Antoine Chevrollier’s Block Pass captures its working-class milieu well but suffers due to its tired secondhand framing of queer suffering.
Block Pass. A Tyred Vintage.
Tag: France
The Story of Souleymane. Cycling Through Limbo.
The Story of Souleymane is a tightly-focussed, Dardenne-esque tale of an immigrant delivery driver trying to make ends meet that brims with heartfelt emotions.
Holy Cow. Curdled Maturity.
Love and cheese freely intermingle in Louise Courvoisier’s diverting yet underwhelming debut Holy Cow, (somehow) playing in Un Certain Regard.
Two Glasses of Wine and a Packet of Chips
Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas, 2024) is the lockdown comedy that finds little dramatic potential in its set-up, feeling like a 100-minute episode of a sitcom.
For Night Will Come. The Vampire Genre (Partially) Undone.
The perils of being a vampire in a regular-old world are subtly investigated in For Night Will Come — beating away clichés before eventually succumbing to them.
The Dreamer. Bittersweet Truth Through Sculpture.
Sculpture unlocks the essence of a man in Anaïs Tellenne’s tender, enigmatic debut The Dreamer — live from Venice Film Festival.
Sidonie In Japan. Translation, Adrift
Sidonie In Japan is a classic example of a fine actress phoning it in, wasting Huppert’s talents in a generic, unconvincing cross-cultural examination of grief.
First Case Cross-Examines Coming-of-Age
Work and sex inevitably tangle in First Case, a classically French throwback to the golden era of sexy 90s legal thrillers — live from Locarno Film Festival.
Once Bitten, Twice Enchanted
The Young Adult vampire tale is imbued with possibility and tenderness in breakout French debut Bitten from Romain de Saint-Blanquat – live from Locarno!
Keeping Mum. Keeping Schtum.
Keeping Mum investigates the difficulties of breaking generational trauma with open-heartedness and a willingness to embrace the cringe.