EO, Stars at Noon, inspection, decision to leave

Here’s Part 2 of our New York Film Festival coverage of reviews of Park Chan-wook’s new film. decision to leave; the donkey drama EO; Elegance Bratton’s feature film debut, The inspection; and Margaret Qualley’s wild, wild turn in Claire Denis’ stars at noon. (And here is part 1 our reporting.)

stars at noon

Margaret Qualley in stars at noonhow show girls‘ Nomi Malone is not a butterfly. She’s quite pelvic thrust. I mean she roams around. She has it! Like Nomi Malone, her character Trish tends to cycle quickly through dizziness and anger – her outbursts are almost as frequent as the downpours in Nicaragua, where she’s stranded while holding a handful of Cordoba’s local currency. She tricks for the much more valuable US dollar, which mistakes her for Daniel (Joe Alwyn), a Brit who’s in town on business or something. They’re both in trouble and on their way for more, and their attempts to get a plane ticket home to DC are complicated by her connection with him, who is suspected of being involved in oil. (“He’s taking advantage of the local elections and interfering in that balance of power that’s so elusive,” a CIA agent played by Benny Safdie later explains. Like much of the film’s dialogue, it needs a stab but lacks clarity. )

The makeshift couple aren’t in so much trouble that they can’t find the time to drink hard and fuck almost constantly. Qualley as Trish, a self-proclaimed journalist who has written about the recent kidnappings and hangings but is decisively fired by her editor (John C. Reilly in a cameo appearance) for taking his magazine with her, goes for it. The problem with this film, directed by beloved French author Claire Denis, is exactly that it It remains elusive. Why does anyone ever do what they do? Trish splashes in puddles, smokes while she eats eggs, yells “EAT ME!!” at a man on the street who yells at her to sell her a car, and is about as much naked as, yes, Elizabeth berkley show girls. This includes sporadic shots of her using the toilet and changing, as if to remind us that gratuitousness is the real point of the exercise at hand.

Stars reminded me of something that found a home on HBO for a few months in the late ’80s and then disappeared with little fanfare. (It is appropriately based on Denis Johnson’s 1986 novel of almost the same name, The stars at noon.) I was entertained by Qualley’s performance as Chaos Incarnate (she rocks a tuft of hair that’s a wild version of her mother Andie MacDowell’s signature curls, and her character is extremely busy getting her hands on shampoo in several scenes), but Because the storytelling is so opaque and its characters will take it all in stride — unless they hug each other dramatically — it’s really hard to understand what’s at stake. Once, while Daniel is driving a stolen van, Trish lies in the back seat and proclaims, “This is our honeymoon.” Sure! knock yourself out

decision to go

if stars at noon is an erotic thriller that focuses heavily on the former and almost misses the latter, the new film from Park Chan-wook (who blessed us The maid), is the opposite. decision to go is noir to the femme fatale, a Chinese citizen in Korea named Seo-rae (Tang Wei), who is accused of killing her husband but breaks up the custom with Detective Hae-jun (Park Hae-il ) is not completed. The obsession is there, but the sex isn’t — it’s almost as if the kink is the investigation, not the resulting physical contact. At almost two hours and 20 minutes, decision to goThe many twists and turns make it feel even longer, and I’m not sure it justifies all of its twists and turns.

Nonetheless, it’s packed with the kind of cinematic ingenuity that Park has built a legacy on – crash zooms, smooth transitions, an open-eye POV shot of Seo-rae’s husband lying dead on the ground (an ant is crawling over the lens). ), Hae-jun is pushed into a room he’s not actually in as he puts himself in Seo-rae’s place while watching her and trying to understand what’s going on. There’s an extremely clever device that uses a half-understood translation (Seo-rae’s Korean isn’t great) that I’m sure is even better if you speak the language. Nonetheless, the dialogue is brilliant at times (“Killing is like smoking – only the first time is hard”) and the resolution, in which Seo-rae expresses her love for Hae-jun in a way that is both massively compassionate and self-destructive, moves. decision to go was like the flu – overwhelming as it happened, but then when it was over, it was over. Truly an experience.

EO

Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski EO is a film about the beauty of nature and the ugliness of humanity. It follows the titular donkey, the film’s protagonist, through Europe after being dispossessed from a circus. With little dialogue and close-ups on the donkey star’s massive, gleaming eyes, this is a film that forces empathy and illustrates the toll it takes to treat sentient beings like property. EO bounces from a wilderness retreat to a soccer field, where he is adopted by revelers who blow weed in his face and offer him beers until an opposing team infiltrates and eventually beats him. (A title card makes it clear that despite the realistic violence during the filming of this film, no animals were harmed.) He finds himself at a fur farm from which he escapes in somewhat anthropomorphic editing by kicking its operator unconscious, and then in the hands of a prodigal son of a wealthy family who wonders, “Did I just rescue you, or did I steal you?” Despite EO’s aimlessness, his struggle for freedom is compelling. Run, EO, run! No matter where – just walk!

The decision to tell such a story through the eyes of the donkey does not seem accidental at all, as the animals’ reputation for being “stubborn” indeed is denied from people who have spent time with them: “Smarter and more personable than a horse and just below the threshold of canine character, donkeys are emotional animals that bond for life, and once they gain your trust, they will do almost anything.” They charge them, owners say. They come when you call them, and newcomers get carried away between ear rubs, treats, and sniffles,” he said Denver Post. Any frame of EO acquires the right of revision.

The inspection

Pier Kids Director Elegance Bratton based the inspection his first feature film about his actual experience in the Marines. Like Bratton, his protagonist Ellis French (Jeremy Pope) joined the military after years of being homeless after being kicked out of his home as a teenager for being gay. The personal touch makes the difference The inspection, which despite its big ideas is a relatively small story about a young black man who finds a way to thrive in a hostile environment. The film is set in the midst of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and one of the most intriguing aspects of it is how French’s sexuality is being managed by his superiors and other recruits — they pretty much know it, but they can’t really officially do anything about it , besides making his life hell. As soon as he gets off the bus, training instructor Leland Laws (Bokeem Woodbine) leaves. full metal jacket on his and the other recruits’ asses (a scene where they get their heads shaved is an even more definitive hat on Kubrick’s Vietnam classic). Laws isn’t as monotonous as some of the other barking instructors we’ve seen in the film — at times his cruelty is almost gentle — and French has found something of a sympathy in instructor Laurence Harvey (Raúl Castillo, who has filled in) since his Seek days and is all the more dazed). French and Harvey’s relationship is simmering, but the film takes it in a surprising twist that deviates from the cliché. Brokeback Bootcamp it’s not, and it’s better for it.

However, Bratton is at his best when he shows the crossroads between the gay and gay – a fantasy sequence in which the shower room lighting changes and all the recruits lie longingly in their towels, draping themselves over each other, watching the lust in their eyes, is absolutely awesome (and so hot!). Equally memorable is Gabrielle Union’s disguised performance (somewhere between a supporting role and a cameo) as French’s mother, who wants what’s best for him…on her terms. The turns she takes while phrasing “support” are absolutely devastating. This is the stuff that Best Supporting Actress nominations are made of.