Twenty Gods, Saint-Ex, Christmas at Miller's Point… Films to see and not to see this week

Christmas at Miller's Point – To have

Comedy by Tyler Taormina – 1 h 46

Taormina, 34, dramatizes the last Christmas Eve of a middle-class Italian-American family on Long Island before the house is sold – a secret quickly revealed. We are in the mid-2000s, phones are not yet intelligent and do not monopolize the attention of guests. We witness an orgy of food, cigars, Christmas songs. A family reunion such as everyone has experienced, without deep discussion, but sometimes punctuated by tiny epiphanies, moments of grace. This is the case when reading a text from one of the uncles, first in a tone of mockery then without any secondary meaning, plunging the audience into a tender melancholy.
Christmas at Miller's Pointthe highly autobiographical third film by Tyler Taormina, confirms the renewed health of the outsiders of the system. It's like a Martin Scorsese film without the mafia. Nostalgic and elegiac. AND. S.

Also read
Our review of Christmas at Miller's Point: Last Eve Before the End of a World

Twenty gods – To have

Drama by Louise Courvoisier – 1 h 30

In the Jura, Totone (Clément Faveau) takes it easy. This redhead guzzles liters of beer, doesn't miss an agricultural show, doesn't hesitate to jump on the tables to launch into a Limousin dance, which consists of taking off his clothes one by one to the cheers of the crowd. As it is summer, the teenager with delicate skin risks getting sunburned. Other dangers await him: in bed with a young lady, a breakdown prevents him from achieving his goals. The fiasco does not seem to traumatize him. The death of his father will affect him more, even if he doesn't let anything show. Here he is in charge of the family property and his little sister. To keep them both, he must win the best county competition. The area seems a little foreign to him. Marie-Lise (Maïwène Barthelemy), a neighboring farmer, will serve as their teacher, which will not prevent her from playing a trick on him.
Fiery, vibrant, Twenty gods has the energy of a thoroughbred. A filmmaker is born. Louise Courvoisier was made for that. We won't have to remember his name. It will soon be on everyone's lips. AND. N.

Also read
Our review of Twenty Gods: Cheese and Dessert

I don't want to go there anymore mom – We can see

Documentary by Antonio Fischetti – 1 h 50

Journalist Antonio Fischetti wonders how to pay tribute to his colleagues murdered on January 7, 2015, whose disappearance shocked him. He has countless memories of his comrades, many old issues of Charlie Hebdo and an archive that he cherishes: a video interview with Elsa Cayat, psychiatrist and newspaper columnist, killed on January 7. Fischetti pulls on this thread, which takes him towards caricatures. The satirists' pen strokes only present magnifying mirrors of reality. Antonio Fischetti escaped the massacre which left twelve people behind. He was saved by a funeral. Having gone to attend his aunt's funeral, he was unable to be present at his own… Death saved him. This observation occupies his mind strangely. Antonio Fischetti, considerate patient, goes to confession. He also evokes his brother who died before his birth, the water from Lourdes that we brought home, his mother who ended up resembling the Virgin Mary. At the end, he puts on his swimsuit and slips into a river which rocks him. He has finally found his place: elsewhere.
The documentary I don't want to go there anymore mom advances at the pace of his doubts. Without gravity, without seriousness, but with a candor which makes this character sympathetic. B. P.

Also read
Our review of I Don't Want to Go Anymore, Mom: Where Am I Charlie?

Saint-Ex – To avoid

Pablo Agüero drama – 1 h 38

At the beginning of the 1930s, the airmail epic was at its peak. It's the time of the pioneers. The one nicknamed “Saint-Ex” (Louis Garrel) is an experienced aviator responsible for transporting postal mail to Argentina and Patagonia by crossing the Andes mountain range, with his colleague Henri Guillaumet (Vincent Cassel). When Guillaumet mysteriously disappears in the Cordillera, Saint-Exupéry “flies” to the aid of his friend and mentor. If the first quarter of an hour creates an illusion, taking the viewer into the wake of adventurers in full landing, the film quickly runs out of steam. Poor Louis Garrel runs out of breath screaming « Guillaumet ! Guillaumet ! » for a good part of the film. As for the voice-over, it declaims with the most perfect seriousness of banalities: « You are like a brother to him », « I'm here my friend, I'm here ! » or « Always faster, always further, always together ».
Draw me a disaster. But what did Pablo Aguero do in this mess? To have wanted to tell the very real epic of the airmail in the form of an ethereal pseudo-dreamlike fable: that is the great error. O. D.

Also read
Our review of Saint-Ex: draw me a… turnip

Women on the balcony – To avoid

Comedy by Noémie Merlant – 1 h 43

45°C in Marseille. Panties drying on the clothesline. The heatwave sharpens tempers. There are these three girls. They try to find some fresh air on the balcony. Wasted effort. One has her breasts exposed. This is her work outfit: it excites voyeurs on the web. There is no such thing as a stupid profession. The second claims to be a novelist. His novel has not yet been published. The third is an actress. We see her arrive in Marilyn Monroe's red dress in Niagara. She has one fault: she lets out farts, which brings joy to this little world who laughs, who cries, who sings, who dances. The three ladies spot a guy in the building opposite. The hunk is a photographer. As he doesn't have an eye in his pocket, he invites them to have an aperitif at his place. This initiative is quite indicative of the representative of toxic masculinity. With the help of alcohol and the furnace, things will turn sour. The revenge of these ladies will be bloody. Helmut Newton de la Canebière will end up impaled on the base of a projector. A piece of willy will end up in the freezer.
The show is exhilarating. This so-called feminist bouillabaisse, worthy of 2.0 patronage, sticks to your fingers. The plot pedals in the void. AND. N.

Also read
Our review of Women on the balcony: window overlooking the farmyard