Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) became good friends with Bruno (Cristiano Sassella) when his mother (Elena Lietti) took him on vacation to the French Alps back in 1984 during his childhood. They have remained friends since then. During their adulthood, Pietro (now played by Luca Marinelli) and Bruno (now played by Alessandro Borghi), reunite on the mountains while building a cottage together.

      The screenplay by co-writers/directors Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch as well as co-writer Paolo Cognetti follows Pietro and Bruno for four decades from their childhood all the way up to their adulthood when they reunite on the mountains where they first met. The Eight Mountains doesn't have a lot of dialogue nor does it have anything profound to say about friendship other than that it can last throughout the years. Pietro and Bruno begin as strangers to the audience and remain that way for the part because the screenplay doesn't do an adequate job of creating a window into their heart, mind and soul to understand what they're thinking and feeling as human beings. There's no voice-over narration and very little exposition. Not surprisingly Pietro and Bruno lead different kinds of lives as they grow older. They also have different lifestyles in their childhood: Pietro lives in the city while Bruno lives in the mountains. Despite their differences, they found a way for their friendship to persevere through their love of the mountains. Where does Pietro's love of the mountains come from, though, since he didn't grow up there like Bruno did? Or is it merely a subconscious longing/yearning for his best friend, Bruno? The filmmakers leave too much to interpretation and to the audience's imagination, so the film demands a lot from the audience which is often frustrating. Many scenes lack tension and emotional resonance, thereby leaving very little to hook the audience. Everything remains understated and nuanced, but it all feels undercooked because too much remains unsaid and underdeveloped. Some filmmakers can make the most out of "slices of life" while focusing on the mundane elements with a minimalist plot. Terrence Malick is an example of such a filmmaker, and Júlia Murat, the writer/director of Found Memories, also excels at that. Unfortunately, co-directors Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch don't accomplish that feat in The Eight Mountains, but at least they can say that they tried.

      The performances are decent, but they're undermined by the cold and shallow screenplay that doesn't give the actors enough to showcase their talent. The most radiant performance isn't a human one: it's the landscape which provides some stunning shots and visual poetry simultaneously. The pace moves very, very slowly and even sluggish at times, so this is the kind of movie that very patient audiences will appreciate the most. The filmmakers trust the audience's patience a lot, and they also grasp the power of silence, but what they don't grasp is the concept that less is more. Too many scenes feel repetitive and overstay their welcome. At a running time of 2 hours and 27 minutes, The Eight Mountains is poetic with breathtaking scenery, but overlong, undercooked and emotionally cold.
  

      Josh (Jonah Chernick) and Emma (Emily Hampshire) have been married for ten years. When they send their daughters off to a winter camp and spend time alone at home, they realize that they have a dead bedroom, so they try to reignite their sex life.

      ike with most comedies, the screenplay by Jonas Chernick begins with somewhat of a tragedy: Josh and Emma's lack of sex after having kids. Now that the kids are briefly out of the house for winter camp, Josh and Emma finally realize the harsh truth that their sex life needs improvement. Do they go to a marriage counselor or sex therapist? No. They don't even bother to mention that option. Instead, they engage in a threesome with Emma's co-worker, Wendy (Melanie Scrofano), but that doesn't quite help, so they try other things like going to a swinger's club where Emma bumps into her parents in a scene that's more cringe-inducing and icky than funny. Screenwriter Jonas Chernick doesn't show what Josh and Emma were like before their sex life went downhill, although there are brief references to those days. By jumping right to the moment their sex life fades, it's hard to understand what to compare it to or where the problems might be stemming from---it can't just be because they're raising kids together. The End of Sex, despite its seemingly serious title, has no interest in exploring its themes of sex and marriage with any kind of depth. Not a single scene stands out nor are there any laugh-out-loud moments. The attempts at humor rarely land, and the revelations in the third act feel tacked-on, shallow and contrived, so Josh and Emma's character arc and the way that their marriage evolved along with it simply isn't believable. Hope Springs is a much funnier and witty comedy about marriage stuck in a rut. Then there's the wildly entertaining and zany Eating Raoul, and the hilarious, underrated British romcom I Give It a Year. Or for a more bold, profound and intelligent look at sex and marriage, there's Eyes Wide Shut.

      Unfortunately, none of the performances manage to rise above the lackluster screenplay. Jonah and Chernick lack chemistry and fail to bring any warmth to their roles. That could also be the fault of the screenplay which barely gets inside these characters' heart, mind and soul. The cinematography is bland as well as the set design, lighting and camerawork which add nothing in terms of style to compensate for the film's lack of substance and laughs, for that matter. At least the pace moves briskly and the film clocks under 90 minutes, so it's not a chore to sit through. At a running time of 1 hour and 27 minutes, The End of Sex is a dull, toothless and shallow sex comedy that's low on wit, laughs and insight.
  

      Sophie Fiennes films her brother, Ralph, performing T.S. Eliot's collection of poems Four Quartets, on a stage during his theater tour in the UK back in 2021. Ralph directed the stage productions. There are no shots of the audience; just Ralph Fiennes reciting the 4 poems, namely, Burnt Norton, East Coker and The Dry Salvages, and Little Gidding. The stage is bare and the costume design isn't very sophisticated. Ralph is dressed like he's an ordinary person: he's barefoot and wearing comfy, casual clothes as though he were at home. All of that adds some warmth while allowing the audience to focus on T.S. Eliot's words and the performance of Ralph Fiennes. Four Quartets remains captivating thanks to Fiennes' bravura performance. You can feel the genuine passion he has for T.S. Eliot's poems in his voice. He doesn't ust recite the poems; he acts them out through his careful enunciations, pauses, emphases and tone of voice. It's as though he were singing the words. That comes with a doubled-edged sword, though, because it means that you can tell that he's acting because you can feel the wheels of his performance turning most of the time. Interestingly, he begins the stage production with silence before he starts talking. Those few moments of silence are a little awkward.

      Director Sophie Fiennes tries to make the film more cinematic by cutting to shots of nature every now and then, but that gets tedious and banal after a while. The shots of nature also stop the audience from using their imagination as they hear T.S. Eliot's profound words. One's imagination is, after all, a powerful tool, so the film as at its much more moving and when it just shows Fiennes on stage because that's when Sophie Fiennes fully trusts the audience's emotions, imagination and the words of T.S. Eliot. At a running time of 1 hour and 22 minutes, Four Quartets is an  engrossing, captivating and meditative spiritual journey.

      Ria Khan (Priya Kansara), an aspiring stuntwoman, enlists her friends, Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) and Clara (Seraphina Beh), to help her stop her older sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), from marrying the wealthy, Salim (Akshay Khanna). She believes that he and his mother, Raheela (Nimra Bucha), have a nefarious hidden motive.

      The screenplay by writer/director Nida Manzoor has shades of Everything Everywhere All At Once as it blends comedy, martial arts, mystery and family drama. The plot becomes increasingly contrived and implausible, but that's a forgivable flaw. As Hitchcock once wisely observed, "There's something more important than logic: imagination." Polite Society has plenty of imagination, although it does take its plot a little too far into bonkers territory. At its core, it's about a sister who wants to protect her older sister from harm. Ria doesn't trust Lena's fiancé, Salim, from the very first moment she sees him at an Eid festivity that she and Lena attend. What is he really up to? Is her gut instinct correct? Polite Society lacks surprises because its plot unfolds exactly as you imagine it would. The subplot involving Salim's hidden motive, which won't be spoiled here, is convoluted and silly while almost making the film veer into horror territory with little to no internal logic, even in hindsight. Fortunately, the dialogue sparkles with wit, there are some funny slapstick scenes and dark comedy along with genuinely heartfelt moments between Ria and Lena. The film also tries too hard to please the audience, though--it's very, very eager to be a quotable, hip, high-energy, feel-great and crowd-pleasing action comedy. Even the opening credits sequence hooks you right away before the film sets its comedic tone in the next few scenes, especially the wildly entertaining scene in Ria's school. The problem with grabbing the audience's attention so hard at the very beginning is that it's not easy to maintain that hook or to offer the audience something else to hook them. When the action begins to escalate, just as expected, during the last 30 minutes, that's around the time the movie loses some of its steam as the humor becomes repetitive and almost everything gets tied in a neat little bow with nothing left for interpretation.

      The lively performances by the well-chosen ensemble cast help to make Polite Society an amusing diversion. Nimra Bacha gives an appropriately hammy and campy performance as Salim's overbearing mother. She's great as Shoreh Aghdashloo is in Renfield---another action comedy with a silly subplot. Polite Society isn't gory, though, or very bloody for that matter which feels refreshing because it seems that every other movie that's bonkers these days tries to push the envelope with blood and guts. There's violence, but it's very cartoonish albeit well-choreographed. The pace moves quickly without any scenes that overstay their welcome. There's also some wonderful costume design and set design that invigorate the film with visual style. At a running time of 1 hour and 43 minutes, Polite Society is a fun, witty and exuberant crowd-pleaser.
  

      During the final days of World War II, Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), a gold prospector, discovers gold in Finland before an SS officer, Bruno (Aksel Hennie), and his team of Nazi soldiers, steal the gold. Aatami, with his dog in tow, fights the Nazis to get his gold back.

      Writer/director Jalmari Helander deftly combines action, suspense and thrills which results in a mindlessly entertaining B-movie. He keeps the plot lean, focused and easy-to-follow from the get-go without going off on any tangents. Where did he get his seemingly superhuman strength? What's his backstory?  Exposition is kept to a minimum, so you know just enough about Aatami to allow you to root for him--and his dog, too. Sisu wastes no time diving right into the moment that Aatami finds the gold and hunts down the Nazis after they steal it from him. This isn't a dialogue-heavy film nor does it get complicated or even complex for that matter. There's nothing profound or moving to be found here either which is fine. The same can be said about John Wick which Sisu cut from the same cloth of---Aatami and John are kindred spirits for many reasons including the fact that they've formed a bond with their dog. Plausibility isn't among Sisu's strengths, so it'd be best if you check your brain at the door beforehand. The action does go a little bonkers at times, but not too much.

       The cinematography and landscape add plenty off atmosphere and style which gives the film a post-apocalyptic look. Some scenes are simply breathtaking to behold. Most importantly, though, the action scenes are well-choreographed and deliver the goods when it comes to blood and guts. This is a gritty action thriller that earns its R-rating. It's not for those with a weak stomach. Jorma Tommila gives a solid performance in the lead role--he's just as great as Stephen Lang is in Don't Breathe. That said, the pacing slows down at times which leads to uneven pacing, and the action does get a little tedious, but not enough to allow for lethargy to seep in, so those are minor flaws. At an ideal running time of just 1 hour and 31 minutes, Sisu is a rousing, wickedly funny and exhilarating rush of pure adrenaline. It's one of the most wildly entertaining, crowd-pleasing WWII action thrillers since Inglourious Basterds.
  

      In post-WWII Hungary, 16-year old Klára (Abigél Szõke) lives with her great-aunt (Mari Nagy) after her parents went missing during the war. She befriends Dr. Aladár Körner (Károly Hajduk), a gynecologist, when he gives her a check-up at his office, and she soon agrees to move in with him while he becomes her surrogate father.

      Based on the novel by Zsuzsa F. Varkonyi, the screenplay by Klára Muhi begins after the Holocaust without flashing back to the horrors that took place while assuming that you already know what happened there. The story remains character-driven and focused on the blossoming friendship between Klára and Aladár. They've both experienced tragedies: Aladár's wife and kids in a concentration camp, and Klára's parents remain missing. They're both sad, lonely and traumatized, but the film doesn't dwell on their emotional pain. There aren't any emotionally devastating scenes. Instead, it highlights the compassion, kindness and platonic love between two human beings who connect and form a profound, transcendent human relationship that words cannot adequately describe. So, in a way, Those Who Remained is indeed a love story fundamentally. Director Barnabás Tóth and screenwriter Klára Muhi avoid schmaltz, heavy-handedness and over-explaining. They also avoid making Klára and Aladár's seem creepy, although their relationship does get questioned at one point when a faculty member at Klára's school learns that she lives with Aladár. Exposition is kept to a bare minimum, so you learn just enough about Klára and Aladár to see them as human beings. Bravo to the filmmakers for seeing and treating them as human beings from start to finish.

      Abigél Szõke and Károly Hajduk give convincingly moving and nuanced performances that breathe life into their roles. The film's poignancy comes more from their performances than from the screenplay, but that's okay---as long as it comes from somewhere. Director Barnabás Tóth keeps the pace moving slowly, but not too slowly, while making the most out of the few quieter moments. The set design, lighting and costume design are terrific while grounding the film in authenticity. Also, the filmmakers keep the running time well under 2 hours which shows that they grasp the concept of restraint. At 1 hour and 23 minutes, Those Who Remained is genuinely warm, tender and understated.