Hop-in-ing at Sundance 2024

- The good, the bad-

5 nights and 5 days of constant filmic enthusiasm, up to our ears laughter and delish mountain food, were absolutely worthy the endless plane, train and automobile debauchery that lasted 22 hours+ one way only.

Addicted to Q and A's and side discussions on the creative process, I might have already forgotten the less impressive films that occupied my agenda at this year's SUNDANCE. I shall therefore mention the very few that stay with me this morning, 2 days before the awards fall on Park City, Utah.

ENO

A documentary trying to answer the fashionable question of:" Can AI make a good movie?". 

The answer is no. 

As a self-described glam-rocker, Brian ENO id definitely a genius and the father of synth pop. Instead of doing a typical biopic of his life, the filmmakers took 50 years of interviews  and hundreds of hours of footage, and created a software algorithm. 

The machine is piecing up together all this material in as such that we can watch a completely different movie at each screening! Cool concept! 

Yet, in reality, we get 90 minutes of an artist talking about his creative process, but missing a real beginning, middle or end. 

High concept, confusing and scrambled result!

FRIDA KAHLO. The Icon, The Artist.

A superb documentary about the icon with engrossing music, gorgeous animations and treatments. A must see. If you think you know Frida, you'll fall in love with her punk rock, feminist, creative spirit. 

Total star ahead of her time!

SKYWALKERS. A LOVE STORY.

This vertigo-inducing documentary follows 2 Russian climbers, Vanya and Angela, as they chase love and adrenaline by climbing skyscrapers and turning death and danger into art. 

This left me sweaty, on the edge of my seat.

SUJO.

Part of a very Latino Sundance edition this year, with myriads of Latino (female) stars and starlets, south American films and projects, this slow slow sloooow burn film follows a teenage Mexican boy. 

It is a coming of age film about sicarios, witches, refugee life, murder, robbery. And it's still on the limit of boring. Well done, but not enough to hold attention. 

I've seen this story done better.

THELMA.

Destined to be this year's "Little Miss Sunshine" breakout hit, this unexpected comedy stars the superb 94 year old June Squibb in this true story revenge tale with heart. 

The whole audience was laughing and applauding. Hm...

PRESENCE.

Steven Soderbergh's latest is a creepy voyeuristic haunted house movie that stands out as it is told by the perspective of the...phantom! Why is it there? What are his powers? 

With some AI masterful long shots and an impressive performance of Lucy Liu, this film imposes reflection, and had me wondering: who's watching over me???!!!...

HANDLING THE UNDEAD. 

- Handtering av odode-

Just imagine a zombie movie where the still living are surprised when their recently dead loved ones reanimate! Imagine the grief and the confusion they would feel! 

This very Norwegian movie treats this at a pace slower than a dead zombie. Hoping someone out there might like it as much as I did...

THE BATTLE FOR LAIKIPIA.

In central Kenya, the Laikipia plateau is home to wild animals and two co-existing enemies: the Europeans, who have been there for 4 or 5 generations, since the locals sold them the land, and the local tribes, who have been there since the beginning of time. 

This gorgeous and careful doc was shot over 7 years and it shows both sides of the story. It does not pick up a winner, but it just describes what happens when climate change forces the pastoral cow herders onto vast conservation land, in search of WATER. 

A story that has become more and more familiar to us, climate change! The one that impacts all our lives, cultures, resources, and ultimately safety.

A REAL PAIN.

I confess I am not usually a fan of Jesse Eisenberg. he is anxious, neurotic, overly busy. Not at aaalll like me!...As Director and Writer of this very good drama, though, he and his depressed cousin go on a tour of Poland to pay homage to their recently deceased Jewish grandmother.

Kieran Culkin is a screwed up free spirit agent of free chaos, yet they have a deep love for each other, as they both process grief in different ways. 

Culkin and Eisenberg shine and lead a fabulous supporting cast and heavy landscapes of Holocaust sites. Wow!

WAR GAME.

What happens when you get a room full of 30 year public servants together from the military, the White Hoiuse, legislature, and more on a 6 hours time hgame? That's what this uncomfortable doc about January the 6th explores. 

It's going to happen again, and the questions is - are the Americans ready for it? 

Or will decision makers push them into  Civil war? 

It's a razors edge.

SUNCOAST

Cute tragicomedy with one to watch Nicole Parker as teenage Doris and the freak de service Laura Linney as they cope with Doris' brother Max's pass away. Doris is kind and all she wants is to be a normal teenager. But her mother is single sighted on Max. 

Doris is challenged by her life passing by and not getting attention from her family members. Funny and indie, this is a lovely forgettable low budget movie from a first time director. 

There is nothing very special about it, but it's trying to be good, and it is just that. 

Fine and not bad.

Just as this 2024 Sundance edition...

by Giulia D

BAS LES MASQUES!

The French Riviera. A magical place, magnetic in its refined beauty, but which, behind its splendor, can hide disturbing aspects. Just as in his time the great Jean Vigo composed in  "À propos de Nice" (1930).

The Côte d'Azur - and, specifically, the city of Nice - has proven itself time and time again over the years as the perfect location for love stories and successful noirs (in full tradition with French cinema, after all). The last of the directors who, therefore, let himself be inspired by this paradise is Nicolas Bedos with Masquerade, presented out of competition at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Masquerade – Thieves of Love, is an adrenaline-filled thriller, but also a singular love story, due to a constant and desperate need for affection, one that many of the protagonists have never known during their lives.

The story   is that of young Adrien (played by Pierre Niney), once a successful dancer, but who, due to an accident, had to leave his profession. The young man therefore lives on the French Riviera, at the expense of the charming but no longer young actress Martha (Isabelle Adjani). She is just happy to have him as a companion, despite knowing that he is not in love with her. Things suddenly change when, during a party at Martha's house, Adrien meets the beautiful Margot (Marine Vacth). Between them it will be love at first sight.

Adrien and Margot have much more in common than it initially seems: both, in order to survive, usually defraud people much older than them by embarking on unlikely relationships, where they inevitably end up feeling even more alone.

But what would happen if, together, they had to devise a plan to finally set them "free"?

Masquerade leads us by the hand into an increasingly intricate labyrinth in which there almost seems to be no way out. A labyrinth that Adrien and Margot built with their own hands and in which they themselves, at a certain point, no longer seem to orientate.

In staging the intrigues and (mis)adventures of the two young protagonists, Nicolas Bedos made use of an agile and dynamic direction, where the characters are put first and foremost in the foreground, each of them looking practically impeccable (even when they look in the mirror after an "involuntary" dip in the pool). Each of them is perfectly placed within a luxurious and glossy context, in which the location itself is treated as a magnetic co-protagonist.

The duo schemes, disguises themselves, steals, betrays. But in this square plot, it's every man for himself: the young lovers also lie to each other and when feelings seem to erupt, they are immediately showered by a thick layer of cynicism.

Men here are all “pigs”, “assholes”, fickle and violent. “We get older, we get bigger, you hit us and you leave,” summarizes Margot. Who, in a particularly disturbing scene, asks her lover to disfigure her. And provokes him with “Be a man!” Hit like a man! » until he complies... as if he then had no choice.

An alternating montage with very tight rhythms (well emphasized by an appropriate musical commentary), does the rest and makes this Masquerade - Thieves of Love become a very refined thriller, which almost reminds us of some of the "past glories" of François Ozon.

Let’s agree: although it is a successful and perfectly enjoyable product, this fourth feature film by Nicolas Bedos does not represent anything new within the contemporary cinematographic panorama.

But that's it.

In any case, in its practically impeccable packaging and with its robust and flawless script, the present Masquerade can give us two abundant hours of adrenaline-filled twists, all seasoned up with a welcome touch of irony and self-irony.

And this, as we know, is no small matter.

 

Original title: Masquerade

Director: Nicolas Bedos

Country/year: France / 2022

Duration: 134'

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Crime, Romance

Cast: Charles Berling, François Cluzet, Emmanuelle Devos, Marine Vacth, Pierre Niney, Isabelle Adjani,

Screenplay: Nicolas Bedos

Photography: Laurent Tangy

Editing: Clément Selitzki, Anny Danché

Music: Anne-Sophie Versnaeyen

Producer: Marie de Cenival, Kristina Zimmermann, Jérôme Seydoux,

Production company: Pathé, Les Films du Kiosque, Télé Monté Carlo (TMC), Umedia, Orange Studio, Hugar Prod, Fils Prod, Canal+, TF1 Films Production, Ciné+, TF1

Release date: 03/01/2023

By Giulia D