The Midnight Sky

The Midnight Sky ⭐️⭐️

Director: George Clooney. Cast: George Clooney, Felicity Jones, David Oyelowo, Caoilinn Springall

This apocalyptic story is probably not be quite the right kind of movie to watch at during this Xmas: yes, there’s a lot of snow in it, but it’s also very downbeat and actually utterly depressing (though some may argue it’s a fitting film for this end of 2020).

Having said that “Midnight Sky” is also one of the best looking films Clooney has ever directed, not just the wide vistas and space sequences, but also the use of special effects: one sequence towards the end involving a person bleeding in zero gravity is very effective and both beautiful and terrifying. Unfortunately neither its elegant visual, nor its ambition and not even its star power (not just Clooney but Felicity Jones and Kyle Chandler among the others) was quite enough to keep my interest going, especially during the first half.

I have to be honest I found the film frustratingly slow and I couldn’t quite engage with it, let alone be interested in any of it, which is a real shame because having finally got to the end and seen what the trajectory and the (rather touching) point of arrival was, I just wish the film could have made me care a lot more. Whether that’s a problem with the script of the direction… or both, I’m not sure, but certainly there’s a good film in there and a good story too, but the storytelling itself is very un-engaging and much too disperse.

The film does pick up in the second half (and then really lands it in the last 30 minutes) but by the time the first action sequence kicks in about half way through (and finally woke me up from complete numbness) my brain was already half checked-out.It didn’t help that fact that I felt I had already seen most of what was on the screen in other films before, from Gravity to Solaris, 2001, Interstellar, the Martian, Midnight, and so on. Clooney as the main actor does everything in his power to be as less “Clooney” as possible and he does a good job, but since most of the essential information that would make him likeable are held back as long as possible, it’s actually very hard to engage with him as a character, which makes me wonder “Are we supposed to like him, just because he’s George Clooney?

I really wish I could have like this one a lot more… but I’m sorry I was much too bored for most of it.

On Netflix

I Lost My Body

I LOST MY BODY (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Director Jérémy Clapin. Cast: Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois, Patrick d’Assumçao 

This is certainly one of the most beautiful, original, poetic animated feature film I’ve seen in quite a while (though certainly not one for kids) and it’s great to see it nominated at the 2020 Oscars (after winning the Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2019).
“I Lost My Body” is a touching French animated story (co-written by Clapin and Laurant, the writers of “Amélie”) which blends classical 2D technique with impressive 3D digital animation, resulting in a unique look which resemble something between a graphic novel and a Japanese anime. 

But beyond the great look and mood, the tale of a severed hand, a broken heart and the loss of childhood (hence the dismemberment and loss are both physical and emotional) manages to be both incredibly profound and unexpectedly horrific at the same time: some of the scenes were as tense and electrifying as any good thriller/horror out there and had me clutching my seat several times. But at the same time the film wears its heart on its sleeve and the emotional moments are incredibly sweet, poignant and really heart warming. 

Highly recommended, it’s now available on Netflix

System Crasher

System Crasher (⭐️⭐️⭐️)

Director: Nora Fingscheidt. Cast: Helena Zengel, Albrecht Schuch, Gabriela Maria Schmeide 

A raw, harsh, bittersweet, heartbreaking portrait of the world of foster homes, social care, a troubled child and all the people around her trying to help the best they can. The beauty of this German film (winner of the silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival last year and the Audience Award at TIFF, among the others) is the honesty of the way the story is told and the slow stark realisation that nothing is black and white and there are no simple solutions. Everybody is trying to do their best to help Benni, the 9 year old protagonist who’s desperately looking for the love of her mother (an astonishing performance by Helena Zengel who deserves all the recognition she’s getting) and yet nobody’s perfect and people are human and can make mistakes, often against their better judgments. They cross the line and (Understandably) get emotionally invested, beginning to loose their professional prospective and eventually compromising their work.

This is a rather bleak film (albeit with moments of extreme tenderness) that in a way highlights the invisible and at times inevitable cracks of the foster system. It’s certainly not an easy watch but it’s a powerful one and this is powerful film-making.

You can rent in on Amazon prime

News of the World

News of the World

Director: Paul Greengrass. Cast: Tom Hanks, Helena Zengel, Elizabeth Marvel, Ray McKinnon

A rather unusual choice for director Paul Greengrass who’s used to films with much stronger messages and energy. His handheld camera style of film-making is still present here, but in fact it feels rather at odds with the more old fashioned type of film that this is.

It’s amazing to think that this actually Tom Hanks’ first western. He plays Jefferson Kyle Kidd, a man at the end of the Civil War in the 1870s who drifts from town to town to read stories from newspapers to groups of people and gets paid for it. Basically it’s like a one-man show a sort of live theatre, or as he says: “Something to take us away from our troubles”. During his travels he comes across Johanna (the wonderful Helena Zengel from “System Crasher”), a little girl from an indigenous tribe which has been slaughtered by the settlers. Her parents have been killed too. Tom Hanks takes it upon himself to return her to her only known blood relatives miles away somewhere in Texas.

Along the way, through various adventures, the two of them will obviously bond in a sort of father-daughter relationship.

Tom Hanks is always a reliable and very likeable presence, and goes without saying that his subtle performance here leaves nothing to desire, particularly towards the last 3rd of the film where his mask really comes off and we see him for the broken man he really is. That’s not a spoiler really. Most of the film’s arc is fairly predictable and you won’t get any brownie points to guess where it’s all heading.

Having said that, the predictability of the plot itself doesn’t take away from the enjoyment of it. It is essentially a feel-good movie though a rather fluffy and quaint one. The two elements of the story, a man bringing the news to people and the relationship between the two characters, don’t really feel they are part of the same film and in the end I couldn’t help feeling that the intriguing premise about the travelling newsman (and the title itself) is slightly wasted for a more generic plot about 2 broken people basically finding each other.

The film comes out on Christmas Day on Netflix. Still worth a watch.

Nomadland

Nomadland

Director Chloé Zhao. Cast: Frances McDormand, Gay DeForest, Patricia Grier, David Strathairn

Director, writer, editor Chloé Zhao had already left us hugely impressed with her heartfelt “western” the Rider in 2018 where she found poetry in the tale of a rodeo rider. Now she does it again and once again she finds beauty in the story of a seemingly average modern-day nomad, looking for a “house” or rather “a way to live her life” day by day, after the death of her soulmate husband. On her “travels” she drifts in and out of the lives of other drifters she comes across with, many old people living at the margins of society (though no politic is ever mention in the film), nearing the end of their lives, often lonely, but always able to find happiness in the smallest things in life.

It’s a hard film to describe without making it sound very pompous and a bit boring, but Nomadland anything but (though I recognise this may not be a film for everyone).

Frances McDormand’s powerful and yet, understated and quiet performance is astonishing and quite possibly the best of her career (which by itself says it all!). She literally inhabits the character of Fern, this grieving and yet strong woman who lives in a van with her few possessions moving around almost aimlessly, like a stranger in her own land, looking for a job to be able to carry on living. Her face, a simple glance, a half smile, a fleeting look speak volumes, dispensing the script of pointless lines and long monologues.

The visuals and the soundtrack also contribute to build a perfect atmosphere around her. The moving score by Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi constantly and reflecting her internal states of being: quiet and thoughtful at times (hence some subtle piano notes), and wrapped in emotional turmoil (a growing orchestrated soundscape).

There’s a great intimacy in the way it’s all filmed and edited too: fragments of quiet vignettes speak of the her daily routine: on one hand the film has the great immediacy of a documentary but it also has the beauty of the great vistas and landscapes like in modern epic western. If this doesn’t get nominated at the Oscars, then I really know nothing about movies anymore.

You’ll be able to see it in February when it finally comes out (unless you saw this at the Venice or London Film Festival).