Arguably the greatest film Steven Spielberg has produced in the last two decades, it offers us a comprehensive look into the mental and creative world of the great American director. We’re in the 1950s. Young Sammy, a member of the Fabelman family, falls head over heels in love with movies after first entering the darkroom, and now develops an unquenchable passion for moving images and their creation. Coinciding with his first amateur forays, we follow the family history and especially the relationships with his mother (Michelle Williams) and uncle Benny (Seth Rogen) who shape him in many ways.

Spielberg is simultaneously making a coming-of-age film, a personal confession, an ode to cinema and more, in a film that seems to work perfectly. Divided (unofficially) into separate sequences of episodes, the two-and-a-half-hour runtime is mostly enjoyable, enhanced by very good performances led by Michelle Williams. In fact, Spielberg and his co-writer Tony Kushner vigorously shape the social backdrop with the status of women, anti-Semitism, and the Cold War atmosphere of the time.

The “expert” of maturation and sexual awakening Luca Guantanino signs his first American film here, managing to give us a completely modern film that also won the Silver Lion for its direction at the last Venice Film Festival. We are in America in the 1980s and Ronald Reagan. Young Maren (Taylor Russell), abandoned by her father because of… a peculiarity, is forced to go outside. There she meets Lee (Timofé Salamet), also an outcast youth, for whom she has a different type of attraction. It differs in that they are united by a common thirst for human flesh. Along the way, they will have to face themselves and their past in order to survive and stay united.

As Julia DiCurno did years ago with the excellent Raw, Guantanino also uses the paradoxical mode of cannibalism to creatively approach the concept of adulthood as well as human relationships in general. “We devour those we love,” the Italian director seems to say in a work that sticks to typical road movie rules but willingly goes further, speaking allegorically of diversity, marginalization and conventional wisdom that often stifle the most sensitive spirits. All this in a package that obviously needs a strong stomach, but not without humor (black and white, of course), as well as impeccable camera work, especially interiors. Finally, we should also mention the superb musical score created by the Oscar-winning duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

Perhaps with a touch of vanity, the movie’s dark narrator Guillermo del Toro signs – and in the title – his own version of the much-loved Pinocchio legend. During World War II in Italy, pimp Geppetto suddenly and tragically loses his beloved son. Still devastated, a few years later he carves Pinocchio, a simple puppet out of wood, but miraculously comes to life. The two quickly develop a love relationship until Pinocchio joins a circus troupe and embarks on an adventurous journey. Del Toro introduces Pinocchio, who is decidedly darker than the usual childhood depictions, but retains the bittersweet aura and emotion of the original tale.

A new documentary by Lukas Paleokrassas takes us into a microcosm of the classroom and overall high school experience that stands out for its amazing accessibility and the authenticity it exudes. “Difficult” school in the center of Athens. A number of students, each with their own hopes and concerns. A manager on the verge of retirement striving for the best within a restrictive framework. Occupation and Panhellenic. Economic crisis and pandemic. All these experiences pass before the lens, in a film that does not exude optimism, rather the opposite, but introduces a new generation, terribly informed, shallow in terms of true knowledge, but also aware of its strengths and weaknesses. .

Disney’s new animated adventure hits theaters this week. The Claydes, a legendary family of explorers, are lost in an uncharted and dangerous region where mythical creatures lurk. Between the three different generations of the protagonists, there are physical chasms that could undermine their most important mission.