Two parallel but inevitably intersecting stories make up Italian-born director Marco Perego’s debut feature “The Absence of Eden,” a strikingly shot and superbly acted immigration drama. But for all its commendable on-screen elements, it’s the screenplay that Perego co-wrote with Rick Rapoza that falls short, traversing overly familiar and rather sordid tropes related to a divisive political issue. While the actors — led by Zoe Saldaña, who is also married to the director — give powerful portrayals that challenge the country’s anti-immigrant climate, but there’s little in the way of thematic novelty here.
New Ice Agent Shipp (Garrett Hedlund), whose estranged father often leaves voice messages he never hears, has just moved to an unnamed border town. Though Shipp’s decision to join this line of work doesn’t stem from a strong ideological stance, his partner and friend Dobbins (Chris Coy) tries to instill in him a dehumanizing “us against them” mentality.
New Ice Agent Shipp (Garrett Hedlund), whose estranged father often leaves voice messages he never hears, has just moved to an unnamed border town. Though Shipp’s decision to join this line of work doesn’t stem from a strong ideological stance, his partner and friend Dobbins (Chris Coy) tries to instill in him a dehumanizing “us against them” mentality.
- 4/12/2024
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Variety Film + TV
Fine performances and powerful visuals only partially compensate for the inevitable air of familiarity that accompanies Marco Perego’s debut feature. Although the filmmaker provides his real-life spouse Zoe Saldaña with one of her best roles in a long while — it’s nice to see her get a respite from the numerous sci-fi and fantasy blockbuster franchises (Star Trek, Avatar, Guardians of the Galaxy) to which she’s attached, not to mention free of alien make-up — The Absence of Eden spins a by-now sadly familiar story of the human suffering engendered by the border crisis.
Saldaña plays Esmee, a Mexican private dancer who is forced to flee her country after she shoots and kills a client who attempts to assault her while she’s performing a lap dance. After discovering that he was a member of a cartel, she says a tearful goodbye to her abuela and enlists the services...
Saldaña plays Esmee, a Mexican private dancer who is forced to flee her country after she shoots and kills a client who attempts to assault her while she’s performing a lap dance. After discovering that he was a member of a cartel, she says a tearful goodbye to her abuela and enlists the services...
- 4/11/2024
- by Frank Scheck
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In 2014, Argentine writer-director Damian Szifron made a considerable splash with “Wild Tales.” The Oscar-nominated, Almodóvar-produced feature consisted of six escalatingly over-the-top stories that put a blackly comic slant on human behaviors at their worst, adding up to a flamboyantly enjoyable whole. It’s surprising that it’s taken him nearly a decade to deliver his next feature, and more surprising still that it turns out to be his English-language debut “To Catch a Killer.”
This Baltimore-set thriller, with Shailene Woodley as a cop helping FBI agent Ben Mendelsohn track down a mass shooter, is the screen equivalent of a page-turner: a solid investigative procedural that breaks no new ground, but delivers sufficient suspense, character interest, and action in confident fashion. Nonetheless, it’s a curiously impersonal, straight-ahead genre piece for a writer-director who so assertively staked out his terrain as an auteur the last time around. Vertical Entertainment is opening it on 500+ U.
This Baltimore-set thriller, with Shailene Woodley as a cop helping FBI agent Ben Mendelsohn track down a mass shooter, is the screen equivalent of a page-turner: a solid investigative procedural that breaks no new ground, but delivers sufficient suspense, character interest, and action in confident fashion. Nonetheless, it’s a curiously impersonal, straight-ahead genre piece for a writer-director who so assertively staked out his terrain as an auteur the last time around. Vertical Entertainment is opening it on 500+ U.
- 4/17/2023
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
Procedural thrillers have a formula, which is one of the reasons they’re so popular. But the synopsis that came with this Sky Original is so familiar, I briefly wondered if it had been written by ChatGPT. But just because “a talented but troubled rookie detective wrestling with the demons of her past, when she is called to the scene of a brutal mass shooting - the work of a new and terrifying murderer” sounds familiar doesn’t automatically mean it would be terrible.
There’s room for manoeuvre in terms of character development, plus it is directed by Argentinian Damián Szifron, who made the joyfully inventive and savagely comic Wild Tales. In fact, there’s talent running like sparkling water right through this production, which also features Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn in the lead roles, cinematography from Javier Julia - whose credits include Wild Tales and Argentina, 1985 - plus a score.
There’s room for manoeuvre in terms of character development, plus it is directed by Argentinian Damián Szifron, who made the joyfully inventive and savagely comic Wild Tales. In fact, there’s talent running like sparkling water right through this production, which also features Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn in the lead roles, cinematography from Javier Julia - whose credits include Wild Tales and Argentina, 1985 - plus a score.
- 4/15/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Click here to read the full article.
The Trial of the Juntas, Argentina’s reckoning with years of murderous military dictatorship, set a precedent for the nation and the world: It remains the only instance of a public judicial system trying its own country’s former government on such a scale.
Santiago Mitre’s new drama, competing in Venice, examines the landmark case from the perspective of its lead prosecutor, casting the story as that of a bureaucrat rising to a historic moment.
“Inspired by actual events,” the screenplay by Mitre and Mariano Llinás is, like its hero, more methodical than electrifying. Dialing down his natural charisma, Argentine star Ricardo Darín, of the international hit The Secret in Their Eyes and Mitre’s The Summit, delivers a performance of restraint and intense focus as Julio Strassera, a government attorney who masks his very real sense of panic with professional doggedness.
The Trial of the Juntas, Argentina’s reckoning with years of murderous military dictatorship, set a precedent for the nation and the world: It remains the only instance of a public judicial system trying its own country’s former government on such a scale.
Santiago Mitre’s new drama, competing in Venice, examines the landmark case from the perspective of its lead prosecutor, casting the story as that of a bureaucrat rising to a historic moment.
“Inspired by actual events,” the screenplay by Mitre and Mariano Llinás is, like its hero, more methodical than electrifying. Dialing down his natural charisma, Argentine star Ricardo Darín, of the international hit The Secret in Their Eyes and Mitre’s The Summit, delivers a performance of restraint and intense focus as Julio Strassera, a government attorney who masks his very real sense of panic with professional doggedness.
- 9/5/2022
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Rather like the arc of the moral universe, “Argentina, 1985” is long, but bends toward justice. Effectively dramatizing the country’s landmark Trial of the Juntas, history’s first instance of a civilian justice system convicting a military dictatorship, Santiago Mitre’s broad, sprawling, heart-on-sleeve courtroom saga may draw from the same nightmarish period of history that has informed much of Argentine cinema’s most essential, haunting works — from 1985’s Oscar-winning “The Official Story” to last year’s “Azor” — but eschews any subtle arthouse stylings for a storytelling sensibility as robustly populist as anything by Sorkin or Spielberg.
Small wonder, then, that Amazon Studios has boarded a film clearly aiming to be both a domestic smash and an international crossover hit — buoyed by the reliable star power of Ricardo Darín, his signature suaveness tempered by a walrus mustache and boxy ‘80s frames as Julio Strassera, the dogged prosecutor who took on this charged,...
Small wonder, then, that Amazon Studios has boarded a film clearly aiming to be both a domestic smash and an international crossover hit — buoyed by the reliable star power of Ricardo Darín, his signature suaveness tempered by a walrus mustache and boxy ‘80s frames as Julio Strassera, the dogged prosecutor who took on this charged,...
- 9/3/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
For Argentina’s Santiago Mitre, his courtroom drama “Argentina 1985,” a Golden Lion contender at the 79th Venice Film Festival, is an examination of the machinations of power from within, as were his past four features. But unlike those films, “Argentina 1985” is based on a real event, the trial of Argentina’s military leaders who ruled with brutal impunity until democracy was finally restored in 1983.
The civil trial is considered one of the most significant in modern world history, along with the Nuremberg trials when defeated Nazi leaders were put on the stand. The difference in this David vs. Goliath story is that Argentina’s military junta still had a grip on power when they were taken to court for their crimes.
Structured like a thriller but with some touches of wry humor, “Argentina 1985” is based on the story of lead prosecutors Julio Strassera and Luis Moreno Ocampo, and their young...
The civil trial is considered one of the most significant in modern world history, along with the Nuremberg trials when defeated Nazi leaders were put on the stand. The difference in this David vs. Goliath story is that Argentina’s military junta still had a grip on power when they were taken to court for their crimes.
Structured like a thriller but with some touches of wry humor, “Argentina 1985” is based on the story of lead prosecutors Julio Strassera and Luis Moreno Ocampo, and their young...
- 9/3/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Petite Fleur (15 Ways to Kill Your Neighbour)
Produced by Didar Domehri
Directed by Santiago Mitre
Written by Mariano Llinás, Santiago Mitre
Starring: Daniel Hendler, Vimala Pons, Sergi López, Melvil Poupaud, Françoise Lebrun, Éric Caravaca
Cinematographer: Javier Julia
Release Date/Prediction: A return to Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section might be in the cards.
…...
Produced by Didar Domehri
Directed by Santiago Mitre
Written by Mariano Llinás, Santiago Mitre
Starring: Daniel Hendler, Vimala Pons, Sergi López, Melvil Poupaud, Françoise Lebrun, Éric Caravaca
Cinematographer: Javier Julia
Release Date/Prediction: A return to Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section might be in the cards.
…...
- 1/6/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Six outrageous revenge fantasies suggesting a grotesquely funny fusion of Luis Buñuel and Monty Python make up this anthology from Argentine director Damián Szifrón. The 2014 release, co-produced by Pedro Almodóvar (whose wicked sense of humor looms over the production), features a stellar ensemble cast and startlingly vivid cinematography from Javier Julia. Szifrón’s film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2015.
The post Wild Tales appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Wild Tales appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 1/15/2020
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Six outrageous revenge fantasies suggesting a grotesquely funny fusion of Luis Buñuel and Monty Python make up this anthology from Argentine director Damián Szifrón. The 2014 release, co-produced by Pedro Almodóvar (whose wicked sense of humor looms over the production), features a stellar ensemble cast and startlingly vivid cinematography from Javier Julia. Szifrón’s film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2015.
The post Wild Tales appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Wild Tales appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 11/23/2018
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
A playlist in search of a movie, the teen melodrama “Hot Summer Nights” flips through its atmospheric, music-saturated visuals with the confidence of a carnival barker, but very quickly the pileup of influences, postures, and tones makes for more of a hot mess than a sweltering good time.
The debut feature of writer-director Elijah Bynum, “Hot Summer Nights” carries that unmistakable first-film vibe of breathless assurance combined with wince-worthy sense of direction, in which the pointing out of movie references becomes the only noteworthy constellation in a superficial coming-of-age yarn.
Bynum wants so badly for you to feel the full force of his brooding, violent, sex-drenched vision of a momentous Cape Cod summer, whereby a James Dean-esque story of the young, wounded and beautiful can be made without Dean. But also — unintentionally — without the coalescing, original psychological insight through which Dean became Dean.
Watch Video: Timothée Chalamet Returns to...
The debut feature of writer-director Elijah Bynum, “Hot Summer Nights” carries that unmistakable first-film vibe of breathless assurance combined with wince-worthy sense of direction, in which the pointing out of movie references becomes the only noteworthy constellation in a superficial coming-of-age yarn.
Bynum wants so badly for you to feel the full force of his brooding, violent, sex-drenched vision of a momentous Cape Cod summer, whereby a James Dean-esque story of the young, wounded and beautiful can be made without Dean. But also — unintentionally — without the coalescing, original psychological insight through which Dean became Dean.
Watch Video: Timothée Chalamet Returns to...
- 7/24/2018
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
“There’s nothing worse than a politician without ambition.” So says the newly inaugurated president of Argentina in Santiago Mitre’s “The Summit.” It’s the kind of boilerplate dialogue you could hear in any broody portrait of politics and power, but it sounds particularly egregious coming from this one. Despite its larger festival platform and starrier cast, “The Summit” remains a wan, frustrating, and narratively unambitious follow-up to Mitre’s Critics Week prizewinner, “Paulina.”
With big-name actors and top-level access, Mitre’s third feature is an impressively scaled-up production. “The Summit” opens in the halls of the Casa Rosada, the sprawling presidential palace in the heart of Buenos Aires, and Mitre shot in the actual palace. As the steadicam rigs sweep from the back entrance to the kitchen to the gilded corridors of power, it introduces us to the characters who make the country run. First among equals is...
With big-name actors and top-level access, Mitre’s third feature is an impressively scaled-up production. “The Summit” opens in the halls of the Casa Rosada, the sprawling presidential palace in the heart of Buenos Aires, and Mitre shot in the actual palace. As the steadicam rigs sweep from the back entrance to the kitchen to the gilded corridors of power, it introduces us to the characters who make the country run. First among equals is...
- 5/24/2017
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
“There’s nothing worse than a politician without ambition.” So says the newly inaugurated president of Argentina in Santiago Mitre’s “The Summit.” It’s the kind of boilerplate dialogue you could hear in any broody portrait of politics and power, but it sounds particularly egregious coming from this one. Despite its larger festival platform and starrier cast, “The Summit” remains a wan, frustrating, and narratively unambitious follow-up to Mitre’s Critics Week prizewinner, “Paulina.”
With big-name actors and top-level access, Mitre’s third feature is an impressively scaled-up production. “The Summit” opens in the halls of the Casa Rosada, the sprawling presidential palace in the heart of Buenos Aires, and Mitre shot in the actual palace. As the steadicam rigs sweep from the back entrance to the kitchen to the gilded corridors of power, it introduces us to the characters who make the country run. First among equals is...
With big-name actors and top-level access, Mitre’s third feature is an impressively scaled-up production. “The Summit” opens in the halls of the Casa Rosada, the sprawling presidential palace in the heart of Buenos Aires, and Mitre shot in the actual palace. As the steadicam rigs sweep from the back entrance to the kitchen to the gilded corridors of power, it introduces us to the characters who make the country run. First among equals is...
- 5/24/2017
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
‘Wild Tales’ and ‘Get Out’ prove entertainment and depth are not mutually exclusive.
“I am altogether opposed to popular entertainment,” says Jean Cocteau, “because I consider that all good entertainment is popular.” The filmmaker and poet continues by describing how “film expresses something other than what it is, something that no one can predict. In any event, the measure of love with which it is charged will affect the masses more than any subtle and witty concoction.” Whilst there is an over saturation of images in 21st century culture (be that through small-screen phones or widescreen televisions) that leaves viewers familiar with repeated tropes and narrative devices, it’s easy to forget that cinema created to entertain the viewer can still have artistic depth. Rather than being about itself, or l’art pour l’art to use Théophile Gautier’s 19th century phrase, films intended to entertain can only exist with a mass audience. As...
“I am altogether opposed to popular entertainment,” says Jean Cocteau, “because I consider that all good entertainment is popular.” The filmmaker and poet continues by describing how “film expresses something other than what it is, something that no one can predict. In any event, the measure of love with which it is charged will affect the masses more than any subtle and witty concoction.” Whilst there is an over saturation of images in 21st century culture (be that through small-screen phones or widescreen televisions) that leaves viewers familiar with repeated tropes and narrative devices, it’s easy to forget that cinema created to entertain the viewer can still have artistic depth. Rather than being about itself, or l’art pour l’art to use Théophile Gautier’s 19th century phrase, films intended to entertain can only exist with a mass audience. As...
- 3/30/2017
- by Sinéad McCausland
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Damian Szifron’s Wild Tales won all major categories at the Sur Awards, the Argentine equivalent of the Oscars, taking 10 of its 15 nominations. The dark comedy won 10 awards for best film, director (Szifron), actress (Erica Rivas), actor (Oscar Martínez), supporting actor (German De Silva), original screenplay (Szifrón), cinematography (Javier Julia), sound (Jose Luis Diaz), editing (Pablo Barbieri, Damian Szifron) and original score by two-times Oscar-winner Gustavo Santaolalla (Babel, Brokeback Mountain) “Thanks to all the people that worked in the film and allowed for this script to become something much better than what I had written. I also need to
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- 12/3/2014
- by Agustin Mango
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes -- As I was standing in line last night outside the Salle Debussy, it was obvious that things were out of the control of the people running the festival. For those unfamiliar with the way badge hierarchy works at these events, Cannes has a carefully segregated caste system. If you have a white badge or a pink badge, the world is your oyster. You are able to walk in first, and you are given your choice of location. If you have a blue badge, you have to wait until white and pink have all been seated. And then beyond that, there are at least two more colors that have to wait even longer, and there's a good chance many of those people don't even make it inside. I'm rocking a blue badge this year, somewhere in the middle of the pecking order, which means I need to spend some...
- 5/17/2014
- by Drew McWeeny
- Hitfix
PARK CITY -- The small, well-acted chamber drama is a genre that has virtually disappeared from American screens, which is too bad when you see one as accomplished as "Live-in Maid". Powered by two first-rate performances, Jorge Gaggero's debut feature is full of psychological nuance and keen social observation. It's an impressive feat and one that should find an audience in art houses worldwide.
Set in Buenos Aires, film focuses on the intertwined lives of the haughty bourgeois Beba (Norma Aleandro) and Dora (Norma Argentina), her maid of thirty years. Living in close quarters for so long, they have become like husband and wife or best friends, though neither of them would acknowledge it. As the Argentine economy has tumbled, Beba's fortunes have fallen to the point where she can't pay her bills, drinks heavily and owes Dora seven months salary. The first desperate scene of the film in which Beba is trying to pawn a near worthless piece of China perfectly sets the stage.
Gaggero creates a leisurely pace, not rushing the storytelling but allowing details to be revealed by the characters as the film goes along. Beba meets with a man (Marcos Mundstock) to borrow money and only later do we learn it's her brother. A crucial piece of information about her grown daughter, who has moved away to Madrid and clearly wants nothing to do with her mother, doesn't come into focus until late in the film. The truth of these lives lies in the little details..
Aleandro, a star in Argentina for thirty years and perhaps best known internationally for her leading role in "The Official Story" fifteen years ago, magically makes us care about the decline of an unsympathetic person. Aleandro allows us to see the character's sadness and unexpressed feelings as they flicker across her face. She may be a monster but she's also human.
Argentina is equally as good but had never acted before. Gaggero found her at an open call for women who had been maids. She seems to instinctively understand her character and the class difference between Dora and Beba.
The two actors work beautifully together. Dora is so used to indulging Beba that she knows just when to fill the expensive whiskey bottles with the cheap stuff for guests. Still, Dora is hurt when Beba gives her some makeup samples and later discovers her ulterior motives. Beba, like many of the idle wealthy, has only one thing on her mind--herself. Hard times do soften her some and the final scene reflects a touching if reluctant change in status.
Although most of the action takes place in Beba's small apartment, Gaggero has the ingenuity to make it visually striking (cleverly shot by Javier Julia). One shot in particular, where the two women go to the hairdresser together and sit side by side under hairdryers reading magazines, is visual storytelling at its best. With the use of a non-professional in one of the leads, "Live-in Maid" has the feel of Italian neo-realist cinema and the naturalness of the French new wave. Gaggero does not even use any music because he felt this was a film of little sounds and silences. When is the last time you heard silence in a movie?
LIVE-IN MAID
Aqua Films production
Credits:
Director: Jorge Gaggero
Writer: Gaggero
Producers: Veronica Cura, Anton Reixa, Diego Mas Trelles
Executive producer: Cura
Director of photography: Javier Julia
Production designer: Marcela Bazzano
Costume designer: Marisa Urruti
Editor: Guillermo Represas.
Cast:
Beba: Norma Aleandro
Dora: Norma Argentina
Victor: Marcos Mundstock
Miguel: Raul Panguinao
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 83 minutes...
Set in Buenos Aires, film focuses on the intertwined lives of the haughty bourgeois Beba (Norma Aleandro) and Dora (Norma Argentina), her maid of thirty years. Living in close quarters for so long, they have become like husband and wife or best friends, though neither of them would acknowledge it. As the Argentine economy has tumbled, Beba's fortunes have fallen to the point where she can't pay her bills, drinks heavily and owes Dora seven months salary. The first desperate scene of the film in which Beba is trying to pawn a near worthless piece of China perfectly sets the stage.
Gaggero creates a leisurely pace, not rushing the storytelling but allowing details to be revealed by the characters as the film goes along. Beba meets with a man (Marcos Mundstock) to borrow money and only later do we learn it's her brother. A crucial piece of information about her grown daughter, who has moved away to Madrid and clearly wants nothing to do with her mother, doesn't come into focus until late in the film. The truth of these lives lies in the little details..
Aleandro, a star in Argentina for thirty years and perhaps best known internationally for her leading role in "The Official Story" fifteen years ago, magically makes us care about the decline of an unsympathetic person. Aleandro allows us to see the character's sadness and unexpressed feelings as they flicker across her face. She may be a monster but she's also human.
Argentina is equally as good but had never acted before. Gaggero found her at an open call for women who had been maids. She seems to instinctively understand her character and the class difference between Dora and Beba.
The two actors work beautifully together. Dora is so used to indulging Beba that she knows just when to fill the expensive whiskey bottles with the cheap stuff for guests. Still, Dora is hurt when Beba gives her some makeup samples and later discovers her ulterior motives. Beba, like many of the idle wealthy, has only one thing on her mind--herself. Hard times do soften her some and the final scene reflects a touching if reluctant change in status.
Although most of the action takes place in Beba's small apartment, Gaggero has the ingenuity to make it visually striking (cleverly shot by Javier Julia). One shot in particular, where the two women go to the hairdresser together and sit side by side under hairdryers reading magazines, is visual storytelling at its best. With the use of a non-professional in one of the leads, "Live-in Maid" has the feel of Italian neo-realist cinema and the naturalness of the French new wave. Gaggero does not even use any music because he felt this was a film of little sounds and silences. When is the last time you heard silence in a movie?
LIVE-IN MAID
Aqua Films production
Credits:
Director: Jorge Gaggero
Writer: Gaggero
Producers: Veronica Cura, Anton Reixa, Diego Mas Trelles
Executive producer: Cura
Director of photography: Javier Julia
Production designer: Marcela Bazzano
Costume designer: Marisa Urruti
Editor: Guillermo Represas.
Cast:
Beba: Norma Aleandro
Dora: Norma Argentina
Victor: Marcos Mundstock
Miguel: Raul Panguinao
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 83 minutes...
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