Romance de Daigo Matsui, 1h55
They loved each other so much. Obviously, Teruo and Yo are no longer together. The film recounts their union upside down, an old process that still works. Here are seven of their meetings, each time on July 26, a day to mark with a white stone. This is the day it all started between them. Besides, it’s the boy’s birthday. Beauty and softness are the two breasts of this chronicle which advances backwards, no doubt to show that the past is indeed catching up, as one goes up a stream. And then how to be choosy in front of a film that allows us to briefly review the great, the immense Gena Rowlands. With it, we would gladly let the counter run indefinitely.
Film d’animation de Takehiko Inoue, 2h04
Takehiko Inoue adapts and directs the shônen (manga for young boys) that made him famous in the early 1990s. The film focuses on Ryota Miyagi, the point guard of the Shohoku high school basketball team. A few flashbacks try to give some flesh and soul to this intrepid dribbler – the death of his older brother is at the origin of his vocation. The psychology of his partners is reduced to archetypes: the handsome taciturn, the rebellious genius, the badass… But the main thing is played on the floor, during a final of the national inter-high school championship rich in twists and turns, not always realistic but sometimes fun. The First Slam Dunk is a phenomenon in Japan, where it has attracted millions of spectators. It should cross borders effortlessly, as anime and basketball fans abound on every continent. E.S.
Drama by Fernando Guzzoni, 1h34
She is not twenty years old, rapes suffered in her childhood, a dependent baby. The priest Manuel (the impeccable Alejandro Goic) takes Blanquita under his wing. When she tells him about a terrible pedophile network of which she would have been a victim, he advises her to go to justice. The beginning of their fight against a villainous senator. In this film very freely inspired by the Spiniak affair which shook Chile in 2003, the director effectively modulates the narrative intensity, alternates the ellipse and the long time, uses sound effects to give accents of thriller and to weigh the atmosphere, already dreary. The judge’s office resounds, towards the end, with a twist: Could the brave Blanquita be lying? The plot, solid so far, then withers. And we find ourselves a little frustrated, as if faced with a trial report whose last paragraph was poorly printed. B.P.
Horror comedy by Justin Simien, 2h05
A week after Barbie, another childhood memory comes alive in our indoor memories: the haunted mansion, Disneyland’s star attraction. Widowed, Gabbie, a doctor by profession, moves with her son to New Orleans. For a pittance, she bought a sumptuous Gothic mansion on the edge of town. Alas, the building is home to a slew of ghosts who don’t share much. Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) recruits a priest (Owen Wilson), a clairvoyant (Tiffany Haddish) and a physicist (LaKeith Stanfield) to hunt poltergeists. Dear White People director Justin Simien cooks up a fun family horror comedy for teens and parents. Without an ounce of second degree. But the shocks are numerous and the tenderness always present through the portrait of protagonists in mourning and haunted by their own disappearances. Favoring practical and manual special effects rather than computer-generated images, the filmmaker remains faithful to the atmosphere of the merry-go-round and gives piquant secondary roles to Jared Leto and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Drama by Daniel Goldhaber, 1h44
Adapted from Andreas Malm’s manifesto How to Blow Up a Pipe-Line, Sabotage looks like a 1970s heist movie, shot on 16mm and pretty well done. Constitution of the team, preparation of the blow, execution – with some unforeseen key to maintain the suspense. It is not a question here of robbing a bank but of blowing up a pipeline which transports oil through the United States. Goldhaber films young environmental activists in action with an almost documentary dryness. However, we doubt its educational virtues – very clever one capable of making a homemade detonator at the sight of the film. A few flashbacks inform the viewer about the trajectory of each of the members. They are not all leftists tired of flat SUV tires. By way of ambiguity, it’s a bit short but it’s better than nothing. E.S.
Comedy by Hugo P. Thomas, 1h35
Jordan, 14, is a teenage fan of video games. With her boyfriend Patrick (Noah Zandouche), they live in a small provincial town. One afternoon, the two zozos are so bored that one takes the mower and cuts the other. The operation turns into a disaster. Jordan (Ewan Bourdelles) asks his boyfriend to shave his head. With his mother, the boy justifies himself by claiming to be a fan of Akhenaton, the singer of the group IAM. Vanessa Paradis, as a single mother overwhelmed by her work as a nurse, swallows the canard. But on Monday at middle school, the whole class looks at Jordan weirdly. The rumor is spreading, the student would be suffering from cancer. Emotion and compassion transform this all-purpose schoolboy into a modern-day hero. The argument of the lie “as big as a house” obviously recalls Antoine Doisnel who announces the death of his mother in Les Quatre Cents Coups de Truffaut, in 1959. After the reference, the film seriously runs out of steam. O.D.
