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Reviews
The Last Duel (2021)
Expensive think piece on the nature of truth and neat trip to medieval times
(NO BIG PLOT SPOILERS, JUST SOME INTERPRETATION) I enjoyed The Last Duel, but I can see how it was not a box office hit. It is not an epic, despite the scale of the production; it is not an action movie, despite its violence... people who go to the movie theater for the big spectacle won't leave with the same rollercoaster ride type of adrenaline high as when watching the Avengers... But it's not a thesis movie either, because there is no thesis: it doesn't have a neatly articulated moral. In that regard, it feels somewhat open, which may be frustrating for modern audiences, who may be left wondering what the point was.
I believe The Last Duel was meant as a think piece... in my interpretation, on the nature of truth. Although the story seems built around the enigma of whether the girl was raped or not, the only "message" I could surmise was that the truth is subjective, and maybe all the characters are telling the truth... as they saw it. The Rashomon structure (same event from multiple perspectives) may not be novel, but it was central to making that point. In the end, the riddle remains unanswered and we are left to make sense out of all the points of view by ourselves. Of course we, with our modern day compass, have no question as to what rape is or isn't, but we can see how those fourteenth century characters do not share that compass. It is interesting that, even if opening the issue of rape to subjective perception seems anathema in this day and age, the movie wasn't particularly attacked on that account.
So, given the lack of a neatly presented answer to the riddle, all the weight of the resolution rests on the suspense as to who will win the duel, which does work, the duel is very intense, but the outcome is nevertheless anecdotal, in particular because the film doesn't really have good guys to root for, but very flawed characters that are not particularly relatable, maybe because their now archaic mentality. The girl is the most sympathetic character in the ensemble, for her victimhood and by default, given the other two in the triangle, but she is reduced to the role of damsel in distress, something that, albeit period accurate, runs counter to all of today's trends of female empowerment. The lack of relatable characters leaves us without points of entry into the story and renders the movie somewhat cold; watched from without. That is not a problem in a think piece, but it takes away the intensity of the first person ride many may have wished for.
Ultimately, the anecdote felt small for the scale of the endeavor. But I appreciated the effort. The same think piece could have been set in modern day (it might have been something like that Jodie Foster movie about rape, The Accussed), so why taking us to the very expensive middle ages to do that?... well, but why not? I like the middle ages. To me, this was a trip to another era, painstakingly crafted and with a disproportionately large budget to achieve it, relative to its audience appeal, which doesn't happen too often, so, a rare treat. I accepted the filmmakers pact with us, the audience, that the characters speak modern day American English, and the cast is transformed enough for me to forget who they are (actually, I didn't recognize Affleck for most of the movie). I even find delicious looking for historical errors and all that (the most flagrant one to me, without going to the internet to check, was the card at the end saying that one of the characters in the movie, I won't spoil who, went to the crusades afterwards and died there... must have died of boredom waiting for another crusade, as the last one ended almost a century earlier with the fall of Acre. Strange, since Ridley made a movie about the Crusades. It made me wonder how many facts were taken from the court records of the trial and how much is made up embelishment).
Summing up. The Last Duel is not going to become an instant classic, but it was a valiant effort and a real treat for lovers of medieval fare, rich in everyday life detail. It is a movie for adults, slow paced and without relatable characters, perhaps more anecdotal than deep, that I enjoyed nevertheless. Hopefully, time will vindicate its true worth.
Nuit blanche (2011)
Smart and gritty action thriller, nut dumbed down action flick
Fantastic film. Really tight action thriller. Very well plotted, and very well executed. I saw another reviewer complain because it was not as action packed as the publicity misled him to believe. It just doesn't feel like an American action flick because it doesn't have famous international stars with overgrown muscles saying lapidary lines every time they shoot a bad guy. I love Die Hard too, don't get me wrong, but this is just a different kind of animal. This is reminiscent of Die Hard only in the high concept (one man against lots of bad guys in a confined environment); the tone is much more realistic and gritty. It's not a shoot them all in which they never run out of bullets either, nor a martial arts extravaganza, but action packed it is: it gets relentless. The action is just grounded. The hero here, or anti-hero, maybe, is not the best shot on earth, and is not stronger or a better fighter than anyone else, nor has any special "movie hero" skills. He's really human; he's just more desperate. But that's what makes the film so raw. The stakes feel real. The fights will have you twisting on your seat, not cheering as the hero makes mincemeat of anyone in his path a la Taken. It is not a wish-fulfillment ride, like most Hollywood action flicks, but precisely for that reason it is a very intense ride. It's really gripping. The plot devices (son in danger, etc) don't come out too cheesy and the actors make their characters very believable. The complexity of the plot is easy to follow despite the lack of expository dialog spoon-fed to the audience. We see what the hero sees, realize what he realizes. We realize indeed how bad the odds are for him and we wonder what could he possibly do, as the situation gets worse and worse. We understand the playground and are challenged to guess how is he going to use it. We get to know all the other characters and why they are desperate too, rising the stakes, and we keep peeling them off in layers, unveiling twists and double crossings in an exercise of one upmanship. They don't round it up with a beautiful bow in the end nor every little subplot is tied up with a saccharine sweet epilogue. It is abrupt enough, not complacent with us, while still delivering the required closure. In my view this just adds to the general grit. I highly recommend this film. It felt fresh. Not recognizing every actor also helped make it feel real. The modern day french setting with immigrants from everywhere also helped provide separation from the US or UK set cop dramas that we are used to watch here in the US. Sorry to rant. I just watched it on Netflix and felt compelled to come to IMDb and learn more about it (I had never heard of it before), and then to write this review.
Finding Bliss (2009)
Laughs with a heart
I really enjoyed this hard to classify film. I have only seen this type of humor associated to male-led comedies, and I think it is quite bold to approach it from a female perspective -- and without apologizing for it. I'm giving it ten stars for how ballsy it is and for doing something so different from what is out there. I also enjoyed that they were able to portray the world of adult entertainment neither condoning it nor falling into preachy sanctimoniousness or prejudiced clichés. In that regard, it reminded me of Boogie Nights; it pokes fun at its subjects, but never in a mean-spirited way and indeed, in Bliss, more often than not the joke is on the outsider. Delivering hard laughs and, at the same time, portraying compelling characters that will make us care is a hard balancing act, but I think Bliss succeeds at both things. Its in-your-face humor has nothing to envy to the crassest Farrelly brothers' flicks, but at the same time it shows a true indie sensibility in the leading character's journey to grow comfortable with her own sexuality. I really hope this film gets the exposure it deserves.