Santiago Herrera

Daaaaaali!

Directed by Quentin Dupieux

Hora Cero / Midnight Screamings
Duration: 77 min. | Country: France | Language: French | Year: 2023

At the twilight of his career, when his media appearances were more important than his works, Dalí is about to give an interview at a hotel. Played by five different actors throughout the film, all of them looking very different from each other save for the histrionics and the characteristic mustache, the genius wanders through the hallways because he isn’t sure of devoting time to a journalist. When he finds out that the interview will not be filmed but written, the artist decides to call it off because he maintains that the camera is the only one prepared to capture his essence. Dalí’s first appearance is an example of what Quentin Dupieux is going for, and, accompanied by a score composed by former Daft Punk member Thomas Bangalter, he doesn’t skimp on resources when referencing Dalí’s work, but neither does he lose sight of the fact that what really matters is his ostentatious personality.

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Devils

Directed by Kim Jae-hoon

Hora Cero / Midnight Screamings
Duration: 106 min. | Country: South Korea | Language: Korean | Year: 2023

For years, detective Jae-hwan has been obsessed with catching Jin-hyuk, the serial killer responsible for the death of his partner and brother-in-law, even if the path to revenge means skipping a few rules. But, when the much-delayed encounter finally comes, things don’t go at all as expected—after a chase and a muddled accident and having been missing for a month, Jae-hwan wakes up handcuffed to a hospital bed, only to discover that he’s trapped in Jin-hyuk’s body and that, in turn, the killer is taking his place alongside his family. But this is only the starting point to a sinuous, extreme narrative filled with surprising twists and tinged the red of blood and neon lights. In his brutal debut, Kim Jae-hoon appropriates the body switch trope in order to give shape to a feast for genre film lovers.

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El libro de las soluciones

Original title: Le livre des solutions

Directed by Michel Gondry

Autoras y Autores / Auteurs
Duration: 102 min. | Country: France | Language: French | Year: 2023

A film director finds himself amid a crisis, and his talent is put in doubt. Apart from the stress, the film he’s working on escapes his possibilities—he understands little about what goes on in it, and he has gone way over budget. Before he loses control over the film, the filmmaker runs away with the footage along with a group of collaborators and decides to finish it his own way. The anecdote is useful for describing two people—Michel Gondry during the Mood Indigo shoot and Marc, the filmmaker’s alter ego, in The Book of Solutions. Keeping in mind that the film world is fertile ground for neurosis, the Oscar winner returns to directing after eight years of absence with a comedy of the kind that is missing from the big screen, with no fear of ridicule and self-parody and overflowing with creativity. A comedy a la Gondry, that is.

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Fallen Leaves

Original title: Kuolleet Lehdet

Directed by Aki Kaurismäki

Clausura / Closing Film
Duration: 81 min. | Country: Germany, Finland | Language: Finnish | Year: 2023

The return of Aki Kaurismäki, perhaps cinema’s last great humanist, tells of the encounter -and the numerous failed encounters- of two lonely hearts. Ansa and Holappa bump into each other for the first time at a karaoke bar, and that stroke of luck becomes an omen, a possible spell against unease, alienation and the threat of war. But twists of fate (everyday, small; this is not a pompous melodrama but one of the small bittersweet stories Kaurismäki builds up like nobody else) always haunt the lovers. As an addendum to his “Proletariat Trilogy,” Fallen Leaves takes place in a world of low-paid but undefeated workers. There’s a hope that moves the characters (and this bittersweet, melancholy film)—against all odds, it is still possible to find a refuge to protect ourselves from the darkness of the world in love, music and cinema.

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La sociedad de la nieve

Society of the Snow

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona

Autoras y Autores / Auteurs
Duration: 144 min. | Country: Spain | Language: Spanish | Year: 2023

There are stories that need to be told many times, perhaps in order to completely take them in. The so-called “Andes tragedy” is one of them. The story of Uruguayan Air Force flight number 571, which, in October 1972, crashed against the mountain range while taking a team of young Uruguayan rugbiers to Chile offers every possible element from which to build a new tale of survival. Director J.A. Bayone chooses the best and gets them all right—from the ingenious use of the point of view to its tone, far from morbidness and cheap shots, his tale shows his skill at nuancing a half-horror, half-adventure disaster film and, especially, at focusing on the characters’ deep humanity. Perhaps the definitive tale about the story of a miracle whose extraordinariness continues blurring any of fiction’s boundaries.

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Mutiny in Heaven: Nick Cave's The Birthday Party

Directed by Ian White

Banda Sonora Original (BSO) / Original Soundtrack (OST)
Duration: 98 min. | Country: Australia | Language: English | Year: 2023

Only the ardent fans of that pagan musical deity that is Nick Cave know the history of the Birthday Party, one of the most ferocious bands of the 1970s and the early 1980s. This documentary does not intend to bring any truth to light but, rather, reconstruct the memory of a band that was overshadowed by the prosperous career of its charismatic leader. Post-punk, egos, humor, a meteoric rise, addiction, a resounding fall and macabre songs—everything is part of the universe of that erupting volcano. Furious footage from shows, some of them seen for the first time, are combined with the explosive declarations from the group members, such as that of Howard, the guitar player, “It was great to have the feeling that you were capable of upsetting people so much.” An opinion in the form of a declaration of principles.

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Shortcomings

Directed by Randall Park

Cine y Cómics - Primera parte / Cinema and Comics - Part One
Duration: 92 min. | Country: EE.UU. | Language: English | Year: 2022

In 2007, Randall Park was playing minor roles in film and television, and hadn’t yet become the supporting actor that would later shine in the so-called New American Comedy. While participating on frustrating auditions, he bumped into Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel, which ended up becoming one of his favorites. After more than fifteen years of obsession, he was able to fulfill his dream of taking it to the big screen. The story centers around Ben, a snobbish film buff with serious problems when dealing with his relationships, especially with his girlfriend and her best friend, with whom he has long talks about current events, even though the heart of this powerful first feature is closer to those explorations of binds that turn mumblecore into a genre that is still being paid tribute to.

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Yannick

Directed by Quentin Dupieux

Hora Cero / Midnight Screamings
Duration: 69 min. | Country: France | Language: French | Year: 2023

Sixty-nine minutes were enough for Quentin Dupieux to make one of the best comedies of the year. In one of the oldest theaters in Paris, a company is performing a mediocre play about a man who finds his wife’s lover The audience doesn’t seem to be enjoying it much, but Yannick’s weariness is beyond limits, and he interrupts the evening, “I feel worse than when I came here, and I have a terrible life!”, he shouts. After feeling ridiculed by the actors, the young man draws out his gun and takes everyone present hostage. As with any good comedy, Yannick is at once hilarious, awkward and provocative. In the few statements the French filmmaker and musician wrote about his new piece of insanity, he was conclusive: “99% of films are boring. This is not one of them.”

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