Kiki: Home deliveries
Fable about burnout
* * * 1/2Available in: Cinemas
Duration: 112 minutes
Genre: Drama/Animation
Ghibli’s cinema is overwhelmingly tender. These images, woven in an artisanal way, image by image, gesture by gesture, always creating unique worlds, escape the algorithmic and artificial logics that conquer everything today (even mimicking their own aesthetics) and act as an antidote to the real world: the children see there adventure, colors and fantastic creatures, but the adults who accompany them find a kind of calm between these images, the music of Joe Hisaishi and the pace, far from the dizziness of animation. modern.
“Kiki” is everything from now on. But adults who watch this Ghibli gem in its new release, 36 years after its original release, will surely perceive more than just tenderness and peace: it is a film that speaks to the present, with a little witch as its protagonist who, in her quest for independence, decides to make home deliveries on her broom, only to become so exhausted that she loses her magic. Masterpiece, for the era of rappis and burnout?
The Chair Company
Men on the verge of a nervous breakdown
* * * *
Available on: HBO Max
Duration: 8 episodes
Genre: horror comedy
What’s going through Tim Robinson’s mind? The comedian of “I Think You Should Leave” and “Friendship,” born from the factory of “Saturday Night,” has been helming a brand of comedy with a unique flair for some time now. “Cringe comedy,” say the kids on the channels. Comedy that embarrasses others. A comedy that will make you shudder and give you goosebumps when you see the actions of the characters. All of this is contained in “The Chair Company”, one of the best series of the year.
It is above all a delirium: the delirium is so great that sometimes you give in, the plot and the danger no longer matter, now absurd, and that is perhaps the Achilles heel of the series and of every comedian who crosses over into fiction and still clings to a logic of sketches and fragments. Because the story is a delirium: in the middle of a job presentation, a man falls from his chair; The shame it inspires in him leads him to frantically search for someone to blame, and along the way he uncovers a conspiracy that reaches the government. Or is he just crazy?
This recommendation stands next to “Bugonia”, so it is obvious that the topic of conspiracy is no longer a fringe issue and, fueled by the networks, is becoming more and more widespread. Tim Robinson puts his own spin on it, playing a character who is demented, nervous, physically unwell and always on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Dept. Q
Past crimes
* * *
Available on: Netflix
Duration: 9 episodes
Genre: Police
Are you looking for a police series to watch this week? Well, there are many of them, and the British “Dept.
The series, which is already gearing up for its second season, is led by Matthew Goode, who plays a detective when not traumatized by a past event. Since they have nowhere to put him, they send him to a unit that investigates old cases, a police publicity stunt to improve his image: but of course our hero is a genius and takes advantage of the opportunity. But as he searches for a prosecutor who disappeared four years ago, he must confront his own demons and confront his past and future.
Bugonia
There’s an alien in my basement
* * * *
Available in: Cinemas
Duration: 118 minutes
Genre: Fantasy/black comedy
Yorgos Lanthimos’ twisted filmography has conditioned us to expect darkly comic visions of contemporary life, both wild and banal. His films were perhaps the ones with the most “What?” questions. Reactions. have caused over the last decade, in part because they have tried so hard to make it happen.
His films, farces, fables and experiments lie in their own surreal worlds. But his latest film, “Bugonia,” is excitingly, if tragically, tied to our reality. A chamber piece that hits you in the stomach.
The film follows Teddy (Jesse Plemons), an incel eco-terrorist who kidnaps the head of a pharmaceutical company, Michelle (Emma Stone), convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying the world. But as skillfully played by Plemons, Teddy doesn’t come across as a crazy person. You may come to crazy, conspiratorial conclusions. But he is considerate by nature and cares tenderly for his cousin. It’s a feat of Plemons’ innate goodness that we like Teddy, even as he shaves Michelle’s head to prevent “she,” as he calls her, from making contact with the mothership.
It all seems crazy, although in the end it’s not so crazy, in a film that comments step by step on the crisis of masculinity, conspiracies and fake news and the hidden power that actually seems determined to sink this world.
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