I Am: Celine Dion (2024): My knowledge of Celine Dion pretty much starts and ends with Titanic. Sure, there are a handful of songs I know, but I’ve never had any particular interest in her as an artist or a person. After last year’s tough, but inspirational tales of chronic illness from Selma Blair and Michael J. Fox, this one adds to the experience with unfiltered depiction of Celine Dion’s sufferings as one of the few people to have to life with Stiff-person Syndrome. While the documentary doesn’t go in much biographical detail about Dion beyond this snapshot in time, I found her dedication and portrayal insightful and heart-breaking. 8
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024): I guess a prequel was a must and the revolutionary thing about this one is that our protagonist is a cat. I mean sure, there are a few other characters with more human characteristics and motivations, but it’s this perfectly well-behaved cat named Frodo that brings suspense and emotion to AQP: DO. Other than that, another competent movie in the franchise, that doesn’t do much in terms of violence and action, in spite of the CGI-lifting, but is rather more in tune with its inner (quiet) voice. I liked it fine. 7
Bedazzled (2000): Back when I was significantly younger, I enjoyed Bedazzled very much. It was probably one of my favourite comedies as a teenager, with the set-ups and Brendan Fraser’s versatile performances really stealing the show. As is well known, you can spell “adult life” without “fun”, so I laughed considerably less this time around. Still, I think it retains a childish kind of humour, that, if it hits, it’s guaranteed to hit hard. What irked me was how much of a caricature Elliot is in the first part of the film and I think the way in which the turnaround builds is where the story really lets him down. 6
A Man Called Otto (2022): The remake of A Man Called Ove, or rather the re-imagining of Fredrik Backman eponymous book, is inferior to the original, in spite of some good performances from Tom Hanks & co. Otto is a grumpy, grumpy guy who has also lost his wife recently and with that his will to live. But life contrives to find him purpose and slowly but slowly Otto becomes a positive contributor to his community. I think knowing Hanks as a likeable superstar works against the movie and his character, because otherwise the story is more or less similar – and what’s new, doesn’t add anything to it. Still, rife with potential for emotion, probably too much for some standards. 6
Laura Pausini: Pleasure to Meet You (2022): To end the week with some more music, I clicked my way to this documentary about the Italian singer Laura Pausini. I wasn’t really aware she was still active, but being a fan of her big nineties hits, I thought why not. The docu captures Laura’s exuberant spirit and offers an unfiltered look into her life. Well, “unfiltered”, but in a different way to the Celine documentary. It also proposes a “what would my life be like today if I had not become a world famous singer” mini-movie, which is cute and does paint a fair portrait of how much veneer fame can come with; but it’s also a very naive little story. Which is how a lot of the documentary plays like, so while it is engaging, I don’t think it goes far beyond the call of duty. 6
tributary stu 