Under the Banner of Heaven
POLICE THRILLER (2022)
Creative: Dustin Lance Black
Interpretations: Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington

One of the latest and most exciting additions to the Disney+ platform has arrived on the FX network. Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black’s seven-part miniseries (Milk) takes us to 1980s Utah. family home. Detective Jeb Pairi, himself a devout Mormon, will be called on to investigate a case that will lead him to the hideout of one of the most powerful families in the region’s religious circle. Events will push him to the extreme and test the strength of his faith. Following the pattern of series such as True Detective quite successfully, the crime thriller unfolds through a series of contemporary action and sweeping flashbacks that help us understand the characters’ backstories and motives. At the center, of course, is the particular history of the Mormon Movement (MLD) and its impact on American society. The dark side of an otherwise impeccable moralistic religion essentially becomes here the monster the hero is called upon to fight.

Virgin of August ★★★
COMEDY (2019)
Producer: Jonas Trueba
Interpretations: Ichaso Arana, Vito Sanz, Isabelle Stoffel

On the Cinobo platform, we choose a movie that matches the summer madness. Shortly before she turns 33, Eva makes the decision to spend August in Madrid rather than some beachfront tourist resort. Staying at the house of a colleague who is on vacation, the girl spends two weeks full of unexpected meetings, new friends, making an express journey to maturity that will help her later in life. The talented Isaso Arana, who also co-wrote the screenplay, emerges as a special young woman who is essentially experiencing a second adult life in the midst of the August heatwave. Less intentionally and more accidentally, she makes new acquaintances, becomes a tourist in her city, while exploring her own impulses. Jonas Trueba (Romantic Exiles), for his part, edits everything as a sequence of dialogues, always with Eve as the protagonist and familiar and unfamiliar partners, even when she eavesdrops on the conversation. Here the atmosphere dominates (in words, in colors, in music) of a summer rustle, and not of the wilderness.