Resistance

The new wave of Coronavirus Cinema begins with Resistance, which would have benefited from a quick trip to the editing room to get turned into a home-schooling family film about the horrors of WWII. Instead, we get this miserable Nazisploitation as put together by writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz – who’s somehow found acclaim as a cinematic auteur out of Venezuela. His movies play more like the work of Venezuela’s most respected economic advisor. Consider the bizarre opening structure of Resistance, which starts with the daughter of an overly optimistic Jew getting suddenly orphaned in Munich during November 1938. The story then jumps to 1945, where Ed Harris is General Patton gathering soldiers to hear his dramatic recounting of the tale of a brave French Resistance fighter, which finally gets us to an extended flashback about a mime who joins Boy Scout leaders in helping smuggle Jewish kids across the Alps to Switzerland. General Patton must have really liked Inglorious Basterds, because he spends a lot of time musing about the quirky personality and troubled personal life of real-life Nazi creep Klaus Barbie. Jesse Eisenberg, meanwhile, is stuck playing a sitcom-style nebbish as noble mime Marcel. Is it supposed to be a big reveal at the end that Our Hero will later take the stage name of Marcel Marceau? We’re not sure, but it’s pretty hilarious to watch as Patton wraps things up by ordering his men to watch Marcel deliver a touching mime act about the horrors of war. (Available via IFC on digital platforms beginning March 27th)

[R]