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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Pulse (2001) ☆☆☆(3/4): Something creepy is happening on the Internet…

Posted on July 17, 2026 by kaist455

Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 film “Pulse”, which was released in South Korean theaters a few weeks ago, is as ambiguously creepy and disturbing as you can expect from Kurosawa. Being rather slow and opaque in terms of narrative, the movie certainly demands some patience from us at times, but its subtly uncomfortable sense of insidiousness is something you can easily forget after watching it.

The story begins with one strange incident which happens to Michi Kudo (Kumiko Asō) and her several friends who work with her at some plant shop in Tokyo. One of her friends, who has worked on a computer disk for their shop’s sales records, becomes suddenly disconnected from them for no apparent reason, so Michi visits a shabby apartment where he lives. At first, he seems mostly fine on the surface, but Michi senses something weird about him, and then she finds that he suddenly committed suicide.

While baffled about this terrible incident, Michi and her other friends later discover something strange from that computer disk from that dead friend of theirs. There is a photograph showing not only that dead friend but also what looks like a ghost, and then Michi and her friends gradually find themselves going under the elusive influence of whatever drove that dead friend to suicide.

The story also introduces us to Ryosuke Kawashima (Haruhiko Kato), a college student who recently started to use the Internet even though he is not so good at using computers. While clumsily doing some online surfing, Ryosuke comes across a strange website showing a very disturbing video clip, and he is all the more baffled when his computer is turned on then connected to that odd website by itself. He subsequently requests some technical help from a female student who knows a lot more about computer than him, but she cannot provide any clear answer as this website turns out to be much weirder and more elusive than expected.

Meanwhile, things get more alarming around the main characters in the story. More people are suddenly vanished or commits suicide, and the city comes to feel more emptier and moodier than before. Michi and her friends naturally try to understand what is really happening around them, but whatever is coming upon them and many others in the city seems inevitable, and the movie accordingly gives a series of fearful moments as they are surrounded more and more by whatever is menacing them step by step. At one point, the camera of cinematographer Jun’ichirô Hayashi simply observes something slowly approaching to one of the main characters, but the result is undeniably tense and disturbing because of the overwhelmingly grim atmosphere, and we come to brace ourselves for what may happen next to that character.

The movie later gives us a sort of expository moment via one minor supporting character. According to this character, the realm of the dead has been probably over-popularized, so more and more ghosts slip into the realm of the living, and this disturbing trend seems to be more accelerated via the Internet. As living people see more of those dead people, they are more inclined to commit suicide, and this only exacerbates that problem. 

Still, the movie does not give any definite answer even when its two storylines eventually converge as expected. As the city gets slowly crumbled, the situation becomes more desperate for the remaining main characters, and the increasingly chaotic and gloomy mood surrounding them may remind you of those dystopian novels by J.G. Ballard. Although the ending is predetermined as reflected by the opening scene, the movie continues to hold our attention with the growing sense of doom and frustration, and it is not so surprising that the movie was intended to reflect “The Lost Decades”, a lengthy period of economic stagnation in Japan followed by the asset price bubble’s collapse in 1990.   

I must confess that I often felt distant to the story and characters throughout the film. The characters are more or less than mere plot elements to be manipulated according to the grim design of Kurosawa’s screenplay, and we usually do not care that much about them. Sure, we are unnerved a lot whenever they are terrified in one way or another, but we still observe their fear and desperation from the distance.

In addition, I also could not help but notice how the movie often looks dated from time to time. Because computer technology has advanced a lot during last 25 years, the computers and websites shown in the movie look quite old-fashioned to us, and you may become a bit nostalgic whenever you hear the sound of the old version of modem.

Nevertheless, “Pulse” is still fascinating to watch for several good reasons including its indelible mood and details to be appreciated, and it makes me admire more of the undeniable talent of Kurosawa, who has steadily advanced during last four decades with a series of interesting works ranging from “Cure” (1997) to “Wife of a Spy” (2020). Two years ago, he has become quite active as making not only the French remake of his 1998 film “Serpent’s Path” but also two other notable works “Cloud” (2024) and “Chime” (2024), and then he gives us “The Samurai and the Prisoner” (2026) in this year. I have not seen that film yet, but I and other South Korean audiences will soon see “Serpent’s Path” in movie theaters, and I guess that is a pretty good way of killing some time before watching “The Samurai and the Prisoner” later.

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A Private Life (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A psychiatrist under crisis

Posted on July 16, 2026 by kaist455

French film “A Private Life” is a lightweight thriller often toying with a number of uneasy uncertainties surrounding its middle-aged heroine. Steadily supported by its ever-reliable lead actress, the movie amuses us at times as lightly bouncing up and down along with its heroine, but it unfortunately fizzles during its last act with a little too many loose ends to my disappointment.

The heroine of the movie is Lilian Steiner, an American psychiatrist who has lived and worked in Paris for many years. At the beginning of the story, she is suddenly visited by one of her patients when she is waiting for the arrival of some other patient, and he turns out to have a little surprise for her. He decides to stop his session with her just because he can finally quit smoking thanks to some other therapist he recently met, and Lilian respects his decision even though she is not so pleased to learn that she has not helped him much on quitting smoking despite many sessions between them.

Not long after he left, Lillian gets another surprise news. She is notified that Paula (Virginie Efira), the patient she was going to meet at that time, recently committed suicide, and she later goes to the funeral of this patient, who is incidentally a married Jewish woman around her age. She simply wants to show condolence to Paula’s family, but neither Paula’s husband nor her daughter welcomes Lilian that much.

While she remains calm and composed as before, Lillian later finds herself gradually disturbed in one way or another. Her eyes frequently get teary for no apparent reason, so she goes to her ophthalmologist ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil) for checking on her eyes, but he does not find anything particularly wrong with them. In addition, she finds herself have more questions on Paula’s death. As far as she checks on the recordings of their sessions, Paula was pretty okay besides being quite willing to talk about many things in front of Lillian, and that makes Lillian have more doubt and bafflement on Paula’s death.

In the end, Lillian decides to visit the aforementioned therapist. She is understandably skeptical at first, but, what do you know, she soon gets hypnotized, and then she finds herself wandering inside what seems to be the realm of subconsciousness somewhere inside her mind. As grasping for whatever has been repressed by her mind, she experiences what can be regarded as a memory from her former life, and she is startled to see the appearance of several people she knows – including Paula and Paula’s husband Simon (Mathieu Amalric).

The screenplay by director Rebecca Zlotowski and her co-writers Anne Berest Gaëlle Macé never clarifies what this strange moment actually means to its heroine, but it has some wry fun as Lillian becomes more convinced about whatever she experienced during that hypnosis session. She begins to believe that there are hidden connections between her and several others around her including Paula, and that certainly leads to a very awkward moment when she tells everything about her “former life” in front of her ex-husband and their young adult son later in the story.

As her psyche continues to tremble more and more, Lillian’s private/professional daily life also gets more disturbed along the story. While Paula’s daughter, who is incidentally around the age of Lillian’s son and has also been pregnant, seems to be fixated on getting any reason behind her mother’s death, Lillian begins to suspect Simon just because of what she supposedly saw as experiencing her “former life”, and her suspicion is more increased due to a series of alarming incidents happening around her. For example, somebody vandalizes her car, and she is subsequently shocked to discover that her residence is burglarized for no apparent reason.

As its heroine becomes quite obsessive about finding the truth behind her patient’s death, the movie seems to enter the area of those paranoid thriller films of Roman Polanski such as “The Ghost Writer” (2010). As a matter of fact, there is even a brief but humorous moment which is clearly influenced by the climactic scene of “The Ghost Writer”, and this is further accentuated by the presence of Mathieu Amalric, who not only worked with Polanski several times and but also resembles him to considerable degree.

It is disappointing to see that the story arrives at the finale which feels too easy and contrived in my trivial opinion, but the movie is still fairy engaging thanks to the good performance from Jodie Foster, who has lost none of her talent and presence although it has been 35 years since her iconic Oscar-winning turn in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991). Although I cannot tell how good her French speaking in the film actually is (She already tried a bit of French-speaking performance in “A Very Long Engagement” (2004), by the way), Foster looks natural in her interactions with several other main cast members surrounding her, and Daniel Auteuil and Virginie Efira ably handle each own juicy moments in the film while never overshadowing her at all.

On the whole, “A Private Life” has several glaring flaws which distracted me a bit too much during my viewing, but it is not wholly without fun and amusement at least. I still wish it had a naughtier fun with its supposedly preposterous story premise, but it held my attention up to a certain narrative point along with Foster, and I admire that to some degree.

Sidenote: There is a brief cameo appearance by Frederick Wiseman, a great documentary filmmaker who sadly passed away early in this year.

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Minions & Monsters (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): Minions go to Hollywood

Posted on July 16, 2026 by kaist455

Animation film “Minions & Monsters” is the first Minions flick I can wholeheartedly embrace without any shame or regret. Yes, these Minions are still a bunch of silly and wacky creatures which may annoy you a lot at times, but now they give us something much funnier and wittier than expected this time, and we can all rejoice for that.

Since their first appearance in 2010 animation film “Despicable Me”, the Minions have become quite popular that they had their own spin-off animation movie “Minions” (2015) and then the following sequel “Minions: The Rise of Gru” (2022). Although these two animation films are not exactly very good in my inconsequential opinion, they are fairly amusing and entertaining on the whole, and their considerable box office success certainly made the Minions all the more enduring than before, regardless of whether you have already got tired of them (FULL DISCLOSURE: I have – to some degree).

Fortunately, director/co-writer Pierre Coffin, who provides all those gibberish voices of the Minions as before, hits a relatively fresh ground for them. This time, the Minions come upon the Hollywood during the 1920s, and the film has a lot of fun with mixing their usual silly gags and actions with a heap of various movie references ranging from “Metropolis” (1927) and “Modern Times” (1936) to “Citizen Kane” (1941) and “Casablanca” (1943).

The story opens with a movie history museum employee, drolly voiced by Allison Janney, introducing a bunch of visitors to two certain Minions who actually played an important part in the movie history. They are called James and Henry, and then the movie gives us an amusing flashback sequence showing how they and their fellow Minions steadily searched for any big bad guy they could serve for many years. At one point, they attempted to work for a certain very big dude who may be a winking nod to the latest work from Christopher Nolan, but, not so surprisingly, their well-intentioned attempt led to a disastrous result mainly due to James and Henry.  

Anyway, after one failure after another during next several centuries, the Minions happen to end up arriving in Hollywood during the 1920s. Although they are not welcomed much at first, they inadvertently become very popular silent comedy movie stars, and James, who has been an aspiring storyteller, is particularly delighted as learning more and more about filmmaking from their movie director, who is warmly and humorously voiced by Christoph Waltz.       

However, once the twin brothers running their studio, both of whom are voiced by Jeff Bridges, begin to make talkies instead of silent films, the Minions soon find themselves unemployed and then abandoned. Nevertheless, James comes to have a possible movie idea which may help them get back in business, and he is encouraged more by his mentor, but there is one problem. He is going to make a big monster flick, so he needs some monsters to appear in front of his camera, but there is no monster available for him and his fellow Minions right now.

Fortunately, the Minions have kept a magic book which can summon various monsters from wherever they have been imprisoned (This is from one of many unfortunate former masters of theirs, by the way). When James, Henry, and their deaf Minion colleague Ed summon an entity nicknamed Goomi, they are not so impressed to say the least, but Goomi, who is mischievously voiced by Trey Parker, promises to give them the monsters they need, and they willingly go to a remote island along with him.  

Of course, it soon turns out that, as reflected by his actual name, Goomi has some other plan behind his back, and that eventually leads to a big climactic action sequence later in the story, but the film still maintains enough amount of wit and humor to amuse and entertain us. I like some nice Lovecraftian touches involved with Goomi and his cheerfully hideous monster colleagues, and I also enjoyed a subplot involved with one supporting character who will take you back to those old classic SF Hollywood movies such as “The Day the Earth Stood still” (1951). It seems at first that this figure, who is incidentally voiced by Jesse Eisenberg, can be another big bad dude for the Minions, but, what do you know, he turns out to be as soft-hearted as the grumpy “villain” hero of “Despicable Me”, and we get a couple of sweet moments from his unexpected love interest.  

Above all, I was tickled a lot by those numerous inspired movie references to be cherished by any serious movie fans like me. I love a very brisk but fun reference on the three great silent comedy films stars of Hollywood during the 1920s, and I had a big chuckle when one of the Minions struggles to deliver handle something not so far from the very famous opening scene of one of the greatest Hollywood films in the 1940s (The film is often quite anachronistic, as you have already noticed).

In conclusion, “Minions & Monsters” is more enjoyable than its two predecessors, and I think that is a notable achievement. In fact, I happened to watch it right after getting both exhausted and entertained by the sheer intensity and tension of South Korean film “Hope” (2026), and it somehow delighted and then recharged me enough to write the respective reviews on them immediately during this afternoon. That says a lot about its considerable entertainment value, isn’t it?

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Hope (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): The very intense first chapter

Posted on July 16, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean film “Hope” will definitely grab you from the beginning to the end – and I am not joking at all. As a matter of fact, it is often so intense, thrilling, and captivating that I was actually let down a bit by the cliffhanger shot right before its end credits. To be frank with you, I came to learn later that the movie is in fact intended as the first chapter of the trilogy planned by its director, and I can only hope that the director will really surpass what is so strikingly presented on the screen.

However, I must tell you that, despite my reservation, I have some faith in director/writer/co-producer Na Hong-jin, who has always impressed me and many other South Korean audiences since his remarkable first feature film “The Chaser” (2008). I was instantly knocked out by the sheer intensity of that darkly brutal but undeniably electrifying thriller film, and I still remember several audiences around me gasping a lot when a certain minor supporting character in the film made a very fatal mistake to our devastation.

After his big career break via “The Chaser”, Na only made two films, “The Yellow Sea” (2010) and “The Wailing” (2016), before making a long-awaited comeback with “Hope” in this year, but he has not lost any of his cinematic mastery yet despite his 10-year absence. There are several superlative action sequences which will keep you stuck in your seat with a lot of tension and thrill, and they are all definitely worthwhile to watch on big movie theater screen.

And Na is so confident that his movie does not have much need for establishing its story and characters at first. Right from the opening scene, which is presented in deceptively slow pacing, the movie throws us into the ongoing situation surrounding its several main characters, and then it seldom slows down itself once their small world is suddenly swamped by a lot of mayhem and chaos beyond their control.

The main background of the story, which is set around the 1980s, is a little village located in the East Sea area near the demarcation line between South and North Korea. When he comes to see the carcass of a livestock animal on a road early in the morning, Beom-suk (Hwang Jung-min), the police chief of the village, is not concerned much at first, but he and others notice some strange things about this dead animal. It seems to be killed by some wild beast from a nearby forest, but they all have not seen anything like that, though they know that they should alert others as soon as possible.

Not long after that, the situation quickly becomes much more serious and dangerous than before. The village and its villagers are suddenly attacked by something quite unknown, and we are accordingly served with the first action sequence in the film, which is strewn with a lot of sound and fury as its main characters struggle to fight against this sudden big menace coming upon them. Although we often become more confused and clueless just like its main characters, the movie deftly and swiftly keeps things rolling without losing any narrative momentum at all, and we go along with that even though we do not totally understand what the hell is going on around its main characters.

During its middle act, the story becomes bifurcated into two separate story lines. While Bum-seok and several others including a plucky (and brave) female police officer named Sung-ae (Jung Ho-yeon) try to get to the bottom of their situation, a bunch of hunters including Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) go into that nearby forest for catching whatever was responsible for the devastating attack on the village, but then they all find themselves quite overwhelmed by something they eventually discover later in the story.

And that is where the movie becomes rather shaky. When the movie was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival a few months ago, it received some criticism on its rather imperfect CGI, and I heard that Na and his crew worked more on their film besides doing some re-editing. I do not know how much the modified version currently being shown in South Korean theaters is different from the original version shown at the Cannes Film Festival, but I can tell you that 1) the editing by Kim Sun-min, who deserves some praise like cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo and composer Michael Abels, is precise and efficient except a few notable glitches and 2) the CGI in the film is still not that good but mostly passable as far as I could see from the big screen of the Dolby Cinema screening room of a local theater.

Furthermore, I sometimes felt rather distant to its story and characters, who are more or less than plot elements to be driven as fast and urgently as possible. Although often limited by their thin characters, Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, and Jung Ho-yeon dutifully fill their respective archetype, and they are also quite convincing during a bunch of nail-biting moments in the film including the climatic action sequence unfolded between a police patrol car and a horse running besides that. In case of Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander, and Michael Fassbender, they simply lend their voices and appearances to those CGI figures in the story, which are incidentally the most generic element in the movie.

In conclusion, “Hope” is not entirely without flaws, but its strong aspects compensate for its many flaws enough in my humble opinion. Despite its rather long running time (156 minutes) and the disappointing cliffhanger ending, I must admit that I was not bored at all during the rest of the film, so I recommend it even though I subtract a half star from my initial rating during its first two hours. Anyway, let’s hope that Na will deliver as much as he promises to us here.

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