My Winnipeg

Universal Language (2024) - Rankin A missing case of the prize-winning turkey, a mistaken identity and money frozen in ice consist of Matthew Rankin's droll and absurd comedy, Universal Language. The surburbs of snowy, drab Winnipeg as its backdrop, Rankin pays tribute to the world of Abbas Kiarostami, from school kids and their quests to provide for their friend's missing pair of glasses, to the static, wide landscape shots. But unlike Kiarostami's Iranian countryside, we are presented with mundane brutalist architecture of none-discript, baige and grey brick and mortar buildings and highway over-passes of Winnipeg.

Rankin's visual comedy resembles that of Jacques Tati and Roy Andersson. The main characters, played by Rankin (Matthew) and co-writer Pirouz Nemati (Massoud), expressionlessly go about their very specific businesses - one reluctantly returning home by abandoning his city life and government job in Montreal, to see his mother, and the other, acting as a tour guide of made-up mundane history of Winnipeg - "This is a bench and a brief case left by someone who might have been waiting for bus in 1989," "this is Tim Hortons," "this dried up water fountain in an abandoned mall might one day shoot up gaysers once more, one would hope," etc, etc.

The nearsighted boy will get his glasses back, the beauty pageant turkey will be found, the frozen money in ice will be thawed, then put back into the ice in the ground again, the mistaken identity will turn out to be not mistaken at all. Rankin and co, create a deadpan comedy that is not only an ode to Iranian cinema, but a unique cross-cultural netherworld that feels consciously dour and less hipsterly yet familiar. Universal Language is a truly unique comedy that will put a smile on your face.

Unlikable

Hard Truths (2024) - Leigh Like many of Mike Leigh protagonists, Pansy (played by Marianne Jean Baptiste) is not a likable character. She thinks the world is out to get her, so long become bitter and confrontational in any human interactions, both family and strangers. Her contractor husband, Curtley (David Webber) and her slacker, grown up son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) get the brunt of Pansy's fury daily. With years of her abuse while living under the same roof, they have simply given up dealing with her. The only person who is still sympathetic to Pansy is her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) who is a down-to-earth, neighborly hairdresser. To Pansy's discomfort, Chantelle keeps on pushing her to show up for the fifth anniversary of their mother's death.

We know a person like that in real life, you'd think something bad must have happened to her in her early life, because she is so angry and anxious all the time. Not that Hard Truth gives you all the answers as to what happened to Pansy. No, that's not what Leigh is after. He and his collaborators, this time, the great Marianne Jean Baptiste as the lead, dig deeper into prevailing humanity underneath all the bitterness and hate. And it's a sight to see. Pansy is a very hard to like character. But by the end, we see a glimpse of her humanity peeking through here and there, that not all is lost. And with Curtley, despite his hurting back and Moses finding friends in unexpected places, that they are going to be all right.

Marianne Jean Baptiste deserves all the accolades for this performance. By far the best performance by any actor I've seen in a while.

Escaping Time

Le cinquième plan de La Jetée (2024) - Cabrera Chris Marker's photo roman La Jetée is regarded as one of the best and most influential Sci-Fi films ever made. Made in 1962, just as Algeria was declaring its independence from France, the film reflects on the colonialism and history repeating itself. The premise of The Fifth Shot of La Jetée is an intriguing one. Henri, a cousin of Dominique Cabrera the director, recognized himself and his parents in Marker's film, the still of a family, back to the camera, looking at the planes landing from the balcony of the Orly airport. The boy is the one who witnesses his own death. In those days, watching planes taking off and landing was a family pastime activity, and because of that, Marker was able to capture many candid shots for the film. The Fifth Shot is a cinematic detective story and how we, as an audience, have a claim in telling these stories in cinema.

As Cabrera digs through the archives and interviews with people from Marker's inner circle and her own family, it becomes very plausible that the shot is of Henri and his parents. Also, interesting coincidences come to life: Henri, like most Cabreras who were French citizens living in Algeria grew up in the same town as the actor, Davos Hanish, who played the main character in La Jetée. And Henri's mother had gone out with a Hanish boy, according to an old relative. And their resemblance is remarkable.

Cabrera weaves intriguing stories around Marker, who was a very private man, and his work, along with her family history and French colonial past. She reflects on how history repeat itself that we are all slaves to time. The Fifth Shot is a great contemplation on our relationship to cinema.

Marriage Counselor

Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer (2024) - Karaçelik Keane (John Magaro, First Cow) is a struggling writer who has been toiling on a book about a love story set in prehistoric time, for the last 4 years. His somewhat successful previous book was about Mongolians, which he had no knowledge about, just like the Cro-Magnons and Neandertals. His publisher is not crazy about the concept. It's not sexy enough - Keane should write about what he knows, he suggests. It is pretty obvious that his interior designer wife Suzie (Britt Lower, Severance) is not happy with having been a sole bread-winner of the house, and can't stand listening to his idiotic idea for the book that he will never finish, at dinner parties with friends. Her glacial expression and silence speaks volumes. She wants a divorce.

Everything changes when Keane is approached by Kollmick (Steve Buscemi), who says he's a fan and seems to know a lot about the author, at a bar. Kollmick has a proposition - 'write about a serial killer and I will tell you everything I know about serial killers.' Because he himself is a retired serial killer. He will show Keane the ropes. But after getting caught by Suzie, sneaking into the house in the middle of the night with Kollmick, Keane tells Suzie that Kollmick is a marriage counselor. So starts an unusual, funny dark comedy with the incredibly long title: Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer.

Suzie is not convinced that Kollmick is what he says he is. His method- bringing his stuffed dead cat with a doll's arm and telling the couple to talk to each other while looking only at the cat, doesn't really help to quell Suzie's suspicions. Also, she is suspecting that Keane is trying to kill her, based on all the books he's been reading - about serial killers and poisoning, which were given to him by Kollmick. But strangely, the counselling sessions, however unorthodox they seem, are proving to be helpful in their marriage.

Kollmick's idea- kidnapping Keane's publisher to get first-hand experience of the serial killer's process, doesn't sit well with Keane even with Kollmick's assurance- "He will understand, if it's for a sexy bestseller." But the plan, involving an Albanian gun dealer and a bottle of chloroform, doesn't go the way they expected, of course. To make matters worse, Suzie is on their trail, watching all the absurd situations that Keane and Kollmick find themselves in.

Psycho Therapy plays out like a dark indie noir comedy from the 90s, which we don't see often nowadays. Tolga Karaçelik's writing is brimming with absurdist humor and keeping unnecessary expositions to a minimum. With his-high pitched cracking voice, John Magaro is perfect for a bumbling poseur writer. Britt Lower's glacial Suzie with killer instincts had me cackling. Buscemi, who executive produced the film, chews up the scenes with that disdainful stare he is known for. The film ends abruptly, but rightfully after the night of kidnapping(s) gone wrong, where true natures of the couple are revealed. Psycho Therapy is a wildly entertaining black comedy with a pitch perfect cast.

Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer will be in New York Theaters on April 4th with a Theatrical Expansion and On Demand April 11.

Elevated Pinku Movie

Love Hotel (1985) - Sômai Sômai Shinji , known for his idiosyncratic, delicate coming-of-age films, such as Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981), P.P. Rider (1983), Typhoon Club (1985) and Moving (1989), recently had his work re-evaluated and subsequently restored, then released in physical media and in theaters, thanks largely to a recent retrospective of his work, Rites of Passage: The films of Shinji Sômai at Japan Society here in New York. With plenty of admirers in contemporary Japanese directors (Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kurosawa Kiyoshi among them), Sômai is now regarded as the unsung hero of 1980's Japanese cinema.

Cinema Guild, which has released the 4K restored version of Typhoon Club on disc, and Moving in theaters, is set to release the restored version of Sômai's foray into pinku genre, Love Hotel- the only Roman Porno film he ever directed for Nikkatsu Studio. And the film, besides the obvious sex scenes and nudity that are required in pinku genre, retains all the Sômai signatures and that's what makes Love Hotel rise beyond its genre trappings.

Love Hotel tells a story of two broken people and their fateful encounter. Muraki (Terada Midori), a small-time publisher owing money to yakuza loan sharks, finds his wife having sex with one of the yakuza men, while others look on, when he comes back to his squalid office. And by the looks of it, she is enjoying it. He decides to end it all.

Muraki goes to the eponymous hotel room of the title written in green neon light on the wall. With dark glasses on, he waits for a prostitute he hired from the escort service. Unsuspecting Nami (Hayami Noriko) shows up for some fun. Muraki attacks Nami, violently ripping her clothes off with a knife with an intention to kill her and then off himself as well. But it's the expression on her face- agony and extacy, that changes his mind.

Two years later, Muraki is a cab driver and Nami works at a fashion designer agency. Still reeling from his destitution and guilt, he wants to reconnect with Nami, after he spots her on the street. She on the other hand, while keeping her past life secret, is carrying out unhappy affairs with a married man (her boss).

Muraki gives Nami, who doesn’t recognize him, a ride to the Yokohama pier. She is going there to commit suicide. But he prevents her attempt at the pier and confesses his past transgression. At first, paranoid Nami suspects Muraki of blackmailing her about her past. But soon she sees his sincerity that there is no ulterior motive in his actions and learns to trust him. As they grow closer, she feels understood and loved. Now they try to finish what they started, at the same love hotel where they first met.

Sômai elevates the typical pinku melodrama premise into a heartfelt tale of two sad, lost souls in need of salvation in each other’s company. His signature long takes are there, so are his always moving crane shots. Also present are neon and rain soaked cramped tokyo interiors and lonely, empty liminal urban spaces at night. Accompanied by sultry pop ballads, with strong, natural performances by both Hayami and Terada, Love Hotel sits comfortably along the echelon of Sômai's impressive filmography.

Love Hotel opens 4/4 at Metrograph, NYC.

Strange Desires

Misericordia (2024) - Guiraudie Jérémie (Félix Kysyl), comes back to a rural mountain town to attend his childhood friend, Vincent (Jean Baptiste Durand)'s father's funeral. He hadn't been to the village in ages. Aimless and recently unemployed in Beaudoux where he lives now, Jérémie decides to stay at the kind widow Martine (Catherine Frot)'s home and sleeping in Vincent's old room (Vincent is married, has a kid and lives nearby). There's some kind of past between two men, as they tussle in the woods like schoolboys. There's also a tinge of jealousy in Vincent as Jérémie surreptitiously invites himself into his life (first his mom, then his friends). There surely must be some sinister motives. Is he trying to take over the dead father's bakery? Is he trying to sleep with mom?

Things get complicated when Jérémie tries to seduce a local schlub and friend of Vincent, Walter (David Ayala) and Walter rebuffs his drunken advances with a shotgun. Soon after, things get boiled over and Jérémie ends up killing Vincent, after another violent tussle in the woods. The rest of the film is a police thriller of sort, Guiraudie style.

Guiaudie's a master at absurdist humor that is still very much down to earth. Think Misericordia as stripped down, depoliticized, working class Teorema where one person seduces everyone around him willingly or unwillingly. Jérémie is not a Godot, or American Uncle or your ideal manifest in a human form. He is full flesh and blood with his own desires and people somehow love him back. The police is on his track because of his shaky alibi, but it's the local priest who give him cover. Love works in stange ways. Misericordia is a delightful, absurdist comedy that says a lot about strange human desires and attractions.

Tango Lesson

Being Maria (2024) - Palud French film industry's going through a full #MeToo reckoning with the case of Christophe Ruggia, a director convicted of sexual abuse of actress Adèle Haenel when she was underage. Staple names in French cinema, such as directors Jacques Doillon and Beonoît Jacquot have also been accused of rape and sexual offenses, and actor Gerard Depardieu is facing a trial for rape. In this climate, Jessica Palud's Being Maria revisits Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial film ]Last Tango in Paris and tells the untold story from the perspective of its co-star Maria Schneider and the film's life-long effect on the actress. Schneider, star of many memorable films such as Michelangelo Antonioni's Passenger, Jacques Rivette's Merry-Go-Round, later became an outspoken activist against sexism in the French film industry.

Anamaria Vartolomei (Happening, Empire, Mickey 17), plays Schneider, a young, unknown actress chosen by Bertolucci (Giuseppe Marggio), to star opposite Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon) in sexually charged Last Tango, at age 19. Growing up with a single mother who has very low opinion on men and the entertainment industry - Maria's deadbeat father, Gelin (Yvan Attal) is an actor. Against her mother's wishes with her teenage rebellious spirit, Maria seeks advice from Gelin and way in the film industry. It was the 70s and if you are an established auteur like Bertolucci (who had directed Conformist two years prior), it was 'anything goes' for art. The premise of the film is two strangers meeting by chance and carrying out a strictly physical relationship, baring their bodies and souls to each other. There will be a lot of nudity, so it will be controversial, Bertolucci warns. But you get to work with Brando and your career will be launched. Maria knows what she is signing up for.

At first she finds her experience pleasant and finds Brando gentle. But it's the infamous "butter" scene, an improvised simulated sex scene involving butter, that really breaks Maria. After the scene, she felt violated and humiliated by both Bertolucci and Brando, who never told her what their intentions were for the scene beforehand and never apologized. Her shock and tears captured on screen were real.

Now 60 years old, Matt Dillon has gravitas and hulking physicality to play the Hollywood acting legend Brando. He moves and speaks with confidence and ease with a glimpse of a dark side and arrogance.

Schneider is reprimanded by her manager for speaking out about the incident during the press tour after the film's release. Soon afterwards, she becomes a heroin addict and finds herself branded as 'difficult to work with', by refusing to do a nude scene in most of the roles she is offered. Surely there must be projects that she doesn't have to go topless. Again, this is French film industry in the 70s and 80s where women's roles are limited ('either saints or harlots' Schneider says with a sigh) and her reputation being in Last Tango precedes her. She befriends a college student Noor (Céleste Brunnquell) who is writing her dissertation on women's roles in films and the two become involved. And it is Noor who sees Maria through her drug addiction.

It is understandable that Vartolomei was chosen to play Schneider, even though there's no real physical resemblance. In Happening, she played Anne, a high school student in need of abortion which was still illegal in the 60s France. With all the conservative swing in Europe and especially in France, the film and her performance became a lightning rod for the feminist activism. And she does a great job portraying a principled young Schneider, who saw injustices in French film industry run by men, for men, long before #MeToo caught up with it. Being Maria is a scathing rebuke to unchecked sexism that dominated the film industry for way too long, and a well-deserved portrayal of trailblazing actress/activist.

Preview: First Look 2025 at MoMI

A highlight of the MoMI’s annual film programs, the 14th edition of First Look returns March 12–16 with a diverse lineup—38 films including 4 world premieres and 23 U.S. or North American premieres, representing 21 countries—beginning with the New York premiere of Durga Chew-Bose's Bonjour Tristesse with the director and star Lily McInerny in person. Half of all films in the festival this year, including opening night, are directed by women. The full schedule and advance tickets are available here.

Below are some of the most intriguing titles I was able to sample:

Bonjour Tristesse - Durga Chew-Bose The original 1958 version, a cautious coming-of-age tale directed by Otto Preminger, made a star out of pixie-cut Jean Seberg (later to be immortalized in Godard's Breathless). It seemed Bonjour Tristesse was primed for an update. Durga Chew-Bose, a Canadian filmmaker, makes it her feature debut with Claes Bang as Raymond, a widowed father, Chloe Sevigny as Anne, Raymond's old friend, an elegant fashion designer from Paris and Lily McInerny as Cécile, a wide-eyed seventeen-year-old, trying to fix up her father's love life. In Chew-Bose's hand, this sun-drenched, French Riviera set fairy-tale-gone-wrong plays out like an elegant chamber piece, beautifully shot by Maximilian Pittner. She concentrates on the tender father-daughter relationship with a hint of sadness.

Sevigny, playing against type as an uptight, motherly Anne, with an air of unapproachability, a wounded woman being denied of her long-lost love for the second time. With decidedly old fashioned - costumes, the old parent-trap theme, Bonjour Tristesse doesn't feel like it belongs in 2025, but this reboot is fun, nonetheless. Desert of Namibia (2024) - Yoko Yamanaka Yoko Yamanaka, who made splash with her first low budget feature Amiko (2017) when she was just twenty, is at it again with her second feature, Desert of Namibia. This time, her protagonist is not a High School girl, but a wayward 21-year-old, bouncing from one boyfriend to another, having a hard time fitting into a rigid society, where things are in decline and there's no real prospect for the future, as a young zoomer woman.

Kana (Yuumi Kawai), a gazelle like beauty is first seen wondering around Tokyo, meeting a friend, who informs her the suicide death of one of their friends. But she is distracted by other peoples' conversations spilling in her earshot. The dissociation is a dominant feature in the film. One minute Kana is happy and sunny, the next, she is moody and unresponsive. After leaving a live-in boyfriend in their tiny apartment, she moves in to another crammed one with Hayashi (Daichi Kaneko), an artist. Both men are enamored of her. But she soon finds faults in men and become volatile in her relationships.

There's a scene Kana takes a tumble on the stairs outside their apartment after a heated argument. She is briefly hospitalized with a neck brace. But Kana's anger doesn't stop there. Everyone tells her that she is free to do whatever she wants and choices she makes in life is entirely hers. But it's as if she is watching her daily life (physically fighting with Hayashi) on her phone while on treadmill - which Yamanaka includes later, as a movie within a movie. The general idea of survival and foreignness Kana feels is suggested in the film's title. The handheld camera work and long takes in tiny spaces, Yamanaka captures the intimacy and suffocation that Kana feels expertly.

Israel-Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 - Olsson Göran Hugo Olsson's new, well-timed archive-based documentary once again culls materials exclusively from Swedish Public Broadcasting (SVT), seeing the Israel-Palestine conflict from an as much non-partial point of view. But even with the wealth of footage, Olsson puts in the beginning of the film that 'the archive material doesn't necessarily tell us what really happened but says a lot about how it was told.' What's not shown or omitted holds just as much importance, he seems to suggest. These snapshots of 40 years of footage, with numbers, dates, the producer's names, the original title, and the type of film stock (up until the 80s) on 'archive cards', chronicles the rise of the State of Israel and 'The Palestine Problem'.

It features many of the movers and shakers of the region over the years, all of whom contributed to the downward spiral of the circle of violence and suffering. It illustrates when the powers-that-be lose the sight of the people, even while attempting to solve the Problem. It also suggests that it is unreasonable that a state exists on religious foundation in this day and age. As we go through early reports on Israeli society through 1967 war and tumultuous 70s, Sabra and Shatila Massacre and the collapse of Soviet Union, it shows how the public opinion has shifted as Israel's aggression intensified over the years. If anything, this clear-eyed, 3 1/2-hour documentary gives the historical and political context to what is happening in Gaza right now.

100,000,000,000,000 (2024) - Vernier Taking place in glitzy Monaco near Christmas time, Virgil Vernier's new film focuses on Alfine, an escort who describes himself as having a nice ass, nice lips, nice cock but lacking initiative. Not having a permanent residence, Alfine jumps from one client's luxury home to another and wonders around the port city-state lit up with Christmas decorations and lights, luxury shops, and shorelines filled with million-dollar yachts. He and his escort friends talk about opening an agency and their shallow dreams. Then he gets to babysit Julia, a twelve-year-old Chinese girl whose super rich developer parents are away on holidays. She says that her father is building an offshore island equipped with bunkers. She ominously tells Alfine that something bad is going to happen in the near future and she wants him to be on the island. The society we are living is in many ways incomprehensible. A million, trillion, quadrillion- numbers so big they lose all meaning and don't contribute to anything to our lives.

As usual, Vernier (Mercuriales, Sophia Antipolis), examines the seedy underbelly of our shallow modern society, urban isolation, loneliness, and human connection. Virgil Vernier remains to be one of the most interesting contemporary French directors working today.

Preview: Rendez-vous with French Cinema 2025

This year marks Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, running from March 6 to March 16, celebrates its 30th year at Film at Lincoln Center, NYC. This celebrated festival offers a dynamic showcase of contemporary French filmmaking, featuring an array of 23 films by both emerging voices—some selected as part of Unifrance’s 10 to Watch 2025 Program*, a yearly initiative honoring a new generation of directors and actors who contribute to the vitality of French creation—and seasoned directors that tackle relevant and enduring themes. This selection of North American, U.S., and New York premieres celebrates the energy, innovation, and range of French cinema.

The stellar lineup this year includes Visiting Hours by Patricia Mazuy, about two woman forging an unlikely friendship over their husbands' incacerations, starring indomitable Isabelle Huppert, the 77th Cannes Film Festival opener The Second Act by Quentin Dupieux, a meta-comedy taking place on a film set and featuring a star-studded cast, Wild Diamond, stunning feature debut by Agathe Riedinger, a gripping exploration of 19-year-old Liane’s (Malou Khebizi) fierce pursuit of fame as a reality TV contestant, Meeting with Pol Pot, a searing indictment of Khmer Rouge regime by Rithy Panh, and Jessica Palud’s Being Maria, which premiered at Cannes, an unsparing exploration of Maria Schneider’s (Anamaria Vartolomei) trauma stemming from her experience on the set of Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris, with Matt Dillon playing Marlon Brando.

Being Maria - Jessica Palud As French film industry's going through a full #MeToo reckoning, Jessica Palud's Being Maria revisits Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial film The Last Tango in Paris and tells the untold story from the perspective of its co-star Maria Schneider and the film's life-long effect on the actress. Schneider, star of many memorable films as Michelangelo Antonioni's Passenger, Jacques Rivette's Merry-Go-Round, later became outspoken activist against sexism in French film industry.

Anamaria Vartolomei of Happening, plays Schneider, a young, unknown actress chosen by Bertolucci (Giuseppe Marggio), to star opposite Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon) in sexually charged The Last Tango, at age 19. It was the 70s and if you are an established auteur like Bertolucci, it was 'anything goes' for art. The premise of the film is two strangers meeting by chance and carrying out a strictly physical relationship, baring their bodies and souls to each other. There will be a lot of nudity, so it will be controversial, the director warns. But you get to work with Brando and your career will be launched. Maria knows what she is signing up for. Yet she needs a consent form (because she is underage) signed by her movie-business disapproving mother. But it's the infamous "butter" scene, an improvised simulated sex scene involving butter, that really breaks Maria. After the scene, she felt violated and humiliated by both Bertolucci and Brando, who never told her what their intentions were for the scene beforehand and never apologized. Her shock and tears captured on screen were real.

She is reprimanded by her manager for speaking out about the incident during the press tour after the film's release. Soon afterwards, she becomes a heroin addict and finding herself branded as 'difficult to work with', by refusing to do a nude scene in most of the roles she is offered. She befriends with a college student Noor (Céleste Brunnquell) who is writing her dissertation on women's roles in films and the two become involved. And it is Noor who sees Maria through her drug addiction.

It is understandable that Vartolomei was chosen to play Schneider, even though there's no physical resemblance. In Happening, where she plays Anne, a high school student in need of abortion which was still illegal in the 60s France. With all the conservative swing around the world, her performance became a women's rights symbols. And she does a great job portraying a principled young Schneider who saw injustices in French film industry run by men, for men, long before #metoo caught up with it.

Wild Diamond - Agathe Riedinger 19-year-old Liane (Malou Khebizi), living with her unemployed single mother and a younger sister, lives and dies by her phone, getting followers with her looks and dance moves. Platitude of her fans, spreading across the screen is what she lives for. Her emphasis on her looks - she got a boob job and self-administered Botox on her lips, are all part of getting more followers, so she can be famous. Being rich and powerful are her goals in life. She really wants to get out of her less than perfect surroundings. To her, everyone, including her circle of friends, mom, family counselor, and Dino, a local dirt bike mechanic that she has a sweet for, is beneath her.

She gets a call from a casting director of the popular reality TV show, Miracle Island. And she gets a chance to do an audition. This is the golden ticket she has been waiting for. While obsessing over the callback, all the people around her are getting irritated by her diva behavior. Dino asks her what if she doesn't get the TV role. She sullenly replies that she would kill herself. Would she get a break and show all the naysayers, who tells her that being loved is not a talent? Agathe Riedinger creates great intimacy with documentary style camera work with the help of Malou Khebizi's incredibly natural, vulnerable performance in a soul baring role.

Visiting Hours - Patricia Mazuy Alma (Isabelle Huppert) and Mina (Hafsia Herzi), women from two different backgrounds - one of privilege and the other, working class, meet at the family visiting facility of a prison. Both their husbands are incarcerated. Alma, a former dancer now a bored wife of a neurosurgeon who is serving time for DUI manslaughter, sees Mina in distress and lends a helping hand- she invites her and her two young children to stay at her large empty house, so Mina doesn't have to travel 3 hours by bus to visit her husband in prison. This way, Alma doesn't feel so alone by herself.

A friendship blossoms: Mina takes liking to Alma's directness, biting sense of humor and her generosity. It is revealed that Alma's marriage has been on the fritz for a while, even long before the hit-and-run, whereas Mina still has a passionate love for her incarcerated husband- tears and brief tryst on visits. Mina's husband is in jail for robbing a jewelry store and Yassine, his associate outside, is not liking her new situation, suspecting that she and her husband are stiffing him from some hidden stolen goods.
Things take a turn with the news of Alma's husband's early release and Yassine spying on her. Alma's assessment of her husband's collecting art as an investment gives Mina an idea of a staged break-in where Yassin can take one of the paintings from Alma's house and leave her and her family alone. Alma wouldn't mind and won't call cops on her.

Patricia Mazuy's women's empowerment story has similar dynamics with Claude Chabrol's Hitchcockian thrillers. It even starts with Alma shopping for flowers in visually overloaded flower shop sequence reminiscent of Vertigo. Mazuy is a very competent director and gets great chemistry out of Huppert and Herzi. Visiting Hours may not have the gritty, ultra-violent aspect of her last film, Saturn Bowling, but it's a solid film with great performances and great visuals.

Meeting with Pol Pot - Rithy Panh Based on American journalist Elizabeth Becker's personal experience in Cambodia under the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, Meeting with Pol Pot tells a three French journalist Lise (Irène Jacob), Alain (Grégoire Colin) and Paul (Cyril Gueï) being invited to interview Pol Pot, known as Brother No.1 in 1978.

But however the welcome party, consists of high ranking officials who were classmates of Alain at Sorbonne, paints the pictures of completely just and egalitarian society that they are shown around, the skeptical journalists can't shake off the feeling that there's something hidden amid tightly controlled the rural work-camp compound. Paul, the photographer, who has tendency to walk off from the carefully guided tour, disappears first after witnessing human remains in the field and his films confiscated. Even though Lise protests of their near imprisonment in the compound and lack of transparency by their AK-45 wielding captors, Alain, who forged the friendship through correspondences with Brother No. 1, is in denial of the rumors of the genocide of 1.5 - 2 million people, and still hoping for a chance to interview him.

Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh is known for his documentary work on atrocities committed by Khmer Rouge regime (S21: Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, A Missing Picture), combines archival footage, rare projections, and dioramas with clay figures, along with scenes with actors to tell the story of what happens when an ideology overtakes its intent. It's a sobering, clear eyed film. Jacob, as she ages, possesses Charlotte Rampling gravitas in her acting.

Spanking the Monkey

The Monkey (2025) - Perkins Bespectacled Hal gets bullied around in school, also by his twin brother Bill at home. The twins live with their single mother (Tatiana Maslany). It's the 90s. They find a windup toy monkey left by their absent father (Adam Scott, shown briefly in the beginning, blow torching the monkey). When the monkey gets winded up, people around it die in some horrible accidents. After their mom dies of brain aneurism (because of the monkey), Hal chops up the monkey and throws it away. After the twins get adopted by their aunt and uncle and move to Maine, they find that the monkey has followed them. It doesn't matter why monkey chose them. It just is. Uncle with the impressive lambchop sideburn (played drolly by Perkins himself) dies first, stampeded by band of horses in a sleeping bag while camping, then twenty five years later, aunt dies horribly too. After many more highly inventive kill offs with many of the population in town dead, Bill and Hal need to finish the job of destroying the monkey, if they could. If not, they will need to learn how to live with the monkey.

If Osgood Perkins's Longlegs left you scratching your head in dissatisfaction, as it walked the tight rope between being a psychological horror and a comedy, please give him another chance with The Monkey, an all out horror-comedy that will wipe off your doubts about his talent as a filmmaker-to-watch. Perkins has a very peculiar sense of humor, to say the least. And his take on Stephen King's short story is an unabashedly slap-sticky, full on gore-fest that doesn't take itself too seriously.

Just like Longlegs, the pace of The Monkey is breezy. It progresses too quickly for us to question what's happening or why. And it's a good thing. Soon you realize that the narrative doesn't really matter. It's all just vibes. Theo James, playing both Hal and Bill, is eagerly along for the ride and keeps the serious face the whole time. Maslany hamms it up to match the film's weird vibe. All the peripheral characters - Hal's boss at the hardware store, the rookie priest, Elija Wood's creepy self-help guru, Perkins's uncle Chip and the tiny Asian girl bully all enhances to the truly peculiar vibe of the movie.

The Monkey is not necessarily the movie that we asked for, but the movie we need in these dark times.

Keeping it Together in this Crazy World

How to be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World (2024) - Pochlatko It's all in the perspectives when talking about our mental health, considering the wild and crazy world that we are living in right now. Austrian director Florian Pochlatko plays with this idea in his zany debut feature How to be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World. We see Pia (played drolly by Luisa-Céline Gaffron), a sullen young woman, being discharged from a mental institution and moving back to her childhood room in her concerned parents' house. Mom, Elfie (Elke Winkens), is a voice actor for narrating documentary programs and dad Klaus (Cornelius Obonya) owns a printing company.

Jumbled up timeline and fantasy sequences, you don't quite know what we see on screen is real or not, neither does our unreliable narrator Pia, who is on a variety of colorful anti-psychotic pills. We get to know a little bit of details in Pia's life - her boyfriend Joni (Felix Pöchhacker) has moved on, but Pia is still deeply in love. And it gets a little touchy when she confronts him and his new love. Also Pia is paranoid about men in black suits, very much like Agent Smith from the Matrix movies, following her around everywhere. Are they real or her drug induced hallucinations?

In order to give some stability to Pia, her parents decide to give her a job at dad's company, doing dull office work. They hope that a daily routine would help her. But the real world is not as stable as everyone hopes to be. Increasingly sensationalist tendencies in documentary topics that Elfie narrates - parasite infected zombie snails, wayward asteroids that might collide with the earth, combined with daily atrocities and natural disasters blaring on TV, test Elfie's sanity causing her to crash her car in a traffic heavy motorway. Klaus struggles with his company being taken over by a huge conglomerate called 'Friendly' (a stand-in for Amazon). It's as if there's a very thin line distinguishing being normal and insane. Not only Pia, but everyone slowly loses grip on their reality, as the world keeps spinning out of control.

How to be Normal asks big questions about what is perceived as normal when the world around us is insane. Pia, constantly under pressure to be normal, is trying to hold on to the idea of home and self-worth in the world constantly in turmoil. Pochlatko, like Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once, balances the heady subject with plenty of humor and great visual gags. As paranoid and delusional Pia appears to be, she provides the film's many hilarious moments as she appears as a giant monster with a piece of Gouda cheese across her face lumbering like a Gozilla in the city, or using the post-it notes to cover her face at her job. Gaffron is fantastic as a acne ridden, heavily medicated young woman desperately trying to find a footing and self-worth, so is the rest of the cast with their droll performances.

Can Pia find peace and stop slashing her wrists with a plastic knife? Is there a brighter future for mankind? Pochlatko poses these questions and asks us to contemplate what it means to be sane and normal in the world that is completely nuts.

Symbols

Hysteria (2025) - Büyükatalay German filmmaker Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay's Hysteria touches upon sensitive subjects in modern day, multicultural Germany: racism and representation. The film plays out like a tense thriller until it morphs into a chamber drama where the identity politics within the immigrant community are dissected and hotly debated. Hysteria might not be as subtle as fellow Turkish descendent filmmaker Thomas Arslan (A Fine Day)'s work, or as flashy as Fatih Akin (Head-On)'s, but the film is more direct and piercing in dealing with the complex subject matter. The plot sometimes feels clunky and forced as it gets tangled up in its own intricate web, and the seemingly important loose ends don't tie up neatly by the end. But Hysteria is an anxiety inducing pressure cooker of a film that concludes with the literal fiery end.

Hysteria starts with an arson, a staged one: it is revealed in a long zoom out that the house being torched is in a giant film stage. The film director Yigit (Serkan Kaya) interjects and gives the context to the image - it's the reflection of the arson attacks that took place in Germany in the 90s by the ultra right-wing groups against Muslim immigrant communities that killed hundreds of innocent people. What Yigit is trying to capture is immigrant non-actors’ emotions, going through the aftermath of the arson attack. These extras are culled from a local refugee center for authenticity's sake. After the shoot, it is revealed that the copy of Quran is burned along with other household items during filming and some of the extras are upset. One of them, Majid, walks off the set. So, the driving duty falls on a young and eager intern Elif (Devrim Lingnau). She has to drive extras back to the refugee center and drop off the film negatives (the project is shot on film) to an apartment that belongs to the film's producer Lilith (Nicolette Krebitz) who is also well known, respected filmmaker herself.

Elif has a healthy discussion with the extras about what the project is about on the way back to the refugee center. Mustafa (Aziz Çapkurt), himself a theater director back home, thinks Yigit is just perpetuating the victimhood on screen, which has been long prevalent in German cinema - so called "Gasterbeiter (Guestworker) Cinema" or "Cinema of Duty" of the 70s and 80s. These are the films the white liberals can have their conscience clear and make them feel good after viewing. Others disagree, including Elif, a university student with a Turkish immigrant father, who thinks the film is saying something important.

After Elif drops them off, she arrives at Lilith's but realizes that she lost the keys to the apartment. After calling a locksmith, she places several fliers about missing keys around the neighborhood. But she conceals the lost key incident to Lilith for some reason. This little deceit snowballs into full blown paranoia when she gets text messages about the lost keys from a stranger. The texts, with bad grammar and their profile picture and their social media linked to some scary looking Muslim extremist group, Elif, sufficiently freaked out, calls Said (Medhi Meskar), a young immigrant who was an extra in Yigit's film and tells him what's been happening. When Yigit and Lilith come back, to Elif's dismay, they find the footage that contains the burning Quran is gone. Someone broke into the apartment and lifted the footage. Yigit, furious and suspects the extras and calls cops on them. Mustafa, Said and Majid all deny any involvement in wrongdoing.

Lilith, who wasn't fan of the footage and in fear of controversy, convinces Yigit to file a theft insurance claim and reshoot the scene without Quran. The problem solved. But for Elif, the problem is far from solved. She confronts Lilith and Yigit with Mustafa, Said and Majid, and asks for an apology. This is where things get a little shaky in terms of narrative contrivances. While I appreciate the need of seeing frank discussions about how people perceive others and others perceive themselves, class disparities, 'write what you know,' etc., but nothing really gets sorted out in Hysteria. The jarring tonal shift, untied loose ends, underdeveloped motivations and obvious symbolism (not only Quran but actual negative film catches fire at the end) devolve into a melodrama. Büyükatalay has a knack for making an anxiety inducing thriller. But issues don't necessarily get solved themselves even when they are screamed out loud for everyone to hear.

Parti pris

Armand (2024) - Tøndel Halfdan Ulmann Tøndel's scathing primary set school drama Armand features a stunning lead performance by Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World). Reinsve plays Elisabeth, a mother of Armand, a troubled 6 year old kid who is accused of sexual assault on a classmate. The supposed victim is a son of Sarah (Ellen Dorrit Petersen), who is a sister of Thomas, Elisabeth's dead husband. The emergency PT conference is called in the backdrop of the empty, old primary school since the school is out for summer. Elisabeth is first seen frantically driving to school, trying to connect to Armand on the phone. With jewelry, makeup, a revealing top and high heels, she exudes a partygirl vibe. She wipes off her lipstick before she enters the school. Waiting there in school are - harried principal Jarle (Øystein Røger), an inexperienced young teacher Sunna (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen), and an administrator Ajsa (Vera Veljovic-Jovanovic), as well as Sarah and husband Anders(Endre Hellestveit).

An attempt, led by Sunna, to appease both parent parties and make light of the situation fails miserably as the temper and accusations fly. It's a serious accusation that Armand hit the kid and pulled his pants down and uttered the words 'anal sex'. The situation is too much for a young teacher to handle. Jarle and Ajsa step in. As they weigh in the steps that need to be taken by the school, Elisabeth has a laughing fit that lasts several minutes, as everyone else increasingly feels uncomfortable. It's as if she is sabotaging the process and dragging it out, as if she doesn't want to face the accusations. Sarah is convinced that Elisabeth, an actor, is out to manipulate the situation by creating a drama and making everything about herself, the victim. She urges Jarle and everyone to consider Elisabeth's profession, and in turn her mental fitness for being a mother. Who knows if she has something to do with Thomas's accidental death? Jarle who has known Thomas and Sarah since they were kids who attended the same school, increasingly believes Sarah's opinion of her.

Armand reminded me of another Scandinavian film with the similar subject, Thomas Vinterberg's The Hunt, starring Mads Mikkelsen, a kindergarten teacher accused of a sexual abuse by a young girl, which turns out to be a little lie. A grandson of Liv Ulmann and Ingmar Bergman, Tøndel, a young Norwegian filmmaker, shows his pedigree with Armand. The filmmaker uses those empty interiors to his advantage (with DP Pål Ulvik Rokseth), playing with silhouettes and focus shifts.

Directing the actors, with simmering tensions and emotional turmoil dealing with such a delicate subject, Tøndel shows a firm grasp of working with seasoned actors. For Reinsve, it's a very hammy role, balancing between a seductress and an innocent woman who is persecuted by her looks in a physically demanding role. And she gives it all.

Armand is a tense movie with warring factions calling for blood. But it also leaves some room for poetic moments of reprieve as Elisabeth dances with the school's custodian with a broom and an intense physical altercation fantasy sequence near the end involving Elisabeth and a group of parents who were there to recap the school year with the administration who just heard about the accusation. The scene where everyone's hands are on Elisabeth, poking, nudging and grabbing her, is reminiscent of the scene from Repulsion. In this, it's as if the accusers are trying to get a piece of the accused with their preconceived notion of Elisabeth, the unfit mother. With the strong performance from Reinsve, Armand is a commendable first feature from a promising young director. Armand receives will have limited theatrical release on Friday 2/7 at IFC Center. Nationwide release will follow.