Reviewed: “We Live in Time,” “Red Rooms,” and “The Apprentice” in theaters and streaming

“Red Rooms” (2023)

The Nicolas Cage flick “Leggy” was intended to revitalize the serial killer genre, but Cage’s bold acting style wasn’t enough. Here, in Pascal Plante’s “Red Rooms,” common genre elements are presented more powerfully. We begin by witnessing the bondage, torture and killing of a victim over the Internet, except we don’t: it’s experienced only through the beaming expressions of an observer who paid a fortune on the Dark Web to see the deed happen enjoy – a tailor-made snuff experience full of dismemberment and sexual assault. There’s never any blood or gore, making the result far more visceral than any bubbling arterial spray. Set in the Canadian province of Quebec (and mostly in French), Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos) is on trial for the murder of three slim, blonde, blue-eyed teenagers because that “look” brings the best price. In court, Chevalier sits in a thick glass cage, like in a zoo. The trial is open to the public, but there are limited seats, with trial junkies like Clémentine (Laurie Babin) and Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) lining up daily so they can take in every gory detail. Clémentine is a conspiracy theorist who believes the gaunt, alien Chevalier is innocent. Kelly-Anne is a fan of psycho killers – a hubristophile, if you will – and at one point during the process, she dyes her hair blonde, wears blue eye contacts, and wears a schoolgirl outfit that looks exactly like her parents’ dead daughter sitting in the back. As she is thrown out, Chevalier looks up for the first time, smiles sheepishly, and waves at her with a gentle, knowing expression. The film is less about the court case and the details of Chevalier’s actions and more about Kelly-Anne and her obsession. The film works largely thanks to Gariépy. Her Kelly-Anne is in fact a part-time model and trains diligently, exuding the cold, distant demeanor that comes with the role. She lives alone and spends her time on the Internet, where we learn that she is blessed with the hacking skills of Lisbeth Salander (“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” 2011), and even better at online poker, where she has buckets of Bitcoin earned with which she pays for her elegance, high-rise apartment and schedule-free lifestyle. The concept of red rooms is part of urban Internet folklore, although the idea of ​​such snuff rooms dates back to David Cronenberg’s 1983 “Videodrome,” decades before the Internet bubble. The fact that they exist in Plante’s universe is all the more powerful given Kelly-Anne’s mysterious drive and obsession. Plante knows how to orchestrate a mood and raise the stakes in small, unsettling layers, including through the use of an immersive score and sound editing. Combined with Gariépy’s impeccable performance, “Red Rooms” brings forth unspeakable horrors that we only see in our minds’ eyes. (Tom Meek) On Amazon.

“The Apprentice” (2024)

Not so much a takedown of Donald Trump, but rather a look at the early years of the man who would later become president as he transforms from socially awkward man to megalomaniac, viewing capitalism and New York City as his oyster – all under the guidance of Roy Cohn (hence the film’s title). The film begins with Nixon giving his famous “I’m not a crook” speech, the construction of the World Trade Towers and Trump (Sebastian Stan, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”, “Fresh,” and now on screen in “A Different Man”), going door to door in an apartment building, squeezing low-income residents for back rent. It turns out that the Trumps are indicted and facing stiff penalties from the Justice Department for discriminating against people of color. Trump is in love with the well-connected Cohn (Jeremy Strong of “Succession”), who served as senior adviser to U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy during his “Red Scare” in the 1950s and prosecuted the Rosenbergs, who were executed for espionage. One evening his idol catches his eye at a fancy club and asks him to represent the family in a suit. To say Cohn used questionable tactics would be an understatement, but he has some advice for the young Trump: Always be attacking; when accused, always deny; and when you lose, you gain victory. It seems to have stuck. The film chronicles Trump’s public dispute with Mayor Ed Koch over the construction of Trump Tower, his tumultuous first marriage and his rejection of Cohn – a closeted gay man who constantly uses homosexual slurs – when he becomes ill with AIDS. The film is directed by Ali Abbasi, who has written equally dark stories in other countries: “Border” (2018) in Denmark and “Holy Spider” (2022) in Iran. The expressive “Apprentice Overall” gives the young DJT a cynical touch, but appears balanced; As the ego swells and grows into a terrible hubris, we feel the carnage of a demagogue not unlike Oliver Stone’s “W.” (2008) and Adam McKay’s “Vice” (2018). Stan looks the part but doesn’t seem quite the part, but still holds the film together, while Strong is a compelling, conflicted pit bull as Cohn, stealing scenes with every razor-sharp line he fires. Historical icons like Andy Warhol and Roger Smith show up, and Cohn has wild orgies that Trump stumbles into, but it’s the film’s timing so close to an election that could be a talking point, considering starring in a pretty graphic sexual assault scene is man who would be our president. That means it doesn’t really harm the man and doesn’t give him a chance. It paints a picture, makes him somewhat likeable and allows us to connect the dots. (Tom Meek) At the Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney StCambridge and AMC Assembly Row 12, 395 Artisan WayAssembly Square, Somerville.