Six new films can be found in Tristan Priimäe’s first film release review in 2024. The most notable are Kristoffer Borgl’s “Dream Scenario” and Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron”, but also the horror film with higher expectations ” Satan Worshipers”.
A dream scenarioDream scenarioKristoffer BorgliUnited States of AmericaKP Distribution
In 2022, Norwegian Kristoffer Borgli received a lot of attention in Cannes with his debut feature film, Fed Up With Myself. Now he continues a similar theme of media criticism in the English-language film “Dream Scenario”, where he again focuses on volatile (internet) fame and its various facets. Starring Nicolas Cage, who has consistently managed to make an average of one perfectly good film a year among other rubbish, this is now the must-see Cage ’23 film. He plays a loser professor who becomes an overnight celebrity when many people start seeing him in their dreams. “Dream Scenario” begins comically and is initially reminiscent of Woody Allen’s films, but the pitch-black notes grow into this harmony and the story begins to change, away from expectations, as a good film should. Enough chatter, go and see for yourself.
4
The boy and the heronKimitachi wa dô ikiru kaHayao MiyazakiJapanspecies
Because of the distribution scandal that erupted around the film (it’s unclear whether some of the money paid for the film went to Russia or not), I didn’t even want to do it for a while, but the film is a film and it needs to be talked about objectively.
Miyazaki’s latest film is like a composite of his entire career: there are familiar characters from many of his previous films (or at least variations thereof), the familiar searches in the flames of war are reminiscent of his previous film wind”. , and the themes are familiar too: magical realism vs. the horrors of war, the concern for a world that we probably won’t be able to save just with the help of our reality. Here, the world manager is a strange character who combines the appearance of two superheroes from our world: Sandman and Lotman.
Overall, it must be admitted that “The Boy and the Heron” is beautiful in a familiar Ghibli way, but relatively boring until the last third, which rehabilitates many things. A dignified swansong. Or a heron.
3.5
I love to hate youAnyone but youWill GluckUnited States of AmericaACME
The film “Love to Hate You” can be considered a success in its field, in the category of romantic comedies, especially since the main characters are not complete idiots like most. It is true that here too the spectator’s trust in the events is adequately put to the test in the meantime, with both negative and positive coincidences, which are always more common in this genre than in any other. After all, the whole point of a romantic comedy is to induce a breakdown in communication, which sometimes goes so far dramaturgically that it starts to seem like the main characters are deaf or stupid. There’s less than average here, both young stars, Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell, are nice, Sweeney pleasantly different from his usual bitchoff the i-roll. Enough air is given to their interactions and even the secondary characters, so that in the meantime he begins to remember more independent-film like a romantic comedy.
3
Satan worshipersLord of bad governmentWilliam Brent BellIreland-UK-USAIrasa of the world is famous
Don’t be discouraged by the terrible translation of the title into Estonian, constructed to the lowest common denominator, which I don’t want to repeat in the text. “Lord of Misrule” is basically an adaptation of the classic “Wicker Man”, in which the main character with Christian origins must begin to resolve a conflict with an ancient pagan culture somewhere in the English countryside. At the same time, this film manages to pull some unexpected cards out of its sleeve and carve his name on the wall with the scythe inside this familiar niche. Do what you want, the discomfort will slowly seep into the skin, and this old paganism is such fertile ground that all kinds of uncomfortable thoughts sprout from it.
In the short history of “Kinosilma”, it was possible to give low scores to horror broadcasts, so it may seem that I do not have a close permanent relationship with this genre. In reality, however, this proves the fact that they are chosen much more randomly and that there is also more rubbish than in other genres. Luckily, Lord of Misrule is now an example of how the same familiar clichés can be recycled in a way that’s worth watching. Above expectations.
3
The palaceThe palaceRomano PolanskiFrance-Italy-Poland-Switzerland
I generally like Polanski a lot, and while it’s very fashionable to criticize him right now, I wouldn’t automatically want to join that chorus. “Palace” is another feature film by the now ninety-year-old Polanski, adding to his so-called the rich eat a genre that pokes fun at the unrealistic lifestyles of the rich, both on TV (“The White Lotus,” “The Heirs”) and film (“The Sad Triangle,” “The Menu,” “Saltburn”). Unfortunately, Polanski adds nothing new or interesting to this discussion. A group of rich people gathered in a Swiss mountain hotel might as well belong to the Old Baskin theater company. There’s some entertainment here, and Polanski has managed to make some really tasteless jokes in the past, but now the goal is still quite far away. The film’s central theme is the Y2K panic, which begs the big question of whether it’s too early or too late for this, but the topic feels completely timely and understandable. At the same time, it draws an intriguing parallel with Putin’s rise to power in a secondary part of history, as if suggesting that the disaster of 2000 happened, but in a different form, and its result we see now in Ukraine. it’s not enough to save the film, as well as Mickey Rourke or John Cleese, who are probably among the few willing to work with Polanski. All in all, irrelevant fluff.
1.5
UmamiSlow saltyFrance-JapanOtaku
Let’s leave aside the fact that Gérard Depardieu, who plays the protagonist, chef Gabriel, is convinced of Putin and above all of a rape apologist, who is also currently under investigation for having abused several women. Let’s focus on the movie. “Umami” seeks to blend two subgenres that proved effective last year: First, a cooking film that seeks to signal the larger truth of life through cooking (“Flavors of Life,” “Waiting for Dalí” ) and, secondly, the self-searching of the Western protagonist in the Japanese cultural space (Wim Wenders’ cinematic journey of self-discovery “Perfect Days” ” for example), but we end up with a mixture that does not have a good flavor. Characters are created to disappear, new plots are introduced as if in passing, during Gabriel’s wanderings, something strange happens in France with his son, who in incomprehensible circumstances also finds himself a chef. Meanwhile, in Japan, the daughters and sons of Gabriel and his Japanese colleague are fighting, and no joke has an understandable motivation, until they all find themselves together in a real French movie clink of glasses at the dining table, united by “umami” like The Fifth element of Luc Besson: love. Terrible.
0.5
2024-01-02 09:28:00
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