'Weapons' (★★★★✩), 'That Summer in Paris', 'Face Me Again' and other new releases this week
These are the new releases hitting the big screen this Friday, August 8:
Ratings★★★★★ masterpiece ★★★★ very good ★★★ good ★★ average ★ bad
Weapons ★★★★✩Directed by: Zach CreggerCast by: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenrich, Austin AbramsProduction: USA, 2025 (128 minutes) Horror Cregger reaffirms his talentBy Jordi Batlle Caminal
Barbarian , the previous feature film from director and screenwriter Zach Cregger, was and remains one of the few horror films that truly scares, even terrifies. It's hard to erase from the memory of that secret basement that led the protagonist who had rented the house to the very gates of hell. Those scenes of the sinister tunnel, lit with just the right amount of light to create the greatest unease, made your esophagus tingle: XXL spookiness.
A still from the American film 'Weapons'
DRAFTINGIt's clear that the faithful were eagerly awaiting Weapons , the film that would confirm whether we are truly witnessing a new master of the genre. And it more than confirms it: Weapons is even better than Barbarian , more complex and expansive, more playful and creative. It also delivers a few scary scenes, but there are more rest areas and, at times, a cynical humor that marks the gap between terror and pure delirium (the final climax).
How much of the plot can we cover without spoiling the fun for future viewers? Let's stick to what the poster already reveals: "Last night, at 2:17 a.m., every child in Miss Gandy's class woke up, got up, went downstairs, opened the door, and disappeared into the darkness... never to return." There are a couple of inaccuracies in the sentence. One is that not all the children in Miss Gandy's class disappeared: one showed up to the empty classroom the next day, and he's a key character.
From this suggestive premise, Cregger uses a structure that has been well-trodden in recent times, but handles it optimally. It involves dividing the story into episodes, each focusing on a character from the typical residential area where the inexplicable incident occurred (a father, the aforementioned teacher Gandy, the police officer who loves the teacher, the school principal, the boy who didn't disappear, a young drug addict almost identical to Enric Auquer, etc.), and revisiting the same events from different points of view and with new information. The device, the devilish puzzle, works perfectly, leaving you gripped and open-mouthed by the enigma for two hours that fly by. Weapons is brilliant, irresistible.
That Summer in Paris ★★★★✩Directed by: Valentine CadicCast by: Blandine Madec, India HairProduction: France, 2025 (77 minutes) Dramatic comedy The Olympics of lonelinessBy Philipp Engel
The title, like the poster around here, could be misleading; the film could be mistaken for a French feel-good movie or a teen romance with fireworks. Valentine Cadic's debut fits better within the latest wave of French indie cinema.
As in the climax of Justine Triet's debut feature, The Battle of Solferino (2013), the character's reality blends with that of the historical moment: there the socialist victory, there the Paris Olympics, which form the backdrop for the entire film, from the moment Blandine Madec – Bolbec in the fiction, a character to whom Cadic had already dedicated the short Les grandes vacances – arrives in the capital, with the hope, soon dashed, of watching the events in which the swimmer who inspires her, Béryl Gastaldello, competes. The soft, subtle humor, imbued with humanism and a love of singularity, has a lot of Guillaume Brac (All Aboard!), who was Cadic's teacher, and may also recall the Parisian melancholy of Mikhaël Hers (My Life with Amanda).
A still from 'That Summer in Paris' by director Valentine Cadic
GVA / Europa PressAs you can see, it may not have been seen by three or five million French people, but it counts among the greatest, in the eyes of the most seasoned critics, of recent French cinema. It's clear that the film owes a great deal to the endearing anti-heroine played by Madec, a not very attractive, somewhat clumsy, and rather lonely girl who gradually overcomes the viewer's prejudices: if she may seem naive and overly helpful, Blandine also demonstrates that she has her own personality, more nobility than average, and a way of life that corresponds to what she truly needs. But the intelligence of the immersive device, as well as the wonderful cast of supporting actors who support her—among them the great India Hair ( Three Friends )—are also responsible for this sad "Ray-Verdian" comedy becoming one of the most refreshing sensations for cinephiles who continue to seek refuge in air-conditioned theaters.
The Karate Kid: Legends ★★✩✩✩Directed by: Jonathan EntwistleCast by: Jackie Chan, Ben Wang, Ralph MacchioProduction: USA, 2025 (94 minutes) Action Template cinemaBy J. Batlle
This is a product made exclusively for fans of The Karate Kid, released in 1984. After going through sequels, a thousand variations, revivals, and television tributaries, the saga now recovers the character played by Jackie Chan in 2010 and Ralph Macchio, the protagonist of the original title, whose plot is shamelessly repeated by using a template, with an obligatory homage to the emblematic Pat Morita. Simple, predictable from start to finish, and reasonably effective.
Ben Wang, Jackie Chan & Ralph Macchio in a still from 'Karate Kid: Legends'
Columbia PicturesBy P. Engel
Had I been a neo-grunge preteen in 2003, I might have appreciated Freaky Freak, despite its very mediocre dramatic use of... Baby One More Time (sorry, Britney), and I would have enjoyed the sequel singing along with my pre-teen daughter , a K-Pop fan . But something has gone wrong in the equation. Always in favor of Lohan and Curtis, but before the somewhat emotional musical finale arrives, an updated echo of the previous one, what precedes feels like a routine and outdated revival.
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan in a scene from 'Put Yourself in My Shoes Again'
Walt Disney PicturesBy P. Engel
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi, who rose to fame with two offbeat series like Normal People and Euphoria , seem doomed to a tormented sexuality. In this queer take on 1950s suburbia, they embody two personalities who don't fit into the dream of a small house with a garden and desperately try to find their way. It's not a masterpiece like Haynes's, but it is an elegant motel worth stopping at when driving toward Carol or Far From Heaven.
My Favorite Dessert ★★★✩✩Directed by: Maryam Moghadam and Behtash SanaeehaCast by: Lili Farhadpour, Esmaeel MehrabiProduction: Iran, 2024 (97 minutes) Comedy drama Widowed Iranian woman seeks...By P. Engel
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi, who rose to fame with two offbeat series like Normal People and Euphoria , seem doomed to a tormented sexuality. In this queer take on 1950s suburbia, they embody two personalities who don't fit into the dream of a small house with a garden and desperately try to find their way. It's not a masterpiece like Haynes's, but it is an elegant motel worth stopping at when driving toward Carol or Far From Heaven.
A still from the Iranian film 'My Favorite Dessert'
Filmsazane JavanBy Salvador Llopart
A bitter, bitter film with a dark comedy bent where an anecdote—a supposedly winning lottery ticket—will unleash the worst in those involved (and there are many) in the event. The characters, never better said, are two friends who aren't really friends; their respective partners, who aren't either; and a scapegoat. It all begins around a table and ends like the dawn rosary. Chance is forced; situations become impossible, and there's too much shouting to get to where you already sense from the beginning: the foretold moral.
lavanguardia
