The Fin (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): An odd and strange South Korean dystopian film

Posted on July 27, 2026 by kaist455

I could not help but become mesmerized more and more by the dystopian world of South Korean independent film “The Fin”. Although I found its supposedly futuristic background a little outrageous at times, the movie is filled with a considerable amount of vivid mood and detail from the beginning to the end, and I gladly went along with that even though I often observed its story and characters from the distance.

During the first half of the film, we gradually get to know a bit about its dystopian background. Although South and North Korea were unified some years ago, things have become quite bad for everyone in the unified Korea due to some serious environment disaster. While the land is almost completely blocked from the polluted surrounding sea by the massive wall, mutant humans called “Omegas” are forced to clean the beach beyond the wall, and, not so surprisingly, these people are also forbidden to go over the wall.

At first, the story follows Sujin (Kim Pu-reum), a young civil servant tasked with supervising several Omegas working in her assigned area. At one point early in the film, we see her attending a lecture on Omegas along with many other civil servants, and we get to know a bit about how much Omegas are different from “normal” humans. For example, their feet are quite different from normal human feet, and they also have a small “fin” on their back besides being capable of making sounds which can be harmful to normal humans.

On one day, Sujin and her colleagues handle the dead body of one recently diseased Omega, and then she notices that one of the other Omegas under their supervision is disappeared. It soon turns out that this Omega escapes beyond the wall without being noticed by anyone, and we gradually gather that he is looking for someone living beyond the wall.

That person in question is Mi-ah (Yeon Ye-ji), a young woman working at a small indoor fishing center. On the surface, she looks like one of numerous plain citizens going through their shabby daily life day by day in their grim neighborhood, but, of course, she is actually one of those Omegas illegally residing beyond the wall. While she is certainly careful about hiding who she really is, she has a few local people willing to help her in one way or another, and there is a little poignant scene between her and a generous old shoemaker who willingly provides her a little prosthetic for hiding a certain noticeable physical part of hers.

Meanwhile, we also get to know a bit about how things are also miserable for Sujin. She has lived with a close family member who is mentally unstable, and it is apparent to us that she has been quite exhausted as struggling to support herself as well as that close family members of hers, who is usually stuck in her own world without showing much care or attention to Su-jin.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that the two narrative lines of the movie eventually converge at a later point of the story. Not along after his arrival at Mi-ah’s workplace, the aforementioned Omega is tracked down and then arrested by Su-jin and her several colleagues, and Su-jin begins to wonder about why their arrested Omega came there. In the end, she comes to pay more attention to Mi-ah, and the mood becomes a bit tense as Su-jin spies more on Mi-ah.

Without hurrying itself at all, the movie takes its time as before, and you will come to admire more of its indelible mood and details. Needless to say, the production design of the film is fairly modest due to its small budget, but it is still quite impressive as constantly imbued with an ample amount of style and atmosphere. As a matter of fact, these locations in the movie feel so palpably real on the screen that I became all the more curious about how director/writer Park Sye-young, who also served as the co-producer/co-editor/cinematographer of the film, and his crew found and then utilized several locations shown in the film. Trust me, you will instantly believe that the characters are really living and struggling in its modestly futuristic background, which often looks like the gloomy cross between all the worst sides from both South and North Korea.

And you will be also impressed by a number of small but precious moments of visual beauty along the story. For instance, movie often makes its main locations look alien and strange via moody and desaturated color tones, and that makes an interesting visual contrast to several unexpected dreamy colorful moments presented later in the story. As the camera closely focuses on the faces of its several main cast members at times, the movie somehow establishes a bit of emotional ground for its story and characters, and Yeon Ye-Ji and Kim Pu-reum deserve to be commended for ably filling their respective broad roles with enough sense of life.

Overall, “The Fin” is another distinctive work from Park, who previously made a feature film debut with “The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra” (2022). Although I struggled a bit to follow what and how it is about, I admired the bold and fresh cinematic style of “The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra” nonetheless, and I did not hesitate to choose it as one of the best South Korean films of 2023. With “The Fin”, Park surely makes more advance in his promising filmmaking career, and we can all agree that he is one of the most interesting new South Korean filmmakers at this point.

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Contempt (1963) ☆☆☆(3/4): Until there is nothing but contempt for him

Posted on July 25, 2026 by kaist455

Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film “Contempt”, whose recent 4K restoration version was released in selected South Korean theaters in last week, is a distant but fascinating cinematic experiment. Although I am not so enthusiastic about the film unlike many others, the movie is still interesting to observe and appreciate as one of several notable works from Godard during the 1960s, and you may also occasionally sense a bit of the considerable tension between him and his producers behind the screen.

When the movie was made, Godard was regarded as one of the coolest filmmakers in the world after making his first feature film “Breathless” (1960), which is regarded as one of the most significant milestones in the movie history. Along with many other young and ambitious French filmmakers such as François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Éric Rohmer and Jacques Demy, he was on the front line of the French New Wave during the 1960s, and he received more acclaims and praises via several subsequent films including “My life to Live” (1962) and “The Little Soldier” (1963) before working on “Contempt”.

However, things did not go that well for Godard in case of “Contempt”. To him, the movie, which is adapted by him from Italian writer Alberto Moravia’s 1954 novel “Il disprezzo”, was a sort of experiment on whether he could push himself a bit toward commercial filmmaking, but he did not get along that well with his producers Georges de Beauregard, Carlo Ponti, and Joseph E. Levine. For example, his producers insisted that the movie should show more of the body of their lead actress Brigitte Bardot, and Godard followed their demand as shooting the opening scene which does present more of her body, but he deliberately made this scene look quite tame. Sure, his usual cinematographer Raoul Coutard’s camera observes a lot of Bardot’s body, but there is not any sense of sensuality or tantalization at all, and we come to pay more attention to her character’s frustratingly banal conversation with her writer husband Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli).

And then we see how their supposedly stable relationship gets imploded mainly due to how much Paul lets down his wife, Camille, in one way or another. He is recently hired as the screenplay writer for some big Hollywood movie production led by an American producer named Jeremiah Prokosch (Jack Palance) in Italy, and Prokosch is not so amused about whatever his director, who is played by legendary German filmmaker Fritz Lang, has been doing for a while. He promises to Paul that he will get paid well for writing a new version of the screenplay which is incidentally based on Homer’s “The Odyssey”, and Paul is quite willing to bend himself in exchange for that. In fact, he even has his wife be around Prokosch even though it is clear that Prokosch is interested in getting closer to her.

Needless to say, Camille is not so pleased about that, and that leads to a memorable sequence where she and her husband argue a lot with each other inside their new apartment. The more they argue with each other, the more apparent it is to us that there is a growing emotional gap between them, and we are not so surprised as Camile comes to show more frustration and, yes, contempt toward her husband, who still cannot see why his wife becomes quite angry and frustrated with him.

At one point during this sequence, Paul tries to be more reasonable with his wife, and Godard and Coutard make a notable visual choice to draw our attention. As Paul and Camille’s conversation goes on, Coutard’s camera moves back and forth between them, and their growing emotional distance is amplified further on the widescreen of 2.35:1 ratio. However, Godard was not so willing to use Cinemascope from the very beginning, and you may be amused a bit when Lang throws a wry comment on that early in the story: “It wasn’t made for people. It’s only good for snakes – and funerals.”

As the story eventually arrives at its last act mainly set in some big summerhouse in Capri, Italy, the movie gives us some sunny and beautiful location shots besides a bit more of Bardot’s body, but it sticks to its detached attitude as before. In the end, there is nothing but contempt in Camile’s relationship with her husband, and Paul is all the more devastated by what suddenly occurs next.

The main cast members often struggled during the shooting because of Godard’s improvisational filmmaking style, but most of them acquit themselves fairly well on the whole. As the main star of the film, Brigitte Bardot, who incidentally passed away in last year, is quite natural in her sensual presence, and she certainly holds her own place well among her fellow main cast members. While Michel Piccoli is effectively petty and contemptible as required by his increasingly unlikable character, Jack Palance often feels strained in contrast mainly because of the clash between his supposedly slick character and his usual rugged screen persona, and Fritz Lang simply enjoys himself to the very last scene of the film.

Overall, “Contempt” is not that great compared to “Breathless” or “My Life to Live”, but it has a number of interesting elements including the game efforts from its main cast members and the memorable score by Georges Delerue (You may remember that Martin Scorsese, who admires the movie a lot, utilized its indelible main theme for accentuating the equally troubled marital relationship at the center of his 1995 film “Casino”). I merely admire the movie instead of loving it, but that is what we usually feel about most of Godard’s works, isn’t it?

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Dead of Winter (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Emma Thompson can also do some action, folks

Posted on July 25, 2026 by kaist455

Brian Kirk’s 2025 film “Dead of Winter” is a small but efficient thriller which will draw your attention for not only its competence but also its lead actress. Although she is approaching to 70 at present, Emma Thompson demonstrates another side of her undeniable talent here in this film, and you will enjoy and admire how this wonderful British actress carries the movie to the end with considerable commitment.

The story is set in some remote rural region of Minnesota, US during one cold winter day. Although it is getting colder and snowier, Thompson’s character, an old widow named Barb, continues to drive her vehicle to a certain big lake which means a lot to her and her dead husband, and then she happens to get lost on a detour to that lake. As trying to find any help, she subsequently comes upon a nearby cabin, but then she senses something suspicious about a guy supposed to be its owner.

Anyway, without asking too much, Barb goes back to her vehicle, and she eventually arrives at that lake which is quite frozen now, but then she witnesses something quite disturbing. She hears several gunshots, and then she sees some young woman trying to run away from that suspicious dude, who manages to catch that young woman and then takes her back to his cabin. Because she cannot call the police as her cellular phone does not work, Bard decides to check up the cabin for herself, and she soon finds that young woman tied and locked inside its basement.

At first, this looks like a simple case of kidnapping, but the story gets a bit darker with the arrival of a woman who is clearly that dude’s wife. Although the movie does not explain much of this couple’s purpose behind their kidnapping of that unfortunate young woman, it does not take much time for us to discern not only what they are soon going to do to her but also a desperate personal motive behind that, and we are all the more chilled by that.

Needless to say, Barb is the only chance for survival for that young woman, and, though she is just a plain old lady, she becomes quite determined to try to rescue that young woman as much as possible. Needless to say, that couple later come to realize that they have a serious trouble to take care of, and the wife is ready to eliminate Barb by any means necessary, but Barb turns out to be smart and resourceful enough to evade them in one way or another.

Now this sounds like your average action thriller flick, but the movie sticks to its restrained mode as often emphasizing the freezing wintry atmosphere surrounding its few main characters. While there are some chase and action along the story, we come to sense more of the physical vulnerability of Barb and her opponents, and we are not surprised when her mind occasionally goes back to those good old times between her and her dead husband, which are certainly filled with warm and soft ambiance in contrast.

Although these occasionally flashback scenes seem rather redundant at first, they eventually function as a part of the dramatic narrative of the film. While her life has certainly felt quite emptier after her husband’s death, Barb still does not lose her ability to care, and that is why she willingly stepped forward for that young woman in danger from the very beginning. Even when the circumstance later becomes quite dire for her and that young woman, she still finds will and determination to go on nonetheless, and there is some genuine poignancy when she finally follows her dead husband’s last wish around the end of the story. 

And Thompson often surprises us as ably embodying her character’s weary but steady determination. No, she does not do anything like what Liam Neeson has frequently done during last 18 years since “Taken” (2008), but she is thoroughly convincing as her character handles one trouble after another along the story. When her character must do some emergency job on a serious physical wound of hers at one point in the story, Thompson never flinches at all while conveying more of her character’s vulnerability to us, and you will wince more than once as her character works on that physical wound bit by bit. 

In case of several other main cast members in the film, they are more or less than mere plot elements, but they dutifully fill their respective spots as much as required. While Laurel Marsden does a bit more than being a typical case of woman in danger, Marc Menchaca and Judy Greer are well-cast as the two villains of the story, and Greer, who has shown more of the serious side of her acting talent during last 15 years since her small but crucial supporting turn in “The Descendants” (2011), is absolutely intense and menacing as her character is driven more by despair and madness. Yes, it is often horrifying to see how much her character will go for her ultimate goal, but you will also pity her character a little due to her increasingly desperate circumstance. After all, this is a really serious matter of life and death for her, and that makes her all the more dangerous later in the story.   

In conclusion, “Dead of Winter” works thanks to its palpable mood, solid storytelling, and the admirable efforts from Thompson and Greer. Its level of achievement is rather modest, but it is certainly nice to see Thompson doing something different and unexpected as she has often done during last three decades, and I am sure that she will impress us more during the rest of her acting career.

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The Return (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The bitter return of the king

Posted on July 24, 2026 by kaist455

Uberto Pasolini’s 2024 film “The Return” is a grim, shabby, and bitter tale based on the second half of Homer’s “The Odyssey”. Unlike Christopher Nolan’s new film “The Odyssey” (2026), the movie does not have much action or spectacle on the whole, and it mostly focuses on the brooding mental struggle of a traumatized man barely recognizable even to his family after his long-awaited return. This may look like an interesting retelling attempt on Homer’s classic story on the surface, but you may be disappointed to see that the result turns out to be somewhat flat and ponderous despite the fairly good efforts from its two lead performers.

The main background of the story is a Mediterranean island named Ithaca. Around 10 years have passed since the end of the Trojan War, but Odysseus (Ralph Fiennes), the king of Ithaca, has not returned yet, and almost everyone in the island has presumed that he died. Nevertheless, his wife Penelope (Juliette Binoche) still believes that he will eventually return someday, though there have been a bunch of dudes eager to marry her for getting the control of the island.

As these suitors have not only ruined the island but also cornered his mother in one way or another for years, Odysseus’s young son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) has been quite frustrated to say the least. He also hopes for his father’s return, but the situation becomes all the direr for him and his mother day by day, and he becomes more conscious of what may happen to him if she ever chooses to marry one of those suitors.

Unbeknownst to Telemachus and his mother, Odysseus has already been in the island as shown from the opening scene of the film, but he hesitates to return to his wife and son as still coping with his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While he may be relieved to be at the end of his returning journey, he does not feel like belonging to his good old home, and he often struggles with not only those dark memories of the war but also how much he has changed after many years. In fact, he is not so sure whether he can be recognized by his wife and son.

Meanwhile, the story becomes a bit tense as those ambitious suitors keep trying to coerce Penelope into marrying one of them. No matter how much she tries to stand her ground in front of these loathsome dudes, Penelope often finds herself trembling behind her supposedly unflappable appearance, because, well, she is not entirely free from her own human need as reflected by one certain moment in the middle of the story.

As Odysseus continues to brood over what to do next, we often observe the harsh and brutal aspects of his world, and this certainly reminds us more of how vulnerable his wife and son can be under their increasingly desperate situation. Needless to say, he must take some action for them sooner or later, but he is still reluctant, and then there comes an eventual moment when he sees that there is really no alternative for him at all.

However, while occasionally showing some interesting storytelling potential, the screenplay by Pasolini and his co-writers John Collee and Edward Bond often struggles to maintain our attention. As getting mired in more misery and brutality, the story merely lurches from one expected narrative point to another without generating much interest to engage us, and it is also hampered a lot by its rather superficial characterization. For example, it just scratches the surface in case of Telemachus’ supposedly deep daddy issues, and that is the main reason why his sudden choice around the end of the story is not so convincing to us. Furthermore, the movie resolves all those evident emotional issues between Odysseus and his wife a bit too easily after the climatic sequence where he takes care of all those suitors (Is this a spoiler?), and that is another disappointment in the film.

Anyway, Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, who previously performed together in “Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights” (1992) and “The English Patient” (1996), remind us again that they are two of the best movie performers in our time. Fiennes, who also served as one of the executive producers of the film, did a good job of conveying to us a heap of trauma and guilt behind his character’s shabby appearance, and he is especially compelling when his character reminisces a bit about what he witnessed during the Trojan War. On the opposite, Binoche is usually required to look stern or frustrated throughout the film, but she has her own moment when Penelope faces how much her husband has changed after all those years around the end of the climactic sequence.

In case of several other notable main cast members in the film, they are sadly under-utilized due to their under-developed supporting part. Although he has shown some considerable talent since his breakout supporting turn in “All the Money in the World” (2017), Charlie Plummer somehow looks rather lost and strained compared to his fellow cast members including Tom Rhys Harries, Claudio Santamaria, and Marwan Kenzari, and Kenzari deserves some praise for bringing a bit of human depth to his villainous supporting role.

In conclusion, “The Return” is a little too disappointing for me to recommend, but you may be interested in checking it out someday due to “The Odyssey”. Just like Nolan did in that film, Pasolini simply tries to do something different with Homer’s familiar classic story, and it is a shame that his result did not impress me enough.

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Hokum (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): In a spooky Irish hotel

Posted on July 21, 2026 by kaist455

Damian McCarthy’s latest film “Hokum” is a solid genre flick filled with dark mood and details to be admired and appreciated. While it surely evokes countless other similar horror films about haunted places, it has its own distinctive elements to observe and enjoy, and the overall result is another interesting work from its undeniably talented director.

Adam Scott, who has recently been more prominent thanks to his Emmy-nominated lead performance in Apple TV+ drama series “Severance”, plays an American novelist named Ohm Bauman, and the movie begins with the ongoing writing process on Bauman’s latest work. He is quite determined to make the ending as bleak as possible, but then he finds himself haunted by something associated with his past, and then he eventually goes to some rural area in Ireland.

After he arrives at an old local hotel, we get to know the purpose of Bauman’s visit. This is the place where his parents, who died many years ago, went for their honeymoon, and he actually brings the two containers which contains his mother’s and father’s ashes, respectively. We later see him putting them inside the hole in a certain big tree in the forest not so far from the hotel, and we come to sense more of his troubled state, which is probably associated with some trauma involved with his parents’ death. 

However, the hotel does not look like a particularly good place for him to stay. Although it does not feel that ominous compared to that coldly creepy hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” (1980), the hotel is rather moody in old-fashioned ways, and Bauman notices that a certain place in the hotel is heavily locked down. He later comes to learn that this place, which was originally intended a big suite for honeymooners, has been regarded as a haunted place by its aging owner and his employees, and the owner, who is incidentally a wheelchair-bound cranky old man, really believes that nobody should go there because something really dangerous is inside there.

 Needless to say, Bauman is skeptical about this, but, of course, he subsequently finds himself more associated with this supposedly bad place. I will not go into details for not spoiling any fun for you, but I can tell you instead that 1) Bauman comes to care a lot about one of those hotel employees after one sudden incident and 2) he later comes upon some other dark secret inside the hotel besides whatever is lurking somewhere inside that ominous suite.

Once its hero finds himself trapped inside its main stage for horror, the movie slowly and carefully accumulates a moody sense of dread and anxiety across the screen, and it also shows some wry sense of dark humor as its hero gets cornered more in one way or another. No matter how much he tries to find a way out, the situation feels all the more hopeless for Bauman, and the movie toys with that particularly during one suspenseful scene where he struggles to alarm a certain character on the outside. In addition, his mind somehow becomes more and more disturbed, and the movie serves us a darkly humorous moment as something deliberately pushes him into facing more of what he has been desperately trying to look away from

Before eventually shifting itself onto the full-throttle mode during its last act, McCarthy’s screenplay prepares enough ground for its drama and horror. With its realistic rural atmosphere and a little freakish folktale, the movie sets the ground for what will be eventually unleashed onto the screen later in the story, and it also adds a bit of colorful human touch by an eccentric dude who happens to befriend Bauman early in the story. As the plot progresses, we get to know more about what makes Bauman tick, and we come to have some more understanding on him.

As the troubled human center of the movie, Scott gives us a complex human figure to observe and then empathize with. At first, Bauman comes to us your average self-loathing jerk who just happens to be a fairly good writer, but Scott did a subtle job of conveying to us the emotional wounds buried behind his character’s rather abrasive appearance, and the story often feels like a sort of twisted therapy session for Bauman. In the end, he has no choice but to face not only whatever scares him from the outside but also what has really been eating him from the inside, and we naturally come to brace ourselves more for what may happen to him in the end.

Several main cast members surrounding Scott ably fill their respective spots around him. While Florence Ordesh provides a bit of precious warmth to her certain scene with Scott early in the story, David Wilmot brings some dopey humor to the story as the aforementioned eccentric dude, and Peter Coonan, Michael Patric, Will O’Connell, and Brendan Conroy are also effective in their supporting roles.  

 Overall, “Hokum” is another enjoyable genre work from McCarthy, who previously gave us “Caveat” (2020) and “Oddity” (2024). After showing considerable potential in “Caveat”, he ably moved onto “Oddity”, and then he successfully advances further here in this film. In my inconsequential opinion, he deserves much more attention than before, and I think we can have some expectation on how far he will advance after the commendable success of his first three films.

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Passenger (2026) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A little road trip horror flick

Posted on July 21, 2026 by kaist455

“Passenger” is a little modest horror flick which mildly entertained me without surprising me that much. While it is a bit too thin and generic in terms of story and characters, the movie works to some degree in its familiar genre territory, and it provides some skillful moments of terror and dread along its rather predictable route.

After the prologue scene which effectively sets the ominous tone of the story, we are introduced to Tyler Genocchio (Jacob Scipio) and Maddie Brecker (Lou Llobell), a young couple who recently decided to quit their respective jobs and move out from their apartment in New York City for freely enjoying their life on a van. During next several weeks, they happily travel together here and there in US, and then Tyler proposes to Maddie to her surprise and delight during one evening.

However, their happiness does not last that long. When Maddie subsequently drives their van along some remote road in the middle of the following night, and something quite strange and disturbing occurs, and then she finds herself gradually disturbed by some unknown influence. At first, she just notices a mysterious figure from the distance, and then there come several small but disconcerting signs. In fact, she even gets a serious warning from a stranger she happens to encounter at one point early in the story.

Needless to say, a sense of dread is slowly increased around not only Maddie but also Tyler, and the movie doles out a series of good moments to bring more tension and anxiety to the screen. I particularly like how it dials up and down the level of suspense during one long-take scene where the camera fluidly pans around Maddie as she walks toward the van alone by herself, and I also enjoyed a key scene where her supposedly romantic moment with Tyler is unexpectedly interrupted by something lurking beyond their sight.

Meanwhile, Maddie comes to learn a bit about whatever is targeting her and Tyler. There are a number of old secret signs shared among hobos and nomads on roads, and what seems to be a mere scratch on her van turns out to be one of these signs. She also reads some online articles about something demonic which may exist somewhere on roads, and it becomes more apparent to her that this insidious entity has haunted her and Tyler since that disturbing happening early in the story.

As its two main characters are more terrorized along the story, the movie sometimes takes some time to bring a bit of human depth to them. Although they really love and care about each other, it later turns out that Maddie has not been entirely happy about their current van lifestyle in contrast to Tyler, and this naturally puts additional strain on their relationship besides their immediate issue with that demonic entity. Their characters feel rather superficial and conventional at times, but Jacob Scipio and Lou Llobell mostly click well with each other during several quieter moments between them, and that is the main reason why we continue to care about whatever may happen to their characters in the end.

However, the other parts of the film feel rather deficient in comparison. For example, the screenplay Zachary Donohue and T.V. Burgess does not delve that deep into its interesting story background which will certainly take you back to Chloé Zhao’s Oscar-winning film “Nomadland” (2020), and the same thing can be said about what may provide a slim but possible chance of survival for its two main characters. Furthermore, I was also disappointed to see that the movie seriously under-utilizes Melissa Leo, an ever-reliable Oscar-winning character actress who is unfortunately stuck with a functional role during her brief appearance.

In case of the demonic entity frequently terrorizing its two main characters, the movie surely provides a fair share of shock and awe as this entity reveals more of itself in front of Maddie and Tyler later in the story, but I must point out that this is not so distinctive or memorable compared to what we have seen from those countless horror flicks about demonic entities. While things surely get more tense and disturbing during the expected climactic part, there is not much surprise for us in the end, and we become more aware of its glaring plot contrivance.

The movie is directed by André Øvredal, a Norwegian filmmaker who drew my attention for the first time with his second feature film “Trollhunter” (2010) and then made several other genre films including “The Autopsy of Jane Doe” (2016), “Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark” (2019), and “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” (2023). As far as I can see from some of his previous films, he is a good genre filmmaker who knows how to engage us more with good mood and storytelling, and that is evident also in the more effective parts of “Passenger”, though these good parts do not compensate enough for its weaker parts enough in my inconsequential opinion.

Anyway, “Passenger” is not a total dud at all due to the competent efforts from Øvredal and his crew members including cinematographer Federico Verardi, but it is one or two steps below the level of achievement shown from Øvredal’s better works. No, it did not bore me a lot, but it did not scare me a lot either, so I will let you decide on whether you are going to watch it for killing your spare time.

Sidenote: Please do not confuse it with Vadim Perelman’s “The Passenger” (2026), a thriller film starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Djimon Hounsou.

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Normal (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A sheriff in one supposedly normal town

Posted on July 20, 2026 by kaist455

Bob Odenkirk is surely an interesting actor to watch. At first, he drew my attention via his scene-stealing supporting turn in American TV drama series “Breaking Bad”, and then he took the center in the following spin-off TV drama series “Better Call Saul”, which incidentally garnered him a series of Emmy nominations. Meanwhile, he also showed more of his versatile talent via a number of notable films including Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-nominated film “The Post” (2017), and then there came “Nobody” (2023), where he cheerfully entered the realm of John Wick movies.

In case of Ben Wheatley’s 2025 film “Normal”, what Odenkirk does here is not so far from what he previously did in “Nobody” and its following 2025 sequel. This time, he actually played a really ordinary dude who just happens to get himself involved in a very violent situation, and the movie works to some degree as he ably balances his plain lead character between humor and gravitas.

After the prologue scene set in Japan, the screenplay by Derek Kolstad, who incidentally wrote the screenplay for both “John Wick” (2014) and “Nobody”, quickly establishes how Odenkirk’s plain policeman hero, Sheriff Ulysses, has worked in a little town located somewhere in Wisconsin. As reflected by its very name, the town looks pretty normal and boring without much trouble, and that is quite fine for Sheriff Ulysses. After all, he recently came to the town as an interim sheriff to be replaced sooner or later, and he has been quite contented with filling his position day by day while getting to know some of the town residents at times. 

However, Sheriff Ulysses begins to sense something odd during the funeral of his recently deceased predecessor, who died outside his house under a rather suspicious circumstance. According to a town doctor, that was just a very unfortunate accident, but Sheriff Ulysses comes to have some reservation on that after he notices a young woman who turns out to be his dead predecessor’s daughter. For some unknown reason, she is not allowed to attend her father’s funeral, and she does not talk that much about the reason even when she comes to have a chance for some private talk with Sheriff Ulysses.

Still, Sheriff Ulysses prefers to do as little as possible, but then there comes a much bigger problem. A couple of small-time criminals attempt to rob the only bank in the town, but, what do you know, this bank turns out to be not your average rural bank at all, and it does not take much time for our sheriff hero to get involved more into this increasingly dangerous situation. He sincerely tries to resolve this crisis as soon as possible without causing any unnecessary mess at all, but then he soon finds himself on the line of fire along with those two unfortunate criminals.

What is eventually revealed next will not surprise you that much if you have ever watched “John Wick” and its several sequels – or John Carpenter’s classic action thriller film “Assault on Precinct 13” (1976). With a very few figures willing to help him, Sheriff Ulysses must defend himself in front of a big bunch of unexpected opponents ready to eliminate him by any means necessary, and, of course, he turns out to be quite resourceful. Fortunately for him and his few comrades, there are a heap of weapons available to them, and the movie has some nasty fun with how they corner their opponents in one way or another.

As the movie doles out its rather exaggerated actions along the story, the movie also shows a bit of seriousness as our hero shows some compassion and understanding to those few figures around him. While not asking too much, he generously provides a warm shelter to his dead predecessor’s daughter, and she certainly appreciates that. In case of those two criminals, they turn out to be more sympathetic, and we see why Sheriff Ulysses comes to care about them a lot more than expected.

And we get to know a bit more about our hero. Not so surprisingly, he has some dark past he is still struggling to deal with, and there is a little ironic scene where Sheriff Ulysses eventually confronts that dark past as phlegmatically talking with one of his opponents, who is incidentally about to kill him after showing him a little generosity.   

In the end, the movie expectedly culminates to a comically intense climax full of extreme violence, and we surely get some fun and entertainment while often wincing a lot for good reasons. Just like he did in “Nobody” and its sequel, Odenkirk willingly throws himself into a lot of chaos and mayhem, and his considerable commitment is one of the main reasons why the movie can continue to hold our attention. Although most of the supporting characters in the film are more or less than cardboard figures to be eliminated sooner or later, a number of supporting performers around Odenkirk dutifully fill their respective spots as much as required, and Henry Winkler is particularly hilarious when his supporting character makes an unexpected exit in the middle of the film.  

In conclusion, “Normal” can be regarded as a merely substandard variation of what we have seen from “John Wick” and “Nobody”, but it is a mostly watchable genre product mainly thanks to its lead actor’s talent and presence. In my humble opinion, he really needs to move onto some other area for more change and advance in his career, and I am sure that he will do that sooner or later.

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Hallow Road (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): How much can they possibly do as parents?

Posted on July 19, 2026 by kaist455

“Hallow Road” works best whenever it just focuses on the dynamic interactions between its two lead performers, and I enjoyed that during its first two acts. As one ordinary couple suddenly cornered by a very, very, very serious situation, these two wonderful performers are quite believable on the screen, and their joint efforts hold the movie to some degree even when it takes a sudden left turn during its flawed last act.

The opening scene quietly and succinctly establishes a sense of uneasiness inside the residence of Maddie (Rosmund Pike) and her husband Frank (Matthew Rhys). Along the story, we gradually gather that 1) something unpleasant happened between this couple and their adolescent daughter during their dinner and 2) they waited for any call from their daughter for hours after she angrily drove one of their cars away from their residence.

When their daughter finally calls them, she is quite hysterical to say the least. After leaving their residence, she went to some forest area and used some drug for letting out her anger and frustration a bit, and then an unexpected incident happened when she subsequently drove the car along a road in that forest area. She accidentally hit some young girl around her age, and now she is nearly overwhelmed by panic and fear.

Once they see that their daughter is in a big trouble, Maddie and Frank soon get in their other car for going to that remote spot where their daughter is helplessly waiting for them. Because she happens to be a professional paramedic, Maddie calmly and patiently instructs her daughter to do some CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) on that unfortunate girl, but, alas, things only get worse instead mainly due to her daughter’s growing panic.

As things naturally become all the direr for not only their daughter but also them, Maddie and Frank find themselves facing a serious moral conflict. As parents, they certainly feel the obligation to do anything for their troubled daughter, but they also feel quite conflicted about how much they can actually do under this increasingly desperate circumstance. They should surely call for paramedics as well as the police right now, but, because neither they nor their daughter has called anyone yet, they cannot help but become tempted about covering up everything for protecting their dear daughter and her promising future.

Not so surprisingly, they come to have a lot of argument between them as they keep going to where their daughter is waiting. While Maddie believes that they should not hide anything at all, Frank, who has clearly been more lenient and protective of their daughter, thinks otherwise, and the middle act of the movie steadily accumulates tension on the screen as both of its two main characters clash more about what should be really done for their daughter. The more they argue with each other, the more they discern how different they are from each other, and that certainly puts some serious strain on their supposedly stable relationship.

It surely helps that these two archetype characters are vividly illustrated on the screen by the undeniable talent and presence of the two lead performers of the film. Rosamund Pike deftly alternates between the strong and vulnerable sides of her character, and she is especially effective during one scene later in the story where Maddie reveals a certain emotional wound and pain she has hidden from her family for a while. On the opposite Matthew Rhys, who has steadily advanced both in TV and movie since his Emmy-winning performance in American TV drama series “The Americans”, is her equal acting match, and the movie is constantly engaging as their characters pull or push each other along their uneasy drive course.

However, the screenplay by William Gillies unfortunately becomes rather deficient during its last act due to the aforementioned sudden narrative turn. Instead of pushing its two main characters more into their accumulating moral dilemma, the movie tries something quite contrived to say the least, and its eventual finale may feel a little too hollow and superficial for some of you.

Nonetheless thanks to the competent direction of director Babak Anvari, who unfortunately went down a bit after his impressive first feature film “Under the Shadow” (2016), the movie held my attention along with its two lead performers up to that narrative point, and Pike and Rhys are also supported well by several voice performances during a number of crucial scenes in the movie. While Megan McDonnell holds her own small place well as the voice of Maddie and Frank’s daughter, and you may be surprised by who actually provided the two other substantial voice performances in the film. Although this is not a very big surprise, I can only tell you that, after checking out its end credits, you may wonder a bit about how reliable the main viewpoint of the story really is.

In conclusion, “Hallow Road”, which incidentally went straight to streaming here in South Korea, is a little too underwhelming for recommendation just like Anvari’s two previous films “Wounds” (2020) and “I Came By” (2022), but it occasionally shows his considerable skill and competence at least. Considering its fairly effective aspects, he may soon bounce from this current low point of his filmmaking career someday, and I will certainly be delighted by that.

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Pacifiction (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): The growing colonialist anxiety beneath a tropical background

Posted on July 19, 2026 by kaist455

Albert Serra’s 2022 film “Pacifiction”, which happened to be released in South Korean movie theaters not long after his recent documentary film “Afternoons of Solitude” (2024) arrived there, will definitely baffle or confound more than once during its rather long running time (165 minutes). As your typical arthouse movie, it certainly requires a considerable amount of patience from you right from the very beginning, but it may eventually come to you as an interesting work to be admired and appreciated – once you go along with its adamantly languid mood and narrative pacing.

 The main background of the story is set in the French Polynesian island of Tahiti, and the movie gradually immerses us into its seemingly peaceful tropical atmosphere surrounding High Commissioner De Roller (Benoît Magimel), a jaded French government official who is supposed to serve those local people as representing his government but looks more like a privileged white member of the local community. His first scene in the film shows him casually spending time at a gaudy nightclub, and we later see him paying a friendly informal visit to a bunch of local dancers supervised by a transgender lady named Shannah (Pahoa Mahagafanau).

We observe how De Roller goes through his autopilot mode while merely maintaining his appearance and authority day by day. During one meeting with a group of local people, he initially seems attentive to whatever is told to him, but it gradually becomes evident to us that he does not care that much about those local people and their life on the island. While he makes sure that he remains connected with some important figures on the island as usual, he is usually more occupied with having a good time during many evenings and nights, though he does not seem to get much fun from that.

Meanwhile, the island and its people slowly begin to get disturbed by a certain alarming rumor. It seems that the French government is planning to do another nuclear weapon test somewhere in their area even though more than 20 years have passed since the last one, and there are actually some small but alarming signs here and there in the island. As shown from the opening scene of the film, a group of French navy soldiers who are incidentally the crew members of a submarine frequently come and then go, and there is also a rather suspicious foreign dude who may come to the island for checking on whatever the French government is planning here. 

Because he does not know or hear anything from his government, De Roller is certainly quite baffled to say the least, though he soon embarks on checking on whether that rumor about nuclear weapon test is really true. At first, he tries to get any possible information from that foreign dude when he later becomes rather ill and then is nursed by Shannah, but Shannah, who is incidentally willing to get closer to De Roller, notifies to De Roller that she cannot find anything particularly suspicious from that foreign dude. In case of those French Navy soldiers and their middle-aged admiral, they also do not reveal anything to De Roller at all, and that makes De Roller all the more frustrated than before.

As De Roller’s attempts keep leading him to futile dead ends, we observe more of the growing little cracks on what has been like an eternal paradise for him. While there are still some figures willing to help and support him in one way or another, now he must deal with a bunch of local people ready to protest against the possible nuclear weapon test sooner or later. As this throws more annoyance upon him, he even wonders whether they are actually connected with any of the foreign governments spying on whatever is being planned by the French government behind its back, but, again, he cannot get any confirmation on that.

Steadily maintaining not only its slow narrative pacing but also a subtle sense of anxiety beneath the surface, the movie doles out a number of impressive moments to linger on your mind for their undeniable visual beauty. There is a stunning scene where De Roller joins others in riding on a relentless series of big ocean surfs, and Serra and his cinematographer/co-editor Arthur Tort did a commendable job of imbuing this highlight moment with considerable verisimilitude and lyrical natural beauty. Around the end of the story, the screen is injected with hallucinogenic qualities for reflecting more of the hero’s confusion and frustration, and then the movie eventually arrives the final scene which seems to reveal more to us at first but then throws us into more bafflement without much sense of resolution.

As far as I can see, the movie is intended as a pensively sardonic examination on French colonialism, and I think the movie mostly succeeds in that task. Although my mind often struggled to grasp what it is about during my viewing, I admired its palpable sense of life observed from its main background, and I also enjoyed the effective low-key acting from its main cast members. While Benoît Magimel diligently holds the center, several other main cast members including Pahoa Mahagafanau, Marc Susini, Matahi Pambrun, Alexandre Mello, and Sergi López are also well-cast in their respective supporting roles, and Mahagafanau often steals the show during her several key scenes in the film.

Overall, “Pacifiction” made me a bit impatient more than once during my viewing, but I conclude that it is still worthwhile to watch for its indelible mood and style. I must confess that I am not entirely sure about whether I actually understand everything in the film, but it was an interesting cinematic experience for me on the whole, so I recommend you to give it a chance someday.

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The Glimmering (2025) ☆1/2(1.5/4): A little misguided total bore

Posted on July 18, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “The Glimmering” is a little misguided total bore. I did not care at all about what it is about or how it is about, and, despite my attempt to be open-minded about whatever it intends to do, the movie made me all the more disappointed and frustrated in the end. To be frank with you, after the movie was finally over, I quickly walked out of the screening room even though there would soon be a Q&A session after the screening, because I might throw any angry question during the Q&A session due to that accumulated annoyance and frustration during my viewing. 

I am sure that director/writer Lee Won-young, who also serves as the editor/producer of the movie besides performing in front of the camera as its lead actor, is quite sincere and serious about his movie. Right before the screening, I happened to see him arriving at the movie theater for attending the Q&A session, and he looked like a fairly nice guy to me during that brief moment. As a matter of fact, I actively avoided him when I left the screening room right before the Q&A session.

In the movie, Lee plays an unnamed married guy who incidentally teaches Mongolian history at some college. In the opening scene, his character and several others are having a dinner conversation, but we can only listen to their mundane conversation because the camera simply and adamantly focuses on two little kids playing together around them. Because these two kids do not appear again in the film without serving any purpose at all, I am still asking myself what the hell is the point of this opening scene.

Anyway, after another pointless scene showing the hero of the movie doing some online lecture, we get a private moment between the hero of the movie and his wife. After his wife cooks a late dinner for him and goes out, he eats alone by himself while watching a TV news about the coup d’état attempt by President Yoon Suk-yeol at last night, which is a very convenient tool for establishing the contemporary period background of the film (That incident happened on December 3rd, 2024, by the way).

A few hours later, the hero receives a phone call, and he becomes quite devastated. His wife suddenly died for some unspecified reason, and then we see him returning to their home right after her following funeral. At first, he seems to be struggling a lot for processing his grief, and then he finds himself becoming unable to speak probably because of that. Needless to say, he has to cancel his online lecture as well as his several other work schedules, and he becomes all the more isolated in his growing grief.   

And then something odd happens to him. It seems that his apartment is haunted by the ghost of his dead wife, and, though he still cannot speak, he tries to communicate with her as much as possible. In the end, he eventually finds a possibly effective way to communicate with her, and that seems to bring some peace to his grieving mind.   

However, we remain distant to whatever is happening on the screen, mainly because the movie deliberately puts the distance between us and its story all the time. For example, the camera seldom shows much of the face of the hero except for a very few moments, and the sole close-up shot in the film incidentally belongs to his brother. As the camera just looks straight at his face from its static position, this pathetic dude relentlessly grumbles and whines about his failed marriage in front of the hero during next several minutes without much interruption at one point in the story, and you will soon be bored a lot by his petty misery, while not seeing much point in this particular individual moment.      

Furthermore, we never get to know that much about the hero or his wife at all. Except for his profession and that immense personal grief of his, the hero of the movie is quite a vapid cipher, and the movie does not even try to bring any depth or insight to his relationship with his wife. While there is a nice nocturnal scene during his encounter with his dead wife’s ghost, it seriously lacks the emotional substance to support it, and, again, we observe this supposedly sad moment from the distance without much care or attention.

Most of all, I was distracted a lot by how the movie attempted to incorporate one of the most shocking moments in the history of South Korean democracy into its narrative. Sure, President Yoon’s irresponsible coup d’état attempt was quite a shock to many of us in South Korea, but I do not see any particular reason in the narrative juxtaposition between that and the story itself, and the same thing can be said about the certain Mongolian elements in the story. While they surely add a bit of exotic touch to the last act of the story, they still feel like being tacked onto the story without much emotional resonance, and the following ending brings another disappointment to us without clarifying much of whatever happens to the hero in the end.

On the whole, “The Glimmering” is probably one of the most tedious cinematic experiences I had during this year. While it can be accepted as a little technical exercise by the director, whatever he attempts to achieve here unfortunately did not engage me at all, and the only consolation for me is that its running time is thankfully short (64 minutes). Nonetheless, now I must quote what my late mentor Roger Ebert often said: “No good movie is too long and no bad movie is short enough.”

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