New Germanica, the unknown Tarkovsky and absurd America: what to watch in the movies at the weekend

Disney's Maleficent is perhaps the loudest, but far from the only noteworthy release of this week. Among the domestic novelties are the thriller by Valeria Gai Germanika “The Mindwolf”, the comedic-post-apocalyptic western of Sergey Kuznetsov “The Seven Drunks” and the documentary “Andrei Tarkovsky. Cinema is like a prayer. ” The American independent cinema is presented by the black comedy "Playing with Fire" and the absurd tape "Grass is Greener." In addition, two films based on real events come out for rent: “Farewell”, which tells about the combination of Western and Eastern mentalities in one person, and “Judy” with Renee Zellweger - about the Hollywood diva Judy Garland at sunset.

Maleficent: Mistress of Darkness (Maleficent: Mistress of Evil)

While critics' assessment of the new “Maleficent” falls lower and lower (in just a few days the “freshness” of the film on Rotten Tomatoes fell from 50% to 43%), the audience rating of the film remains stably high: 95%.

Maleficent predictably led the Russian hire on Thursday results with a result of 75.5 million rubles. As noted by the “Film Distributor’s Bulletin”, the final fees of the Disney movie for the weekend can be at least 550 million rubles. Due to the fantasy of Robert Stromberg, the "Joker" of Todd Phillips will irrevocably lose his position.

“Lady of Darkness” was the logical continuation of the 2014 film. In the film, you can again see the heroine of Angelina Jolie, her pupil performed by El Fanning and the faithful werewolf raven (Sam Riley). At the same time, a lot of new characters will appear on the screen, including the main antagonist of Maleficent - the future mother-in-law of Aurora (Michelle Pfeiffer).

“In the case of my heroine, I think she feels that the men failed her and could not protect her, which caused her moral trauma. And this trauma only strengthens her psychosis and way of thinking. Like many people with a damaged psyche, in decision-making, she is guided by her fears. And, you know, when a frightened person with such a psyche has power, a very dangerous combination is obtained, ”Pfeiffer said in an interview with Kinopoisk. However, as the actress emphasized, the filmmakers did not want to show men "bad and weak."

Read more about Maleficent and its criticism in RT.

Thought wolf

Valeria Gai Germanicus, who often refers to female characters in documentary, full-length and multi-part feature films, this time presented a film about her mother and daughter. The premiere of the film took place in June as part of the competition program of the Kinotavr festival. Then the composer Igor Vdovin was awarded a diploma named after Tariverdiev. However, critics were dissatisfied with the directing. In particular, they found Germanic's artistic solutions inappropriate for such material.

The script for the tape was written by Yuri Arabov - previously he collaborated with Alexander Sokurov. The director admitted that due to the specifics of the script, she could not redo it. The idea of such a film, according to Germanika, belongs to Andrei Tarkovsky - he did not realize it himself, but described Arabov.

In the story, a mother (Yulia Vysotskaya), who lives far from people, comes from St. Petersburg to her daughter (Liza Klimova) with her young son. The members of this family have not very warm relations with each other, but they will have to unite against some abstract (or not so) fear. Although the heroes have to test for courage, the director emphasizes that her film was not conceived as a horror.

Judy

To transform into a cult American actress and singer Judy Garland outwardly, Renee Zellweger at the beginning of each shooting day sat down for a long time in the makeup artist’s chair. He put special dentures on her teeth and the tip of her nose, inserted colored lenses in her eyes, and painted dark circles under her eyes. To understand her character, the actress took two years. During this time, Zellweger came to the conclusion that Garland was not a tragic figure, whom she is considered to be: on the contrary, the artist was characterized by a cheerful disposition and optimism.

However, in an interview, Zellweger makes it clear that she had been preparing for this role all her life: in childhood, she was listened to by Garland records. For the first time coming to karaoke, for some reason she performed Over the Rainbow (this composition was first heard from the lips of Garland-Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and later became the singer's “calling card”). Even one of Zellweger's images for the red carpet was inspired by the image of Garland in the 1946 musical “While the clouds are floating”.

Zellweger is already the owner of one Oscar, but soon the number of figurines on a shelf in the actress’s house may increase: critics pound her another prestigious award for Judy.

In a film by Rupert Gould, viewers will see Garland at the sunset of her career, at a time when she suffered from lack of money, health problems, alcohol and drug addiction.

Farewell

Billy has Chinese roots, but her worldview is shaped by Western culture: the girl lives in the United States and fully shares American values. At a critical moment, her large family, whose members live in different countries, is trying to unite, but given the differences in cultures, this becomes awesome.

The heroine’s beloved grandmother is terminally ill, but does not know about it: Billy’s parents do not tell Nai Nye about the diagnosis, and so that all relatives have time to say goodbye to the old woman, they organize a fake wedding of one of the grandchildren. Billy seems to be unjust at least ignoring her grandmother. The heroine will have to enjoy the last minutes with Nai Nai, not spoiling her holiday, and also, perhaps, changing her ideas about good and evil.

The film is based on the “real lie” that the director Lulu Wang had to support - therefore this film is largely autobiographical.

The main role in the film was played by the American rapper and actress Aquafina. The premiere of "Farewell" was held as part of the Sundance festival in the United States. At the London Sundance, the picture won an important award - the audience award.

The game with fire (Burn)

Playing with Fire is a true story about how things went wrong. One night, an inexperienced bandit turned into a gas station in the hope of at least some jackpot. Alas, he turned out to be so fearless that the girls at the checkout did not have the slightest reason to give anything to him. Nevertheless, one of the employees of the gas station decides to assist him in the robbery and thus provide himself with adventure (or male attention).

The heroes constantly have new opportunities to put an end to this theater of absurdity, however, they repeatedly make the most illogical moves. In many ways, this is because the main character, Melinda, is distinguished by an eccentric character and inconsistency: she either stands between a robber and a gang of bikers, to whom he owes a large sum, then she “knocks out” the guy with a fire extinguisher. The unsuccessful criminal also did not decide whether he should put pressure on the trigger of the gun or pity.

As in a good crime movie, in the “Game with Fire” there are both police and bandits. And once the action takes place at the gas station, and a lighter appears in the frame, it becomes clear that the conflict will turn into action with special effects.

Seven Boozers

Director Sergey Kuznetsov transferred the typically overseas western genre to Kazakhstani soil: as often happened with Soviet cinema, the steppe played the role of the prairie. Only now the cowboy action movie has connected with the post-apocalypse, so the technological progress almost did not disturb the atmosphere of the film. The starting point of the plot is the introduction of prohibition.

Brave cowboys with Russian names (for example, Dirty Dimas and Little Vitalik) are not going to endure the lack of booze and women. They reach the legend of the "Divine Bar", where there is plenty of both of them, and even free of charge. Heroes embark on a journey from which other seekers have not returned.

According to critics, the creators of the picture collected so many stamps and clichés of Westerns that instead of cheap things, the filmmakers turned out a well-tuned, elegant parody. Filmed using crowdfunding, the film will be released in a limited release - it takes only a week to broadcast in cinemas.

Greener Grass

This tape is another striking example of how much sometimes the opinion of film critics differs from the point of view of ordinary viewers. The Greener Grass rating on IMDb is 6.4 out of 10 (i.e. 64%), but professional reviewers, according to Rotten Tomatoes, rated the picture 93% fresh. However, the sample will soon become much wider: "Greener Grass" was released to the American hire only on October 18, in Russia the day before. The release in the UK is scheduled for November 22. However, for nine months now the film has been walking around the festivals. After the premiere at Sundance, the tape survived more than twenty local shows, and everywhere it was given a warm welcome.

Greener Grass is the feature-length directorial debut of actresses Jocelyn Deboer and Dawn Lubbe. They played the main roles in the film.

The definition “absurd comedy” is best suited to this picture. The action takes place in an American suburb. The heroine Deboer gives the heroine Lubbe her child, the children turn into dogs, the wives abandon their husbands only because girlfriends told them so ... and all these events are considered by the characters of the tape as given. According to Kate Erbland from IndieWire, the best description of the time and place of the film’s action would be: “What would happen if a plane with suburban residents of the fifties crashed on board the Instagram server”

“If John Waters had restarted“ Desperate Housewives ”in the style of the sketch series“ Tim and Eric ”on“ Edalt Swim ”, it would help you understand the defiantly strange tone of the film debut of screenwriters, directors and actresses Jocelyn Deboer and Dawn Lubbe,” notes Los Angeles Times editor Jeff Berkshire. He believes that this film has the right to be considered a cult.

Andrey Tarkovsky. Cinema is like a prayer

On October 17, the documentary film Andrei Tarkovsky. Cinema is like a prayer. ” The tape about the great director was shot by his son, Andrei Tarkovsky, Jr. For many years he has been promoting the work of his father and is president of the International Institute named after him.

The documentary is based on previously unpublished audio and video recordings of lectures, interviews, meetings with the audience of Tarkovsky Sr., as well as a unique video chronicle from the filming of his films.

“We filmed wherever he (father. - RT ) worked - Vladimir, Suzdal, Moscow, Myasnoye, Tuchkovo, exactly at this place where this house from Zerkal stood, in Sweden, Italy, in all places of shooting "Nostalgia." That will be his story. The film is based precisely on his voice. This will be the story of Tarkovsky about himself, without comment. Everyone talks so much about Tarkovsky, so many books have been published. But that will be what he said, ”said Tarkovsky Jr. in an interview with RIA Novosti.