Solo: A Star Wars Story directed by Ron Howard; starring Alden Ehrenreich, Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Joonas Suotamo, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Paul Bettany and Thandie Newton; written by Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan
Now grown up, a street urchin from a ship-building planet tries to escape the clutches of the crime lord he belongs to and become a pilot.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the Star Wars prequels, it’s that delving into iconic character’s past is possibly not the best idea for a film. Having said that, the screenplay for this one is possibly the best it could be. Of course, considering the subject matter, it had little chance of being able to enjoy the higher stakes and epic scale of the rest of the franchise.
But it’s a neat little adventure, taking you through the criminal world of the Star Wars universe with ease (with a dash of Western heist that feels organic to a world-building that has always had an eye toward the past), filled with cool characters, old and new, and it ramps up quite well to a final act filled with interesting twists. (Except one. An old character makes an unexpected cameo at the end and it’s just… wrong. You’ll know it the moment you see it.)
The script is also remarkably plot hole free, stays true to the Star Wars lore (something other recent installments haven’t been so careful with), inserts here and there little connections to the character’s know future in a neat and fun manner, and when it comes to bringing to the screen the mandatory origin encounters we’ve been promised, it does so in very clever and engaging ways, something the prequels horribly failed at.
In the lead, Alden Ehrenreich makes a quite good Han Solo. Sure, he’s no Harrison Ford but then, nobody is. Ehrenreich captures the essence of the character convincingly, especially if you remember he’s an earlier incarnation of the character. Opposite him Donald Glover is an excellent Lando Calrissian with a lot of opportunities to shine and the rest of the cast, Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson and Paul Bettany, are all given nuanced and well-written parts to sink their teeth in. Finally, Phoebe Waller-Bridge steals the show as L3, Lando’s droid co-pilot, one of the most memorable new characters in the franchise’s recent history.
So. Clever script, well-picked cast, good characters. What could go wrong? Unfortunately, pretty much everything else.
There’s no telling what condition Ron Howard found the production in when he was brought in to replace Phil Lord and Chris Miller at the helm, nor can we debate the movie that might have been. Certainly, Howard can be commanded for bringing together the film with some skill. But his direction, apart from a couple of insightful moments, never rises above decent and fails to deliver the thrills the story needs and the audience craves.
Not all the blame falls on him though and part must go to cinematographer Bradford Young whose photography is constantly very dark, de-saturated and often dull. (And I’m talking about the 2D version here, I can’t begin to imagine how unwatchable the 3D version must be.) This deliberate choice also extends to the production design as a whole and it’s unclear why this choice was made. Is it because of the criminal underworld context that they decided to go for a darker look, possibly emulating Gordon Willis’ iconic work on “The Godfather”? But while Willis images were dark, the darkness served to highlight the more luminous parts of the image and contrast was key. Here everything is constantly dark or foggy or dark and foggy. Not only does it make some scenes genuinely hard to decipher but it robs the film of any chance of the sweeping visuals that have always been a hallmark of the franchise ever since that blockade runner fled before a Star Destroyer over Tatooine.
Last but not least, composer John Powell delivers a lame score that fits neither this film nor the franchise and only when he mercifully sneaks in some original John Williams snippets does the movie recover some overdue energy.
It is disappointing to see how Disney has consistently failed to recapture the essence of Star Wars since they have purchased the property from George Lucas. Even more so here where what is probably the best crafted Star Wars screenplay of this era (possibly even the best outside of the original trilogy) fails to translate well to the screen because of a production that bungled its direction, visuals and score; areas which up to now the franchise had always been near-perfect at. If you can get past all that, there are still some very good things in Solo. But it’s a hard sell.
Rating: C+
Gueule d’ange réalisé par Vanessa Filho ; avec Ayline Aksoy-Etaix, Marion Cotillard et Alban Lenoir ; écrit par Diastème et Vanessa Filho
Délaissée par une mère alcoolique et irresponsable, une petite fille se lie d’amitié avec un forain ancien adepte du plongeon de haut-vol.
Pendant une grande partie de sa durée, le film enchaine les clichés inhérents à son pitch de manière poussive. Et même si Marion Cotillard incarne son personnage avec beaucoup d’authenticité, celui-ci reste trop antipathique pour susciter l’intérêt.
Toutefois, grâce à une photographie de qualité et la performance de la jeune Ayline Aksoy-Etaix, le film finit par trouver un peu d’émotion dans son dernier acte, même si l’ensemble sonne un peu creux.
Note : D+
La fête des mères écrit et réalisé par Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar ; avec Audrey Fleurot, Clotilde Courau, Olivia Côte, Pascale Arbillot, Jeanne Rosa, Carmen Maura, Nicole Garcia, Vincent Dedienne, Marie-Christine Barrault, Pascal Demolon, Gustave Kervern et Noémie Merlant
Des femmes sur le point d’être mères, des femmes qui se demandent si elles veulent être mères, des femmes qui se découvrent mères et des enfants qui se souviennent de leurs mères.
Sorti cette semaine avec beaucoup d’à-propos, le film met en scène une distribution chorale de qualité pour explorer la maternité sous tous ses aspects.
Plus occupé à raccorder tous ses segments les uns aux autres qu’à les développer, le film finit par se borner à une longue série de vignettes en forme de constat, avec une prédilection pour le mélo vaguement sinistre.
Le tout reste bien intentionné mais rarement cinématographique.
Note : D –
Not another script guru 