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Smile 2 (2024)
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A truly unique sequel that does justice to its predecessor.
It creates surprise featuring a pop soundtrack, and refusing to overuse the trademark techniques of the first opus (discordant soundtracks, floating camera movements, inverted camera, etc.).
As a result, the movie has a unique ambience, which takes it time to better ends with great moral and physical violence, plunging us into the character's confusion and delusion.
While the beginning of the film may seem to lack intensity, it serves as a teeter-trotter to better confront us with the distress that celebrity sometimes hides.
The end of the movie is a profound reflection on adulation, gaze and the very real horrors we deny exist.
The Apprentice (2024)
It is right, you are wrong.
A biopic that isn't really a biopic at all, since it's so rooted in an aversion to conservative politics.
It's too easy to criticize an infamous public figure with outrageous anecdotes just a month before a political revival.
Yet it's a fine manipulation of American psychology, the bigger the better.
Donald perfectly embodies this way of thinking, from pathetic rich kid to unscrupulous businessman. It's a real pleasure to watch him go downhill, taking revenge on the people who used to look down on him using the same techniques. They become the victims of their own ideals.
On the technical side, the almost documentary-like camerawork provides dynamism, backed up by a rock'n'roll soundtrack, and Jeremy Strong is exceptional as a crooked lawyer.
Terrifier 3 (2024)
Misanthropic in appearance, but humanistic in substance?
That's what this new opus leads us to believe, as it gathers crowds of people from all horizons to enjoy a genuine cinematic experience.
And yet, this saga was conceived by a fan of the genre, working in a niche of the industry, and with a will for total independence. All in all, a very specific work, reserved for a small audience.
So, why are all these people gathered around extreme horror?
It seems that Terrifier has succeeded in keeping its identity while conveying a love of the genre even to the uninitiated.
Ultra-violent, with no concessions whatsoever, Art the Clown nevertheless manages to showcase artistry in all its violence. No one is spared, not even the spectators, but the crowd laughs and roars with regressive pleasure as the killings unfold.
Glorification of gratuitous violence? Certainly. But above all, we see the work of a man determined to defend his art.
And it's up to us to find an almost supernatural beauty in it.
-2nd screening-
After a 2nd screening of Terrifier 3, this time in FV, I must first admit that the dubbing isn't bad, except for the voice of the demon and some minor characters. On the other hand, the mixing sounds off at times.
What makes the movie so good, beyond anything I said previously, is definitely its pace.
Where the first was fast-paced without getting us too involved with the characters, the second developed them, at the cost, some would say, of some lengthy passages.
As for this latest opus, it's the well-balanced offspring of its two parents: it perfectly interweaves effective scenes of massacre and atmospheric narration, just as it interweaves laughter, disgust, and grief.
-3rd screening-
What makes a masterpiece at the cinema is that each viewing is utterly different:
After a first screening with a friend, in a large, crowded theater, where laughs flowed and the mood was upbeat;
After a second, smaller, screening with my love, where I try to pass her my enjoyment, and catch her reactions;
Then came the 3rd and final screening, again with a friend, but strangely alone.
Alone with the movie, the clown's nauseating nihilism shines through. And thus he achieves to convey his madness.
Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)
The man behind the clown
The audience is holding its breath for more Joker, to relive the grandiose rise of a sad clown, this time with an equally demented partner. And then...
They're given the Joker, through heavy references. But it doesn't ring true.
They're given Harleen Quinzel, but she's never really Harley Quinn, and is merely a screenplay pawn.
They're given innovations, especially musical ones, but nothing seems to work.
There's something missing, where's the grandiose ?
Because here, we're offered not a rise, but a deconstruction. There's no grandeur, just pure despair.
And that's not quite Joker, but Arthur. Harleen is just there to emphasize this dissociation, as is the audience, who leave the theater disappointed, after an abrupt, brutal ending, like the punchline of a bad joke:
"The first one was better"? They wanted to see Joker, that's all, in all his political panache; they didn't want to see Arthur, a man abused, manipulated, mocked and, above all, a murderer. Stripped of his martyr status, he's no longer a symbol, he's no longer cool, he's no longer stylish, he's no longer trendy.
Sorry, but human misery no longer sells when it's not about dancing down a flight of stairs in a suit. Dance here is at the service of a musical drama full of wrong notes that plunges us into discomfort, and few people are ready to accept this feeling, and prefer to reject it.
But "THAT'S life folks".
PS: Imax is not always used throughout the film, which creates visual breaks.
-2nd screening-
A second screening which confirms the impressions of the first: multiple unspoken and hidden elements create a particular atmosphere aimed at flaying Arthur Fleck from his Joker costume, while at the same time tying the two together in the same psychosis.
High production quality for a misunderstood work that exceeds expectations as much as it repels its audience. (Including my mom)
Emmanuelle (2024)
True Emmanuelle, New Vintage
I was not at all attracted by the concept of a new Emmanuelle, and turned off by the heaps of negative reviews. Well, I'm blown away.
I think too few people have understood the film:
While some may try to relate it to the original, it's far less exotic and frivolous. If, on the other hand, others find its depiction of explicit sexuality silly, they haven't understood what eroticism is all about.
The movie is in fact not only an almost complete rewriting of the original work (At least on the surface, since for those who know the original material, inspiration abounds). But it's also a movie with exceptional erotic tension.
This tension is sustained by a clinical and, some would say, cold direction, with a lot of unspoken things. However, this coldness is necessary to help us understand what really strikes us at heart : the portrait of a woman full of singularity, searching for her individuality through her independence, which is not far from solitude.
Here's where ordinary audiences will find themselves confused : how can you make a "libertine"(As a shared sexuality) movie about an individual (In opposition to the group) ? You must go to the cinema to find out...