A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
French and French-language Films
Louis Garrel, “L’Innocent” (2022) A very clever comedy combining romance and a heist plot, “L’Innocent” works thanks to the excellent performances of its four lead actors…
Simon Napier-Bell, “George Michael: Portrait of an Artist” (2022) For a documentary whose narrative is based completely on interviews with people who knew or were acquainted…
Hirokazu Kore-eda, “Broker” (2022) A young woman brings her baby to a church’s baby box and leaves her child in front of it. She is unaware…
Oliver Hermanus, “Living” (2022) A gentle if sad and understated film, Oliver Hermanus’s “Living” is a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 “Ikiru (“To Live”), this time…
French and French-language Films, North American Films
Jim Jarmusch, “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai” (1999) Even after twenty years, this film still holds up well as an unusual and odd pastiche…
German and German-language Films, North American Films
Todd Field, “Tár” (2022) It has all the ingredients to be a great film – an excellent cast, a stunning performance from its main star Cate…
Wolfgang Petersen, “Troy” (2004) Loosely based on Homer’s epic poem “Iliad”, this blockbuster spectacle of the Trojan War plays hard and fast with the details of…
Vasily Prozorov, “Culturocide” (October 2022) Short though it is, this is a disturbing documentary demonstrating how the post-Maidan government in Kiev under Presidents Petro Poroshenko (2014…
Stephen Frears, “The Lost King” (2022) A breezy and light film, “The Lost King” depends very largely on its lead actor Sally Hawkins’s energetic and impassioned…
Dear USE Readers, As I’d not seen many films in 2021, due in part to a long lockdown in the second half of that year, I…