LivraisonduCinémaFilm reviews

The Shrouds by David Cronenberg David Cronenberg made a classic Cronenberg film, a slow burning-story, theatrical dialogue, close-ups, of human bondage and of bodily deformities, with a Howard Shore so familiar and yet so unique score - the whole nine yards of Cronenberg cinema. Crash often comes to mind as you watch The Shrouds. Here, the body horror of terminal cancer blends with the perverse arousal of mutilated limbs and breast wounds, intertwined with modern AI and self-driving Teslas (they don’t crash, though), and even re-enacting the classic spooning sex scene, this time not James Spader and Deborah Kara Unger, but Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger. A feast of senses for Cronenberg buffs (like me), a spoilt Sunday evening for many others. I’m in awe. Ссылка скрыта

Night on Earth by Jim Jarmusch I totally forgot the storyline of this movie in 30 years since I first watched it … funnily enough, I kind thought Finnish episode was super fun, but naw, the opposite … yet Rome was on fire Ссылка скрыта

Take Out by Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou Only true cinema buffs can watch this New Yorkese piece of social realism, made entirely in Mandarin and with 50% of its screen time devoted to wok-frying Chinese food and delivering it by bike in the rain — but for buffs, that’s mesmerizing. Don’t expect an Anora-like rollercoaster, that’s all I’m saying — but you can certainly trace some of its origins here. Grit and kindness, eh. The kindness of Iranian movies from the mid-90s — think Taste of Cherry or The Moment of Innocence. Ссылка скрыта

Anora by Sean Baker It’s been a while since I posted any film reviews here - got lazy, I guess. But Anora was such a rollercoaster, a big ticket wow, so not giving it and Mikey Madison my praise felt totally wrong. As if they cared about it. An instant classic, think Jim Jarmusch of the 80s kinda quality. Kept me glued to the screen (well, to my Apple Vision Pro, actually). Explosive. For those of us avid fans of Juho Kuosmanen’s Compartment #5, Yura Borisov brilliantly reprised his role of Lyokha again, offering a different shade of rawness, yet still a stalwart image of the best and the worst Russian qualities all-in-one, same same but different, eh. My only (minor) complaint - why no Russian Samovar restaurant on the 52nd, how could they miss it? Surely they should’ve visited it in their search, not only Brighton Beach, I guess… Ссылка скрыта

Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard By god, Jacques Audiard just doesn’t cease to impress, filming a gem after gem after gem, and for two decades already - his sense of story, style, rhythm, cast, music, all impeccable and breathtaking. Emilia Pérez made me think whether I should reconsider my (typically snobbish) disregard for the Academy Awards - this is a rare moment when I’m in absolute approval of the swarm of Oscar nominations this movie received. Let’s see what it gets in the end though. I could never imagine those academics to have much style - and I hope they did look at the film’s numerous merits and didn’t just follow the DEI policy manual (especially given that this guidebook is being discontinued in the US of A of newly released vintage 2025). Don’t get me wrong, real art should be above right wing sanctimony and puritanism, as well as above radical wokeness and bigotry by liberal DEI hawks. Art supersedes policy. Say, despite me leaning towards conservative beliefs and values, I can wholeheartedly confess my undying admiration for Laurence Anyways, another perennial masterpiece about gender transition. Bravo, Jacques Audiard! And bravo Zoe Saldaña, though I honestly can’t understand why she is nominated for the supporting actress and not the lead. If she’s not the lead, then I dunno who is. Encore! Ссылка скрыта

Anatomie d’une Chute by Justine Triet I like all those grainy no CGI radical honesty movies, and it’s a good one, keeps you on your toes. A Palme d’Or winner, not a small thing, eh. Yet I feel the style of Anatomie is somewhat overused, secondary to everything from Dogme 95 and Krzysztof Kieślowski to the Dardenne brothers’ and Maren Ade’s early movies. I couldn’t get it out of my system that it was all a bit of, I dunno, repossession, recycling, repurposing of old ideas, themes, feelings. But maybe that’s just me. Ссылка скрыта

Greyhound by Aaron Schneider Now, is there anyone better to write a yet another WWII heroic Tom Hanks movie than Tom Hanks himself? Not bad, but Hanks is well overdue playing something different - a villain maybe. Ссылка скрыта

Blitz by Steve McQueen Now, why did Steve McQueen turned a story of firebombing of London into a poorly believable DEI film? I had higher hopes, really. Ссылка скрыта

The Substance by Coralie Fargeat Gosh, such a weird movie! Revenge, the debut feature film of Coralie Fargeat (The Substance is her second one) was such a mediocre action/gore flick that I decided not to post anything about it here a few years ago. This time, I was utterly tempted to watch The Substance after Demi Moore’s heartfelt speech at the Golden Globes, and the movie indeed began magically (just minor spoilers ahead, eh), all that David Cronenberg’s atmosphere of perversity, eXistenz inspired body ports, a tale of deformity … yet the last 30 minutes of it, god gracious, why did she dumped all that beauty into a waste bin and basically reshot a potpourri of Peter Jackson’s Brain Dead, Brian Yuzna’s The Society, and ended that with what could be one of the biggest Troma Films of all times, Lloyd Kaufman should be proud. Like Icarus, it rises high into the skies, the wax melts, so it plunges into gooey mud and shite. Disillusioned. The film definitely deserved a (much) better ending. Ссылка скрыта