Spot On Chloé Zhao

relatie te hebben met een veel oudere striptekenaar. Op haar dertigste blaast ze de relatie alsnog op. RODE LOPER. De Noor Joachim Trier verrast na het existentiële Oslo, August 31st (2011) en het bovennatuurlijke Thelma (2017) met een levenswijze dramady. Met humor en diepgang portretteert hij een lustig twijfelende jonge vrouw met levensappetijt. Het festival van Cannes bekroonde hoofdrolspeelster Renate Reinsve. RELEASE. 17/11

-DRAMA-

L’ENNEMI

NL/ BESCHULDIGDE, STA OP! Na een stormachtige avond in Oostende vindt een Franstalige toppoliticus zijn vrouw dood in hun hotelkamer. Hij wordt van moord beschuldigd. De fel gemediatiseerde zaak rond Ecolo-boegbeeld Bernard Wesphael is voor Brusselaar Stephan Streker slechts een opstapje naar een indringende inkijk in het hoofd van een politicus die het hoofd verliest. JÉRÉMIE STAAT OP. De Brusselse klasbak Jérémie Renier ging ontzettend diep om de existentiële wanhoop, de depressie en de benauwende ondergang van het getormenteerde personage te vertolken. Met resultaat. RELEASE. 17/11

-ACTION-

TOP GUN: MAVERICK

EN/ HERE’S TOMMY! Who could have seen this coming? 35 years after Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer broke through the Dolby Surround sound wall in their F-14 Tomcats, both sixty-somethings check back in for the sequel to their 1980s hit Top Gun. TAKE MY BREATH AWAY. Can you still come up with a blockbuster that glorifies military cockiness and weapons fetishism? Won’t this be as much of a flop as the 2019 rebooth of that other 1980s classic Terminator? The average movie-goer might not lose any sleep over it and is only counting on satisfying “the need for speed”. RELEASE. 17/11 SPOT ON I CHLOÉ ZHAO

EN

Crazy about Chloé

Chloé Zhao’s year of magic is only half over. In April, she won the Oscars for Best Film and Best Director with Nomadland. In early November, we will know whether the Chinese-American director can also excel in the universe of superhero company Marvel. — NIELS RUËLL

As of 25 April, Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) is finally no longer the only woman with an Oscar for Best Director on her mantelpiece. Chloé Zhao, who was born in Beijing but moved to America, can now also boast an Academy Award. The 39-year-old received the award for directing Nomadland, a road movie that earlier won the Golden Lion at the Venice Festival. The movie depicts the life of modern nomads: people who no longer have a home and travel across the United States in all kinds of trailers. They enjoy their freedom but are also dependent on solidarity and numerous underpaid jobs, for example in the warehouses of Amazon. The idea for a film adaptation of the book Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century by Jessica Bruder came from lead actress Frances McDormand. The actress who earned Oscars for her leading roles in Fargo and Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri begged Zhao to direct because, like many film fans, she was impressed with The Rider. In this impressionistic indie gem, Zhao films a young Lakota cowboy who wants to live among the horses after a bad rodeo accident. Like his ancestors. Zhao and her life partner and camera-operator Joshua James Richards combine pure film poetry with great authenticity and work wonderfully well with non-professional actors. Like their intimate debut film Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which was compared to Terrence Malick’s Badlands, they shot The Rider on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. With this profile, Zhao seems to be miles away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But she still accepted the superhero company’s proposal to direct Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan and Richard Madden in Eternals. Eternals are an immortal alien race who have lived here in secret for thousands of years to protect the Earth from Deviants. Does Zhao control Marvel or does Marvel control Zhao? On 3 November, we will know the answer.

ETERNALS

Release: 3/11