Bones and All
dir Luca Guadagnino; with Taylor Russell, Timothee Chalamet 22/US ****
Essentially a romantic horror road movie, this offbeat drama delights in provoking the audience to extreme reactions with its vampiric premise. But it's also almost jarringly realistic, with authentic situations and characters who may not be likeable but are easy to sympathise with. Director Luca Guadagnino is always terrific at cutting through surfaces to find human connections and deeper societal truths. So while this film gets very grisly indeed, it remains surprisingly sweet.
dir Romain Gavras; with Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane 22/Fr *****
Blisteringly current, this feels like a story that is just about to happen in several places around the world, as social tensions erupt into all-out civil war. French filmmaker Romain Gavras is making an almost shockingly pointed political statement here, but the urgent and involving story centres on the much deeper emotional connections between three brothers at the epicentre of an epically violent standoff. The film is also skilfully directed with astonishing bravado, using long and exceptionally complex takes that are simply breathtaking.
dir Frederick Wiseman; with Nathalie Boutefeu 22/Fr **.
At 92, rightfully venerated documentarian Frederick Wiseman makes his first narrative feature, but his approach remains the same, filling the screen with tiny details that build up a larger picture. The problem is that, while the story itself has vitality, the film is too mannered and one-note to provide a needed emotional punch. Based on letters between Leo Tolstoy and his wife Sophia, this is a one-woman show as Nathalie Boutefeu strikes poses in various picturesque sites in nature, speaking Sophia’s letters and reading Leo’s in voiceover or to-camera. Her expression is unwaveringly pained, and she repeats the cycle of marital emotions between adoration and agony. The larger arc is fascinating, from naive, hopeful 18-year-old bride to an exhausted older woman who feels she had to work hard and remain invisible to make way for her husband’s genius. A more textured telling of this story would be devastating. This is a bit dull.
dir Laura Poitras; with Nan Goldin, Megan Kapler 22/US ****
With this extraordinary film, gifted documentarian Laura Poitras takes a multifaceted look at a fascinating artist. As a biography of acclaimed photographer Nan Goldin, this is a clear-eyed look at her life, work and the decades she has survived, leading to related areas of activism. Which connects into her efforts to raise awareness of the Sackler family's direct responsibility in the deaths of half a million people from opioid addiction. All of this is skilfully woven together with a remarkably gentle hand.
dir-scr Michal Vinik; with Lena Fraifeld, Dasha Tvoronovich 22/Isr ****
A collision of cultures and clashes fuels this Israeli-Ukrainian drama, which opens with a lightly happy tone then steadily cranks up the deeper drama. It's sharply well-assembled by writer-director Michal Vinik to get under the skin of four central characters, and it makes some fascinating observations about the nature of power in relationships, especially transactional ones like these. The plot centres on a Ukrainian woman (Lena Fraifield) who has found a husband in Israel and now brings her sister Valeria (Dasha Tvoronovich) to marry her own man. The key elements here are emotions, which haven't factored into the arrangements and blow up over the course of a very stressful day. It's a fairly simple narrative, but ripples with deeper resonance.
Full reviews will be linked at Shadows VENICE FILM FESTIVAL page, eventually!
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