“Cafe Funiculi Funicula” by Ayuko Tsukahara (2018)

First Feature

Top score: script (9)

Foreign films sometimes confront us with reactions or expressions that seem strange to us. For example, as an European citizen, I find the reaction of ‘shame’ in American movies – when a man is chocked when he unintendly sees female nudity – extremely hypocritical, even though I’ve seen it so many times…) Anyway, very little of this in this Japanese movie (except at one moment, with the cat…)
A fantasy dealing with mature subjects!

Cast: Kasumi Arimura, Motoki Fukami,
Director: Ayuko Tsukahara
Writer: Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Music by Masaru Yokoyama
Cinematography by Norimichi Kasamatsu
Film Editing by Ryûji Miyajima

“Real Genius” by Martha Coolidge (1985)

Friday Classics
Martha Coolidge (2/6)

Top score: personages, dialogues, humor (9)

Fantastic dialogues, great fun
A world of nerds in which girls are well (if not extensively) represented

Cast: Val Kilmer, Michelle Meyrink, Robert Prescott, Gabe Jarret, William Atherton
Directed by Martha Coolidge
Screenplay by Peter Torokvei, Pat Proft, Neal Israel
Music by Thomas Newman
Photographed by Vilmos Zsigmond

“Captain Marvel” by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (2018)

Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck (4/4)

Good humor and an intersting use of flashbacks
A wink to millennials: no love story, no sex!

Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Annette Bening
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Writer: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck, Geneva Robertson-Dworet
Cinematographer: Ben Davis
Editor: Elliot Graham, Debbie Berman
Composer: Pinar Toprak

“La Belle Verte” by Coline Serreau (1996)

Coline Serreau (2/4)

A few great moments lost in an ambitious but pointless comedy

Cast: Coline Serreau, Vincent Lindon, James Thierrée
Director: Coline Serreau
Writer: Coline Serreau
Music by Coline Serreau
Cinematography by Robert Alazraki
Film Editing by Catherine Renault

“I Think We’re Alone Now” by Reed Morano (2018)

Nice build-up, but in the end the message is unclear

Cast: Peter Dinklage, Elle Fanning, Paul Giamatti, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Director: Reed Morano
Writer: Mike Makowsky
Cinematographer: Reed Morano
Editor: Madeleine Gavin
Composer: Adam Taylor

“Bird Box” by Susanne Bier (2018)

The good cast and direction, and the space provided for minorities – a mixed-race couple, an homosexual, a middle-aged lead woman, and a community of blind people among others – compensate for a scenario propped with cliches that are supposed to make the film acceptable in Hollywood’s terms. I miss the Danish Susanne Bier I once knew… [for more about this director, see The Movies of Susanne Bier]

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, Sarah Paulson, Danielle Macdonald, LilRel Howery, John Malkovich
Director: Susanne Bier
Writer: Josh Malerman, Eric Heisserer
Cinematographer: Salvatore Totino
Editor: Ben Lester
Composer: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

“The Darkest Minds” by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (2018)

What a waste!

Cast: Amandla Stenberg, Harris Dickinson, Patrick Gibson, Skylan Brooks, Mandy Moore
Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Based on the novel by Alexandra Bracken
Writer: Chad Hodge
Cinematographer: Kramer Morgenthau
Editor: Maryann Brandon, Dean Zimmerman
Composer: Benjamin Wallfisch

“Project Eden vol.1” by Ashlee Jensen & Terrance Young (USA, 2017)

Very foreseeable developments, many cliches (the mafia speaks Russian, to make sure we know it is the mafia), enormous mistakes in the continuity (after she has been running hard for a few hundred meters, he asks her if she can walk), and a dystopian setting that is not even necessary to the plot… The few twists after an hour or so don’t make it better. One of the worse movies I’ve ever seen!

Actors: Erick Avari, Mike Dopud, Anna McGahan
Directors: Ashlee Jensen, Terrance M. Young
Writers: Ashlee Jensen, Terrance M. Young | 1 more credit »
Music by Jamie Murgatroyd
Cinematography by Christopher Lange
Film Editing by Terrance M. Young

“Into The Forest” by Patricia Rozema (Canada, 2015)

A few recent movies on fatherhood

Good story and realization, average content
Three men: the father, the lover, the raper / Three women: ywo sisters + deceased mother
The “scifi” setting that was perhaps justified when the story was written in 1996 doesn’t convey anything to the plot today.

Cast: Ellen Page, Evan Rachel Wood, Callum Keith Rennie, Max Minghella
Director: Patricia Rozema
Based on the novel by Jean Hegland
Writer: Patricia Rozema
Cinematographer: Daniel Grant
Editor: Matthew Hannam
Composer: Max Richter

“Imitation Girl” by Natasha Kermani (USA, 2017)

Some beautiful scenes, a somewhat obscure ending

Cast: Lauren Ashley Carter, Neimah Djourabchi, Adam David Thompson
Director: Natasha Kermani
Writer: Natasha Kermani
Music by Kevin Hufnagel, Natasha Kermani
Cinematography by Travis Tips
Film Editing by Gabriel de Urioste

“The Matrix” by Lana & Lilly Wachowski (USA, 1999)

The Art of the Wachowski (sisters)

Nice wink to the music of Bernard Hermann during the pursuit on the roof / fantastic visual effects
But why on earth would the Wachowsky sisters call the last human city ‘Zion’? It wouldn’t have anything to do with Hollywood, would it, Zion being a synonym of Jerusalem?
It’s a pity the movie ends up in a gun battle in which the “Bad guys fire thousands of rounds, but are unable to hit the good guy,” followed by a “final showdown between good and evil, a martial arts battle in which the good guy gets pounded until he’s almost dead, before he finds the inner will to fight back.” [Roger Ebert]

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, Joe Pantoliano, Gloria Foster
Written and Directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski
Music by Don Davis
Cinematography by Bill Pope
Film Editing by Zach Staenberg

“The Matrix Reloaded” by Lana & Lilly Wachowski (USA, 2003)

The Art of the Wachowski (sisters)

The people of Zion are in the future what the people of Zion were in the past.
Excellent love scene mixed with voluptuous dancing
The love relationships that were completely absent in the first Matrix now play a central role. The fight sequences are a bit too long!

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Hugo Weaving, Carrie-Anne Moss, Gloria Foster, Jada Pinkett Smith, Nona Gaye, Harry Lennix, Harold Perrineau, Monica Bellucci
Written and Directed by Lana and Lilly Wachowski
Music by Don Davis
Cinematography by Bill Pope
Film Editing by Zach Staenberg

“The Matrix Revolutions” by Lana & Lilly Wachowski (Australia, 2003)

The Art of the Wachowski (sisters)

Now that the philosophical hype has faded into oblivion, let’s enjoy the amazing visual effects and the good action in which most key roles are attributed to women, especially in this last pane of the trilogy.
An all-powerful Deus Ex Machina saves the show!

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Jada Pinkett Smith, Carrie-Anne Moss, Helmut Bakaitis, Hugo Weaving, Mary Alice, Monica Bellucci, Harry J. Lennix, Ian Bliss
Written and directed by Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Music by Don Davis
Cinematography by Bill Pope
Film Editing by Zach Staenberg

“Cloud Atlas” by Tom Tykwer, Lana & Lilly Wachowski (USA, 2012)

The Art of the Wachowski (sisters)

So many layers, so rich in visual surprises! As Roger Ebert put it, citing Churchill: “it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.”

Cast: Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Tom Hanks
Directors: Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Writers: David Mitchell (novel); Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Lilly Wachowski
Music by Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer
Cinematography by Frank Griebe, John Toll
Film Editing by Alexander Berner, Claus Wehlisch

“Jupiter Ascending” by Lana & Andy Wachowski (USA, 2015)

The Art of the Wachowski (sisters)

Excellent special effects but repetitive situations, long action sequences that do not bring anything forward, and weak gender representation

Cast: Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Eddie Redmayne, Tuppence Middleton, Sean Bean, Douglas Booth, Jo Osmond, Terry Gilliam, DooNa Bae, Vanessa Kirby, James D’Arcy
Director: Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski
Screenplay: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Original Music Composer: Michael Giacchino

“Advantageous” by Jennifer Phang (USA, 2015)

Slow-moving satire of the corporate world that dehumanize the individual.
A movie depicting our world in a not too far-fetched future, a world that has no advantage to offer to us, humans, a world in which we have to become inhuman to survive.
Among some of the ideas brought forward:

• We should talk about “natural deselection” because humanity makes the same errors again and again
• “There’s nothing fiercer than a mother’s love”
• Corporations prefer to fire women because they will stay at home, and men won’t

Cast: Jacqueline Kim, James Urbaniak, Freya Adams
Director: Jennifer Phang
Writers: Jacqueline Kim, Jennifer Phang
Music by Timo Chen
Cinematography by Richard Wong
Film Editing by Sean Gillane, Jennifer Phang

“Into The Forest” by Patricia Rozema (Canada, 2015)

 

Good story and realization, average content
Three men: the father, the lover, the raper / Three women: ywo sisters + deceased mother
The “scifi” setting that was perhaps justified when the story was written in 1996 doesn’t convey anything to the plot today.

Cast: Ellen Page, Evan Rachel Wood, Callum Keith Rennie, Max Minghella
Director: Patricia Rozema
Based on the novel by Jean Hegland
Writer: Patricia Rozema
Cinematographer: Daniel Grant
Editor: Matthew Hannam
Composer: Max Richter

“Deep Impact” (Mimi Leder, USA 1998)

An interesting mix of personages: a woman that has her daughter around when she’s at work, cosmonauts as parents, an ‘old’ man as cosmonaut, a black president (years before Obama), a teenager boy and girl getting married…  but too scattered along the mainline of the story.

Cast: Robert Duvall, Tea Leoni, Morgan Freeman, Elijah Wood, Vanessa Redgrave
Directed: Mimi Leder
Written: Michael Tolkin, Bruce Joel Rubin
Music: James Horner
Cinematography: Dietrich Lohmann
Editing: Paul Cichocki, David Rosenbloom