Everything Everywhere All at Once, The White Page, Flee… Films to see or avoid this week

Everything Everywhere All at Once – Have

Action movie by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, 2h19

Everything Everywhere All At Once tells the story of Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh, both fragile and warrior), a boss on the verge of a nervous breakdown, who tries to save a family laundry from bankruptcy. Pursued by an intractable tax investigator, abandoning her daughter Joy, a teenager in need of bearings, and neglecting a touching husband, Evelyn suddenly finds herself projected into parallel universes where she is asked to save the world threatened by a mysterious entity. Joyfully mixing absurd, grotesque humor, kung-fu or science fiction films, the feature film by “Daniels” overflows with imagination. OD

Read alsoOur review of Everything everywhere all at once: the crazy movie that rocked America

The Blank Page – Have

Comedy by Murielle Magellan, 1h40

One fine morning, a young woman finds herself sitting alone on a Parisian bench. She doesn’t remember anything. Or almost… This identity amnesia lands on the heroine with the heady softness of an invisibility cloak. Without letting herself be disconcerted for too long by this terrifying observation, the pretty Héloïse quickly regains control. Like a Sherlock Holmes in a petticoat, she begins to investigate herself in order to reclaim her life, to seek to reintegrate herself into the twirling flow of her daily existence. Very loosely adapted from the comic The Blank Page signed Penelope Bagieu and Boulet, Murielle Magellan’s “existential romantic comedy” takes the viewer on a rhythmic quest for identity, captivating like a poetic round, as disturbing as it is whimsical. Full of charm and gentle determination, the actress Sara Giraudeau slips into the skin of this amnesiac as seductive as it is casual. From the first to the last shot, her flute voice and her doe gaze on the warpath, work wonders. OD

Read alsoOur review of The Blank Pageor the discreet charm of the amnesiac

Flee – Have

Animated documentary by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 1:29

Autobiographical testimony, awarded at the Annecy Festival, Flee tells the true story of Amid, a homosexual Afghan refugee who remembers the chaotic paths of exile, since the war in Afghanistan and the family flight to Russia before settling in Denmark. This delicate portrait of an uprooted person echoes all the exoduses of today… OD

rebel – Have

Drama by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, 2h15

rebel briefly paints a portrait of Kamal Wasaki, a young Arab thug from Molenbeek, a motorcycle and rap enthusiast. We are in 2013. Shocked by the images of the war in Syria, Kamal leaves for Aleppo to rescue the victims of Bashar el-Assad. His humanitarian work does not last. He is enlisted by the Islamic State and discovers in Raqqa the cruelty of what looks like a mafia. Between a smoker whose hand is cut off and a hi-fi salesman, therefore purveyor of impure music, shot dead in the street, the barbarity of bearded men terrifies him. Preferring to hold a camera than a Kalashnikov, he stages the propaganda of the caliphate. Not without talent since they buy him a virgin Muslim woman at the slave market to reward him. Noor, that’s his name, will end up opening Kamal’s eyes to the atrocities committed by Daesh in the name of Allah and freedom. Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah chronicle Kamal’s nightmare by allowing themselves a few musical escapes. Singing and dancing scenes that make Rebel a kind of musical tragedy. E.S.

CRAZY – Have

Dramatic comedy by Jean-Marc Vallée, 2 h 09

Released in 2005, the moving Quebec family portrait of the director of Dallas Buyers Club (tragically disappeared in December 2021) reappears on screens and in a restored DVD/Blu-ray edition. A powerful work not to be missed… OD

The Princess – You can see

This documentary rewinds the thread of Lady Diana’s life until her death on August 31, 1997. That was twenty-five years ago. In The Princess, the archives follow one another in a well-orchestrated way, without voiceover. The director plays with the archives and places, for example, a hunting sequence echoing the media stalking suffered by the princess. The music, signed Martin Phipps (Peaky Blinders, The Crown), accentuates a little more – a little too much? – the tragedy of these images. There is not in The Princess, unpublished information on the responsibility of the royal family or on the personality of Diana. The philanthropic spirit of the princess is, moreover, a little left aside. This procession of archives makes it possible above all to measure “obsession”term of a commentator of the time, that there was for his person. BP

Read alsoOur review of The Princess by Ed Pekins: the majesty lick

The tasting – You can see

Romantic comedy by Ivan Calbérac, 1 h 32

We awaited with delight the reunion between Isabelle Carre and Bernard Campan, couple who made sparks in Sremember the beautiful things, twenty years ago. Adapted from the eponymous play, The tasting intoxicates the public in its first part, then disappoints. Campan is convincing as a grumpy wine merchant and Carré is touching as a clam frog with a weakness for good wine. But the staging, a little too flat, of this romance sobers the viewer. O.D

The Five Devils – To avoid

Drama by Léa Mysius, 1h35

Vicky (Sally Dramé), a little black girl mocked for her mop of hair by her school friends, consoles herself by recreating the olfactory essence of her loved ones thanks to a nose that any perfumer would envy her. By developing the scent of her beloved “mom” (Adèle Exarchopoulos), the girl finds herself traveling into her parents’ past and discovering secrets that preceded her birth. The return home of her father’s sister (black) makes the family trauma a little more concrete. This fantastic tale by Léa Mysius borders on the ridiculous.

Read alsoOur review of Five Devils: the child without the spells

With love and determination – TO to avoid

Drama by Claire Denis, 1 h 56

The fans of Christine Angotprivate book of the author of Incest in this literary season, will console themselves with this love triangle under a pandemic co-written with Claire Denis. Jean (Vincent Lindon) loves Sarah (Juliette Binoche) who falls back into the arms of François, her former lover (Grégoire Colin). The actors do the job but all this is not very exciting. E.S.