Something always been a little off about Alexia (Agathe Rousselle). As a child, she did not get along with her emotionally distant father. Their involvement in a terrible car accident sends Alexia to the hospital where doctors treat her skull fracture by adding a titanium plate. Fast forward to more than a decade later and Alexia has developed a lust for metal. She gyrates on top of cars for a living. She’s also the mysterious serial killer who the police are desperate to identify. When one of her victims escapes, Alexia transforms to Adrien, pretending to be firefighter Vincent Legrand’s (Vincent Lindon) long lost son. What Alexia doesn’t realize is that she’s met her match with Vincent. And what Vincent doesn’t realize is that “Adrien” is hiding some terrible secrets.
Directed by Julia Ducournau, Titane is a wild ride. It’s relentlessly brutal, completely bonkers and yet it somehow makes sense even when it doesn’t. Rousselle and Lindon have a raw intensity that is perfect for their messed-up characters. Ducournau explores the father-daughter dynamic in a way I’ve never seen before. There are a few plot holes but you get so sucked into the craziness of the story that they really don’t matter. Titane is not for the faint of heart but if you’re into body horror, this film is for you.
Nelly (Josephine Sanz) is playing in the woods by her grandmother’s house when she meets Marion (Gabrielle Sanz). The two eight year olds are the spitting image of each other and instantly bond spending all their free time together. Nelly is visiting the area as her parents clear out the house after her grandmother passed away. Her despondent mother has mysteriously left, leaving Nelly worried that she won’t come back. Nelly and Marion confide in each other, sharing their fears and sparking each other’s imagination. And as it turns out, they have more in common than meets the eye.
“I was already thinking of you.”
Marion
It’s difficult to talk about Petite Maman without revealing the twist. However, the title itself is the biggest spoiler. Directed by Celine Sciamma, this gentle drama is as hopeful as it is melancholic. It explores the complexities of relationships and the fleeting nature of childhood but in a very subtle way.
It’s only 70 minutes long and while that seems short, it’s really the perfect amount of time to tell Nelly and Marion’s story. I like how Sciamma hints at Nelly’s gender expression with a few of the scenes. This film reminded me of Sciamma’s Tomboy which also focuses on a child on a journey of self-discovery. Petite Maman might not wow audiences like Portrait of a Lady on Fire but it will tap into some emotions that lie just beneath the surface.
Petite Maman is part of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival’s Special Presentations slate.Â
30-something bookseller Gloria (Stefania Tortorella) hasn’t experienced an orgasm yet. Tired of sleepless nights caused by her very vocal and very horny upstairs neighbors, Gloria moves into a new place for some peace and quiet. However, it’s occupied by the ghost of the man who died there weeks earlier. And he wants to give Gloria what she’s been missing. When Gloria’s best friend and coworker Sandra (Nena Pelenur) gets curious about Gloria’s newfound glow, Gloria can’t bring herself to explain that she’s hooking up with a ghost. Gloria finds herself at a crossroads when the ghost actually ghosts her, leaving her wondering if satisfaction, both emotional and sexual, can be found in the world of the living or the dead.
“The best player is not the one with the best cards but the one who knows how to best play the cards that were dealt to her.”
Written and directed by husband-and-wife filmmaking team Marcela Matta and Mauro Sarser, the Uruguayan film Ghosting Gloria/Muertos con Gloria is a paranormal delight. I love the film’s bookish vibe and the supernatural cunnilingus scenes are quite inventive and fun to watch. The story does drag on a lot longer than it should. There is a point about an hour in that feels like a natural ending point yet the film continues for another 30 minutes. It felt like 3 television episodes stitched together and I wonder if this would have worked better as a mini-series. I’m glad I kept watching because the actual ending is quite satisfying and solves a visual clue that was presented throughout the film. Definitely check this one out if you can!
Ghosting Gloria/Muertos con Gloria had its world premiere at the 2021 Fantasia Film Festival.
The women of the Glasshouse shield themselves from The Shred, a toxin that permeates the air and robs humans of memories when they breathe it in. The Shred turns its victims into a shade of their former selves. The younger the victim and the fewer memories they have attained, the more they are affected by the toxin.
Bee (Jess Alexander), Evie (Anja Taljaard), Daisy (Kitty Harris) and Mother (Adrienne Pearce) maintain the Glasshouse and its grounds. They work to protect themselves with hooded masks, they seal the Glasshouse from the toxic air, they grown their own fruits and vegetables and they kill, eat, and bury male intruders. The four women are tasked with taking care of young Gabe (Brent Vermeulen), a victim of The Shred who is prone to lashing out.
When The Stranger (Hilton Pelser) arrives on the grounds with a leg wound, Bee takes him in which goes against Mother’s strict rules. The Stranger wins her trust and her desire and takes advantage of this in order to further infiltrate himself into the small world the women have created. He’s as dangerous as The Shred, threatening their livelihoods and sanity. While Bee fails to see this, sharp eyed Evie knows something is not quite right.
“Truth isn’t everything.”
“Someone has to carry it. Otherwise nothing means anything at all.”
There is a lot to unpack with Kelsey Egan’s dreamy science fiction drama Glasshouse. It’s The Beguiled for the pandemic era taking the concept of strong women who must protect themselves from dangerous men during chaotic. The Beguiled takes place in the Civil War era South and Glasshouse appears to depict the same era but in an alternate world where a pandemic instead of a war keeps the women isolated. The film is introspective with lots of thought put into the importance of memory, the concept of truth, and how replaceable individuals are in a society. It’s difficult to come away from this film and not find yourself deep in thought. I enjoyed the fact that the film offers the right balance of story, character development and information about the pandemic.
Glasshouse is not a remake of The Beguiled, although it does seem to be inspired by it, but rather an original story by South African filmmaker Kelsey Egan and co-writer and associate producer Emma Lungiswa de Wet. According to Egan’s director’s statement:
“the South African philosophy of Ubuntu holds that identity is collective and that ancestral memory shapes the present. As thought-provoking as it is entertaining, we believe that Glasshouse is a timely film, meeting a societal and market need for challenging, female-driven stories… Glasshouse explores two opposing coping mechanisms to trauma: holding tightly to the past as a form of preservation, and wilful forgetting…”
The film was shot on location at the Pearson Conservatory in St. Georges Park in South Africa and features a South African cast and crew.
Note: only white characters appear in the film.
Glasshouse had its world premiere at the 2021 Fantasia Film Festival.
Check out my reviews for two film adaptations of The Beguiled (1971) and (2017).
Note to add: Glasshouse will be available on digital July 12th, 2022.
Claire (Micaela Wittman) is having a quarter-life crisis. After discovering her spiritual guru Tony Robbins and taking a Vinyasa Yoga Flow class, Claire finds herself on the path to enlightenment. And of course, she has to make a documentary about her journey. She hires cameraman Earl (Arthur De Larroche) to film her as she seeks wisdom from various spiritual guides. Claire is out of touch, tone deaf and downright delusional. She lives comfortable in a Beverly Hills home funded by her father and pretends to have some mysterious trauma that really doesn’t exist in her otherwise cushy and privileged life. After a series of disappointments, Claire is forced to face the truth about herself.
“I don’t want to be sad anymore. I just want to be happy all the time.”
Claire
Written and directed by Micaela Wittman and Arthur De Larroche, Clairevoyant is a delightfully quirky mockumentary that offers heaping doses of both humor and cringe. Wittman is terrific as Claire, playing into the character’s naivety and awkwardness. The film accurately depicts both millennial angst and white woman privilege and offers criticism on the commodification of spirituality. At its heart though, it’s really about a delusional young woman trying to find her way in life.Â
