Trenque Lauquen
Laura Citarella, 2022, Argentina
250 minutes (presented in two parts)
Spanish with English subtitles
North American Premiere
In her dazzling and pleasurable new opus, Laura Citarella takes the viewer on a mercurial journey through stories nested within stories set in and around the Argentinean city of Trenque Lauquen (“Round Lake”).
They center on the strange disappearance of a local academic named Laura (Laura Paredes).
Through initial inquiries by two colleagues—older boyfriend Rafael and a driver named Ezequiel with whom she had grown secretly close—we learn about her recent discoveries, including a new, unclassified species of flower and a series of old love letters hidden at the local library, which may help them track her down. Yet as flashbacks and anecdotes pile up, we—and the film’s intrepid investigators—begin to realize that this intricately structured tale is larger and stranger than we could have imagined.
Citarella, a producer of the equally remarkable shape-shifting epicLa Flor, has confidently crafted a series of interlocked romantic, biological, and ecological mysteries that create parallels between past lives and present dangers, invoke the rapture of obsessive pursuit, and salute the human need to find personal freedom and happiness.
Trenque Lauquen is told in 12 chapters spread across two feature films.
Triangle of Sadness
Ruben Östlund, 2022, Sweden/France/UK/Turkey/Germany, 147m
Cinematic mischief maker Ruben Östlund liberally applies his customary playfulness to the wide canvas of his wildly ambitious, frequently hilarious latest film, which won the Swedish director his second Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Kicking off as a satirical romance, following the bickering, money-soured relationship between two hot young models (Harris Dickinson and Charlbi Dean), the three-part film escalates into increasing absurdity after they are invited on a luxury cruise, where they rub elbows with the super-rich, as well as a disheveled and disillusioned, Marx-spouting sea captain (Woody Harrelson). To tell more would ruin the Buñuelian twists of this poison-dipped farce on class and economic disparity, which doesn’t skewer contemporary culture so much as dunk it in raw sewage. A NEON release.
Unrest
Cyril Schäublin, 2022, Switzerland, 93m
Swiss German, Russian and French with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Walk Up
Hong Sangsoo, 2022, South Korea, 97m
Korean with English subtitles
U.S. Premiere
Hong Sangsoo uses a delicately radical structure in his latest exploration of the complexities of relationships, growing older, and artistic pursuit. Successful middle-aged filmmaker Byungsoo (Kwon Haehyo) drops by to visit and introduce his daughter to an old friend, Mrs. Kim (Lee Hyeyoung), the owner of a charming apartment building that houses a restaurant on the ground floor. After Mrs. Kim tries to persuade him to move into one of the walk-up units, the film and Byungsoo’s future take a series of unexpected turns, as the various floors of the apartment come to contain different stages of his romantic and professional lives—or perhaps they’re different realities? Hong’s playfully existential drama consistently surprises, asking provocative, unresolvable questions about desire, illusion, and satisfaction and what we need—and take—from one another as we seek our own answers. A Cinema Guild release.
