‘El Robo del Siglo’
Stream it on HBO Max.
In January 2006, a band of robbers in Argentina pulled off a financial institution theft of such astonishing scale and technical precision that it got here to be generally known as “the heist of the century.” Stuffed with intrigue, spectacle and outsize personalities, their story is made for the flicks, and Ariel Winograd’s fashionable function — co-written with the mastermind of the heist himself, Fernando Araujo — milks it to the fullest.
Winograd’s secret weapons, so to talk, are the characters, who’re drawn and carried out with endearing bizarreness. Fernando (Diego Peretti) is a bored genius who effortlessly pulls from sources as assorted as geometry, Brechtian social idea and hip-hop in his prison machinations. Struck by inspiration whereas strolling previous a Banco Río department in Buenos Aires, he rapidly assembles a motley crew of delinquents, together with a grizzled, blue-eyed skilled thief, Mario (Guillermo Francella).
As with most heist thrillers, the intricate planning and execution are exhilarating to observe, all of the extra so given our information of the story’s real-life foundation. However Winograd, like his characters, is attentive not simply to the mechanics of the crime but additionally to its aesthetics. Interspersed all through are scenes from Fernando’s philosophical remedy periods and Mario’s hokey performing courses, which think about the heist as a painstaking murals — not in contrast to the con of cinema itself.
A Greek god, a severed penis and a stifling army occupation: Tarzan and Arab Nasser’s Palestinian drama blends freewheeling whimsy and gritty realism right into a potent political combine. The movie begins out as a candy story of old-age romance: A curmudgeonly fisherman, Issa (a perfectly deadpan Salim Daw), decides that it’s lastly time for him to marry. He has his eyes on Siham (Hiam Abbas, from “Succession”), a wonderful widow who works at a close-by tailoring store. In a depressing, blue-gray Gaza the place on a regular basis life revolves round checkpoints, energy cuts and Israeli airstrikes, Issa makes an attempt shyly to make a transfer, whereas his sister, who disapproves of Siham’s divorced daughter, tries to set him up with different girls.
This chaste rom-com premise takes a raunchy flip when, on considered one of his fishing journeys, Issa hauls from the depths of the ocean a statue of Apollo with a prominently erect phallus. Excessive jinks ensue because the police confiscate the statue and lock Issa in jail (the place, within the movie’s funniest gag, he has a moist dream), however the Nassers preserve a tone of subdued realism all through, shading every scene with sociopolitical particulars about life in Gaza. What emerges is a portrait of a spot the place the absurd has turn into regular, and the bizarre joys of life — love, companionship, skilled contentment — really feel extraordinary.
‘Perfumes’
Stream it on Ovid.
A comedy about smells might not sound inviting, however Grégory Magne’s “Perfumes” is a breath of aromatic air — a movie that enlivens rom-com formulation with some impressed olfactory twists. Guillaume (Grégory Montel) is a down-and-out chauffeur tasked with driving round a reclusive perfume designer, Anne (Emmanuelle Devos). Anne has a really delicate nostril and an air of entitlement that masks deep-seated insecurity; Guillaume is charming however impulsive, a man-child making an attempt desperately to be an excellent father. Their preliminary bickering primes us for an “opposites entice” arc, however refreshingly, “Perfumes” is extra about friendship than love (though it’s nonetheless heart-meltingly romantic).
Constructing a film round scents is difficult; the audiovisual medium can solely go thus far in conveying how the odor of freshly mowed grass triggers childhood recollections for Guillaume, or how a lapse in her nasal skills destroys Anne. But “Perfumes” succeeds by broadening its central (scent-ral?) conceit right into a extra common meditation on our sensory openness to life. Over the course of the movie, Guillaume learns to concentrate to what actually strikes him, and Anne to see the world together with her eyes and ears in addition to her nostril. The consequence shouldn’t be a lot a feel-good film as a feel-extra film, one which asks us to be courageous sufficient to indulge our feelings.
‘Fabian: Going to the Canines’
Stream it on Mubi.
Within the newest drama by the prolific German filmmaker Dominik Graf, historical past comes propulsively alive: Within the movie’s opening shot, the digicam winds by way of a modern-day U-Bahn station after which emerges into Nineteen Thirties Berlin, as if to underline the proximity of previous and current. Tailored from a 1931 novel by Erich Kästner, “Fabian: Going to the Canines” follows Fabian (Tom Schilling), a younger, aspiring novelist, as he navigates a dissolute metropolis deeply scarred by World Warfare I and freighted with the dread of the horrors but to return. His paths cross with myriad Weimar-era characters — mainly, his good friend Labude, a leftist scholar struggling political disillusionment, and a lover, Cornelia, who desires of being a film star. Graf tells his sprawling story in jagged fragments that blend assorted types, angles, and fictional and archival supplies, reminding us that the previous not often unfolds within the neat, moralistic narratives we impose on it on reflection. Because the characters discover themselves entangled in private and political dramas (typically struggling to inform the 2 aside), the movie forces us to think about our personal company within the flows of historical past.
Badhaai Do
Stream it on Netflix.
Harshavardhan Kulkarni’s “Badhaai Do” is the rarest of issues in mainstream Indian cinema: a movie that deploys the complete drive of Bollywood leisure — track and dance, family-friendly comedy, swooning melodrama — in service of a bracing L.G.B.T.Q.-rights message. Homosexual intercourse was solely decriminalized in India in 2018; same-sex marriage nonetheless awaits legalization, as does the correct of homosexual residents to undertake kids.
“Badhaai Do” folds these urgent points right into a rollicking story about two closeted 30-somethings. Shardul (Rajkummar Rao) is a reluctant policeman with a penchant for bodybuilding (“Have you ever watched ‘RoboCop?’ Properly I’m HomoCop!”); Sumi (Bhumi Pednekar) is a gymnasium instructor who spends her free time swiping on lesbian relationship apps. To pacify their nagging households, the 2 determine to get married, reside collectively as roommates and pursue their true romantic needs in personal. However problems proceed post-wedding, too, as they wrestle to search out love whereas maintaining an elaborate facade.
A poignant buddy comedy at its core, “Badhaai Do” balances a dedication to each realism and optimism. Even because the movie particulars the social and bureaucratic challenges that constrict the every day lives of queer Indians, it demonstrates {that a} kinder and extra equitable world is inside attain. A climactic scene takes place at a Delight Parade: a vibrant, explosive imaginative and prescient that emphasizes that the demand for equality is usually, fairly merely, a requirement for pleasure.
