Paul Verhoeven's foray into nunsploitation is sacralicious, Paolo Sorrentino revisits a bittersweet childhood, and a Danish animated doc tells the story of an Afghan refugee.
On the one hand, Flee looks very good, but on the other it also made me go back and look for how long ago Waltz with Bashir came out and that was not a pleasant realization.
I *adored* Benedetta; movie of the year so far for me. To be fair, I saw a preview screening at the Music Box and it was just a glorious movie going experience. There were right wing Catholic protestors out front (with a bagpipe!) and the crowd was hooting and hollering and raising the roof. I was sitting with three friends, all of us ex-Catholic, and we were all going absolutely nuts the entire movie.
Also, there's a thread in the movie that Scott doesn't mention, but that really resonated with me: Benedetta coming to see herself as not just as Christ's messenger but as Christ herself. There was a line Benedetta says near the end of the movie that caused me to just about jump out of my seat in shock and excitement: "it's fine, I had to be betrayed".
Oh man, I very nearly went to that Music Box screening, but something came up. I'm sure it was a scene. And I do like your point about her identification with Christ. There's actually quite a bit to unpack here on the theological end of things-- as I wrote in the review, Verhoeven isn't just ruffling feathers, he's serious about this stuff-- but I leave it to the scholars to unpack.
One thing I really loved about the movie is that Verhoeven leaves in a lot of ambiguity. The events of the film can be interpreted as entirely material or driven by God. And if you interpret it materially (as I think Verhoeven slightly tips towards), you can interpret Benedetta's actions as either a knowing fraud or the acts of someone who truly believes they are acting on at the direct behest of God.
Agree with everything here. Incredible film with so much to discuss. I live in a smaller city but even we got a couple of protesters on our opening weekend!
Yes. And I should correct, for our readers, that it isn't on VOD for a few weeks. I had mistakenly assumed it would follow IFC's day-and-date pattern, but that was not the case.
FLEE is this year's movie-I'd-never-heard-of-in-advance-of-its-release-that-I'm-most-excited-to-see. Animation has turned into such a potent documentary form -- I'm thinking not just of WALTZ WITH BASHIR but also 2016's TOWER.
More people need to see TOWER. What an incredible achievement that movie is, and it really could *only* be done as an animated film, which seems like the case with FLEE, too.
I wish I could hijack every television in America and force them to show TOWER simultaneously. The magic of animation puts you right in the center of the shooting incident as it unfolds, and it's harrowing. What an essential movie.
On the one hand, Flee looks very good, but on the other it also made me go back and look for how long ago Waltz with Bashir came out and that was not a pleasant realization.
I *adored* Benedetta; movie of the year so far for me. To be fair, I saw a preview screening at the Music Box and it was just a glorious movie going experience. There were right wing Catholic protestors out front (with a bagpipe!) and the crowd was hooting and hollering and raising the roof. I was sitting with three friends, all of us ex-Catholic, and we were all going absolutely nuts the entire movie.
Also, there's a thread in the movie that Scott doesn't mention, but that really resonated with me: Benedetta coming to see herself as not just as Christ's messenger but as Christ herself. There was a line Benedetta says near the end of the movie that caused me to just about jump out of my seat in shock and excitement: "it's fine, I had to be betrayed".
Oh man, I very nearly went to that Music Box screening, but something came up. I'm sure it was a scene. And I do like your point about her identification with Christ. There's actually quite a bit to unpack here on the theological end of things-- as I wrote in the review, Verhoeven isn't just ruffling feathers, he's serious about this stuff-- but I leave it to the scholars to unpack.
One thing I really loved about the movie is that Verhoeven leaves in a lot of ambiguity. The events of the film can be interpreted as entirely material or driven by God. And if you interpret it materially (as I think Verhoeven slightly tips towards), you can interpret Benedetta's actions as either a knowing fraud or the acts of someone who truly believes they are acting on at the direct behest of God.
Agree with everything here. Incredible film with so much to discuss. I live in a smaller city but even we got a couple of protesters on our opening weekend!
Yes. And I should correct, for our readers, that it isn't on VOD for a few weeks. I had mistakenly assumed it would follow IFC's day-and-date pattern, but that was not the case.
FLEE is this year's movie-I'd-never-heard-of-in-advance-of-its-release-that-I'm-most-excited-to-see. Animation has turned into such a potent documentary form -- I'm thinking not just of WALTZ WITH BASHIR but also 2016's TOWER.
More people need to see TOWER. What an incredible achievement that movie is, and it really could *only* be done as an animated film, which seems like the case with FLEE, too.
I wish I could hijack every television in America and force them to show TOWER simultaneously. The magic of animation puts you right in the center of the shooting incident as it unfolds, and it's harrowing. What an essential movie.