Films at the cinema this week: should you see or avoid Toy Story 5, Backrooms and Ulysses?

Ulysses - À voir

Comedy and drama of Letitia Masson – 1 h 37

At one year old, Ulysses cannot stand on his legs, is very small, does not eat and often seems absent. After an initial assessment, the verdict falls: he has Noonan syndrome. In their apartment with large bay windows on the Olympiades square in Paris, his parents Alice and Vladimir will have to adapt. Life with Ulysses promises walls of difficulty, but also multiple seeds of happiness. But when it comes time to face the outside world, the obstacles resemble the ascent of an 8,000 meter.

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With this film, disability is taking a big step forward in cinema. Létitia Masson shows a combative mother to the point of forgetting herself, a father overwhelmed by pain but who maintains a bond after having put himself at a distance and institutions that are often discouraging and sometimes profitable. She also manages to make us feel the world as Ulysses perceives it.F. V.

The note of Figaro  : 3,5/4

Also read

Our review of Ulysses: something extra for disability in cinema

Toy Story 5 - À voir

Film d’animation d’Andrew Stanton - 1 h 42

After seven years of reflection, the toys of Toy Story begin a new tour of the track. In Toy Story 5Bonnie has grown up. But at 8 years old, she continues to play in the garden of her house with all her toys that are so dear to her. The film even begins with a farcical marriage between Monsieur Fourchette and Madame Beverly who are declared “Cutlery for life!” But the world has changed. The latest technology incidentally enters the life of the little girl who receives from her parents a digital tablet in the shape of a frog called Lilypad. The little world of this energetic, imaginative and sassy kid is turned upside down.

The film reminds us with optimism and a touch of nostalgic emotion that technology can also be a source of fun and connection with others. The tool is not bad in itself. But it invades, it replaces, it hypnotizes as once the serpent bewitched Mowgli intoThe Jungle Book . O. D.

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The note of Figaro  : 3/4

Also read

Toy Story 5, a saga that adapts to the digital age of time

Backrooms - À voir

Film d’horreur de Kane Parsons - 1 h 51

Backrooms takes place in 1990, well before the internet. Clark is a salesman at a furniture store the size of a hangar. He has been sleeping on a couch in the basement since his divorce. He consults a psychologist, Mary Kline, who helps him stop ruminating about his failures – he is also a failed architect. One night, Clark discovers an invisible portal allowing him to cross a wall, like Marcel Aymé’s wall pass. A passage which opens onto another space. This space resembles an endless maze, made of corridors, rooms without windows in which furniture is sometimes piled up, doors that lead nowhere, half-doors that you can only get through by crawling.

Backroomsan enigmatic prototype, resembles nothing known and announces a revival of horror cinema. Kane Parsons doesn’t cut corners on the viewer. It opens many doors but gives few keys, contrary to current cinema, American or not, most often explanatory and reluctant to foreignness.É. S.

The note of Figaro  : 3/4

Also read

Our review of Backrooms: Kane Parsons’ stunning maze

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Jim Queen - À voir

Film d’animation by Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athane - 1 h 25

Panic in the Marais. First victim: Jim Perfect. This bearded and burly influencer with millions of followers is a star in his field. He published a book which is a bestseller. Biceps and pectorals, expertly organized hair, in the gym, we only see him. Disaster strikes when his abs disappear one by one. His fans turn away from him, starting to prefer his rival Pavel. The strong man and the gourdiflot set out in search of an antidote to the disease…

In a kitsch aesthetic, puffed with pink and purple, with gags and jokes, directors Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané display a deep vitality. All this is fast and uninhibited, cheeky as hell. We come out with glitter in our eyes. Danger: Laughter is contagious. He risks invading the whole of France.É. N.

The note of Figaro  : 3/4

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Our review of Jim Queen: gay panic

The Yakushima Illusion – to see

Drame de Naomi Kawase – 1 h 52

Fragile light and tenacious heart… With The Yakushima Illusion Japanese director Naomi Kawase signs a work of great delicacy, where the seriousness of the subject never erases the humanity of the gestures. Vicky Krieps, magnetic and shockingly accurate afterwardsPhantom Thread, plays Corry, a doctor sent to Japan to defend a pediatric heart transplant that is still taboo in the land of the rising sun. His fight to save a twelve-year-old child, alongside the search for his missing companion, gives the film a discreet but deep tension. In this sensory, gentle and melancholic stroll, Kawase gives birth to a modest, almost suspended emotion, which touches you long after the projection. A tender, committed and deeply human film. O. D.

The note of Figaro : 3/4

The Whale and the Musician-Â We can see

Documentaire de Valentin Paoli - 1 h 23

Rone, an electronic music virtuoso, planted his microphones in the ocean depths off the coast of Reunion Island to try to converse with whales. The idea came to him after receiving videos from sailors who saw cetaceans approaching every time they played his music. Built in three parts, the documentary penetrates into the intimacy of Rone’s creative process, goes on an adventure with a bio-acoustician specializing in whales keen to respect them and dives into this experience to meet these giants of the seas.

Neither animal documentary nor docu-fiction, the whole tends towards the portrait of an artist with the trappings of a fable. With a sparkling eye, equipped with his modular synthesizer, Rone appears lunar, even illuminated. But his wonder at the appearance of a tail and his inventiveness in recreating the song of the whales provoke beautiful emotions. The whole thing certainly has staying power, but pulls somewhat to the line to keep the spectator in suspense waiting for the answer to his question: will the whale answer the musician?F. V.

The note of Figaro  : 2/4