CLAIRE’S CAMERA ★★☆
Person One: This was a Korean film starring Isabelle Huppert and set in Cannes.
Person Two: Yes, it was a Korean film. Set in Cannes, about a young film industry girl who’s fired and who meets up with a French Woman played by Isabelle. Who is a great actress.
Person One: Isabelle is a great actress. She might have picked a dud with this one though
Person Two: Yes, she might have picked a dud.
Person One: Picking a dud. That’s no good.
Person Two: No, it’s not good. It’s not good that Isabelle Huppert who is a good actress picked this film. It was a bit of a dud.
I can only assume that the director used Google Translate to work on the script for this. Given that the characters are Korean and French, and choose to use English as a middle ground, it was disappointing that it didn’t achieve more.
UNREST ★★★
I liked this documentary about chronic fatigue syndrome (aka myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME)). It’s an illness that as I learned, isn’t very well understood, and which afflicts millions of people. And, unfortunately, due to the fact that the sufferers are unable to be visible in public, very few people know more about it, and its impacts. Congratulations to the film makers on this who open their lives to show how this can affect people fairly suddenly, and with little reason to understand why. If you want to help contribute to spreading the word, you can see their kickstarter campaign for more info via http://unrest.film
BEATRIZ AT DINNER ★★★
Guess who’s coming to dinner? It’s Beatriz, not surprisingly, an alternative medicine health care giver played by Salma Hayek. After assisting a rich family with their unwell daughter, she’s continued to maintain a ‘friendship’ with them (as in, they have continued to use her services privately after their daughter is better). When Beatriz’s car breaks down, she winds up joining the parents for a dinner party they are hosting for some business contacts of the husband. This definitely has a lot to say in today’s times of Trump and the 1%ers, and I think it does a pretty good job of showing both sides and beliefs. The final couple of scenes though worked against everything that came before it, and unfortunately cost this film one star in my opinion. Worth a watch, but try and pretend the ending was better if you do.