POMO

Woody Harrelson is great, Kaitlin Olson is edgy and there is one joke and an apt one-liner that (of course) I had never heard in any American film before. The rest of Champions is made up only of the most hackneyed clichés of feel-good sports movies delivered in an average screenplay. But could I have expected anything more from Farrelly?

In his most mature and least audience-friendly film, Christopher Nolan draws in and astonishes viewers of all levels of intelligence and education with three hours of talk about nuclear physics and politics. I bow down before him. Filming such a focused, perfectly acted, informationally rich and thoughtfully assembled mosaic of events that remains interesting and historically accurate throughout its runtime in just 57 days is a display of filmmaking mastery. The fact that Nolan was aided in this by a subject that concerns and terrifies each of us is not a crutch. Which other director could bring such verve to this subject matter? The intensity and urgency of the film’s narrative are again boosted by the clamorously mixed soundtrack by the wizard Ludwig Göransson (Tenet), which is worthy of admiration in its own right due to its originality and the creativity in the details. Brilliant stylisation of the characters, editing and casting of actors that you wouldn’t expect and who fit perfectly (Benny Safdie rules!). A those two crucial scenes built on essential filmmaking elements without digital aids are absolutely fantastic. Immediately after the film ended, I had mixed feelings, as I had expected something different, as perhaps each of us did. But as time passed, Oppenheimer grew on me and I’m glad that Nolan did it his way.

The exploration of the real world by people coming from Barbie Land is stimulating and original and hints at the promise of a clever, fresh and original satire reflecting the pseudo-problems of contemporary (western) society. But the potential inherent in that is cut dead by the subsequent “gender conflict” and its childish resolution to which the film resorts. And that’s a shame. Even the balance of entertainment for children and adults doesn’t work here, since the movie is not for kids at all. But let’s be glad that audiences are returning in large numbers to cinemas now that the pandemic is over. Barbie deserves thanks for that. And special praise goes to the originator of the brilliant “Barbenheimer” marketing concept, though the hardworking crew around Tom Cruise didn’t deserve to have M:I-7 overshadowed.

The actors and John Williams’ musical motif are pleasing and Harrison Ford’s de-aging is great. The surprise in the climax is more acceptable than the nonsense with the aliens in the last instalment. But the ubiquitous digital, when even a tuk-tuk cruising the narrow Moroccan alleys is not real, is something that I DO NOT WANT in an Indiana Jones movie. Because I still love the films of the original trilogy for their inventive and honest filmmaking. This routine in which filmmakers don’t have to be creative in their craft because the CGI post-production does everything for them is the complete opposite of Spielberg’s original approach. And the potential of every scene suffers because of that.

At first glance, Dead Reckoning Part One is the weakest instalment of the franchise, as it paradoxically offers half the attractions of the best of the previous instalments in the longest runtime. The car chase in Rome is nothing to write home about and the train scene is lifted from the first Mission: Impossible, plus there is a hopped-up version of the most thrilling scene from The Lost World. BUT! On the second viewing, I found Dead Reckoning Part One to be the most entertaining of all the Mission: Impossible movies thanks to its plot. The way the movie’s subject perfectly coincides with the threat of artificial intelligence; the constellation of characters from the previous instalments, including Kittridge from the first one; the new ultimate bad guy Gabriel, whom Ethan Hunt has double the reason to hate more than anything else in the world; the sincere emotion of the scene on the Conzafelzi bridge in Venice; the new beauty Hayley Atwell, who shares perfect chemistry with Tom Cruise; and plenty of humorous and imaginative details that dress up the scenes that seem less than innovative at first glance – the airport, the car chase in Rome, the incorporation of the well-known motorcycle jump into the train and the almost cinephilically orgiastic climax that transforms the aforementioned scene from The Lost World into an absolute blockbuster thrill. And we’re only halfway through the movie. If Part Two has the build-up that Cruise and McQuarrie know it must have, Dead Reckoning will become the alpha instalment of the franchise and will possibly set a new course for the multi-part delivery of Ethan Hunt’s future impossible missions. The news that Tom plans to keep making them until he’s eighty made my day.

A load of screenwriting clichés in a simple story straight out of the 1980s and with a generous helping of energetic, well-executed action. The prison-break scene, composed of long shots, lasts a thrilling 21 minutes! Unfortunately, nothing that comes after it can compare.

Naïveté doesn't matter here; it’s just part of the game, which is entertaining while tastefully mixing in pop culture references and maintaining clarity in the relatively sophisticated framework of the screenplay. Tetris is Free Guy for a more grown-up, but not conservative audience – even more so if you are interested in the business of the gaming phenomenon and the history of its inception. The film was released on VOD at the same time as the theatrical release of Bena Affleck’s Air, which is a rather different but equally well-made “entrepreneurial adventure” set in the same historical period.

For a 29-year-old director, this is an extremely ambitious work with powerful, intimate moments involving an original, socially sensitive subject. We Have Never Been Modern works fantastically in its timeless message about society’s ineradicable narrow-mindedness, prejudice and intolerance of anything different. However, it won’t work for everyone when it comes to the interplay of secondary themes (the problematic relationship between the protagonist and her careerist husband, the disturbing character of the counter-intelligence agent) or by setting it in a planned industrial microcosm. Nevertheless, that microcosm adds to the film’s attractiveness for the viewer, while also giving the story a historical foundation to better underscore the concept. And with the nicely stylized studio sets in the foreground of the High Tatras, it also forms the creative patina of the artistic parable. Though it’s not perfect in every detail, it is certainly something that most Czech filmmakers would not dare to attempt. Matěj Chlupáček is somewhere else and if he follows the same path over the next decade as he did between Touchless and We Have Never Been Modern, his third feature film will receive standing ovations at Cannes and Venice. [Karlovy Vary International Film Festival]

When European production companies attempt to make genre films with fantasy or sci-fi elements, they rarely turn out well. The Animal Kingdom narrowly avoids being a disaster. There is no explanation of the reasons for the transformation of humans into animal-like creatures and it is laughably naïve rather than interesting. Also, with its predictability and clichéd plot formula, it lacks the artistic reach that made, for example, the Swedish-Norwegian “animal parable” Border great. [Karlovy Vary International Film Festival]

Fallen Leaves is a refreshingly comical view of Finland from a classic director who hasn’t lost even a bit of his storytelling flair. The age of feminism has handed him another pertinent story about Finnish “tough guys”. The absurdist dialogue with a rich cadence of dry jokes is combined with traditional retro stylization (interiors, costumes) laced with radio reports from the ongoing war in Ukraine. And movie posters, because Aki loves movies. The cinematic salute to Jarmusch is delightful. The brief runtime is a revelation among contemporary films and is confirmation that Kaurismäki has remained true to himself. [Karlovy Vary International Film Festival]