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Reviews
The Bear: Fishes (2023)
The "August Osage County" episode of The Bear
Just like "August Osage County", this episode is pure madness, showing a family gathering that slowly descends into chaos and craziness. In the deranged matriarch role that Meryl Streep plays in AOC, here we have the fabulous Jamie Lee Curtis, in a tour de force performance that you've never seen her in before...she's heartbreaking, mesmerizing and terrifying at the same time. She's going to win the Emmy for guest-starring here, but that's going to have to wait for 2024 because this season of The Bear is not eligible for Emmy 2023. This special one-hour episode has an all-star cast with the likes of Sarah Paulson, John Mulaney, Bob Odenkirk, in addition to Curtis. The usual guest stars Jon Bernthal and Oliver Platt are also here and I'm sure they will be nominated again next year, as they are consistently great. Bernthal is very good as Michael as is Abby Elliott, terrific at portraying the vulnerable, fragile Sugar. And of course, Jeremy Allen White as Carmy, sublimely understated, as this character takes in all the craziness and tries hard to hold on to his sanity. This flashback episode clarifies now why Carmy can explode in Season 1 episode 7 "Review". It clarifies further what the heck is going on with the Berzattos.
Le pupille (2022)
Youth rebellion against grownups in a comedy short
This Christmas, I watched the 37-minute film Le pupille (The Pupil) on Disney+. It's one of the 15 films shortlisted for the Academy Awards early next year in the Live Action Short Film category. Set during wartime Italy, the film features little orphan girls living in a boarding school run by nuns, as they go about their routines on Christmas Eve leading to Christmas Day. There's a little bit of a musical number. But instead of singing "It's A Hard-Knock Life", the orphans act as a Greek chorus, opening and later closing the film, singing the summary of the plot as well as the denouement. The film contains themes of youth defiance against cruelty, injustice and totalitarianism encapsulated in a funny, bittersweet but not too saccharin-sweet story that is as heartwarming as it is profound.
At the center is the wide-eyed little girl Serafina (played by Melissa Falasconi, who received an Honorable Mention as Best Actor from the Philadelphia Film Festival), who brazenly stands up against the dictatorial Mother Superior, Fioralba (played by Alba Rohrwacher, the director's sister). The trigger for the main conflict is a humongous red cake which is given by someone for the orphans but the Mother Superior has other ideas for it.
The film's rebellion theme reminds us of Roald Dahl's Matilda and a past Oscar-winning short film titled Mindenki (Sing). But writer-director Alice Rohrwacher - a past winner at Cannes with 4 features films in her IMDb filmography - infuses Le pupille with so much tongue-in-cheek humor that keeps it from being too tense but still delivers the point precisely. Co-produced by, among others, the legendary Alfonso Cuarón, Le pupille is a wonderful, brilliant, entertaining and fulfilling short film. I look forward to seeing it listed in the Oscar nominations, to be announced on 24 January 2023.