War Machine (2026) ☆☆(2/4): Selected and then hunted

Posted on March 11, 2026 by kaist455

Netflix film “War Machine”, which was released in last week, is a bland and disappointing military action thriller which does not have much surprise for me. While its first act is no more than your average military training sequence not so far from those countless military drama films out there such as “Full Metal Jacket” (1987), the rest of the film is pretty much like the mechanical version of “Predator” (1987) mixed with a lot of rote American jingoism, which is not a very pretty sight especially when you consider what is happening in our world at present. 

At the beginning, we are introduced to its anonymous military hero, about whom we do not know much except that 1) he is a staff sergeant and 2) he has a soldier brother who was also doing his tour in Afghanistan just like our hero as shown from the prologue scene. Unfortunately, not long after another hearty moment between them, the hero’s brother got killed due to a sudden ambush, and this certainly devastated the hero a lot.

Two years later, the hero applies for the Ranger Assessment and Selection Program (RASP) just because that is what his brother always wanted to do along with him. Although he is a bit too old compared to many other applicants coming to a regiment staying at somewhere in Colorado, it does not take much time for him to distinguish himself among the candidates during next several weeks of grueling training and assessment process, though he still suffers post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to what happened to him in Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, he eventually remains along with a small group of other applicants, and all of them are quite prepared for the final stage of the program. They soon sent to a remote spot outside the regiment, and they must accomplish a rather tricky simulated mission and then return to the regiment within a short period of time.

Needless to say, they are well aware of any kind of surprise to be unleashed by their military instructors, but what they subsequently come across turns out to be much more than they expected. At first, it looks like a crashed military aircraft they are supposed to search for, but, what do you know, it is actually a lethal alien robot ready to eliminate them right from the beginning.

This was probably intended as a surprise plot turn, but I guess I do not spoil anything at all, considering that the trailer of the movie does not hide that much of its story development. As a matter of fact, there are a series of TV reports about a mysterious asteroid approaching to the Earth during its first act, and that is surely more than enough for you to sense a big trouble coming for the hero and several other characters.

However, do we actually care about any of these soldier characters? In case of me, I did not give much damn as observing more of how bland and colorless they are even if you try to accept them as your typical military archetypes. While the hero of the film is simply defined by his stoic attitude accompanied with the occasional moments of PTSD, the substantial supporting characters around him are so devoid of personality that they only remain as cardboard figures to get killed in one way or another along the story.

Above all, their mighty opponent does not look particularly impressive on the whole. Sure, it can shoot a lot here and there throughout the film, but it is a rather boring killing machine without much interest or surprise, even though we can clearly see that the movie attempts to present it as a sort of cross between “Predator” and “RoboCop” (1987).     

In case of the action scenes in the film, director/co-producer/co-writer Patrick Hughes, who wrote the screenplay with James Beaufort, and his crew surely unleash a lot of crashes and bangs upon the screen whenever that is necessary. However, without any character we can actually care about, these competent action scenes feel hollow and uninteresting amid lots of sound and fury, and we remain distant to the movie even when its hero expectedly makes his last stand against his opponent (Is this a spoiler?)

Anyway, Alan Ritchson, who has been more notable thanks to Amazon Prime Video series “Reacher”, demonstrates that he is a solid action movie actor with enough presence and talent to hold our attention, though he is often limited by his flat character throughout the film. In case of several notable supporting cast members, Dennis Quaid, Jai Courtney, and Esai Morales simply come and then go without much to do, and Stephen James is sadly wasted a lot – especially after his character happens to depend a lot on his comrades later in the story.   

In conclusion, “War Machine” is another bland Netflix product which will probably not last that long in your memory once you move onto whatever you are going to watch next. To be frank with you, this is very mediocre compared to some other recent Netflix action films such as, yes, “Extraction” (2020), and now I must tell you that there have actually been much better things from Netflix during last several months. I particularly recommend Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” (2025) and Clint Bentley’s “Train Dreams” (2025), and, believe me, you will have a much meaningful experience with either of them and thank me for that later.

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Becoming Led Zeppelin (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): How they became famous

Posted on March 10, 2026 by kaist455

Documentary film “Becoming Led Zeppelin”, which is currently available on Netflix in South Korea, works best whenever it simply takes time on focusing on the music of Led Zeppelin, which was one of the most popular English rock bands during the 1960s. While the success story of the band is not particularly fresh or deep in my humble opinion, the documentary thankfully provides a bunch of vivid and impressive musical moments to remember, and you may willingly overlook some shortcomings in the documentary.

The early part of the documentary is pretty typical as presenting the formative years of the four band members of Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, and John Bonham, who cannot be interviewed in contrast to his colleagues due to his early death in 1980 and is mainly represented by the excerpts from his interview recordings. Just like many other young men in UK during the post-World War II period, these four young men were ready for something new and exciting as showing each own considerable musical talent, and they gladly tell us about how much they were influenced by the rapid rise of American pop music during the 1950s.

Needless to say, their respective early careers were a series of small and big struggles, but it did not take much time for each of them to distinguish themselves in one way or another. For example, Page and Jones came to earn their meager living as session players to be hired by local recording studios such as, yes, Abbey Road Studios, and, though they actually never met the Beatles, they instead participated in the recording session for the theme song for “Goldfinger” (1964). In case of Bonham, he came to build considerable reputation as a fairly good drummer, and he and Plant became close friends as frequently performing together, though Bonham’s wife did not approve much of this at first just because she thought Plant was not a good friend for her husband.

How these four duded founded their band was pretty accidental to say the least. Not long after Page joined a local rock band named the Yardbirds in 1966, he became the lead guitarist due to the sudden exit of his predecessor, and he decided to take the band toward a new direction. While Jones gladly joined him as a bassist, Plant was subsequently recruited as the new vocalist for the band, and then he recommended Bonham to Page as the new drummer for their band.

Once they came to horn their skills together under the new name of their band, something began to click among them, though things did not go as well as they hoped at first. After the fairly successful result from their concert tour in Scandinavian countries, the band tried on the East coast areas of US, but this did not generate much popularity on the whole.

However, after it had a big successful night in California, Led Zeppelin came to have its first forward step toward bigger successes to come. Thanks to their resourceful manager Peter Grant, they could make a very advantageous deal on their very first album with one of the most prominent recording companies in US, and they were certainly willing to push their talents further than before.

Unfortunately, the initial reviews on the first album of Led Zeppelin were quite harsh to say the least, but that did not deter its members much at all. Besides enjoying receiving much more attention than before, they were just happy to have a fun time together via their shared passion toward music, and they soon moved onto producing the next album to be released while also doing more concerts here and there in US.

As the members of the band talk more about those early years of their band, the documentary doles out their concert footage clips from that period, which give us a close and vivid look into their undeniable artistry. In case of one particular archival clip, it is quite damaged due to a technical problem, but this thankfully remains as a minor distraction as our ears come to pay more attention to the musical performance inside this flawed archival clip.

While it did not receive much recognition in UK at the time of its first album release, Led Zeppelin became gradually popular in both US and UK around the time when it was going to release its second album in 1969, which became one of the most successful albums in US during that year. Naturally, their immense success in US led to them having much more popularity in UK than before, and they eventually had one of the biggest moments for their band around the end of 1969.

Around that point, the documentary focuses more on music rather than letting itself merely driven by the interviews from the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin. Thanks to its dexterous collage of archival footage clips, we do not need much explanation on how much the band excited and galvanized audiences, and you may enjoy some psychedelic touches shown from this part (Well, this is the 1960s, isn’t it?).

Overall, “Becoming Led Zeppelin”, directed by Bernard MacMahon, does not go that deep into the personal aspects of its main subject, but it does not disappoint us at all in case of presenting the artistry and excitement observed from the members of Red Zeppelin during that time. Yes, it could show and tell more in my trivial opinion, but the documentary did its main job well during a fairly ample amount of running time (122 minutes), so I will not grumble for now.

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Cloud (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): No easy money for young men

Posted on March 10, 2026 by kaist455

There is usually a creeping sense of uneasiness in the works of Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and “Cloud”, one of the three works from him in 2024, is no exception. At first, you may feel quite frustrated with its rather glacial narrative pacing (Full Disclosure: I did during my viewing), but the movie draws our attention as subtly establishing its uneasy mood, and then things get more interesting once it throws some unexpected plot turns to catch you off guard.

The first half of the story clinically observes the daily life of Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda), a young factory worker who has gotten some extra cash as an online reseller. The opening scene shows Ryosuke purchasing a bunch of stuffs at a rather cheap price and then selling at a much higher price on the Internet, and, because of this latest big profit of his, he begins to consider leaving his fairly stable factory job even though his supervisor tells him that he can be actually promoted sooner or later.

Once he eventually quits his factory job, Ryosuke prepares for the next step for his online reselling business. He moves to a big house located in some remote place outside the city, and he also hires a local lad to work as his assistant. In addition, his girlfriend also moves into the house along with him, and she is certainly delighted to live in a less stuffy environment, while not asking too much about how he comes to have enough money for renting the house.

However, we gradually sense trouble along the story. The more money Ryosuke gets, the more paranoid he becomes for understanding reasons, and there are also a series of disturbing incidents which make him all the uneasier than before. In the end, there comes a point where he cannot trust not only his assistant but also his girlfriend, who becomes quite disturbed when their current staying place turns out to be not so cozy or safe at all.

Nevertheless, Ryosuke does not stop at all – even when he comes to learn later that he can be arrested at any point for his shady online business. When there comes another opportunity for big profit, he does not hesitate at all, and we cannot help but notice how many people will spend a lot more money than they planned just because of his petty greed.

And then Kurosawa’s screenplay takes an unexpected narrative turn to our little surprise. I will not go into details here for not spoiling your entertainment, but I can tell you instead that 1) the mood becomes more tense as Ryosuke fatefully faces the consequence of his selfish action and 2) Kurosawa does not disappoint you at all if you are an admirer of his notable works such as “Cure” (1997) and “Tokyo Sonata” (2008), which is incidentally my personal favorite film in Kurosawa’s fascinating filmmaking career.

Although its hero remains quite unlikable to say the least, the second half of the story holds our attention more via its deft mix of suspense and black humor. There are several striking moments of violence, and we come to stay focused on whatever may happen next even though we still observe Ryosuke’s plight from the distance. Furthermore, you will get amused a bit as Ryosuke’s assistant turns out to be much more resourceful than expected, and you may also appreciate a wry sense of dark humor behind the ambiguous last scene between him and Ryosuke, which will make you reflect more on the rest of the story.

Is this actually a fable on moral corruption and the consequential descent into, well, hell? I am not totally sure about that even at this point, but I enjoy how Kurosawa deftly rolls the story and characters from one unexpected moment to another, and his main cast members firmly stick to the dry overtone of his movie. While Masaki Suda diligently holds the center as required, Kotone Furukawa and Daiken Okudaira are effective as the two crucial supporting characters in the story, and Okudaira is particularly good as his character gradually reveals himself as someone much more cynical and amoral than Ryosuke later in the story.

I must admit that I admire “Cloud” instead of loving it, but I come to reflect more on how Kurosawa, who is incidentally not related to Akira Kurosawa, has been one of the most interesting filmmakers in our time for many years. Although I belatedly came to know about him via “Tokyo Sonata” in 2009, I began to admire him more after watching his subsequent films such as “Creepy” (2016) and “Wife of a Spy” (2020). In case of “Cure”, I am still scratching my head about what actually makes it feel so uneasy and disturbing, but I am also quite impressed by how dexterously Kurosawa sets and then develops the insidious tone along its increasingly baffling narrative. In fact, I can somehow understand how this disturbing masterwork has influenced so many notable filmmakers out there including Bong Joon-ho, who surely learned a lot about mood and storytelling from the works of Kurosawa as shown from his notable films such as “Memories of Murder” (2003) and, yes, “Parasite” (2019).

In conclusion, “Cloud” is a quintessential work from Kurosawa, and now I have some expectation on “Chime” (2024), a short film which is another work from him in 2024 and is currently being shown in South Korean theaters now. After these two works and “Serpent’s Path” (2024), Kurosawa has already moved onto working on his next film to be released in this year, and he will probably strike and impress us again as usual.

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Die My Love (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her downward spiral into postpartum depression

Posted on March 10, 2026 by kaist455

It is often uncomfortable to watch Lynne Ramsay’s latest film “Die My Love”, an edgy but engaging presentation of postpartum depression. As its heroine going up and down along her frequent mood swings, the movie vividly illustrates her increasingly unhinged state of mind, and we come to have some human understanding on her downward spiral even while horrified and baffled by her destructive behaviors along the story. 

At the beginning, we get to know a bit about Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and her boyfriend Jackson (Robert Pattinson). They recently moved to Jackson’s rural hometown in Montana, and the opening scene shows them checking out an empty house which belonged to a dead brother of Jackson’s father Harry (Nick Nolte). Although the house looks rather shabby, Grace and Jackson are happy to have their own place, and we subsequently see them throwing themselves into another passionate moment between them.

However, not long after Grace and Jackson’s baby is born, the situation becomes less optimistic. While Jackson is often absent due to working outside for earning their living, Grace tries to start her writing again whenever she is not busy with taking care of their baby, but then she begins to show the signs of postpartum depression, and we see how much she struggles to deal with her worsening mental illness. No, she does not show much negligence in case of raising her baby, but she cannot help but become quite depressed to say the least, and this leads her to some extreme behaviors.

Needless to say, Jackson and his mother Pam (Sissy Spacek) begin to notice that something is going wrong in Grace’s mind, though neither of them can help Grace much despite their good intentions. While hoping that Grace’s postpartum depression is just a temporary predicament they must pass through, Jackson tries to tolerate and understand Grace as much as possible, but he often finds himself way over his head whenever Grace shows another extreme behavior from her ongoing mental illness. They come to fight more with each other, and they become more estranged from each other even though they subsequently try to be nice to each other.

In case of Pam, she understands Grace’s mental struggle well as a woman with her own emotional issues. After all, since her husband’s recent passing, Pam often finds herself sleepwalking at night, and she is willing to provide any emotional support to Grace, though she knows well that she probably cannot help Grace a lot in the end. 

Anyway, Grace insists that everything is fine for her, and that makes the situation all the worse for her along with several other negative factors including a pet dog brought into the house by Jackson. Right from its first day in their house, this dog annoys Grace a lot, and the movie emphasizes this more and more as it continues to bark on the soundtrack.

Around that point, Grace’s viewpoint becomes more unreliable to say the least. Early in the story, she notices a stranger riding a motorcycle, and she later comes to have a nocturnal encounter with that stranger in that question, who turns out to be played by LaKeith Stanfield. When this mysterious figure appears again in front of her, we come to have more doubt about her state of mind, and you will not be that sure about what subsequently occurs between them.

Despite our increasing bafflement, the movie, whch is based on the novel of the same name by Ariana Harwicz, continues to hold our attention thanks to Ramsay’s skillful handling of mood and details. The editing by Toni Froschhammer is often jarring as aptly reflecting Grace’s abrupt mood swings, and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey, who previously collaborated with Ramsay in “We Need to Talk About Kevin” (2011), did a good job of conveying to us more of the heroine’s increasing sense of frustration and suffocation in addition to bringing more attention to her deteriorating mental condition.  

Needless to say, Jennifer Lawrence, who also produces the film along with Martin Scorsese (He recommended Harwicz’s book to her, by the way), is crucial for the emotional effectiveness of the film. While we never get to know that well about whatever really makes her character driven into the bottom of her postpartum depression, Lawrence steadily holds our attention even when her character feels like beyond our reach or understanding, and her strong performance demonstrates that she is still one of the best actresses working in Hollywood despite some recent downturns in her acting career.

Around Lawrence, several notable performers in the film bring some extra human elements to the story. Robert Pattinson, who can be as fearless as his co-star, does not hesitate to embody his character’s human flaws, and Sissy Spacek provides a bit of warmth to the story during her several key scenes with Lawrence. In case of Nick Nolte, he simply comes and then goes just like Standfield, but both of them leave some impression at least.

Overall, “Die My Love” is another disturbing but interesting work from Ramsay, who impressed me with “We Need to Talk About Kevin” and then “You Were Never Really Here” (2017). Although it is less impressive than these previous two films of hers, the movie still works thanks to Ramsay’s competent direction and Lawrence’s strong performance, and it will surely make you reflect more on its story subject after its strikingly self-immolating finale. Yes, things can be quite bad in any kind of clinical depression, and you will have some understanding on why self-destruction feels like the only way out in some very severe cases like Grace.

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Hoppers (2026) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Save the glade

Posted on March 7, 2026 by kaist455

“Hoppers”, the latest animation feature film from Pixar Animation Studios, is more entertaining than I expected. When I watched its trailer several weeks ago, it looked like another typical animation film to watch and then forget, but the film turns out to have more humor and gravitas than it seemed at first. Although it still does not reach to the level of the best achievements of Pixar Animation Studios, the film is one or two steps above most of its recent outputs during last several years at least, and that is surely something nice to see.

The heroine of the story is Mabel Tanaka (voiced by Piper Curda), a 19-year-old Japanese American college student who has loved and cared a lot about animals since she was a little girl. While her parents did not understand this that much, her grandmother was willing to understand and then encourage Mabel to love nature and animals more, and there is a brief but sweet moment when she and her granddaughter spend some peaceful time at a little glade filled with many different animals.

However, Mabel’s grandmother passed away several years later, and then there comes a big issue in Mabel’s life. That special spot of her and her grandmother is going to be destroyed just because the mayor of the city wants to build a big highway circling around their city, and the mayor and Mabel have been clashing with each other a lot over this matter, though it looks like there is really nothing she can do for stopping the mayor’s ambitious construction project. For example, the mayor was allowed to build the highway on the glade mainly because there is no animal to be endangered there, and Mabel is baffled about how that spot can be totally empty without any animal at present.

And then she finds a possible way to solve her issue when she happens to learn about the research project of a biology professor in her college, who has been studying on animals via her special animal robots to which a human mind can be transferred. Yes, as humorously pointed out at one point, this is not so different from “Avatar” (2009), and Mabel soon finds her mind transferred to a little beaver robot, and she is certainly delighted when she can communicate with animals now.

For restoring the ecology of the glade, Mabel needs to persuade beavers first, and, what do you know, the king of the local mammals turns out to be a jolly beaver named King George (voiced by Bobby Moynihan), who cheerfully welcomes Mabel into his small animal kingdom. Thanks to King George, Mabel comes to know more about the hidden world of animals, and that makes her more determined to fight against the mayor and his ambitious highway project.

Needless to say, things become more complicated as our heroine attempts to accomplish her goal as soon as possible. While there is a little secret behind how the highway project was permitted from the beginning, Mabel’s attempt to motivate many different animals ranging from birds and fishes to reptiles and amphibians leads to a much more serious consequence than expected. Above all, she keeps hiding her true identity from King George and her several animal friends even at that point, and she becomes all the more conflicted when King George shows her more trust and care than before.

Now this sounds rather predictable, but the screenplay by Jesse Andrews, which is developed from the story written by him and director Daniel Chong, keeps the plot rolling via some nice plot turns coupled with a series of inspired comic moments. In case of one particular action sequence, I was amused by how it is sometime reminiscent of “The Birds” (1963), and then I was tickled more by the unexpected appearance of some big animal.

While steadily entertaining us in one way or another, the story also focuses on Mabel’s personal drama along the story. We come to have more understanding on why she is so occupied with her and her grandmother’s special place, and we also come to root for her more even though she inadvertently causes a much bigger trouble later in the story. In the end, she comes to learn some good lessons via her bumpy adventure, and that makes the finale quite touching.

Piper Curda’s plucky voice performance holds the center as required, and she is also supported well by a number of notable voice cast members of the film. While Bobby Moynihan brings a lot of humor and heart to his beaver character, John Hamm is suitably slick and confident as the mayor, and Sam Richardson, Dave Franco, Meryl Streep, and Isiah Whitlock Jr., who sadly passed away several months ago, are also well-cast in their respective supporting parts.

On the whole, “Hoppers” is surprisingly funny and enjoyable even though it does not reach to the high standard of those classic animation films from Pixar Animation Studios. Compared to the literal emotional complexity of “Inside Out” (2015) or the colorful poignancy of “Coco” (2017), it feels a bit too slight at times in terms of story and character, but it is relatively better than the mildly engaging result of “Elio” (2025). I gave “Elio” 3 stars despite that, so I guess I should give “Hoppers” 3.5 stars (I am getting more tired of this star rating, you know), but we can all agree that Pixar Animation Studios has not lost any of its storytelling skills yet.

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The Bride! (2026) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): This bride is wild!

Posted on March 6, 2026 by kaist455

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s latest film “The Bride!” is a wild mess which alternatively fascinates and distracts you. Loosely inspired by Mary Shelley’s 1818 classic novel “Frankenstein”, the movie attempts to try a lot of different things ranging from horror to musical, but the overall result is a bit too jumbled and jarring on the whole, and I only ended up getting more exhausted even while enjoying its wild style and mood to some degree.

The movie, which is set in the 1930s, is actually a variation of James Whale’s famous sequel film “The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935). “Frank” (Christian Bale), who is Dr. Frankenstein’s notorious creation, comes to Chicago for meeting Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Annette Bening), a scientist whose research has been influenced a lot by his creator’s. Having been quite lonely (and horny) for more than 100 years, Frank wants to have a spouse not so different from him, and Dr. Euphronious is eventually persuaded to do the job for her special visitor.

Needless to say, they need a suitable body for their project, but, what do you know, that soon comes handy to them. As shown from the opening sequence, a young woman happens to get killed and then promptly buried in a local graveyard, and Frank and Dr. Euphronious subsequently dig up her grave in the middle of one dark night.

 The following procedure turns out to be much more successful, but “The Bride” (Jessie Buckley) is quite wild to say the least for a rather inexplicable reason. Right before her death, she somehow got possessed by what can be regarded as the wraith of Mary Shelley, and this angry and tempestuous entity remains with her even after she is alive again thanks to Dr. Euphronious, who is certainly fascinated by how the result is a lot more interesting than expected. 

Anyway, Frank finds himself more attracted to the Bride – even when she causes a lot of trouble for both of them. After having a wild time at a local night dance club full of deliberately anachronistic touches, they find themselves on the run due to one unfortunate incident, and that is when a cynical detective named Jakes Wiles (Peter Sarsgaard) and his resourceful Myrna Mallow (Penélope Cruz) enter the picture. While it does not take much time for Mallow to track down the Bride and Frank, Wiles does not seem particularly willing to catch them and then close the case, and we are not so surprised when it later turns out later that he actually knows something about the Bride.      

As Frank and the Bride try to evade the police as long as possible, they become all the more notorious in public, and this surely remind you of Arthur Penn’s great film “Bonny and Clyde” (1967) and its many juniors such as Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” (1994). As they cause more troubles here and there around the country, Frank and the Bride become a sort of folk heroes, and the Bride inadvertently causes a sort of radical female revolution in an alarming way not so far from Todd Phillip’s “Joker” (2019).

In this loony mix between horror and crime drama, the movie also adds another distinctive genre element. Frank is actually a big fan of the popular Hollywood musical movies of Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), a famous dancer/singer whom Frank once encountered many years ago. When he and the Bride happen to sneak into a party attended by Reed and many other well-dressed guests, they certainly draw the attention from others around them, and what follows next is a wild and wacky cross between Mel Brooks’ classic parody comedy film “Young Frankenstein” and Chuck Russell’s “The Mask” (1994). Although there is not much explanation on how Frank and the Bride can make some of the party guests sing and dance along with them, the result is insanely amusing, and you will admire how willing Gyllenhaal and her crew members including cinematographer Lawrence Sher and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, who incidentally worked together in “Joker”, are to do anything for more style and craziness to be mixed into the film. 

In case of the two lead performers of the movie, they also willingly hurl themselves into many looney moments in the story without much restraint. Looking quite different from her recent Oscar-nominated turn in Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” (2025), Jessie Buckley, who previously collaborated with Gyllenhaal in “The Lost Daughter” (2021), cheerfully swings from one extreme mode to another, and the result surely shows more of the undeniably wide range of her considerable acting talent. On the opposite, Christian Bale dutifully complements his co-star with his equally over-the-top acting, and his and Buckley’s total commitment holds the film together even when it does not work as well as intended.

In case of several notable supporting performers in the film, they are a rather mixed bag in my humble opinion. While Annette Bening and Jeannie Berlin, who plays a dutiful housemaid of Bening’s character, are delightfully hammy as required, Peter Sarsgaard, who is incidentally Gyllenhaal’s husband, and Penélope Cruz are mostly stuck in their straight roles, and Jake Gyllenhaal, who is Gyllenhaal’s younger brother, has some little fun with his ridiculous supporting character.

In conclusion, “The Bride!” is too uneven and incoherent for recommendation in addition to being less impressive than Guillermo del Toro’s recent Oscar-nominated film “Frankenstein” (2025), but its jumbled result is a bit more interesting and successful than Emerald Fennell’s “The Wuthering Heights” (2026), which is a loose adaptation of that famous 1847 gothic romance novel by Emily Brontë. Although it is two or three steps from what she wonderfully achieved in “The Lost Daughter”, Gyllenhaal seems to have all the fun she can get here, and I can only hope that she will soon move onto better things to come.

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There’s Still Tomorrow (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her small but significant step toward female independence

Posted on March 4, 2026 by kaist455

Italian film “There’s Still Tomorrow” is a little but pleasant mix of old and new stuffs to be appreciated. Although this seemingly modest female movie may feel quite typical in terms of story and characters, the movie cheerfully swings back and forth between humor and comedy as effectively delivering its feminist ideas and messages, and you may also often be amused a bit by how it boldly mixes some stylish modern elements into its shabby period background.

The story is mainly set in a neighborhood of Rome in May 1946, which is not long after the end of World War II. Just like many other people in the city, Delia (Paola Cortellesi) and her family have struggled a lot to earn their living day by day, and the opening part of the movie observes how Delia supports her family via several different menial jobs to be done here and there around the city.

However, Delia’s diligent daily efforts are not appreciated much by her family. Her husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea) has frequently abused and insulted her without showing any gratitude at all, and we are not so surprised when this deplorable prick shows more of his toxic masculinity when he later has a little private conversation with his ailing father, who also frequently disregards Delia without any consideration. In case of her eldest daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano), she is mostly occupied with getting closer to her boyfriend, and Delia’s two younger sons are often nothing but a trouble to her.

While she is not someone easily daunted by all the pain and misery inflicted upon her day by day, Delia frankly admits later in the story that she had no choice but to go on from the very beginning. As an uneducated Catholic woman, leaving her husband is out of question for her – even when her old sweetheart, who has considered leaving for somewhere for a better life sooner or later, indirectly suggests that she can leave with him right now if she really wants. Besides, she still clings to the old memories from when she and her husband actually loved each other a lot, and this makes his frequent abuse a bit more bearable for her.

However, she comes to notice more of the gender inequality which has blocked her in one way or another. At a local umbrella shop where she has worked as a part-time employee, she notices that she is paid much less than a new male employee even though she has to teach and guide him right from the basic level. She naturally protests, but, of course, her employee, who is your average sexist male just like many other men in Delia’s world, does not listen to her at all.  

And we sense more of the sexism and gender inequality around Delia and many other women in the city. Although the female citizens of Italy were finally allowed to vote during the upcoming national election, women are still regarded like second-rate citizens under their patriarchy system, and we cannot help but become more concerned along with Delia when her daughter is about to marry her boyfriend. Right from the meeting between the two families, it is clear that her daughter is merely regarded as a living property by Ivano and the parents of Marcella’s boyfriend, and we are not so surprised when Delia’s worst fear turns out to be very correct.

Nevertheless, the movie does not lose any of its lightweight sense of humor even when things become quite grim for its heroine. During one particular moment of domestic violence between Delia and her husband, their violent physical interactions are suddenly turned into a series of dance moves, and the score by Lele Marchitelli also becomes a bit jazzy to our little surprise. This is surely jarring at first, but the movie somehow finds the right balance between stylized humor and the dark horror behind this striking scene.

And that is just one of many bold touches in the film. Shot on black and white film, the movie certainly evokes those classic Italian neorealism films during the 1940-50s at times, but director/co-writer Paola Cortellesi, who also plays the heroine of her movie, deliberately inserts modern pop songs into several key scenes. This musical choice may feels merely anachronistic at first, but it comes to reflect more of the indomitable spirit inside Delia, and we come to root for her more when she eventually begins to come out of her resigned attitude.

Although the main characters in the film are more or less than broad archetypes, they come to us as distinctive figures to remember thanks to the engaging performance from Cortellesi and her fellow cast members. While Cortellesi steadily holds the center with considerable presence and dignity, several other cast members including Valerio Mastandrea, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Emanuela Fanelli, and Giorgio Colangeli are effectively cast in their respective supporting roles, and Vergano and Cortellesi are particularly effective when their characters come to have a brief but meaningful argument later in the story. 

In conclusion, “There’s Still Tomorrow”, which is incidentally Cortellesi’s first feature film, is a solid female film packed with enough emotional power to make us overlook most of its several weak aspect (The subplot involved with an American soldier who shows Delia a lot more kindness and compassion than expected is a bit too contrived, for example), and it does earn its expected feel-good finale. Yes, things still need to change more for her and many others even at the end of the story, but she now experiences much more freedom and independence than before, and we all know that she will not step back at all no matter what will happen next.

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Rental Family (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A service business of emotion

Posted on February 28, 2026 by kaist455

“Rental Family” draws your attention first with its curious story subject and then touches you more than expected. Inspired by a rather odd type of real-life service business in the Japanese society (Werner Herzog’s 2019 film “Family Romance, LLC” already tackled this fascinating subject, by the way), the movie subtly swings between humor and drama along with its American hero, and you will find yourself alternatively amused and moved in the end.

Brendan Fraser, who recently made a big comeback thanks to his Oscar-winning turn in Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” (2022), plays Phillip Vanderploeg, a struggling American actor currently living in Tokyo. Several years ago, Phillip got a supposedly big break thanks to a fairly popular local toothpaste commercial, but his acting career in Japan has been going nowhere since that, and he cannot say no when he gets hired for a mock funeral where he has to play one of its mourners.

Phillip is later approached by a guy named Shinji (Takehiro Hira), who turns out to be the owner of a small company specializing in certain kinds of emotion service. His employees are usually hired to play stand-in friends or family members for his various clients out there, and Shinji thinks Phillip can be perfect for playing a “token white guy” for many of his potential clients.

Phillip naturally hesitates at first, but, after his rather difficult first job involved with a young lesbian woman who needs to have a fake wedding for her parents, he soon gets accustomed to whatever is required by his next roles to play. For example, he gladly plays a father for a young half-Japanese girl living with her single mother, and he also plays a journalist to visit and interview an old, retired actor whose senile mind has been fading day by day.

While clearly recognizing the inherent artificial aspects of what Phillip and his several new colleagues do for their clients, the movie gradually delves into their feelings and thoughts beneath the surface. As spending more time with that young half-Japanese girl as required, Phillip comes to care a lot more about her than expected, and it does not take much for his client to notice the growing emotional bond between him and her daughter. Because he is only supposed to be around her and her daughter for only a few weeks, she is naturally quite concerned, though she still needs more service from Phillip for helping her daughter get enrolled in some prestigious private school.

In case of Aiko (Mari Yamamoto), she often handles a very tricky kind of emotion service. Her adulterous male clients hire her as a stand-in mistress to apologize to their wives, and she sometimes must endure the anger and pain from their betrayed wives. She seems fine as long as she gets paid a bit more for her occupational hazard, but it goes without saying that she does not feel that right about what she has done for those cheating husbands.

Later in the story, our hero comes to cross the line to a serious degree just because he cares about one of his clients a bit too much, but the screenplay by director/co-producer Hikari and her co-writer Stephen Blahut steadily balances itself with calm sensitivity and non-judgmental attitude. What Phillip and his colleagues provide is basically lies, but their service of emotion feels real and authentic to their clients for a while at least, and this will make you reflect more on how we sometimes let us led by whatever our heart and mind want to believe instead of facing truth.

The movie surely depends a lot on the presence and talent of Fraser, who gives another good performance which is actually more interesting than his acclaimed acting in “The Whale”. While the latter often stumbles rather than elevating his committed performance, the former sets well the ground for the human details and nuances to be exuded from his low-key acting, and Fraser is particularly wonderful when his character must stay professional as much as possible during one somber but undeniably emotional scene later in the story.

Around Fraser, several main cast members in the film diligently hold each own place. Takehiro Hira, who has been more notable thanks to his Emmy-nominated turn in the first season of acclaimed TV drama series “Shōgun”, has his own good moment when his character is revealed to be as lonely as Phillip, and Mari Yamamoto, Shino Shinozaki, and Kimura Bun are also solid in their respective supporting parts. While Akira Emoto, a veteran actor who has appeared in a number of notable Japanese films such as Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi’s “Shin Godzilla” (2016) and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Shoplifters” (2018), is poignant as his character comes to rely much more on Fraser’s character than expected, young performer Shannon Mahina Gorman naturally steals the show with her unadorned natural performance, and she also effortlessly clicks well with Fraser during their several key scenes.

Overall, “Rental Family”, which is the second feature film from Hikari (She previously made a feature film debut with “37 Seconds” (2019), by the way), is a modest but powerful drama about human emotion and connection, and I admire the gentle and thoughtful handling of its story and characters. In my inconsequential opinion, this is one of the overlooked small gems from last year, and, considering Hikari’s considerable achievement here in this film, it will be interesting to see what may come next from her in the future.

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28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): It will give you more hell

Posted on February 27, 2026 by kaist455

Nia DaCosta’s new film “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple”, the sequel to “28 Years Later” (2025), is a dark and brutal horror story decorated with human evil and some raging zombies. While you will surely cringe more than once for good reasons, the movie also shows a surprising amount of personality sensibility amid a lot of gore and brutality, and you will be also impressed by a number of intense dramatic moments along the story.

The story starts at the point not long after the ending of “28 Years Later”. Its young hero, Spike (Alfie Williams), starts his own personal journey despite what he went through during the precious film, and then he encounters a group of vicious gangs lead by a psychopathic lad who calls himself Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell). The opening scene shows Spike being forced to go through the initiation ritual supervised by Sir Jimmy, and this eventually culminates to a devastating moment Spike will probably never forget for the rest of his life.

We subsequently see how Sir Jimmy drives not only Spike but also his gangs into more cruelty and brutality. He presents himself as a sort of anti-Christ to unleash more evil and violence upon the world, and his gangs, who are incidentally fashioned after the Teletubbies, are anointed as his “fingers” to follow whatever he orders. At one point, they invade a little shelter belonging to a small group of survivors, and they cruelly toy with their helpless targets a bit before eventually going all the way for a lot of pain and terror to be inflicted upon these unfortunate people.

What will be shown to us next is quite gruesome and disturbing to say the least, but this does not feel pointless or gratuitous at all as the film handles it with an aching human attitude. Although he is quite horrified and repulsed to say the least, Spike also finds himself helplessly stuck with Sir Jimmy and his gangs, and the only consolation comes from one of the gangs who turns out to be much more sensible and compassionate than others.

Spike’s gradual descent into a stark and brutal human condition is contrasted with the other main plot involved with Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), who was quite memorable when Spike finally met him during the last act of “28 Years Later”. As continuing his solitary daily life revolving around his shelter and that huge temple built from human bones, he somehow comes to befriend “Samson” (Chi Lewis-Parry) more, the imposing Alpha leader of the infected inhabiting in the surrounding area. While he often needs to shoot a tranquilizer dart at Samson first, Dr. Kelson comes to gain some trust from Samson, and this significant breakthrough leads to a series of calm and meditative moments between them. Besides becoming less raging than before thanks to Dr. Kelson, Samson also comes to show a bit of humanity, and Dr. Kelson is certainly glad to feel less lonely than before.

However, the movie still keeps throwing a lot of gore and brutality as its two main narratives gradually converge during its second half. While we are surely served with a fair share of those raging zombies, the movie does not flinch at all in the graphic depiction of remorseless violence, and this will surely remind us again of how humans can be much more dangerous and barbaric than zombies.

The screenplay by Alex Garland, who also wrote the screenplay for “28 Years Later”, takes some time before its eventual climactic part, which does not disappoint us at all with sheer intensity coupled with a little dark sense of humor. We are quite amused by its deliberately wacky aspects, but then the mood becomes very, very, very serious, and then there comes a little but precious moment of poignancy in the end.

Under DaCosta’s competent direction, the movie is packed with a considerable amount of realism and verisimilitude. As cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, who has been mainly known for Steve McQueen’s acclaimed films including “12 Years a Slave” (2013), imbues the screen with a considerable amount of gloomy but visceral qualities, the resulting grim atmosphere on the screen is further accentuated by the moody score by Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won an Oscar for Todd Phillips’ “Joker” (2019).

The main cast members are well-cast in their respective parts. While Ralph Fiennes brings a lot of gravitas to the story as required, Jack O’Connell gleefully chews his diabolical moments in the film as he recently did in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” (2025), and Alfie Williams holds his own small place well between his two co-stars. In case of several supporting cast members in the movie, Erin Kellyman provides some little warmth to the story, and Chi Lewis-Parry also has his own moments to shine as doing much more than merely looking menacing.

In conclusion, “28 Years Later; The Bone Temple” is the interesting middle chapter for its planned trilogy. You may be disappointed to see that it does not have a lot of zombies compared to its predecessors, but it is still compelling for its uncompromising exploration of evil and humanity, and I enjoyed its mood, storytelling, and performance. Yes, zombies have not scared me much for years, but the movie held my attention to the end, and that is sort of achievement in my trivial opinion.

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Ne Zha 2 (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A spectacular but hollow sequel

Posted on February 25, 2026 by kaist455

Chinese animation film “Ne Zha 2”, the sequel to “Ne Zha” (2019), strives to be bigger, longer, and better, but it ends up only accomplishing its first two tasks to my dissatisfaction. Thanks to its much more production budget, it surely provides a lot of big and spectacular moments to behold, but, folks, I hardly cared about the story and characters during my viewing.

In my review on the 2019 predecessor, I admitted that I enjoyed its silly but lightweight comic moments associated with its little naughty hero, who still reminds me of that satanic kid from “The Omen” (1976). I somehow found him rather endearing nonetheless, and I cared about the conflict involved with his true identity. In fact, this is the main reason why the film held my attention for a while before resorting to a lot of loud and busy actions during its expected climactic part.

Right from its beginning, “Ne Zha 2” swiftly throws us into more actions to follow. Although they managed to save the day at the end of the first film, Ne Zha (voiced by Lü Yanting) and Au Bing (voiced by Han Mo) are technically dead as their respective bodies were consequently destroyed, and Ne Zha’s master Taiyi Zhenren (voiced by Zhang Jiaming) and Ne Zha’s parents, who are incidentally the chieftain and chieftess of their town, try their best for restoring the respective bodies of Ne Zha and Au Bing.

However, things soon become all the more serious once Au Bing’s mighty dragon father comes to learn about what happened to his dear son. He ordered Au Bing’s former master Shen Gongbao (voiced by Yang Wei) to attack Ne Zha’s town along with a heap of demons under his supervision, and he is also assisted to considerable degree by a trio of other powerful dragons, who all seem willing to help him but look quite treacherous to say the least.

Anyway, Shen, who turns out to be more sensible and compassionate than expected, soon suspends the attack once he sees what Taiyi has been trying to do for Au Bing, but there is one big problem. For completely bringing back Au Bing to life, a certain special kind of elixir must be obtained from the heaven, and Ne Zha must go through a series of challenging tasks under Taiyi’s guidance.

Needless to say, Ne Zha must hide his true nature as much as possible, and that is where Au Bing, who currently remains as a spirit in contrast to his best friend, comes handy. Despite being without his physical body at present, Au Bing can still exert his power while being inside Ne Zha’s body, besides being able to function as Ne Zha’s cover. Needless to say, he and Ne Zha must learn how to inhabit Ne Zha’s body together, and that leads to a silly moment of slapstick comedy which may take you back to Carl Reiner’s classic comedy film “All of Me” (1984).

When Ne Zha, who is now with Au Bing’s spirit who can take control of his body whenever Ne Zha is asleep, and Taiyi arrive at the palace of Heaven, the film naturally serves us with a lot of grand and beautiful moments to behold, though it occasionally shows a bit of naughtiness as Ne Zha quickly becomes your average fish-out-of-water. There is a little amusing scene involved with urination, and then there comes a deliberately gross moment when Ne Zha must go through the first test along with Au Bing inside his body.

Meanwhile, the story gradually becomes more complicated with some additional main characters including Master Wuliang (voiced by Wang Deshun), who is ready to wield his own mighty authority on behalf of his more powerful master despite his avuncular appearance. While we also get to know a bit more about Shen’s personal life, the film also pays some attention to an emerging intrigue associated with the associates of Au Bing’s dragon father, who simply wants to get back his son above all else.

However, the screenplay by director/writer Jiaozi, which is a loose adaptation of the 16th-century novel “Investiture of the Gods” by Xu Zhonglin, fails to bring more depth to the story and characters. As it hurriedly drives itself toward its expected grand finale, the story simply goes up and down along with its main characters without clarifying much of what exactly motivates them, and several plot turns during its last act are not as effective as intended. In the end, we come to watch the following visual spectacles from the distance without much care, while also being more aware of its many superficial aspects.

At least, the film is not entirely without fun and entertainment. Several humorous scenes between Ne Zha and Taiyi give us some good laughs, though they remind us more of how flatly serious the scenes between Ne Zha and Au Bing are in contrast. When Ne Zha eventually reveals his true form and power (Is this a spoiler?) during the finale, the mood becomes all the more serious and ponderous instead of being really fun and exciting, but the film diligently supplies more spectacles coupled with a bit of surprise.

On the whole, “Ne Zha” does not go further than its predecessor besides being a bit too long in its running time (144 minutes). Considering what is shown in the middle of its end credits as well as its enormous commercial success around the world (It is incidentally the highest-grossing film of last year, by the way), there will surely be another sequel sooner or later, and I can only hope that I will be more entertained in the next time.

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