Original title: Destroyer· Karyn Kusama · USA · 2018 · Script: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi · Performers: Nicole Kidman, Sebastian Stan, Tatiana Maslany…
Original title: Can you ever forgive me?· Marielle Heller· USA · 2018 · Script: Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty · Performers: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Julie Ann Emery…
Review of a movie like Destroyer just should take up a few lines of text. The film by director Karyn Kusama was backed by a promotion that emphasized the work of its protagonist. We were facing the last leap in the career of the chameleon Nicole Kidman who, encouraged by her recent television success, He gave a new recital of his talent here. But not. What we find is a film that stumbles, full of balance tricks and, what is even more serious, very, but very boring. And about Kidman's performance, Let's say that the woman does what she can, but that's not enough to save the bet. And this chronicle should end here, but we still have space to cover and, leaving aside the second tape that occupies this section, in a weekend of rather discreet premieres (and in which Godard's latest piece seems to have not found a place on the Valencian billboard) there wasn't much to choose from, so we have decided on this (could have been anyone else).
We could say that the worst thing about a job like Destroyer It's in your script.. The script that illuminates Kusama's film is a predictable piece almost from the beginning.. We have a murder to solve and a police with personal problems trying to catch a bank robber, alleged perpetrator of the crime, very (but very) bad guy who has a perverse plan to make his life miserable. The problem is that, the way all this is set out, There is not a single point of tension or surprise in the plot well enough plotted to maintain the viewer's interest.. little help, besides, the fact that the film has an unnecessary two hours of footage for a plot that could well have been resolved with a more conventional measure with which, safe, I would have gained some rhythm. Even less attractive, It turns out to be a structure that insists on being original by leaping forward in time to prove that what it tells us is more complex than it seems.. But it's not like that. Actually, everything that happens in DestroyerIt's very simple, What the film seeks with this trick is to distract the audience by opportunely delaying information about facts about which they cannot know anything., only plot hook (in fact, I think that a linear structure would perhaps have reinforced it). The zenith of all this, It is a confusing and out-of-the-box resolution that leaves us (or I got lost at some point) without knowing what all the previous mess was about.
But we could say, maybe, that the worst of Destroyer We find it in a bland staging and an even less careful art direction. There is nothing in Karyn Kusama's production that shows her own personality in the use of thriller resources.. But perhaps what is most striking is how unconvincing what was supposed to be its main attraction is.: the characterization of actress Nicole Kidman. The protagonist of pieces like the successful (and disturbing) Big little lies, Eyes Wide shut o Dogville, Here she undergoes an extravagant and unnecessary makeup process in order to deform her face in accordance with the supposed demands of the story.. Everyone knows the love that exists in contemporary Hollywood for this type of concealment operations., as if the ruse was already, by himself, guarantee of good interpretive work. But here that is not sustainable either. (not to say that it is hardly justified). The makeup work is so evident that, more than surprising us, takes us out of history. But, what have they done to this woman?, We are wondering. The work is not better than, from the different art departments, It is done in relation to the rest of the sets and characters. Everything seems like it was taken from a flea market left over from other movies.. The police station doesn't even look like a real police station. (It looks like a poorly cleaned office office), Not even the den where robbers meet is anything more than a mere set, not to mention the selection of a casting and a costume composed with little refinement and without a characteristic of its own..
But even worse than all this is the construction of a protagonist character who falters from his very conception.. And what do we have here? Erin Bell is a mother obsessed with her job and catching her criminal nemesis., what he pursues in order to solve his problems. That obsession, encouraged by a dark shadow in her past that torments her, has turned her into a bitter woman, on the sidelines, an outsider. Erin is not only unable to adapt to family life, is that he also seems incapable of establishing even a minimal bond of empathy with his co-workers., who are suspicious of her because of her sullen and contemptuous character. All these reasons have pushed her to drink, which she resorts to to drown the sorrows that corrode a heart infected by guilt.. To all this, we would have to add that physical disfigurement, reflection of their supposed inner dramas, his stern gaze and an intelligence that shines at the right moment and from which the rest of the characters, obviously, lacks. Let's add a few sharp and judgmental sentences and that's it.. Does it sound familiar to us??
But the worst of all is not that Destroyer (a wounded woman, in its title in Spanish) has resorted to this entire gallery of topics to build his main character. More surprising is that he applies them to a protagonist who wants to appear different through the method of a simple transfer of roles.. Erin is not only a cliché in itself, is that it is a cliché built on the basis of clichés of many other male characters that are very recognizable to fans of the genre.. We could say that Erin is not a cliché, is that it is a cliché of clichés that, for some reason, someone wanted to meet here. If we add to that an actress who has not yet found the support that makes this whole poorly combined cocktail credible. (no, Wrinkling your eyes is not enough to look tormented), we already have the entire squad. little help, to finish, the fact that they put her in physically impossible situations in a film that aspires to appear a minimum of realism (It does not fit into the viewer's head that such a scrawny woman, subject to a constant state of drunkenness or suffering from a permanent hangover, resolve as it does some of the situations that Kusama's film tries to sell us; and that recognizing that, for a moment, I thought I was going to be brave at this point and shoot in another direction). and please, Let no one come and justify any of this to me with a supposed and mysterious ending that is nothing more than a poorly resolved solution to a mess that, From the beginning, I had bad luck.
At the other end we found the premiere of Can you ever forgive me? Curious. Again, another film with a woman of character as the protagonist (y, behind the camera, other): a writer with serious internal conflicts, also addicted to drink and with an apparent inability to relate to her peers, another outsider. But come on, that nothing to see. Israel is anything but a successful writer. Author of some biographies that, at some point, enjoyed some diffusion, He spends his days in a dark office until, due to his rough character, they fire her. Thus begins a tough journey for her to survive.. His disdain for others, his insecurity in facing a literary career that never starts despite his obvious talent, They place her outside the publishing market and force her to find the four dollars she needs to cover her basic needs in any way.. Cornered by debt, One day he decides to sell an original letter signed by a famous writer that appears framed on one of the walls of his modest apartment.. The business, without being too profitable, gives her an idea: falsify letters from other writers to sell them in the unsuspecting collecting market. So, will be able to get out of the hole. While all this is happening, Lee conoce a Jack Hock, a homosexual without a job, also fallen from grace and survivor, hard, of the conditions imposed by a city that threatens to devour them.
Leaving aside her role as an actress (rather discreet), the news we have about Marielle Heller in her work behind the camera (apart from some episodes of series that I have not seen) they constrict, till the date, to his first feature length fiction, Diary of a teenager, a teen-age portrait with indie overtones set in the seventies, well armed and, without giving big news, amusing. And that's what we're going to see here.: female characters, intimate conflicts and an hour and a half of conventional cinema, but that entertains with frank intelligence, solving with taste and simplicity what is at hand. Well listen, it's not so bad.
Unlike Destroyer, Heller's tape does count, as the main guarantee, with a well-structured script. Presentation of the problem, knot and ending. It also has well-defined characters that, apart from making us have a good time in the room, They not only achieve the empathy of the viewer, but they invite us to reflect on some interesting questions. And although Heller's film grammar does not provide, in the eyes of this chronicler, no novel ploy or aesthetically risky twist, his firmness is dramatic and emotionally coherent. everything is there, before our eyes, no strange tricks or hidden things, like in the tape Karyn Kusama. It is true that Heller had it “easier” than her colleague by basing her story on the book written by Heller herself. Read Israel about the misadventures narrated in the film (based, in turn, in your personal experience), But trying to extract a suggestive story from the source material is not always a successful enterprise.. Good for the writers.
Can you ever forgive me? It is a story that speaks to us, above all, of friendship. But not just any friendship, but about that friendship that is forged between these two hopeless souls that are Lee and Jack. A friendship that does not require the other party to adapt to their needs or demands, but it is sustained by respect for the other, in your right to be as you wish to be. Above that friendship, what we have is a society that proposes, precisely, quite the opposite, namely, what suits you, that you assume the rules that it imposes on you. And if you don't, prepare to be left out of the happy system. Lee's fight will focus, So, on two fronts. A, overcome your own complexes and insecurities. The other is to maintain, on the way, his bitter vision against a world that he finds childish and superficial. Against all this, Lee opposes a caustic and stinging look. How to focus that gaze towards a more constructive horizon for it, It is your great challenge. As if it were a Bukowsky, Lee's life travels between books, blurred pages, dive bars and glasses of whiskey and soda. But Lee, como Bukovsky, has made his way of life the center of his identity, and he doesn't want to give it up. If you want to self-destruct, That is also a right that he has in the free exercise of his capabilities as a human being.. Faced with the prevailing morality, give me another, He tells the waiter who serves him behind the counter of a filthy bar.
Like in the old western movies, Can you ever forgive me? account inthe chamber with two golden bullets. He had a good eye Marielle Heller when choosing the cast of her film. From the actress We had news of Melissa McCarthy for her intervention in a handful of unremarkable titles that include films like the ill-fated Ghostbusters 3. His role in Heller's film demonstrates, however, that a resume does not have to adequately reflect the talent and abilities of an actress. Unlike Kidman (and having a characterization that at times can also be questionable) McCarthy does take the pulse of her character to offer us a Lee full of nuances that, like a little industrious ant, goes through sequence by sequence. Definitely, This tape will remain in your file as your consecration. And how partner interpretative, here we come across a Richard E. Grant in a state of grace. Eternal secondary with a long career behind him, Grant takes advantage of the gift Heller has offered him. Tender and decadent, honest and corrupt, loyal and fragile in his loyalty, affected in his gesture and, at the same time, intelligently restrained (look at this, Rami Malek; did you really deserve an oscar?). a delight. GERARDO LEON
