Thumbnails Sep 21

by Tony Medley

The Lost Leonardo (9/10): 90 minutes. NR. Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World) is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, commissioned around 1509 by Louis XII of France and finished around 1513. This is about a painting bought for $1,125 in the early 2000s that was later auctioned off for $450 million as the “Lost Leonardo.” Was it legit? Interviewed are art critics galore along with Diane Modestini, who “restored” it, and people who analyzed it, marketed it, sold it, and auctioned it off. It is a tantalizing tale that does not have a slow moment, whether you are a connoisseur or not. The film is brilliantly filmed and directed as it tells its spellbinding tale.  But it’s not just a story about a painting, it’s also a devastating indictment of the art world, avarice, power, and truth and the lack thereof. In addition to the art world, it involves Russian oligarchs, Saudi princes, unethical middlemen, and revenge. Landmark and some Laemmles.

Final Set (9/10): 109 minutes. NR. not only is the acting superb, but the tennis is exceptional in its quality and realism. Thomas Edison (Alex Lutz) is a 37-year-old tennis player who was once France’s up and coming star. But he lost a big match when he was young and has been struggling ever since, confined mostly to playing satellite tournaments, making meager bucks to support him and his wife and child. Here we find him entering the qualifying round for the French Open. As important to the tennis are the relationships between Thomas and Eve and Thomas and Judith. This is one of the best sports movies I’ve seen.

It will be available via numerous Virtual Cinemas; consumers can visit https://www.filmmovement.com/final-set and rent the film from ANY participating theater.

White as Snow (8/10): 112 minutes. R.

We’ll sing in the sunshine

We’ll laugh every day

We’ll sing in the sunshine

Then I’ll be on my way

Gale Garnett 1964

If you were around in 1964, this is one of the songs you were singing. And the girl you envisioned as you sang this song was probably Claire (Lou de Laâge), who stars in this film as the innocent, protected stepdaughter of Maud (Isabell Huppert). Loosely based on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” it is a thriller with pervasive evil that is present every moment of the film. The acting is exceptional. de Laâge is reminiscent of Brigette Bardot in her prime, although in this film she looks a lot younger than her 29 years. She is captivating, scintillating, hot, and sexy as she seduces one man after another reaching the eponymic number as she finds her sexual freedom and revels in it. Then there is Isabelle Hubbert’s electric performance as Claire’s evil stepmother. Landmark

Putin’s witnesses (8/10): 102 minutes. NR. This is sort of a Russian version of the old American books “the making of the president.” Only this time it is made by a Russian. It is about Vladimir Putin’s first run for the Russian presidency circa 2000. It is produced and directed by iVitaliy Manskiy who had unique inside access to Putin and Boris Yeltsin, the man who resigned and who Putin replaced. Putin comes across as a thoughtful, reasonable man. But as he solidifies his power, he got rid of most of the people who helped him get elected and supported. To get this film into context, however, one should read Bill Browder's book, “Red Notice,” which tells the dark, scary truth of how Putin acts behind the scenes. It’s not pretty. OVID.

The Protégé (4/10): 109 Minutes. R. There is a terrific word that producers of thrillers should learn. That word is “plausible.” This silly film would have been less silly and more compelling if there were one or two scenes that could be interpreted as being plausible. Alas, after 109 minutes a credible scene never appeared.

Reminiscence (3/10): 116 minutes. PG-13. From the outset it is hard to swallow. In the first place it is set in the dystopian future somewhere that is already flooded all the time by the rising sea levels due, I guess, to the woke theory of human-caused global warming. It is sort of a pseudo noir with Nick Bannister (Hugh Jackman), some kind of “Private Eye of the mind,” narrating. The premise is infuriatingly absurd. Jackman has a kind of water filled crypt that his patients lie in with something strapped to their brains. They go into a sort of a sleep and Nick prods them to think about certain things from their past which is then projected as holograms onto a platform with incidents from their past played out in physical reality. It is beyond ridiculous. Landmark & HBO MAX.