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San Sebastian Film Festival · 2022

San Sebastian Film Festival 2022

Pearls

Programme

16 films · 12 reviews

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Argentina, 1985

Review preview for Argentina, 1985

Darín excels in this complicated role, revealing his character layer by layer, almost in passing, as the story of the atrocities unfolds.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A team of lawyers take on the heads of Argentina's bloody military dictatorship during the 1980s in a battle against odds and a race against time.

(Country: Argentina, US; Year: 2022; Director: Santiago Mitre; Writer: Mariano Llinás, Santiago Mitre; Stars: Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski)

Full review

Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths (Bardo, Falsa Crónica De Unas Cuantas Verdades)

Review preview for Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths

Iñárritu is very capable – one might even say brilliant – but has no idea how to restrain himself.

Jennie Kermode · 3 out of 5
An epic comedy about journalism.

(Country: Mexico; Year: 2022; Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu; Writer: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone; Stars: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio)

Full review

The Beasts

Review preview for The Beasts

In long, slow takes, Sorogoyen lets the tension build, one situation after another seeming as if it might spill over into violence.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
French couple Antoine and Olga moved to a little village in the Galician countryside some time ago. There they live a quiet life, although their relations with the locals are not as idyllic as they would like them to be. A conflict with their neighbours, the Anta brothers, will see tension rise in the village to the point of no return.

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2022; Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen; Writer: Isabel Peña, Rodrigo Sorogoyen; Stars: Denis Ménochet, Marina Foïs, Luis Zahera, Diego Anido, Marie Colomb, Luisa Merelas, José Manuel Fernández y Blanco, Federico Pérez Rey, Javier Varela, David Menéndez, Xavier Estévez, Gonzalo García, Pepo Suevos, Machi Salgado, Emile Duthu)

Full review

Broker

Review preview for Broker

More pedantic than poetic, making for an unfulfilling watch.

Dora Leu · 2 out of 5
Drama following a group of people brought together by "baby post boxes" used to help abandoned babies.

(Country: Korea; Year: 2022; Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Writer: Hirokazu Kore-eda; Stars: Song Kang-ho, Gang Dong-won, Bae Doona, Lee Ji-eun, Lee Joo-young)

Full review

Corsage

Review preview for Corsage

Vicky Krieps...is in excellent form and up to the task of presenting to us the icon in all her idiosyncrasies.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
A period drama about Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi.

(Country: Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg; Year: 2022; Director: Marie Kreutzer; Writer: Marie Kreutzer; Stars: Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Katharina Lorenz, Finnegan Oldfield, Jeanne Werner, Alma Hasun, Manuel Rubey, Colin Morgan, Rosa Hajjaj, Lilly Marie Tschörtner , Aaron Friesz, Ivana Urban, Raphael von Bargen, Alexander Pschill, Regina Fritsch, Raphael Nicholas)

Full review See: Marie Kreutzer in conversation on Empress Elisabeth of Austria with King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Luchino Visconti, Finnegan Oldfield’s Louis Le Prince and the biographies of Sisi , Marie Kreutzer in conversation on Corsage, Vicky Krieps as Sisi, singer/songwriter Camille, and the look of the film , Vicky Krieps in conversation on Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, Romy Schneider, and Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch

Don't Worry Darling

Review preview for Don't Worry Darling

The plotting is completely incoherent and balanced atop a trembling tower of absurdities.

Jennie Kermode · 2 out of 5
A 1950s housewife living with her husband in a utopian experimental community begins to worry that his glamorous company may be hiding disturbing secrets.

(Country: US; Year: 2022; Director: Olivia Wilde; Writer: Katie Silberman, Carey Van Dyke, Shane Van Dyke; Stars: Florence Pugh, Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine, Kate Berlant, Harry Styles, Gemma Chan)

Full review

God's Crooked Lines (Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios)

Alice, a private investigator, checks into a psychiatric hospital feigning paranoia with the goal of collecting evidence for the case she is working on: the death of an inmate in unclear circumstances.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2022; Director: Oriol Paulo; Writer: Guillem Clua, Torcuato Luca de Tena, Oriol Paulo; Stars: Bárbara Lennie, Pablo Derqui, Eduard Fernández, Loreto Mauleón, Javier Beltrán, Adelfa Calvo, Antonio Buíl, Francisco Javier Pastor, Federico Aguado, Rosa Rovira, Txell Aixendri, Sergi Sáez, Mathilde Eloy, Samuel Soler)

Living

Review preview for Living

The deliberate airlessness - which finds contrast in the likes of Miss Harris' joy at her first knickerbocker glory - works well initially, but as Nighy has less screen time and the film slips into considerations of the switch in Williams' life in the past tense, it drifts towards the stagey.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
In 1952 London, veteran civil servant Williams has become a small cog in the bureaucracy of rebuilding England post-WWII. As endless paperwork piles up on his desk, he learns he has a fatal illness. Thus begins his quest to find some meaning in his life before it slips away.

(Country: UK; Year: 2022; Director: Oliver Hermanus; Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro, based on the film by Akira Kurosawa; Stars: Bill Nighy, Tom Burke, Aimee Lou Wood, Alex Sharp, Colin Blyth, Daniel Eghan, Richard Cunningham, Ffion Jolly, Dan Robins, Grant Crookes, Oliver Smiles, Michael James, Stuart Whelan, Jamie Wilkes, Edward Wolstenholme)

Full review

Moonage Daydream

Review preview for Moonage Daydream

In this kaleidoscope life, montage becomes an essential tool, illustrating not only the artist’s own work but his many influences, along with the immediate context in which he was living.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Documentary featuring a wealth of David Bowie archive.

(Year: 2022; Director: Brett Morgen; Writer: Brett Morgen; Stars: David Bowie)

Full review

One Fine Morning

Review preview for One Fine Morning

Seydoux is superb as she runs the emotional gamut with subtlety and empathy, demonstrating an extraordinary survival spirit in complicated circumstances.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A woman who is raising her daughter alone and looking after her dad, who has a degenerative disease, embarks on a passionate affair.

(Country: France; Year: 2022; Director: Mia Hansen-Løve; Writer: Mia Hansen-Løve; Stars: Léa Seydoux, Melvil Poupaud, Nicole Garcia, Pascal Greggory, Kester Lovelace, Ema Zampa)

Full review See: One Fine Morning star Léa Seydoux and director Mia Hansen-Løve in conversation , Mia Hansen-Løve in conversation on One Fine Morning, Léa Seydoux, Pascal Greggory, Kafka, and ghosts

One Year, One Night

Céline and Ramón, a young couple who survived the Bataclan terrorist attack, struggle to regain a sense of normality.

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2022; Director: Isaki Lacuesta; Writer: Fran Araújo, Isa Campo, Ramón González; Stars: Alba Guilera, Miko Jarry, Noémie Merlant, Quim Gutiérrez, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Natalia de Molina, Sophie Broustal, Enric Auquer, Bruno Todeschini, Mike F. Pamphile, José Javier Domínguez, Blanca Apilánez, C. Tangana, Jean-Louis Tilburg, Alex Moreu Garriga)

On The Fringe (En Los Margenes)

Social thriller relating the interweaving stories of three characters, told over the course of one day.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2022; Director: Juan Diego Botto; Writer: Juan Diego Botto, Olga Rodriguez; Stars: Penélope Cruz, Luis Tosar, Adelfa Calvo, Aixa Villagrán, Christian Checa, Nur Al Levi, Javier Perdiguero, Fabrice Boutique, Irene Bueno Royo)

Peter Von Kant

Review preview for Peter Von Kant

Martyrdom and bad wishing, casual cruelty and sweet despair reign in this realm.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 3.5 out of 5
The life of famous film director Peter von Kant is turned upside down when he meets the handsome young Amir.

(Country: France; Year: 2022; Director: François Ozon; Writer: François Ozon; Stars: Denis Ménochet, Isabelle Adjani, Khalil Ben Gharbia, Hanna Schygulla, Stefan Crepon, Aminthe Audiard)

Full review

R.M.N

When a man returns to his village after working away he finds resentments brewing.

(Year: 2022; Director: Cristian Mungiu; Writer: Cristian Mungiu; Stars: Judith State, Marin Grigore, Orsolya Moldován, András Hatházi, Macrina Barladeanu, Zoltán Deák)

Tori And Lokita

Review preview for Tori And Lokita

While exploitation is expertly outlined, the directors are never exploitative themselves in the way it is depicted.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
In Belgium today, a young boy and an adolescent girl who have travelled alone from Africa pit their invincible friendship against the difficult conditions of their exile.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2022; Director: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne; Writer: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne; Stars: Marc Zinga, Claire Bodson, Baptiste Sornin, Schils Pablo, Mbundu Joely)

Full review

Triangle Of Sadness

Review preview for Triangle Of Sadness

A roller-coaster of the effects of absolute power corrupting absolutely.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A yacht for the super-rich sinks, leaving its passengers marooned on an island.

(Country: Sweden, UK, US, France, Greece; Year: 2022; Director: Ruben Östlund; Writer: Ruben Östlund; Stars: Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson, Charlbi Dean, Hanna Oldenburg, Zlatko Buric, Oliver Ford Davies, Linda Anborg, Iris Berben, Carolina Gynning, Sunnyi Melles, Malte Gårdinger, Vicki Berlin, Arvin Kananian, Beata Borelius, Shaniaz Hama Ali)

Full review See: Director Ruben Östlund, and Woody Harrelson on Triangle Of Sadness