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THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS
*** The luminous cinematography of Ruben Impens takes the lead until filmmakers Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen allow their characters to wrestle it back in this adaptation of Paolo Cognetti’s 2016 novel, which took home a Jury Prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film embarks on a four-decade journey with Pietro (Lupo Barbiero), who we first met as an 11-year-old city kid in 1984. His family has rented a house in a small mountain village for the summer. There, he’s introduced to the only other child in town, Bruno (Cristiano Sassella), who lives and works with his aunt and uncle. Each summer, Pietro returns, cultivating their friendship until they’re separated by diverging paths not of their choosing. Then, the boys reunite several years later, with unspoken envy frustrating any efforts to recapture that idyllic childhood connection. As the film progresses, the captivating imagery washes away, revealing a gruff reality resulting from the characters’ inability to communicate and the hidden traumas caused by their fathers. The oscillating nature of their friendship gets tedious over the two-and-a-half-hour runtime, but the film movingly explores family and identity, asking, “Can we truly ever go home again?” NR. RAY GILL JR. Cinema 21.
BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER
** Even with its jokes about meatballs and a male chef’s dough, Book Club: The Next Chapter isn’t as naughty as it pretends to be. A sequel to the livelier Book Club (2018), which was also written and directed by Bill Holderman, The Next Chapter is a pleasant portrait of female friendship bathed in prosecco and muted sunshine. This time, the four friends, played by Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candace Bergen and Mary Steenburgen, take a trip to Italy. Along the way, they experience a series of mishaps, but nothing too serious. When their luggage is stolen, they buy new clothes. When they get thrown in the slammer, even the pale blue walls of the Italian prison are pretty. At 85, Fonda, who in real life endured five chemo treatments last year, can be forgiven for looking a little tired. But for a movie that’s supposed to be “slightly scandalous,” there’s a lot of talk about taking naps and making the most of the “time we have left” that wafts of sadness. A hilarious Zoom meeting montage, though, and Bergen’s one-liners add some pep. And the sight of the silver-haired Keaton in a sharp suit and a pair of Oxfords never gets old. PG-13. LINDA FERGUSON. Bridgeport, Cascade, Cedar Hills, Clackamas, Eastport, Lloyd Center.
EVERYTHING WENT FINE
** André Bernheim’s daughters are experts in storming out and circling back. It’s the migratory pattern of adult children whose elderly father has ruled their lives through a potent combination of bullying and helplessness. Now, André (André Dussollier) requests a final favor: help with ending his life after a debilitating stroke. Sophie Marceau (The Party, The World Is Not Enough) plays André's daughter Emmanuéle, the real-life author whose memoir director Francois Ozon here adapts to present-day Paris. (Emmanuéle, who died in 2017, authored screenplays for two of Ozon’s breakout films, Swimming Pool and 5x2). As a straight drama, Everything Went Fine is messy, unsparing and perhaps confused in its loyalties. The film seems to like the ghoulish André in his bedridden, sarcasm-couched flightiness as he holds court in the hospital while his ex-wife (Charlotte Rampling, an Ozon favorite) and ex-lover (Grégory Gadebois) become Emmanuéle’s responsibility. As a psychological conundrum, though, Everything Went Fine holds sway. The prospect of Andre’s assisted suicide darkly leverages family pathology. Maybe this one final time, if they let the old man manipulate and complicate, everyone at the end of it will have catharsis. “Is this love or perversity?” Emmanuéle’s husband asks of the euthanasia plan. Emmanuéle has an answer ready: “It’s both.” NR. CHANCE SOLEM-PFEIFER. Living Room.