Hoffman reaches deep into his generosity bag and whips out the elusive A+. When is a movie deserving of an A+? When you’ve come to involve yourself so deeply with the characters and scenario on screen that the movie ends you need a full moment to remember where you are; that you’ve forgotten that you are in a room somewhere watching a movie and can’t for the life of you remember getting there, as if you have always been a part of the lives of the people you’ve been watching. This may sound overblown, but it actually happened. Now, on to the film itself, which won Best Foreign Film last year at the Oscars (from Canada!? Is that really “foreign” even if it is French Canada?!) who ever said Existentialism can’t be fun? A bon vivant lays in his death bed, talks about wet dreams of his youth, babbles about socialism and. . .I dunno. . .I can’t really describe this movie and make it sound like anything. There’s no real plot, except a man who is kind’ve a jerk to his family, but is lovable anyway, dies and everybody pretty much forgives everyone else. I know — that’s forcing you to run out the video store, isn’t it? Trust me — it is fantastic.
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Welcome
Jordan Hoffman is a New York-based writer and film critic working for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Thrillist, Times of Israel, NY Daily News and elsewhere.
He is the host of ENGAGE: The Official Star Trek Podcast, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and challenges you to a game of backgammon.