Latest news with #PhantomThread
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Love Me Tender' Review: Vicky Krieps Anchors a Hard-Hitting Chronicle of Motherhood and Sexual Freedom That Overstays Its Welcome
If there are two things you can say about art house ingenue Vicky Krieps, it's that she's the most internationally famous actor to ever emerge from the tiny European nation of Luxembourg, and that she rarely takes on roles that could be considered easy or light. After breaking out in Phantom Thread, starring as a model who turns the tables on her abusive boss/boyfriend, she's been drawn towards characters who are either living on the edge or going through hell. In the past three years alone, she's played a woman stricken with a rare debilitating illness (More Than Ever); a renown Austrian poet whose life was tragically cut short (Ingeborg Bachmann — Journey into the Desert); a tight-lipped U.S. border cop who kills a migrant and tries to get away with it (The Wall); and a frontier wife who's brutally raped, then winds up dying of syphilis (The Dead Don't Hurt). More from The Hollywood Reporter 'Splitsville' Review: Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona in a Winning Indie Comedy That Puts Two Divorcing Couples Through the Wringer 'Eagles of the Republic' Review: Movies Collide With Political Might in Tarik Saleh's Dark and Clever Conspiracy Thriller Julia Ducournau Stuns Cannes With 'Alpha' What's fascinating about Krieps is how she seems to nonchalantly plunge headfirst into such parts, never resting on her laurels and always digging deep to find emotion in tough places. If the movies she stars in aren't all memorable, Krieps is usually memorable in all of them. That's certainly the case with Love Me Tender, a hard-hitting French chronicle of motherhood and independence based on lawyer-turned-author Constance Debré's 2020 book. Adapted and directed by Anna Cazenave Cambet (Gold for Dogs), the Cannes entry is both moody and intermittently moving, revealing the many hurdles a woman faces when her former husband tries to get full custody of their son. But the drama, which starts off powerfully, fizzles in the second half. While it works its way toward an intriguing conclusion, it takes its time to get there (running 134 minutes) tends to lose focus. Thankfully, Krieps anchors things with her typically committed performance, portraying a mother torn apart by the French legal system and an extremely vindictive ex, all the while trying to find herself sexually and intellectually. Love Me Tender certainly doesn't shy away from the frank eroticism of its heroine, Clémence (Krieps), whom we first see randomly hooking up with a woman in the changing room of a Paris swimming pool. A voiceover, taken verbatim from Debré's 'autofictional' book, reveals that Clémence has been separated for three years from her longtime husband, Laurent (Antoine Reinartz), with whom she's been splitting care of their 8-year-old son, Paul (Viggo Ferreira-Redier). When she tells Laurent she's begun to see women romantically, he takes the news so badly that he cuts off all communication and hires a lawyer to get full custody. From there, things only get worse. The movie's strongest moments revolve around Clémence's many efforts to see Paul again — a quest that becomes increasingly Kafkaesque as Laurent doubles down on his attempts to block her. There are only a handful of scenes between the separated spouses, yet they are loaded with tension and resentment. Reinartz portrays Laurent as a guy whose manhood has clearly been offended by Clémence's turn towards lesbianism, and who uses their son to punish her. We never cut to Laurent's point of view, but it seems likely he spends his off hours surfing the manosphere. Despite her ex's many efforts to thwart her, Clémence does finally get to see Paul again, although only under the supervision of a court-appointed social worker (Aurélia Petit). The first time that happens, about an hour into the action, is definitely the film's emotional high point. Krieps appears both tender and tragic in that long sequence, her character unable to speak because she's so overcome by the presence of her son. A parallel storyline details Clémence's rocky romantic life as she seeks out partners in bars, restaurants and nightclubs, hoping to meet someone who's more than just a one-night stand. Cambet juxtaposes those scenes, some of which are sensual and explicit, with all the turmoil Clémence faces in her long and painful battle to get Paul back. The more she seems to liberate herself from the past — seeking new sexual experiences, writing novels instead of working as a lawyer, sleeping in garrets instead of fancy bourgeois apartments — the more Clémence is entrapped by the life she left behind. She loves Paul and wants to care for him, but the vengeful Laurent, along with a few lawyers and judges, seem to believe she can't be both a great mom and a freethinking lesbian. Clémence's predicament at times recalls that of the mother played by Virginie Efira in the 2023 French drama All to Play For, which also premiered in Cannes' Un Certain Regard. But whereas that film's rhythm and intensity never let up, Love Me Tender meanders too much in its second half, especially when Clémence sparks up a serious relationship with a journalist (Monia Chokri) she meets in a café. Another plotline involving Clémence's ailing father (Féodor Atkine) doesn't lead anywhere special, and the movie becomes more of a wavering chronicle. Cambet coaxes strong turns from Krieps and the rest of the actors, including newcomer Ferrera-Redier as the moody if lovable Paul. But she's probably too faithful to Debré's book, failing to shape the film into a gripping narrative and relying on a constant voiceover filled with the writer's musings, some of which comes across as platitudes ('Love is brutal,' etc.). The closing scenes nonetheless lead to a denouement that you seldom see in movies about mothers fighting to get their kids back. Rather than finishing with the usual triumph over adversity moment, Love Me Tender takes a detour towards something darker and perhaps more honest. For all her struggles to deflect the judgement of other people (her ex, social workers, the courts), Clémence finally learns that you can't please everyone, nor hope to have it both ways. But you can, perhaps, manage to please yourself. 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Telegraph
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Sorry Cate Blanchett, but artists should never ‘retire'
In one of several parallel fantasy lives that I live, I have retired. I am 'dividing my time' between London and Southern France (probably Languedoc-Roussillon), with January spent on an island off the coast of Colombia. But I won't have made a fuss about my retreat from the rat race: no grand speeches, no pitying donations on and certainly no leaving drinks. I will have made a French exit. Cate Blanchett, however, has made public the fact that she wants to retire from acting and do other things. The 55-year-old actress is actually making her radio drama debut on the BBC this coming Saturday, but no matter, she told Radio Times that she was serious about leaving a profession at which she has excelled. 'Yeah, right,' I thought, as Blanchett contemplated a Saga holiday to Madeira. Actors are always announcing their retirements, and they rarely mean it. Cameron Diaz 'formally confirmed' she was quitting the biz they call show in 2018, only to return in the execrable – though appropriately named – thriller Back in Action. Daniel Day-Lewis has retired at least twice; the last time was in 2017 after he appeared in the film Phantom Thread, for which he received an Oscar nomination. A representative announced the fact through a slightly pallid statement which expressed 'immense gratitude to all his contributors and audiences over the years'. Surprise, surprise, Day-Lewis is back, in a film called Anemone which will be directed by his son, Ronan. If I had bought Day-Lewis countless beers at his Be At One leaving do, I'd want my money back. Why do they do it? If I was a cynic, I would say it is because, as an actor, you are constantly seeking validation. It is as if you are expecting people to say: 'Oh, please don't, you are an inspiration. You still have so much to give.' Yet if you really have that much of an ego, it's better to be like Greta Garbo, who announced her temporary retirement at the age of 36 and never came back. Her life became shrouded in an almost ghoulish mystique, and her status as a cultural icon was assured. I can understand going back on your word for financial reasons: after all, the state pension is not going to buy you many nights in the Priory. But money rarely seems to be the motivation. Perhaps we should be sympathetic to the idea that people renege on their retirement simply because they love what they do. I certainly get that impression with older musicians: in the past, Tina Turner, Mötley Crüe and David Bowie all officially stepped out of the spotlight only to return. However, when Turner said she was going to give it all up in her early 60s, she stated: 'I should really hang up my dancing shoes'. This inadvertently highlighted two things – that women in a sexist industry are expected to retire – and that carrying on well past your prime (particularly when you are a rock god) can look a little tragic. Do we really want to see Granddad throw himself around the stage, ever fearful that he's going to dislocate something? Otherwise, artists can carry on ad nauseam. Writers usually do, though their best work is often behind them (Diana Athill and Hilma Wolitzer are exceptions). A poignant example of a public withdrawal was the Nobel-winning South African writer Nadine Gordimer who quit, at 90, saying she was too disillusioned to continue. She died shortly afterwards. Women, on the whole, tend to do these things with more grace than men – think of the classical music world which is well known for perpetuating the careers of ageing maestros even when they are well past their prime. Yet sometimes, a Bernard Haitink or a Herbert Blomstedt continues, or so I imagine, because they have a compulsive attitude towards creativity. It's the same with the painter Frank Auerbach who died last year and met our chief art critic, Alastair Sooke, in his studio where, at the age of 91, he was still working every day: 'I've always painted as if I was going to die tomorrow,' he said. The German-Jewish Auerbach endured a horrendous early life, and it is not hard to see that he painted daily in the face of life's transience. Most artists and celebrities continue because they can, but there are a handful, like Auerbach, who continue because they must. A few days before Cate Blanchett announced her retirement, a lesser-known actress did the same. Courtney Henggeler, one of the cast of Netflix's Cobra Kai (a sequel of sorts to The Karate Kid), stated on publishing platform Substack that: 'After 20 plus years of fighting the good fight in the acting business, I hung up my gloves on Friday.' Unlike the garlanded Blanchett, Henggeler had had to endure countless knock-backs and had had enough of a rackety life that promised much and delivered little. 'The hustle, the grind, sprinkled occasionally with the odd acting job. Perhaps a line or two to TV's Dr. House – 'Sorry' (that's it. That was my line. Genius),' she wrote. While I feel that celebrity retirements are often disingenuous, I found this one very moving. Henggeler's statement was not akin to a grand dame taking a final bow, but the honest ranting of a jobbing actor. It's all very well Blanchett et al retiring in a public fashion, but isn't it a bit insensitive? A lot of people in this country, particularly those of us born after the 1960s, are beginning to realise that retirement is almost a pipe dream. Any such proclamation thus seems to confirm what we already knew: that celebrities are out of touch.
The Guardian
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Cate Blanchett's retiring from acting? I'll believe it when I see it
Cate Blanchett is an actor's actor. Cate Blanchett is the type of actor whose characters – flinty, steely, sly, sophisticated – are hardly distinguishable from the person herself. She speaks with the jarringly refined accent of an alien trained only on stage melodramas. She does not laugh; she titters. She does not walk; she glides. She does not debase herself with the prosaic concerns of you or I. This is why it is very hard to believe that she is 'giving up'. In an interview with the Radio Times on Monday, Blanchett suggested she was no longer an actor. 'My family roll their eyes every time I say it, but I mean it. I am serious about giving up acting,' she said. '[There are] a lot of things I want to do with my life.' What might these 'things' even look like? Granted, the two-time Oscar winner has other projects on the boil: she is working extensively with the UN, she is running a very prolific production company, she is walking down brutalist corridors and opening her eyes very slowly for Giorgio Armani. That's not to mention her three films currently in development: as an actor in Jim Jarmusch's Father, Mother, Sister, Brother (due later this year); as both actor and producer in sci-fi comedy Alpha Gang and Ben Stiller's The Champions. But what does a grand dame do with her downtime? Blanchett is not ordering a coffee; her piercing gaze would make a barista die instantly. Blanchett is not visiting the hairdresser; like Tilda Swinton, she simply wills her blondness into existence. She'd hardly be the first performer to exaggerate their commitment to retirement. Maybe she'll pull a Daniel Day-Lewis, who exited the industry after Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread in 2017 – only to return for an upcoming film directed by his son. None of Blanchett's children have entered the film biz thus far – though her eldest son was purportedly '[performing] his own version of Hamlet' at age nine, which would sound like an uppity fiction for anyone except a child of Blanchett's. Ophelia calls. Or maybe Blanchett could take inspiration from her recent colleague Steven Soderbergh, who directed her in this year's spy caper Black Bag. 'For the foreseeable future, the movie door is closed,' Soderbergh averred in 2013 – before proceeding to make 11 films in a decade. Lying! Isn't it the best? We could also peer outside Hollywood entirely – to the equally lawless plains of pop music. Look at Elton, who began his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in 2018 – and ended it in 2023 after making $939m from 330 shows, the third highest-grossing tour of all time. Or Cher – who embarked on a similarly tortuous farewell tour from 2002 to 2005, only to return with the aptly named extravaganza Here We Go Again from 2018 to 2020. Retirement, these days, is incredibly lucrative. When Blanchett launches a Vegas residency playing her character in Blue Jasmine, consider me front and centre. Then again, not all retirements have been fake-outs. Despite no official statement, Rihanna hasn't released an album since 2016 – though Fenty Beauty has made her a billionaire in the intervening years. Is Blanche by Blanchett on the horizon? When Blanchett launches her cosmetics line, you can say you read it here first. Finally, representation for people with perfect complexions and flaxen tresses.
New York Times
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘Straight Girls' Poetry Night
Several creative circles merged in the Red Room at KGB Bar in the East Village of Manhattan on a recent March evening. Sipping stiff martinis and enjoying a dedicated playlist of '2008's top hits,' the intersection of literature, fashion, art and internet filled the room with a throwback, almost Beatnik buzz. They were here for the sixth installment of 'Straight Girls,' a monthly poetry reading hosted by the poets Riley Mac and Montana James. In just a few short months Ms. Mac, 30, and Mr. James, 28, have gained reputations for escaping the sometimes frumpy poetry scene of the outer boroughs. Their knack for pulling together a vaudevillian, stylish repartee is a breath of fresh air for many regular attendees of poetry readings. 'There are a lot of great poetry events in the city, but they can be so insular,' said Meg Yates, an artist who makes work under the name Meg Superstar Princess. Ms. Yates, 27, praised the two not only for their ability to curate a potent lineup of readers, but also for their effortlessness in organizing a stylish fete that attracts established literary-world figures as well as 'scenesters, socialites and artists that don't leave their house.' The goal, Ms. Mac says, is for the milieu to mirror that of the house parties she would host in high school, which she characterized as 'every social clique you could imagine in my mom's basement.' The night's roster included the writer Gideon Jacobs, the poet Jordan Franklin and the digital artist Molly Soda, among others. The flyer with the event's details featured a photo from the show 'Jackass' — which debuted on MTV in 2000. The readings are often a mix of original poetry and found texts that the readers find accidentally poetic. The mood is a mix of ironic and sincere in equal measure, with plenty of pastiche and a heavy appreciation for the profundity of cultural detritus. The poet Erin Perez opened the evening with work about homoerotic friendships, followed by readings of her own LetterBoxed reviews. The audience laughed when Ms. Perez, 27, delivered her review of 'Phantom Thread, from 2017: 'Why was he so mean?' Ms. Soda, 36, brought a stack of printed-out images from the casting website She had written captions in the voice of each model. 'After about 15 minutes, I'm OK again,' she said. 'But, I guess, for those 15 minutes, Picasso would be proud,' she added, holding a photo of a would-be model crouching in a field. Ms. Franklin, 34, who wore a hooded sweatshirt printed with an image from 'The Re-Animator,' a sci-fi film from 1985, was the final act of the evening. Her set included a work titled 'Break: Ode to the Indonesian Action Flick,' and she ended her time onstage by telling the crowd that they were so supportive she found it 'disgusting.' Ms. Mac and Mr. James said they started 'Straight Girls' because they were feeling relegated to basements in Bushwick and wanted to bring a queer sensibility to the poetry scene in Manhattan, where they both live. 'Poets deserve a stage and a spotlight,' Mr. James said. 'And the audience deserves to be separate from the stage, in the dark. You should be able to roll your eyes in private.' Ms. Mac met Mr. James at a poetry reading in 2021. Mr. James had read a poem about a 'beautiful spoiled cow,' and Ms. Mac read one on the actress Lea Michele. Mr. James suggested they 'do lunch,' and Ms. Mac replied by saying she had been 'really into hot dogs lately.' 'I was in love,' Mr. James recalls. (The two are not romantically involved. Ms. Mac is engaged to the artist and sometimes-model Coco Gordon-Moore.) In 2023, Ms. Mac quit drugs and alcohol, and Mr. James followed suit a few months later. When the two started Straight Girls last November, the name was a partial wink at their newfound sober status — as well as an ode to heterosexual girlhood. Mr. James said it was not so much the attraction to men that defined a straight girl, but rather the themes of self-discovery, longing and a propensity for 'self-romanticizing, keeping a diary.' He added, with appreciation, that 'they're totally self-conscious and not at the same time.' Sofia Coppola and Lana Del Rey were cited as exemplars of artists working in the genre. 'I credit the straight girls in my life for loving me and letting me love them,' said Ms. Mac, who has the phrase 'everyone on earth is a teenage girl' tattooed in lowercase on her abdomen. A bit of poetry, made permanent.
Express Tribune
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Drake teases 'uneasy' new chapter in cryptic Instagram post, hints at upcoming changes
Drake seems to be preparing for a new phase in his career, but fans may want to brace themselves, as the rapper's latest social media post suggests that his next chapter might not be for everyone. The OVO rapper shared a cryptic Instagram post that has fans buzzing with speculation about what comes next. 'U know I grew up non confrontational and always treated this game as a sport where my pen won gold, but my these days the podium has been hard for all of us to ignore,' the post began, leading many to believe that it could be a reference to his ongoing feud with Kendrick Lamar. Recently, Lamar delivered a fiery performance of "Not Like Us" at the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show, just days after taking home multiple Grammy Awards. Drake had previously promised another round in their rivalry, with Lamar responding during his halftime announcement, 'You know there's only one opportunity to win a championship. No round twos.' As Drake continues his message, he hints that whatever is coming next could be uncomfortable for some fans. He adds, 'I understand that this next chapter may leave you feeling uneasy, but I hope you see my honesty as clarity not charity that answers some questions especially about the unanswered texts you've been sending me.' This statement, along with the accompanying cryptic photos, has only deepened the mystery surrounding what's to come. Among the images shared, Drake posted selfies, live performance shots, and a screengrab from the 2017 film Phantom Thread. One particularly notable image features two Zofran pills, a medication used to prevent nausea, often linked to chemotherapy or radiation therapy. This choice of imagery only fuels curiosity about the artist's upcoming plans and whether this shift signa ls a new, more vulnerable direction for the rapper. While specifics about his next project remain unclear, the post comes on the heels of the February 14 release of $ome $exy $ongs 4 U, his collaborative album with PartyNextDoor. It also follows the postponement of several Australian and New Zealand tour dates, which were reportedly due to a 'scheduling conflict.' As fans await further details, it's clear that Drake's next move is sure to stir some reactions.
