Best of the festival part 3

How I Ended This Summer
This is a Russian examination of the impact of cabin fever on two scientists working in the Arctic Circle.

With nothing but themselves, the howling wind and a hungry polar bear for company, veteran Sergei and summer-jobbing Pavel oh-so gradually descend into madness. No good can come of the secrets Pavel is keeping from Sergei and inevitably violence erupts.

The emotions of Sergei and Pavel, and indeed the approach of director Alexei Popopgrebsky, are as cold as their surroundings. This is an almost tortuously slow two-hander that nevertheless is possessed of its own power.

Worth checking it out if it appears on TV and you’ve got two hours to kill. No need to seek it out at the cinema though.
Score: 6/10

Puzzle
This low key Argentine drama seemed to lose a lot in translation.

It focuses on a traditional Argentine mousewife, Maria and her journey to independence (well, of sorts). As the film opens, we see her working her socks off, catering at her own birthday party. It swiftly emerges that she’s obsessed with puzzles – an obsession that is barely tolerated by her husband.

She slowly begins to liberate herself from her shackles by answering an ad from a puzzle-solving champion seeking a partner to enter the next national tournament. Inevitably, this sparks further unexpected changes in her life.

Occasionally interesting, but Maria’s journey fails to hold attention.
Score: 4/10

The Kids Are All Right
Over-hyped and over here! This comedy-drama arrives with a strong wind behind it, but don’t be fooled: this is simply enjoyable, nothing more and nothing less.

Uptight Annette Bening and free spirit Julianne Moore are the apparently perfect lesbian couple, each having used the same sperm donor to get pregnant a few years apart: they have the perfect sports-loving son and diligent daughter. Their idyll is thrown into chaos when the children decide to meet their ‘father’ – whom Moore falls for.

The chaos Mark Ruffalo creates changes the children and their mothers, gradually revealing the seething resentment below the surface in any long-lasting relationship. Consequences are both funny and dramatic.

But don’t believe the hype: it is not hilariously funny, nor is it a tear-jerker – it is simply funny and touching.

Ruffalo and Moore are predictably excellent, but Bening is the star: it’s so long since I’ve seen her on screen that I had forgotten just how good she can be.

However, I’ve docked a point from the film’s score for some of its clichéd touches and also for its final treatment of Ruffalo (which seems entirely unfair).
Score: 6.5/10

Copacabana
Shock, horror, hold the front page, etc: Isabelle Huppert does comedy! France’s darkest actress has a lighter side!

Copacabana is effectively a French spin on the Ab Fab set-up: Babou, the immature, wild child mother, and Esme, the mature, uptight daughter (played by Huppert’s real daughter Lolita Chammah).

After one particularly painful fall-out between the two, Babou takes a job trying to sell timeshare apartments to tourists in bracing Ostend. Almost in spite of herself, she begins to succeed – but that can’t last for long… Nevertheless, a happy ending is fashioned.

Enjoyable but really for Huppert watchers only.
Score: 6/10

Biutiful
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu: I’m calling you out! With each film, this director gets worse! Look at his downward spiral: Amores Peros, 21 Grams, Babel, and now Biutiful.

It would appear that the combination of the very best talent in front of and behind the camera is obscuring this very clear case of the emporer’s new clothes.

Let’s deal with the positives: this tale of a petty criminal having to deal with grievous issues not only in his ‘professional’ and love lives but also with his health is carried by the brooding presence of Javier Bardem (the world’s greatest actor since de Niro turned to comedy?) – you cannot take your eyes off him; Rodrigo Prieto’s cinematography is predictably excellent; and the view of Barcelona’s rancid underbelly is refreshing as Vicky Cristina Barcelona’s picture postcard view was clichéd and embarrassing.

Let’s deal with the negatives: Inarritu is co-writer and director as thus the script and the film’s structural weaknesses lie with him. The ‘spiritual’ element he brings to bear falls entirely limp, while his attempt at conjuring a grand, modern tragedy is dashed on the rocks of his own pretension and his need to pile so many concepts into one film.

But at least he’s learnt to tell a story in sequence… for what it’s worth!

Watch it for Bardem if you must, but do not be fooled: this is not great art.
My suggestion to Inarritu is simple: just concentrate on directing and let someone else come up with the idea and the script.
Score: 4/10