Petite Maman

Directed by : Celine Sciamma

You didn't invent my sadness.


Spoilers ahead.. 


8 year old Nelly (Josephine Sanz) is at her mother Marion's childhood home after the death of her grandmother. Marion is still grieving at the loss and goes away leaving Nelly with her father. Nelly while on a stroll outside the home comes across a girl her age also named Marion (Gabrielle Sanz) as a very beautiful friendship develops instantly. The movie starts with two sweet moments, one is at hospital where Nelly is seen saying goodbye to every room patient possibly the ones she may have bonded over the time spent there when her grandmother was trying to recover. And other is the next scene where Nelly is trying to feed her mom while she drives, a no dialogue scene yet it talks a lot about their relationship. 

Even the time-travel twist is handled so well, despite no answer given as to if its really happening or is it some kind of daydream or roleplay or fantasy.. You actually just don't care for these answers because you are just busy enjoying watching Nelly-Marion hanging together and the things they do. The fact that real life twins (Sanz) play the role of Nelly-Marion makes it even more innocent and lovely to watch, at no point they give you a feeling of they are trying to behave above their age which mostly child oriented movies do. Special mention to the cinematography, totally enjoyed all the forest/treehouse building scenes. Another lovely moment comes when its young Marion's birthday and her mother along with Nelly wish her but she doesn't want this sweet moment to end so she asks them to sing her happy birthday once more. Told through the point of view of Nelly for almost the entire duration, Petite Maman works very well for me, leaving asides minor scenes that get monotonous, its a very sweet lovely film, both Josephine and Gabrielle giving adorable performances, and the relationship of mother-daughter tackled by Sciamma will leave a smile on your face when the film ends. Also, its just a 72 mins film so you can give it a go, even if it doesn't work for you won't consume much of your time. 

My Rating : 7.5/10 



C'mon C'mon 

Directed by : Mike Mills 

Have you ever thought about the future? 
Uh, yeah. Uh, whatever you plan on happening, never happens. Stuff you would never think of happens. So you just have to.. you have to c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon.


Spoilers ahead... 


Johnny (Joaquin Phoenix) is a radio journalist who is doing a show that involves kids talking about world and how they see the future to be. His life gets little interrupted when he is asked by his sister Viv (Gaby Hoffmann) to help look after her son Jesse (Woody Norman) so she can go check on her husband Paul (Scoot McNairy) whose mental health is deteriorating. Another movie with a brilliant child performance coming from Woody Norman but unlike Petite Maman, this one has the adults equally involved if not more. The equation of Johnny with his nephew Jesse forms the major plot of the movie, how they get along, try to know things around them and eventually each other too. Also, how tough it is to be a parent as Johnny struggles a lot coping up with Jesse but also learns how good it is too having such a good company around. In one of my most fav scene, Johnny tells Jesse that when he grows up he won't even remember this time he is spending with his uncle which makes Jesse sad and Johnny tells him that he will make sure he keeps these memories fresh in his mind. Also, Gaby Hoffmann is brilliant despite having very less screen-time, mostly its flashbacks or the phone calls. 

Joaquin Phoenix is wonderful, won't say its his best performance, reason being Woody and Gaby steal the show more to me. Yet Joaquin gets scenes to shine, for instance the one already I mentioned and then that 'blah blah blah' when he isn't sure how to reply to serious questions of Jesse. The black and white template helps to keep focus just on the main characters, yet there are some hiccups. I personally didn't like all the radio show scenes, yes some answers of kids are fun to hear but it just deviates from the Johnny-Jesse plot that I rather prefer to be going all the time. No major high points or terrific scenes to look back on once film ends can be another issue though I would say in movies like this more often its a collective experience you enjoy rather than pin-pointing something special you saw in it. 'Cmon Cmon' delivers for me mostly, another movie that is light-hearted, little thought provoking about future but mostly its about a uncle-nephew bond that you enjoy watching. And I didn't knew a musical toothbrush existed! 

My Rating : 7.5/10