Borgo, LaRoy, Amal. A free spirit... Films to see or avoid this week

Drama by Stéphane Demoustier, 1h58

One hundred thousand euros, just to designate someone at Bastia airport. Melissa (Hafsia Herzi) hesitates, but not for long. She will soon discover that money has a smell. The heroine is a prison guard. She arrives from Paris to start a new life in Corsica, with her unemployed husband and her daughter who would like a bike. A new beginning, that's what she hopes for. Borgo prison operates on an open regime. It almost seems as if the inmates have an eye on the guards. The director, a model of discouraged administration (Florence Loiret-Caille), informs her young recruit about this. The island has its laws, which are not those of the continent. The convicts play cards in a room. Butts pile up in ashtrays and dirty dishes in the sink. Immediately, because of her first name and a song, Mélissa got the nickname Ibiza. She provides services, brings back cigarettes, provides a fan for an asthmatic. This pushes a nice thug who ensures his protection to offer him a deal. What time does the plane arrive from Geneva on a given day? Melissa willingly accepts these small compromises, frequents the hut where thugs meet who don't seem so bad after all. This is the finger in the gear. There will be two deaths. With Borgo, jury prize at Reims Polar, Stéphane Demoustier (The Girl with the Bracelet) brings pink to the cheeks of the prison thriller thanks to this portrait of a strong-willed woman who does not let herself be walked on and who finds herself more or less despite her in a mafia scheme. IN.

Also read: Borgo, by Stéphane Demoustier: locked outside

Comedy by Shane Atkinson, 1h52

Shane Atkinson's gritty thriller about a suicidal cuckold mistaken for a hitman and deciding to play a misunderstanding won a rare hat-trick in Deauville: grand jury prize, audience prize and critics' prize. If Shane Atkinson had co-signed the screenplay for the senior “cheerleader” comedy Pom Pom Ladies in 2019, with Diane Keaton, this time he is venturing into the genre that has fascinated him since childhood: detective stories and of crime. The creators of the iconic private detectives Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade are his favorite. Ray, this loser whom life has continually demeaned and who, by a twist of fate, slips into the clothes of a killer and discovers another level of stature, came naturally to him. “Unlike Aaron Sorkin, who crafts intelligent, competent protagonists, like in The Social Network, crafting likable, unlucky losers is more up my alley. It’s closer to me,” says the filmmaker. Shane Atkinson recreates a small imaginary Texan town in New Mexico that resembles so many others in the state: dusty, with old houses, rundown motels and diners... A town where everyone recognizes themselves. It is this mixture of seriousness, dark humor and comedy that Shane Atkinson infuses into his new project: a horror film. C.J.

Documentary by Nicolas Philibert, 1h12

They look like chickens in front of a knife. They are men at a typewriter. Patrice doesn't understand why it doesn't work. “It’s brand new. » Walid and his sidekick are not much further along. “We’re not specialists,” said the first. The handymen open the belly of the machine. “So you have a lot of late texts? », sympathizes Walid. “I write two a day, currently,” Patrice responds. Nicolas Philibert films the conversation. Finally, the machine works again. Walid's real job is occupational therapist. He works on L'Adamant, a barge moored on the Seine in the heart of the capital. This floating unit of the Paris Center psychiatric center welcomes patients during the day for all kinds of activities. Nicolas Philibert filmed this boat and its castaways in Sur l'Adamant, golden bear at the Berlinale in 2023. He continued his immersion in psychiatry on land, in Averroès

Also readOur review of The Typewriter and other sources of hassle: Nicolas Philibert knows how to repair the suffering

Drama from Jawad Rhalib, 1h51

A literature teacher in Brussels, Amal is just a good teacher who still believes that she can open minds, enrich debates, shake up students' certainties through learning great texts. In her class, Monia, a discreet schoolgirl, is violently harassed by some classmates who accuse her of being “a dirty lesbian.” It’s haram (prohibited according to the Koran), they protest. One of them is sent away for a week, and Monia becomes the target of harassment on social networks. To defend her, Amal decides to introduce them to the writings of Abu Nuwas, a famous Arab-Muslim poet from the 7th century, bisexual and deeply religious. A choice that is far too subversive for some, enlisted by the college religion teacher, an influential imam in their neighborhood. Despite the intimidation, the fear, the cowardice of her colleagues who abandon her to avoid the upheaval, Amal does not give in. Director Jawad Rhalib grew up in Morocco. Defending the wealth of Islam in the face of growing censorship from extremists is one of his battles. In his superb documentary At the Time the Arabs Danced (2018), this Belgian-Moroccan director denounced the Islamization of Arab culture. With Amal. A free spirit, he attacks the drift of radicalization which threatens the freedom to teach and secularism in schools. This uncompromising thriller, intense and tense, questions with nuance where it hurts, without passing judgment, but the recommendation to keep a free mind.V.B.

Also read Our review of Amal. A free spirit: a teacher stands up against radicalization

Thriller by Dev Patel, 2 hours

In this action thriller of which he is also the screenwriter and director, Patel plays Kid, an orphan at the bottom of the social ladder. He vegetates in an underground fight club. Night after night, his face hidden by a monkey mask, he lets himself be beaten by bloodthirsty fighters, to the cries of a hysterical crowd, all for a handful of rupees. What clicked was when he recognized one of the people who massacred his village and murdered his mother before his eyes. This vulnerable being then sets out to seek revenge. Filmed with guts, Monkey man, a little long it is true, plays a lot with the exuberance of Bollywood codes. But a scent of authenticity hovers over these action sequences which follow one another like a parade, including a mind-blowing chase in a customized rickshaw. Beneath its appearance of pure mainstream entertainment, Monkey Man denounces caste injustices in India, as well as violence against women or “hijras”, this Indian community belonging to the “third gender”. O.D.

Also read: Monkey Man, by Dev Patel: bare-handed revenge

Documentary by Karim Aïnouz, 1h38

Karim Aïnouz is a recognized Brazilian filmmaker, author of The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao (2019), and more recently of The Queen's Game, in which Jude Law plays a disturbing Henry VIII. But there is another Karim Aïnouz, resident of the village of Taguemount-Azouz in Kabylia, who drives a battered car on the roads of the Atlas and cannot believe his eyes at meeting his perfect namesake: the director, who left for the first time in the footsteps of his Algerian past. With a camera in his hands, and all his know-how as a filmmaker, Karim Aïnouz (the first, therefore) crossed the ocean to join this homeland which is that of his father, the great absentee. The one who, after his birth, disappeared from the radar. The man still lives in Algeria, but Karim preferred to bypass him to lead his own journey, speaking in voice-over to his missing mother. Thus begins a dive into a sunny, welcoming Algeria, a little sleepy, proud and turned (also) towards its past. Facing the Kabyle mountains, he asks unanswered questions and puts his personal story on an editing table: what would his life have been like if his father had not left? A controlled object, punctuated with beautiful images, The Mountain Sailor does not give in to emotion. Karim Aïnouz even keeps a certain distance from the subject of his film, that is to say from himself. As if he was ultimately seeking less to explore his origins than to continue, through this documentary, his interrupted dialogue with his mother. B.P.

Documentary by Stéphane Carrel, 1h30

Steven McRae is Principal at the Royal Ballet. Born in Australia, gold medalist at the Prix de Lausanne, his dancing is brilliant. He is a powerful, extremely physical dancer who feels himself growing wings when he enters the stage. His dazzling career came to an abrupt end when he ruptured his Achilles tendon in 2019 during the performance of The Story of Manon. Extremely serious accident which left him on crutches for a year and allowed him to take care of his three grandchildren. Stéphane Carrel's documentary focuses on following his return to the stage. We spend a lot of time in the Royal Ballet's impressive fitness facilities. Rehabilitation consists of modifying the dancer's supports so that he can return to the stage. That's the tip of the iceberg. The most interesting thing is the way in which doubt affects him and encourages him to measure his effort, listen to feelings of fatigue and try to make young dancers aware of the importance of this exercise. After two years, McRae won his battle and returned to Covent Garden. He is 36 years old. A beautiful reflection on the dancer's relationship to the best way to use his body. A.B.

Action d'Alex Garland, 1h49

A plume of black smoke rises from the New York skyline. The Big Apple is a city at war. The rest of the United States is also on fire. Burnt out cars litter the roads. Armed men man roadblocks and checkpoints. Alex Garland transposes on American soil a distant imagination into reality (wars in the Middle East and Ukraine) and familiar ones onto the screen (War of the Worlds, The Walking Dead). Civil War takes place in the near future. It also resonates with an ancient past, a civil war having already fractured America in the 1860s - in French, we call it the Civil War. But we will not know much about the historical and ideological roots of this new confrontation. We barely see the president, reclusive and hunted. He looks like Donald Trump. The two opposing camps are unlikely. The Army of the West brings together Texas and California. She is fighting the Florida Alliance. Garland chooses to film the war through the media. The written press, more precisely. It depicts an endangered species. Photojournalist Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) has seen all the human horror. She has moods. Young Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) saw nothing. She has a sensitive heart. The two women board a car with two editors on their way to Washington. The screenwriter of 28 Days Later languishes in the first two thirds of the film. Between two discussions on the meaning of the profession, rich in clichés and commonplaces, the “patrol” of reporters comes across more or less weary soldiers. The final third, journalists' embedded intrusion into the White House, resembles a video game. A “shoot’em up” which sees the president’s bodyguards dropping like flies. A final “quote” from the president concludes a ridiculous finale. Civil War starts with a bang in the United States, a sign of a harmless and consensual action film rather than a daring political firestorm. E.S.

À lire aussiNotre critique de Civil War: clichés en rafale