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Venice 2024: Best of the Fest – Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’ By a Mile | FirstShowing.net

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Venice 2024: Best of the Fest – Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’ By a Mile

by Alex Billington
September 16, 2024

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 ended up being a mostly low-key, fairly uneventful event. Much like Cannes earlier in the summer, most critics went home wondering why it was such an unimpressive year. it’s time to present my picks of my favorite films from Venice 2024. I’ve chosen only 6 of the best of the fest films that deserve to be highlighted – it’s just not a “Top 10” year for fests. This was my eighth year returning to Venice, and I’m always glad to be back, even if there aren’t a ton of great films. In total, I watched around 34 films at Venice this year, unfortunately only a handful of them were worthy. Brady Corbet’s epic The Brutalist is the best film by a mile – nothing else is even remotely close to being in its league. It’s a towering, monumental, majestic masterpiece and I’m glad we had the chance to experience it together at the festival during its initial unveiling. I always do my best to watch as many films as I can, hoping to find any hidden gems and breakout hits amidst the global selection.

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, already published over the last few weeks. Digging into the 2024 selection, there are a few more that deserve to be mentioned here. Andres Veiel’s documentary Riefenstahl is a doozy (my review) – unquestionably clear in showing the truth about her. The time capsule doc One to One: John & Yoko is also very good. The French film My Everything (Mon Inséparable) starring Laure Calamy is also a winner, along with the charming Familiar Touch (which won a bunch of awards). I also enjoyed both The Order and Babygirl, but neither one made the cut for this list. So many let downs: Queer, 2073, Pavements, Joker: Folie à Deux, Stranger Eyes, Wolfs, Harvest, and Apocalypse in the Tropics were not that good. I missed September 5 but will catch it later. 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 anytime. Here we go…

Below are my Top 6 films from the 2024 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:

The Brutalist – Directed by Brady Corbet

Venice - The Brutalist

The Brutalist is a masterpiece. An irrefutably magnificent film. Everything you could want out of cinema and beyond. An exhilarating, entrancing, grandiose cinematic experience – shot on VistaVision 35mm film, printed on 70mm, projected like they used to in the old days. There’s an intermission but it’s in the middle of this story and it felt like I was holding my breath for 15 minutes waiting for it to continue so I could see what happens next to László. Co-written by Brady Corbet and his wife Mona Fastvold, directed by maestro Brady Corbet, The Brutalist stars Adrien Brody in a better-than-ever role as Holocaust survivor László Tóth, who is also a famous architect. After the war ends he arrives in America, and tries to find work, barely getting along thanks to greed and xenophobia. This powerful film also features an all-timer score by Daniel Blumberg. Brody also gives an all-timer performance that is so deep and profound. He is matched by Guy Pearce as Harrison Lee Van Buren, a wealthy industrialist who becomes his employer as they try to build a magnificent building together. Nothing else at Venice came close to matching how phenomenal this film is…

The Room Next Door – Directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Venice - The Room Next Door

Even though this seems to be getting mixed reviews from most critics (huh), I enjoyed it. I have been saying this since the premiere at the festival – perhaps one reason I enjoyed it so much is because it’s not the same as most of Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar’s previous films, and not just because it’s his first fully English-language feature film. Some critics are claiming he won the Golden Lion for this film because they finally wanted to give him one after all of his other great films over the years (which didn’t win). However, I really do think this is a lovely film that shows us that it is still important to find joy and happiness even with darkness and death is approaching. This is key with the two exceptional lead performances by Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as old friends. The film also really won me over because it’s so obviously about climate change yet not as doom & gloom as most stories and that is quite refreshing to encounter these days.

Boomerang – Directed by Shahab Fotouhi

Venice - Boomerang

Easily one of the best discoveries in the entire Venice 2024 selection! Not enough people are talking about it! The least I can do is bring more attention to it and hopefully more people will watch it. Shahab Fotouhi’s Boomerang has it all: an Iranian Timothée Chalamet (played by Ali Hanafian as the boy named Keyvan), an amazing electro soundtrack enhancing the vividness of the city, meticulously composed cinematography of Tehran, a few fun dance scenes, amusing arguments, clever comedy, and so much more. This is top notch filmmaking, a rejuvenating work of art that represents an optimistic future for Tehran that is so needed. I really loved discovering this film and cannot wait get my hands on this funky cool electro music in it. There’s a score by Panagiotis Mina that is so distinct and catchy that I’m still humming the songs, hoping one day I can listen to the album over and over. Keep an eye out for this little film whenever it shows up in your area.

Happyend – Directed by Neo Sora

Venice - Happyend

Even if this isn’t one of the best films this year, I’m still thinking about this film all these days later. I can’t get it out of my head – which usually means there’s something to it. Mainly it’s because of the people in it. This cast and this group of friends are the best. I think the film gets a bit messy in the second half, losing its focus, but I like the vibes, I really dig the modern cinema freshness of it all. The car prank is hilarious, the soundtrack is rad (always more techno in films!!) and the main performances are fantastic. The camaraderie and dynamic between these main group of actors really makes this film work: Hayato Kurihara, Yukito Hidaka, Yuta Hayashi, Shina Peng, Arazi, and Kilala Inori. This movie is made by a clearly talented filmmaker who will keep making better and better films with each new one he makes. A good start (his first narrative feature film after a bunch of Ryuichi Sakamoto docs) but let’s see what he will cook up for us next.

Cloud – Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Venice - Cloud

One of my favorite “WTF am I watching?!” experiences at the Venice Film Festival. Mostly because when it starts up, you have no idea where it’s going next – which seems to be the signature of the storytelling from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Cloud is written and directed by Kurosawa and it’s his second film out this year following the cult favorite Chime. Cloud followers a rather careless young Japanese guy named Ryôsuke Yoshii, played by Masaki Suda, who resells high value items online to make money. Things start to get weird when some of the angry buyers show up to confront him. There’s an incredible 25-minute action sequence at the end of this that I was not expecting at all, and the ending brings it all together in a really fascinating “ohh shit!” moment. What a picture. This one kept me intrigued, impressed me, and left me wanting to jump right into applause at the end. We need more vigorous distinct filmmaking like this.

Kill the Jockey – Directed by Luis Ortega

Venice - Kill the Jockey

Aki Kaurismäki by way of Argentina! Another favorite encounter. Yet another delightful surprise in the Main Competition line-up at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. The latest film from Argentinian filmmaker Luis Ortega, Kill the Jockey (aka El Jockey) follows a horse racing jockey named Remo – starring the superbly talented Nahuel Pérez Biscayart in this dynamic lead role. One of the best parts of this festival discovery is all of the classic Argentinian songs used throughout – from musicians like Nino Bravo, Leo Dan, Sandro, and Palito Ortega. Along with a few breakout dance scenes that made me want to breakout into applause. This clever, stylish film is a minimalistic exercise in cinematic storytelling that excels in almost every way. It may skip a few beats at the end, but it still rocks the rest of the time. Best of all – it’s a brisk 96 minutes that doesn’t waste any time racing along, making it a breezy, entertaining, satisfying South American experience.

Recapping the entire festival, it was a pretty bad year overall. One of the most unexciting & unimpressive line-ups in the 8 years I’ve been attending. Even with Pedro Almodovar’s film winning the Golden Lion, I still don’t think that was the right choice. I’m partial to The Brutalist – which is a real masterpiece and a major moment in cinema. It will have a much, much greatest impact on cinema than The Room Next Door. In fact, I’m sure with time everyone is going to look back at 2024 and think “how did they not give the Golden Lion to The Brutalist, of all years?!” How could this happen? I’m not sure either… I bet even the rest of jury will appreciate it more with time (and maybe with another rewatch). Yes it’s a very long film, but it is majestic and grand – it will live on side-by-side next to There Will Be Blood as one of the greatest works in American cinema. As for the rest of the films, there will be plenty that end up finding audiences & achieving success outside of Venice. And I’m glad that there were a handful of great films to discover. But something is really off with film festivals this year. Something is wrong with their line-up, the vibes, the hype, and it’s hard to properly discuss because most people ignore this truth. They just want to watch some good films and as long as they see a few there’s nothing to complain about. Not me. I’m still happy to be back to Venice, I’m always happy to have this opportunity to watch so many exciting new films – I just wish they were better…

And that’s it for Venice 2024 (aka #Venezia81), wrapping up our updates from the fest for this year. As already mentioned before, Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door won the Golden Lion – check the full list of 2024 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 2025, 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.

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TIFF 2024: Naomi Watts & Bing the Dog Are Exquisite in ‘The Friend’ | FirstShowing.net

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TIFF 2024: Naomi Watts & Bing the Dog Are Exquisite in ‘The Friend’

by Alex Billington
September 9, 2024

Falling in love with a dog can change everything. Most dog people already know this but I’ll say it again just for the record: a dog is more than just a pet. They are a family member, they are your best friend, they love you unconditionally, they keep you on your toes, they make the world a better place, they bring unabashed happiness and beauty and joy and love to everyone they interact with, along with a few occasional woofs and growls. It turns out that 2024 is an extraordinary year for dog movies – more than a few favorites. After enjoying three others that I’ve raved about throughout the year (Black Dog, Dog on Trial, Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo) I’ve found my favorite dog movie of 2024 – The Friend. Adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name written by Sigrid Nunez, this film is a much more profound and soulful story of a woman’s life changing thanks to a big dog. In fact, the dog really is the star of the show – a massive, cuddle bug Great Dane pooch named Apollo (in real life Bing). The story is actually about suicide and the weight of grief and depression and the struggles that life presents us, all of which is more glaring when a doggo enters your life.

The Friend just premiered at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival and is playing at TIFF and NYFF as well. I’m surprised that it is an entirely independent production – the book is so popular and it has such a major cast involved this should’ve been made by a Hollywood studio. However, ultimately making it as an indie means the film has turned out all the better, handled with exceptional care and humility, maintaining the book’s more intellectual prose and heavier themes. It may be cliche to say nowadays, but it really is a relief to see a film made for intelligent adults by intelligent adults without cutting corners or simplifying it to make it work for “all audiences”. The Friend is co-written and co-directed by two filmmakers Scott McGehee and David Siegel, their seventh feature after making the films Suture, The Deep End, Bee Season, Uncertainty, What Maisie Knew, Montana Story previously. The remarkably talented Naomi Watts stars as Iris, a middle-aged writer who is overwhelmed by her grief after her best friend & mentor Walter, played by Bill Murray, commits suicide. While trying to move forward and make sense of what happened she is requested to take in his dog, a pooch named Apollo, since he needs a new home. He’s a giant & super sweet so she tries her best.

Within the first few minutes, it quickly becomes apparent that this is a more deeper and much heavier story than expected. It’s not a laugh-a-minute dog comedy, it’s an existential tale of survival. Watts narrates the story, along with poignant remarks from Murray, inspired by their work as writers. Though the core of the film is truly – how a dog can change your life. Rather than being cheesy & cliche, it’s more poetic & sincere – sensitively discussing suicide, romance, aging, the directions life takes us in, choices we make, the struggles we all have to deal with. We must not abandoned pets and thus we must make choices to make sure they live a great lives, too. The Friend is one of the most beautiful New York City films I’ve ever seen, which is saying a lot considering thousands upon thousands of films are set there. Not only the cinematography by Giles Nuttgens, but it’s clear the filmmakers know this city extremely well, depicting every little nuance of life there perfectly. From her apartment building & interactions with her super, to her navigation of the streets & subways, to the inimitable grandeur & majesty of the city that captivates most of its residents. Makes me love NYC more than I already do. Topped off with an emotional score by Trevor Gureckis & Jay Wadley which makes the power of the city more affecting as we follow Apollo and Iris in this moment in their lives.

Among the many aspects of The Friend that deserve acclaim, it is one of the best films to ever star a gigantic Great Dane doggo. Big dogs are not usually the stars of many dog movies (give or take a few others like The Sandlot, Turner & Hooch, Beethoven). It made me so happy every time Apollo (or Bing) was in the scene. I wanted to leap into the screen and cuddle him every time. His performance is immaculate, an example of a dog actually understanding the role and nailing it every shot. Somehow. What a champion. His presence and his majesty and his love are important in every last moment of this story. Those saying this film isn’t really about the dog are wrong – it is entirely about the dog and how he changes her. It’s also refreshing to watch a film about a middle-aged woman who is single, with no kids, no husband, and yet the rest of the film is not about how she has no kids, and no husband. There’s no conversations about this, no pressure, no “don’t you regret that”, because this is not what the film is about and it’s so invigorating this isn’t something that’s part of the narrative. It’s about so much more, there’s so much more to our lives on this planet than simply that.

She’s already proven herself many times before, but Naomi Watts is utterly, breathtakingly great in here. With such a complex, layered, uncompromising performance that powers the narrative as she works her way through her emotions. The Friend is one of these extra tender, heartfelt films that’s so emotionally resonant by the end you will want to go right back into it. Mostly to explore the intellectual dialogue & revisit certain conversations, re-experience the most magical moments that change her, and spend more time with Apollo/Bing. There’s scenes that left me in tears all because it’s so lovely to see dogs living their best lives in NYC. Will Rogers said it best: “If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” 🐶

Alex’s TIFF 2024 Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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Call Me Bae Review: A Touch Frivolous But Certainly Isn’t Irredeemably Vapid

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New Delhi:

Crafted largely with broad strokes, Call Me Bae, created by Ishita Moitra, co-written by her with Samina Motlekar and Rohit Nair and directed by Collin D’Cunha, is not without its share of fun and flashes of insight.

It is another matter that the terrain that Call me Bae traverses is not instantly and naturally conducive to anything more than the delivery of shallow truths about life and manners, and about riches and reality checks. The show does that much, a perhaps a bit more, with passable flair.

Ananya Panday toplines the eight-episode Dharmatic Entertainment-produced Prime Video India show, a social comedy centred on the trials and tribulations of a filthy rich South Delhi girl thrown out into the cold and forced to fend for herself in Mumbai.

The character only sporadically pushes Panday out of her comfort zone. But to her credit, she grabs the ample opportunity for evolution that the long-form story and the sure-handed writing offer her. She etches out a relatable figure who is worth rooting for even though the show does not offer much by way of illuminating epiphanies.

For Bella Chowdhary aka Bae, born into wealth and married into even more wealth, there is no such thing as “too much bling”. Early on in the series, her family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Her marital liaison with the scion of a thriving business empire saves her parents from turning middle class.

But when everything seems to be sorted, life takes an unexpected and unhappy turn. Bae finds herself out of favour with her Richie Rich husband. Her access to all the money that was hers for the asking is cut off and she is compelled to leave Delhi and set herself up in Mumbai.

Do old habits die easy? Not for Bae. She does not rid herself of her obsession with designer clothes and accoutrements. Not that Call Me Bae puts the charmed heroine through the kind of grind that lesser mortals have to countenance day in and day out in order to simply make ends meet.

Bae does not exactly slum it out. The worst that happens to her is that she has to look for a job, share a flat with a colleague, commute in an autorickshaw and deign to eat vada-pav on the beach (but not before sanitising the bench on which she sits).

The casting is salutary. Ananya Panday feeds off Bae and vice-versa. The protagonist, like a real-life star kid, is so accustomed to her uber-luxe cocoon that when she steps out of the protective bubble created by her doting and calculative mother (Mini Mathur) and a husband (Vihaan Samat) who denies her nothing except his attention, and encounters the real world, she is still infinitely better off materially than most of us ever will be at the best of times.

In a meta dig at an Ananya Panday utterance that became a meme and went viral, a residential complex security guard quips that he would be happy to reach where Bae’s majboori begins. The lady’s response to that observation – where have I heard that one before? – not only collapses, for a fleeting moment, the wall between the fictional and the actual, but is also an example of the self-deprecating humour that is strewn across Call Me Bae.

The writing is generally bright and the story gallops at a fair clip. A panoply of people surrounds Bae as she makes her way through the rough and tumble of a city not her own. The show follows her transformation into a woman who learns to surmount reverses and hurdles and find friends, purpose and gumption.

Call Me Bae alternates between the agreeably breezy and the gratuitously flippant in its search for a narrative median that can hold the show together. The flow may not be consistent but the blend of drollery and solemnity works for the most part.

Call Me Bae turns deadly serious in its final quarter when the heroine takes it upon herself to expose an unholy nexus between the mainstream media and a corporate entity whose head honcho isn’t what he claims to be.

When Bae’s picture-perfect life is marred by an act of indiscretion and the kneejerk reaction to it by her husband and she is forced to branch out on her own, the first few episodes keep the audience invested in her plight. Just a hint of monotony creeps in thereafter but it does not permanent or major damage.

As is customary in tales of this nature, Bae takes next to no time to discover soulmates who stand by her through thick and thin. Five-star hotel employee Saira Ali (Muskkan Jaferi) is the first. Bae gifts her an LV Sarah wallet, an act that turns out to be a blessing in disguise in the long run.

Bae lands a job without too much of a struggle at a news channel, where she quickly befriends a junior reporter (Niharika Lyra Dutt) who knows her mind. A few episodes in, she also makes common cause with an actress (Sayani Gupta, in an extended cameo that makes a mark) who has a story to share with the world.

The girls form a coven that gives them the strength to navigate their own flaws – both Bae and Saira have serious ones – and ward off the arrogant ways of Satyajit Sen aka SS (Vir Das), who hosts the channel’s principal primetime show. He is a douchebag who hides the stink he exudes behind a veneer of corrosive cockiness. Das’s performance is one of the highlights of the show.

Not all the men around Bae are despicable louts. One of them, Neel N. (Gurfateh Pirzada), swears by the virtues of serious journalism and stands up against the sensationalism that SS peddles. He instils in Bae the belief that “the story is always bigger than the journalist”.

The man who sweeps Bae off her feet and sparks trouble in her paradise – celebrity gym trainer Prince (Varun Sood) – doubles up as a tech whiz and ethical hacker when push comes to shove. He turns out to be her greatest ally when troubles begin to pile up.

Somebody advises Bae to switch off her TV set if “you are looking for real journalism… it’s not on TV anymore”. It is not known whether Bae pays heed to that suggestion, but if you are looking for anything other than a few hours of frothy entertainment, Call Me Bae may not be for you. A touch frivolous it may be, but the series certainly isn’t irredeemably vapid or vacuous.


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Venice 2024: Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’ is a Cinema Masterpiece | FirstShowing.net

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Venice 2024: Brady Corbet’s ‘The Brutalist’ is a Cinema Masterpiece

by Alex Billington
September 1, 2024

There are moments as a film geek where right in the middle of a film festival screening you are overtaken by the overwhelming feeling that you are watching something that will go down as a major moment in cinema history. It’s not often we are lucky enough to encounter such phenomenal filmmaking. It is not often that we are treated to the majesty of cinema that is so profound and powerful it shakes the very foundations of art as we know it. When these rare moments come along, it is vital to relish and speak out passionately about the power that truly majestic cinema can have over us. American filmmaker Brady Corbet’s third feature film The Brutalist is one of these major moments in cinema. I sat in the cinema stunned, watching the credits scroll by, unable to say much or pick myself up. There were a few moments I was holding my breath, other scenes where my heart was racing. It may seem hyperbolic to write all of this, but everyone once in a while it really is accurate to say that every single shot is perfect and there’s nothing to criticize with a film. There’s plenty to discuss, a few things to debate, but it’s time to state for the record: The Brutalist is a masterpiece.

Co-written by Brady Corbet and his partner Mona Fastvold, and directed by Brad Corbet, The Brutalist is a sprawling, grand, epic story similar to There Will Be Blood in a cinematic sense. The story follows a talented Jewish Bauhaus architect who arrives in America at the end of WWII and attempts to build a new life there. But he encounters the rotten underbelly of America. Corbet is known for telling stories that are meticulously intellectually critical of American Capitalism and other aspects of America that many people see as defining features of the country (see his second film: Vox Lux). This time his novelistic tale of American greed and American xenophobia is based around the journey of a Holocaust survivor who shows up hoping to do some work and move on with his life, only to encounter hateful, spiteful people who exploit and abuse him. Even when he does nothing wrong, he’s in the wrong, just because he’s a foreigner with a accent. Adrien Brody stars as László Tóth, in yet another unbelievably extraordinary performance in his already excellent oeuvre. Brody brings us along in his painful, yet exuberant journey through America, hoping to build something and start a new life after the horrors of WWII in Europe. He’s matched by Guy Pearce as the wealthy investor Harrison Lee Van Buren in what is one of Pearce’s best performances ever. I’m still in awe of both of them.

Every single shot is breathtaking. With exhilarating cinematography by DP Lol Crawley, the film is shot on VistaVision, which was the high def film format from the time (pre-dating 70mm) that film takes place in. Brady Corbet wanted the film to look and feel like it was made right in the 1950s, and it was projected in our cinema on 70mm film as well (which feels like stepping back in time). I could teach an entire course on the cinematography, from the train shots to the architectural focus and everything else. The score by newcomer young composer Daniel Blumberg is phenomenal as well, bringing classical elements from the era making the score feel grandiose and emotional, along with gripping percussive underscoring that adds more depth to the quiet scenes as the story builds & builds. The sound design is also outstanding, utilizing atmospheric noises that at times puts viewers on edge, other times letting us to settle into the environment and bring us deeper into this narrative. This is Corbet’s finest work yet. Right from the opening – a dizzying, eye-opening five minute intro sequence that launches us into the film, and it never lets up. Every frame of this is going to be studied in cinema courses for decades. I can rave about this shot, or that shot, or this sequence, or this decision, or that moment or motif, or that pan, or that tilt. Technical mastery on every level in every frame.

There is one element of exceptionally great cinema that keep coming back to time and time again (especially at film festivals). Films that are this outstanding are the kind of films that encourage conversations that can go on for hours, days, weeks, even months or years. Not only is it about analyzing decisions in each scene, understanding the story and its progression, making sense of this idea or that choice. It’s any conversation, they way any tiny scene or a distinct moment can linger in your mind for months after… The way you can analyze and critique and think differently about what is going on in the film; perhaps this scene isn’t what you thought it was at first. The Brutalist is fairly clear in its intentions overall with its story follow architect László Tóth, but it’s such a sprawling & grand & glorious masterpiece of cinema with a full 3 & 1/2 hours of footage, there’s an enormous number of shots that can and must be analyzed further. One amusing moment in particular rattles in my brain – early on László is walking down a street after picking up and hugging a cat and the cat follows him along for another 30 seconds, meowing along the way. Was this planned? Did this cat just happen to do that and they caught it on camera? Does that cat mean something or was it just a cute cat? (Please don’t over-analyze my thinking on this I just enjoyed seeing a cat in the film for a quick scene.)

There’s one amazing sequence in the second half involving a trip to a marble quarry in Italy that I would say might just be one of the greatest ~20 minute sequences in cinema history. Not even exaggerating at all, this is not a hyperbolic claim. Every last detail, from the sound to aura in this sequence, is jaw-dropping, soul-stirring exquisite. It’s magical. This is the glory of transcendent cinema. There are these moments in history where you can feel you are witnessing something profound and dramatic that will have a major impact on art forever. Storytelling and filmmaking must combine in just the right way, with a vision that is strong and daring and intelligent, to potentially change the way everyone sees the world. Brady is courageous enough to tell us the truth about how rotten America and Americans can be, and this story can teach us that we must be better, even 80 years after WWII ended. It is rare that a film makes your heart pound even faster with every new scene… It is rare that a film gives you chills with every new shot… It is really, really rare and The Brutalist is one of those one-of-a-kind films we will be celebrating for decades to come. Bravo, Brady, bravo.

Alex’s Venice 2024 Rating: 10 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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Review: Fede Alvarez’s ‘Alien: Romulus’ is Proper Scary Sci-Fi Horror | FirstShowing.net

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Review: Fede Alvarez’s ‘Alien: Romulus’ is Proper Scary Sci-Fi Horror

by Alex Billington
August 16, 2024

“Run!!” There’s a new Alien movie in town. Time to get everyone together to go to back to theater for a great time at the cinema watching something dark and scary. Alien: Romulus is the seventh movie in the sci-fi horror Alien franchise, following the original four Alien movies and the two Ridley Scott prequels from 2012 and 2017. There were also two other Alien vs. Predator movies, but we don’t really talk about those (save that convo for another time). FirstShowing was in its heyday during the releases of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, and one thing I remember from when those two came out – most people are extremely critical of Alien movies. Yes, it’s an unquestionable fact that Alien and Aliens are two of the greatest sci-fi movies ever made. Alvarez’s new creation borrows from both, it’s literally set in between the two movies, and references them both in obvious and thrilling ways. I’m glad to say I enjoyed Alien: Romulus quite a bit. Much like Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey, it’s a properly entertaining, actually scary, supremely atmospheric one-off Alien movie.

Because both Alien and Aliens are held in such a high regard, everyone has their own set of standards and expectations when it comes to any other Alien movies after these two. We can debate & argue & discuss all of them for hours, which is one of the good things about this franchise. Alien: Romulus steps back from the more grandiose “who made us?” philosophy within Ridley Scott’s two sequels, and instead flies right back to Ridley Scott’s original 1979 classic. It’s set primarily on one spaceship – well, technically a small spaceship and also a derelict space station which is empty because, as you already know, some xenomorphs got loose and killed everyone. One key facet of the Alien franchise is that most of the main characters are incredibly stupid and make mistake after mistake leading to their demise. This is a feature, not a bug, going all the way back to first Alien when Ripley (and maybe also Ash) was the only one on the crew who could outsmart the creature. This is especially evident in Romulus, as the group of teenagers (they’re not even a crew this time) are some of the dumbest ever in this sci-fi franchise. However, as horror fans have already pointed out, this is Fede Alvarez paying homage to 80s summer camp slashers where a bunch of dumb teens get slashed up.

This time around there are, like the original, two characters that might just be smart enough to make it out – another android and a female human being. Cailee Spaeny stars as Rain, and David Jonsson (from the wonderful Rye Lane) stars as Andy, her robot pal. Technically he’s not her brother, but she treats him like her brother. He’s an entirely new kind of android different from the Ash or David or Walter or Call models we’ve seen before. He’s my favorite character in the whole movie, his innocence is adorable, and Jonsson’s performance is phenomenal. As with any Alien movie, it takes a while to figure out what kind of android he is (good? bad? suspicious? helpful?) but once he settles in it’s a near perfect performance as an android that deserves the love he’s getting so far. Much like Michael Fassbender’s David/Walter, the android once again stands out and is involved in a number of the more nuanced ethical and moral choices in the movie. There’s also another surprise character that everyone is talking about, but rather than spoil that now, we can argue about it later. His appearance never bothered me, even though there are a few flaws, I think his importance to the story (in the grand scheme of the Alien sci-fi universe) is more interesting than any other criticisms.

Alien: Romulus Review - Andy

Above all else, the look and feel of this thing is gorgeous. Not only does it have spectacular sci-fi elements to it, including having the icy rings of a mining planet play a major role in the story, but the distinctly realistic feel makes it all the more believable. The blend of massive practical sets and VFX filler works wonderfully. Alvarez successfully hearkens back to the gritty, analog, “old school” tech roots of the Alien franchise, with clunky computers and flashing lights galore. The sets and sounds and xenomorphs and world building and atmosphere are all top notch. Even though I have some issues with the overall story structure and the way it plays out, it’s hard to find anything to complain about regarding how Alien: Romulus looks and feels and sounds. I want to go back and visit this world. Right now. Maybe I don’t want to live on this planet or in this space station, but as a sci-fi geek, I was enamored with the whole entire sci-fi vibe of this movie. This is what makes it all worth it. Compared to Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s steam-filled Alien: Resurrection, the set design and cinematography in Romulus is so much better, sometimes reminding me of Blade Runner more than Alien.

I need to watch Alien: Romulus a few more times to get a better sense for where I’d rank it in the franchise, but my initial feeling is that I actually do like it slightly more than both Prometheus and Alien: Covenant. I prefer this movie being a simple story of humans on a space station trying to escape from the xenomorphs. The third act is pure nightmare fuel, which is cliche to say nowadays, but this seriously deserves that label. It’s a tad goofy, I rolled my eyes at first, but eventually I was grasping my arm rests and holding my breath. Romulus is legitimately scary in a few spots, which is not easy to pull off anymore… It’s also entertaining and engaging throughout. And the franchise’s philosophy and contemplative ideas are still there, regarding immoral androids and evil corporations and humanity’s existence in space. I do not care that it doesn’t “do something new”, as I’ve seen some critics complain about. Alvarez isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, he just wants to bring us on another xenomorph thrill ride again. He gets to let his gory slasher horror side flourish while his love for the original movies shines through as well. Not everyone will agree, of course, but I’m glad to say Romulus is terrific. I can’t wait to watch it again late at night to see if it rocks a second time around.

Alex’s Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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Cannes 2024 Finale – The 8 Best Films to Watch Out For From the Fest | FirstShowing.net

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Cannes 2024 Finale – The 8 Best Films to Watch Out For From the Fest

by Alex Billington
June 4, 2024

What are the best films out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival? Which ones should you be taking an interest in? What films should be a priority for you to see? After diving into cinema for 12 days at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, after watching a total of 40 films, it’s time to present my 2024 list of my Top 8 Favorites. This was my 14th year back to this festival (I also handed out 4 signed books), and I still love being there right in the middle of all the buzz and excitement, watching new cinema every single day. As I usually say – there’s always more to see, always more to take our breath away. These eight favorites listed below are the ones that connected with me emotionally or intellectually, and I hope you’ll consider watching a few when they arrive in your neighborhood. They are worth the wait – each one distinct and memorable. It might have been another lackluster Cannes overall, for the most part, though I am happy I caught a few bangers by the end. This is my very final recap of Cannes 2024 – don’t skip a chance to watch any of these with an audience.

My goal at film festivals nowadays is to watch, watch, watch and keep watching as much as possible. I don’t want to miss anything that might be good, and I prefer to get a look at anything just to see what each one is about. The Cannes 2024 line-up looked promising at the start, but ended up one of their most unimpressive selections in a long time. Even though I also said that 2023 was a “weaker year”, the all-timers from last year stand out even more than these 8 favorites below. I do not care for Caught by the Tides, Rumours is mediocre, The Shrouds is overrated, Parthenope is a disaster, Motel Destino is terrible, Beating Hearts is trash (here’s my review). Many other films I saw were instantly forgettable – I don’t know whether to blame the filmmakers, or the festival for programming all these films. I missed a few that others are raving about, including Viet and Nam and An Unfinished Film. There’s never enough time to see everything, and it’s hard enough to watch films over 12 days and still work on the site, too. I’m always relieved I could see this many.

I won’t delay any further with my Top 8 films of Cannes 2024, as these are the films that I loved the most, or left the greatest impact on me, and they all deserve to gain recognition outside of France. My favorites:

Anora – Directed by Sean Baker

Cannes - Sean Baker's Anora

The best film of the fest actually won the Palme d’Or this year! Huzzah! 🍾 Congrats to Sean Baker and the entire cast & crew of Anora. This film is going to become an instant classic, beloved favorite of many once it drops in theaters later this year. It absolutely deserves to win the Palme! I loved this film! Easily the best film of the entire 2024 Cannes Film Festival line-up, impressive in every single sense – from the filmmaking to the cinematography to all the performances to the story itself. I could rewatch this right away, and I’m looking forward to seeing it again. Anora is funnier than expected, making me laugh more than almost any other film this year so far. While also still remaining an intelligent, layered, authentic, clever, riveting story about a melange of people getting into trouble in New York City. Mikey Madison is unforgettable as Ani, aka Anora, with a perfect Brooklyn accent. But the best part of this film is Yura Borisov as Igor, who you’ll discover when you watch the film (he was also in the excellent Cannes 2021 film Compartment Number 6).

Black Dog – Directed by Hu Guan

Cannes - Hu Guan's Black Dog

Of course I love a dog movie! But this one is really something special. Black Dog is one of two major dog movies at Cannes this year – the other one is the Swiss comedy Dog on Trial (my review here). Co-written & directed by filmmaker Hu Guan – Black Dog stars celebrated Chinese actor Eddie Peng as Lang, a man who returns to his dusty, aging, industrial hometown after being released from prison. The town is overrun with stray dogs after everyone moved away to find more work, and he befriends one smart, funny, skinny black dog that lives on its own. His friendship with the doggie (and all of the animals around town) changes him and the entire town in the process. Not only is it a magnificent film about dogs, Peng actually adopted a few of the dogs from the film after the shoot. And the film took great care to treat every animal with respect, including a title card at the end about how they handled them and never mistreated any of them on the set.

The Girl with the Needle – Directed by Magnus von Horn

Cannes - Magnus von Horn's The Girl with the Needle

Another controversial pick from the Cannes line-up (some of my friends did not like this film, while others loved it). This film screened on the second day of the festival, one of the very first films to premiere. It’s an especially unsettling, almost gothic horror tale of a young woman living in a very dirty Copenhagen in the early 1900s. Vic Carmen Sonne stars in the brave lead role as Karoline, a poor, working-class woman who ends up getting pregnant while her husband is missing in The Great War. That’s just the start of her story as she tries to survive and make a living while struggling with her pregnancy, then she meets an older woman named Dagmar (played by Trine Dyrholm) who helps find new homes for unwanted babies. Aside from striking cinematography by Polish DP Michal Dymek, and the dark, disturbing screenplay that has some seriously unexpected twists & turns, the best part of this film is the score. Created by musician Frederikke Hoffmeier (aka by her stage name Puce Mary), this atmospheric, moody, actually freaky score has never left my mind. It stayed with me throughout the entire fest which is no easy feat while viewing so many films.

Emilia Pérez – Directed by Jacques Audiard

Cannes - Jacques Audiard's Emilia Pérez

This movie became the “you either love it or hate it” of Cannes 2024. And yep, I love it! I think it’s ambitious and bold and entertaining and something we’ve never seen before. The whole concept is a great example of “wait, what?!?!” Can he actually pull this off. Yes he can!! I’ve been a huge fan of French filmmaker Jacques Audiard ever since I first started attending Cannes and fell in love with A Prophet in 2009. Emilia Pérez is a totally unbelievable creation – a full-on musical about a Mexican cartel kingpin who transitions from man to woman to become “Emilia Pérez”, her true identity, while hiding from his past. All this happens in the first half, then the movie becomes a story about how she tries to reconcile with her violent past and all she did, and whether or not she can change anything in Mexico. Zoe Saldana also co-stars in a fierce role as her lawyer / friend Rita Moro Castro, who joins the cause in trying to make a difference while also getting caught up in her past as well. Spanish trans actress Karla Sofía Gascón won the Best Actress award, and deserves the acclaim for this challenging role. I’m a big fan of this one – I think Audiard really did pull it off.

The Substance – Directed by Coralie Fargeat

Cannes - Coralie Fargeat's The Substance

Brutal! Shocking! Gross! Loud! This is THE horror movie of the festival! Everyone was raving about it! The audience loved it and went wild at the end! It was one of the best screenings of the festival! Even if The Substance doesn’t have universal praise from everyone who saw it (some don’t like it at all), it is still one of Cannes 2024’s big breakouts that will have an impact on cinema once it hits theaters. Guaranteed. It’s a tad too long at 2 hours & 20 minutes, but the bat-shit, is-this-really-happening finale is worth the wait. Plus it’s exciting watching Demi Moore rock this lead role as “Elizabeth Sparkle”, taking her down weird alleys to places I wound never expect. Before the fest began, I had a feeling Coralie Fargeat would be the talk of the fest that’s pretty much what happened – rightfully so with such a gnarly, gory, spectacular body horror film. I had such a great time watching & talking about this one, it’s this year’s Titane (even though it didn’t win the Palme like that one), and proves that Fargeat is going to have a strong and illustrious career in film.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig – Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

Cannes - Mohammad Rasoulof's The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Essential cinema! This nearly 3-hour Iranian film from award-winning filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof screened on the second to last day of the film festival, arriving just at the last minute to win us over. I was impressed and moved by most of it – a powerful film about Iranian society’s current descent into madness. The story of a family living in Tehran that begins to fall apart. Iman, played by Missagh Zareh, is a loving father of a family of Iranian women living in a very nice apartment – his wife is Najmeh, played by Soheila Golestani, and they have two teenage daughters named Rezvan and Sana, played by Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki, respectively. All four of these performances are exceptionally strong, building this film into a powerful treatise on how paranoia and fear bring about madness. The film’s title, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, seems obscure though it’s actually connected to the many themes within the film and the story of what’s happening with Iran right now – with a healthy nation being strangled by fanaticism and dogma.

Eephus – Directed by Carson Lund

Cannes - Carson Lund's Eephus

Who would’ve thought that a baseball movie from America would end up being one of my favorite films from the 2024 Cannes Film Festival this year? I am so glad I took the chance to watch and discover and enjoy this clever comedy about old timers playing a game of baseball. Eephus premiered in Directors’ Fortnight (aka Quinzaine des Cinéastes) sidebar, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Carson Lund. It’s a remarkable debut, boasting a super smart script full of wise cracks, jokes, and baseball lingo aplenty that will probably go over the heads of anyone who doesn’t already know the game by heart. The cinematography is my favorite part about it, shot by DP Greg Tango, with perfectly composed shots focusing more on close-ups & various players than wide shots of the actual game. It’s a compelling film about dudes getting older, with their time fading away; yet it’s also a baseball movie, unlike any I’ve seen before. I thoroughly enjoyed it, laughed my ass off. Hopefully ends up becoming an indie hit whenever it opens in theaters later this year.

Flow – Directed by Gints Zilbalodis

Cannes - Gints Zilbalodis' Flow

The most adorable and heartwarming film of Cannes 2024! What a wonderful surprise. Another animated stand out from Cannes, similar to Robot Dreams last year. After making his feature directorial debut with Away in 2019, Latvian animation filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis spent five years working on his next feature called Flow. It’s the story of a black cat and his group of friends stuck together on a boat. The dialogue-free story is a beautifully animated tale of animals trying to survive in a magnificent world that is being flooded. As the water gets higher and higher, they journey onward deeper into their realm and meet other animals good and bad. The score by Rihards Zalupe & Gints Zilbalodis, along with the stunning animation work in harmony with this mesmerizing story of companionship. It may be hard to convince anyone else to sit and watch this, but I will do my best as it truly is a rewarding animated tale worthy of the big screen experience.

A few other films from the festival I want to mention even though they didn’t make the list. First, I need to mention The Surfer, the new film from director Lorcan Finnegan (of Vivarium) starring Nicolas Cage as a dude who confronts some suffer assholes on an Australian beach. I was considering including it on the list above, but it barely didn’t make the cut – though I still keep thinking about it. Not only Cage’s character, but the whole concept and commentary baked into it. I also think Andrea Arnold’s new film Bird is quite good, with powerful performances by Barry Keoghan & Franz Rogowski; however it’s not strong as I hoped and compared to these others it didn’t end up as one of my faves. I also enjoyed the stop-motion animated film Savages (aka Sauvages) from Swiss filmmaker Claude Barras, an endearing & touching tale of some kids who rescue a baby orangutan on the island of Borneo. I also enjoyed the Indian film All We Imagine As Light, it’s a tender and touching story, but I don’t believe it should’ve won the Palme d’Or. And I have to shout-out the kooky, weird French comedy Plastic Guns for being so menacingly hilarious in its absurdity.

And that’s it for Cannes 2024, ending our coverage of this film festival. Sean Baker’s film Anora ended up winning the Palme d’Or prize this year – find the full list of 2024 awards winners here. My coverage wraps up with this list of favorites and all my other reviews from the fest. I’m always looking forward to returning to Cannes again, it’s one of my favorite fests and I always enjoy going back hoping to discover masterpieces.

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Cannes 2024: Mohammad Rasoulof’s Film ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’ | FirstShowing.net

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Cannes 2024: Mohammad Rasoulof’s Film ‘The Seed of the Sacred Fig’

by Alex Billington
May 25, 2024

One of the most anticipated films premiering at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival is The Seed of the Sacred Fig, the latest from acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof. His films have show regularly at festivals – Goodbye screened at Cannes 2011, Manuscripts Don’t Burn at Cannes 2013, A Man of Integrity at Cannes 2017; his most recent 2020 film There Is No Evil won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The Seed of the Sacred Fig is especially important and potent because it really upset the Iranian government – they sentenced Rasoulof to eight years in prison as well as flogging, a fine and confiscation of his property just because he made this film. Part of the big question is why – what does it show and why is the Iranian government so afraid of it? Now we know. This remarkable film is about the current events in Iran, mainly the silencing of many women and young protestors who rose up in 2022 by removing burkas in opposition to the government’s heinous morality police. Not only does the film capture this moment quite powerfully, the filmmaking is also extraordinary, making this nearly three-hour-long film gripping from start to finish.

Written & directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig (known as Les graines du figuier sauvage in French or دانه‌ی انجیر معابد in Persian) is the story of one family in Tehran and what they go through as Iran’s recent conservatism tightens its grip on the country. It opens with a description of what the “seed of the sacred fig tree” is – a parable about how this seed, spread by birds, lands on other trees then grows and strangles the host tree and begins to take over. This anecdote is an explanation for what happens within this story over the next few hours. Iman, played by Missagh Zareh, is a loving father of a family of Iranian women living in a nice house in Tehran, Iran – his wife is Najmeh, played by Soheila Golestani, and they have two teenage daughters named Rezvan and Sana, played by Mahsa Rostami and Setareh Maleki, respectively. Iman is promoted as an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court. He complains that he cannot properly investigate his cases, with the prosecutors indicating how he must convict and not allowing him any time to consider otherwise. Slowly this influence begins to rot inside of him and he becomes more paranoid – everything boils over when he cannot find his gun that he usually keeps at home for protection.

This narrative is an especially unsettling example of how paranoia, fear, power, manipulation, and excessive control lead to an increase in conservatism and eventually full-on authoritarianism & sadism. There has been some analysis already as to whether Iman is supposed to be the Iranian government personified in one character. While that is one valid interpretation, I saw Iman as exactly who he is – a man who really didn’t seem all that bad at first, caring for his family, trying to do the right thing at work and at home. Much like the sacred fig anecdote at the start, he’s unfortunately influenced & strangled by the oppressive government that controls & suffocates him (and everyone in Iran), driving him mad even though he seems to be entirely unaware of this happening. One film that came to mind while watching this is Francis Ford Coppola’s classic The Conversation, a similar film about how paranoia and fear (of one’s government) can drive someone insane. Iman’s actions and his treatment of his own family becoming increasingly erratic and abusive, with everything spiraling out of control surrounding the missing gun. The film also subtly explores the misogyny, traditionalism, and manipulation prevalent in today’s Iranian society, without being overly blatant about it.

Watching this film at Cannes, everyone going in had no idea what they were about to watch. I was surprised & shaken to discover that the film is literally about the 2022 protests and Iranian women movement that lasted for a few months until the government took increasingly violent action to stop them. Rezvan & Sana are involved in it, following along on social media, and one of their close friends named Sadaf ends up with a horrible injury to her face thanks to police shooting buckshot into the crowd at her college. There are real clips from social media edited in, to reiterate how Iran is falling apart and how horrible all of this was/is. How everything is regressing & moving backwards. This reality is mirrored in the story of the family, with the father falling apart and lashing out at his daughters, saying they shouldn’t have even been there to begin with, blaming them instead of the regime. There is one incredible scene where they’re having dinner and Rezvan, in a chilling performance, strikes back & rejects her father’s claims, pointing out that he is a part of the system and is more obsessed with maintaining the traditionalism he’s employed in rather than accepting that this is what is bad for Iran. It’s an unforgettable scene and my audience reacted with a bit of applause.

The third act of The Seed of the Sacred Fig is immensely satisfying because it departs from everything that came before and moves the action to an entirely different location, letting things play out in a dynamic way (with a big finale that feels like it’s pulled from James Bond’s The Spy Who Loved Me more than anything else in Iranian cinema). After this intense downfall at their home in Tehran, they flee the city. At this point, it seems Rasoulof really has something to say and won’t take any shortcuts trying to say it. He knows how important this film is and he needs to end it in a way that will be impactful and meaningful. Whether or not he does that is up to every individual viewer, however I believe he achieves that, with a striking final shot that certainly does make its point. While this film specifically is about Iran, I couldn’t help but think about how this depiction of horribleness strangling a healthy mind is an accurate depiction of what is happening in many countries right now – including America. Watching Iman turn from good to evil is a universal story, and many people are falling into this trap because of the paranoia and fear that surrounds them. What can we do to stop this? According to Rasoulof, believe women and support women – at all costs, above all else.

Alex’s Cannes 2024 Rating: 9 out of 10
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Cannes 2024: Sean Baker’s Film ‘Anora’ is a One-of-a-Kind Sensation | FirstShowing.net

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Cannes 2024: Sean Baker’s Film ‘Anora’ is a One-of-a-Kind Sensation

by Alex Billington
May 23, 2024

It’s always an especially exhilarating experience to stumble upon a film so completely unlike anything that has been made before that it leaves you on a cinematic high after walking out of the theater. At the midway point in the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, we finally get to experience the bliss of Anora, the latest film from American filmmaker Sean Baker. Anora is his eighth feature film so far, and he was already in Cannes in 2017 with The Florida Project (in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar) and again in 2021 with Red Rocket. This might just be hist best yet. France obviously loves him, but so does everyone else – this film has received the highest marks out of any in the Main Competition from all of the critics at this year’s festival. The film’s title is the name of the young woman who stars in the film, a young stripper from New York City named Anora who falls for a rich Russian kid after he pays her to hook up with him. On a whirlwind trip to Las Vegas they end up getting married (Vegas, baby Vegas!!) – but there’s so much more going on in this film than just that.

Anora is written and directed and produced by Sean Baker, who is telling another wild and crazy story. Up-and-coming young actress Mikey Madison stars as Anora, who goes by Ani in the film. It’s a star making performance and she totally owns it. She works as a stripper at an upscale strip club in Manhattan (called “Headquarters”) and also occasionally hooks up with clients whenever she feels like it. One day, a Russian kid comes in named Ivan, also known as Vanya, played by Russian actor Mark Eydelshteyn. He’s the son of a Russian oligarch and has an endless amount of money to spend – so he hires her and they start to spend more & more time together. If you watch this film closely, they’re both young & dumb. That’s part of the plot whether you like it or not. Ivan just plays video games and gets wasted every day, spending all of his time in his (rather, his father’s) mansion when not out on the town. After a fun New Year’s Eve party, he hires Ani to be his girlfriend for an entire week, then flies a group of his friends to Las Vegas for more partying, where they end up deciding to get married in a “let’s do it!!” hangover haze. And this is when the real fun begins…

After the debauchery of this opening segment, the “oh shit” thrilling side of Anora kicks in. His parents find out he married a sex worker and freak out – these are extremely rich, powerful people who can do whatever they want, including cancelling a marriage. So they make calls and get their local guy to send his guys over to Ivan’s mansion to sort things out – and get the marriage annulled immediately. They’re in love, so they claim! So this obviously causes tons of chaos. The accuracy of the characters, this entire situation, how it all plays out, is so ridiculously spot on it’s almost unsettling how Sean Baker got all of this right. It’s brilliant. The film is one of the funniest of the year, and I was not expecting that with this kind of story. Despite the very serious, very emotional stakes of what’s going on with this marraige between these two youngsters, there’s humor coming from every line and every happening and every twist & turn. The whole second half of the film is getting compared to Uncut Gems, which makes sense, but it also feels quite unique in the way it follows Ani & Ivan and three men (two Armenians + one Russian who work for his parents) around the city.

Sean Baker is truly one of a kind, making films unlike anyone else that no one else can replicate in the same way. Anora is not just hilarious but incredibly deep, nuanced, layered, intelligent, complex filmmaking that gets every scene just right. I’m still breathless with joy over this film. I’m still going on & on raving about it and the way it handles everything in the plot, understanding the emotions of each character along with the audience’s engagement in the story. It’s best going in not knowing where the story goes and what happens next in each scene because the THRILL is watching it all play out. The second half if stronger than the first because there’s so much more going on – and the implications of their young love, the implications of own predicaments, are explored. I absolutely adore how the film grows & builds & morphs into something more (profound) as it plays out. Yes it’s filled with NYC intensity & thrills in the second half, but it’s also actually building and progressing and unraveling with an immense understanding of people, not just characters, but real people. This is a special filmmaking talent Baker has and it’s also what makes his films so memorable.

There’s no way I can talk about this film without mentioning one of the best parts of Anora. Yura Borisov has quickly become one of my favorite Russian actors, whenever he appears in anything you know he’s going to be the best damn character in it (also see: Compartment Number 6). His performance in this is especially unforgettable. He’s the real emotional core of the film. Everyone will fall head over heels for Mikey Madison, of course, and she absolutely deserves the acclaim for her remarkable performance as Ani. But it is Borisov who begins to take over and become a vitally important part of the plot and, once again, I was not expecting this. The final scenes in Anora are so extremely important to deciphering the rest of the entire film, and the point of everything we’re watching anyway. I worry that many viewers will not be able to fully grasp what is being said and the explanations here. There’s a depth to the characters that is revealed in these final scenes that is astonishing, making this film more than just another exercise in romantic comedy or big city thrills. This is the real magic of Sean Baker and his films, this is the real wonder of truly phenomenal filmmaking.

Alex’s Cannes 2024 Rating: 9.8 out of 10
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Cannes 2024: Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ is One Big Ambitious, Epic Mess | FirstShowing.net

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Cannes 2024: Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis’ is One Big Ambitious, Epic Mess

by Alex Billington
May 16, 2024

“Don’t let the now destroy the forever.” There will be no one review that will say everything that one could say about this film. No one critic will be able to cover it all, nor will they be able to accurately describe the experience of watching this film. It is a film that needs to be seen (with your own eyes) to be believed. As cliche as that is to write, considering this is the spectacular new $100M+ passion project from the cinema legend Francis Ford Coppola, it couldn’t be truer anyway. Megalopolis premiered today at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, leaving critics baffled, confused, astounded, and intrigued. No matter what I have to say, no matter my own thoughts, this is just one quick take on it and great cinema is about discussing many interpretations and perspectives. That said, Megalopolis is definitely not a new masterpiece. Maybe it will be considered one in 20 years? Maybe not. Only time will tell… As for today’s viewing experience, well, it’s a mix of everything. Confounding yet fascinating! Exhilarating yet trashy! Even if you hate the film, you really can’t be against Coppola for giving it his all trying to make his point (or many points) before his time is up.

Megalopolis is Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited passion project as an ambitiously massive movie that he has been wanting to make for decades. It’s his treatise on America, his critical look at the grand downfall of America (as is happening now) similar to the downfall of Rome. The film’s opening title card literally states that it’s “A Fable” and instead of setting it in the actual city of New York, it’s set in “New Rome”, as he calls it. A bit like Superman’s Metropolis, but Coppola’s Megalopolis. Within this framework, he drops line upon line, title card upon title card, voiceover upon voiceover of diatribes, platitudes, and cliches about America and how it is collapsing like the Roman Empire once did – slowly, but surely, that is. It may not be new or courageous to say anymore, but he posits that it’s because of the greed & ignorance of a powerful few. Adam Driver is the star of the show, playing a visionary architect named Caesar Catalina, who is the ambitious left-minded person dreaming of a utopia. He’s countered by Mayor Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito, who wants to keep the city and all its glitz & glamour as is, rejecting the potential of any utopia.

Can a movie be simultaneous brilliant and a huge mess at the same time? Coppola certainly tries! And boy does he have a LOT to say. Megalopolis packs in every single thought he has about America and its failures into 2+ hours. On one hand, it is irrefutably a mess, with mishmash of wild scenes that are more bombastic than meaningful. There’s too much stagey showmanship, not enough coherent filmmaking & storytelling, which is strange for a filmmaker who has made more than a few all-timer cinema classics. The result is an oddity. Megalopolis is a truly peculiar work of cinema that some will hate, some will love. I’ve already seen comments saying both they despise it or admire it. There are a couple scenes that I did enjoy, though not enough of them. There are even moments (especially in the second half) where it’s clearly visible on Adam Driver’s face that even he is tired of performing for Coppola and doing endlessly showy takes while letting Coppola try to do whatever he’s trying doing on set to get his shots. The film is nonetheless a compelling criticism of America with a ton of accurate observations, though they’re so blatantly stated that none of it is going to actually connect with viewers and make them contemplate their involvement in America’s downfall.

One of the most bewildering moments arrived about halfway into the film. At our Cannes press screening, a man suddenly appeared out of nowhere, walked onto the stage, a light turned on and he stood with a mic, looking at the stage, speaking into the mic interacting with Adam Driver (on screen). For those curious, as far as I can tell, Coppola wanted to *literally* break the 4th wall in this scene by having a guy (an actor??) appear *in-person* in the theater and “ask a question” during a press Q&A with Adam Driver’s character (in the film). I get what he’s going for, but it happens out of nowhere, lasts for 60 seconds, then never happens again. Coppola has been trying to innovate cinema in his later years, and this kind of gimmick is his attempt to do something that breaks down the barriers of the screen. My belief is that his goal is to try and get the audience to actually feel they are a part of the conversation, that they are literally involved in the discussion within the film about “which future should we build.” One example of the film’s confusion is the way it often says that “participating in the conversation” is good for a healthy society, however it then shows how all of the pompous characters within the story can’t actually have any real conversations with yelling or bickering.

I admire Coppola’s ambition, and I honestly do appreciate what he’s trying to say with Megalopolis; even if he’s trying to say about 100 different things in one film (and that rarely ever works). It’s hilarious how often he straight up quotes Shakespeare or Marcus Aurelius to literally state with dialogue what he wants to say, instead of showing it with cinema. The Shakespearean dialogue and references, right down to various cousin characters criss-crossing in lewd ways, are bothersome because they make the film feel less cinematic and more theatrical. Which then makes his sets and his performances feel like they’re meant for the stage, too. In terms of his criticism of America, I’m on Coppola’s side, and I do believe in a real utopia if we could only stop fighting and get over ourselves (and our greed, selfishness, etc). I wish he had spent more time crafting a more coherent script (and a more coherent film) to make his points, to make sure that audiences would actually absorb his ideas. Perhaps we’ll all look back on this film in 20 or 50 or 100 years time and think, yep, he really got it right. But I still wish it was more entertaining, more understandable film than this one.

Alex’s Cannes 2024 Rating: 5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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Review: Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’ is an Exercise in Narrative Emptiness | FirstShowing.net

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Review: Alex Garland’s ‘Civil War’ is an Exercise in Narrative Emptiness

by Alex Billington
April 15, 2024

“What kind of American are you? You don’t know?” Now that it’s playing in theaters, Civil War is one of these movies where everyone must have a very strong Opinion™ about and make sure everyone else hears it. Every moviegoer just HAS to chime in and join the discussion. So here I am throwing my hat into the ring, so to say, with my own critical thoughts. Does it matter? Will anyone care? I doubt it, but of course I’ve got something to say about this movie. We all do. I’m joining the chorus in continuing to emphasize that I really believe Civil War is an empty movie and that’s not a good thing. Aside from the apolitical narrative of “we’re going to follow these supposedly objective war photographers” there’s really nothing else new or interesting or unique it’s saying about war. It is just another bland war movie, regurgitating every last war movie trope but setting in America this time. Thus the pertinent question becomes, “why?” Why set it in America? What is it saying about America’s might-really-happen next Civil War? Not much of anything at all, unfortunately.

First things first, I cannot say Civil War is a bad movie in regards to the filmmaking. Written & directed by British writer & director Alex Garland, and featuring cinematography from British DP Rob Hardy, this war movie is slick and thrilling. The pacing is riveting and unsettling – going from intense, harrowing scenes to quieter, more peaceful moments. Yet the rumbling of war and the threat of what might be waiting around the corner always looms. Just like every other war movie ever made… This time, however, it’s set in the very possible a-second-civil-war-is-now-underway America. Which is especially relevant & frighteningly realistic as a concept, so much so that I don’t think it’s proper or right to call this movie sci-fi. There is not much imaginative fiction in it beyond the idea that this civil war hasn’t actually happened yet. The performances especially from both leads Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny are strong and compelling, even if they are the cliche yin vs yang of experienced vs newcomer war photographers. Stephen McKinley Henderson as the wise and hardened Sammy, though, steals the show and is the only really great character in this movie.

This brings me to my primary frustrations with Civil War. It’s especially ironic to say I “enjoyed” the action in this because it seems the only coherent point that Alex Garland wants to make is that all this killing and all this awfulness of war is bad and we should not enjoy it (as we often do in other war movies) because once it comes to your own backyard it will make you want to puke, too. Such an original thought that, well, every other war movie has had, too. As I feared, Civil War is dangerously careless and unpleasant in its apolitical conceit. It’s so bitterly obvious Garland’s pitch was: “you know all those Middle East civil war journalists-go-there movies, I want to make that but set it in America” though it has nothing more to say anyway. War is bad! Yeah, we know. Your friends will die! Yeah, we know. Journalism is important! Yeah, we know. No side wins when everyone is killing each other! Yeah, we know. Every war movie trope ever + America doesn’t make it interesting. That’s what is so annoying about it… Ignoring the crucial politics of WHY war happens (*continues to happen) and thinking if you show us, for the 1000th time in cinema, that both sides are doing bad things by killing the other side, we’ll all stop fighting and prevent more wars is not helpful nor effective.

Civil War Review

Let me make a controversial statement – it’s exceptionally naive for anyone to think that just because there’s another movie in theaters now depicting with cinematic realism how very bad and horrible and violent war always is, we’ll all prevent the next one before it begins. Really? After 100 years of other (better) war movies why are we all still ending up in more wars? Perhaps because refusing to address that “why” more honestly (and, let’s be honest, by clearly showing that there is a good and a bad side no matter what some believe) is the reason we’re still all shooting each other in the streets… Just look around right now – the war in Ukraine, the atrocities in Gaza, shootings daily in America, etc. Did any of these war movies before stop any of this? Does showing someone a war movie not make them want to fight for something in the real world that deeply matters to them? Nope. That’s why setting this in America and making it seem more relevant to those who can only be scared because it is set in America weakens the message and the entire concept. And let’s not be so foolish as to think that the journalism they’re depicting in this movie is making a real difference either. Unfortunately that era is over. When in this movie does their journalism actually make a difference? Never.

In one interview, Garland actually said that “polarization is not a good thing” is ultimately the movie’s entire message. Once again, this isn’t anything new or surprising or revealing. Alas, he refuses to grapple with the polarization, where it comes from, how it grows, etc. He never wants to dig into this topic despite making an entire movie set around Americans fighting themselves because of polarization. Once again, what is there left to consider if it’s not enjoyable to watch this action. I find it especially strange how so many people have reacted to Civil War as if it is the most horrifying war movie they’ve ever seen, which speaks to their myopic bias towards America and refusal to consider anything beyond its borders as being as important as whatever is happening in America. I can watch Come and See or Apocalypse Now or The Battle of Algiers and feel as unsettled about war not in America. Even the last few years there have been more interesting war journalist movies – Bruno Dumont’s France or Agnieszka Holland’s Mr. Jones or Matthew Heineman’s A Private War.

There are a multitude of different interpretations and reactions to Civil War and what it means and what it’s really about. Is it actually about America or just set in America? Is it about war? Is it about journalism? Is it about trying to be neutral? No matter what any of these viewers claim, it never seems to really explain why this movie is more effective or engaging than any other war movie. Nor do these reactions justify the movie’s ultimate message that is supposed to be “both sides are bad, polarization is bad, let’s not let this happen.” Showing war photographers doing their job only reminds us that they are a necessary part of covering war, not stopping war, or preventing war, because in all these centuries of humanity having books & newspapers, we still haven’t been able to stop ending up in more wars. I wish there was something more going on in here. I wish it had something more to say about America – or war, or how to prevent it. Much like his last movie Men, it’s so empty and ultimately meaningless I don’t want to discuss it further. So many other war movies have handled this better, so many other movies about war photographers have dug into this better. After a few months we’re all going to forget this movie and go back to reading real life updates on more war anyway.

Alex’s Rating: 5 out of 10
Follow Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing

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