Although the long-awaited start of “Avatar: The Way Of Water” is a blockbuster that takes up many screens, today, December 22, 2022, a whole series of promising films will start that will give you a good alternative program for the holidays – at least In most cases…
“Mr. Poe’s Memorable Case”
The weakest part, unfortunately, is “The Memorable Case of Mr Poe”, which is so promising after the atmospheric trailer and will only run in select cinemas for a limited time before landing on Netflix on January 6, 2023. Fans of Christian Bale can of course still take a look.
The MOVIE STARTS review of “The Memorable Case of Mr. Poe”
In his third collaboration with director Scott Cooper (following “Eye for an Eye – Out Of The Furnace” and “Enemies – Hostiles”), the main character plays veteran investigator Augustus Landor, tasked with solving a brutal ritual murder in 1830. … and has to do with the later world famous writer Edgar Allan Poe (played by Harry Melling, who plays Dursley Dursley from the Harry Potter films). The mix of historical detective and horror story convinces with its dense, horrifying atmosphere, but the crime plot is rather trite and long-winded.
“Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish”
A cinema sequel to “Puss in Boots” has long been planned, the movie adventure of the fan favorite of the same name that won the hearts of countless viewers with the animated hit “Shrek 2”. But in the end, eleven years should pass before we finally get the sequel with “Puss in Boots 2: The Last Wish”. And the wait was well worth it.
The FILMSTARTS review for “Puss in Boots 2”
In a beautiful, picture-book look (somewhat reminiscent of the Marvel highlight “Spider-Man: A New Universe”) and again sympathetically set to music by Antonio Banderas and Benno Fürmann in both English and German, the sword is -waving house tiger falls as he tries to replenish his nearly exhausted nine lives with a magical wishing star, in a fun, entertaining and sometimes dark adventure.
“Oscar’s Dress”
With his new screenplay “Oskar’s Dress”, audience favorite Florian David Fitz has committed himself to a true matter of the heart – and you can see that in every moment of the comedy, just like in ours 4 star rating named after the movie. Fitz (who also plays the leading role) and director Hüseyin Tabak (“Gipsy Queen”) have made an honest film about a young trans girl and her doubtful father, who, despite all his light-heartedness, never takes things lightly.
“EO”
In addition to “Puss in Boots 2”, “EO” also presents us with a slightly different animal protagonist this week. In this case it is a donkey who is relegated from a groomed circus animal to a whip boy and is staged in an astonishingly expressive way. Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski describes this emotional ordeal in loose, mostly unrelated episodes and experimental image and sound collages that make ‘EO’ one of the most unusual, but also formally most exciting and original films of the year.
“Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” & “Ennio Morricone – The Maestro”
Meanwhile, music lovers can look forward to two very different films about two very different musical legends this week. While “Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody” has become a fairly generic biopic about the pop diva who passed away in 2012, which at least provides some goosebumps moments, especially thanks to strong lead actress Naomie Ackie, “Ennio Morricone – The Maestro” gives us a fascinating documentary insight into the work of one of the most important film music composers of all time.