Marie ( Blanche Gardin ) has one foot in reality i . e ., her quickly emptying house , and
Online für Anfänger ( Effacer l ’ historique , Delete History ) * 1 / 2 France | Belgium 2020 Starting October 21 , 2021
Director : Benoît Delépine , Gustave Kervern Writing credits : Benoît Delépine , Gustave Kervern Principle actors : Blanche Gardin , Denis Podalydès , Corinne Masiero , Vincent Lacoste , Clementine Peyricot
another in impracticality , whereby she repeatedly acts on whims . This is especially true when imbibing , e . g ., visiting her teenage son late at night without her husband ’ s knowledge . Whereas , having faced her demons , Christine ( Corinne Masiero ) is now desperately trying to develop independence via an Uber-like business . Although , as a driver bending over backward to win “ likes ” and increase her customer base , getting only one-star ratings from clients drives her berserk . While Bertrand ( Denis Podalydès de la Comédie-Française ), freshly widowed with a 13-year-old ( Clementine Peyricot ) to support , cook for , defend ( against cyberbullying ), et cetera , just wants some lovin ’. These middle-aged neighbors are also friends and on call to help one another out . That support is paramount at this particular juncture in time , since all three are drowning in Internet-related woes ; so-called innovative products , they discover , are actually counter-productive and worsening their situations . Together they reach out to “ hacker God ” to put their world in order .
Co-writers / directors Benoît Delépine ( France ) and Gustave Kervern ’ s ( Mauritius ) nebulously funny script ’ s comedic timing is belabored and out of sync , and some of the episodic scenes feel staged , e . g ., the teenager being bullied is cringeworthy . In all fairness , the lead actors ’ efforts are valiant , considering that their characters ’ self-absorption defies credibility , and they are shallow rather than simpatico . Stéphane Elmadjian ’ s heavy-handed , awkwardly-paced editing emphasizes the film ’ s sluggishness ; Hugues Poulain is cinematographer .
The digital-domination themes strung throughout Online für Anfänger are well worth exploring , but in a film with a tighter , more suitable plot . Anfänger ’ s humor may appeal to some but be forewarned , this is far from a feel-good flick . Its essentially depressingly candid message is to consider current societies ’ lifestyle dependencies , including “ social ” media , emblematic of a deeper , bigger social disease . German synchronization , 112 minutes ( Marinell Haegelin )
Tides ( The Colony ) ** Germany | Switzerland 2021 Opening August 26 , 2021
Director : Tim Fehlbaum Writing credits : Tim Fehlbaum , Mariko Minoguchi , Jo Rogers Principal actors : Nora Arnezeder , Sarah-Sofie Boussnina , Iain Glen , Sope Dirisu , Sebastian Roché In the distant future , the spacefaring survivors of the collapse of Earth seek to discover whether the planet has recovered enough to sustain life . Years earlier , the mission Ulysses disappeared without a trace . When the second mission , Ulysses 2 , crash-lands , astronaut Blake ( Nora Arnezeder ) must find a way to survive and complete the mission .
Although Tides impresses with its cinematography and production design , the unfortunate reality is that those two aspects cannot save it from being a wholly mediocre film . The story is derivative of practically every dystopian sci-fi produced in the last 30 years ( Waterworld [ 1995 ], Children of Men [ 2006 ], Interstellar [ 2014 ] in particular ). The motivations of the characters are particularly cookie-cutter , to the point where it almost feels like you could guess the dialogue before it is said . With the addition of uneven pacing , the end result is a rather boring feature which is all style and no substance . ( Rose Finlay ) www . awchamburg . org 43