These are the movie premieres that hit the screens starting on August 11:
By Jordi Batlle Caminal
The first images of Godland, when the young Danish priest receives the order from his superior to found a church in a remote part of Iceland (this is the end of the 19th century), have a cold formal rigidity, very Nordic, reminiscent of Carl Theodor. Dreyer (later on, the protagonist will come to resemble, in his psychological evolution, the enlightened madman of Ordet). The first part of Godland will focus on the journey of the priest and his companions on the expedition through virgin landscapes of insulting (and disturbing: an unknown planet) beauty, which our hero, a passionate photographer, will record on time with his camera. . There are obvious echoes of a western, of a western itinerary in open and endless spaces, on this long journey. It is not bad to hybridize Dreyer with Anthony Mann. But wait, Werner Herzog is coming: as in Aguirre, the wrath of God or Fitzcarraldo, the adventure is physical, metaphysical and spiritual at the same time. The journey is, of course, a journey of knowledge (in the first place, knowledge of oneself), exterior and interior. And its ultimate meaning, building a church in the middle of nowhere, will diminish the initial passion of the protagonist.
The second part takes place in the place where the church is built and describes and carefully observes the life of a small, very small community. The richness in the observation of this reduced universe is reminiscent of Michael Cimino from Heaven’s Gate and there is a magnificent fragment, that of the wedding, where Hlynur Pálmason exhibits elegant tracking shots and circular camera movements that capture the environment with rigor and extraordinary realism. In fact, the entire film, shot in a square format, is an exercise in aesthetic virtuosity and slow narrative breathing.
Godland speaks, openly or obliquely, of various topics (social, religious, linguistic), but above all, he proposes a reflection on time and history and, in its more specifically telluric aspect, establishes the relationship between man and nature with a depth and conviction rare in cinema. It is clear that, after the exhilarating A White, White Day and Godland, the Icelandic Pálmason is one of the filmmakers to be reckoned with.
Por Philipp Engel
Horror movie of the season? Definitely imperfect? Also. The second half is a bit of a mess compared to the first 45 minutes, which are anthology. But it doesn’t matter, because the film has already given the viewer so much that they can only be grateful. And the final installment of Talk to Me is still far, far above any horror franchise we’ve gotten our teeth into lately, be it Insidious V, Scream VI, or most likely Saw X. This is an independent horror movie, with the quality seal of the production company A24, perpetrated by a pair of 30-year-old Australian twins, famous for staging parodic battles between superheroes and killer clowns on RackaRacka, their YouTube channel, on which they already have almost seven million followers.
As for the plot, we are once again among a group of adolescents armed with cell phones and prisoners of the networks, who will face evil spirits. But the introduction of the characters, and the relationships between them, is so clever and intriguing; the staging and photography, so sophisticated; the music selection with state-of-the-art rap, so deafening, and the violence, so brutal, shocking and, at first, so inexplicable, that the feeling of living in one’s own flesh an overwhelming regeneration of the genre does not dissipate until the final credits. Spirits are the new drug here, and the feeling of being possessed for a minute by a gruesome relic gives your body such a jolt that it becomes the life of any party. Neither alcohol, nor ecstasy, nor cocaine, infernal possession is what is carried in this corner of the Australian suburbia. For the viewer, the shakes will go on for a very concise hour and a half, and they will be glad they paid for it. A milestone at the level of what the already classic It Follows (D. R. Mitchell, 2014) meant in its day, no less disturbing, but much more beastly.
By Salvador Llopart
Iberico, like a good ham. Story with an unexpected turn around the myth, so everyday, so local, such as the bogeyman who takes bad children. Evil crouched on the other side of the bed, at the moment of turning off the light. The particular with universal vocation. Ángel Gómez, his director, tries something like crossing Stephen King and The Goonnies with a certain touch of Blue Summer. The result is too complicated for children, and too little -disturbing and accomplished- for adults.
PorPh. Obstacle
Our French neighbors are crazy about films about the health or educational systems, and here they have found a formula to bring them together: a school runs out of a canteen, and there is no other option than to serve lunch to the kids in a nursing home. The always talkative Vincent Macaigne will witness a generational clash filmed with a certain taste, and with the usual outpouring of kindness of French feel-good movies in which everyone learns from everyone else to be a better person.
By S. Llopart
We are facing an animated watercolor. A work of art in progress that tells a story of friendship and speaks of the weight of tradition against loyalty to oneself. The result is enchanting, magical. Endowed with a delicious drawing that will be to the taste of the little ones. Beautiful in conception and realization. Made with good taste, delicacy and tons of imagination. There are lots of animals involved, especially bears. You would hug them all.
Por Ph. Obstacle
You might think that, with the successive, and celebrated, installments of Hotel Transylvania, everything had already been said in terms of animated vampires for children and, incidentally, adults. But in Eastern Europe they do not think the same. Well because they see in the Sony saga a case of cultural appropriation, despite the fact that it was created by the Russian-American Genndy Tartakovsky, or more clearly to take advantage of the success with a somewhat more modest product, but by no means devoid of grace and humor. . The vampire on duty, who wears a toupee with which he recalls Andrés Pajares singing Dracula Ye-yé, lives in a castle with “98 rooms, 18 stairs and a bathroom.”
By J. Batlle Caminal
A double ode to PlayStation and Nissan, this is a showy and not badly billed car racing movie, epic and triumphant to the point of exhaustion and very conventional in terms of characters: the manager with the constant “You can! You can!” between his teeth, the father who cries inconsolably because he did not believe in his son’s dreams, the hateful and boastful rival who becomes the young hero’s Messala, Ben-Hur riding his chariot at 300 per hour, etc.
