Movie Reviews

Encanto

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  • Title: Encanto
  • IMDb: link

Encanto introduces us to the magical Family Madrigal, living together in a magical house in a small town in a hidden valley from the dangers of the outside world. When reaching the appropriate age, each child of the family is gifted with a special power. That is, each member of the family except our main character Mirabel (Stephanie Beatriz). 

More notable for its cultural perspective and its eclectic characters than its plot, Encanto struggles a bit early finding its rhythm before picking up momentum, both in story and in the strength of the songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda, as Mirabel attempts to save the family from a threat no one else sees. It’s a solid film, whose final act outshines the rest of the movie and (in typical Disney fashion) offers a nice moral for kids who are obviously the target audience for the film.

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The French Dispatch

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  • Title: The French Dispatch
  • IMDb: link

Writer/director Wes Anderson‘s latest is a quirky ensemble piece set around the final issue of the fictional French Dispatch circular from the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun in which each of the magazine’s stories, all taking place in and around the equally fictional town of Ennui-sur-Blasé, are acted out for the audience. The reason for the final issue is the unexpected death of its editor Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murray, who appears in flashbacks).

The film starts out strong with Owen Wilson‘s short piece on the town as a bicycling reporter followed by J.K.L. Berensen’s (Tilda Swinton) more lengthy article about a murderer (Benicio Del Toro) finding artistic talent in prison with the help of one of the prison guards (an often nude Léa Seydoux) who becomes his muse. Both Del Toro and Sydoux are terrific here, and Adrien Brody adds some fun as a white-collar criminal who works to try and make money of the talented, but moody, artist.

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Flee

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  • Title: Flee
  • IMDb: link

Flee offers a deeply personal take on the refugee experience in a mostly-animated documentary of a man struggling even decades later to express his emotions and memories from harrowing experiences fleeing Afghanistan to Moscow and eventually to Denmark. Our guide, referred to only as Amin, offers his story which is fleshed-out and explored further in animation by director Jonas Poher Rasmussen and his animation team. 

Given that non-animated segments are also used, such as stock footage of the times, I don’t know that the documentary will get the exposure it deserves for an animated film as well as for a documentary. In a year without a breakout animated film, Flee is a mesmerizing and unique film experience that reminds us how the past can continue to haunt someone long after they have reached the relative safety of a new land.

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Benedetta

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  • Title: Benedetta
  • IMDb: link

Inspired by the life of 17th Century nun Benedetta Carlini, Virginie Efira stars in the title role as a nun with visions and dreams of Jesus (Jonathan Couzinié). After the arrival of a young woman named Bartolomea (Daphne Patakia), to whom she has an obvious attraction, Benedetta begins having fevered dreams and one day appears with stigmata allowing for her advancement over the current abbess (Charlotte Rampling). This immediately causes turmoil within the covenant which is only furthered by charges against both Benedetta and Bartolomea for the carnal nature of their relationship.

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Spencer

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  • Title: Spencer
  • IMDb: link

Set at Christmas of 1991, Spencer offers a peek into the holiday with the Royal Family during a tumultuous time between Diana, Princess of Wales (Kristen Stewart), and her husband Prince Charles (Jack Farthing). With her husband’s affair and her marriage at a breaking point, Diana is forced into the traditions and expectations of the holiday which she begins fighting in her own way to try and avoid a death of one-thousand cuts.

The movie is most notable for the lovely performance of the fragile Diana feeling trapped on all sides and even haunted by Anne Boleyn (Amy Manson), whose similarities to her own situation have become a bit of an obsession. Stewart is perfect here in a role that requires a tremendous amount of vulnerability to carry a film with very little actual plot through until the end.

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