By doudou6 
Other Main Competition Entries
“The Battlefield” by Gianni Amelio (Italy)
The moral premise of this Italian film is sound, but it mainly relies on playing the pity card to win audience sympathy. This is such a basic and outdated approach. Come on, isn’t it enough that every Italian director has a direct pass to the main competition?
“The Order” by Justin Kurzel (Canada/USA)
Kurzel has become a pitiful figure rejected by Cannes. This type of genre film making it into the main competition seems like Venice is just picking up leftovers for some star power.
“Sex Dream Love Trilogy: Love” by Dag Johan Haugerud (Norway)
Emotions do not freely slide towards their objects, nor can they belong to them. The entire film is just a pile of dialogue, yet words and emotions remain disconnected.
“Harvest” by Athina Rachel Tsangari (UK/Germany/France/USA/Greece)
Two and a half stars. It started off well, but unfortunately, this quality did not last long. The basic texture of 16mm comes as a bonus, but this naturalistic photography still lags behind Loznitsa’s films. During the viewing, I missed Almendros’ “Days of Heaven.”
“Silent Visionary” by Yang Xiu Hua (Singapore/Taiwan/China/France/USA)
As the plot develops, we find out that the suspect, who is a voyeur and stalker, also has a daughter and an irretrievable family, which seems to provide a reasonable explanation for his previous behavior logic. But in reality, it confusingly merges two separate issues into one. One theme of the film comes from parenting and responsibility, while another theme indicates that in our modern society with no privacy whatsoever, we are forced to live lives where our information is collected and our movements are monitored. The latter theme is more successfully executed than the former. The electronic eye of technology solving the core event promptly was clearly done to quickly advance the first theme – very urgent and deliberate – but fortunately, the ending uses a closed loop to reiterate the main point.
“Joker 2: Dual Delusion” by Todd Phillips (USA)
The depth of thought does not match up to the first film; it only moves towards constructing texts about social identity choices and repression-release dynamics. Surprisingly, in such a large-scale Hollywood sequel production, the director almost subverts both the previous work and established character research results. Dissolving and tearing apart real-life suffering in dreams and fantasies while using music to numb and heal real pain maintains basic tension between daily reality and fictional illusions within integrated musical romance styles or operetta-like sequences. It builds an imaginative bridge from social reality to utopian fantasy only to completely destroy it later on. Joaquin Phoenix’s escape as a performer ultimately choosing to abandon fantasy narrative is Phillips’ way of resisting; his answer is distrust in an idealized utopian world projected on screen. The use of musical elements is thorough and well-motivated; each courtroom scene serves different purposes; finally terminating fictional time expansion reverting back into real self-and-reality space inevitably leads to cruel results. Adding one more star for Lawrence Sher’s extraordinary cinematography – locked for next year’s Oscar Best Cinematography.
“Queer” by Luca Guadagnino (Italy/USA)
Neither an exploration of non-embodied multilingualism nor embodied tactile imagination; unable even discussing critical states separating performance from audience – somewhat mismatched altogether. Daniel Craig’s rough thin performance feels awkward like he walked straight off “Knives Out” set continuing same quirky acting mode lacking any precision whatsoever… Now does showing buttocks during sex scenes make straight male actors daring intense performers? Craig shows some courage but lacks technical finesse significantly hindering him… Third chapter Guadagnino starts scribbling nonsensically finishing without knowing how anymore hilarious… More I watch Guadagnino works more I feel “Call Me By Your Name” was beautifully accidental…
Other Films:
Youth (Homecoming) by Wang Bing (France/Luxembourg/Netherlands)
Future Diva by Julia Stiegerwalt (Italy)
Letters from Sicily by Antonio Piazza/Fabio Grassadonia (Italy/France)
Kill The Rider by Luis Ortega (Argentina/Spain/Mexico/Denmark/USA)
Three Friends by Emmanuel Mouret (France)
Maria by Pablo Larraín (Germany/USA/Italy)