CRITICISM WEEK
In Cannes, the world of cinema, often reduced to its glitter, is confronted, each year, with the same contortions. What can a film do in the face of the turpitudes of the world? Vincent Lindon, president of the jury of the 75and Cannes edition, raised the question during the opening ceremony, Tuesday May 17, by making “tribute to all those who suffer and who fight”as the Festival opens against a backdrop of war in Ukraine, not to mention the other perils – pandemic, planet out of breath, and so on.
The anxious and worried Jesse Eisenberg, 38, New York actor with teenage curls, and playwright, is no exception to this dilemma: he lives surrounded by people who work in the “social” and his first feature – footage, When You Finish Saving the World, which opened Critics’ Week on Wednesday May 18, was born of these insoluble reflections that torment and inspire him. On such a subject, which smacks of academic dissertation, the filmmaker has found the right tone of satirical comedy, throwing his characters to the nettles, steeped in contradictions and uncontrollable vanity. Thus unbolted, the stunned heroes will perhaps take the time to rearrange themselves.
Consider a small university town in the United States. Evelyn is a sort of Mother Teresa who runs body and soul a home for women victims of violence: she is played by the unexpected Julianne Moore, who gracefully takes on a pathetic and comic character. Devoted to her devotion to others, Evelyn is zealous and clumsy, although always convinced that she is on the right path. His son, Ziggy (Finn Wolfhard), a high school student, is absorbed in his folk compositions, which he plays and monetizes on a platform intended for a small group of fans. He doesn’t care about the rest… The mother and the son look at each other like earthenware dogs, the father (Jay O. Sanders) counts the points, while worrying about the level of distress of his teenager: doesn’t he part of this category of young white people, of the upper class, whose suicide rate is on the rise?
hellish family life
When You Finish Saving the World balances its political title as a trivial interpellation: “When you’re done saving the world…”as it looks like: “When you have finished your meal, you will remove your plate. » Precisely, family life is hellish, or non-existent. The mother arrives on time, the meals turn into a shouting match, the son runs to lock himself in his room.
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