REVIEW / FILM REVIEWS – “Flag Day” is the next film for Sean Penn. His new production which follows “The Last Face” should allow him to put the church back in the middle of the village as a director.
Flag Day : Sean Penn adapts a true story
Set on fire in the public square and still regularly mocked for The Last Face, Sean Penn took a little while to get back behind the camera. After such a debacle, we can safely predict that his new achievement, Flag Day, can only be of better quality. Sean Penn took the double hat on this blow, taking one of the two main roles. That of John Vogel, a man who has always been involved in strange schemes and who was not an ideal father. A story from the autobiographical novel Film-Flam Man: The True Story Of My Father’s Counterfeit Life written by the real Jennifer Vogel, John’s daughter. It is from the point of view of the latter that we will learn to discover this lying and surprising man.
A box cut out for his daughter
If he chose to stage himself for the first time in his directorial career, it is obviously because he had an idea behind his head. Here he finds himself to share the line with his own daughter, Dylan Penn, in what is his first major role in the cinema. It is through this prism that we manage to feel a little affection for Flag Day. In this desire to make his child shine by playing the bad role. Her cabotinage becomes almost useful to better reveal the full potential of an actress that we learn to discover. And let’s admit that Dylan Penn defends himself admirably well against him, with a thickness in the game which augurs well for a great career.
The return of Sean Penn on the Croisette after the violent (but deserved) returns on The Last Face has something brave. We salute his guts for coming back down into the arena, motivated by the desire to offer his daughter a film business card.
Shot on film, Flag Day imposes a very marked visual identity from the start. The evocation of the various memories of Jennifer is sprinkled many visual effects and a strong use of music. The playlist is not unpleasant, as long as you like folk, Chopin and americana. We will still prefer the more posed scenes, where Sean Penn relies on the talent of his daughter.
Flag Day by Sean Penn, released on September 29, 2021. Above the trailer. Find all our trailers here.
