A stellar ensemble also distinguished Sing Sing, led by Colman Domingo in top form as a prison theater group member. The empathetic drama acquires stirring authenticity via the casting of formerly incarcerated alumni of the rehabilitation program, most notably Clarence Maclin.
Another outstanding ensemble was composed of Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen in His Three Daughters, Azazel Jacobs’ intimate drama about semi-estranged sisters brought together by their father’s impending death.
Playing three women of entirely different temperaments forced to find common ground in sadness, shrugging off the standard clichés of the grief drama in a film graced by humor and tenderness.
As usual, Leigh had developed the story and characters with his actors over an extended rehearsal period. The director’s humanistic generosity urges empathy for a seemingly unpleasant woman.
With the junta refusing to confirm his arrest, his family lives with anxious uncertainty. But the tragedy galvanizes Rubens’ wife Eunice, imbued with dignity and heroism by the great actress Fernanda Torres, daughter of great actress Fernanda Montengro.
While raising five children, she puts herself through college and earns a law degree at middle age, becoming an activist whose causes include forcing the authorities to admit to its crimes of disappeared people like her husband once democracy is restored.
The elderly, infirm Eunice is played at the end of her life by Torres’ real-life mother, Fernanda Montenegro, the unforgettable actor of Salles’ 1998 breakthrough, Central Station.
The film contains some mesmerizing visuals and sumptuous design elements, not to mention the riveting performances of Bill Skarsgard, Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult and Willem Dafoe.
It immerses the audience in the tale’s suffocating atmosphere, portentous dread and queasy eroticism, reaching its height with a grotesquely beautiful final shot.
Bringing a light touch to situations ranging from awkward humor to deep sorrow, this is a work of impressive depth and maturity. Eisenberg plays David, a mildly uptight New Yorker in digital ad sales who invites his unemployed, estranged cousin Benji to accompany him on a tour of Poland, aimed at seeing the ancestral home of their recently deceased grandmother.
The filter-free Benji, seemingly a flake, is played by Kieran Culkin in a mode that’s both appealing and maddening. His character’s vulnerability is revealed gradually, building to the emotional climax, caused by a visit to Majdanek concentration camp.
