Review of MALIGNANT: Terrorizing Tumor

November 29, 2021

Madison (Annabelle Wallis) was pregnant again after a series of miscarriages. One day, her abusive husband Derek (Jake Abel) strongly shoved her, hitting her head on the wall. While she was sleeping to rest from this injury, Derek was attacked by an unseen entity who broke his neck, instantly killing him. When Madison woke up from a dream about Derek dying, she saw his dead body in their living room. Then the entity began to chase and attack her. 

Madison was a woman who can see a murder happening as if she was in the same place but she wasn't. The police detectives on the case, Shaw (George Young) and Moss (Michole Briana White), were so puzzled, they thought it was Maddie herself who did the brutal murders of two senior doctors Dr. Florence Weaver (Jacqueline Mackenzie) and Dr. Victor Fields (Christian Clemenson), even as she blamed an unseen entity named Gabriel. 

Director James Wan is best known for his horror classics "Saw," "Insidious" and of course "The Conjuring," which had all spun off into their own franchises.  This time he, along with his wife Romanian actress Ingrid Bisu, developed this murder mystery story caused by a seemingly supernatural being, and delegated the screenplay duties to up and coming writer, Akela Cooper, who worked on TV series like "Grimm," "The 100" and "Luke Cage." 

Annabelle Wallis gained mainstream recognition when she played the lead character Mia in another film connected with James Wan, "Annabelle" (2014). George Young, a fully-qualified London-based solicitor with Malaysian-Chinese and Greek-Cypriot blood, gets the highest-profile role in his career so far as Detective Shaw, who had an interesting first name Kekoa (Hawaiian, meaning "courageous").. 

The acting of everyone in the cast was high-strung and over-the-top, which can grate on the viewers' nerves after a while. The reveal of the actual relationship between Madison and her presumed childhood invisible friend Gabriel was a totally crazy medical impossibility of course, but it was oddly fun and entertaining to watch unfold. The ending was a bit too sudden, which was rather disappointing given the complicated twisty build-up and climax. 7/10. 

QCinema 2021: Mini-Reviews of MEMORIA and THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

November 26, 2021

Cinemas just began to open this month of November, and QCinema International Film Festival jump cuts the challenges and proceeds again with a hybrid festival. Last year in 2020, the festival pivoted to the new normal with a festival that featured socially distanced and by-invitation-only physical screenings coupled with online streaming. This year, from November 26 to December 5, 2021, QCinema has physical screenings at Gateway Cineplex 10 at the Araneta Center, Cubao, and online screening in cooperation with KTX. 

These two films reviewed below are the submissions of Colombia and Norway (respectively) to the Oscars for the Best International Feature Film. Aside from these two, you can also catch the Oscar submissions of Austria ("Great Freedom"), Iceland ("Lamb"), Indonesia ("Yumi") and Japan ("Drive My Car") as part of the collection of films that QCinema had lined up for screening in Gateway cinemas this year. 

*****

MEMORIA

Directed by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Written by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Jessica (Tilda Swinton) is a Scottish woman from Medellin who was in Bogota to buy a refrigerator for her flower business as well as to visit her ill sister. One early morning before dawn, she was awakened by one loud booming sound, which apparently only she could hear. She would hear this same sound over and over again at random times of the day, and in random places around the city. With the help of a young sound engineer (Juan Pablo Urrego) and an old fisherman (Elkin Diaz), she sought for the origin of this sound.

I have not seen any feature length films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul before this one. I did see a short film of his entitled "Blue," 12-minute long with not a single line of dialogue. There were a lot of such silent moments in "Memoria" as well. The opening sequence was one such long stretch of silence in a dark room which was suddenly broken by the boom sound. I felt several similarities in pace, style and vibe with Filipino auteur Lav Diaz, so I was able to get into his groove up to that head-scratching third act and climax. Tilda Swinton felt right at home with the oddness of this mysterious artistic film.

The most interesting sequence happened early in the film when Jessica was trying to describe the sound she heard to a sound engineer while he was trying to recreate it on his machine. This sequence lasted for probably 10-minutes of constant little adjustments until the right sound was reached, but it was truly fascinating. Among the several "what was that all about?" scenes, the most puzzling should be that of the old fisherman lying down to sleep on the grass beside a small creek, while the camera just hovered over his still, seemingly dead body for more than five static minutes.  8/10.

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD

Directed by: Joachim Trier

Written by: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt

Julie (Renate Reinsve) was a young woman had been indecisive all her life. First about her career choice, as she began with the plan to become a doctor only to dither from one alternative to another. She was already living in with a famous comic book author Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) for some time already. One night while walking back to town, Julie gatecrashed a random wedding party and met coffee shop employee Eivind (Herbert Nordrum). That was when her status quo began to change. 

This two hour film had a prologue, 12 chapters (!) and an epilogue. The major turning point was in the end of Chapter 5 "Bad Timing" when serious decisions had to be made. There was a whimsical time-freeze special effect in the first part of this chapter, but it ended with a conversation that provoked the most thoughts and emotions. Some episodes do not feel like they were entirely integral to the main story, like the one about Julie's essay, or that one about Julie's family or that one about Eivind's girlfriend. 

This was basically a rom-com which would later take serious twists and turns. With the slow pace and episodic style of storytelling, there were times when the movie can feel long and rambling. The characters all had disturbing habits and flaws, so they were all not always likable or relatable. This is a very good film, but I think it's Cannes pedigree, including Renate Reinsve's Best Actress award, could have hyped this film up a bit too much that the expectations may be too high and difficult to meet. 7/10. 

Vivamax: Review of MY HUSBAND, MY LOVER: Quadrilateral Quandary

November 26, 2021

Advertising man Noel (Marco Gumabao) and aspiring novelist Alice (Kylie Versoza) were college sweethearts and were now married. Alice got into a love affair with mango farmer Dennis (Adrian Alandy). When Noel found out, he split up with Alice and got into an affair with litigation lawyer Loida (Cindy Miranda). During their time apart, Noel and Alice realized they missed each other and began to meet again on the sly.

This new film proudly carries the name of its illustrious writer, Ricky Lee, above its very literal, plot-revealing title. Director McArthur Alejandre took this lurid potboiler plot and conjured this glossy steamy feature film from it, taking full advantage of his attractive quartet of actors. The story is about adultery and its various permutations, so there will be quite a number of sex scenes, even in parts when you do not exactly expect one. 

The two beautiful actresses here have been in several other sexy films this year alone. Each had just come from their respective star-making vehicles where they played the title character. 29-year old Kylie Versoza starred in Roman Perez, Jr.'s "The Housemaid," while 31-year old Cindy Miranda starred in Law Fajardo's "Nerisa," both films also on the Vivamax lineup. Both of them exuded sexiness effortlessly, even if they were fully clothed. 

After being Anne Curtis's object of desire in Jason Paul Laxamana's "Just A Stranger" (2019), and Lovi Poe's in Joel Lamangan's "Hindi Tayo Puwede" (2020), 27-year old Marco Gumabao became Sharon Cuneta's dreamboat in Darryl Yap's "Revirginized" this year. Adrian Alandy was more known as a dramatic actor in the past when he was known as Luis Alandy. His present age of 41 did not deter him from daring to bare with his much younger co-stars here. 

With a story this convoluted and ultimately melodramatic, this film mainly rode on the chemistry of the actors with each other to keep matters engaging. There is nudity, but prudently done. Director Alejandre tried to keep things classy, making conscious efforts to keep certain body parts hidden or obscured. Given the elaborate build-up of their intertwined relationships, the final resolution was not entirely satisfactory as it took a turn towards vagueness. 4/10.

Netflix: Review of HELLBOUND: Damning Decrees and Demonstrations

November 23, 2021

An "angel" would appear before a person to "decree" the exact date and time of his death, and that he was going straight to Hell. On the designated time, three giant hulking supernatural creatures would suddenly appear to kill the person. A religious cult called The New Truth, founded by Jeong Jin-su (Yoo Ah-in), had gained virality when it broadcast one such "demonstration," explaining these to be God-ordained punishment for sinners.

Meanwhile, a lawyer named Min Hye-jin (Kim Hyun-joo) had formed her own group called Sodo to protect those who have received their decrees, but would like to keep their demonstrations secret. They believed that these decrees and demonstrations were a random mystical event that had nothing to do with any sin. The case of one particularly controversial decree recipient had both groups mobilizing their ranks to gain control of it.

The concept of this 6-episode mini-series by "Train to Busan" director Yeon Sang-ho was quite novel and interesting -- one that mixed morbid supernatural events with fanatical human behavior to create very dramatic situations. The misguided religious fanaticism and warped philosophy here were very disturbing to watch. Its origins may have been simple and sincere. However, with increased popularity comes pride and greed, so violence soon became inevitable.

The amount and degree of physical violence here was excessive. Those giant executioner demons could have simply vaporized the intended victim and be done with it. But no, they had to hurl them against walls to spray blood all over, before killing them with the bright light they emitted. There were also the goons of The New Truth, called the Arrowhead, who did extra-decree killings of people who wronged them, using anything from bats to incinerators. 

The first three episodes dealt with Jeong Jin-su, played with so much charisma by acclaimed actor Yoo Ah-in in yet another riveting performance. The last three episodes tackle events four years after Episode 3, with all new characters by less enigmatic actors, except for two rivals who now assumed positions of leadership. The final episode climaxed with so much emotional drama, but head-scratching logic. A chilling epilogue promises a possible season 2. 6/10.

Review of SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS: Affirmatively Asian

November 24, 2021

Xu Wenwu (Tony Leung) was a warrior from a thousand years ago who had come to possess the legendary ten rings, which made him a powerful immortal. He founded the Ten Rings organization which had been involved in violence through the years, all over the world. In 1976, he met his true love Ying Li (Fala Chen) in the village of Ta Lo. They had two children, Shang-chi and Xialing, with whom Wenwu had been estranged since they were teens. 

At present, Shang-chi (Simu Liu) made a living parking cars with his best friend Katy (Awkwafina) in San Francisco. One day, Shang-chi was confronted by bad guys on a bus, who wanted to get the pendant his late mother gave him. Suspecting his father was behind this ambush, this led Shang-chi to go to Macau to warn his sister Xialing (Meng'er Zhang), who was running a underground fight club there. The shell-shocked Katy insisted to tag along.

What impotance "Black Panther" was for the African-American community, "Shang-Chi" would be for the Asian community. All the principal roles are portrayed by Asian actors, with only a few Caucasian actors in more minor roles. Shang-Chi is the first Asian title character in the MCU so it is a big deal that this project saw the light of day. This is probably the first time that most people had heard his name or that of the actor playing him.  

Simu Liu may not be a big name and familiar face compared, but he certainly proved his worth here in his feature film debut as a lead actor. He looked very good in all his fight scenes. That fight scene on the San Francisco bus, which introduced Liu to the general public in the first teaser, is still probably the best fight scene in the whole movie. His easygoing and humorous rapport with his co-star Awkwafina and her trademark awkward slacker character Katy is another big plus.

Tony Leung of course is a legendary name among Asian actors. He played Wenwu more relaxed that would be expected for such an intense anti-hero role, but he cannot be faulted for his acting choices as he still made it work. Michelle Yeoh revisits her role as the graceful yet powerful fighter in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to play Shang-Chi's aunt Ying-nan. Meng'er Zhang's training in MMA and rope darts showed in her fight scenes as Xialing.

To remind us that Shang-Chi will eventually be part of the MCU pantheon, Dr. Strange ally and Master of Mystic Arts Wong (Benedict Wong) makes an appearance in this film, more than once. The first one seemed to be whimsical, in a caged fight with the Abomination (voiced by Tim Roth). But the second one and the one after that (that featured two more unexpected hero cameos), were truly very exciting developments indeed. 

An interesting character is ham actor Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), whom we last saw as the Mandarin in "Iron Man 3" (2013). At first glance, the only reason he was even in Shang-Chi was because he was able to communicate with this faceless "chicken pig" creature which gave them directions to Ta Lo. But this also gave Trevor a chance to explain what really happened before,and show what he is reduced to now under Wenwu, the real "Mandarin."

Before this, director Destin Daniel Cretton's biggest project was "Just Mercy" (2019) (MY REVIEW), which got good reviews. His work in "Shang-Chi" catapults him into the major leagues. It was quite a lengthy film because it had to tell the history of how a new superhero got his powers, but with the well-choreographed fight scenes, over-the-top battles of CGI mythical creatures and the well-timed comic relief, this was one very entertaining movie. 8/10. 

Mini-Reviews of A QUIET PLACE 2 and DON'T BREATHE 2: Second-rate Sequels

November 20, 2021

A Quiet Place 2

Directed by: John Krasinski

Written by: John Krasinski

This sequel picked up from where the first film (MY REVIEW) left off. The remaining members of the Abbott family (Emily Blunt, Millicent Simmonds, Noah Jupe), plus their newborn baby, try to survive the deadly hearing-sensitive alien monsters that laid the world to waste. They encounter an old friend Elliot (Cillian Murphy), who later helped Regan track down other survivors in the islands. 

Just more of the same suspense gimmicks like from the first film, but this time these tense situations did not feel enough to sustain the whole running time. The two kids, in particular, were making really bold foolhardy decisions, like going out on investigations on their own. While these reckless actions created tense situations, but they did not seem logical at all. 

This sequel began with a flashback scene of the actual day the aliens arrived, not only to have a John Krasinski cameo, but also to introduce the character of Elliot who would essentially replace John's character in the action. At one point, when Elliot randomly asked Regan what the sign for "dive" was, so of course, I expected him to use that sign later. He did. 5/10

Don't Breathe 2

Directed by: Rodo Sayagues

Written by: Fede Álvarez and Rodo Sayagues

8 years after the events of the first film (MY REVIEW), the Blind Man (Stephen Lang) was living with a young girl Pheonix (Madelyn Grace), whom he called his daughter. When she was kidnapped by a man (Brendan Sexton III) who claimed to be her real father for nefarious reasons, the Blind Man tracked them down to stage a bold rescue.

Unlike the first film which was totally unpredictable where the story was going to go since everything was limited in one house, this sequel was a bit more clear cut as to how the story will end. It was also a lot more improbable given that the Blind Man was able to venture out of his house, go to a totally new place yet still able to put up a strong fight. 

The gore level of this sequel went much higher way with all sorts of gruesome, grotesque injuries being inflicted on various characters. However, by the second half, the claustrophobia that defined the first film was not there anymore as it devolved into frank slasher territory. The organ trafficking angle added a further level of heinousness to the proceedings. 5/10. 

Netflix: Review of TICK, TICK... BOOM!: Tension on Turning Thirty

November 20, 2021

New York City,1990. Jonathan Larson is turning 30 years old in a few days but he is still waiting tables at a diner. He had been writing his musical "Superbia" for eight years, and was about to present his songs in a workshop, but he still lacked a key song in the second act. His girlfriend Susan, a frustrated dancer, had serious intentions of accepting a teaching job in the Berkshires. His best friend since childhood Michael had given up his acting dreams and had become a successful advertising executive. 

The original musical was written by the creator of "Rent" Jonathan Larson. It was semi-autobiographical in the sense that Larson himself experienced the frustration that came with trying to make it on Broadway. It originated as a one-man show, a "rock monologue" performed by Jonathan Larson himself, and evolved from there. It was first staged June 2001 off Broadway with no less than Raul Esparza in the lead role. It had been re-staged and toured many times over since then. 

In the play version I saw back in 2016 (MY REVIEW), there were only three actors on the stage. There was one lead actor playing Jon. Two other actors, one male and one female, played his friends Michael and Susan, who would also take all the other more minor supporting characters. Of course in this film version, there was no need for the actors to take multiple roles. Each of the minor characters had a different actor to portray them. There were even a few other new characters who were written into the story. 

Andrew Garfield was an amazing ball of kinetic energy as Jon. I recalled how exhausting this role was for the actor onstage, and Garfield definitely projected that anxious stress and frenetic intensity of his character burning right through the screen. His singing voice soared with a vital jumble of passion and emotions, in songs like "30/90," "Swimming" and "Louder Than Words". He had always been an excellent actor, but this demanding role expanded his range even more. He deserves award recognition for this.

Alexandra Shipp played Susan, whose conflict with Jon was tough to call. Robin de Jesus played Michael, who made pragmatic decisions in place of his dreams. Vanessa Hudgens played Jon's singer Karessa, who sang two of the show's best songs "Therapy" (with Garfield) and "Come to Your Senses" (with Shipp). Judith Light played Jon's agent Rosa Stevens, while Bradley Whitford played theater legend Stephen Sondheim. MJ Rodriguez and Ben Levi Ross played Jon's co-workers at the diner, Carolyn and Freddy, new characters for the film.

Director Lin Manuel Miranda used his clout to invite a number of theater luminaries to make cameo appearances in the song "Sunday," from his "Hamilton" ladies, the "Rent" bohemians to Broadway grand dames Chita Rivera and Bernadette Peters, and many more.  This is theater wunderkind Miranda's debut as a feature film director, and it was an auspicious one. He was able to capture all the fantasies and turmoil going on in Jon's mind and effectively interpret them for us in cinematic images. 9/10. 

Review of BLACK WIDOW: Rebels of the Red Room

November 19, 2021

In 1995, Natasha (Ever Anderson) was an 11-year old girl with green hair living with her "parents" Russian undercover agents Alexei (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weiss), with younger "sister" Yelena (Violet McGraw) in suburban Ohio. One day, they suddenly had to up and escape to Cuba with SHIELD intel, where the girls were both sent to the Red Room to train to become deadly mind-controlled female assassins known as "Black Widows". 

21 years later, Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) was a fugitive of the law following the events of "Captain America: Civil War." Circumstances led her to Hungary to get her together with Yelena (Florence Pugh), who had been freed from her mind-control with an antidote. The two girls break Alexei out of jail, who then brought them to Melina. The reunited "family" execute a plot to infiltrate and destroy the Red Room and Gen. Draykov (Ray Winstone) for good.

This was a stand-alone movie for Natasha Romanoff, released after we know what happened to her in "Avengers: Endgame." Past and parallel events she was involved in were fit right in with known events of the MCU timeline. Fans of the MCU will enjoy the various references inserted as Easter Eggs within the story. One main antagonist, the Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), mimicked other superhero powers, so her fights were a lot of fun to watch. 

We all know how seriously Scarlett Johanssen performs as Black Widow, this is after all the 9th film she's been Natasha. It was good to see her interact with new characters in this film, people whom she considered as family in her past before her Red Room days. As I knew her from "Midsommar" and "Little Women," I did not expect Florence Pugh to also be convincing as an action star, but here she was going toe to toe with Johanssen. 

David Harbour may be providing comic relief as Alexei Shostakov a.k.a. Red Guardian, but this guy is a very powerful super soldier himself. It is very welcome to see Rachel Weiss in any role and her portrayal of the ambiguous Melina Vostokoff was on point as always. A very cool and casual O-T Fagbenle played ex-SHIELD operative Rick Mason, who now helped Natasha acquire the necessary hardware for her missions. 

The action scenes were all over-the-top CGI spectaculars, with the most incredible being that long sequence of Natasha and Yelena breaking their father out of a high-security Russian prison as an avalanche was rampaging down on it. Those scenes of Yelena ribbing Natasha about her classic fighting pose were hilarious. That amazing post-credits scene with Yelena and a mysterious woman we first met in the "Falcon and Winter Soldier" Disney+ series actually chucked my rating up a full point! 8/10. 

Vivamax: Review of MORE THAN BLUE: Sacrifices and Sentiments

November 19, 2021

Orphans Charles Keith  or "K" (JC Santos) and Sue Anne or "Cream" (Yassi Pressman) had been living together in a platonic arrangement since high school, and eventually became songwriting partners for pop singers. To try to get K to propose to her, Cream began to go out with a dentist John Luis (Diego Loyzaga). To assure himself that Cream had a good man who can take care of her when he is not in her life anymore, K even asked John's girlfriend Cathy (Ariella Arida) to help him get the two together. 

The story of this romantic drama was based on a 2009 Korean film with the same title which was a big box-office hit despite its low budget. It had already been remade in Taiwan in 2018, which also became a big box-office hit there and earning a more than $120M worldwide. There is even a 10-episode 2021 Taiwanese series based on the same story on Netflix now. I had not been able to watch these other versions yet, so I would not be able to compare the directorial vision and acting quality in each. 

After week after week of raunchy comedies or sexually-explicit fare, this was a very refreshing change in the programming of Vivamax to have an old-fashioned tear-jerking romantic drama like this. This had the glossy look classic Viva movies had been known for when they started in the film production business in the 1980s. If not for the odd inclusion of a gratuitous buttocks exposure scene by one character, this was something that millennial can comfortably watch together with their boomer parents. 

Before this film, I only knew Yassi Pressman as Cardo Dalisay's long-suffering wife Alyanna. Watching her here in action here as the typical manic pixie girl Cream was quite a departure made me appreciate her range as an actress. Like how this trope character usually works, Pressman definitely had the required beauty and energy to snap K out of his severe doldrums. When the arc of her story turned more serious, she readily switched to waterworks mode so well, pulling us all along with her pain and her tears. 

JC Santos is already very familiar with sad characters like K from all the indie films he had done before this. It was a bit of a stretch to accept him as a high school student at first, but when it came to heavy drama, this actor can surely deliver. After all the sexy roles Diego Loyzaga had this year, it was very good to see him give a solid performance in a straight dramatic role. As photographer Cindy, Ariella Arida can now wash her palate clean from how badly she was treated in her film debut a few weeks back.

Director Nuel Crisostomo Naval did very well with his camera angles here, with so many imaginative uses of mirrored images to make the scenes look elegant. The locations he chose all looked beautiful on the screen, especially the wedding studio and its spiral staircase encased by a tower with clear glass walls, the stylish photography studio of Cindy, and the dramatically-lit Jones bridge with its ornate lamp posts. Even with the inherent melodrama in the story, the high production value gave this film a lot of class. 8/10. 

Review of SPENCER: Cornered and Claustrophobic

November 17, 2021

Just when you think you've seen everything about the life story of Diana, Princess of Wales had been told and retold in countless media, here comes another feature film that is about her. During this pandemic alone, she had been the subject of a television series ("The Crown" Season 4 in 2020) and a filmed play / Broadway musical ("Diana: The Musical" in 2021). Certainly, the world is still held rapt about everything about her short but tragic life, even if it had already been 24 years after her death by now. 

It was 1991. The royal family were gathered in Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk to spend the Christmas holidays. Because her marriage to Charles had already been long strained at that point, Diana was not in a hurry to be with everybody else. Because of a book she saw in her room, she began to see her current condition as being similar to that of Anne Boleyn. She also bothered that her sons were going to be taught how to shoot down pheasants. How will this stressful weekend turn out for the distressed princess?

This is practically a one-woman show by Kristen Stewart, centering on Diana point of view and her extreme mental anguish. People find it hard to accept Stewart as Diana, as their initial impression never moved from her maligned breakthrough role as Bella Swan in the "Twilight" films. However, she is now far and away the early favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actress and deservedly so. Accurate accent and mannerisms aside, Stewart's subtly nuanced take on Diana's fragile state of mind, practically on the brink of insanity at times, was absolutely riveting and heart-breaking.

Her two boys William and Harry were the only ones happy to see her. The Queen (Stella Gonet), Charles (Jack Farthing) and even Camilla (Emma Darwall-Smith) were in there, but they did not really have too much good to say to Diana. Diana actually shared longer conversations with certain members of the household staff. These were: Equerry Major Alistair Gregory (Timothy Spall),the Royal Head Chef Darren McGrady (Sean Harris) and the Royal Dresser Maggie (Sally Hawkins), whom Diana felt was her only friend there. 

This biopic did not deal about the typical highlights of her eventful life, just this one Christmas in 1991. Director Pedro Larrain ("Jackie") knew we already knew the context of Diana's situation at that time well enough and did not need much preliminary exposition anymore. He concentrated mainly on Diana and her inner demons and he made sure we felt as cornered and helpless as she did. The cinematography by Clair Mathon ("Portrait of a Lady on Fire") and the costumes by Jacqueline Durran ("Little Women" 2019) both deserve citation. That Mike and the Mechanics song at the end was so perfectly chosen. 8/10. 

Upstream: Review of BENEDETTA: Sisterly Scandal

November 15, 2021

In the 17th century in the city of Pescia, a girl from a well-to-do merchant family was offered by her parents to the Convent of the Theatines to be nun. For the next 18 years, Sister Benedetta would frequently have vivid visions of Jesus Christ talking to her or fighting for her. One day, a peasant girl named Bartolomea was put under her guidance.  When Benedetta later manifested stigmata, she promoted in position, as her relationship with her postulant became more scandalous. Meanwhile, the Black Plague ravaged the rest of Italy. 

During his heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven was notorious for the salaciousness of films such as "Basic Instinct" (1992) and "Showgirls" (1995). This year, at a ripe old age of 83, Verhoeven is back with another sexually-charged feature film which will be added to this infamous list. This new film courts even more controversy because it dared to tackle a story of sapphic sexuality happening within the consecrated confines of a Catholic convent, and this was supposed to be based on a real-life person. 

When it premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival in competition for the Palme d'Or, this film raised a major ruckus because of several provocative scenes which can easily be labelled as sacrilegious or blasphemous. Of course, the sexuality of nuns alone was already taboo topic in itself. Showing two nude nuns engaging in carnal pleasures with each other took this to a whole new level. Showing Bartolomea use a little statue of the Virgin Mary to bring Benedetta to ecstasy simply blasted everything through the roof. 

That short controversial scene of Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene on the lips that doomed Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) was nothing next to what Jesus was doing here in Benedetta's visions. He was a swashbuckling swordsman on horseback chopping off the head of Benedetta's rapist. He was hanging on the cross, and asked Benedetta to remove his loincloth, and then some. These disturbing scenes were very difficult to sit through for Christians, but I suspect may actually be quite humorous for atheists. 

This was an elegantly-shot film by cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie, with an evocative musical score by Anne Dudley. It felt like Pasolini's "The Decameron" (1971) and Annaud's "The Name of the Rose" (1986). As he criticized organized religion, Verhoeven kept us guessing to the end about the authenticity of Benedetta's divinity. The lead actresses Virginie Efira and Daphne Patakia were beautiful and fearless, as veteran actors Charlotte Rampling (as the old Abbess Felicita) and (Lambert Wilson) as the Nuncio gave impactful support.