The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A subpar remake with some interesting variations

Posted on March 30, 2026 by kaist455

“The Hand That Rocks the Cradle”, which is the remake of the 1992 film of the same name and currently available on Disney+ in South Korea, tries some interesting variations, but the result is uneven and superficial on the whole. Yes, this is also about one insidious nanny, and we surely get a number of creepy moments as expected, but the movie comes to stumble more than once due to plot contrivance and thin characterization.

The story begins with one accidental encounter between its two main characters. Caitlyn Morales (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is a successful lawyer living in LA, and she happens to give some free legal advice to a young woman named Polly Murphy (Maika Monroe), who can be homeless at any point due to her greedy landlord. Not long after this meeting, Caitlyn, who has been pregnant during last several months, has to go to a hospital due to her imminent delivery, and we subsequently see her focusing on raising her baby daughter several months later.

However, Caitlyn cannot help but become exhausted and frustrated a lot with handling many other things besides raising her little daughter, so she and her husband Miguel (Raúl Castillo) begin to consider hiring a part-time nanny. Fortunately, Caitlyn comes across Polly again on one day, and Polly, who seems to be well-qualified for the job, gladly accepts Caitlyn’s offer because of her current poor economic status.

As Polly begins to work as a nanny for Caitlyn’s baby daughter, things seem to get much better for Caityln and her family during next several days. Both her husband and her first daughter Emma (Mileiah Vega, who did a good job of holding her own place around the story) are quite satisfied with Polly’s work, and it does not take much time for her to become another part of Caitlyn and her family’s life. In fact, Caitlyn eventually lets Polly stay in her house for getting the full-time service from her.

However, we already saw the trouble right from the beginning. While she is quite nice and courteous on the surface, we cannot help but sense something odd and creepy about Polly, and we are not so surprised as watching how she methodically insinuates herself into Caitlyn’s family. At one point, she deliberately violates one particular rule just for getting closer to Emma, and Emma does not mind this at all due to being rather tired of her mother’s frequent control over her.

And we become more aware of the gap of class and wealth between Polly and Caitlyn. It turns out that Polly had been living in her shabby car before moving into Caitlyn’s big and comfortable house, and we come to sense that she is jealous of Caitlyn’s luxurious domestic environment – especially when she quietly looks around here and there inside Caitlyn’s house without anyone around her except Caitlyn’s baby daughter.

Meanwhile, Caitlyn turns out to be much messier than her seemingly confident façade suggests. As reflected by her daily medication, she has struggled with some mental issues for years, and she also had a sort of mental breakdown not long after giving birth to Emma. She assures to her husband that she is all right in this time, but then she finds herself gradually agitated and neurotic for some unknown reason.

The screenplay by Micah Bloomberg later tries to inject more emotional complexity into the increasingly tense relationship between its two main characters, but it only ends up scratching the surface instead. We are intrigued a bit as observing some sexual tension between Caitlyn and Polly, but the movie eventually discards this interesting aspect without much consideration. While there is some surprise from the hidden past between Caitlyn and Polly, it feels quite artificial as the movie already fails to bring more depth and personality to its two main characters.

In addition, a number of substantial supporting characters around Caitlyn and Polly are more or less than plot elements to be manipulated, and it is disappointing to see good actors like Raúl Castillo and Martin Starr stuck in their thankless roles. In case of Starr, he has to handle a rather unconvincing scene where his character chooses to do an utterly unwise thing instead of immediately notifying what he has just discovered to Caitlyn, and that is just one of many clumsy moments of plot contrivance in the film.

At least, the two actresses at the center of the film try their best. While Mary Elizabeth Winstead is believable as her character gets cornered in one way or another along the story, Maika Monroe ably exudes a subtle aura of menace behind her seemingly benign appearance, and it is a shame that their good efforts are not served well by the movie.

Overall, “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” does not surpass its senior at all despite its interesting variation attempts. It is one or two steps down from director Michelle Garza Cervera’s first feature film “Huesera: The Bone Woman” (2022), but she shows here that she can make a fairly competent mainstream genre product, and I can only hope that she will soon move onto better things to come.

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Time of Cinema (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Three little tales of cinema

Posted on March 29, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean film “Time of Cinema” presents three little tales associated with cinema in one way or another. While the level of achievement is different in each case, all of them have each own charm and strength as you can expect from three talented filmmakers behind them, and they will all make you reflect more on why many of us are often drawn to cinema.

At first, we are served with the opening sequence set in a certain well-known arthouse movie theater in Seoul, which functions as a key location for all of the three stories. We meet a middle-aged projectionist working there, and we closely observe how he works. Thanks to a digital projector, things seem to be more convenient for him, but, as he points out to his young successor, digital projectors also need to be checked as much as film projectors, and some of you may feel a bit nostalgic when he later uses an old film projector.

The first story, which is titled “Chimpanzee”, is directed by Lee Jong-pil, who also directed the opening and closing part of the film. This part opens with the screening of a small film based on an old memory of its director, and this fairly modest work revolves around three different young people, one of whom turns out to be a younger self of the director. As these young people roll from one humorous moment to another, Lee has some stylish fun as deliberately changing the screen ratio at times, and things get a bit more amusing as the narrative structure of the story becomes a little more complex than expected.

I think “Chimpanzee” is the least engaging one of the trio, but it still holds our attention thanks to its three likable leading performers. Wonstein, Lee Soo-kyung, and Hong Xa-bin are effortless in their playful interactions throughout this part, and Kim Dae-myung, who plays the director, provides a bit of extra amusement later. In addition, you will certainly smile in the end because of the rough but earnest homage to Jean-Luc Godard’s “Band of Outsiders” (1964).

The second story, which is simply titled “Naturally”, is directed by Yoon Ga-eun, who has steadily impressed us since her first feature film “The World of Us” (2016). At first, it looks like the movie is simply watching a bunch of young girls having a good time together in their neighborhood, but, what do you know, they soon turn out to be actually performing in front of their director and a small group of film crew.

The main source of fun and humor during this part is how the director, played by Go Ah-sung, instructs and encourages her child performers. As reflected by the very title of the story, she simply wants to make their acting look as naturally as possible in front of her camera. Fortunately for her young performers as well as her crew members, she does know how to draw what she exactly wants from her young performers, all of whom are quite game under her warm and considerate direction.

Considering how Yoon has drawn excellent performances from many child performers in “The World of Us” and several other works, you may wonder about how much “Naturally” overlaps with how she actually worked with her child performers on the set. To be frank with you, I have no idea at all, but I somehow sensed that Yoon is willing to show us a bit of her filmmaking process, and I appreciated that more as observing by the very last shot of this part. Now I am reminded of what François Truffaut once said: “The most beautiful thing I have ever seen in a movie theatre is to go down to the front and turn around, and look at all the uplifted faces, the light from the screen reflected upon them.”

The third story, which is titled “Time of the Movie”, is directed by Jang Kun-jae, who has been mainly known for “Sleepless Night” (2012) and “A Midsummer’s Fantasia” (2014). At the start of this story, we are introduced to several different employees of the aforementioned movie theater, and then one of them, who is incidentally a cleaning lady, happens to encounter an old schoolmate of hers. Because they have not met each other for years, the mood between them is rather awkward, but the cleaning lady is still glad to meet her friend again, and then she gives her friend a free movie ticket.

What follows next is not so easy to describe. After walking into the screening room, the cleaning lady’s friend soon gets asleep, and then we are served with a brief free-flowing meditation on cinema as a sort of dream machine. Although nothing seems to happen to the cleaning lady’s friend during the screening, something in the film somehow touches upon those old memories inside her mind, and then we arrive at the faintly optimistic last scene between her and her friend. While Yang Mal-bok and Jang Hye-jin are convincing in their key moments, Kwon Hae-hyo and Kim Yeon-kyo fill their respective small spots around the story, and Kim has a little funny scene involved with a young man too late for the screening of a movie he really wants to watch right now.

On the whole, “Time of Cinema” is a solid omnibus movie, and I enjoyed its three stories to various degrees. Although I will instantly put “Naturally” above the two other parts if I have to choose, both “Chimpanzee” and “Time of the Cinema” also have each own good moments to be savored, and all of them are certainly worthwhile to watch for any cinephiles out there.

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Oh, Valentine (2025) ☆1/2(1.5/4): Messy and distracting from the beginning to the end

Posted on March 29, 2026 by kaist455

Some bad documentaries simply bore me, but South Korean independent documentary “Oh, Valentine” is alternatively excruciating and frustrating for many regrettable reasons. While its main subject itself is fairly interesting, the utterly clumsy presentation of its main subject is disastrously distracting in my trivial opinion, and I must tell you that this is one of the rare cases which made me check out the remaining running time almost every 10 minutes.

The main subject of the documentary is the democratic labor union movement in South Korea during the early 2000s, and it begins with the tragic death of a subcontracted worker named Park Il-su on February 14th, 2004. After getting so despaired and frustrated with the harsh status of his labor environment, Park eventually committed suicide on that day, and Cho Seong-woong, who was one of Parks’s close colleagues and is incidentally one of the two interviewees of the documentary, reminisces about how difficult things were for them and many other subcontracted workers. Unlike those workers under contract, most of those subcontracted workers did not have much of labor rights from the very beginning, and I must tell you that this unfair trend is being continued in the South Korean labor market even at this point in the name of efficiency and, yes, profit.

As Cho talks more about all the disappointment and disillusionment he and many other subcontracted workers experienced during their desperate labor movement at that time, the documentary often shows a bunch of various archival photographs and footage clips, but how it presents these archival materials along with Cho’s interview is very disorienting to say the least. Director Hong Jin-hown frequently uses split screen for presenting these two different elements together on the screen of 2.35 ratio, and the result may look cool and interesting for a while, but it only comes to disorient us more instead of engaging us more. Whenever we try to focus more on the words from Cho, our eyes are often distracted by whatever is shown right next to his interview clip, and that is not a pleasant experience at all.

This split screen approach could actually work during several scenes where Cho’s interview clip is accompanied with the archival footage materials showing him and others during that time, but the documentary utterly fails in its juxtaposition of words and images. It never seems to know how to generate a coherent narrative from that, and we are just left with messy and confusing impressions in the end.

Moreover, I was often distracted a lot by the relentlessly blatant score of the documentary. I guess it tries to inject more tension into its narrative, but it is very overbearing instead as frequently overshadowing what we are supposed to listen to. At one point later in the documentary, several labor movement songs are overlapped with each other just for emphasizing many different voices of labor movement, but this cacophonous mix of sounds only adds more disorientation without any sense of insight or enlightenment.

By the way, the other interviewee of the documentary is a musician named Woo Chang-soo. As a guy who wrote several labor movement songs during that time, he does also have a number of things to talk about, but I am not so sure about whether his part in the documentary is really necessary. From time to time, we see him performing some of his original songs in public, but that does not help us much in getting to know him more. He also talks about the democratization movement in Myanmar at times, but, folks, this feels rather unnecessary in addition to not serving the documentary much on the whole.

In case of Cho, the documentary does not show much of his life or personality either. Needless to say, he is admirable for carrying his hardcore left-wing belief for many years, but, unfortunately, the documentary often lets him down in its scattershot presentation of his life and political activity. When he talks about how those guys supposed to lead and supervise their labor movement let themselves compromised and corrupted, this moment simply moves from one thing after another without much sense of direction, and I was especially disappointed with how the documentary merely passes by a chance to focus on the struggles of the female participants in the labor movement at that time.

Above all, we also never get to know enough about Park. Yes, this man deserves to be known more along with many other South Korean laborers sincerely and passionately fighting for their lives and labor rights during last several decades, but he is only presented as a distant figure to be remembered by the two interviewees of the documentary. We only come to learn that he was a failed musician who later became a subcontracted worker for supporting his family, and the documentary does not provide any other particular personal moment which can give us more glimpse on his life and humanity.

In conclusion, “Oh, Valentine”, whose title incidentally comes from one of those labor movement songs written by Woo, is certainly well-intentioned, but it may be remembered as one of the worst movie theater experiences I had during this year. I was ready to learn and then get enlightened a bit more about the history of the South Korean labor movement, but I only found myself miserably enduring numerous glaring flaws of this very disappointing documentary during its 92-minute running time, and now my mind is reminded of a number of other similar South Korean documentaries I saw during last several years. I really want to recommend “1980 Sabuk” (2025) right now, and, believe me, you will have a much more compelling and enlightening time with it.

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Roofman (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The story of a nice bad man

Posted on March 27, 2026 by kaist455

Jeffrey Manchester is someone who can be described as a “nice bad man”. While he was a pretty resourceful armed robber who robbed a bunch of franchise stores without much remorse, he was also actually quite nice and considerate to those unfortunate people held at his gunpoint. As a matter of fact, everyone who ever encountered him does not say anything bad about him, even though they probably all agree that he deserves his eventual prison sentence.

His absurd real-life story is certainly a rich comedy material, but I don’t think Derek Cianfrance’s latest film “Roofman” succeeds in its rather mild mix of comedy and drama. As a drama, it does not have much depth in terms of storytelling and characterization, and we only come to observe it from the distance with some amusement. As a comedy, it is occasionally funny mainly thanks to the natural charm of its leading actor, but its attempts on absurdity are often dulled by several weak aspects including its leisurely narrative pacing.

The early part of “Roofman” succinctly establishes how Manchester, played by Channing Tatum, begins his criminal career in 1998. When he needs some money for buying a real nice birthday gift for his dear daughter currently living with his ex-wife, he decides to rob a local McDonald’s fast food restaurant, and, what do you know, he turns out to have all the right stuffs for being an armed robber. As a former US Army non-commissioned officer, he has a particular set of skills including a very keen ability of observation, and these skills certainly help his following criminal spree a lot, which incidentally earns him that silly nickname from his usual method of breaking and entering.

Needless to say, there comes an inevitable point where he is arrested by the local police after robbing around 40 fast food restaurants, but Manchester is not so daunted even when he gets sentenced to 45-year imprisonment. While keeping himself on the line in the prison, he slowly and carefully plans an escape just because he wants to see his daughter again, and the movie has some fun with how he prepares for his wily escape plan step by step without any suspicion from others.

While he succeeds in escaping from the prison in the end, Manchester soon comes to see that approaching to his daughter or his ex-wife is not a wise thing to do to say the least. He decides to evade the following police search for a while before finding a possible way to get out of the country, and he comes upon a fairy suitable place for his hiding: a local Toys “R” Us store.

The screenplay by Cianfrance and his co-writer Kirt Gunn works best when its hero comes to show more resourcefulness as beginning to live inside this local toy store without being noticed by anyone. At first, he just hides above the ceiling, but then he discovers a hidden space in the middle of the story, which becomes his secret shelter. While he has to be very careful about those security cameras, he soon finds a way to turn off their recording mode, and he even sets up his own little security cameras for his own safety.

Meanwhile, Manchester begins to pay attention to Leigh Wainscott (Kirsten Dunst), one of those store employees who is also a single mother with two daughters. As watching how she struggles to balance herself between work and raising her daughters, Manchester comes to care about her, and then he eventually approaches to her as “John Zorn”, a supposedly new neighbor who happens to attend a nearby church associated with her. Although he does not say much about himself or his job, it does not take much time for him to charm her, and he soon gets more involved with not only her but also her two daughters.

There are several humorous moments including the one when Manchester comes to have a very pleasant meeting with Wainscott and several other female churchgoers, but the story is often hampered by its uneven mix of comedy and drama. When things expectedly become more serious during the last act, the movie comes to lose its remaining comic momentum, and the following dramatic moments feel contrived without enough gravitas in advance.

Furthermore, the movie somehow lacks the chemistry between Tatum and his co-star. While Kirsten Dunst is certainly a talented actress, she and Tatum seem to be on autopilot without generating much sense of mutual attraction, and her efforts are often undermined by her under-developed character. In case of Tatum, he ably wields his natural comic talent at times, but he is also frequently limited by the weak screenplay just like he was in “Fly Me to the Moon” (2024).

I am also quite dissatisfied with how many recognizable performers in the film are wasted in one way or another. LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple, Peter Dinklage, Ben Mendelsohn, Uzo Aduba, Emory Cohen, and Tony Revolori are just demanded to fill their respective spots around Tatum and Dunst, and Dinklage, who usually steals the show in many movies during last several years, is particularly under-utilized as Wainscott’s cranky boss.

On the whole, “Roofman” is not entirely humorless, but it is not entertaining enough for me to recommend it. I appreciate that Cianfrance goes for something lighter after making “Blue Valetine” (2010) and “The Light Between Oceans” (2016), but he stumbles a bit too much here, and I still think it could be funnier and edgier in many aspects. Yes, Manchester is indeed an interesting guy with a pathologic criminal tendency, and this dude’s truly preposterous real-life story deserves something better than this in my inconsequential opinion.

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Blink Twice (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Aren’t they having a fun?

Posted on March 26, 2026 by kaist455

There are a number of truly disturbing moments in Zoë Kravitz’s 2024 feature debut film “Blink Twice”, but I am not so sure about whether they work as well as intended. I understand that the movie attempts to explore toxic masculinity and female exploitation via its increasingly nasty thriller plot, but it stumbles more than once due to its superficial narrative and weak characterization, and I was left with mixed feelings even though I admire some good efforts shown from the screen.

Naomi Ackie, a promising young British actress who has been more notable thanks to her recent supporting roles in Bong Joon-ho’s “Mickey 17” (2025) and Eva Victor’s “Sorry, Baby” (2025), plays Frida, a young nail artist who also works as a cocktail waitress. For some unspecified reason, she has been quite obsessed with a famous billionaire teach mogul named Slater King (Channing Tatum), and we soon see how she and her best friend Jess (Alia Shawkat) try to approach to this wealthy dude at an exclusive gala via a bit of disguise.

To their surprise, not long after the accidental encounter between them and him, Slater willingly invites them to a little remote private island he has owned for years, and both Frida and Jess cannot possibly be more excited about this unbelievable big opportunity. Along with several other guests and Slater, they go to that island by a private jet of his, and they and the others begin to have some luxurious fun together at a big manor located in the middle of his island.

Of course, it does not take much time for Frida to notice odd things here and there as she and the others casually go through one supposedly fun day after another. For example, her sense of time becomes increasingly blurry as she and the others frequently drink or have some drug day by day, and she cannot often remember whatever happened after their dinner time. In addition, there is also something weird about those local employees working in the manor, and one of them disturbs Frida a bit as repeatedly saying something which seems to touch somewhere in her mind.

As Frida becomes more unnerved about whatever may be happening around her, Slater naturally begins to look all the more sinister than before. He remains charming and charismatic as before, but, as shown from the very beginning of the story, he recently had to resign from the CEO position of his influential technology company due to some public scandal involved with abuse. He subsequently made a public statement of apology, and he claimed that he is trying to be a better person through some personal therapy, but we cannot help but have more doubt on his fairly generous attitude to his guests – especially when he asks others whether they are really having a fun.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that everything on the island is not what they seem to be on the surface, and the screenplay by Kravitz and her co-writer E,T. Feigenbaum expectedly gets darker as its heroine comes to face the hidden sides of Slater’s island. All the more horrified than before, she tries to escape from this horrible situation of hers, but there is not much chance for help out there and the mood naturally becomes more tense as she desperately struggles more for any opportunity for escape.

However, the screenplay does not bring much depth to the story and characters from the very beginning. Not only its heroine but also many other main characters are more or less than plot elements to move from one narrative point to another, and that is the main reason why a sudden moment of revelation during the last act is not so impactful as intended. In addition, Slater’s male guests, who turn out to be much more unpleasant than expected, are just annoying cardboard stereotypes, and they merely exemplify how lousy men can be as drunken with their toxic masculinity.

Nevertheless, Ackie’s diligent efforts keep things rolling at least. While her character looks rather pathetic at first, Ackie’s strong acting holds our attention to the end, and it is a shame that her good performance is not supported that well by the movie itself. Anyway, she has already moved onto the next step of her advancing career as shown from the two aforementioned films, and I am glad for that.

On the opposite, Channing Tatum, who also participated in the production along with Kravitz, demonstrates more of his rather underrated acting range. While he can be very funny as shown from several notable comedy films such as Steven Soderbergh’s “Logan Lucky” (2017), Tatum also can be surprisingly serious as shown from Bennett Miller’s “Foxcatcher” (2014), and he deftly swings back and forth between charm and menace without any misstep during his several key scenes in the film.

In case of several notable main cast members of the movie, they are unfortunately under-utilized to my big disappointment. While Simon Rex, Christian Slater, Haley Joel Osment, and Kyle MacLachlan are simply required to fill their respective spots, Alia Shawkat, Adria Arjona, and Geena Davis are totally wasted due to their shallow supporting roles, and Davis is especially disappointing as being rather strained in her deliberate overacting.

In conclusion, “Blink Twice” tries to tackle several themes and subjects surely resonant with the #MeToo era, but its overall result often feels uneven and dissatisfying in my humble opinion. At least, considering some good elements including the admirable efforts from Ackie and Tatum, it is not a total dud, and I can only hope that Kravits will show more improvement in whatever she is going to direct next in the future.

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Rouge (1987) ☆☆☆(3/4): A ghost looking for her old love

Posted on March 26, 2026 by kaist455

Stanley Kwan’s 1987 film “Rouge”, whose 4K remastered version was released in South Korean theaters yesterday, is a haunting melodrama about a ghost looking for her old love in the past. As following the desperate situation of this sad ghost along with her two unexpected companions, the movie comes to us as a modest but touching tale about love, loss, and memory, and we are moved more as it eventually culminates to a powerful moment of acceptance and resignation.

At first, the movie seems to be about the star-crossed romance between one courtesan and a wealthy playboy in Hong Kong during the 1930s. When Chan Chen-pang (Leslie Cheung) meets her for the first time in her brothel, Fleur (Anita Mui) instantly draws his attention with her lovely singing, and she soon becomes more special to him than any other courtesan around him. As they spend more time with each other with the growing mutual affection between them, he seriously considers marrying her someday, and she encourages him to become more interested in becoming an actor.

To our little surprise, the movie soon moves forward to 1987, and we come to gather that things did not go well for Fleur and her lover in the end. Her ghost suddenly appears in front of a plain newspaper employee named Yuen (Alex Man), and he is certainly flabbergasted by her odd request. She just wants to put an advertisement on the newspaper for locating her lover, but it does not take much for Yuen to realize that she is actually a ghost. 

While understandably quite frightened at first, Yuen eventually lets Fleur into his residence. When he subsequently notifies this to his girlfriend Shu-Hsien (Irene Wan), she is not so amused to say the least, but then she comes to find that Fleur is indeed a ghost, and she also comes to have some pity on Fleur just like her boyfriend.

According to Fleur, who came from the realm of the dead, her lover is probably reincarnated to become someone else but still remembers where they are going to meet, and that is the main purpose of that odd advertisement of hers. However, not so surprisingly, her lover does not come to that place in question no matter how long she waits along with Yuen and Shu-Hsien, who become all the more curious about what happened to Fleur and her lover – and where the hell he is now. 

Their search is often intercut with the flashback scenes showing more of the doomed romance between Fleur and her lover, and there are a number of lovely visual moments to remember thanks to cinematographer Bill Wong. Because I recently happened to watch Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Flowers of Shanghai” (1998), which is incidentally about the brothels in Shanghai during the 19th century, many scenes of “Rouge” were compared with those similar scenes in “Flowers of Shanghai” in my mind, and I can assure you that “Rouge” often shines with its own sense of beauty.

Along with the desperate love between Fleur and her lover, these gorgeous moments make an interesting contrast with the modern background of Hong Kong in the 1980s and the seemingly less idealistic relationship between Yuen and Shu-Hsien. As observing how much her old neighborhood is changed in one way or another, Fleur comes to have more doubt and despair, but she does not give up her hope at all, and this makes both Yuen and Shu-Hsien reflect more on their relationship at present. While they admit to each other that they cannot possibly love each other as intensely as Fleur loved her lover, they also come to love and understand each other more than before, and there is a bittersweet moment when Fleur glimpses a bit of the sincere intimacy between them at one point later in the story.

I will not reveal anything on where our ghost heroine will arrive in the end, except telling you instead that the movie sets a rather ironic background for the end of her journey. Anita Mui, who was regarded as “Queen of Cantopop” before she died too early in 2003, is simply magnificent as her character eventually realizes the futility of her longtime yearning, and her strong performance here in the film will leave a lasting impression on your mind for a while.

Around Mui, several other cast members dutifully support her without overshadowing her at all. Leslie Cheung, who also died early not long before his co-star’s death, is well-cast as a handsome lad helplessly stuck with his beautiful lover in their doomed romance, and you may be amused a bit by one particular scene which may take you back to his unforgettable performance in Chen Kaige’s “Farewell My Concubine” (1993). Although their characters are more or less than the observers of Fleur’s story, Alex Man and Irene Wan have their own moments along the story, and we sense that their characters come to have some valuable lesson about love and relationship as helping their unlikely guest much more than expected.

Overall, “Rouge” is engaging in its earnest handling of story and characters, and its wistful qualities remind me of Somerset Maugham’s short story “Red”, which is also about a doomed young romance lost and then forgotten via that unbeatable passage of time. As we all know too well, we always have to accept what can never be regained as things keep changing, and the movie surely makes a poignant point of that.

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Strange Darling (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A superficial Tarantino wannabe

Posted on March 23, 2026 by kaist455

JT Mollner’s 2023 film “Stranger Darling” has the familiar tone of those countless imitators of the works of Quentin Tarantino such as, yes, “Pulp Fiction” (1994). Many of them want to be funny and provocative while also trying to toy with character and narrative structure, but some of them are not so successful for only knowing how to play mere notes instead of music. Unfortunately, “Strange Darling” is one of such disappointing cases despite being slick and competent at times.

The opening part is clearly influenced a lot by those sleazy American exploitation flicks of the 1970s, which are incidentally one of the main sources of inspiration for Tarantino’s works. First, we get an ominous introduction claiming that it is based on some notorious real-life criminal case (Do you believe it, folks?). After that, we get the main title scene accompanied with a lyrical song played on the soundtrack, and then there comes a striking vehicle chase sequence which may take you back to the second half of “Grindhouse” (2007) directed by Tarantino.

The movie mainly follows a young woman chased by some guy who seems quite determined to catch her by any means necessary, but we soon come to realize that the movie has some surprises behind its back because of its non-linear narrative structure. Not long after the woman is on the verge of getting caught by her chaser, the movie moves back to when they met for the first time, and, what do you know, the situation between them turns out to be a bit more complicated than it seemed at first.

I will not go into details here for avoiding ruining any of your fun, but I can tell you instead on how the movie wants to be provocative via a series of uncomfortable moments between its two main characters. As they spend time together, the woman seems to have some naughty fun as flirting with the other main character’s interest and desire, and that eventually leads to a kinky sexual sequence where they push or pull each other as mainly driven by her unpredictable whim.

But who are this woman and her accidental sex partner? The screenplay by director/writer JT Mollner, who recently wrote the adapted screenplay for Francis Lawrence’s “The Long Walk” (2025) from the novel of the same name by Stephen King, merely presents its two main characters as broad archetypes without fleshing them out more along its convoluted narrative. Instead of becoming real characters to observe or enjoy, they come to us as thin figures more or less than superficial plot elements, and the same thing can be said about a certain old couple who get unfortunately themselves involved with these two main characters later in the story.

This is the main reason why most of the blatant dialogues in the film feel quite artificial instead of truly provoking or unnerving us. When its heroine talks about how women are often in danger of getting murdered when they just try to have some carnal fun, she feels more like dictating Mollner’s writing instead of really talking to her sex partner, and we are not so surprised at all when his screenplay subsequently attempts a bit of genre subversion.

It goes without saying that the movie also wants to be an edgy commentary on the misogynistic aspects of those countless “women in danger” flicks out there, but I am not so sure about it is as successful as intended. In its rather unpleasant genre subversion later in the story, the film ironically embodies the very misogynistic stuffs it is supposed to criticize, and this disagreeable contradiction is particularly exemplified by several minor female characters in the story, all of whom are no more than cardboard figures to be manipulated in one way or another.

Anyway, the movie does not look cheap or crummy at all because Mollner and his crew members occasionally show considerable technical efforts to be recognized. As clearly stated at the very beginning of the movie, the movie was shot on 35mm film stock by co-producer Giovanni Ribisi, who incidentally makes a cinematographic debut here in this film. While being mainly known as a character actor who has played a number of odd and unconventional roles (Remember that hilariously deranged dude in Seth MacFarlane’s “Ted” (2012)?), Ribisi demonstrates a very unexpected side of his talent, and he and Mollner did a fairy good job of utilizing the grainy texture of 35mm film stock for establishing the distinctive mood of their movie on the screen.

The main cast members of the film try to fill their respective roles as much as possible. Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner are believable as their characters go up and down along the increasingly unreliable storyline, and it is a shame that their considerable commitment on the screen is not utilized that well on the whole. In case of several other main cast members, they are mostly wasted, and I was especially dissatisfied with watching Ed Begley Jr. and Barbara Hershey being hopelessly stuck in their totally thankless parts.

In conclusion, “Strange Darling”, which is Mollner’s second feature film after “Outlaws and Angels” (2016), is not a total waste of time thanks to its admirable technical aspects, but it still feels like a hollow and passable Tarantino wannabe. No, I am not against imitating those Tarantino movies at all, but I must point out that we have seen truly bad imitators besides some fairly good ones during last 30 years, and “Stranger Darling” belongs to a spot somewhere between these two groups.

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Project Hail Mary (2026) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Now it’s up to him – and his alien friend

Posted on March 22, 2026 by kaist455

“Project Hail Mary” is an entertaining science fiction packed with enough wit, style, and drama to engage us during its rather long running time (156 minutes). While it is not as ambitious as Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” (2014), it still works quite well as a funny and thrilling space adventure story dexterously peppered with humor, intelligence, and some poignancy, and the result is indubitably one of the early highlights of this year.

The movie begins with its plain hero suddenly regaining his consciousness inside a big spaceship heading to somewhere in universe. He is Dr. Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), and he has no idea about how he ended up being inside the spaceship because he is suffering from a bit of retrograde amnesia at present. To make matters worse, the two other astronauts in the spaceship happen to be dead, so there is no one to tell him what is going on around him right now.

As getting more accustomed to this sudden situation of his, Dr. Grace gradually gathers where the spaceship is going. The spaceship is already far away from the solar system, and now it is approaching to a star called Tau Centi. Dr. Grace is naturally baffled, but, as he remembers more of what happened to him in the past, he gets to know more about this space mission of him and those two currently deceased astronauts.

Via a series of flashback parts, we see how he got himself involved with the space mission from the very beginning. Around 10 years ago, a strange incident was observed from the Sun, and that led to the discovery of a bunch of odd cosmic entities clearly sucking energy from the Sun. If this trend is continued without any interruption, it will be disastrous for the Earth and all the living organisms on it, and many experts around the world gathered for solving this catastrophic problem as soon as possible.

Although he was merely working as an elementary schoolteacher at that time, Dr. Grace once proposed a rather unconventional hypothesis on the lifeforms in the outer space, and that is why he was approached by the leader of that global expert groups, who is incidentally played by Sandra Hüller. He was initially skeptical about whether he could be any help at all, but, what do you know, he actually gave not only a breakthrough but also a possible solution developed from that.

When the spaceship eventually arrives in Tau Centi, there comes another big surprise for Dr. Grace. I will not go into details here for not spoiling any entertainment for you, but, because the trailer already showed that, I can tell you that Dr. Grace encounters an alien who eventually becomes his unlikely friend and colleague as they work together on the search for any possible chance to solve the common problem of their respective races.

Of course, things do not go that well for them at times, and the screenplay by Drew Goddard, which is based on the science fiction novel of the same name by Andy Weir (He also wrote “The Martian”, which was adapted into Ridley Scott’s 2015 film), engages us more as Dr. Grace and his alien friend work on their common mission in one way or another. Although there are several barriers between them including the language one, they eventually find a way to communicate fairly well with each other, and there is a little amusing moment when Dr. Grace tries to find the right human voice for the translation of what his alien friend says.

The story eventually culminates to when Dr. Grace and his alien friend come across a possible chance for getting their mission accomplished, and the movie naturally delivers a number of stunning visual moments worthwhile to watch from big movie theater screen. Thanks to a group of the first-rate crew members of the film including cinematographer Greig Fraser, who won an Oscar for Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” (2021), the movie is quite impressive for its vast and wondrous presentation of the space, and you may also enjoy small and big details as the camera fluidly moves along with Dr. Grace here and there inside the spaceship.

Above all, the movie also finds a surprising amount of sincerity from the relationship drama between Dr. Grace and his alien friend. Their interactions are rather strained at times due to many differences between them, but we come to sense more of how much both of them care about each other, and we certainly come to root for them more around the climactic part of the story.

I must point out that Goddard’s screenplay stumbles a bit during the finale where it tries a bit too many things for tidying up the story within around 20 minutes, but we remain engaged as before thanks to another good performance from Ryan Gosling, who also participated in the production of the film along with Weir and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Besides ably holding the center of the film as required with his likable presence, he is convincing in a number of key scenes unfolded across the space, and he and James Ortiz, who is the voice and lead puppeteer of Dr. Grace’s alien friend, flawlessly click with each other throughout the film.

On the whole, “Project Hail Mary” is definitely not something you cannot miss if you love good space movies. Since Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” (2013) came out, we have had a fair share of wonderful space movies during last 13 years, and “Project Hail Mary” deserves to be placed around the top of the field. Although it is not exactly ground-breaking compared to “Gravity” or “Interstellar”, Miller and Lord, who gave us “The Lego Movie” (2014) and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018), surprise us again, and that is more than enough for recommendation in my inconsequential opinion.

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The Fire Inside (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her years of struggle

Posted on March 21, 2026 by kaist455

“The Fire Inside” is a solid sports drama film which turns out to be a little more thoughtful than I thought. Unlike many other sports films, it does not simply illustrate the journey toward an expected moment of triumph, and it also focuses on how its heroine struggles to move on after that triumphant moment. Mainly thanks to the strong performances from its two main performers, the movie is steadily engaging despite its few shortcomings, and you will come to root for its heroine more in the end.

The story revolves around the early boxing career of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (Ryan Destiny), a female professional boxer who has been known well for her notable wins at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics. The opening scene shows how young Shields, who was a little girl living in one of the poor neighborhoods in Flint, Michigan, came to start learning boxing under her coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry), and then we see how much she becomes more skilled and confident during next several years.

And we also observe more of how Shields depends more on her coach – and how much she wants to get out of her poor and harsh environment. Her single mother is not particularly interested in supporting Shield’s hope and ambition, and then Shield finds herself kicked out of their house due to a minor clash between her and her mother. When she calls for help, Crutchfield possibly cannot say no, and she eventually becomes a part of his little family.

Thanks to Crutchfield’s good coaching, Shields keeps advancing in her boxing careers, and then there comes an opportunity to compete at the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics in London. When she can finally go to the tryout competition to be held in Shanghai, China, she is naturally excited, but there comes an unexpected obstacle: Crutchfield cannot go just because 1) he is an unqualified coach and 2) he cannot afford to go there.

And that is just the first one of many obstacles Shields has to overcome with some help and assistance from her coach. When she is eventually selected for competing at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Crutchfield decides to go to London along with her, though he is still not her official coach at the competition. Nevertheless, she appreciates how much he cares about her and her boxing career, and that leads to a surprise win to distinguish herself much more than before.

After this narrative point, the screenplay by co-producer Barry Jenkins, who has been mainly known for his Oscar-winning film “Moonlight” (2016), shifts onto a more thoughtful mode. Shields and Crutchfield hope that things will get much better for her, but they soon face another big obstacle in front of them. Just because of gender bias, there are not many sponsors willing to promote her and her career out there, and Shields naturally becomes more frustrated and conflicted as she remains stuck in her poor neighborhood in Flint.

The mood eventually becomes a bit more melodramatic when Shields’ relationship with Crutchfield gets more strained later, but the movie mostly remains calm and restrained even at that point. Although a key scene between Shields and her mother later in the story feels rather contrived at first, it is handled well with low-key sensitivity at least, and that is the main reason why it turns out to be more touching than expected. While the finale is a bit too anti-climactic, it still works as staying focused on the relationship between Shields and Crutchfield, and we are reminded that her journey is not over yet even at this point.

As the center of the film, Ryan Destiny demonstrates that she is a promising newcomer with a lot of potential, and she did a splendid job of imbuing her character with enough human qualities to interest and then engage us. This is only the third feature film in her burgeoning movie acting career, but she is simply compelling to watch, and I can only hope that we will see more of her considerable talent during next several years.

On the opposite, Brian Tyree Henry, who has given us a series of stellar performances during last several years, is dependable as usual. Yes, his coach character looks a bit too typical on the surface, but Henry brings real human details to his character without showing off them at all, and the result is another fine performance to be added to his steadily advancing career.

In case of several other main cast members, they are just required to fill their respective spots as much as possible, and some of them acquit themselves well despite that. As Shields’ rather uncaring mother, Oluniké Adeliyi manages to overcome her thankless role later in the film, and De’Adre Aziza has a couple of good scenes as Crutchfield’s patient wife.

In conclusion, “The Fire Inside” works thanks to not only the commendable efforts from its two main performers but also the competent direction of director Rachel Morrison, an Oscar-nominated cinematographer who incidentally made a feature film debut here. According to IMDB, she has already moved onto her next film to come, and, considering the solid overall result of her first feature film, I guess I can have some expectation on that.

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Unstoppable (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Predictable but indomitable

Posted on March 20, 2026 by kaist455

I exactly knew what I was going to get from “Unstoppable”, which is currently available on Amazon Prime Video. This is your average underdog sports drama film, and you will not be surprised that much by its predictable narrative arc if you are a seasoned moviegoer like me. Nevertheless, its earnest efforts somehow won my heart in the end, and I will not deny at all that I got really engaged in its predictable but undeniably uplifting climactic part.

Jharrel Jerome, who has been one of the most promising actors working in Hollywood since his breakthrough supporting turn in Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning film “Moonlight” (2016), plays Anthony Robles, who drew a lot of attention as a wrestler with considerable disability during his high school and college years. Robles was born without one leg, but he went all the way as dedicating himself a lot to wrestling, and the movie is about how he overcame one obstacle after another before eventually having a big triumphant moment for his life and career (Is this a spoiler?).

The first half of the movie focuses on when Robles is about to make an important decision for himself. After distinguishing himself a lot at the national high school championship, he expects to be approached by several major state universities including the University of Iowa, which has been famous for its renowned wrestling team. However, it turns out that the University of Iowa and many other universities are not particularly interested in recruiting him, and it looks like his only option is Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is actually quite willing to provide him a full scholarship.

In the end, Robles decides to enroll in Arizona State University (ASU) just because he wants to stay closer to his family living in Mesa, Arizona. Thanks to his caring high school coach, he has a meeting with the wrestling team coach of ASU, who gives Robles some tough advice while recognizing Robles’ talent and dedication. As he warned Robles in advance, the following tryout session is pretty grueling to say the least, but this only motivates Robles more than before, and he eventually earns some respect from not only the coach but also many of his fellow candidate players.

Of course, there come a series of obstacles popping up here and there around Robles. In case of his mother, her recent spouse turns out to be much less reliable than expected, and this affects her as well as her children including Robles, who surely cares a lot about his mother just like his several younger siblings. While his mother comes upon one trouble after another mainly due to her lousy spouse, he keeps trying to focus on his games as before, but then there come some other troubles including the unexpected budget cut on his wrestling team.

The movie sometimes becomes a bit too melodramatic in my humble opinion, but the screenplay by Eric Champnella, Alex Harris, and John Hindman, which is based on the memoir of the same name which Robles wrote with Austin Murphy, keeps things rolling along its many ups and downs. While it is touching to see Robles’ mother eventually shows more resilience and resourcefulness than expected, we are also moved by when Robles’ teammates show him some solidarity at one point later in the story.

In case of all those wrestling match scenes in the film, they are competently handled under the solid direction of director William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor who incidentally made a feature film debut here. He and his editor Brett M. Reed did a good job of generating enough intensity and excitement to engage us, and we come to care more about Robles’ strenuous quest for triumph even though we all know where he will arrive in the end.

The movie also depends a lot on Jerome’s admirable commitment on the screen. While his appearance on the screen is certainly assisted a lot by special effects from the beginning to the end, he ably embodies his character’s indomitable spirit and determination, and he is also quite convincing as willingly throwing himself into many intense physical moments during the wrestling match scenes in the film.

Jerome is also supported well by several notable main cast members. While Michael Peña and Don Cheadle have each own moment to shine as the two important coaches of Robles, Bobby Cannavale brings some extra intensity as the crummy spouse of Robles’ mother, and Mykelti Williamson is also effective in his small but crucial supporting part. In case of Jennifer Lopez, she may be a little too glamorous as Robles’ mother at first, but her undeniable star quality, which was already proven in Lorene Scafaria’s “Hustlers” (2019), is utilized well during one particular key scene between her and Jerome. This moment feels rather clichéd at first, but Jerome and Lopez bring real poignancy to it, and the result is more powerful than expected.

In conclusion, “Unstoppable” does not go beyond the conventions of its genre, but it still works inside its genre conventions. As I said at the beginning of this review, there is nothing particularly new or fresh here, but it follows its playbook well on the whole despite some blatant touches such as the reference to John G. Avildsen’s Oscar-winning sport film “Rocky” (1976), so I will not grumble at least for now.

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