CINEFRANCO 2025

CAPSULE REVIEWS OF SELECT FILMS:

ALGER (Algiers)(Algeria/France/Tunisa/Canada 2024) ***½

Directed by Chakib Taleb Bendiab

 

The kidnapping of a little girl creates tension and suspicion in Algiers.  Is the aim to find the kidnapper or to save the child?  The cat-and-mouse investigation around the winding streets of the city, amidst social and political tensions that add to the confusion, makes excellent fodder for this mystery thriller.  The main subjects are initially at odds with each other as both do their part of their investigation based on their strong individual hunches. Dounia, a brilliant psychiatrist and past sex assault victim, pits wits against Sami, a police inspector in order to solve the case.  The premise is based on a true story, and it has enough twists and turns to keep one intrigued from start to end.  Excellent performances all around, with a solid story and intriguing setting, make for good entertainment.  The film comes with a warning of violence and adult themes, though director Bendian clearly keeps the violence to a minimum, shown only if absolutely necessary.  The adult theme comes from the object of pedophilia.  Recommended!

 

AMOUR APOCALYPSE (Peak Everything) (Canada 2025) **
Directed by Anne Emond

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Director Anne Emond tackles male trauma with her forty-year-old protagonist suffering from insecurity and a need for acceptance.  Despite his regimen of exercise and antidepressants, Adam (Hivon), proprietor of a Quebec kennel, cannot help but despair over the ever-escalating climate catastrophe. One night, while feeling especially hopeless, he calls the tech support line for his newly acquired therapeutic desk lamp, believing it to be a crisis help line. He gets lucky: on the other end is Tina (Perabo), who's relieved to talk about something more meaningful than assembly instructions.  This is a romantic comedy tackled with nuances and from a different angle.  But Director Emond’s pace is too slow to match the premise.  The pair connect over their shared existential worries and, when an earthquake rocks Tina's Ontario town, Adam takes the opportunity to drive there and help this woman he's never seen. Environmental dread brought these two together on the phone, so it's only fitting that a natural disaster prompts them to meet.  This sets the couple off on a path of romance and adventure.

The film is a strange love story of sorts.   Director Emond gets her character, Adam, to cry, mope, and come to terms with himself.  Her female characters, those that Adam encounters, like Tina and his kennel helper, have stronger personalities.  It is hard to identify with a protagonist with self-worth issues, but the film feels too like one with too much of a female slant.

AMOUR APOCALYPSE (Peak Everything) premiered at Cannes this year, followed by a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.  It opens this week in theatres.

Trailer: 

 

ET MAINTENANT? (Canada 2025) ***
Directed by Jocelyn Fergues

 

ET MAINTENANT? which means AND NOW? in English, is a film that contains a premise everyone has encountered during his or her lifetime.  Cancer.  Everyone knows someone who has terminal cancer, some who survive, and others who unfortunately have not.  The film follows a 39-year-old Vincent, a talented but hapless singer trying to make it with his band, while also working at a construction site to make ends meet in the meantime.  His father, with dementia, is also taking a toll on his finances; he, being in a nursing home with a private room.  Et maintenant?  What is he to do?  Continue the planned band tour?   Do chemo?  Quit his job?  The film comes across with good intentions,s begging the audience's sympathy.  Director Forgues lens towards an artificial feel-good atmosphere while falling into the trap of melodramatic cliches. However, audiences of commercial movies should lap all this up without much complaint.