What to watch this week? Here are our reviews of the latest films released in theaters or on a platform.
Sing Sing : I’m leaving Sing Sing
“Nominated for an Oscar earlier this year for RustinColman Domingo excels in the role of John Whitfield, aka Divine G, which could earn him another finalist at the Hollywood awards ceremony. Clarence Maclin’s raw and menacing performance is, on its side, remarkably truthful. Like this unpretentious film, which makes us cherish freedom,” writes our columnist Marc Cassivi.
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The Hidden Woman : The Roots of Evil
“Eight years later Montreal the whitebased on his documentary piece on the Algerian diaspora created in 2004, Bachir Bensaddek returns with a new portrait of an immigrant woman who fled her past. With the same delicacy, he sketches in The Hidden Woman a female character tinged with mystery through which one can guess a quiet strength, an extraordinary courage and an unfailing resilience,” mentions our journalist Manon Dumais.
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Balestra : Dream better
” If Balestra criticizes the individualism of the American dream, we quickly get around this story sewn with white thread. Between the dream world and Joanna’s reality, there are too many improbabilities, clichés and inconsistencies. The film’s packaging is slick. The camera movement and editing are skillful, particularly in the sword fight scenes. However, the story is complex and leads us towards a predictable and botched outcome. Too bad,” explains our journalist Luc Boulanger.
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The Instigators : Thieves with heart
“The realization of Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Edge of Tomorrow, Road House) offers some good chases and a brisk pace. The impressive cast of supporting characters doesn’t quite mesh with the narrative, but it amuses us with its variety. Ving Rhames, Michael Stulhbarg, Alfred Molina, Paul Walter Hauser and Toby Jones are all irresistibly cartoonish, but it’s Hong Chau (The Whale, Downsizing) who stands out for his repartee and composure. This film does not reinvent the genre, but it contains enough action, humor and heart to have a good time,” writes our journalist Pascal LeBlanc.
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Borderlands : The Space Dump
“The standouts are Cate Blanchett, who has a blast as a disillusioned old trucker in this chaotic and thunderous universe, and Jamie Lee Curtis, who makes the most of a rickety score. However, this is too little to offer moviegoers and video game fans who are entitled to demand a more solid and captivating story than the one offered in this cartoonish post-apocalyptic western, which struggles to find its cruising speed and crashes heavily in the last act. Three years of waiting for that?” mentions Manon Dumais.
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Cuckoo : The Magic Flute
“Amplified by the blinding light, the haunting soundtrack and the syncopated editing, these scenes, whose images suddenly form a temporal loop, transform Cuckoo into a veritable sensory nightmare. While the immersive experience is worth the detour, it fails to distract from the storyline, which leaves something to be desired. In fact, while Cuckoo flirts more and more with the body horrorthe more the story, which laboriously mixes German folklore, motherhood and ornithology, gets tangled up in the ridiculous and the grand guignolesque,” explains Manon Dumais.
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It Ends With Us : Flirting between two genders
” In It Ends With Us, too many questions remain unanswered. A discussion between Lily and her mother, who has also taken the blows from her husband, would have been an opportunity to address what pushes people to stay in toxic relationships. Unfortunately, it ends too quickly. Is this impression of remaining on the surface caused by the multitude of subjects addressed in the film — the cycle of domestic violence, the homeless, female empowerment, sisterhood, etc.? It’s possible. At least, the feature film allows for discussion on a serious issue, if not answers to it,” explains Manon Dumais.
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