Film of the month: Anatomy of a Fall
Some might say that after the Barbenheimer summer bonanza, 2023 has been a five-star year for movies. Au contraire. I’d give both those films four stars and reckon the rest of the year has played out similarly. Until now, that is…
It is rare to exit the cinema totally blown away, exhilaration pumping through your veins but two very different films have just done that: the first, Scorsese’s latest masterpiece Killers of the Flower Moon; the second, French director Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning, altogether chillier prospect, Anatomy of a Fall.
Sandra Hüller plays Sandra, a celebrated author living in an alpine chalet with would-be-writer husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) and young son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner) in this film that, though in English, is definitely in European auteur territory.
When Sandra retires for a kip one afternoon, Daniel takes the dog for a stroll, returning to find dad’s bloodied body lying in the snow, apparently following a fall from the upper window. Or did he? Soon the cops are sniffing round the chalet and Sandra is charged with her husband’s murder.
So we’re all set up for the usual courtroom thriller fare? Don’t be so silly. We do get our day in court, and a much more outré, entertaining one at that, but the uncomfortable layers of this film go way deeper. Of course, sharp readers might have twigged that the “fall” being anatomised may not just be the literal one.
From the way it needles itself right under the characters’ psyches to the subtle detours away from anything predictable, this is mesmerisingly intelligent film-making - forensic in its emotional depth. And Hüller is astoundingly brilliant, the best performance of the year, followed a close second and third by Machado Graner and Arlaud respectively.
This is still probably way too “European” to get a look-in at the Oscars. No matter, along with Scorsese (who probably will win big), this marks the beginning of a five-star finale to the year.
In cinemas November 10
The movies you should see this month
Jetting off to the sun for a week spent necking fishbowls of lurid booze, daily vomit rituals and reckless shagging is a rite of passage for many a teen. And Molly Manning Walker’s thumpingly good debut How to Have Sex (out November 3) is as accurate a depiction of the thrills and painful spills of that experience as you’re likely to get. Three girlfriends awaiting their GCSE results land in Crete and hit the horny party scene hard. But one of them, Tara (Mia KcKenna-Bruce, utterly superb), discovers the often shitty reality of first sexual encounters. Set to a throbbingly scuzzy soundtrack, this is mood-heavy cinéma vérité (to employ an oldster's term) at its best, and props to Manning Walker for not portraying all the boys as monsters and offering a more ambiguous picture. Heads up: any kids planning an adult-free trip to the Med next summer should probably forget it once their parents see this.
“Nicolas Cage appears simultaneously in thousands of people’s dreams?” Yes please, hand me the Zopiclone! Dream Scenario (out November 10), the first English language film from Kristoffer Borgli (Sick of Myself), is as bananas as it sounds and fans of Charlie Kaufman or The Truman Show will love it. And for once, Cage plays it beautifully restrained as a dull everyman college professor who becomes everyone’s worst nightmare. Also something of a droll satire on cancel culture, this could be winter’s sleeper hit.
Lacking any restraint whatsoever is Emerald Fennell’s much-anticipated Saltburn (out November 17). For example: 2023’s most-wanted actor Barry Keoghan shagging something that really, really shouldn’t be shagged. Bazzer plays a lonely, working-class Oxford fresher who (a little unconvincingly) becomes friends with the privileged poshos and gets invited to their country estate for the summer, where deranged, twisted hell unfolds. Too OTT and showy for its own good, it’s still a rollicking romp and Richard E Grant as the lord of the manor adds delicious spice to the salty goings on.
There must be something in film-makers’ water this month, as Bottoms (out November 3) trumps the previous two movies for unhinged, who-gives-a-shit-if-anything-makes-sense silliness. The premise is a banger: two high-school loser lesbians start a fight club to win popularity and get laid. But the ass-kicking promise of that simple genius idea gets punched into oblivion by a confusing flurry of “serious” teenage issues, hit-and-miss gags and unnecessary plotlines. That said, it’s a relentless blast and the kids will probably adore it.
Dialing down the excess to Sunday stroll pace is Nobody Has to Know (out November 3), written and directed by Bouli Lanners, who also stars as a middle-aged Belgian farmhand on a remote Hebridean island. When he suffers amnesia following a stroke, the lonely woman assigned to care for him (Game of Thrones’ Michelle Fairley) claims they had been secret lovers. A flirtation with disaster perhaps, but this is beautiful cinema from the heart. Lanners makes that unavoidable description bittersweet taste rather nourishing for the soul.
And now for your double-serving of subtitles. Gobble them up, they’re good for you. If you like non-stop, teeth-gritting jeopardy thrillers with added fistfuls of social issues, it’s time to dip into Indian cinema and Karan Tejpal’s Stolen (out November 3). A baby girl is kidnapped and two brothers are unwittingly drawn into helping the mother find her. Classism, police corruption, exploitation of women and even WhatsApp-fuelled lynch mobs get a look in, but at its core this is a pure journey of terror.
Or how about a ride on the Nigerian New Wave? CJ “Fiery” Obasi’s Mami Wata (out November 17) sails deep into West African folklore as it clashes with encroaching modernity. Water deity Mami Wata reigns matriarchally over a tiny coastal village, until… a male “stranger” washes up on the shore to enforce their new future, leaving two sisters fighting to restore harmony. There’s a Shakespearean vibe here, an undercurrent of slow-burn thriller, but it’s the lusciously vivid black and white cinematography that will leave your mouth watering.
Top of the docs
November's best documentaries
There’s a Peter Doherty doc, Stranger in My Own Skin, out on November 9, and it’s certainly “intimate” (including the obligatory heroin needles). But it’s also made by the Libertines singer’s wife Katia de Vidas, which is a bit like Melania directing Donald Trump the Movie. If you worship Doherty, this will be right up your street; the less of a fan you are, the more you’ll likely detest it.
Much better, purer and a totally different type of love letter is The Eternal Memory (out November 10), which follows Chilean writer and journalist Augusto Góngora in his twilight years as Alzheimer’s mercilessly takes its toll on his existence. The irony here is crushingly heavy, as Góngora wrote books dedicated to preserving the memory of those “disappeared” during Pinochet’s regime. This is no misery fest though, as the tears are more likely to flow seeing the unfathomably joyful love Góngora’s wife Paulina shows him. He really was a lucky man.
What we’re looking forward to watching this month
Still under wraps from critics, Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (out November 22) is this month’s "biggie". With heavyweight Joaquin Phoenix as the Emperor and Vanessa Kirby as Josephine, fingers are crossed Ridders will make a return to the form of his Gladiator days. Talking of digits, Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White are the romantic triangle in Fingernails (out November 3), set in a futuristic institute where the test for true love involves having a fingernail removed. I’ll stay single, thanks.
Meanwhile, Todd Haynes’ melodrama – no surprise there – May December (out November 17) with Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore covers tabloid scandal, female sex offenders and the actor’s process and should be well worth a look. Possibly more enticing still are Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick as the backpackers in Kitty Green’s "feminist thriller" The Royal Hotel (out November 3) who refuse to put up with the horny locals in remotest Oz.
Also coming up and sure to please many are universe-saving The Marvels (out November 10), franchise prequel The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (out November 17) and Disney’s "centenary movie" Wish (out November 24). Now, if you can’t find a reason to drag yourself off the sofa and out to the cinema on a chilly November evening, declare yourself a bona fide couch potato.
