With Love Lies Bleeding, filmmaker Rose Glass cements herself as one of the promising directors in horror and fantasy. It may sound odd, but her second film is a crime and romance thriller that injects elements of body horror and surrealism, with results as captivating as they are controversial. Set in 1980s New Mexico, the story follows Lou (Kristen Stewart), a gym employee who falls in love with Jackie (Katy O'Brian), a bodybuilder ing through to a competition in Las Vegas. However, a tragedy pulls them both into the world of Lou’s criminal family, and violence becomes inevitable. Through its criminal plot and with a dark, twisted sense of humor also seen in Saint Maud, her previous movie, Glass satirizes romantic ideals that are incompatible with behavioral patterns that, for better and (mostly) for worse, get dragged into love relationships.
Nominated for an Oscar for Best International Film, Close is a movie that overflows with emotion, sensitivity and truth. Directed by Lukas Dhont (Girl), the movie tells the story of a child who has an apparently homoaffective relationship with a classmate. Everything changes when they go to another school. Little by little, Leo (Eden Dambrine) begins to distance himself from Rémi (Gustav De Waele), fearful of his classmates' reaction to their relationship. That's where all the sensitivity of the movie lies, which speaks about maturity, grief and depression in a somewhat cold way at times, but which focuses on deepening the character of Dambrine and shedding light on what a pre-adolescent can feel. Dhont, who achieves great performances from his cast, once again shows the strength of his stories and how sensitivity is mandatory in his work as a director. Close is a movie that is uncomfortable, saddening, moving and conveys truth.
Challengers may be the most mature film from filmmaker Luca Guadagnino - the one considered the most American of Italian filmmakers. Despite having good films in his record, such as Call Me by Your Name and A Bigger Splash, Challengers is the one that brings certainty that Guadagnino is an auteur director, who masters the language and knows how to play with the audience's emotions. All of this, here, from a tennis match involving two former colleagues (Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist) who face off on the court, but leave behind stories from the past (told through well-inserted flashbacks) and in the relationship with the wife of one of them (Zendaya). In the end, Guadagnino, with style and good casting direction, shows that a tennis match is also about relationships - and that, ultimately, everything in the world is about sex.
The acclaimed American filmmaker Ira Sachs (Frankie, Love is Strange) presents one of his most emotionally demanding films in ages, the story of a gay marriage that unravels due to jealousy and narcissism. In ages, it all starts when Tomas (Franz Rogowski), after finishing shooting a movie, meets a girl (Adèle Exarchopoulos) and decides to sleep with her. He then proudly tells his husband, Martin (Ben Whishaw), thus unleashing a spiral of obsession that puts their marriage in crisis. It's a proposal that's as sensual as it is piercing, reflecting the most selfish and destructive side of relationships. And Sachs, firmly in control of his narrative, abstains from providing easy answers and absolutions for his characters.
This provocative French drama takes place in a time of greater modesty and social controls, but that does not prevent the blossoming of a forbidden love between a young bride and the artist who must portray her in a painting. Thus, 'Portrait de la jeune fille en feu' mixes an excellent period reconstruction, beautiful photography and an intense romance - which only gains with the performances of Adèle Haenel ('The Unknown Girl') and Noémie Merlant ('Curiosa'). Another highlight in the filmography of director and screenwriter Céline Sciamma, who has already signed productions such as 'Tomboy', 'Girls' and 'Lírios d'Água'.