Science fiction, horror film and French cinema are honored in this selection. What a good start to 2023 thanks to these few successes of the past year. Films to see or rediscover to fill up with emotions to share!
Everything Everywhere All at Once – Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Despite a rather limited release on American soil, this did not prevent Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan’s independent film from establishing itself both internationally and locally, embodying the great cinematic surprise of year. With over $100 million in revenue worldwide, Everything Everywhere All at Once has become a true cultural phenomenon acclaimed for its inventiveness in its management of the multiverse and the spectacular performances of its actors, in particular Michelle Yeoh, which will not have left anyone indifferent. A nonsense assumed, totally successful and mastered.
See Paris again –Alice Winocour
Touching story of a reconstruction, See Paris again makes us follow Mia, brilliantly embodied by Virginie Efira, survivor of a series of attacks perpetrated in the heart of Paris, seeking to confront her traumas in order to reconstruct her fragmented memory. Without falling into easy sentimentality, Alice Winocour’s feature film keeps its initial promise, that of offering us a new look at the capital and its inhabitants forever scarred by an indelible tragedy. Audacious attempt to plunge the viewer back into this sinister period, See Paris again is a film of rare accuracy whose story affects us without artificiality.
Don’t Worry Darling – Olivia Wilde
It’s hard to approach Olivia Wilde’s new film without risking breaking the mystery of its captivating and enigmatic plot. Feature film worn with great talent by Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, Don’t Worry Darling fascinates as much as it disturbs. With its colorful characters and its chic isolated residential area in the middle of the desert, the scene of all mysteries, this destabilizing encounter between Matrix, The Women of Strepford and The Truman Show, enjoys a realization and a staging to match its ambitions. It is therefore a complete success that Olivia Wilde gives us.
Without filter – Ruben Ostlund
To the surprise of all Cannes festival-goers in 2022, it’s again Ruben Ostlund who won the palme d’or with his feature film Without filterafter a first prize in 2017 for his film The Square. A couple of influential models find themselves on a cruise where only luxury, money, desires and inequalities reign, until a storm comes to reverse the balance of power by disrupting the comfort of all passengers. This film praises the uninhibited and sassy chaos by breaking down the different social scales of hierarchy and society. The story shines with its outbursts of anarchic and assumed madness carried by a talented cast, in particular Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean who sign formidable performances here.
Other people’s children – Rebecca Zlotowski
Virginie Efira here plays a teacher meeting a single father, played by Roshdy Zem, during a guitar lesson. The main difficulty of their new union is knowing when to announce the news to the other’s child. With its intimate theme accurately exploring a subject rarely discussed in parenthood and femininity, Other people’s children by Rebecca Zlotowski is overwhelmingly realistic and authentic. The apparent simplicity of the story allows the subject treated to be revealed in detail to the viewer, all with astonishing power. A singular film, but nevertheless beneficial for the cinema.
Double-dealing – Bruce Beresford
A look back at this blockbuster from the early 2000s in which Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd, after being wrongly convicted for the murder of her husband, will take part in a frantic adventure. Typical of the dramas of that time, Bruce Beresford’s film remains, even today, devilishly effective in its rhythm and its plot which, alas, is beginning to show the weight of the years. Indeed, to our eyes as 2023 viewers, this film is as entertaining as it is predictable and unoriginal. Despite a quality cast and a more than successful realization, Double-dealing is now one of those enjoyable, if not memorable, films.
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Top DVD & Blu-ray releases in January 2023 – L’Éclaireur Fnac