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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 1 February 2018
Review: A star is born in Oscar-

nominee ‘A Fantastic Woman’

By LINDSEY BAHR that we’ve ever seen in a but which feels nothing but
AP Film Writer fictional film. Marina is just invasive and inappropriate
The lead character of Se- Marina. She has a delicate from Marina’s perspec-
bastian Lelio’s film “A Fan- beauty, and a cool chop- tive. Orlando’s family, too,
tastic Woman “ is named py Alexa Chung-like hair- is unconscionably cruel to
Marina. She is a nightclub cut and style. On stage, her — save for his brother,
singer and a waitress. she’s performs with a sul- Gabo (Luis Gnecco), who
She has a boyfriend, Or- try confidence. Off stage, seems to be the only per-
lando, who is much older she’s quieter and almost son in the film empathetic
than her, but that matters reserved, but very present, to the fact that Marina is
little. They are clearly smit- especially around Orlando just a human who has lost
This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Daniela ten with one another and (Francisco Reyes). a loved one.
Vega in a scene from, “A Fantastic Woman.”
Associated Press in that post-honeymoon But one night, Orlando dies Every day is filled with the
phase of the relationship suddenly and Marina’s ever-present threat that
where things are still pas- tranquility is thrown into a someone is going to be
sionate, but also calm and tailspin — not just from the uncomfortable with her.
comforting. They’re plan- death of her love, but from Marina is gracious and ac-
ning a trip together. She’s all the unnecessary and commodating almost to a
moving in. Life is moving often ridiculous complica- fault, both to the insidiously
along nicely it seems. tions, some bureaucratic, subtle kinds of judgment
Marina is also a transgen- some purely emotional, and the more outward vio-
der woman, portrayed that emerge and seem to lence and hatred. Orlan-
by a transgender actress, stem from the fact that she do’s ex-wife tells her in no
Daniela Vega. If you’ve is transgender. uncertain terms that she is
heard of “A Fantastic At the hospital where Or- not welcome at the funer-
Woman,” which recently lando dies, the fact that al or wake. His grief stricken
picked up a best foreign her legal name is still her son is disgusted by her and
language film nomina- birth name and not Marina makes no attempt to hide.
tion for Chile, you’ve likely becomes an issue with a And all Marina wants to do
heard this fact. It might cop (who an uncomfort- is grieve in her own way.
even be the only thing you able doctor calls when she Lelio’s film occasionally
know about it. leaves the scene after he’s delves into some magical
What’s astonishing about pronounced dead). A so- realism as Marina struggles
the actual experience cial worker, too, becomes to maintain her composure
of watching “A Fantastic obsessed with checking amid such callous inhu-
Woman” is how small of on Marina, which she con- manity from so many peo-
“a thing” it really is, and tinues to explain is just a ple, which is a beautiful if
in that way perhaps one matter of procedure and jarring disruption in a film
of the truest expressions of to ensure that she was not that’s otherwise so com-
modern transgender life abused or a sex worker, mitted to reality..q
John Krasinkski’s ‘A Quiet Place’

to open SXSW Film Festival

By JAKE COYLE
AP Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The 25th
South by Southwest Film
Festival will kick off with
John Krasinski’s third direc-
torial effort: the supernatu-
ral thriller “A Quiet Place.”
The Austin, Texas, festi-
val announced its slate
Wednesday, starting with
the opening selection of
Krasinksi’s film, his third film
as director. The film, which
Paramount Pictures will re-
lease in April, stars Krasinski
and Emily Blunt, his wife, as
a rural couple haunted by
an evil attracted to sound.
Millicent Simmonds, the This image released by Paramount Pictures shows John Krasinski,
breakout star of 2017’s left, and Noah Jupe in a scene from “A Quiet Place.”
“Wonderstruck,” plays the Associated Press
couple’s deaf daughter. Song” opened the festival. expansive indie offerings,
Last year, Terrence Ma- SXSW is known for its ro- both of which the 2018 edi-
lick’s Austin-set “Song to bust genre selections and tion is full of.q