Review: Nature (and the Audience) is Out of Balance in “Evil Does Not Exist”

By Ben Miller

Following the release of Darren Aronofsky’s divisive 2017 film mother!, most of the viewers who saw it didn’t know what was going on. It was only until it was explained that it made any sort of sense, and then it almost made too much sense. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist lives on that same plane, with significantly more subtlety.

Not that this is the time or place to spoil the film by breaking it down scene by scene, but those places exist and can be found relatively easily. That doesn’t exactly bode well for the film. It’s one thing for a filmmaker to make you think, it’s another to send you on a search for answers you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. On the flipside, the answers make so much sense, it enhances the film long after the credits have rolled...

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More news about Mohammad Rasoulof

by Cláudio Alves

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (2024)

Last Friday, among a torrent of festival-related news, the fate of Mohammad Rasoulof was a topic of discussion. The Iranian filmmaker has found himself in trouble with his country's law for many years now, primarily because of political outspokenness and a cinematic output that dares to question the status quo. His latest work, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, is scheduled for a Cannes premiere next week, as part of the Main Competition. Though details are scant, it's been reported as the story of a paranoid judge of the Revolutionary Court. When, in a setting of civic unrest, his gun vanishes, the man imposes oppressive rules on his family, turning the domestic space into a tyranny, his wife and daughters into quasi-prisoners…

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Benoît Magimel Turns 50

by Eric Blume

A young Magimel in Benoît Jacquot's A SINGLE GIRL (1995).

This weekend, we’re celebrating one of French cinema’s greatest actors, Benoît Magimel, who turns 50 today. 

Magimel exploded upon the industry in the mid 1990s, making a string of pictures right after his 21^st birthday that involved collaborations with several big names.  Benoît Jacquot used his broad, handsome face and hooded eyes to great effect in 1995’s A Single Girl opposite Virginie Ledoyen.  The two actors have a truthful, easy spark between them that’s quintessential French post-teen.  The next year, he was featured in the excellent Thieves, by then-huge director André Téchiné, alongside two of the country’s finest, Daniel Auteuil and Catherine Deneuve...

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Festival News: Huppert Presides in Venice, Rasoulof Imprisoned, and more…

by Cláudio Alves

In 1988, Isabelle Huppert won the first of two Venice Volpi Cups, for Chabrol's STORY OF WOMEN.

As Cannes approaches, a barrage of festival news has hit film lovers worldwide. From celebratory to tragic, many of these stories aren't even about the Croisette, signaling how 2024 is entering the festival season full throttle. For example, Isabelle Huppert has been announced as the Jury President for this year's Venice, provoking traumatic flashbacks to whoever still remembers her Cannes presidency in 2009. According to rumor, the French thespian was an absolute tyrant, imposing her will over the other jurors to award frequent collaborator Michael Haneke with his first Palme d'Or. Fellow juror James Gray infamously described her as a "fascist bitch."

Following Lupita Nyong'o in Berlin and Gerwig in Cannes, Huppert's announcement makes 2024 the first year when all the big three European Film Festivals chose women as their Main Competition Jury Presidents…

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The Fifties: 2024 Edition

by Cláudio Alves 

DUNE: PART TWO is the nomination leader, with eight individual citations.

Some time ago, Nick Davis used to have an annual tradition on his blog, commemorating the landmark of fifty new releases watched with an awards roster of sorts. Going through different Oscar-y categories, it felt like a way to celebrate the year in cinema before all the buzzy releases took over the conversation. As a reader, I loved those lists, using them as recommendations and insight into a fantastic writer's taste. Moreover, between that and Nathaniel's Halfway Mark honors, I grew inspired. Thus, a personal tradition came to be, with me taking tally of my own imaginary ballots around the same period. This year, having reached the goal of fifty 2024 feature releases, I've decided to share my "fifties" with you.

Consider it a love letter to the films I've loved so far in the year. It's also my homage to two writers I've long admired and whose influence over my cinephilia is impossible to quantify…

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