Where the Crawdads Sing is based on the popular book by Delia Owens. The film is directed by Olivia Newman, and I found it to be convincing in the narrative sense. The opening entails a dangerous past, and the film is a journey of discovery for a girl who had to raise herself. Actress Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Kya, the main character. Her voice narrates the darkness of her past and makes the movie enthralling.

Where the Crawdads Sing presents itself in an out-of-focus manner and has a murder mystery vibe. The points that are unfocused link to Kya’s character as she goes through trauma and makes various errors as a child. Her character seeks the means to educate herself because she lives in a time when school was not a viable option for a girl like her. Kya is the ultimate and wonderful hero of Where the Crawdads Sing. She encounters many complex obstacles on her journey, and Jones is believable and faithful in her performance as Kya.

The plot of the film centers around Kya, a girl abandoned by her parents at a young age. She grows up in the marshes of North Carolina in the 1960s. The people in her region, Barkley Cove, refer to her as the Marsh Girl. While Kya is raising herself, she finds love in her life with two different men at two different times. They are Tate Walker and Chase Andrews (played by Taylor John Smith and Harris Dickinson). Kya finds herself as the suspect in the murder of Chase which is the worst situation in her already difficult life. Fortunately, she has an attorney who is committed to finding a way to help her. Her attorney is Tom Milton who is played by David Strathairn. Tom believes he can keep Kya out of prison, but Kya must revisit the negative moments she once had with Chase to convince the people of Barkley Cove believe that she is not Chase’s murderer. Heads begin to roll with many questions as the drama and evidence run deep.

As Kya is consumed with stress and depression, her mental state links back to where she felt connected the most. The film exploresmore challenging issues for Kya, and its audience. The moment where Kya feels most loved and appreciated are when she is being taught to read by Tate. Kya’s says in one scene, “I didn’t know words can hold so much.” Kya feels a form of connection that she never had. I truly appreciated Where the Crawdads Sing for its empathetic moments.

The invigorating aspect of this movie comes from the way it portrays the emotional power of love. Kya has a life where love is also discombobulated with abuse, infidelity, and betrayal. Kya’s suffering is not what she deserves. Where the Crawdads Sing is a tale that is faithful to its book adaptation and its cinematic audience. Watching the film is like putting a puzzle together to determine what the outcome will be for Kya. The harsh evidence against her displays the hatred and suspicion Kya has had to endure in her short life. Three stars for this solidly adapted film with many emotional obstacles that is a bit overdone at times, but fans of the book are bound to adore.

At first, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris seemed like a pleasant enough flick with a promising premise and a stellar cast. And I did enjoy the film in moments. But ultimately I found its plot to be dry and I was mostly bored by the film.

In Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Lesley Manville plays Ada Harris, a widowed cleaning lady in the London area. While cleaning houses for wealthy people she comes across a Dior dress that she becomes obsessed with and she travels to Paris to pursue her own Dior dress. Marquis de Chassagne, played by Lambert Wilson, is one of the men associated with the Dior line and Mrs. Harris tries to build a rapport with him. Claudine Colbert, played by Isabelle Huppert, is on the staff that oversees the high-end dress department and she tries to thwart Mrs. Harris. But Mrs. Harris just wants a wonderful dress in her life—a dress that she cannot afford—to make her feel happy since she is not finding love with a man.

Lesley Manville and Lambert Wilson workwell together in Mrs. Harris goes to Paris, but throw in Isabelle Huppert and the film’s chemistry is blindsided. The over-the-top focus on the Dior dress in the film is also personification taken too far. Personification works in some films or stories, but in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris it degrades into silly fantasy.

I did find some joy in the film, mostly in the pleasant scenery and some interesting bits of characterization. But overall, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is a film that simply let me down. It is dry and devoid of excitement, and it comes off as rather ridiculous and boring. A snoozer, really. I feel this may be a film that goes straight to streaming. Just two stars for Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.

The film is titled Both Sides of the Blade, it is also formerly titled Fire. Fire is its English title. In my point-of-view, I see it as Both Sides of the Blade. With all the gut-wrenching and dramatic material, Both Sides of the Blade is like a boxing match that is does not have victory or defeat. The match just continues. The unsettling subject matter reminded me of all those dark productions I have experienced at Steppenwolf Theatre in downtown Chicago. The ones that gear on relationships falling apart or characters in harsh terms with themselves or reality. In both sides of the blade, the boxing match of the problems is one where the tensions and anger are hidden. From that, the film juggles many underlying issues that are faithful to dealing with reality.

With Juliette Binoche as one of the lead characters, she always can act as a woman that is brave, open-minded, and display a charming personality. The director is Claire Denis, and Binoche has worked on several films with her. What I have realized is that with all the films that Binoche has worked on with Denis is that Binoche can display many personalities. She can play a happily divorced mother seeking adventure in Let the Sunshine In (2017), a lady with a twisted space operation in High Life (2018), and someone that is not afraid to have a relationship with her husband and ex-boyfriend in Both Sides of the Blade. Binoche has many lovely trademarks which makes her to be an energetic, brilliant, and one of the most wonderful French actresses in today’s world. Despite some of her films not displaying much light, she always has wonderful personalities to offer them, and she does so also with Both Sides of the Blade.

In Both Sides of the Blade Binoche plays Sara. She is married to her husband Jean, and he is played by Vincent Lindon. The film starts out with them to be a happily married couple living in France with a few insecurities. Sara works in radio. Jean use to be a rugby player, but his downfall is he has a criminal record. His main priority is his son Marcus. Marcus is played by Issa Perica. Jean though is rather oblivious to his son and more focused on his wife Sara. The lovebird life for Sara and Jean begin to take a downfall as Sara’s ex-boyfriend Francois shows up in her life. Francois is played by Gregoire Colin. Sara begins to feel she wants to be in Francois’s company. As she begins to make time for Francois more frequently, Jean’s attitude spirals into confusion and anger. With Francois back in Sara’s life her mindset changes on if she is happy or not. As for Jean, his mindset changes to that pattern as well. Both Sides of the Blade will have personalities clash in many perplexing arguments with Sara, Jean, and Francois also.

I will say though, even though the likeliness of infidelity is the big nailbiter of drama for the film, that the film is redundant in many moments. This comes more in terms of Jean and his son Marcus. That subject is revisited several times, and Marcus does have problems. but nothing gets resolved for Marcus or for Jean. Despite the redundancy, I believe still it helped play into the big conflict between Jean and Sara. That is because Jean going trying to help his son shows he wants to have his mind in other places instead of what his wife may be up to. That does not mean that Jean is laid-back about Francois though.