After his wife passes away, a Hasidic cantor enlists the aide of a community college biology teacher when he becomes obsessed with determining how long it will take her body to return to the earth. This movie is a very understated comedy. It's surprsingly clever and funny. It's wonderful to see Son of Saul's Geza Rohrig in something wacky and fresh. Matthew Broderick is absolutely hysterical. This is one zany buddy comedy! 5/5 |
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Son of Saul is a Hungarian film that won the Grand Prix at Cannes this year. It is absolutely incredible. First of all this is a Holocaust film about 36 hours in the life of a Sonderkmmando at Auschwitz working in the gas chambers, and disposing of the dead. Yes, it's completely brutal. That said, it was not the most gruelling 100 minutes. This is achieved primarily in terms of its technical brilliance. This is a very quiet film, with little dialogue so you really are just watching this man go through this one particular day and you can't look away. The film stays with Saul the whole film, and makes ample use of moving camera with very long takes. The audience only sees and hears what Saul sees and hears. He is held in a medium close-up for the majority of the film. There are very few reverse shots, accomplished simply by falling behind Saul keeping both him and what he is seeing both in the same frame without cutting away. Likewise, the film lacks establishing shots. The effect is disorienting and claustrophobic. Son of Saul is simply not your typical Holocaust film. I tend to cringe when a new one comes out, not because the subject matter but because of my personal assumptions about Holocaust films being often exceptionally long and very brutal. While everyone should see at least a few, and I can certainly recommend some really excellent ones, it's a pretty vast sub-genre of the War Genre. I guess I'm trying to say that I am certainly not opposed to War or Holocaust films, I have to be in a certain mood and frame of mind before committing to something that I know will be so emotionally gruelling. When I walked into the projection booth and saw 6 absolutely pristine, perfect, brand new reels, it ceased to matter what kind of film it was. I was over the moon that the Telluride Film Festival was once again able to bring in a few prints to screen--most of the festival program is now digital, and most festivals are now strictly digital. Géza Röhrig (Saul) is riveting. He's not an actor actually, he's a poet and musician. He's VERY interesting, I recommend that you look him up on Wikipedia. 5/5 Spotlight is a strong Hollywood slow-burn ensemble thriller about the Boston Globe's Spotlight team who uncovered the Catholic Chuch's Sex Abuse scandal in Boston in the late 90s and early 2000s. This is a well-written film with a great cast rounded out by Stanley Tucci, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Liev Schrieber, and Rachel McAdams. Truly, it is difficult to make an exciting film about paperwork. So much paperwork. Todd McCarthy does well here. I appreciate that Spotlight focuses on the team and their work instead of on the salacious details of the scandal, the priests, and the survivors. 4/5 Dancing Arabs is the newest film by Eran Ricklis. This is a coming-of-age dramedy about a Palestinian Israeli boy who is given the opportunity to attend Jerusalem's most prestigious boarding school and has trouble fitting in but befriends a classmate with muscular dystrophy and who, over the course of three years, develops a secret relationship with a Jewish girl, Naomi. This is a delightful coming-of-age film that is lighthearted and enjoyable. Nothing too political or heavy here. I'm a Riklis fan and have to recommend The Syrian Bride. 3.5/5 |
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