Music & Films for
Common People
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L'INSULTE
(The Insult) Dir. Ziad Doueiri
25
Doueiri captures in a micro-universe the weight of the political and religious divisions in Lebanon, and in the entire Middle East. It tackles current affairs in a very politically charged discourse that keeps escalating but manages to finish with an important call to unity and forgiveness,
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The study of characters is solid, and we are able to see how pride can make our lives derail. It creates a strong sense of tension, and has a good rhythm that can keep everybody intrigued about what will happen next. It might not be subtle, and might have its tricks, but as a film is as eye-opening as it is entertaining.
LUCKY
Dir. John Carroll Lynch
24
What a privilege for actor Harry Dean Stanton, who passed away last year, to say goodbye with a film like this; one that lets him display his full talent as a testament of his work and his own life. Lucky is a very rare philosophical comedy that contains strong thoughts about existence, but told in such a light way that we get our brains thinking hard while we enjoy and laugh at this intelligent type of humor.
By doing a character study, Lynch makes a study on something much bigger: the sense of life. It certainly is nihilistic, but we end up with the heart warmed and finding that as pointless as life is, there are details that make it all very worthy.
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JE NE SUIS PAS UN HOMME FACILE
(I am not an easy man) Dir. Eleonore Pourriat
23
Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile is, at first glance, a hilarious comedy that gives a fresh turn in the "switched bodies" canon, but it is at the same time a harsh criticism on patriarchal society and how it operates at different levels to oppress women in every single aspects of their lives, and the lies they tell themselves to don't see such oppression.
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If the beginning is average, it gets smarter as it advances and their final knock-out comes when instead of the traditional ending they offer us something much more powerful, a last sequence that shows why the feminist movement is still necessary.
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THE BREADWINNER
Dir. Nora Twomey
22
The Breadwinner is above all, a healing film; one that goes to old stories as a way to make peace with the wounds of the present and the past. But it is also an inspiring film, one that confronts the misogyny and the fundamentalism, and through their main character, a young Afghani girl, they show the pride that can't be taken from oneself, even in the most adversing situations.
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The Breadwinner is a pacifist and feminist film that never aims at moralizing, but by showing a human story enveloped in beautiful hand-crafted animation, it gives us inspiration to keep fighting for freedom against bigotry and repression.
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RBG
Dir. Julie Cohen & Betsy West
21
A smart and powerful portrait of one of the most important feminist and social justice figures in current times, RBG give us an insight to the whole story of the Supreme Court of the US judge, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and her fight to make her country a more equal place where gender won't be discriminated against.
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Pertinent in a year when a new Supreme Court judge, accused of sexual abuse was selected by Donald Trump, it is a reminder that social and human rights shouldn't be taken for granted and are worth fighting for. As empowering as it is, surprisingly it also contains a beautiful love story within.
MUSEO
(Museum) Dir. Alonso Ruizpalacios
20
Ruizpalacios is one of the most exciting new voices in Latin American cinema, and his approach to a thrilleresque road movie is quite fascinating since he manages to give us a lesson in ancient and recent history in a subtle way that is hidden behind the nerve-wrecking and absurd robbery and the following trip.
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A smart screenplay that explores the anxieties of the middle class and the existential void that pushes us to commit the most preposterous actions in an irrational search to leave a legacy. Gael García Bernal is charming and fascinating in one of his better performances ever.
LAS HEREDERAS
(The Heiresses) Dir. Marcelo Martinessi
19
Elegant and intimate, what is supposed to be a character study end ups being something bigger and more powerful as it deals with complex concepts of class, privilege, womanhood and queer identities. Martinessi's debut takes its time crafting the characters and situations, and is great in charging with powerful hidden meanings the small details, the crossed gazes, the double-meaning pieces dialogues.
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It's also outstanding in the unusual approach it makes to mature women, understanding in full their complexities, their fears and their desires, while also being a sharp and incisive analysis of class and status in Latin America.
LADY BIRD
Dir. Greta Gerwig
18
Greta Gerwig became the fifth woman ever to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar, but beyond the impact on gender politics and representation, it is a fair recognition for her outstanding work bringing to life the history of every middle-class artistic girl; because, no matter how particular Lady Bird could be, she's also a universal character.
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Above all, it feels like a great way to discover female experience through their own voice. It is specially good at establishing a mother-teenage daughter relationship, how no matter how much love they have for each other, they end up being the villain in the other's story.
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CAPHARNAÜM
(Capernaum) Dir. Nadine Labaki
17
Labaki is smart and sensitive approaching the bleakest side of Lebanon where poverty is affecting milliards of people and childhoods are terminated at a very early age because of the harsh situations they are forced to endure. The film is direct at its central statement: a child born in poverty is condemned to a life of pain, no matter how good they are or how hard they work.
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It is so brave at facing misery and still managing to find the warmest and most human side among that sordid world, that we are quick to forgive the tricks and the emotional manipulation that it applies to get what she wants from the audience.
JEUNE FEMME
(Montparnasse bienvenue) Dir. Léonor Serraille
16
A film like Jeune Femme, where all the top positions in the film process are held by women comes to show us how rewarding could be this new openness to diversity with a great analysis of gender and personal identity. An emotional trip for independence and dignity as a woman, benefits from a very well written female complex character and the amazing performance of Laetitia Dosch.
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With an amazing ease for dialogue and character construction, and a brilliant translation of feminism from theory to fiction, it's an ironic comedy of the human absurd and a great analysis of personal and gender identity.
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THE FLORIDA PROJECT
Dir. Sean Baker
15
By limiting the storytelling to the perspective of a young girl, Baker achieves a tale of sweetness and friendship in the middle of the turmoil of the lower class of the deep America. It is a touching piece about a personal story, but that allows us to see the perspective of a social segment that is choked in poverty and lack of education, and is able to offer a very subtle but powerful political insight.
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If what we see is powerful and touching, the strength of the story relies on what we can't see in camera, those little moments that, like our child protagonist, we can't fully understand right then, but at the end, when all the pieces fit, give us goosebumps from what it is implied.
THELMA
Dir. Joachim Trier
14
Rather than a pure horror film or a thriller, Trier tries to erase the limits between an intimate drama about the sexual arousal of a young woman and a paranormal sci-fi about a contemporary Carrie. He takes his time tracing the narrative arc of the characters so we go through a sinuous road of self-discovery and a clash of personal beliefs against queer desire.
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Trier is growing to be quite and aesthete, offering us a beautiful and haunting cinematography full of symbolisms and that is able to convey subtle hidden meanings through disturbing imagery that finds beauty in the morbid and obscure.
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VISAGES, VILLAGES
(Faces, places) Dir. Agnés Varda & JR
13
Visages Villages comes to us as a reminder that before the Coppolas, the Gerwigs and the Jenkins, there was always Agnès Varda, arguably the single woman who has given most to the cinema in its whole existence. Teaming with the visual artist JR, this documentary is rich in discovering of personal identities and how oneself can be discovered through the sight of others.
In the time of ready-made Instagram images, Varda and JR approach photography as something deeper, as both abstractions and representations, and in their way, getting endearing stories that also explore how memory is shaped by the subjectiveness in the personal gaze.
Read the full review here.
THE FAVOURITE
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
12
Lanthimos is ruthless in his depiction of Queen Anne of England. The most un-ceremonial film about the Royals you could find, it is a dark comedy about power and seduction. Although he sacrifices some of his style (specially on the sparse and cold performances he used to get from his actors) for a more Hollywood-friendly film, one can rest assure that the core bitterness and sharp eye of the author is clearly visible through the entire film.
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One of the most politically incorrect feminist films, it benefits from the amazing work from the three leading actresses, being the fascinating Olivia Colman who steals the entire show.
MANBIKI KAZOKU
(Shoplifters) Dir. Hirokazu Koreeda
11
In his new study on a complex family (also analyzing what is or should be considered as a family), Koreeda digs as much in the psyche of the characters as he digs in the social structures of Japan.
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At times charming and sweet, but at times bleak and heartbreaking, Manbiki Kazoku make us face several moral dilemmas through well-rounded characters who at times have hidden motivations, and at times have non, acting in the spur of the moment with what they think is right, but might not be in the traditional scale of modern values.