Hello all, I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. And now we are in the thick of the holiday season. However unfortunately, a number of entries I planned to view aren’t out yet. And, due to a slight cold, any chance of going to the theaters were thwarted. But if you are in the same boat as myself, where do you turn to but the streaming services. And now more than ever, they are providing vast oceans of content for your viewing pleasure. Well let’s grab out the remote and surf through, shall we?
Hulu has made a habit of taking movies they don’t plan on giving wide releases and premiering them. One among them is Stars at Noon. Based on a 1980s novel of the same name, this stars Margaret Qualley as a freelance journalist in present-day Nicaragua. Her original assignment covering travel destinations she has forsaken for looking into political corruption. This proves fruitless as her editor cuts ties and she has trouble keeping her press credentials, opting to turn tricks in order to find a way back to the states.
This is where she meets Joe Alwyn’s suave English businessman and begins an affair. But unbeknownst to her, he is more dangerous than she bargained for. All that said, this is a very staid and laidback film. A mellow haze hangs over the proceedings much like the tropical heat. This is a mode director Claire Denis specializes in.
Whereas a filmmaker like Peter Weir would develop the plot with many twists and turns, here we don’t have The Year of Living Dangerously. We are served Bertolucci nested within a Costa-Gavras setup. Both main actors are in various modes of undress as they race against both police and CIA. It is hard to look at Qualley and not be reminded of her mother’s role in Sex, Lies and Videotape. Her teased hair, wide eyes and manic energy bring verve. Her work is matched only in the last third with Benny Safdie’s CIA agent.
The one weak link comes with her love interest. Alwyn feels too young to be playing this role; reports that Robert Pattinson was considered makes more sense. Denis’ usual preoccupations of colonialism and Western influence show through, although more muted here. You can see why this appealed to her. But not sure why she didn’t just set it during the time of the Sandinistas; maybe COVID required an update. Some might find this a bit long and too languid for their tastes. Frequent collaborators Tindersticks has contributed another amazing soundtrack that I will listening to for weeks though.
And now from the profane to the sacred. Netflix, in a bid for Oscar glory, has released The Wonder. Actress of the moment Florence Pugh stars as Lib, a nurse dispatched to the Irish countryside to observe the daughter of a religious family. Locals claim she hasn’t eaten in weeks and still she remains in good health, a miracle. It is Lib’s job to figure out how. This is Sebastian Lelio’s third feature after the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman and the criminally underrated Disobedience. However, this is his most experimental. For a film grounded in realism, he starts us out in a soundstage as a narrator extends to us the importance of parables. Then hard cut to verisimilitude with the Irish highlands as Pugh enters. We are treated to thirty minutes of pure period drama until a character she exchanges with snaps her gaze at us and continues to expound. At first you would think this distracting. On the contrary it was hypnotic, with the sumptuous set design and score that mixed drone and Gregorian chant with angelic sighs. Florence Pugh has proven that she is one of this generation’s great acting talents, elevating Emma Donoghue’s novel and script to dizzying heights. As artsy as these films are, they both feature two strong performances that are worth checking out.
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