to play Alexei Popyrin of Australia, at 21:00. First server will be TBD

  • Quentin Halys of France is scheduled to play Benjamin Bonzi of France, seeded WC, at 21:00. First server will be TBD

  • Hugo Dellien of Bolivia (Plurinational State of) is scheduled to play Borna Gojo of Croatia, seeded Q, at 21:00. First server will be TBD

  • SoonWoo Kwon of Korea Republic is scheduled to play Christopher Eubanks of United States of America, seeded 28, at 22:00. First server will be TBD

  • Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, seeded 7 is scheduled to play Milos Raonic of Canada, at 00:00. First server will be TBD

WTA Tour / Women’s Singles / Round of 128

  • Kamilla Rakhimova of Russian Federation is currently playing Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, seeded 15. The current score is 2-6, current set: 2-5. . Current server is Belinda Bencic

  • Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia is currently playing Kateryna Baindl of Ukraine. The current score is 6-4, current set: 3-2. . Current server is Kateryna Baindl

  • Iga Swiatek of Poland, seeded 1 is currently playing Rebecca Peterson of Sweden. The current score is 4-0. Current game: 30-15. Current server is Iga Swiatek

  • Magdalena Frech of Poland is currently playing Emma Navarro of United States of America. The current score is 7-6, current set: 1-1. . Current server is Emma Navarro

  • Rebeka Masarova of Spain is currently playing Maria Sakkari of Greece, seeded 8. The current score is 6-4, current set: 5-3. . Current server is Maria Sakkari

  • Karolina Muchova of Czechia, seeded 10 defeats Storm Hunter of Australia, seeded WC. 6-4, 6-0

  • Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, seeded 18 defeats Fiona Ferro of France, seeded WC. 6-1, 6-2

  • Taylor Townsend of United States of America defeats Varvara Gracheva of France. 4-6, 2-6

  • Daria Saville of Australia defeats Clervie Ngounoue of United States of America, seeded WC. 0-6, 2-6

  • Lauren Davis of United States of America is scheduled to play Danka Kovinic of Montenegro, at 17:30. First server will be TBD

  • Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine, seeded 28 is scheduled to play Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain, at 17:30. First server will be TBD

  • Sloane Stephens of United States of America is scheduled to play Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil, seeded 19, at 17:45. First server will be TBD

  • Danielle Collins of United States of America is scheduled to play Linda Fruhvirtova of Czechia, at 18:00. First server will be TBD

  • Yuriko Miyazaki of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, seeded Q is scheduled to play Margarita Betova of Russian Federation, at 18:00. First server will be TBD

  • Bernarda Pera of United States of America is scheduled to play Veronika Kudermetova of Russian Federation, seeded 16, at 18:00. First server will be TBD

  • Katie Volynets of United States of America, seeded Q is scheduled to play Xinyu Wang of China PR, at 18:00. First server will be TBD

  • Lin Zhu of China PR is scheduled to play Mayar Sherif of Egypt, at 18:00. First server will be TBD

  • Kaja Juvan of Slovenia, seeded Q is scheduled to play Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy, seeded 29, at 18:00. First server will be TBD

  • Julia Grabher of Austria is scheduled to play Xiyu Wang of China PR, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Panna Udvardy of Hungary is scheduled to play Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Kimberly Birrell of Australia, seeded LL is scheduled to play Jennifer Brady of United States of America, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Elise Mertens of Belgium, seeded 32 is scheduled to play Mirjam Bjorklund of Sweden, seeded Q, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, seeded 4 is scheduled to play Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine, at 19:30. First server will be TBD

  • Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus is scheduled to play Magda Linette of Poland, seeded 24, at 20:00. First server will be TBD

  • Kayla Day of United States of America, seeded WC is scheduled to play Sorana Cirstea of Romania, seeded 30, at 21:30. First server will be TBD

  • Alize Cornet of France is scheduled to play Elina Avanesyan of Russian Federation, at 21:30. First server will be TBD

  • Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, seeded 20 is scheduled to play Jasmine Paolini of Italy, at 21:30. First server will be TBD

  • Olivia Gadecki of Australia, seeded Q is scheduled to play Mirra Andreeva of Russian Federation, at 21:30. First server will be TBD

  • Anna Kalinskaya of Russian Federation is scheduled to play Katerina Siniakova of Czechia, at 21:30. First server will be TBD

  • Petra Kvitova of Czechia, seeded 11 is scheduled to play Cristina Bucsa of Spain, at 23:00. First server will be TBD

  • Laura Siegemund of Germany, seeded Q is scheduled to play Coco Gauff of United States of America, seeded 6, at 00:00. First server will be TBD

Rafa Nadal Open by Movistar

ATP Challenger Tour / Men’s Singles / Qualifying 1st Round

  • Mark Whitehouse of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland defeats Ugo Blanchet of France. 6-7, 3-6

  • Christian Langmo of United States of America defeats Rafael Giotis of Germany. 3-6, 6-7

  • Peter Gojowczyk of Germany defeats John Echeverria of Spain. 7-6, 7-6

  • Daniel Cukierman of Israel defeats Alexey Vatutin of Russian Federation. 2-6, 6-3, 3-6

  • August Holmgren of Denmark defeats Ivan Ivanov of Bulgaria. 4-6, 5-7

  • Kenny de Schepper of France defeats Igor Sijsling of Netherlands. 6-4, 6-7, 1-6

  • Maxime Janvier of France defeats Daniil Sarksian of Russian Federation. 6-2, 6-2

  • Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina defeats Daniel Cox of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 6-4, 6-4

  • Gastao Elias of Portugal defeats Miguel Damas of Spain. 6-2, 5-7, 6-1

  • Adria Soriano Barrera of Colombia defeats Bernard Tomic of Australia. 1-2

  • Edas Butvilas of Lithuania is scheduled to play Charles Broom of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, at 13:30. First server will be TBD

  • Izan Almazan Valiente of Spain is scheduled to play Ulises Blanch of United States of America, at 15:00. First server will be TBD

Challenger Citta’ di Como

ATP Challenger Tour / Men’s Singles / Qualifying 1st Round

  • Santiago Rodriguez Taverna of Argentina defeats Karl Friberg of Sweden. 7-5, 7-6

  • Calvin Hemery of France defeats Luca Castagnola of Italy. 0-6, 4-6

  • Manuel Guinard of France defeats Matteo Martineau of France. 6-1, 6-4

  • Mathias Bourgue of France defeats Andrea Arnaboldi of Italy. 7-6, 6-3

  • Samuel Vincent Ruggeri of Italy defeats Kyrian Jacquet of France. 3-6, 1-6

  • Alexander Weis of Italy defeats Lorenzo Rottoli of Italy. 4-6, 2-6

  • Miljan Zekic of Serbia defeats Enrico Dalla Valle of Italy. 7-6, 5-7, 7-6

  • Salvatore Caruso of Italy defeats Rocco Piatti of Monaco. 4-6, 6-3, 6-1

  • Moez Echargui of Tunisia defeats Maxime Chazal of France. 6-1, 6-7, 3-6

  • Louis Wessels of Germany defeats Chun-Hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei. 3-6, 2-6

  • Giovanni Fonio of Italy defeats David Jorda Sanchis of Spain. 4-6, 6-3, 7-5

  • Henrique Rocha of Portugal is scheduled to play Valentin Royer of France, at 14:30. First server will be TBD

Zhangjiagang International Challenger

ATP Challenger Tour / Men’s Singles / Qualifying Final

  • Yan Bai of China PR, seeded Q defeats Yusuke Takahashi of Japan. 2-6, 1-6

  • Linang Xiao of China PR, seeded Q defeats Alexander Zgirovsky of Belarus. 6-7, 6-7

  • Jie Cui of China PR, seeded Q defeats Shuichi Sekiguchi of Japan. 1-6, 2-6

  • Leonid Sheyngezikht of Bulgaria, seeded Q defeats Matthew Romios of Australia. 4-6, 6-3, 4-6

  • Hanyi Liu of China PR, seeded Q defeats Colin Sinclair of Northern Mariana Islands. 6-1, 3-6, 6-7

  • Mikalai Haliak of Belarus, seeded Q defeats Ray Ho of Chinese Taipei. 6-3, 6-1

Source link

#Tennis #Scores #Schedule

August 9, 2023

Whispers Of Fire & Water Review: More Than Just A Cinematic Gem

Post By zittrexstore Entertainment , No Comments

A still from the film Whispers Of Fire & Water

Sound plays a preeminent role in writer-director Lubdhak Chatterjee’s narrative feature debut, Whispers of Fire & Water. It assumes myriad forms – from the startling to the serene – as it flows in and out of the images, colours and ideas that constitute the film.

The film, a stark portrait of exploitation and displacement, is a personal yet universal essay that wends its way through two diverse landscapes and mines them for visual and auditory vibrations that bear testimony to the plight of a mineral-rich region that has been sucked dry.

Though the sounds of decay, dispossession and despair, the film delivers an understated but sharp commentary on the plight of the exploited and the marginalised, be they people or places that have all but fallen off the map due to continuing depletion of their mineral and natural resources.

The drama of sounds and sights that forms the spine of Whispers of Fire & Water has a deep and dispiriting impact on the film’s protagonist, a Kolkata-based audio installation artist who is on a project-related trip to Jharkhand’s Jharia coal mines.

An underground fire has raged here for over a century even as extraction of coal has continued unabated, endangering the lives and homes of workers (who operate in extremely dangerous conditions) and inhabitants (who inhale the toxic air and are afflicted with serious respiratory problems).

The city-bred Shiva (Sagnik Mukherjee) is disoriented by what he sees and hears in this inferno, one of the largest coal mining zones in India where lungs and land subside with equal regularity. Shiva hears about a murder, about men gone missing and about other dire developments. He also has an unsettling brush with a not-too-welcoming police inspector (Deepak Halder).

On the brink of being singed by the spectacle of hopelessness that confronts him, he retreats with a migrant mine worker, Deepak (Amit Saha), to the latter’s tribal village about an hour and a half away. In a dense forest of vivid hues, where the dominant element is water, Shiva’s urban sensibility collides ever so gently with Deepak’s rustic purity.

The sounds of the jungle, the calls of wild animals, the colours of the earth, the rustle of the trees and the sparkle of the Sohrai murals on walls of village homes provide the background to the melancholy-tinged conversations that ensue.

Deepak is, of course, just as deprived as the miners of Jharia – he is one himself – because development has bypassed his village. He asks a question that serves to round off his story: why shouldn’t the light come to us, why do we have to go looking for it?

Shiva knows the answer. He begins to perceive himself and the world around him in a new light, thanks to Deepak’s direct and plaintive plea – he does not verbalise it in so many words – for a rethink on what constitutes human progress and well-being.

A dirt track that runs through the forest is enticing but dangerous. In one scene, Deepak drags Shiva away as he senses the presence of a wild animal in the vicinity. In another, a CRPF jawan hurls a volley of intrusive questions at Shiva before advising him to exercise caution in the forest. The warning is hardly misplaced for a city dweller in an alien setting.

In the decrepit coal town Shiva explored the earlier portions of the film, a similar track cuts a makeshift playground in half. Oblivious of the world that is crumbling around them, boys enthusiastically kick a football around on this patch of land that they have no control over.

Whispers of Fire & Water opens with a blank screen that is overlaid with the sounds of the wind, claps of thunder and the patter of rain – and a wail of anguish. Soon after the first images appear on the screen, a local resident says: It’s a black hole out here.

Working in perfect unison with cinematographer Kenneth Cyrus and sound designer Sougata Banerjee, the director guides us into the heart of the darkness. Billowing smoke, tongues of fire that loom into sight at nighttime (the light of day conceals the flames), traces of soot all around, and telltale signs of lives cruelly interrupted by an economy that only grabs and does not give anything back in return dominate the frames as Shiva with his microphone wrapped in a furry wind jammer records the sounds.

But can these sounds that he plans to use as part of an audio installation in Kolkata fully capture the extent of the devastation that the region and its people have been witness to for over a hundred years? Can they sufficiently amplify the voices of the voiceless, who have suffered in silence the consequences of lopsided, unsustainable development?

On the soundtrack, we hear the voice of a union leader exhorting the miners to unite and demonstrate their strength to their callous employers. He urges them to snap out of their cycle of servility and inertia. But nothing that Shiva and the audience see suggests that positive change is in the air. Here, fire burns and reduces things to ashes. It does not purify.

In one sequence, clumps of refuse are afire in a dumping yard. They resemble funeral pyres on a cremation ground – a disquieting image that conjures up to perfection the shroud of doom and destruction that hangs over the region.

The film contrasts the crackle of fire with the inexorable flow of water – one destroys, the other holds out the promise of regeneration. It depicts the repercussions of indiscriminate attacks on Nature’s riches while it looks up to the forest environment as a source of solace, as a force that can alter the course of how society defines and views the scope and substance of development.

Whispers of Fire & Water is produced by Bauddhayan Mukherji and Monalisa Mukherji of Little Lamb Films (Manikbabur Megh, which premiered at the 2021 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival) and Shaji Mathew and Aruna Anand Mathew of Niv Art Movies (Sexy Durga, Hivos Tiger Award winner at the 2017 International Film Festival of Rotterdam).

Whispers of Fire & Water, which is mainly in Hindi with some dialogue in Bengali and English, is an out and out an auteur film written, directed and edited by one man, but it benefits appreciably from the work of the technicians, including music composer Rohen Bose.

Diving into a yawning chasm between hellfire and flickering hope, and crafting a sombre cautionary tale with varied visual flourishes, Lubdhak Chatterjee, who edited the recently released Bengali film Niharika: In the Mist, has created what is more than just a cinematic gem. It is an essential work of tactile art that will reward viewers who have the patience to peer into its depths.

Cast:

Rohini Chatterjee, Sagnik Mukherjee, Deepak Halder, Amit Saha, Saikat Chatterjee

Director:

Lubdhak Chatterjee

Featured Video Of The Day

Tamannaah, Vaani And Fatima Lit Up An Event Like This

Source link

#Whispers #Fire #Water #Review #Cinematic #Gem

August 7, 2023

Review: Australia’s ‘Talk to Me’ is the Best Horror Film of 2023 So Far | FirstShowing.net

Post By zittrexstore Entertainment , , , , , , No Comments

Review: Australia’s ‘Talk to Me’ is the Best Horror Film of 2023 So Far

by Manuel São Bento
August 7, 2023

As usual every year, 2023 began with the Sundance Film Festival. It’s always a unique experience, especially when compared to other festivals, as most movies don’t even have distribution deals arranged yet, let alone any kind of marketing campaign or online hype. It’s an invigorating opportunity to discover new directors, screenwriters, actors, and virtually anyone / everyone involved in making low-budget, original films. I felt that the line-up at this most recent edition of the festival wasn’t exactly as outstanding as in 2021 or 2022… perhaps because I missed the best horror movie of the year to date, Talk to Me, which played at Sundance in the Midnight category (after originally world premiering at the Adelaide Film Festival in late 2022).

Australian brothers Danny and Michael Philippou’s debut feature film was on my initial watchlist for the film festival, but I don’t remember why it was eventually removed. The premise of the brothers’ Talk to Me isn’t highly appealing or creative, as the story revolves around a well-known formulaic concept – human possession by supernatural spirits. The only positive takeaway from missing it during the festival (which I was covering digitally viewing from Europe) is that this way I was fortunate enough to watch one of the scariest movies in recent memory on the big screen upon its release in theaters this summer.

From now on, Talk to Me will be my go-to piece of evidence to support the idea that the horror genre is, by far, the one that benefits most from practical effects and real elements on set. It isn’t at all unreasonable to consider the makeup work in this horror feature as awards-worthy. Countless moments of supernatural-influenced violence – heads hitting walls & furniture, bones breaking, people biting themselves or others – induce that feeling of grotesque disgust precisely due to the realism of all the technical components. Apart from the eyes transforming into a terrifying black color, special effects are rare or non-existent in this film.

Audiences have already witnessed dozens or even hundreds of characters becoming possessed, so Talk to Me can hardly in this specific field. Even so, the execution of these possession moments keep viewers glued to the screen in such a vivid, intimate manner that many will try to look away unsuccessfully. The Philippou Brothers (also known as the YouTube creators “RackaRacka“) focus on the superb performances of the cast rather than cheap, repetitive jumpscares, a lesson that the biggest movies in the horror genre insist on never learning. Sophie Wilde stands out with an unforgettable display – the physical component becomes very important with her – but all the actors offer their bodies and souls completely to their characters.

Talk to Me Review

That said, no one will leave the cinema looking at life differently due to Danny Philippou & Bill Hinzman’s script. Talk to Me is one of these films that requires a theatrical experience due to the restless atmosphere generated by the filmmakers along with the mesmerizing performances. It’s an incredibly captivating flick from the first to the last second, that inevitably will appeal more to cinephiles who take particular pleasure in watching a horror movie in which all aspects of the filmmaking contribute tremendously to its success.

I must emphasize that Talk to Me is far from an easy watch for viewers that are more sensitive to violence. The brutality is extremely explicit and unpredictable, a crucial factor for situations of pure visual shock. Most of these sequences are long with several impactful moments rather than a single climax. From the first possession scene onwards, the film maintains a frenetic pace without many pauses to breathe, which brings me to the only real issue with the movie, besides the somewhat rushed final minutes.

Themes such as suicide, grief, depression, and loneliness are introduced by the narrative, but never really explored, which will lead to opinions about how Talk to Me exploits human suffering as a shock device for the sake of entertainment. Personally, I don’t believe this was the filmmakers’ intention, but the truth is that the characters don’t undergo any significant growth, ending the film practically the same way they started concerning these subjects. There’s very little dialogue surrounding any of these topics.

Nevertheless, Talk to Me’s conclusion won’t leave anyone indifferent, and the ending for the protagonist is nothing short of brilliant. It really gives a vibe of being one of those endings that is thought out and written before the rest of the movie due to how perfectly it fits its premise. The film is, without a doubt, a depressing story that will leave a profound impact on a good chunk of the audience that watches it, and I genuinely hope that it manages to provide these Australian brothers more opportunities to create whatever they want – because, for my part, they just turned me into a fan.

Note: A prequel is already complete, and a sequel is also planned. Bring them to me!

Final Thoughts

The Philippous’ Talk to Me lives up to the tremendous hype from festivals and initial reactions around the world. Without a doubt one of the scariest horror films in recent years! Impressive practical effects, superb makeup, hypnotizing performances – Sophie Wilde clearly stands out the most – and impeccable execution of truly shocking, gory, unpredictable moments of violence. It doesn’t have the most imaginative screenplay within the “spirit-possessed characters” subgenre and leaves some meaningful themes unexplored, but it’s definitely one of this year’s must-see horror flicks. Danny and Michael Philippou: remember their names.

Manuel’s Rating: A-
Follow Manuel on Twitter – @msbreviews / Or Letterboxd – @msbreviews

Share

Find more posts: Horror, Review



Source link

#Review #Australias #Talk #Horror #Film #FirstShowingnet

August 4, 2023

Review: The New Animated ‘TMNT: Mutant Mayhem’ Movie is Fantastic | FirstShowing.net

Post By zittrexstore Entertainment , , , , , , , , No Comments

Review: The New Animated ‘TMNT: Mutant Mayhem’ Movie is Fantastic

by Alex Billington
August 4, 2023

Cowabunga!! What a year for groundbreaking animation. Not only is there already Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (read my full review) breaking box office records, pushing the boundaries of storytelling again with psychedelic and mind-blowing visuals – but we also have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which is just as mesmerizing and entertaining to watch. Ever since Sony’s Into the Spider-Verse changed the animation industry forever in 2018, every animation studio has been rethinking how they make movies and what they look like. It’s time to rethink the style in order to craft edgier, more dynamic visuals. DreamWorks Animation has been trying something new with the look of their latest hits including The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. However, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem is the first big movie since Into / Across the Spider-Verse to live up to the potential of what’s possible with animation when you really think outside-the-box with regards to visual storytelling. To sum it up: this movie kicks butt! The Turtles are back.

One key reminder which I shouldn’t have to reiterate, but I will anyway: animation is not just for kids. It’s a storytelling technique, it’s a visual style, it’s an art form that any filmmaker can utilize. It’s not just a genre, and animated movies aren’t only for children. Any of any age can enjoy animated movies made for everyone.

Like many geeky kids in America, I grew up loving the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I’m a huge fan of both original live action movies – Steve Barron’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and Michael Pressman’s campier sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991). I had the toys (including the Pizza Van that shot out plastic pizzas), watched the cartoons, had the t-shirts, and my grandma once made hand-sewn homemade Halloween costumes for my brother & me to dress up as Turtles. As much as I loved them, I fell out of love with the Turtles over the years growing up. Then they tried to bring them back to the big screen – starting with the 3D CGI animated film TMNT in 2007, a hybrid-live action film in 2014 and the sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. None of these were that memorable. While everyone should already knows this, the TMNT were originally created for a comic book by the artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It’s quite nice to seem them finally embrace that origin story and give Mutant Mayhem a comic book look with sketch lines and pencil marks visible all over the animated footage.

This movie, directed by Jeff Rowe, and co-directed by Kyler Spears, is a Nickelodeon Animation Studios production at Paramount. Somehow the creative team convinced the studio to let them do something new and the result is awesome. This is one of the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies ever made, living up to the excellence of the original 1990 live-action movie, introducing us to yet another beautifully distinct animation style. I also love what they did with the characters. Similar to how Marvel gave us an actual high school Peter Parker with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Mutant Mayhem give us actual teenage Turtles. The voice cast they chose for this is perfect: Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo, and Brady Noon as Raphael. These four really sound and act and vibe like teens, and it makes a huge difference in carrying this story. Mutant Mayhem builds upon the idea that these boys are different, thy don’t fit in, and they want to be a part of the world they’re not allowed to be a part of – the human world. So they hatch up a half-baked plan to become “heroes” so everyone likes & accepts them.

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Review

It’s clear as day that Mutant Mayhem wouldn’t exist without Into the Spider-Verse, and the connection is obvious. Starting with the glitching logos at the beginning, continuing with the comic book-y art style, along with everything else about it. And that’s totally okay! Rowe and Spears, and all of the animators/artists that worked on this, are not at all ashamed about admitting and borrowing from Into / Across the Spider-Verse, allowing this inspiration to enhance what they’re trying to do – which is reinvent the Turtles and, hopefully, give us a rocking new TMNT movie that captures the spirit of the original comic book characters. They have certainly done just that. Chris Miller, one half of the Lord/Miller duo that produced & created the Spider-Verse movies, took to Twitter to add his $0.02 to the conversation and give this movie the stamp of approval continuing the trend they started. He reiterates it’s the studios that have been preventing animation styles from evolving. “The Spider-Verse films were an attempt to show the breadth of visual possibility in a major studio release,” Miller says. “This year has been a bonanza of animated films with distinct, interesting looks. #TMNTMovie pushes theirs farther than most. It’s a bold bet that should be rewarded.” I agree completely.

While I enjoy Mutant Mayhem immensely, it’s not without a few problems, knocking just a half point off of my rating. It’s greatest issues lie in the absurdity of its fun-yet-bonkers screenplay (written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg & Jeff Rowe and Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit). Most of the story is clever until they veer off course and drift into wonky “why not?” territory with the Superfly villain turning into a mega-monster kaiju. The storyline with April O’Neil also needs some work. She’s an important part of the movie, and has always been an important part of Turtles lore, however her plot in this one felt a bit unauthentic. It feels like the filmmakers were forced to work in her whole “young journalist” plot, rehashing the unexciting concept of her using the story of the Turtles to get her big break. But she’s as young as the teenage Turtles, too. It’s not her time yet, and it doesn’t seem to work well, with all of her social media-ing and puking feeling like they just had to add it in so younger viewers might have something to connect with. All that said, these are minor complaints in the grand schemes of things. And I chuckled at the Superfly finale, wondering if this is a fun nod to the gigantic Stay Puft Marshmallow Man finale in the original Ghostbusters – also a NYC movie.

As a life-long TMNT fan, Mutant Mayhem is the triumphant Turtles return I have been waiting to see for a long time. They got me all warm and fuzzy with nostalgia again. It may have taken an extra 30 years since Secret of the Ooze for them to find the right formula to make the Turtles kick butt on screen again, but I’m glad they found it eventually. I was happy laughing throughout the entire movie at so many of the jokes and the camaraderie between the four Turtles. It’s so clear the filmmakers love them as much as everyone else who grew up with them. Their boundless creativity and ingenuity is worked into every frame, much like the two Spider-Verse movies, and there’s so many Easter Eggs and details to pick up on with repeat viewings. The Hip Hop soundtrack is totally rad, complimented by the groovy Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross score (they got these two guys to score it?! So cool!!). It’s so much fun that anyone will enjoy it – adults and kids and teens and maybe even grandparents. And yes there’s plenty of pizza, always pizza. When the Pizza Van shows up, I knew this was in the right hands. More outstandingly distinct animated movies like this, please.

Alex’s Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

Find more posts: Animation, Review



Source link

#Review #Animated #TMNT #Mutant #Mayhem #Movie #Fantastic #FirstShowingnet