Deborah Young - The Film Verdict

Io Capitano

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 6, 2023 | Festivals, International Oscars 2024, VENICE 2023 |

Director Matteo Garrone steps back from the edginess of stylized crime dramas and horror fantasies to recount the no less cruel and shocking journey made by two Senegalese teens to Europe in ‘Io Capitano’.

Enea

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 5, 2023 | Festivals, Spotlight, VENICE 2023 |

A withering take-down of Rome’s vapid middle class, Pietro Castellitto’s (‘The Predators’) exuberant second feature ‘Enea’ is an amusing, fast-paced game that winks at gangster movies and bows in Venice competition.

Coup de Chance

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 4, 2023 | Festivals, Featured, VENICE 2023 |

Infidelity is followed by murder in glamorous Paris in Woody Allen’s smooth-as-silk 50th film ‘Coup de Chance,’ shot entirely in French.

Evil Does Not Exist

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 4, 2023 | Festivals, Featured, Toronto 2023, VENICE 2023 |

Starkly opposing views of nature collide in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Evil Does Not Exist’ which, despite its portentous title, is simplicity itself and in a minor key after ‘Drive My Car’.

The Palace

Posted by Deborah Young | Sep 2, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, VENICE 2023 |

The Palace, Roman Polanski’s appallingly bland black comedy about the filthy rich, is set in a fancy Swiss hotel on New Year’s Eve 1999, and not the least bit funny.

Author: Deborah Young

Io Capitano

Enea

Coup de Chance

Evil Does Not Exist

The Palace