Woman King ★★½
ACTION (2022)
Directed by: Gina Prince-Bythewood
Cast: Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, John Boyega.

The turbulent and bloody history of the African continent has its heroes and (apparently) heroines. One of them is played by Viola Davis, General Naniska, head of an elite squad of female warriors in the kingdom of Dahomey (today’s Benin) in the 19th century. When a young girl wants to join their ranks, she will have to go through a series of difficult physical and mental tests and, above all, win the trust of the legendary general, and another conflict is just around the corner.

The film by Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Old Guard) is somewhat reminiscent of the superhero Black Panther, in its female form, of course, but takes care to remind that we are dealing here with a story based on real events. The latter is based on the slave trade, which, as we see, takes place as usual, when the Africans themselves sell their prisoners of war. Adhering to a different code of ethics, Naniska will do anything to preserve the honor of her fellow warriors and the freedom of her people.

The action scenes are perfect, with impressive action choreography, and Viola Davis proves that she is equally at ease with both the sword and the word. However, from some point on, the pace becomes weaker, and the socio-historical commentary remains very superficial and “American”.

The Norwegian creative team behind the disturbing films The Wave and Earthquake are ending (?) their atypical disaster trilogy with a film with strong environmental references. Half a century after the discovery of gold oil fields in the North Sea, hundreds of wells now make the bottom look like Swiss cheese. When a mining platform collapses, an investigation by an underwater robot operator leads to the discovery of a terrifying impending disaster. Soon, in fact, it begins to become a reality when the protagonist’s beloved is trapped at the bottom.

Like the previous Scandinavian films we have mentioned, this John Andreas Andersen film captures elements of tension and suspense almost flawlessly, while also conveying them to the viewer. The catastrophe itself is depicted with excellent special effects, and the attitude towards the crisis of all those involved (authorities, journalists, companies, etc.) is also interesting. The direction could have been more inventive, as could the script, which never managed to break away from the conventions of the genre.

The most controversial of Korean master Kim Ki-duk’s films is being released in digital re-release. Han-Gi, the leader of a gang in the red-light district, sees a young student Sun Hua on the street, and an unquenchable passion wakes up in him. When she rejects him, he hatches a plan to get her into prostitution. Now trapped in one of the “houses”, she is forced to work while Han-Gi watches from a hidden window. However, their relationship soon takes an unexpected turn. Kim Ki-duk dives into the depths of human desires and instincts, creating a film with a very hard surface but at the same time a core of subtle sensibility and humanity. And the decisions of the main characters are not always in the spirit of logic, but are dictated by momentary passions and fundamentally suppressed eroticism. The viewer, for his part, is constantly faced with a constant challenge, either at the level of image or at the level of meaning, culminating in the film’s finale, which caused the most reactions.

Love changes everything
COMEDY (2021)
Director: Maya Forbes, Wallace Wolodarsky
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Kline.

Sigourney Weaver stars in the bittersweet comedy based on the bestselling book of the same name by Anne Leary. Hildy Good is a smart broker and a descendant of the Salem witches, who has a strong weakness for wine and its … secrets. However, her orderly routine is disrupted when she reunites with Frank (Kevin Kline), an old high school crush. Somewhere buried feelings come to the surface, as well as years of family secrets, and Hildy herself is forced to do what she has avoided for decades: face herself.