10月に見るべき映画

From October 24

James Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is a man without a plan. With his dim-witted accomplices, he stages a heist at a Massachusetts art gallery – but is soon forced on the run when the law comes to call, followed by members of a local crime cartel. Kelly Reichardt’s film is a whipsmart and subversive take on the all-American crime caper, with shades of Sidney Lumet in the funny and nail-bitingly tense first half especially. In the second, which may frustrate genre fans but is entirely the point, Reichardt switches gears to reveal a bleak character study that turns O’Connor’s roguish onscreen charm inside-out, exposing the hollow narcissism at his character’s core. 

From October 3

In Harris Dickinson’s first film as director, homeless drug addict Mike (Frank Dillane) tries to get his life back on track after serving time in jail for robbery. His fragile recovery sees him strike up romance with fellow outsider Andrea (Megan Northam), but Mike is never more than a misstep away from disaster in this beautifully judged debut, which takes hard-hitting material and makes something warm and funny and altogether unexpected. There’s barely a false note in it, right down to the heartfelt turn from Dillane, who balances pathos and physical comedy – a scene of him walking down the street proudly holding a cactus stands out – in one of the most moving and magnetic performances of the year.

Read our feature on Urchin here. 

From October 3

Kathryn Bigelow doesn’t make action films, she makes blockbuster dispatches from the heart of the American military-industrial complex. A House of Dynamite is another such stony-faced thriller, meticulously staged and researched, tracking the global response to a nuclear missile attack on the US. Framing the action through the use of Rashomon-style multiple POVs, the Zero Dark Thirty director doesn’t soft-soap her subject, sprinkling in just enough surprises to keep us on our toes – when the nuke-happy general pushing for retaliatory strikes sounds this persuasive, you know things have gotten bad. But the character outlines are thinly sketched at best, Rebecca Ferguson’s nerveless comms official disappearing weirdly from the action midway through. And is it just me, or is there a strange irony at work when a film pertaining to be this ‘real’ has to cast Idris Elba as the president because the alternative would be too ridiculous to contemplate?

From October 3

“‘I’ve never lost a fight!’ declares Mark Kerr, the UFC fighter portrayed by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, before losing his first fight, a moment that will define the rest of his career. For his first solo movie, it makes sense that Benny Safdie sets his sights on the kind of protagonist he might have chosen with his brother and erstwhile filmmaking partner, Josh. Mark Kerr is a man not unlike obsessive gambler Howard (Adam Sandler) in Uncut Gems, or Robert Pattinson’s Connie in Good Time, a wanted criminal reluctant to reform. All of these men are adrenaline junkies searching for their next high, whether that comes in a payout or a prescription bottle, but as with many of those who are addicted to life’s extreme highs, they fall ever so hard. These are not life’s winners – but it is not success that Safdie is interested in.” 

– Taken from Billie Walker’s first-look Venice Film Festival review. 

From October 31

A bailiff undergoes a crisis of conscience after a man commits suicide in Radu Jude’s scathing black comedy, ripped from the headlines of Europe’s ongoing housing crisis. The film follows Olsoya (Eszter Tompa) as she meets up with friends, colleagues and zen bicycle couriers in her hometown of Cluj, rattled by the death of a man she’d helped turf out of his makeshift home to make way for developers. Jude takes a mostly ironic view of her suffering – there’s a running gag where she has to keep explaining to everyone, very awkwardly, how the man hanged himself from a radiator – but there’s real anger here, too, spilling over into a climactic, five-minute montage of buildings that is both deeply sarcastic and sad.

From October 24

James Mooney (Josh O’Connor) is a man without a plan. With his dim-witted accomplices, he stages a heist at a Massachusetts art gallery – but is soon forced on the run when the law comes to call, followed by members of a local crime cartel. Kelly Reichardt’s film is a whipsmart and subversive take on the all-American crime caper, with shades of Sidney Lumet in the funny and nail-bitingly tense first half especially. In the second, which may frustrate genre fans but is entirely the point, Reichardt switches gears to reveal a bleak character study that turns O’Connor’s roguish onscreen charm inside-out, exposing the hollow narcissism at his character’s core. 

From October 3

In Harris Dickinson’s first film as director, homeless drug addict Mike (Frank Dillane) tries to get his life back on track after serving time in jail for robbery. His fragile recovery sees him strike up romance with fellow outsider Andrea (Megan Northam), but Mike is never more than a misstep away from disaster in this beautifully judged debut, which takes hard-hitting material and makes something warm and funny and altogether unexpected. There’s barely a false note in it, right down to the heartfelt turn from Dillane, who balances pathos and physical comedy – a scene of him walking down the street proudly holding a cactus stands out – in one of the most moving and magnetic performances of the year.

Read our feature on Urchin here. 

From October 3

Kathryn Bigelow doesn’t make action films, she makes blockbuster dispatches from the heart of the American military-industrial complex. A House of Dynamite is another such stony-faced thriller, meticulously staged and researched, tracking the global response to a nuclear missile attack on the US. Framing the action through the use of Rashomon-style multiple POVs, the Zero Dark Thirty director doesn’t soft-soap her subject, sprinkling in just enough surprises to keep us on our toes – when the nuke-happy general pushing for retaliatory strikes sounds this persuasive, you know things have gotten bad. But the character outlines are thinly sketched at best, Rebecca Ferguson’s nerveless comms official disappearing weirdly from the action midway through. And is it just me, or is there a strange irony at work when a film pertaining to be this ‘real’ has to cast Idris Elba as the president because the alternative would be too ridiculous to contemplate?

From October 3

“‘I’ve never lost a fight!’ declares Mark Kerr, the UFC fighter portrayed by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, before losing his first fight, a moment that will define the rest of his career. For his first solo movie, it makes sense that Benny Safdie sets his sights on the kind of protagonist he might have chosen with his brother and erstwhile filmmaking partner, Josh. Mark Kerr is a man not unlike obsessive gambler Howard (Adam Sandler) in Uncut Gems, or Robert Pattinson’s Connie in Good Time, a wanted criminal reluctant to reform. All of these men are adrenaline junkies searching for their next high, whether that comes in a payout or a prescription bottle, but as with many of those who are addicted to life’s extreme highs, they fall ever so hard. These are not life’s winners – but it is not success that Safdie is interested in.” 

– Taken from Billie Walker’s first-look Venice Film Festival review. 

From October 31

A bailiff undergoes a crisis of conscience after a man commits suicide in Radu Jude’s scathing black comedy, ripped from the headlines of Europe’s ongoing housing crisis. The film follows Olsoya (Eszter Tompa) as she meets up with friends, colleagues and zen bicycle couriers in her hometown of Cluj, rattled by the death of a man she’d helped turf out of his makeshift home to make way for developers. Jude takes a mostly ironic view of her suffering – there’s a running gag where she has to keep explaining to everyone, very awkwardly, how the man hanged himself from a radiator – but there’s real anger here, too, spilling over into a climactic, five-minute montage of buildings that is both deeply sarcastic and sad.