Wish – Asha and the Lucky Star, Perfect Days, Le Temps d’aimer: What’s new at the cinema this week
What to see in theaters
THE EVENT
WISH- ASHA AND THE GOOD STAR ★★☆☆☆
By Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn
The essential
Full of its obsession with celebrating the 100th anniversary of the studio by transmitting its heritage to future generations, the new Disney, although not devoid of quality, is cruelly lacking in roughness
Asha, 17 years old, dedicated and determined to have a job interview with King Magnifico, regent of the city of Rosas. The dream fades when Asha realizes that Magnifico is a control freak egoist who sells wind to his followers. The disillusionment is great, but Asha lands on her feet by advocating benevolence – as a result her lucky star, Star literally falls from the sky. Disney values will then block the evil Magnifico. The worn chromatic palette immerses us here in a sublime Mediterranean environment. But if the animation delights our iris, the studio has taken a (too) risky gamble by featuring its key characters in an animation which, by distorting the original works, contributes to a disruption of the good understanding of this film . The universe of wish undeniably puts the little ones in touch, who will obviously be curious to know what universe is hidden behind the singular appearances of Peter Pan or Bambi. But this academic side is not enough to make a great or even a good film. And next to the countless animation peaks discovered this year, Disney Christmas 2023 looks pretty pale.
Manon Bellahcene
Read the full review
PREMIERE LIKED A LOT
PERFECT DAYS ★★★★☆
By Wim Wenders
Hirayama, a man of few words in his sixties, gets up every morning at the same time, cleans his room, washes, moistens his green plants, puts on his work clothes, plays a rock cassette in his car radio and sets off to clean the city’s toilets, a smile on his face… If the new Wenders strikes instantly, it is first of all thanks to the stopping power imposed by actor Koji Yakusho, awarded at Cannes. Each of his gestures is a spectacle in itself. The film will depict his almost identical days, interspersed with beautiful black and white dream sequences, like weightless commas, monochrome haikus. Wenders signs an ode to the here and now, to the pure present, and undoubtedly the self-portrait of a 77-year-old filmmaker who refuses to be totally disinterested in world affairs but who has found a form of fulfillment in a practice miniaturized of his art.
Frédéric Foubert
Read the full review
FIRST TO LIKE
TIME TO LOVE ★★★☆☆
By Katell Quillévéré
Madeleine would like to forget her past. That’s without counting his son, Daniel, born of a union with a German soldier during the Second World War, who constantly comes to remind him of this. One day, while working as a waitress, she meets François. In principle, everything opposes them. He is the son of a rich industrialist, educated and has a great future. She has nothing except this cumbersome son, the last relic of a shame that she carries around and which will follow her for many years. However, François kisses Madeleine one evening. He adopts Daniel. Together, this polar opposite couple opens a dance hall where American soldiers come to meet every evening. Katell Quillévéré follows, like a soap opera with very romantic overtones, the journey of this couple. They are nothing without each other, but do they really love each other? The screenplay, largely inspired by the director’s family history, offers great roles to its performers (Anaïs Demoustier and Vincent Lacoste, in great form) and takes a very sincere snapshot of post-war France.
Emma Poesy
Read the full review
THAKSGIVING- HORROR WEEK ★★★☆☆
By Elie Roth
Eli Roth could never understand why no horror film was set around Thanksgiving celebrations. This story worked him so much that he shot the trailer for a film Thanksgiving imaginary for the double program Grindhouse by friends Rodriguez and Tarantino – which became a “real film” 16 years later. A good surprise where he has fun walking on the flowerbeds of the last Scream, featuring a group of nice, somewhat generic high school students, their noses in their smartphones, on which they receive threats from a crazy killer. But Thanksgiving hits much harder than the last two Scream dated. More inspired in satire, more visceral in violence, it stands out for the inventiveness of its murder scenes, funny, disgusting, always surprising. The film is not free from flaws, sometimes over-the-top plot twists, but rightly boasts a form of absence of sophistication. And Roth finds a little of the energy of his beginnings there.
Frédéric Foubert
Read the full review
AUGURE ★★★☆☆
By Baloji
In a dark opening scene, a woman wrapped in a shawl releases milk from her breast into a river. This enigmatic image establishes the guiding line of this ambitious first feature by the Congolese Baloji, a touch of genius evolving between rap, cinema and poetry. By choosing to interweave several stories (around a man returning to Congo after 15 years of absence to introduce his pregnant wife to his family), Augur tells the story of an extravagant Congo, governed by heavy discrimination, obsolete traditions and deep social inequalities, of which the burden of family ancestry is the major point. But rather than exploiting a social fiber, Baloji establishes a deliciously fantastic climate, nourishing its framework with abstract images and traditional baroque figures, antiquated rites and traditional masks in support.
Yohan Haddad
THE GIRLS ARE OK ★★★☆☆
By Itsaso Arana
Spanish actress notably seen in the title role ofEva in August (by Jonás Trueba), of which she was also a co-writer, Itsaso Arana here directs her first film, which takes on the appearance of a gentle summer breath. Five young women meet one summer in the countryside to rehearse a play and a blurring of the boundaries between acting in period dresses and real life will emerge as these actresses discuss love. , friendship, dreams or artistic doubts. Behind the apparent joviality then emerges an unexpected gravity that the filmmaker skillfully integrates into her atmosphere of a feminist and timeless tale. Remarkably performed, this first attempt sometimes lacks a little dramatic tension but demonstrates a tone that is already very personal and endearing.
Damien Leblanc
THE LITTLE MALES ★★★☆☆
By Laurent Metterie and Camille Froidevaux- Metterie
Boys aged 7 and 18 look at subjects that affect women’s lives. Violence, inequalities, or even sexuality, these children openly verbalize a reflection which, in a very touching way, vacillates between affirmations and timid uncertainties, as the subjects exposed can be so sensitive. They develop sincere thinking intertwined with a high-level congenital maturity that cannot leave one indifferent. The opinions of these young people mingle with the autobiographical stories given by mature women, very familiar with retrograde times. These little ones, as tall as three apples, courageously devote themselves to dizzying philosophical reflections, which generally remain unresolved even after a lifetime of observation. Pedagogic, The Little Males is of public utility (and necessity) since by encouraging speaking out, it underlines the precious nature implied by freedom of expression.
Manon Bellahcene
Find these films near you thanks to Première Go
FIRST TO MODERATELY LIKED
THE BRAID ★★☆☆☆
By Laëtitia Colombani
Six years after the success in bookstores of her homonymous novel, Laetitia Colombani (He Loves Me … He Loves Me Not And My stars and me) returns to production by adapting The braid in an choral film presenting the misfortunes and struggles of three women (Italian, Indian and Canadian) whose destinies are paradoxically linked. He makes us witnesses to their daily lives on three continents and social strata to construct a back and forth between worlds that are completely opposed. This is the kind of story that you can’t say anything about without saying too much, and that’s where its weakness lies. This jerky journey where the dramatic sliders are constantly pushed to the maximum sometimes becomes indigestible and resolves too much to bet on its twist. Without losing the fans of the book, the screaming ode to adversity gives a bitter depth to globalization which is somewhat unintentionally overwhelming.
Bastien Assie
DUMB MONEY ★★☆☆☆
By Craig Gillespie
Once the regressive pleasure of finding beloved actors (Paul Dano in streamer cat fan and Seth Rogen in trader millionaire) in a film full of references to Internet culture and boosted by a soundtrack populated by hits from Cardi B and Kendrick Lamar, Dumb Money turns out to be very sad entertainment. It undoubtedly owes its blandness to the news item that it adapts: the GameStop affair hit the headlines at the start of 2021, before returning to absolute anonymity as quickly as it appeared, leaving no trace behind it . The material of this umpteenth finance film could have carried a strong message (the power of the masses is capable of overthrowing the rich), but it gets lost along the way without finding the hoped-for balance between humor, emotion and economics lessons.
Nicholas Moreno
CONANN ★★☆☆☆
By Bertrand Mandico
Eager to renew his narrative device after his first two feature films The Wild Boys And After Blue (Dirty Paradise), Bertrand Mandico tells the mythological journey of a heroine through six ages of her life, which are similar to six different proposals of fantastic cinema. Multiplying the actresses and feminizing the figure of the barbarian Conan, the director adopts a changing visual form to make the passage of time an evil force of destruction of the ideals of youth. If he still masters perfectly its staging and its unique images, Mandico struggles to captivate sustainably with its thematic thread (here a metaphorical portrait of voracious capitalism) and does not recreate the spell of Wild Boys, as if his armor as a filmmaker still refused to break entirely .
Damien Leblanc
CESARIA EVORA, THE BAREFOOT DIVA ★★☆☆☆
By Ana Sofia Fonseca
Disappeared in 2011, Cesária Évora had to wait 51 years for her hit Soda to achieve international recognition. This documentary sets out to tell the story of the woman as much as the artist. The loves and troubles of the one who extricated herself from great poverty to become a legend. All with an impressive quantity of archives whose wealth seems to have exceeded the director. And the writing of his film – in its production as well as its editing – leaves us wanting more.
Thierry Cheze
FIRST DID NOT LIKE
EDOUARD LOUIS OR TRANSFORMATION ★☆☆☆☆
By François Caillat
If you had managed to escape the autobiographical novels of Édouard Louis, here he is back, this time in the cinema. Nothing new under the writer and sociologist’s sun, except perhaps his discovery of recycling: in front of his old school, here he is talking about the clothes he wanted at the time, an anecdote that ‘he already told in his first book. Did we really need this illustrated and barely reworked audio book?
Nicholas Moreno
DREAMS ★☆☆☆☆
By Pascal Catheland and Arthur Perole
Divided into four parts, this documentary questions young college students about the future of the world in which they will live. The film quickly annoys with its false candour, convinced of delivering poetic and profound answers to the questions adults ask themselves. However, it is a series of banalities that are shared, hidden behind images of these teenagers dancing to techno, like a 2.0 cover-up.
Nicholas Moreno
And also
Orlando, my political biographyby Paul B. Preciado
Reprise
Annaby Pierre Koralnik
