Time to Love, Wish: Asha and the Good Star, Perfect Days... Films to watch or avoid this week

Romance by Katell Quillévéré, 2h05

Le Temps d'aimer opens with images of the Liberation, most of them new and striking. The shift from reality to fiction occurs discreetly. 1947. A first ellipse and Madeleine's (Anaïs Demoustier) hair has grown back. She is a waitress at the Beau Rivage hotel-restaurant. She raises her son, Daniel, alone. On a beach, she meets François, a Parisian archeology student, son of a good family. Katell Quillévéré does not fear big feelings, romance, tragic destinies. By settling in Paris, Madeleine flees shame and opprobrium. She takes with her a photograph of a handsome Wehrmacht soldier. François finds Nicolas, a friend from the Sorbonne. Rather, it is Nicolas who finds him, prowling under his windows, pounding on the door at night. The couple and Daniel leave Paris for Châteauroux because Madeleine likes dance halls and an advertisement in the newspaper offers a manager position. The couple falls under the spell of Jimmy, a GI cocktail expert. He quotes Jack London and hates the military. A three-way sex scene shatters the lies and the unsaid. François' homosexuality is as quickly repressed as it is revealed. Back in Paris, time has passed. Daniel has a little sister and an inconsolable heartbreak. Madeleine does nothing all day. François, a professor at the Sorbonne, finds one of his students in a urinal on the banks of the Seine. Love stories end badly, even more so when shame gets involved. The Time to Love ends on a station platform. The separation of lovers is replaced by that of a mother and her son. Departing trains always tear the heart. E.S.

Also read: Our review of the film Time to Love: Sentimental Swell

Drama comedy by Craig Gillespie, 1h44

Wall Street is panicking. The banks are shaking. The financial elite is in a cold sweat. Based on a news item, Craig Gillespie's film follows the adventures of amateur stock traders who destabilized professionals by betting on video game stores in free fall. A real whirlwind. Led by a geek nicknamed “Roaring Kitty,” these Davids took on the Goliaths of the market. Dumb Money is a delightful spectacle. Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) makes the twists and turns of this Don Quixote-style trick almost understandable. We sense an undisguised alacrity in him. He displays healthy vigor, films with his feet on the floor, practices a shaker edit. The reference that comes to mind is The Big Short, which was also exciting but more confusing to the average person. IN.

Also readOur review of Dumb Money: the other wolves of Wall Street

Drama comedy by Itsaso Arana, 1h25

It's hard not to fall under the spell of these four actresses and their director (who Itsaso Arana plays), a real group of friends in life, gathered for a week in a house in the countryside to prepare a play . The old building is warm, the light soft. Summer torpor calls for confidences, long evenings under the stars and walks with your feet in the water. The joy of reunions also mixes with the pleasure of the game which extends into lively discussions. Around a table in the garden, in front of a brazier or in their improvised theater - a barn where a four-poster bed has been transported - the girls rehearse and question their profession, compare their roles to their experiences, discuss love, desire, death, fear of loneliness. The film also seduces with its sincerity and freshness, giving us the impression of being invited to this interlude between friends. All the beauty of the film rests on their complicity, benevolent in their fears as in their femininity. Between laughter and confidences, this tribute to theater and women enchants without falling into sentimentality. Treated lightly, the subjects do not lack depth but, as on stage, the team spirit prevails and the game continues. Without any real dramatic stakes, to be discovered like an impressionist canvas or a lively prelude, Girls Are Well is a trip full of charm and wit, as simple as it is luminous, which does a lot of good. V.B.

Also readOur review of Girls Are Fine: Sunny Summer Tale

Drama, 1h30

He hadn't been back for years. The coldness of his mother and the superstitions surrounding his birth did not make him want it. Finally returning to the Democratic Republic of Congo to introduce his young wife (Lucie Debay), Koffi (Marc Zinga) realizes that nothing, or almost nothing, has changed. Mopeds still roar down the streets of Kinshasa and his family has not abandoned their beliefs. Upon his arrival he is thus subjected to a ceremony to chase away evil spirits.

Baloji, a Belgian musician and now director, stages this story of a failed reunion through highly aestheticized and colorful sequences. An ingenuity that is most often effective and which won over the Cannes Film Festival in May. The film was selected in the Un certain regard category. Throughout a scenario that lacks impactful dialogue, Augure strives to show the strength of traditions and the specificities of Congolese society, which he sheds a unique light. An uneven but promising first feature film. B.P.

Film d'animation du studio Disney, 1h42

After Olaf, the cute snowman from Frozen, children will have a new holiday obsession: Star, the irresistible ball of energy who guides the new Disney cartoon, Wish: Asha and the Lucky Star. A mischievous 17-year-old girl, Asha lives on the Mediterranean island of Rosas, governed by the sorcerer Magnifico. This king has the power to grant the wishes of his fellow citizens. Asha wants to become his apprentice to help her grandfather realize his dream. Alas, the interview between Asha and Magnifico, more despot than mage, ends short. Asha turns to the stars. One of them, Star, hears his prayer and accompanies him in his quest for justice and miracles. Designed to celebrate 100 years of Disney know-how, the film happily draws on the studio's folklore. Like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The intrepid heroine pampers a small animal gifted with speech: a greedy kid. Little John from Robin Hood and Bambi also make an appearance. In his megalomaniac delirium, Magnifico transforms into Maleficent. In all, more than a hundred references are scattered throughout the film. But this sense of amusing mise en abyme sometimes takes precedence over the plot. But nostalgia is not enough to make a film. C.J.

Also read: With Wish, Disney celebrates its 100th anniversary with nostalgia

Documentary by Ana Sofia Fonseca, 1h35

Thanks to her, we learned to place Cape Verde on the world music map. Of this forgotten archipelago, Cesaria Évora was a tireless ambassador, multiplying international tours almost until the end of her life. After the documentary by Éric Mulet and Anaïs Prosaïc for television, Cesaria Évora, the barefoot diva is the first cinema film dedicated to this great lady. A dive into a decidedly extraordinary journey, to which the singer herself was reluctant to return. If the film is not free of clumsiness, notably accusing a problem of rhythm in its first part, it has the merit of illuminating the many gray areas of this woman who will have constantly fought against her demons, in the front row including alcohol and depression (she had been diagnosed as bipolar). Behind the fairy tale of the artist who experienced both late and triumphant success at the age of 45, a complex and tormented life nourished this unique voice, among the most moving in world music. WE.

Also read: Our review of Cesaria Évora in complete privacy

Drama comedy by Wim Wenders, 2h05

Busy. Hirayama doesn't stop. His job is to clean public toilets. Nothing to do with ours. We would eat there: we are in Japan. Every morning, after watering his plants and having his coffee, equipped with his brushes and cleaning products, our man begins his tour at the wheel of his van. He's an old-fashioned character: he listens to old rock classics on cassettes. The playlist ranges from the Kinks to Patti Smith via Otis Redding, without forgetting Lou Reed, a song of which gives its title to the film. Routine does not scare this neat freak. He eats a sandwich on the same bench, photographs the same trees, smiles at the same walkers in the park. God, we know, is hidden in the details (boredom too, sometimes). That's about all Perfect Days offers. We will cite Ozu. Lazy reflex. We will talk about grace. It's more about sluggishness. The phrase “shattering humanity” will return to the pens of chroniclers. We will be allowed to find all this gnangnan. The film drags its feet, slips like soap. It must be admitted that Wim Wenders has done much worse, that he has been lost for years. It is forbidden to say that he takes the toilets for lanterns. Along the way, the viewer will learn that to wash carpets, you must use wet newspaper pellets. Perfect Days is therefore not completely useless. IN.

Also readOur review of Perfect Days: chase scenes in Tokyo

Horror film by Eli Roth, 1h46

A masked killer, a bladed weapon and a gang of young people who are killed. Eli Roth puts his slasher spin on Plymouth, Massachusetts, birthplace of the first Thanksgiving. The smart guy in horror films (Cabin Fever, the Hostel series, The Green Inferno) loves gore and black humor. Starting from a Black Friday which turns into a riot in a hypermarket (the only point in common with A Difficult Year by Nakache and Toledano), a trauma that occurred a year earlier, Roth orchestrates a game of massacre while respecting the rules. The killer here wears a mask of John Carver, Plymouth's first governor - his identity is not revealed until the end. He cuts up his victims with an ax but not only that - he cooks a woman in the oven and serves her to his guests like a turkey. Patrick Dempsey plays the role of the sheriff. Adaptation of its fake trailer made for the double bill Grindhouse, by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, Eli Roth's Thanksgiving makes more laughs than fear. E.S.