Petite Maman (2021) or, Girl Fantasy Lullaby

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A childlike landscape painting in the shape of a heart is intermingled with the two central girl actors on this bright poster for Céline Sciamma's Petite Maman

A little girl is helping her mother out after the passing of her maternal grandmother, removing furniture and belongings from her house. The girl befriends a very similar girl in the forest by the house, and she soon discovers something very strange about the girl.

 

Petite Maman is written and directed by great French filmmaker Céline Sciamma (Water Lilies/Naissance des Pieuvres (2007)). The title translates to, 'little mum'.

It is an extremely calm, meditative and quiet film, which only uses music once towards the ending. The calmness surrounds a plot that seems to be mesmeric to some, while it was regrettably soporific to me. The characters have little concrete characteristics; they are more so kind of art movie 'universal mother', 'universal father' and 'universal daughter' in 'mythical forest house'. Mother and daughter are quietly grieving someone we haven't seen or met, SPOILER and then the daughter befriends a girl who looks like her twin, (they are played by real life siblings Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz) and who turns out, strangely, to be her own mother when she was her age.

Spellbound or lulled to a lethargic state of relaxation, many will claim the first due to Sciamma's politically correct credentials, (woman-centered lesbian art cinema.) But in the case of Petite Maman, the hype is wrong; the film is but a pretty and snoozy mind game.

Related post:

Céline Sciamma: Portrait of a Lady on Fire/Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu (2019) - Sciamma spoils us with picturesque period romance

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.8 mil. €, approximately 3.18 mil. $

Box office: 1 mil. $ and counting

= Too early to say

[Petite Maman was released 2 June (France) and runs 72 minutes. Shooting took place in France. The film has been screened at numerous film festivals. It is set to release in Germany and Poland in February and March. So far the film looks to theatrically become a huge flop or even a mega-flop. Naturally its performance is heavily influenced and hindered by the China Virus pandemic. Sciamma does not have her next project announced yet. Petite Maman is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Petite Maman?

Cherry Blossoms/Kirchblüten (2008) or, Rudi in Japan

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+ Best Tokyo Movie of the Year  

 

A man and a woman from different cultures, standing together in a Japanese garden make up this poster for Doris Dörrie's Cherry Blossoms

When an aging married couple learn that the man, Rudi, is terminally ill with cancer, his wife hides the fact from him and arranges a visit to their two children in Germany. Her wish for them to travel to their son in Japan is wholly rejected by Rudi, - until the wife's sudden passing.

 

Cherry Blossoms is written and directed by Doris Dörrie (Der Erste Walzer (1978)).

The story develops with increasing emotional depth during Rudi's time in Japan, and Elmar Wepper (Der Fischer und Seine Frau (2005)) and Aya Irizuki (Cherry Blossoms and Demons/Kirschblüten & Dämonen (2019)) as Rudi and Yu excel. The film handles sorrow and death in a way, which can't but lead the audience to ponder over his or her own journey towards this end, - and the end for one's loved ones.

The poignant and at times amusing aspects of Rudi's journey are partially impaired by a few minor issues: The title is questionable as to its relevance for the story, and the credit sequence is poorly designed. The image quality throughout the film seems to come from digital technology and is a bit amateurish in craftsmanship and feel. These are minor side notes. The biggest drawback for Cherry Blossoms is that the central couple's three adult children are so uniformly horrible; narrow-minded, selfish and insensitive. - Why are they all like this? This feels a bit film school-like in its simplicity.

 

Related post:

 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: 12.8 mil. $

= Uncertain - but likely a big hit

[Cherry Blossoms premiered 11 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 127 minutes. Shooting took place from March - April 2007 in Germany, including in Berlin, and in Japan, including in Tokyo. The film opened #71 to a 3k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it peaked at #67 and in 8 theaters (different weeks), grossing 104k $ (0.8 % of the total gross). The 3 biggest markets were Germany with 10.1 mil. $ (78.9 %), Switzerland with 763k $ (6 %) and Austria with 457k $ (3.6 %). The film did not get a general release in Japan. If made on a likely 3 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a big hit. It was nominated for a European Film award and won 3/6 German Film award nominations, among other honors. Dörrie returned with Die Friseuse (2010). Wepper returned in 7 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in Dreiviertelmond (2011); Irizuki in Greetings from Fukushima/Grüsse aus Fukushima (2016). Cherry Blossoms is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Cherry Blossoms?

Manchester by the Sea (2016) - Heavy stuff in Lonergan's Big Drama

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+ Best Massachusetts Movie of the Year 

 

Two star actors in an emotional moment by a waterfront surrounded by seagulls make up this poster for Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea

A janitor with a terrible tragedy behind him is tasked with taking care of his late brother's teenage son.

 

Manchester by the Sea is written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan (You Can Count on Me (2000)).

It is a potent, heavy drama about unbearable loss, guilt and the life around a situation like this, (which always moves on perfectly disregarding those personal facts.)

If audiences are out of sync with the story, the film's funereal score will let us know, where we are. And the Massachusetts locale adds an evocative setting to the almost epic drama, which centers around a protagonist, who seems to go in a circle around his past as well as major emotional outbreaks. - SPOILER Instead he explodes in unmotivated violence in bars from time to time, (as a true Irish Catholic?) Casey Affleck (Drowning Mona (2000)) inhabits the character, and yet there is still something about the actor's cool expression that rubs me the wrong way. Young Lucas Hedges (Honey Boy (2019)) as Patrick, the teenage son, is really good, and Michelle Williams (Deception (2008)) is masterly in a supporting part. Gretchen Mol (Celebrity (1998)) is also fine as the overly nervous, alienated mother to the boy.

Manchester by the Sea is a worthwhile, heavily loaded drama with an open ending, a dose of implicit humor and the trace of hope.

 

Related post:

 

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 9 mil. $

Box office: 78.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 8.76 times its cost)

[Manchester by the Sea premiered 23 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 137 minutes. Lonergan has said of his motivation for writing and making the film;
"Some people can't get over something major that's happened to them at all; why can’t they have a movie too?" Matt Damon was initially supposed to star. Shooting took place in Massachusetts from February - May 2015. Amazon bought the US distribution right to the film for 10 mil. $ at Sundance. The film opened #21 to a 256k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #6 and in 1,213 theaters (different weeks), grossing 47.6 mil. $ (60.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 4.5 mil. $ (5.7 %) and France with 3.2 mil. $ (4.1 %). The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning for Best Original Screenplay and Actor (Affleck). It lost Best Picture to Moonlight, Supporting Actor (Hedges) to Mahershala Ali in Moonlight, Supporting Actress (Williams) to Viola Davis in Fences and Director to Damien Chazelle for La La Land. It also won 1/5 Golden Globe nominations, 2/6 BAFTAs nominations, an AFI award, was nominated for a César award and a David di Donatello award, won 1/5 Independent Spirit award nominations, 4 National Board of Review awards, and countless other honors. Lonergan has not announced another feature since. Affleck returned in The Finest Hours (2016); Williams in Certain Women (2016); and Hedges in Pigeonhearts (2017, short) and theatrically in Lady Bird (2017). Manchester by the Sea is certified fresh at 96 % with an 8.82/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Manchester by the Sea?

Lake Mungo (2008) - Anderson's bone-chilling mockumentary horror

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+ Best Horror Movie of the Year + Best Mockumentary of the Year + Best Australian Movie of the Year

A disturbing, distorted video feed in B/W provides the background for this poster for Joel Anderson's Lake Mungo

Teenage girl Alice drowns in a lake in a tragic accident, which haunts her parents and brother for years after. - But are they also actually haunted by her ghost, and if so, is it trying to tell them something...?

Lake Mungo is written and directed by feature-debuting Joel Anderson (The Rotting Woman (2002, short)). It is a successful mockumentary horror, which manages to create a realistic scenario and manipulate skillfully with us its audience.
A large part of the reason it works is good casting and acting from the cast of unknowns, paired with a very strong and nerveracking score by David Paterson, who, incredibly, hasn't made another score before or since.
Several sequences in Lake Mungo, - which drives on the fear of a parallel spirit world and souls living on among us, - are very frightening. The real Australian Mungo location is used handily towards the film's conclusion.
One reservation that might be raised against Lake Mungo is that the family it revolves around seems to circle as if spellbound around their lost daughter and sister even years after her demise.

Related posts: 

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
2008 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 1.1 mil. $
Box office: 29k A$, approximately 20k $ (Australia)
= Box office disaster (returned 0.18 times the cost)
[Lake Mungo premiered 18 June (Sydney Film Festival, Australia) and runs 89 minutes. Anderson deliberately wrote a low-budget script, which he has described as an "exploration of grief". The script had no dialog, so the actors had to improvise. Shooting took place in Australia in 5 weeks. The film's only listed gross is from its country of origin Australia. Beside this, it was only screened at festivals in 4 other markets. Anderson has not returned with anything since. Lake Mungo is fresh at 93 % with a 7.4/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Lake Mungo?

Hallam Foe/Mister Foe (2007) - Bell charms again in Mackenzie's flawed romantic drama

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A cutesy, ghastly-yellow poster for David Mackenzie's Hallam Foe that doesn't convey too much about the actual film

Young Hallam is an aimless young man, who turns his rage from his mother's suicide against his father and stepmother and flees to the big city, where he falls in love with a young woman, who looks like his mother.

Hallam Foe is written by Ed Whitmore (Waking the Dead (2002-11)) and co-writer/director David Mackenzie (Starred Up (2013)), based on the same-titled 2001 novel by Peter Jinks. There is something off about the rhythm of the whole film, but Jamie Bell (Snowpiercer (2013)) as the title character is the reason to see it in himself.
Hallam's spying on the other characters, SPOILER and especially his final attack on his stepmother, are so indefensible acts that I was fairly distanced from the grieving protagonist here during the film. Ciarán Hinds (McCanick (2013)) doesn't seem like Bell's father here and may just be miscast, whereas Claire Forlani (Ripley Under Ground (2005)) is fine as the stepmother.
Hallam Foe is mostly for Bell fans, and it seems to have been one of those films that are cheerfully overrated locally (in this case in the UK.)

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 3.8 mil. £, or approximately 5 mil. $
Box office: 2.1 mil. $
= Mega-flop (0.42 times the cost)
[Hallam Foe premiered 16 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place in Scotland from March - May 2006. It opened and peaked at #14 in the UK, its home and biggest market, where it grossed 808k $ (38.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 569k $ (27.1 %) and France with 451k $ (21.5 %). The film opened and peaked at #75 in North America in 2 theaters, though it spread to 6 venues, grossing 60k $ (2.9 %) under the title Mister Foe. The film won 1/4 BAFTA Scotland nominations, 2 awards at the Berlin International Film Festival, 6 British Independent Film Award nominations and won a National Board of Review award. Mackenzie returned with Ashton Kutcher-starring Spread (2009). Bell returned in Jumper (2008). Hallam Foe is certified fresh at 72 % with a 6.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hallam Foe?

Family (2001, documentary) - An intimate personal search for roots powerfully captured

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A DVD cover for Phie Ambo and Sami Saif's Family shows a man raising from the sea in a cry

Filmed by his girlfriend, this is the story of Sami Saif's search for his roots; first and foremost his father, who left his family in Denmark, when Sami was 8 years old, after which his mother fell waste to alcoholism and his brother committed suicide.

Family portrays an exciting journey and is made by Phie Ambo (Free the Mind (2012), documentary) and her partner Sami Saif (Paradis (2009), documentary). It is rife with emotions, and it becomes especially meaningful, when Saif meets his big brother in Yemen. But as Saif and at least I as a Danish viewer realized; he is a Dane, mostly, although the physical similarities with his Arabian family are striking.
Family is a liberating and extremely fine documentary of personal, highly intimate identity exploration.

In lieu of anything related to this documentary, which is not immediately to be found at Youtube, here is a trailer for a later documentary by Ambo called Free the Mind

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown (but appears to have been a theatrical flop)
[Family premiered 9 November (Denmark) and runs 90 minutes. The film sold 2,346 tickets in its production country Denmark. It was shown at a handful of European and North-American film festivals and also had a general release in the Netherlands. There is nothing to indicate that it could possibly be anything but a theatrical flop of some sort. It won an AFI Fest award, a Bodil award nomination and a Robert award (Denmark's Oscar) for Best Documentary. Ambo returned with documentary short Growing Up in a Day (2002) and theatrically with Nicolas Winding Refn bio-documentary Gambler (2006). Saif returned with documentary Dogville Confessions (2003). 166 IMDb users have given Family a 7.6/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Family?

Hesher (2010) - Susser's immature, rebel-centered debut

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1 Film Excess nomination:

Best Child Actor: Devin Brochu (lost to Kiernan Shipka for Mad Men S4) 

The poster for Spencer Susser's Hesher emulates old heavy rock styles just as the film itself does

The boy TJ gets bullied crudely and is neglected at home by his grief-stricken father, when the crazy, stoned out individualist Hesher moves in with them, unannounced and uninvited.

Hesher is the feature debut for co-writer/director Spencer Susser (Lana Del Rey: Summertime Sadness (2012, music video)), a very strange, downbeat and violence-preoccupied dramedy. Its main quality might be the impressive cast, Susser has managed to gather in it: Piper Laurie (The Crossing Guard (1995)), Natalie Portman (Black Swan (2010)) who also co-produced it, Rainn Wilson (The Stream (2013)) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Premium Rush (2012)) as the dubious title hero. The boy actor Devin Brochu (Rubber (2010)) stands out in the bunch; he is very good and cinematic in Hesher.
Under scrutiny, the film appears incredibly immature and unreal. It is a slight affair that may attract some young audiences. Susser co-wrote it with David Michôd (Animal Kingdom (2010)), based on a story by Brian Charles Frank (Wolfpack of Reseda (2012), TV-series).

Related posts:

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Here's a trailer for the film

Cost: 7 mil. $
Box office: 0.449 mil. $
= Box office disaster
[Hesher premiered January 22 (Sundance) and runs 105 minutes. It was filmed May - June 2009 in California. It opened #36 in 42 theaters to a small 126k $ first weekend, its widest weekend in North America, where it grossed 382k $. It made 66k $ in Italy but other international grosses are not made public. The catastrophic performance of the film probably accounts for Susser's not having made a film to follow it up yet. Hesher is rotten at 54 % with a 5.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Hesher?

Charlie St. Cloud (2010) - Steers and Efron's second collaboration is lukewarm

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Zac Efron looks hopefully upwards in the arms of Amanda Crew (The Age of Adaline (2015)) on the poster for Burr Steers' Charlie St. Cloud

Charlie's beloved little brother dies in a car accident, which prompts Charlie to postpone his otherwise promising future in lieu of an empty, cautious existence of denial.

Charlie St. Cloud is a polished, breezy, handsomely shot (by Enrique Chediak (RED 2 (2013))) and color-controlled teen romance melodrama. Zac Efron (Dirty Grandpa (2016)) plays well, and Ray Liotta (John Q (2002)) and Kim Basinger (Bless the Child (2000)) are fine in supporting roles, but the plot is too farfetched to score: SPOILER For 5 (!) years, Charlie throws ball with his dead brother in the forest (!), - but this still doesn't mean that he's gone even just a little cuckoo!?! SPOILER The boat talks in the romance, (Charlie falls for a girl who is a great sailor like himself), and the participation of several other otherworldly hunky young male stars (Dave Franco (The Lego Movie (2014)), Matt Ward (TRON: Legacy (2010)) and Augustus Prew (Kick-Ass 2 (2013))) also make the film too thick to really be taken seriously.
Charlie St. Cloud is written by Craig Pearce (The Great Gatsby (2013)) and Lewis Colick (Domestic Disturbance (2001)), based on the novel The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud (2004) by Ben Sherwood (The Man Who Ate the 747 (2000)), and directed by great American filmmaker Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down (2002)). It's a fairly entertaining film with some good values, but with a scenario that's too unlikely to really succeed.

Related review:

17 Again (2009) or, Teentainment Deluxe

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 44 mil. $
Box office: 48.1 mil. $
= Big flop
[Charlie St. Cloud was released July 30 and runs 99 minutes. 3 Hollywood studios were in a bidding war for Sherwood's book before it was even published. The rights were finally secured by Universal, reportedly for over 1 mil. $. Efron turned down the Footloose remake to star in this thought to be hot ticket. Filming took place from July - October 2009 in British Columbia and New York. The film opened #5 (behind Inception, Dinner for Schmucks, Salt and Despicable Me) to a 12.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 31.1 mil. $ (64.7 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany and Australia with 2.1 mil. $ (4.4 %) each. Even though the over-budgeted film received generally poor reviews, its relatively small performance is something of a reality check for Efron's star power, who soon thereafter chose to abandon his clean teen idol persona. Charlie St. Cloud is rotten at 27 % with a 4.6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Charlie St. Cloud?

Don't Look Now (1973) or, Grief in Venice

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The exciting, chilling poster for Nicholas Roeg's Don't Look Now

QUICK REVIEW:

An English couple lose their daughter in a drowning accident. Soon hereafter they venture to Venice, where the woman meets a blind, psychic woman who then disappears.

Based on a short story by Dauphne du Maurier (Jamaica Inn (1936)), Nicholas Roeg's (The Witches (1990)) horror drama Don't Look Now is somewhat similar to Rosemary's Baby (1968)), though substantially less exciting.
It is lovely to be in Venice in the film, and the acting of leads Julie Christie (Troy (2004)) and Donald Sutherland (The Art of War (2000)) is fairly good. But Roeg's visual and editing style is stressful and feels a bit film school-y and tedious and at times involuntarily funny to me, although others find it innovative. Don't Look Now divides people, and I am obviously not among its many fans. I think it could have been a considerably better film.
Allan Scott (Regeneration (1997)) and Chris Bryant (The Awakening (1980)) wrote the screenplay.

Watch the original trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 1.1 - 1.5 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Unknown
[The film was shot in England and Italy December 1972 - February 1973. It became controversial upon release due to a heated if not very stimulating sex scene between the two leads, which led to the film's X rating in Britain, where the scene was cut for the its later TV premiere on BBC. It has been rumored that the scene featured unsimulated sex, which naturally infuriated Warren Beatty, Christie's boyfriend at the time, but the truth remains obscure. In Britain, the film was released on a double bill with the better film The Wicker Man (1973). The film's B.O. numbers are unfortunately not available online to my knowledge. It was well-received by many critics and won a BAFTA for Best Cinematography, (and was nominated for another 6.) Its star has only grown since then, also with many filmmakers praising it. Don't Look Now is certified fresh at 96 % with a 8.9 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Don't Look Now?