"Adorables créatures" unites a fine cast for a series of loosely connected tales about love and love affairs. It deals mainly with the way in which we humans lie, to ourselves and to others, in order to maintain an air of (relative) innocence : everyone wants to be thought of as the betrayed party rather than the betrayer, just as everyone wants to be thought of as decent, romantic, sensitive, generous etc. The result, in real life as in the movie, consists of a collection of subterfuges and hypocrisies ranging from size S to XXL.
The movie has been accused of a hatred against women, I think unjustly. On the whole, the male characters tend to be as venal, calculating or self-absorbed as the female.
"Créatures" is not a bad movie - it's got a number of nicely black lines and observations - but it is uneven. It also misses the spark of genius, narratively or stylistically, that might lift it up to another level. The part I liked best is the tale about a rather dreadful "philanthropist", widow not to one but two rich industrialists, who likes to pamper herself with the odd young man. She also likes to surround herself with people forced to sing her praises. The viewer will note that the kind of charity work involved, to wit diamond-bedecked socialites eating oysters and caviar on behalf of the deserving poor, is still going strong anno Domini 2020.
The movie has been accused of a hatred against women, I think unjustly. On the whole, the male characters tend to be as venal, calculating or self-absorbed as the female.
"Créatures" is not a bad movie - it's got a number of nicely black lines and observations - but it is uneven. It also misses the spark of genius, narratively or stylistically, that might lift it up to another level. The part I liked best is the tale about a rather dreadful "philanthropist", widow not to one but two rich industrialists, who likes to pamper herself with the odd young man. She also likes to surround herself with people forced to sing her praises. The viewer will note that the kind of charity work involved, to wit diamond-bedecked socialites eating oysters and caviar on behalf of the deserving poor, is still going strong anno Domini 2020.