Q’s Reviews – July 15, 2019

Faces Places.  Lovers of art and especially French Cinema will love this ménage à deux.  Agnes Varda at 87 is an honored director of the French New Wave cinema era.  She is still active and quite a photographer.  She teams up with professional graffiti artist, photographer and muralist, J.R., who is young enough to be her grandson.  They drive around France in a special van equipped as a portable photo booth and print shop.  They use the people and countryside of France as their palette.  Agnes and J.R. create huge images that they transform into posters they paste up on all sorts of strange places.   Agnes and J.R. celebrate the art and history of France as they create unique new art.  Their friendship that evolves into something quite special is the real treat in the movie. They talk endlessly as they form a unified artistic ethos drawn from very different times and backgrounds.  Rated PG for brief nude images and thematic elements. The film is in French with English subtitles.  Currently available on Amazon Prime.

Stuber.  The title alone let’s you know the film is stupid and silly – that is what it is.  Kumail Nanjiani is Stu, an overly polite Uber driver. He picks up a ride who just happens to be a burly and temporarily blind LAPD detective, Vic (Dave Bautista).  Vic is manically tracking down a really bad drug dealer who killed his partner and threatened his family.  They have all types of shoot-outs, chases and general mayhem as they make fun of all things Uber and all things Macho.  The film has some very funny moments thanks to Kumail’s comic timing and deadpan glares.  The rest of the film follows tired clichés of the buddy/cop genre.  Rated R for violence and language throughout, some sexual references and brief graphic nudity.