[EXPRESSO] The Colors Within (2024) | Catholicspotting

From Naoko Yamada comes The Colors Within, which in many ways looks kinda basic, especially compared to the director’s previous, more well known film, the “A Silent Voice” film adaptation. This one it’s just about Totsuko, a music loving girl that has the capacity to see the people’s emotions emanating as “colors”, and when searching for Kimi, a girl whose “colors” dazzled her before but isn’t showing at their catholic all girls school anymore, he meets with a young boy, Rui, also into music, and on the spurt of the moment, they “decide” to form a band, practicing in an abandoned old church on a island.

There is a bit more to this, but that’s about it, being a fairly straight story about teenage friendship through the love of music, there’s no supernatural horror or sci-fi twist, or any nasty bullshit, you know where it’s going and there is no deep focus on the “process” for example, because it centers mostly on the friendship between these 3 characters (with some LBGT undertones), it wants to do that, to depict the teen awkwardness of many istances as well as the genuine passions, troubles and tribulations, which include religion, as Totsuko especially is fairly devout, but the catholic theming isn’t criticized or promoted, it’s just a part of the characters lives in one way or another.

It’s incredibly wholesome without being gratitously saccharine, it doesn’t feel the need to justify being this jovial and earnest tale of friendship and music by being gritty out of nowhere, and the execution (alongside the excellent animation handled by Science Saru) it’s great, it’s hard not to be engaged and share in its the movie sweetness

Also, gotta give props for the wholly unexpected, cute and non random as it seems instrumental rendition of “Born Slippy”.

[EXPRESSO] The Brutalist (2024) | Nathan Explosion approved

For the prequel of Turtles In Time, there’s a distint lack of ninja turtles, flying brains, robot mice or mutants.

Guess we’ll see them in Part 2, as for Part 1 of The Brutalist the Statue Of Liberty is still there, “welcoming” the protagonist, Laszlo Toth, a Jewish Holocaust survivor and master architect that manages to immigrate from the United States but struggles to realize himself, until a wealthy client changes his fortune, even to spark hope he can reunite with his wife and family, whom he had to left in Europe….

Direct by Brady Corbet (Vox Lux, Childhood Of A Leader) might not be historically accurate, as Laszlo Toth searches bring up a geologist, while we have more of Ayn Rand inspired character, but in any other aspect it definitely lives up to the reception it’s gotten, and to the style of architecture it names itself after, because it is the history of a crossed, tormented, obsessed wreck of a man that its willing to go any lenght for its art, eccentric yet utterly flawed as any of his friends, loved ones and “antagonists” standing between his work, punctuated by the realities of immigration in the US, historical and religious events like the state of Israel’s foundation.

The fact alone the drama is constantly gripping for a movie that’s 3 hours and 30 minutes long is a feat in itself… i mean, it is, but the acting is phenomenal, cinematography is excellent, characters are quite good and there’s a remarkable snazz to it, very stylish and it does earn the “epic” epithet it shoots for, outside of its massive lenght.

Speaking of, if you’re gonna make movies this long, yes, do like The Brutalist and bring back the planned intermission (and Vistavision, it’s has been a while, indeed), stat.

[EXPRESSO] Conclave (2024) | Papal Royale

There’s an italian saying about the Pope succession system that doesn’t really translate well into english, but it’s basically a clerical version of “the king is dead, long live the king”, and with this thriller (based on a Richard Harris book of the same name) we see indeed the titular conclave, held in order to vote the next Pope, with the cardinals being ritually closed off from the world until from the Sistine Chapel a white puff of smoke can be seen, signifing a new Pope has been chosen.

The conclave is held by a recalcitrant Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes), that eventually gets a hold of many secrets about the many other Cardinals moving their influence around to get elected as the “Sacred Big Cheese”, from affairs to hidden documents, rampant display of a hunger for power, realpolitik stuff and an even darker secret that could shake the very core of the Church itself..

And yes, it’s nowhere near as profound or complicated as the movie treats itself, with most of the Cardinals vying for power being nearly cartoonishy douches, the speeches making thing way too simple, and the final reveal being honestly kinda ridiculous (and really selling the “whodunnit” – minus the murder – structure of the film), but direction by Edward Berger (All Quiet On The Western Front) really sells the isolated world where these holy men are forced to live until the deed is done, that even if you can guess most of the resolution, it’s equally enthralling to see it unfold, and the acting from the cast (full of great character actors) is often amazing, sometimes hammy but still immensely entertaining, that it elevates what would be otherwise quite silly stuff in context.

Even with these flaws, it’s undeniably a worthwhile watch for the acting alone.