The Little Things《蛛丝马迹》

 

The Little Things was a contemporary neo-noir detective mystery when John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr Banks, The Blind Side) wrote the screenplay back in 1993. Almost three decades later, Hancock has finally directed what is now a period drama set in the dark distant days when the police didn't all have cell phones and DNA¹-tracing technology. Its three Oscar-winning stars are Denzel Washington as a burnt-out sheriff, Rami Malek as a straitlaced sergeant², and Jared Leto as the creepy prime suspect in a Los Angeles serial³ killer⁴ case. Robert Daniels at Polygon⁵ says that "Hancock, in what might be his best film, grazes with greatness by constructing an enthralling⁶ thriller⁷".

导演约翰·李·汉考克（曾执导《大梦想家》和《弱点》）在1993年编写剧本时，《蛛丝马迹》原本是一部当代新黑色侦探悬疑片。近三十年后，当汉考克终于开始导演这部故事发生在遥远的黑暗时代的电影时，它已然成了历史片。那时候，不是每个警察都有手机，也没有DNA追踪技术。三名奥斯卡获奖者出演了这部电影：丹泽尔·华盛顿饰演精疲力竭的警长，拉米·马雷克饰演刻板的警察小队长，杰瑞德·莱托饰演令人毛骨悚然的洛杉矶系列谋杀案头号嫌疑犯。Polygon网站的罗伯特·丹尼尔斯评价说：“这部电影可能是汉考克的最佳作品，在该片中，汉考克举重若轻地呈现了一个扣人心弦的惊悚片。”

 

Released on 29 January in the US and Canada, 12 February in UK and Ireland

该片于1月29日在美国和加拿大上映，2月12日在英国和爱尔兰上映。

 

Minari《米纳里》

 

Lee Isaac Chung's autobiographical drama has had glowing reviews, but it has also been the source of controversy⁸. Most of the dialogue is in Korean, so the organisers of the Golden Globes put it in the Foreign Language Film category. But Minari is also the tale of a US family working on a small farm in Arkansas in the 1980s, so some commentators⁹ have argued that calling its language "foreign" is outdated¹⁰ and insulting. Glenn Whipp in the Los Angeles Times says that the film "feels like a balm right now, a gentle, truthful¹¹ and tender story of family filled with kind people trying to love one another the best they can. "

李·以萨克·郑的这部自传式电影收获了热烈的好评，但也引来了不少争议。该片的大多数对话都是韩语，所以金球奖主办方将其归为外语片类别。但是《米纳里》也是一部关于上世纪80年代在阿肯色州一家小农场劳作的美国家庭的故事，因此一些评论人士表示，将其称为“外语片”不仅过时而且具有侮辱性。《洛杉矶时报》的格伦·威普称，这部电影“在当下能给心灵带来抚慰，这个温和、真实而柔情的故事讲述的这个家庭里都是全心全意爱彼此的善良的人。”

 

Released on 12 February in the US, 18 February in Australia, and 26 February in Canada

该片于2月12日在美国上映，2月18日在澳大利亚上映，2月26日在加拿大上映。

 

French Exit《法式出口》

 

French Exit offers us a precious gift: an all-too-rare lead performance from Michelle Pfeiffer. In this quirky but poignant¹² comedy, adapted by Patrick DeWitt from his own satirical novel, Pfeiffer plays Frances, a widowed New York socialite. Having spent all the money her husband left her, she moves out of her swanky apartment and relocates to Paris with her son, Lucas Hedges. And then the trouble starts. Frances is the kind of person who sets fire to a restaurant's flower arrangement to get the waiter's attention, and conducts a seance so that she can communicate with her husband via her cat.

《法式出口》带给我们的一个珍贵礼物是米歇尔·菲佛很难得地担纲了主演。该片改编自帕特里克·德威特的讽刺小说，由德威特亲自担任编剧。在这部离奇又心酸的喜剧电影中，菲佛饰演了丧偶的纽约社交名媛弗朗西斯。在花光了丈夫留给她的所有钱后，她从奢华的公寓中搬了出来，同卢卡斯·赫奇斯饰演的儿子一起迁居到了巴黎。麻烦就是从这里开始的。弗兰西斯是一个什么样的人呢？她可以为了吸引服务员注意而放火烧餐厅的鲜花装饰，也可以为了通过自己的猫和已故丈夫交流而举办降神会。

 

Released on 12 February in the US, Canada and Italy, 26 February in the UK and Ireland

该片于2月12日在美国、加拿大和意大利上映，2月26日在英国和爱尔兰上映。

 

The Father《父亲》

 

What's unique about The Father, is that it shows dementia from the perspective of the person who has it. Anthony Hopkins stars as an 80-something man who is content to live alone in his London flat, but who thinks that the people and possessions around him keep changing: in some scenes his daughter is played by Olivia Colman, and in others by Olivia Williams. Florian Zeller's film currently has a 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, partly due to the writer-director's ingenious cinematic trickery, and partly due to the extraordinary acting¹³. "To play a man who's begun to lose his mental faculties¹⁴, Hopkins methodically strips away every quality we've come to expect from him – the refinement¹⁵, the silver tongue, the imposing¹⁶ intensity¹⁷ – until there's nothing left but frailty¹⁸ and distress," writes AA Dowd in AV Club. "The final scenes of the movie are among the most heartbreakingly vulnerable of Hopkins' whole career."

《父亲》的独特之处在于，该片是从痴呆症患者的视角来描述这种疾病。安东尼·霍普金斯饰演一位八十多岁的老人，他满足于独自一人在伦敦的公寓里生活，但是他认为自己身边的人和他拥有的东西总是不停地变化。在某些场景下他的女儿由奥利维娅·科尔曼饰演，在另外一些场景下，他的女儿由奥利维娅·威廉姆斯饰演。这部电影现在的烂番茄评分高达100%，一部分要归功于编剧兼导演佛罗莱恩·泽勒构思巧妙的电影拍摄技巧，另一部分要归功于演员精湛的表演。AV俱乐部网站的AA·多德写道：“为了饰演一个大脑功能开始退化的人，霍普金斯有条不紊地将我们期待的他身上的每一个特质一一剥离：文雅的举止、流利的口才和让人肃然起敬的威严，直到最后只留下脆弱和悲痛。在电影结尾，我们见到了霍普金斯整个演艺生涯中最令人心碎的脆弱形象。”

 

Released on 26 February in the US and Italy, 12 March in the UK

该片于2月26日在美国和意大利上映，3月12日在英国上映。

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