panosatthemovies

[panosatthemovies]

My Old Ass. It’s very rare that I see a movie I wish I’d made—one that feels like it comes from me, expresses my thoughts, and makes me identify so deeply with the creator. Megan Park, the writer and director of this little film, seems to draw from her own personal experience, eager to share her observations about life and what it means to grow up.

Her script is filled with wisdom, yet the film remains light and fun, anchored by an excellent protagonist, Elliott, played by Maisy Stella, who fills the screen with youthful energy. Aubrey Plaza has a great time playing opposite her—her “old ass”—and manages to bring both gravitas and depth to her role and the story. The entire cast is brilliant, the locations are stunning, and this Amazon release successfully mirrors Apple’s CODA in delivering a heartfelt, intimate film set in a small country town. Both films tell the story of a girl preparing to leave home—a journey that feels modern, authentic, and deeply moving. At times, whether intentionally or not, My Old Ass even evokes the spirit of one of the greatest coming-of-age films of all time, Stand By Me.

But circling back to why I feel so connected to this story: I’ve always loved using time as a vehicle to drive a narrative forward. Here, the director achieves that in a surprising new way—without ever leaving us confused. It’s a profound lesson about life, captured in a powerful, heartfelt moment, and I simply love her for making us feel this way.

A-

Trailer: https://youtu.be/Yvks3SeCDOs

[panosatthemovies]

I’m Still Here by Walter Salles feels very close to home, even though it’s a story about Brazil, on the other side of the world. Although the basic story deals with the ordeals of a woman under a dictatorship, the basic theme is resilience and family life—and, most of all, family life in the ‘70s, the period in which I grew up, when, coincidentally, both Greece and Brazil were under a military junta. So, at times, it was as if I was watching my family on the screen. Not the events per se, but the characters, the clothing, the situations, the freedom to come in and out of a house, playing football on the street, or watching your dad playing backgammon and smoking with his friends, while all of us kids were around the television. And it’s because the film captures life so realistically that it feels so personal and captivating for audiences worldwide that identify with the heroine and her life’s struggle to come to terms with the loss of her husband while standing as a rock for her family against the authoritarian regime. I’m Still Here thus becomes one of the most moving films we’ve seen this year, and one of the most timely, gaining even greater meaning in the times we live in. It deservedly then got the Oscar for Best International Feature. It has great casting and performances, an immaculate production design, transformative cinematography, and music. It’s cinema at its best from a country that now feels even closer at home.

A-

Trailer: https://youtu.be/gDunV808Yf4

[panosatthemovies]

Flow by Gints Zilbalodis is a piece of art done mostly by a single visionary animator, working, like his main character, for the first time as a team to produce a cinematic archetype story that manages to convey everything through action with no dialogue whatsoever. It's as if we're watching a movie of the silent era of cinema, and yet we manage to get all the plot details and character motivation, plus to get moved and feel anxious about the fate of the heroes. A masterful animation, beautifully drawn environments, combined with probably the best sound design in a while, and some great music to create an immersive experience that will captivate you. And although the plot is simple, there're many layers of meaning and commentary both about climate change, but also about survival, society and working together as a team. Watch this now or after it wins the Oscar for best animated film. Because that's where the Flow will naturally take this great piece of work.

A-

Trailer: https://youtu.be/ZgZccxuj2RY

[panosatthemovies]

Maria by Pablo Larrain tells the story of Maria Callas in an unfortunately not engaging way due to a mostly boring script, filled with exaggerated lines of dialogue and a pretentious performance by Angelina Jolie that's on the verge of caricature. Yes, the photography is great, and the sets and costumes are impressive, but we only get a great trailer with all those snippets but nothing that can keep our interest for the two-hour running time. Nothing important is revealed; there's no arc, and there's no heart. Style over substance has never made for good drama.

C+

Trailer: https://youtu.be/du4L5ikk5Ms

[panosatthemovies]

The Brutalist by Brady Corbet is an ambitious cinema epic, telling the story of a Jewish immigrant from Hungary to the USA in the 1950s, right after WWII. So you could say it's a film that resonates with the current events around immigration in the USA and Europe. The film lasts three and a half hours and has a 15-minute built-in intermission, along with an overture in the beginning and some amazingly designed titles throughout. It's also filmed in VistaVision, for the first time since the 60s, giving viewers an undistorted, captivating image of the tall buildings that Adrien Brody's character designs. So, it's also a film in love with cinema, its history, and the epic form it used to have back in the day. It's also a film about design, an architect, and his artistic vision, and basically, any artist's sacrifices to fulfill that vision while succumbing to the whims of an employer or patron so they can get their message across, engraved in their work, for future generations to see. It has great music, cinematography, performances, and many, many themes. It's masterful, but is it a masterpiece? I think a more engaging story with a more focused script could have cemented its legacy in time. As it stands now, it's a visionary cinematic experience you have to enjoy on the biggest screen possible. But give Anora the best picture of the year at the Oscars!

B+

Trailer: https://youtu.be/GdRXPAHIEW4

[panosatthemovies]

All We Imagine As Light is a mesmerizing new film by Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia that shines a light on a few individual nurses living among the millions of workers in Bombay, putting Western audiences in the shoes of people they would never have a chance to know otherwise. And it does this in the most engaging, real, and immersive ways that true cinema can, transporting you to another life. Bombay is portrayed in a Blade Runner type of way, as a city mostly seen at night, during constant rain, where individuals living on the streets can't find the light blocked by the skyscrapers of the rich. Yet, they still dream and seek love and freedom. Something they will poetically find in the second part of the film when they travel to a seaside village and claim their fantasies. Authentical in its form, with strong performances and a moody music score and sound design, this is cinema both as art and as individual expression. An original but universal voice you should listen to and keep an eye for in the future.

A-

Trailer: https://youtu.be/2mgQcpmYr_A

[panosatthemovies]

Conclave is a surprisingly current film, and although it's based on a novel published in 2016, it's as if it's speaking about the recent US presidential election or, in general, about the turmoil around world politics, the rise of the right-wing due to the immigrant crisis, the so-called "woke agenda" and more. It goes to show you how perceptive its author, Robert Harris, was a decade ago, but also how long this conflict has been brewing in our society. At the same time, the film is a welcome return to classic storytelling in a mainstream movie, with intrigue, a mystery you can follow and try to solve, and interesting characters played by Oscar-winning actors, delivering insightful and moving dialogue. The always-amazing Ralph Fiennes leads the all-star cast in one of his best performances and most fitting roles. The sets look authentic and impressive (partly shot in a reconstructed Cappella Sistina in Cinecittà Studios), the costumes are immaculate, and the music by the freshly Oscar-winning Volker Bertelmann provides tension and mystery. Edward Berger, directing this after All Quiet on the Western Front, seems on a roll, changing genres and delivering another costume drama that reflects current affairs. I've left the surprising ending for the end since it has divided audiences and critics, with some saying it wasn't needed or that it ruined their experience. Well, they might have been watching a different film since, no matter how surprising, this was the most inevitable finale for a film about the need for transformation and acceptance.

B+

Trailer: https://youtu.be/t915aZmyEBg

[panosatthemovies]

Anora is like two films for the price of one and one of the best films of the year! The first 40 minutes are this amazing modern tale of a sex worker living the Cinderella dream, getting married to the son of a Russian billionaire. It's fresh, it's sexy, it's urgent, and it has a fantastic cast in both Mikey Madison and Mark Eydelshteyn. Then, believing you've reached the midpoint and that "bad guys close in," you get this 20' real-time sequence of a house assault by Armenian thugs that somehow manages to be both menacing and very funny at the same time. And then the film becomes this 80's road movie, in the tradition of After Hours, Midnight Run, or even Something Wild, where you follow this funny, crazy search during one night until we reach the target and the real "bad guys" arrive from Russia. And then, the third part of the film somehow returns to this societal commentary about America that closes the Cinderella story with one of the most powerful love scenes in recent cinema. Thus, Sean Baker manages to create both one of the most modern but also one of the most mainstream, accessible, and engaging romantic comedies lately, that is at the same time artistic and crowd-pleasing. Personally, I found the middle part a bit "too funny" at times, but the whole film is an epic adventure you simply don't want to miss! Expect lots of Oscar nominations for cinematography, editing, screenplay, direction, and Best Performance by an Actress for the amazing Mikey Madison!

A-

Trailer: https://youtu.be/p1HxTmV5i7c

[panosatthemovies]

La Chimera is a strange mythological creature, and the same holds true about this film that exists in cinema as if it were always there. Much like the artifacts buried in Etruscan tombs that the heroes are excavating, this film seems like a relic of the 1980s, which we've just discovered and are now projecting for the first time. It's so authentically staged and filmed in various formats of grainy film stock that it doesn't appear like a period piece. The actors are inhabiting their roles, led by an excellent Josh O'Connor, tormented by loss and determined to find a passage to the underworld to ease his pain. Director Alice Rohrwacher has a knack for staging this Fellinian world, but what makes this film feel so natural also deprives it of a classic storyline audiences can follow, and although its themes are haunting, it doesn't have the emotional impact it perhaps could. But it manages to act as a time machine in uniting both our time with the '80s and with all the previous inhabitants of this world.

B

Trailer: https://youtu.be/iv5JQpxKle0

[panosatthemovies]

The Boy and the Heron is a beautiful trip to the underworld in search of meaning, both by the film's protagonist and, it would seem, also by the legendary creator himself, Hayao Miyazaki, as well as the viewer, who will be lost here in the absence of a classical story structure. You see, Miyazaki reportedly works on his stories by simply drawing storyboards, leading him to the next scene without a screenplay. And in this new film, it's as if we're experiencing a dream, jumping from one thing to the other, by loose connections, without reaching a true final destination. Only a feeling of waking up from a time of psychological turmoil and pain that can't find solace in logic anyway. The animation and music are wonderful, and the creatures inhabiting the dream are mythical and fun. But although I remember being mesmerized by Spirited Away back in 2001, this film left me a bit disengaged, probably because of the absence of a story to hold on to. Still, it's a rare sight to watch animation like this nowadays, and I wish I'd seen it on the big screen.

B

Trailer: https://youtu.be/UIabnyxTVpc

[panosatthemovies]

Babygirl is fun. It's supposed to be this return to the sexual thriller of the '80s & '90s, like a reversed Fatal Attraction or a new 9½ Weeks, but it's really a comedy derived from the context of society today, reflecting women's newfound power in the corporate world after #MeToo, as well as Gen-Z's indifference towards the corporate world, in general. At the heart of it, it's basically a fun female fantasy, a playful escape into a sexual adventure where a woman who's supposed to be in control wants to be controlled. It's as if Nicole Kidman's character in Eyes Wide Shut dared to fulfill her fantasies instead of accusing Tom Cruise of his. The film is beautifully shot and provides Nicole Kidman with her most fun role out of all those she's portrayed recently, as well as a star-turn appearance by Harris Dickinson, along with some cute faces in the supporting cast, including Esther McGregor. Writer and Director Halina Reijn is given free rein here and lets her protagonist have their cake and eat it, too. Or, as we say in Greek, "To have the dog fed and the pie whole," regardless of the consequences. Aren't the times we live in fun?

B+

Trailer: https://youtu.be/-8Sx6U6Ou0Q

[panosatthemovies]

Inside Out 2 isn't the big surprise that the original film was, which it could never really be since Inside Out was simply a masterpiece by Pixar. Some say, its last one. However, the new film remains a welcome exploration of the human mind, specifically our emotions, as we grow older, and in this case, through adolescence. At the same time, we get to spend more time with the lovable characters inside Riley's mind, Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust, introduced in the first film, but also get to know some new funny characters, representing the new emotions, like Envy, Anxiety, Embarrassment, and Ennui, that she acquires as she becomes a teenager, wanting like everyone else to fit in and be accepted. And that is what's interesting about this premise and what holds promise for the future. Since we spend time with the same person growing up, we can potentially revisit Riley every few years, like Linklater did in Boyhood and the Before trilogy, or Michael Apted more characteristically did with the 7 Up documentary series, as well as François Truffaut with The 400 Blows. But besides the possibility of more sequels, the beauty of the second film is that it manages to be again insightful about human nature, and at its climax, as the first film did, it manages to speak to all of us and become moving from such a small moment, but so important for everyone psyche. Glad to see Pixar keeping up the promise of using metaphor in the most profound way to tell stories for the ages.

B+

Trailer: https://youtu.be/LEjhY15eCx0

[panosatthemovies]

Emilia Pérez is a total surprise. A film about the joy of life, found in song, in a musical about transitioning from a brutal man to a loving woman. About a woman starting as a mafia lawyer to become an activist for the disappearing victims of drug violence. But most of all, a film about finding one's true self, no matter the cost. Beautifully shot, with some rather effective night shots in Mexico, and nicely scored and choreographed, this is not your regular musical but an ode to love and life. Expertly directed with some lively performances, it's a film both moving and tense. Enlightening and hopeful. Not the movie mass audiences expected to see, but the one that could steal the show as this year's awards season begins.

A-

Trailer: https://youtu.be/Qlbr7gJgBus

[panosatthemovies]

Gladiator II has all that the poster promises. Swords and sandals, a perfectly reconstructed Colosseum and Rome in 3D, fights to the death in the arena, enhanced this time with water battles and animated sharks as well as space monkeys! It also has a buff Paul Mescal that the girls can swoon for. What it doesn't have is any heart. It doesn't have a story revolving around a real hero the audience can root for. Nor a music that can lift your heart and make you care about the proceedings. It has all that the poster of the first one promised going in, but none of the surprises it provided audiences coming out, which made it one of the most beloved films of the last generation and gave it, among others, the Best Picture and Best Actor Oscars. It's no wonder that the most moving bits in this sequel are the flashbacks to the first Gladiator or the Hans Zimmer theme playing at key moments to remind you about the sense of honor that the first film managed to have everyone care about. Here, we just get a lecture on democracy that, especially in today's time, sounds shallow and irrelevant. Even if the filmmakers' intentions were pure, and even if they felt they had a good story about a secret "prince," they should have left the legacy of Gladiator alone, up in the Elysian fields forever.

C+

Trailer: https://youtu.be/Ts0N8swyWFI

[panosatthemovies]

Parthenope, the latest film by Paolo Sorrentino, is another symbolic-dreamy tale of memories about lost youth and life in Italy, as already exhibited in "La Grande Bellezza" and "The Hand of God." The new film stars Celeste Dalla Porta, a magnificently beautiful young actress who becomes a symbol of both beauty and Naples itself since Parthenope is the name ancient Greeks gave to the harbor city. But there lies the problem of the film. While, on the surface, it is a tale of a young woman full of beauty who only manages to notice the human condition when her youth passes, the film also wants to use her existence as a metaphor for how Naples has been kind to all its inhabitants, tolerating their ugliness and peculiarities. That second part doesn't really work and feels pretentious. And while the setting is, as always, very beautiful, and the images combined with the music create an atmospheric quality you can't find in most pictures, managing to capture life itself, the plot --or absence of it-- makes the audience disengage and only stare at the beautiful protagonist and the lovely scenery. It's a beautiful painting, for sure, but one you feel you can't understand its meaning. Unless you manage to decipher it, and then all the emotion floods in.

B+

Trailer: https://youtu.be/uT5PGHBugic

[panosatthemovies]

Society of the Snow is an excellent retelling of the real-life story of the Argentinean airplane accident of 1972 and the ordeal of the survivors who managed to stay alive for 6 weeks in the Andes and rescue themselves by walking all the way to Chile. I'd first seen the story on the big screen in 1993's Alive, starring Ethan Hawke, which I remember moved me and imprinted the events in my memory. So, I was somewhat surprised when I first realized this same story was being told again in cinema. I didn't see the reason, much like I didn't see the reason Hollywood had remade the Spiderman origin story three times! But, finally seeing the film, I understood the reason and thanked the producers, writers, and director for making the effort to tell the story in such an authentic manner, using unknown Spanish-speaking actors, and going to extremes to capture both the crash and the survival story, as well as the heart and soul of the people that were in the mountain, whether they made it alive or not. Cause this film goes beyond just documenting the story. It's an existential film that poses some important questions about what it means to be alive, what is the reason for our existence, and what its effect is on those around us. Why are humans a societal species that survive "on" each other? Those questions and more are brought to life with a great script and some moving performances driven by J.A. Bayona, a director with both a vision and heart. Excellent cinematography, top production design, make-up, special effects, and everything you'd expect from Hollywood to find better done in a European film. Add to that an especially moving and haunting Michael Giacchino score and you have one of the best films on Netflix this year. Except that, I'd loved to have seen this on the big screen!

A-

Trailer: https://youtu.be/pDak4qLyF4Q

[panosatthemovies]

Perfect Days is a perfect little film by Wim Wenders that reminds you what cinema can also be when it doesn't try to dazzle you with plot twists and special effects. It's a film that speaks to your heart because it's about what it feels like to be human and wake every day to new possibilities, trying to go about your day but soon forgetting to look around at the wonders of this world. It's a film about finding beauty, even in cleaning the toilets, when you cherish the fact you're alive and can listen to music while driving around the city or looking at the trees in the park. Every day, in and out, living in an analog world, enjoying the physical aspects of nature and, yes, people, even if living alone. Because, as Wenders seems to be saying, at some level, we're all alone, but there's joy out there for all of us to wonder at. Great cast, great photography, and a script that deliberately seems to be about nothing happening, while the story is about every day repeating. And, of course, lots of great music tapes, as in most Wenders films. A film about the stubborn analog world reminding us what we have forgotten.

A

Trailer: https://youtu.be/QzZBbX5A1FA