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Armand
Although uneven and even head-scratching at times, the sheer weight and power of a lead performance by Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World, A Different Man) makes Armand worth checking out if only to discover what happens next in this narrative from first-time feature writer/director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann. On the surface, the film is about a situation in a primary school involving two six-year-old boys, one of whom is accused of sexually abusing the other in a school bathroom. The accused is Armand, the son of Reinsve’s Elisabeth; the alleged victim is Jon; and the fact that we never see either child during the course of the film should tell you something about the nature and purpose of the movie. This impossible situation isn’t about the kids; it’s about the parents and the inadequacies of a school to handle such extreme allegations.
Almost immediately, the accusations move from the students to the parents. A defamed actor, Elisabeth is a single mother because her late husband committed suicide about a year earlier. As we find out late in the movie, Jon’s parents are her in-laws (Jon's mother Sarah (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) is Elizabeth's husband's sister, who blames Elizabeth for her brother's death). It’s a completely tangled, emotionally loaded mess of a situation that is being poorly moderated by an inexperienced teacher (Thea Lambrechts Vaulen) and two other administrators who are trying so hard to be fair and balanced that they completely lose sight of what might actually be going on, both between the two boys and among the parents. But our eyes demand that we watch the tour-de-force performance by Reinsve, who turns the occasion into a moment for surreal behavior (including a laughing fit that feels like it goes on forever) and to unload her frustrations with her life and the school as an institution.
We figure out fairly early on that there’s a real chance that nothing actually happened between the two boys who grew up together, but right when it seems clear that this all may be much ado about nothing, naturally, is when someone threatens to call the police in to investigate. Very little makes sense in Armand, and director Ullmann Tøndel doesn’t always have complete control of the motivations of some of his characters or in his story making complete sense. Even still, it’s the performances are what carry the film and win the day. I’m sure a subpar, English-language remake can’t be far away. (Steve Prokopy)
The film screens Saturday, Oct. 26, at 4:30pm at Gene Siskel Film Center, and Sunday, Oct. 27, at 2:30pm at AMC NEWCITY 14.
All We Imagine As Light
Writer/director Payal Kapadia's deeply felt sophomore feature film is a beautiful meditation on female friendship and the perils of navigating the world when your destiny isn't entirely your own. Winner of the prestigious Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival, the film was also just named as Chicago Film Festival's Jury Prize winner for international feature films, and both honors are well deserved.
Set in modern-day Mumbai and steeped in a sense of the city's density and richness, All We Imagine as Light follows three very different women brought together through circumstances and committed to each other's well being and safety. Prabha (Kani Kusruti), a married nurse whose husband left years ago to find work in Germany, lives with Anu (Divya Prabha), a younger nurse who is carrying on with a Muslim young man, much to her family's chagrin (and her fellow nurses' gossip). Prabha's is a life in limbo; she's essentially on her own despite having a husband thousands of miles away. She can't shake up her life in ways it seems she might like to, and she certainly can't return the affections of a kind doctor at her hospital who adores her.
Third in this female-friendship trio is Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), an older woman being evicted after her husband died and left her with no claim to the apartment she lives in. When she decides to leave the bustle and grit of Mumbai, Prabha and Anu travel with her to her seaside hometown, and the journey changes the women in ways both unexpected and beautiful. Kapadia realizes a gorgeous vision of both place and character with All We Imagine As Light, centering three sharply drawn characters in a world intent on pushing and pulling them in ways they can rarely control. Each of her lead actors is exceptional, saying as much when they're silent as they do through her dialogue. The film will likely get a small U.S. release, but it is very much worth seeking out. (Lisa Trifone)
All We Imagine As Light screens as part of Best of The Fest on Sunday, October 27 at 11:30am at the Siskel Film Center.r
Flow
I’ve decided that the animated films of 2024 are trying to kill me with emotional overload. With titles like Inside Out 2, The Wild Robot, and next week’s stop-motion masterpiece Memoir of a Snail, these films are crushing hearts while lifting souls, all in a concerted effort to make me cry. Add to the list Flow, from writer-director Gints Zilbalodis (Away; also credited or co-credited here with producing, cinematography, score, and art direction). The wordless story (co-scripted by Matiss Kaza) concerns a scrappy cat who embarks on a journey across unknown lands after his home (and seemingly the rest of the world) is devastated by a great flood (read into that any kind of biblical or environmental interpretation you’d like; I don’t think the filmmaker is thinking about either). The high water covers almost the entirety of the surface of the world and leaves our feline hero scrambling for a safe place to make a new home. In various combinations, the cat joins forces with a capybara, a lemur, a bird, and a several dogs in a small boat as they embark on a perilous journey through the few bits of nature that stick up higher than the water level.
The animation is both creative—mostly photorealistic—and absolutely stunning, while the story takes its cues from the modern world, emphasizing that unless we work together as a community, what’s left of society will fall apart. With a soaring score from Zilbalodis and Rihards Zalupe, Flow somehow manages to feel both believable and fantastical, as it makes it abundantly clear that animation is not a genre, it’s a medium like any other and at least this year, it’s the medium that is most likely to attack my tear ducts.
As I said, these are not cute, talking animals; these creatures act more or less like their real-world counterparts, which makes the emotional pull all the more devastating. It’s about the endless possibilities of a tight-knit friendship, it’s a feast for the eyes, and a squeezer of heartstrings—this one has it all. I dare you not to be moved. (Steve Prokopy)
The film screens on Saturday, Oct. 26, at 1:30pm at AMC NEWCITY 14, and Sunday, Oct. 27, at 11am at AMC NEWCITY 14. The film will then open theatrically at the Music Box Theatre on December 6.
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