(Dominik Moll, France, 2025, 115 minutes)
Case 137, French filmmaker Dominik Moll's second fact-based procedural in a row, represents the director--in collaboration with co-writer Gilles Marchand--at the top of his game.
His César Award-winning docudrama The Night of the 12th was terrific, but this penetrating look at modern-day policing proves even more gripping, thanks in large part to César winner Léa Drucker's tough, yet tender performance as a single mother, daughter, and internal affairs investigator doing her best under unbelievably difficult circumstances (Drucker last appeared on Seattle screens in Catherine Breillat's Last Summer).
Unexpected bonus: Case 137 is a first-rate cat film. Highly recommended.
Case 137 plays Mon, May 11, 8:45pm at the Uptown.
DRUNKEN NOODLES
(Lucio Castro, 2025, USA/Argentina, 81 minutes)
Argentinian filmmaker Lucio Castro's character study centers on Adnan (Laith Khalifeh), a handsome grad student open to new sexual experiences.
In the title chapter, he spends a summer internship at a New York art gallery. In his off hours, he frequents a cruising park until he clicks with Yariel (Joel Isaac), a delivery driver with limited English who proves poetic in Spanish. Connection established, things take an unexpected turn.
In other chapters, he enjoys summer adventures with septuagenarian artist Sal (Ezriel Kornel) who creates gay erotica out of embroidery, and a loving, if sexually-challenged partner (Matthew Risch). In the final chapter, Adnan finds a different kind of release. Castro's droll, sexually frank approach recalls Misericordia's Alain Guiraudie with more wonder, less menace.
I found this interview with the filmmaker particularly illuminating.
Drunken Noodles plays Sun, 5/10, 8:45pm, at the Uptown.
FRANZ
(Agnieszka Holland, 2025, Czech Republic, 127 minutes)
A conventional biopic wouldn't suit the unconventional Franz Kafka, so Agnieszka Holland (Green Border, SIFF 2024) entwines narrative with nonfiction in a film as much about a Jewish family as a writer's career.
In the present, she explores the way Czechoslavakia has fetishized Kafka in contrast with his family's struggles, his complications with women, the illness that claimed him, and the persecution that devastated his survivors.
It isn't a happy story by any means, but Holland's multi-faceted method in concert with Idan Weiss's full-bodied performance honors a bizarre and brilliant artist who peeled back the layers of polite society to reveal the venality underpinning humanity--though quite entertainingly so!
Franz plays Sun, May 10, 5pm, at SIFF Cinema Downtown.
Dates and times subject to change. Please see the festival site for more information. Images from Rotten Tomatoes (Léa Drucker in Case 137) and the IMDb (Laith Khalifeh and Matthew Risch in Drunken Noodles).
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