Very busy weekend with many good shows to watch! We’ve chosen four of them with barbarians against the Roman Empire (Barbarians), two mystery films (Cadaver and Rebecca) and the reunion between Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray (On the Rocks)!
Check out our mini-reviews and have a great weekend!
You can still have a longer list of the releases under the “This Friday” section on the homepage.
Barbarians
WHY
This German series takes before and during the famous Battle of Teutoburg. Barbarians shows us how opposing Germanic tribes came together to fight the Roman Empire. This union was not simple, as the story shows very well. Some of the meetings will end in bloodshed! The series composed of 6 episodes can be watched in one go thanks to its thrilling story and its excellent casting especially with the character of Thusnelda who will stay in your mind for a while thanks to the charisma of the beautiful Jeanne Goursaud but also through her actions and her warrior attitude (she is impressive in the final battle!). A very pleasant thing to note, each side keeps its own language, German and Latin. So don’t expect Roman soldiers to speak English! The filmmakers did a really good job to take us back in this period with great costumes work, production design and its stunning cinematography! The famous battle is very well filmed and doesn’t try to overdo and thanks to a rising tension, it proves to be very effective!
WHAT
The famous battle of the Teutoburg Forest, in which Germanic warriors halted the northward advance of the Roman Empire in AD 9, is the focus of “The Barbarians.”
WHERE
Cadaver
WHY
Cadaver takes us to a devastated Norway following a nuclear disaster. The population is struggling to survive and eating has become very complicated. So the people can’t resist when they received an offer to attend to a play including a free meal. The play does not take place on a stage but inside a massive and stunning hotel. Only a golden mask can make the difference between the actors and the guests. The boundary between the show and real life will very quickly become blurred. And as you can imagine, things will quickly get complicated and the guests will disappear from the play very quickly. The heroine of the film then takes us through the meanderings of the hotel and she will discovers the terrifying truth about the guests! The film offers a beautiful production design and filmmaking as well as a sublime cinematography. We only regret that the film goes too fast on certain aspects of the story and the presence of certain inconsistencies. Nevertheless, we quickly deep into the universe of the film and had a great time!
WHAT
In the starving aftermath of a nuclear disaster, Leonora (Gitte Witt), Jacob (Thomas Gullestad) and their daughter Alice (Tuva Olivia Remman) are on the edge of survival. One day, the local hotel invites survivors to attend a theatre play, with a meal included, as a charitable effort to help those in need. Left with no choice, the family of three decide to go to the hotel, where the director, Mathias (Thorbjørn Harr), introduces the entire hotel as the stage. Attendees are given masks to help separate them from actors, but the play takes an eerie turn when audience members start to disappear. The line between reality and theatre quickly gets blurred, until Alice disappears in front of Leo and Jacob, and there’s no longer room for doubt: Something is very wrong with Mathias’ hotel.
WHERE
On The Rocks
WHY
The new film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, On the Rocks, is an event in itself as it marks the reunion between the director and the actor Bill Murray since Lost in Translation. And for this reunion, Sofia Coppola offers us a touching family story about a father and his daughter (played by Rashida Jones). The film depicts the New York daily life of a mother with two daughters who begins to doubt the fidelity of her husband, something that will not be calmed down by her father and his detective plans. Bill Murray’s character is absolutely great to watch as being charming, erudite and mischievous. The sequence in which they follow the husband in a vintage car (and with caviar!) follow by the car chase that follows are absolutely great and hilarious! The relationship between the father and his daughter is really touching. The story remains simple (in the good sense of the word) and we follow the conclusion of it with a lot of attention and tenderness.
WHAT
A young New York mother faced with sudden doubts about her marriage teams up with her larger-than-life playboy father to tail her husband. What follows is a sparkling comic adventure across the city – drawing father and daughter closer together despite one detour after another. Acclaimed filmmaker Sofia Coppola brings a light touch to this blend of an exuberant love letter to New York, a generation-clash comedy about how we see relationships differently from our parents, and a funny celebration of the complications that bind modern families even as they tie us in crazy knots.
WHERE
Rebecca
WHY
Director Ben Wheatley changes genre again with this new version of Daphne du Maurier’s novel, Rebecca (and after Alfred Hitchcock‘s film, in 1940). The story takes us first of all to Monte Carlo where we will witness the birth of a beautiful romance between Lily James and Armie Hammer. This part is really stunning thanks to the costumes, sets and the cinematography and of course the two actors. Without forgetting a very touching sequence of small words transmitted by the hotel staff. The story then takes us to the imposing and magnificent Manderley mansion and introduces us to the mysterious and cold governess (the terrifying Kristin Scott Thomas!). The film will really start at that moment and will become much more complex than a simple love story. Poor Lily James finds herself immersed in a relatively hostile environment full of unspoken facts and mysteries. The “presence” of Armie Hammer’s previous wife, who died tragically, is felt constantly. But behind this perfect facade, we will gradually discover that the things are not so perfect. The film then changes genre once again and becomes even more captivating. The very naive character of Lily James at the beginning will quickly take things in hand and take us to a very interesting conclusion!
WHAT
After a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo with handsome widower Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer), a newly married young woman (Lily James) arrives at Manderley, her new husband’s imposing family estate on a windswept English coast. Naive and inexperienced, she begins to settle into the trappings of her new life, but finds herself battling the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, the elegant and urbane Rebecca, whose haunting legacy is kept alive by Manderley’s sinister housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas).
WHERE