Category: reviews

review faces places

review: faces places.

Lucas PistilliLeave a comment

What is “Faces Places”? A tribute to street art? An homage to the power of photography? An elegy to memory? As in life, the new project co-directed by Agnès Varda and JR is many things at once and defies easy categorisation.

Let’s start with the easiest bit: “Faces Places” is a film that premiered on last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Œil d’Or – the highest prize given to a documentary in the event -, and that’s now opening in the UK. Its was made by a filmmaker who is a cinema powerhouse, who won the Honorary Palme d’Or for her lifetime achievement in 2015 (the only woman to have that honour to date), along with multimedia artist JR. Together, they travel to countryside France to set up street installations that incorporate photography, collage and the lives of the people in the surroundings.

At first sight, the production unfolds like a road movie, during which we follow Agnès and JR in their trips and meeting with memorable characters. One of the first to appear, a lady who is the last person living in a street that used to house miners, establishes a lot of the tone of the feature and its relationship with the notion of memory.

Pictures are, in essence, memories in print and it is through interviewing their characters that the artists find out the best ones to select and reappraise in the form of large outdoor murals. Their M.O. entails choosing pictures of the interviewed people, printing them in larger-than-life formats and attaching them to walls. Thus, the pictures become a project of urban art that expands the individual (or collective) memory of the subjects into a more universal dimension, seen by everyone around.

It’s difficult to talk about immortality within this context, as the art is fully exposed to external forces – something laid bare by the sequence in which Agnès and JR try to attach a picture in a rock constantly hit by the wild waves of the sea. What remains, they argue, is the gamut of feelings associated with the images.

The filmmakers’ memory provides a lot of the narrative of the feature, which rewards of the viewers with a very funny self-awareness that it is a film. This allows for daring cuts and curious interventions from both artists, in a fresh and carefree move that stands in stark contrast to the sobriety and cynicism of many of the other productions that were shown in Cannes last year.

In the midst of her remembrances, Agnès seizes the chance to pepper the film with the kind of teachings we would hear from a grandmother in a Saturday afternoon, telling us how she deals with the disease that affects her eyes, with the passing of time and of things she learned from life. In an inspired moment, while talking about the works they produced when starting out, she tells JR: “There’s nothing ugly about beginnings”.

It is interesting that she mentions beginnings while the world of cinema wonders if this is going to be Varda’s last feature, considering her age and clinical condition. However, even if we were to take these factors into account, she would remain, nearing 90, one of the most vibrant directors not only of her generation, but of all time – more than willing to ask relevant questions in her films without losing track of herself. By the end of its runtime, you may again pose yourself the question: “What is ‘Faces Places?'”. I would suggest, afterwards, another one: “Does it matter?”.

Grade: 9.5

Note: A version of this film review was first published, in Portuguese, on the cinema portal Cine Set, as part of my coverage of the 2017 Cannes Film Festival. You can check it over here.

review: the miseducation of cameron post.

Lucas PistilliLeave a comment

Countless American teen movies have taught us that the isolation imposed on the outsiders, in the school environment, can usually lead them towards forming a clique of their own.

In that tradition, “The Miseducation of Cameron Post”, the new film by Desiree Akhavan that’s opening in the UK this weekend, is a clique movie with a twist: the protagonists are not out to survive a normal school, but a conversion camp that aim to “cure” homosexuals.

The production, that premiered early this year at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, tells the story of its titular character (Chloë Grace Moretz) who, after being found making out with a female friend in the back of a car, is unceremoniously sent away from her parents’ house to God’s Promise, a religious boarding school that has many similar kids as its pupils.

Once there, she undergoes a series of routines designed to suppress her sexual desires and eventually finds comfort in the wild ones: Jane Fonda (Sasha Lane) and Adam Red Eagle (Forrest Goodluck).

The film is pretty blunt about on who the joke is: the behaviour and way of thinking instigated inside the camp are borderline pathetic, absurd and, in fact, provide much of the humour here. Nowhere this is clearer than in the character of Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.), a “cured” gay man that is proud of “accepting God’s way”, but sports the most hinting moustache this side of Village People.

Unfortunately, all the bite the film has in its premise gets converted to something else along the way. A lot of the conflict seems stripped away and you get the sense that the most important things are happening elsewhere.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s beauty in the contemplative mood in which Ms. Akhavan applies to the feature and there’s also a great performance by Ms. Grace Moretz – her best in years and a reminder of why the young actress had chances to collaborate with directors like Martin Scorsese and Olivier Assayas.

“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” could have been a hard-hitting drama about a teenagers pushed to the limits of their emotions. It could have been a sharp critique of the whole religious community that insists on repressing its youth. It could also have been an acid satire on the very environment of the conversion camps.

Ultimately, none of these was the film Ms. Akhavan set out to make. As far as the end result shows, she wanted to make a light film about a heavy subject and, in that sense, she succeeds. In its quest to be pleasant, however, once the lights turn on, it can get lost in the shuffle of the countless American teen movies that preceded it.

Grade: 5.0

Cold War - Paweł Pawlikowski

review: cold war.

Lucas PistilliLeave a comment

If you ever wondered how the “girl walks into a bar” scenario would play out if the bar was, in fact, a Polish arts conservatory, look no further: “Cold War”, opening in British cinemas tomorrow, brings that far-fetched thought to celluloid life, and then some.

There’s plenty of coldness and war in Paweł Pawlikowski’s new film, for sure, though it’s pretty clear from the get-go that the Polish filmmaker’s new project, his first the after the Academy Award-winning “Ida” (2013), is much more interested in their opposites.

Of course, when you’re living in a time marked by political upheaval, nothing is quite simple. In 1950s Poland, whilst searching talent to make up his folk music ensemble, maestro Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) happens upon local girl Zula (Joanna Kulig).

Their attraction is instant and they try to make the most out of it under the perennial surveillance of the Soviet regime, which keeps Wiktor closely monitored on account of his popularity. With ideals of escape, the couple eventually sets up a rendezvous that will echo throughout their lives.

The script, while deeply personal – it’s based on the lives of (and dedicated to) Mr. Pawlikowski’s parents, with whom the film’s protagonists share their names – tackles social issues and political stances in a subdued but no less potent way. Especially in its first act, it poses a meditation on art as politics.

Wiktor’s celebration of local culture becomes a state affair because of its reach amongst the masses, but once it disturbs the Soviet ideal of unity, it’s co-opted to serve as propaganda art, to his dismay. While this takes place, his partner Lech (Lech Kaczmarek) sees this as an opportunity to go up the ranks of the government, in a hypocritical move his first appearance in the film hinted at. He believes that art can be contained – it can’t and neither can artists.

That rings especially true even for the director, a Polish auteur who developed interesting careers both in his homeland and in the UK. For the protagonists, that means that not even defection can erase their will to create, with Wiktor composing film scores and Zula performing as a singer.

Despite the several encounters they have after emigrating and the strong pull they feel towards each other, their entanglement is doomed by two personalities forever bound to enter collision course. Wiktor, while idealist, is easily bored, keeps his distance at all times and is prone to running when things get complicated. His uncompromising take on life will eventually lead him to the conclusion that he does not belong to any country, any job or any person, with everything that entails.

Zula, on the other hand, is a survivalist and cannot be bothered by ideals. Her life was rough and she knew, in that day and age, she ought to be ready to be tough and seduce her way to stability. The film avoids painting her as a femme fatale though, instead showing a broken person that ultimately wants an emotional fulfilment she can never have.

The most bittersweet aspect of the feature, however, is its relationship with time. Despite its relative brevity (88 minutes), the film plays out like a romance in slow motion, in stark contrast to today’s app-driven, social media-supported rush.

Shot in lush black and white with the same gorgeous camerawork that made his previous effort an astounding success, “Cold War” pledges its love to a Europe that no longer exists and, much like the couple that serves as centre of action, was destined to disappear. A Europe where distances were bigger, minutes seemed more valuable, and affairs of the heart were as messy as political ones.

Grade: 9.0

review: anna and the apocalypse

frightfest review: anna and the apocalypse.

Lucas PistilliLeave a comment

In a world ravaged by endless sequences and movie universes, some Scotsmen have dared to do the impossible: a Christmas zombie coming-of-age musical. Feel free to read that again as many times as you’d like. I have never seen anything like it and probably nor have you.

This joy of a film, that screened at the 2018 Frightfest and is bound for a wide UK release this November, turns a lot of movie traditions on their heads in an all-singing, all-dancing bloody glory.

The set up is simple but effective: during the Christmas season, Anna (Ella Hunt) is a teenager full of dreams of a different life that plans a year abroad before starting college, to the dismay of her father, Tony (Mark Benton). A zombie apocalypse gets in the way and soon she finds herself fighting for her life along with her friends.

The catch about films like these is that usually the producers think their concept is so great that they alone can sustain the project, but “Snakes on a Plane” (2006) this is not. Though the film is not perfect, there is a clear effort in making this feature work in all fronts, which can only be a lot complicated when you’re trying to explore three very distinct genres at the same time.

The director, John McPhail, albeit admittedly a horror fan, comes from a background of low-key comedies and romantic films and puts a lot of that sensibility into the building of the characters. Despite having to set everything in motion quite quickly, he explains to us the relationships between Anna and everyone around her with ease.

From the original short by Ryan McHenry, who co-wrote the script for this longer version but died before it came to fruition, the feature borrows the zany approach to its subject matter. The sequence in which the protagonist leaves her house, singing along loud music on her headphones and failing to notice her destroyed neighbourhood and the zombies on her tail, is a delight and one of the best I’ve ever seen in any musical.

It’s impossible to assess the strength of a film of this sort without going over the tunes themselves and “Anna and the Apocalypse” has several killer tracks that will get you humming for a good while.

“Turn My Life Around” is the centrepiece of it all and it’s a perfect sample of the tongue-in-cheek humour in display here. “Human Voice” is a bonafide synthpop track, so full of drama, it could be re-recorded by La Roux, released as a single and no one would bat an eye. I could even go into the sexiest Christmas song since “Mean Girls” (2004), but I’ll just leave that as a hint.

Truth be told, these are not songs about zombies. They are songs about insecurity, not knowing what to do and finding within oneself the faith on what’s to come – universal themes for teenagers.

The apocalypse itself ends up being a symbolic background: when faced with the prospect of adult life, and the choices that come with it, youngsters feel as if totally alone and helpless in a world that’s ready to devour them.

Despite the fact some sequences could have used more complex choreography, the mere fact that a film like this can touch so meaningful spots, boast a diverse and believable cast of characters and be a ton of fun is nothing short of a triumph. One can only hope that audiences devour it until its very last piece of cinematic flesh.

Grade: 8.5

review_ upgrade (film)

frightfest review: upgrade.

Lucas PistilliLeave a comment

We sure have those days when we all we could wish for was for someone – or something – to get on with our lives while we sit back and chill. Like the best cautionary tales, “Upgrade”, screening at the 2018 Frightfest, asks: “What if we could?”.

If you are familiar with the festival’s focus, you know that I’m not talking about some family drama about disconnection. Leigh Whannell’s newest project is a revenge thriller at his best, with a healthy dosage of gore and sheer black humour, that more than make up for some of the familiar tropes its script depends on to move the plot forward.

In a future where automation is ubiquitous and most humans are enhanced through biomechanics, Grey (Logan Marshall-Green) goes about an idyllic life with his wife Asha (Melanie Vallejo), that ends abruptly when an unfortunate encounter with thug gets her killed and him, paraplegic. Grief-stricken, he accepts to have an implant himself in order to get back on his feet and, once he does, sets out to find the men who took away her loved one.

If this sounds like “The Crow” (1994) recast as a Black Mirror episode, it’s because it is. Not that it matters – you go into films like this precisely because they bring up familiar late night Saturday screening vibes. They are all about the ride and this feature offers one hell of one.

Of course, this familiarity is by design: Mr. Whannell is a seasoned horror writer, co-creator of both Saw and Insidious, two of the most successful franchises of the genre in the last 15 years.

Considering that, “Upgrade” is a major breakaway for the Aussie filmmaker, because it finds him both venturing into the realm of the action-thrillers and commanding a production without sidekick James Wan, who has been directing his scripts for most of his career.

In this new scenario, the director gives free reign to a sense of dark fun that drives the entire film. While the protagonist’s luddite stance doesn’t really break any new ground, his interactions with the system moving his body – nicknamed STEM – are the heart of the feature and where its main themes take shape.

During an altercation with a street criminal that quickly escalates to torture, the computer, noting Grey’s discomfort, affirms that, once it has permission to continue, he doesn’t even have to look. I laughed hard.

The bloody affair carries on being bonkers and manages to be relatable largely because we believe in Mr. Marshall-Green’s take on the everyday hero beset by chaotic circumstances. His timing is pitch-perfect and steals enough of the show so we don’t see the script setting up the big finale.

With plenty of cool action sequences and incredible sets (built on quite a small budget, no less), “Upgrade” is a contemporary take on the late 80s/early 90s B-movie that takes no prisoners and is as anarchic as it gets.

Grade: 8.0

Review: BlacKkKlansman

review: blackkklansman.

Lucas PistilliLeave a comment

Few releases this year could have been more timely than “BlacKKKlansman”, which premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival (where it won the Grand Prix award) and opens in the UK this weekend.

Racial tensions in America haven’t been this high in ages and, with a person like Donald Trump in power, it’s complicated for someone who’s not closely following their history to establish what’s cause and what’s effect. That, of course, is not the case of the picture helmer’s, Spike Lee, who has being documenting the everyday life and struggle of the American black community for the last 30 years.

In this picture, he uses an almost unbelievable true story to make his best film in at least a decade, making fierce observations about his country without losing track what makes this kind of production really engrossing. For all the fame he’s got for being one of the biggest black voices in mainstream culture, he gets amazingly scarce credit by his versatility (he’s done biographies, thrillers, documentaries and even musicals) and by his ability to create fully inhabitable universes for his characters, based on styles he personally loves.

“BlacKKKlansman” tells the story of Ron Stallworth, a black policeman in 1970s Colorado that devises a mission to infiltrate the local branch of KKKs, impersonating a white-race supremacist over telephone calls. When the hate group starts to ask to meet him, he begins to send out his white partner, Flip (Adam Driver), to pose as the character he created and, from that moment on, both their lives are in danger.

Visually, Mr. Lee’s main reference point here are the 70s TV police procedurals that captivated him when he was young, but the tone is decidedly somber. When those shows were produced, no one had any idea things could get as nasty as today. The director, with the benefit of hindsight, opts to create a bonafide thriller that gets the viewer at the edge of the seat at all times.

Not that humour is absent: the filmmaker makes the most out of its cringe-worthy portrayal of the KKK members. Their sheer ridiculousness and absurdity make them especially representative of Trump’s America. In its call-outs, the production is as subtle as a lion’s cage during most of its running time and, when a present day coda surfaces to wrap things up, it becomes impossible to separate the work of art and its message.

This by design: a motif here is precisely how these can be entwined, for both good and evil. It’s far from a coincidence that “Birth of a Nation” (1915) plays a key role in this film, begging the question: “How complicit is an audience that makes a racist film arguably the first blockbuster of all time?”. It’s a hard one, for sure, but for Mr. Lee, it’s one that needs to be answered soon, so it opens a path towards change.

While it doesn’t happen, “BlacKKKlasman” remains a necessary piece of filmmaking and one that deserves anyone’s attention. It’s thrilling, daring and very, very topical. Don’t miss it out.

Grade: 9.5

review: the guardians

review: the guardians.

Lucas PistilliLeave a comment

A distinct man comes home to find his family, one of the many farm workers of an economically-deprived countryside French village. Through his eyes, we notice how much changed in his absence. Through his parents’, the silent desperation of people who have simply lost too much for a cause they are not so sure they care anymore. The year is 1916 and France is in the middle, politically and geographically, of the First World War – and yet, this film is not about the conflict. It isn’t even about the man, Constant, who introduces us the location and most of its characters. He leaves town some 20 minutes in, like so many of his generation.

Instead, “The Guardians”, the new film by Xavier Beauvois, is about the people who stay. Focusing on Constant’s family, especially the women, it is a beautifully shot portrait of survival through hardship, one led by austere housewives and orphaned girls while the men are absent.

With the war being an abstract threat that nevertheless brings very tangible restrictions, we follow three years in the life of Hortense (Nathalie Baye) and Solange (Laura Smet) – Constant’s mother and sister, respectively -, as well of Francine (Iris Bry), a young farmer hired by them that ends up winning the affection of the family and ends up too close for comfort. With its long sequences of the women working against a period rural setting and a romantic longing thrown in the mix for good measure, the production sometimes plays like a French response to “Cold Mountain” – one that avoids the most gruesome aspects for the lack of a character in the proper battlefield. That, of course, is deliberate: the filmmaker wants to make the point that, for these people, the real battlefield was their daily lives.

While all members of the cast bring a very welcome warmth to their roles, I must say I was amazed to discover that this was Ms. Bry’s screen debut. Entering the story inconspicuously, her character takes centre stage quickly and is the one the audiences root for from the get-go. She constantly steals the show, even during scenes shared with Mrs. Baye, an authority in French cinema. In that regard, director of photography Caroline Champetier (who shot all of Beauvoir’s films to date) makes the most out of Francine’s physical features (red hair, freckled face) to make her stand out against the hues of blue and beige that dominate the film’s palette.

The worker embodies the constant change one needs to embrace and endure in a world whose rules are being rewritten. During the first decades of the 20th century, farmwork changed radically, something the script makes part of the background action with the gradual introduction of new machinery every harvest season. The role of women in society, of course, also underwent a permanent change and the meeting of several generations in an isolated place such as a countryside farm ultimately brings up those embracing it and those rejecting it – with dire consequences.

For all its social commentary, however, “The Guardians” is far from realism. In fact, a good chunk of its third act are devoted to an arc that veers a lot towards melodrama. Even so, the film never fails to provide great imagery and, considering the said arc gravitates around Francine, a clear narrative drive.

At 138 minutes, it may be a little of a stretch for more action-minded viewers (it could, indeed, have used some more trimming), but this is Beauvois in the same vein of his Cannes-awarded “Of Gods and Men”: reflective, attentive to detail and very, very human. That takes time, folks.

Grade: 7.0

review: mamma mia! here we go again.

Lucas PistilliLeave a comment

One of the several magical things about art is that, at its best, it can present to you moments which you didn’t even know you needed until they hit you. For instance, I didn’t know that I needed Cher to arrive, platinum blonde-wigged, in Greek island resort, find herself reminiscing about a long gone romance with Andy Garcia, and start belting ABBA’s “Fernando” while the world around watches in awe and then celebrates with fireworks.

And yet, that is one of the visual pleasures that “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”, the sequel to the 2008 smash, offers throughout its running time. In some regards, however, it may be a film that asks a lot of its viewers: one must be a fan of (or at the very least tolerate) the music of ABBA, be willing to forego anything resembling classical drama structure and be embracing of the cheesiness and campiness available to one in life, should one want it.

Even with just one character, barely relatable to the main story, giving clear camp hints, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” is, so far, the gayest mainstream film of 2018 – and that’s even contextualising the whole spandex fad as a thing from the 70s. That said character exists reinforce the attribute that one could argue makes this film better than its predecessor: an acute self-awareness.

Overall, this sequel manages to compensate less songs and less plot with an outward campiness that brings an entire French restaurant to life during “Waterloo”, that teases the boy candy staff of the Greek hotel in “Angel Eyes”, that inserts lots of gay tribes as participants in the remade “Dancing Queen” sequence, that casts Christine Baranski as our fierce middle-aged sassy woman (she’s long overdue gay icon status) and that has Cher’s arrival on helicopter, poking fun at her own real-life otherworldly persona, upstaging Meryl “Oscar!” Streep.

At least on a technical level though, the film belongs to Meryl’s character’s younger version, played in a completely hypnotising turn by Lily James. The actress, that should have here her breakout role, shows true pipes during the entire feature and mercifully keeps us from hearing a lot of Pierce Brosnan’s singing. Her take on a wild and twentysomething Donna Sheridan is so engrossing that tale of her daughter in the future (Amanda Seyfried) constantly feels like a frame story for her teenage love flashback – the kind most of us wish to be true and everlasting.

Of course, it is not. There’s a reason why we see it in the cinema, this shadow play of dreams and desires. In it, we can believe in a girl choosing to have three fathers without running DNA tests and all three signing up for it, we can believe in people forgetting egos and careers to enjoy a family gathering in Greece, we can even believe in an obese version of Stellan Skarsgard. But, mimicking the same effect of the ABBA songs it displays, once we’re in the dark and the right lights and music come into action, everything is possible.

“Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again”, with its sheer disregard for a plot and campiness galore, is deliciously fun and the kind of film that gets labeled a “guilty pleasure” in some circles. Bollocks. There’s no guilt in pleasures of this kind and life is too short not to sing “Fernando” along with Cher.

Grade: 8.0