The latest from Quentin Dupieux - I think I'm now up to date - is another surreal comedy about a Power Ranger-type group of superheros, the Tobacco Force, which uses the toxins of tobacco - members are named Nicotina, Ammonia, Mercury, Benzene, etc - to suffocate the intergalactic forces of Evil. But even our elite superhero teams need a breather every now and again, but unfortunately an idylic respite can't delay the march of global annihilation.
Smoking Causes Coughing throws a lot of balls in the air, and you're liable to get hit by a couple of them on the way down. Another Dupieux triumph.
8/10
French writer/director Christophe Honore has made about a dozen of the most acclaimed 21st Century French contemporary young adult relationship dramas - he's been a common nominee at Cannes over the last two decades. This is the first of his films that I've seen, although my preliminary interest was more about catching one of Lea Seydoux's early roles. Here, she plays a schoolgirl attending a new school shortly after her mother's death, and finds herself the object of multiple affections, including the more complicated attraction from her Italian teacher (Louis Garrel). The attraction is easy to sympathize with, as Seydoux has the elegant ability to embody an impressive range of classic Gaulic chanteuses, seeming to ravel together Anna Karina, Jeanne Moreau and Isabelle Adjani into one, and still have her own signature soul in reserve. It seems effortless to rest the film on her strengths, but there's plenty of other performances (Garrel particularly) that keep it engaging beyond the merely melodramatic source material.
8/10
Like Someone In Love is Abbas Kiaorstami's follow-up to Certified Copy, this one set in Tokyo involving a young escort (a softly alluring Rin Takanashi) and her elder client (Tadashi Okuna) who tries to care for her in light of a jealous boyfirend (Ryo Kase). The writing, rhythm and performances of the film elevates the story above such a mundane sketch, and finds a wealth of empathy in unsuspecting places. Like Certified Copy, it's a film where the human relationships become far more of the focus than the banal romantic cliches. The only knock against the film is a rather unresolved conclusion. It is interesting that the original title was The End, and it would be Kiarostami's final film released in his lifetime. Okuna's resolute professor is clearly an avatar for the 72 year old director.
8/10
Rock wrote:
