Faces Places (2017) review

Iconic filmmaker Varda, in her late 80's, takes 33-year-old muralist JR (his real name is a mystery for whatever reason) around rural France, taking photographs of the 'common folk' - children, dock workers, truck drivers, postal employees, eccentrics - blowing them up to monstrous proportions and pasting them on large buildings (and trains ... and cargo containers, etc.). Varda-as-documentarian is always a treat, and she once again explores her idiosyncratic (and life-affirming) love of nature, blue-collar types, feminism (lady truck drivers!), art photography (her late friends, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Guy Bourdin, get some love) and the cinema. It may be a bit 'scripted' - to link the little tidbits together, you see - and 'precious,' but it also shows how sharp-minded the octogenarian is, despite her unfortunate eye problems. Agnès tries to end it with a visit to past-collaborator Jean-Luc Godard's residence, but he doesn't show (he only provides a cryptic personal note to her) and she calls him a 'dirty rat' ... but get real, did anyone expect anything else from JLG? Sans commentaire.