Tiny Reviews: "All We Imagine as Light", "Nosferatu" and "Babygirl"

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT

An extremely sensitive look at the lives of two different women living in Mumbai in a changing society: the daring spirit of Anu faces the challenges of a world made of rules that supress women, while Prabha tries to free herself from the social chains she grew up with. It's beautiful and Payal Kapadia makes exquisite visual choices that somehow remind me what I felt when I first watched The Virgin Suicides. It's a tale of womanhood carried by Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha's powerful internal performances and it's also a tremendous directing debut! Movies like this one are very rare and I had the sense I saw something truly special. A contemplative cinematic beauty and a look at a changing world. Nothing much to add: subtle, sensitive and visually beautiful. 

RATING: 9,5/10

NOSFERATU

A riveting gothic tale of obsession and greed, Eggers delivers another cinematic epic film! Anchored by a magnetic (and raw) performance from Lily-Rose Depp - simply magnificient! - who channels the interior melancholy and the devilish physicality of the role, Nosferatu delivers shivers and a visual feast. With an incredible cinematography from Jarin Blaschke and glorious production, costume design and makeup works (and elevated by a haunting score), Nosferatu could be the perfect film, but it drags towards the end in such a sterile pace that you can't help but feel disappointed. The two first acts felt immaculate to me, the third one not so much, but the ending was delivered with a true artist's touch. 

RATING: 9/10

BABYGIRL

Halina Reijn's Babygirl feels like a wasted opportunity. While its script tries to delve deep into its leads psyche, it does not explore their sexual impulses and power dynamics well enough - I felt I only had a scratch of what this movie was really meant to be. While it also touches the corporate power pyramid, the challenges of a woman in an highly competitive market, marriage, orgasms and many other things, Babygirl gets lost on the way to explore its sexual thriller core. Harris Dickinson ignites the screen with ease and a rising star kind of charisma, but this is Nicole Kidman's show - her best role in years (maybe since The Paperboy), as she sets no boundaries and embraces Romy's most visceral beats and most cerebral actions. It's the kind of performance only one of greatest working actresses would be able to pull and save this film from being a failure. She commands the screen and she is at her most provocative - hands down! In the end, it is a Nicole Kidman's acting vehicle and I am okay with that.

RATING: 5/10