Whalefall (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): A terrifying survival drama inside a big whale

Posted on October 16, 2026 by kaist455

“Whalefall” is a terrifying survival drama mostly unfolded inside a big whale, and it does its job better than I expected. When I watched its trailer several weeks ago, I wondered whether the movie can actually work in terms of story and character, but, what do you know, it turns out to be an effective genre piece whose sheer intensity and thrill compensate for a number of artificial aspects in the film.  

At the beginning, the movie quickly establishes its story premise. After the suicide of his father who has struggled with his terminal illness for a while, its young hero, Jay Gardiner (Austin Abrams), returns to his seaside hometown, and we soon sense his unresolved daddy issues. As shown from a series of flashback scenes along the story, he and his father Mitt (Josh Brolin) were not so close to each other mainly because Mitt was your average macho dude, and Jay cannot help but become haunted more by what happened during their last time not long before his father’s death.

While not communicating that much with his other family members including his mother Zara (Elisabeth Shue), Jay eventually decides to find wherever the body of his father is at present. Mitt committed suicide via letting himself sunk beneath a certain spot in the sea, and Jay is quite determined to retrieve any part of his father’s body, just because he wants to prove his will and courage to himself as well as his father.

Of course, once he goes into the sea, it turns out that Jay is woefully unprepared for his personal mission, and then there comes a very unexpected happening upon him. Shortly after he happens to encounter a big giant squid, a huge sperm whale suddenly appears, and it eventually swallows not only that squid but also Jay, who unfortunately gets himself caught by the tentacles of that squid at the last minute. 

After this scary and intense underwater action sequence which will hold you on the edge of your seat, the movie will impress you more as our unlucky hero subsequently finds himself at a certain spot not so far from the whale’s stomach. Mainly thanks to the fluorescence from one stingy jellyfish, this frequently claustrophobic space is not totally dark at least, but I must tell you that it is relatively dimmer than my endoscopy video shot in last year.

Needless to say, there is not much time for Jay as his oxygen is running out minute by minute, but he only finds himself cornered in one way or another. The screenplay by director Brian Duffield and his co-writer Daniel Kraus, which is based on the novel of the same name written by Kraus, steadily doles out a series of perils along the story. As a guy who studied biology during his college and graduate school years, I certainly winced when Jay makes an unwise choice of going further along the digestive tract of the whale, and the movie has some nasty fun during the following gory moments.

As getting more despaired and frustrated along the story, Jay’s mind often goes back to those personal memories of his father. While these flashbacks incidentally lead him to several impromptu survival strategies, the body of the whale turns out to be quite a mighty opponent, and the movie does a good job of presenting this big animal with considerable awe and terror. While I am sure that a lot of CGI is incorporated into many key scenes unfolded inside the whale, its innards look quite convincing on the screen, and, without feeling too stuffy or limited at all, the cinematography by Aaron Morton conveys well to us the increasingly palpable sense of claustrophobia surrounding our hero.

The last act of the story feels utterly preposterous in addition to being blatantly sentimental, and I must confess that I rolled my eyes a bit while observing more plot contrivances along the story. Nevertheless, the movie manages to hold our attention even at this point thanks to Duffield’s competent direction, and you may become willing to overlook some mawkish touches around this point. 

It goes without saying that the movie depends a lot on the presence and talent of its lead actor. Austin Abrams, who has been on the way of becoming another new interesting actor to watch thanks to his solid performances in Zach Cregger’s two recent films “Weapons” (2025) and “Resident Evil” (2026), willingly throws himself into a lot of acting challenge here in this film, and his committed acting ably holds the center while his rather pathetic character gradually finds his inner strength along the story. In addition, you will be also amused to observe him coping a lot with tentacles again just like he previously did in “Resident Evil”.

With Abrams at the center, many of the other notable cast members in the movie simply fill their respective spots without much impression. Josh Brolin, who seems quite ready to take over the flawed male characters usually reserved for Nick Nolte, brings some intensity to several flashback scenes in the film, but these scenes unfortunately interrupt the main narrative more than once to our distraction. In case of Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy, and Emily Rudd, they are sadly limited by their under-developed supporting roles, though I mused a bit on how much time has passed since Shue and Brolin appeared together in Paul Verhoeven’s “Hollow Man” (2000).

Overall, “Whalefall” is tense and entertaining enough to overcome its several glaringly weak aspects including that clichéd father and son relationship in the story. As leaving the screening room, I amused myself a bit as wondering whether a seafood dish inspired by this movie is possible, but I also admitted to myself that I was really thrilled and terrified more than once, and that says a lot about its effectiveness in my humble opinion.

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Who Is Martin Mull? (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): From a comedian to a painter

Posted on October 15, 2026 by kaist455

Netflix documentary “Who Is Martin Mull?”, which was released in last week, introduces us to an American entertainer who had an interesting life and career which deserves to be known more to us. Like some of you, I did not know anything about him before watching the documentary, so I was steadily engaged in what it presents with genuine care and respect, and I came to have some admiration toward his multiple talents.

The main subject of the documentary is Martin Mull (1943 ~ 2024), who gladly talks about his life and career during a series of interviews he had before his death. After growing up in a rural town of Ohio during his childhood period, young Mull studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, and then he got an unexpected breakthrough as a songwriter when one of his songs became a fairly successful hit. Since that, he wrote and performed several other satirical and humorous songs during next several years, and that was how he began to show more potential as a comedian. On the surface, he flatly performed his rather naughty songs as being often accompanied with pieces of plain furniture, but he knew how to draw laughs from his audiences with his good comic timing, and he soon started to appear here and there on TV during the 1970s.

One of his early colleagues during that time is none other than Steve Martin, who often performed along with Mull on stage. Like many other notable American comedians ranging from Fred Willard to Patton Oswalt, Martin admires Mull’s comic talent a lot, and he was also willing to support his friend’s painting career. In fact, Martin bought and collected some of Mull’s early artworks, which became more valuable when Mull’s painting career eventually got some considerable boost during the 1990s.

The documentary often shows Mull working on his paintings inside his cozy residence, and it becomes quite apparent to us that he is a fairly talented painter. As shown from the vivid qualities of his early paintings, he had a keen eye on details to observe and then illustrate, and then he went through several artistic turns just for expanding his range of skill and expression more. I must confess that I do not know much about evaluating artworks, but I can tell you instead that many of Mull’s artworks are interesting to observe for their style and detail. In case of several paintings of his, they may initially look a bit absurd to you with a lot of chair figures, but I assure you that their surrealistic images will linger on your mind for a while.

Mull frankly says that he worked as an entertainer simply because he could earn enough money for pursuing his painting career in private, but his show business career lasted much longer than expected. Although he did not get much recognition in public, he was a dependable comic actor who often got cast here and there in a bunch of TV series and movies, and many of you will probably remember some of his notable performances during last several decades. For example, he held his own place well among several more notable comic performers in “Clue” (1985), and he often stole the show in his various guest appearances in several famous TV comedy series such as “Arrested Development”.

Although the documentary does not delve much into Mull’s personal life, Mull and his several family members casually recognize that his childhood years were not so happy to say the least. While his mother was mostly warm and supportive to him, his father was a distant figure who could be quite harsh to his children at times, and Mull is clearly reluctant to talk more about his father in front of the camera.

In case of his adult life, Mull had a serious drinking problem around the peak period of his entertainer career, and he was quite honest about being your typical high-functioning alcoholic during that time. After the end of his disastrous first marriage, he drank a lot more than before, and this certainly became a big issue for him to deal with not long after he married his second wife, who eventually became someone to support and stand by him to the end.

The second half of the documentary focuses on what turned out to be the last chapter of Mull’s life, and that is where it generates some unexpected poignancy. After interviewing Mull during several years, co-director Bob Saget, who made the documentary with Neil Berkeley, unexpectedly died in 2022, and some of Mull’s colleagues also passed away in the meantime. Although becoming more reflective on his approaching mortality, Mull continued to keep going as before, and the mood eventually becomes elegiac as the documentary shifts its focus on Mull’s wife not long after his eventual death in 2024. She certainly misses her husband a lot, and his absence feels more palpable to us as we watch their residence is emptied out bit by bit.

In conclusion, “Who Is Martin Mull?” is a modest but informative documentary which illuminates well Mull’s life and career, and it will certainly make you more curious about his considerable contribution to many different TV series and movies out there. Although he did not get much recognition except the Emmy nomination for his hilarious guest appearance in “Veep”, he was indeed a wonderful comedian to watch, and he was also a fine painter who left behind some nice artworks to be appreciated. He surely contained multitudes, and I think the documentary is a bit too short for his illustrious life and career, but it did its job as well as intended at least.

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My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The desperate but intimate chronicle of the journalistic defiance in Moscow

Posted on October 14, 2026 by kaist455

Documentary film “My Undesirable Friends: Part Ⅰ- Last Air in Moscow” is a desperate but intimate chronicle of the journalistic defiance in Moscow during the early 2020s. While it is often alternatively depressing and infuriating to watch a bunch of young independent journalists being oppressed by the Russian government in one or another, the documentary is also quite powerful as closely following how these brave and decent professionals tried to fight against the Russian government as long as possible.

 The documentary begins with one of those young independent journalists in Moscow. When she begins another day in her local media outlet TV Rain, Anna Nemzer and her colleagues look mostly casual on the surface, but we gradually see more of how things become grimmer for them day by day. In 2021, the Russian government led by Vladmir Putin labeled TV Rain and many other local independent media as “foreign agents” or “undesirable”, and they were also demanded to do their reporting with stating that they are serving foreign powers. Naturally, Nemzer and many of her colleagues were not amused to say the least, but, despite their strenuous protest and resistance, they could not possibly say no because the Russian government can shut them down at any point.

The documentary consists of five chapters in its very long running time (325 minutes), and its first chapter shows how Nemzer and her colleagues tried to keep their heads straight and high despite the growing oppression from the Russian government. Despite many obstacles they had to face day by day, they searched for any possible way for more integrity and defiance, and there is an amusing scene where Nemzer willingly puts herself in front cameras as a “model foreign agent”.

However, as director/co-producer/co-editor/cinematographer Julia Loktev, who is also a close friend of Nemzer, steadily followed the daily life of Nemzer and her several other colleagues, things only got worse and worse for them without much hope or optimism during next several months. Since getting labeled as “foreign agents”, they were frequently cornered or harassed by the Russian government, and some of them willingly talk about how they cannot help but become quite nervous even when they are inside their homes. Surrounded by numerous regulations on “foreign agents”, they have to be very, very, very careful about not violating these regulations at any chance, because the Russian government is ready to pounce upon them all the time just for any excuse to be noticed.

Needless to say, getting out of Russia began to look more like a sensible option for not only Nemzer and her colleagues but also many others who had been outspoke in their opposition to Putin – especially when the Russian Army invaded Ukraine in early 2022. Putin and his Russian Government oppressed progressive journalists and activists all the more before, and it seemed that there was no end in sight for Nemzer and her fellow independent journalists.

Nevertheless, they tried to stay and work in Moscow as they always did for years, and the documentary gives us a series of personal moments showing more of their humanity and personality. In case of Irina Dolinina and Alesya Marokhovskaya, who are also a couple, they give some of the most moving moments in the documentary as being simply frank and casual in front of Loktev’s camera. At one point later in the documentary, an old female activist points out why it is important to keep fighting against all odds, and that will make you reflect more on the main goal of the documentary. Sure, the efforts from Nemzer and her colleagues may not amount to anything in the end, but their efforts themselves may remain despite that, and the documentary certainly helps as vividly and closely recording their efforts.

However, the documentary still does not overlook how things quickly got all the more daunting for them within a few weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Eventually, Nemzer became more serious about leaving the country along with her family, and that certainly depressed her a lot. She had lived in an apartment building where she once lived with her parents many years ago, and the growing possibility of leaving her old home again was quite painful for her because she really wanted to live there as long as she could.   

As many of her colleagues left one by one, there eventually came what can be regarded as the breaking point for Nemzer and her remaining colleagues. As told to us at the end of the documentary, most of them and many other figures in the documentary left Russia due to their safety concern, and, as many of us know too well, their country has tumbled further into more fear and oppression as escalating its “special military operation” in Ukraine during next several years.

On the whole, “My Undesirable Friends: Part Ⅰ- Last Air in Moscow”, which was included in the short list for Best Documentary Oscar in last year (It also won the Best Documentary award at the 2025 Gotham Independent Film Awards, by the way) and is already followed by Loktev’s very next documentary “My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile” (2026), is surely a long and daunting experience to say the least, but it is a superlative piece of work which will definitely make you muse on not only what has been going in the Russian society but also that undeniable value of good journalism, which has been unfortunately deteriorated a lot during last two decades for many reasons including the rapid rise of online fake news and fascism around the world. In short, this is one of the best documentaries from last year, and I assure you that you will be ready for its sequel documentary once you finish its long but rewarding journey.

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The Last First: Winter K2 (2026) ☆☆☆(3/4): A deadly expedition at K2

Posted on October 10, 2026 by kaist455

Documentary film “The Last First: Winter K2”, which was released on Apple TV on last Friday, focuses on a bunch of mountaineers who attempted to make the first successful winter ascent of K2, the second-highest mountain on the Earth, in late 2020. Thanks to a heap of various high-definition photographs and video clips shot during that time, the documentary gives us a vivid and close glimpse into how things went quite wrong around the later stages of that very risky expedition, and that is more than enough for us to get chilled and alarmed during our viewing.

During the early part of the documentary, we get to know a bit about why the winter ascent of K2 has been quite dangerous and challenging for many years. Sure, many other high mountains in the Himalayas including Mountain Everest are very, very, very tough to climb in winter, but K2 was particularly notorious for its extremely risky aspects. In fact, this deadly mountain has more casualties than any other Himalayan mountains around its height, and the winter ascent of K2 seemed quite impossible as a series of daring attempts were disappointingly thwarted during last several decades.

In the end, the winter ascent of K2 became what can be regarded as the “Last First” for numerous ambitious mountaineers out there, and that was why an Icelander mountaineer named John Snorri went to K2 along with his two Pakistani companions, Muhammad Ali Sadpara and his son Sajid, in late 2020. Although he remains casual about this expedition of his, it is apparent to us that not only he but also his companions and wife are quite concerned to say the least. After all, anything can happen due to many tricky aspects of the mountain including its very unpredictable weather condition, and Snorri and his companions certainly knew that too well as experienced professionals.

However, things began to go wrong in a way quite unexpected even for them during next several weeks. When they set their base camp at the foot of the mountain, it seemed that they would be the only team to attempt the ascent during that time, and, what do you know, there came another expedition team to their surprise. This team was from Nepal and was incidentally led by Nirmal “Nims” Purja, a Nepali-British mountaineer who was the main subject of recent Netflix documentary film “14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible” (2021). After making a record-breaking feat via climbing all 14 eight-thousanders within only six months and a few days in 2019 (This was later broken by in 2023 by Kristin Harila and Tenjen Sherpa, by the way), Purja was looking for another big goal to accomplish, and that was none other than the winter ascent of K2.

For a while, it just seemed to be a matter of competition between Snorri and Purja, but then the situation became a lot more complicated beyond their control. Not long after the arrival of Purja’s team, there also came several more teams including the one planned for a bunch of non-professional clients, and they were all eager to accomplish their common goal just like Snorri and Purja.

Needless to say, everyone at the base camp sensed the growing possibility of disaster, but none of them was not so willing to step forward first for pointing out how the situation could be much worse. After all, they were all very close to the chance of making a historical record to be remembered for a long time, and quitting was the last thing they wanted to do right now.

Things got indeed worse as time was running out for them day by day, and then there came what can be regarded as the violation of the mutual trust among them. Purja’s team decided to go further without notifying anyone else in advance, and this hurt Sadpara’s feelings a lot because he had regarded Purja as a close colleague and friend. In the end, Purja’s team succeeded in accomplishing the mission, but this certainly affected the overall mood among the other mountaineers at the spot.

Ironically, this actually made them all the more motivated about climbing onto the top of K2 as soon as possible, and it was probably one of many contributing factors in what inevitably occurred next. As too many people attempted to climb up along that very climbing route of K2, the chance for disaster got more increased, and this eventually led to the sudden unexpected death of one of the mountaineers. Unfortunately, this tragic incident did not deter many of them much, and it was consequently followed by several other equally devastating incidents later.   

There were actually several cameramen associated with some of those expedition teams as well as a number of smartphones belonging to the expedition team members, and what was recorded at that time is alternatively awe-inspiring and terrifying. While we surely get a closer look on the perilous beauty of K2, we also observe a lot of how cold, hostile, and dangerous the weather on the mountain can possibly be to human body, and this feels all the more palpable to us as we listen to several interviewees who were there at that time.

Overall, “The Last First: Winter K2”, directed by Amir Bar-Lev, is an effective documentary which did a good job of conveying to us the inherent risks and dangers of high-altitude mountaineering. Although it could delve more into its fascinating main subject, it still engaged me with its visceral qualities, and that is enough for recommendation in my trivial opinion.

Sidenote: As some of you know, Purja and nine other climbers died in an avalanche on the Pakistani side of Broad Peak in this July. All I can say is that, at least, he died while doing what he was so passionate about.

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Look Back (2026) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A collaboration between two talented girls

Posted on October 10, 2026 by kaist455

“Look Back”, another new film from Hirokazu Kore-eda in this year after “The Sheep in the Box” (2026), is a little but compelling story about friendship and artistic collaboration. Based on the 2021 one-shot manga of the same name by Tatsuki Fujimoto, which was already adapted into the 2024 animation film, the movie has its own mood and sensitivity to distinguish itself from the animation film version besides being a fairly faithful adaptation, and the result is quite engaging and touching on the whole.

The story begins with how its two main characters befriend each other during their elementary school years in some rural town in Japan. As a young girl who has been quite passionate about drawing manga, Fujino (Furi Nanase) is very proud of her little manga in the school newspaper, but then there comes an unexpected change for her on one day. On her classroom teacher’s suggestion, the school newspaper begins to put another student manga right next to Fujino’s, and, what do you know, this student manga instantly draws a lot of attention and praise from many other students due to its remarkable details and touches to be appreciated.

Needless to say, Fujino’s efforts are frequently compared to the works from the other student, and she naturally becomes more competitive. Sure, her manga is fairly good on the whole, but she cannot help but feel inferior whenever she and many of her schoolmates look at the latest work from Kyomoto (Rokka Okada), who has incidentally stopped coming to the school mainly due to being quite shy and introverted. No matter how much she tries during next several months, Fujino still feels like being way behind her competitor, and that eventually makes her quit drawing manga when her last elementary school year begins. 

When the graduation day eventually comes for her and her fellow schoolmates, Fujino is asked to deliver a diploma to Kyomoto’s residence despite her reluctance, and then she encounters Kyomoto at last via a little coincidence. To her big surprise, Kyomoto turns out to be a longtime admirer of that little manga created by Fujino, and that is the beginning of their very special relationship. As they stick together more via their shared passion on manga, they spend a lot of their spare time on several manga projects of theirs, and, of course, they come to help and support each other more and more during next several years.

Although it is not so different from the 2024 animation film version in terms of story and characters, the movie actually does its own stuffs at times. Because it is relatively longer than the 2024 animation version (The running time of the former is 100 minutes while the latter is less than 60 minutes), it often adds some extra details to observe, and it also vividly illustrates the collaboration process between its two main characters with considerable realistic touches to admire and appreciate.

As the camera of cinematographer Senzo Ueno closely and intimately observes these two girls’ painstaking artistic efforts, our eyes are often marveled by a series of interesting touches and techniques, and this will surely remind you of why artificial intelligence may never surpass human acts of art at least during next several centuries. Sure, those drawings from artificial intelligence may be perfect to the bone on the surface, but they seriously and inherently lack human elements to which we can respond in each own way, and that is why they are and will always be nothing but inconsequential digital products.

Under Kore-eada’s sensitive direction, two young performers Furi Nanase and Rokka Okada are constantly engaging in their adorned natural acting, and they are also flawlessly connected with their older counterparts later in the story, who are convincing as their characters come to have a sudden conflict around the middle act of the story. While surely and sincerely appreciating how much her friend has helped her in getting out of her small reclusive world, Kyomoto, who is now played by Aju Makita, wants to focus more on honing her drawing skill, and this unintentionally leads to her following breakup with Fujino, who is now played by Natsuki Deguchi. Deeply feeling hurt by her friend’s decision, Fujino eventually decides to go her own way without Kyomoto, and we soon see Fujino becoming a promising new manga creator several years later.  

However, the story subsequently takes an unexpected narrative turn during the last act. If you are familiar with Fujimoto’s original manga or the 2024 animation film version, you surely know this in advance, but it is still harrowing to see how Fujino becomes quite devastated as a consequence, and you will also be touched again by the genuine poignancy from a very moving example of the elevating emotional power of art.

In conclusion, “Look Back”, which won several collateral awards when it was premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in last month, works as well as the 2024 animation film version, and I am glad to see Kore-eda back in his element right after the mild disappointment in “The Sheep in the Box”, which let us down to some degrees despite its supposedly intriguing story premise coupled with the usual artistic touches expected from him.

Although I think “Look Back” is not one of his best works during last several years, you will enjoy Kore-eda’s thoughtfully sensitive handling of the story and characters, and you will also recognize and admire his artistic personality from a number of distinctive stuffs such as those tranquil shots of trains and landscapes. It may not aim that high from the beginning, but it does its supposedly modest job a lot better than expected, and I am impressed enough to give it a full recommendation.

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Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) ☆☆☆(3/4): A long but delightful romp

Posted on October 5, 2026 by kaist455

Jacques Rivette’s 1974 film “Céline and Julie Go Boating”, which came to South Korean theaters a few days ago, is a long but delightful romp. I must confess that I scratched my head more than once during its long running time (192 minutes), but I often appreciated how the movie freely wanders here and there as being steadily buoyed by a lot of charm and spirit on the screen. Yes, I am still struggling to conclude on what it is about, but I must admit that I was also amused a lot during my viewing.

 The center of the movie is an accidental relationship between two different young ladies: Céline (Juliet Berto) and Julie (Dominique Labourier). When Céline hurriedly passes by Julie on one day, Julie sees Céline dropping several stuffs one by one without noticing that at all, so she instantly follows after Céline just like the heroine of Lewis Carroll’s classic fantasy novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” does after that white rabbit. Although Julie fails to catch up with Céline in the end, these two young ladies soon come across each other again, and something instantly clicks between them.

Is this simply the beginning of a friendship? Or, is it actually the starting point of a romance? The movie never clarifies anything except depicting that 1) these two young ladies just enjoy each other’s company and 2) their rather unspecified relationship changes both of them in one way or another. Becoming quite eager to have more fun and freedom, Julie later decides to quit her menial job at a local library. In case of Céline, who is a cabaret performer, she gets herself more involved into Julie’s personal life once she begins to stay in Julie’s little residence, and there is an amusing scene where she disguises as Juile in front of some old lover of Julie.

And then there comes an unexpected opportunity for them. There is an abandoned old house in their neighborhood, and Céline and Julie experience something very inexplicable during their respective visits to this rather spooky house. At first, they do not remember much of whatever happened to them inside the house, but they soon find a way to recall their supposedly supernatural experiences, and they come to visit the house more and more along the story.

Around that point, the movie, which is inspired to some degree by Henry James’ novel “The Other House” and short story “The Romance of Certain Old Clothes”, enters the vague realm of horror and fantasy. Gradually discovering a darkly melodramatic past associated with the house, our two young ladies are alternatively intrigued and excited by that past and several ghosts associated with that past. It seems that there were rather complicated relationships among some dude and three women surrounding him, and there was also a little adorable girl Céline and Julie come to care about more than expected.

Rather than hurrying its story and characters, the movie leisurely takes a lot of time, and that is what we can usually expect from Rivette, many of whose works are notable for their slow narrative pacing and long running time. To be frank with you, I have never seen any of his work before watching “Céline and Julie Go Boating” early in this morning, but I have heard a lot about how long and slow his movies usually are. For example, his 1971 film “Out 1” is almost 13 hours, and I doubt whether I can ever have a chance or will to watch that (in)famous work someday.

As getting a bit impatient during my viewing, I wondered whether “Céline and Julie Go Boating” can be improved to some degree by cutting what can be regarded as redundant scenes, but I also gradually sensed that Rivette simply has a lightweight carefree fun with his cast members here. Many key moments involved with those ghosts in the house are repeated more than once throughout the film, but this frequent repetition soon becomes an organic part of its wryly cheerful sense of humor, and then things become all the zanier when Julie and Céline subsequently decide to do more than being mere observers of the past inside the house. I will not go into detail here for spoiling any fun for you, but I can tell you instead that their spirited attitude makes a hilarious contrast with the ghosts in the house, who are more or less than robotic figures mechanically going through their perpetually repeated past. 

I have no idea on how much the improvisation from the main cast members actually contributed to the screenplay co-written by them and Rivette, but they are all effective in their comic performances. Juliet Berto and Dominique Labourier, who were incidentally close friends at that time as reflected by their natural chemistry on the screen, are constantly engaging as their characters joyously bounce from one narrative point to each other, and Rivette generously allows them to have each own moment to shine along the story. Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier, Barbet Schroeder, who also served as the producer of the film, and Nathalie Asnar play absolutely straight as the ghost figures in the story, and that surely generates extra hilarity for us.

On the whole, “Céline and Julie Go Boating” is definitely challenging at times due to its slow and elusive storytelling as well as its long running time, but it is still an interesting work which has not lost any of its charm and spirit even after more than 50 years. In fact, this can be a good starting point for you if you are not so familiar with Rivette’s works such as “La Belle Noiseuse” (1991), and, folks, I am already quite willing to explore more of his works sooner or later.

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The Stranger (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Nothing matters to him…

Posted on October 5, 2026 by kaist455

François Ozon’s latest film “The Stranger”, which is based on Albert Camus’ 1942 classic existentialism novel of the same name, is a detached but interesting character study. Mainly revolving around its thoroughly disaffected young hero, the movie is faithful to the dry and distant tone of Camus’ novel, and the result is another solid work from Ozon.

The hero of the story is Meursault (Benjamin Voisin), a plain lad living alone in French Algeria around the early 20th century. Around the beginning of the story, he is notified that his mother dies, and he immediately goes to a facility where she spent her last years. As her only close family member, he is expected to shed some tears, but he remains so aloof and emotionless that others around him are rather baffled by that.

After that, the movie flaccidly observes how he goes through his mundane daily life day by day. He is not entirely lonely as there are several people “close” to him, but none of them seems to matter to him particularly. He often hangs around with one of his neighbors, but he does not care that much about whatever this despicable dude has been doing behind his back. When he happens to meet a young lady on a local beach, something seems to click between them, and then he gets more involved with her, but he remains distant and elusive to her bafflement and curiosity.

These and many other moments during the first half of the movie are presented under a phlegmatic but occasionally unnerving tone, which is further accentuated by the crisp black and white cinematography by Manu Dacosse. As gradually immersing us into its vivid period atmosphere and details, the movie lets us somehow sense what has been accumulating beneath its hero’s detached attitude, which eventually reaches to sort of breaking point when he later lets himself get more involved with a certain seedy matter of that unlikable neighbor. When that neighbor is stalked and then menaced by several young indigenous guys, Meursault does not seem to care as usual, but then he later comes across one of these indigenous lads. In the end, he kills that indigenous lad for a reason probably elusive even to himself.

Like Camus’ novel, the movie does not explain a lot – even though it relies on its hero’s narration during several key moments along the story. During the following trial on his impulsive act of killing, Meursault remains quite detached and disinterested while not showing any remorse or fear at all, and that certainly gives a bad impression on both the judges and the jury members in the trial. He surely knows well how that will make his circumstance all the worse, but, again, he does not care at all.

Dryly observing the absurd aspects of its hero’s situation, the movie sometimes shows a bit of care in contrast. While Meursault’s girlfriend continues to stand by him as much as possible, she only finds herself more frustrated with his adamant detachment. In case of a woman who is the sister of that unfortunate indigenous lad, the movie clearly sympathizes with her as reflected by a couple of brief but crucial moments, and that will make you reflect more on the colonial/racial background of the story.

Although it is apparent to us from the beginning that the story is rolling its hero toward the inevitable finale waiting for him, the movie takes its time as usual even during the last act. It has been more than 20 years since I read Camus’ novel, I still remember well the part where its hero finally and furiously lets out whatever has been inside himself for years, and I must say that the movie did a commendable job of presenting it with enough intensity and competence. While this part made me muse more on the undeniably futile aspects of our existence in the universe, I was also reminded of my inconsequentially contradictory personal conclusion from Oscar-winning film “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022): “Nothing matters – so everything does matter.”

The main cast members in the film tune their acting well to its overall tone. Benjamin Voisin, who previously collaborated with Ozon in “Summer of 85” (2020), is effective in his low-key embodiment of his character’s emotional emptiness, and he also functions as a good counterpoint to the more colorful performances from several other main cast members around him. While Pierre Lottin is suitably loathsome as required by his supporting role, Rebecca Marder brings a little but precious warmth to the story, and Swann Arlaud is solid as a priest who has to face the sheer anger and despair inside Meursault later in the story. In case of Denis Lavant, who looks shabbier and older than usual, he steals the show as usual as wonderfully illustrating his character’s pathetic existence.

Overall, “The Stranger” may require some patience from you at first because of its glacial narrative pacing and deliberately detached tone, but it will eventually come to you as a rewarding cinematic experience to linger on your mind for a while. Although I am still not so sure about whether I fully understand Camus’ novel or the movie itself, I admire its mood, storytelling, and performance nonetheless, and I may revisit it sooner or later for appreciating more of its admirable qualities. Nothing matters to him to the end, but the movie does matter to me, and that is a good thing in my humble opinion.

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Digger (2026) ☆☆(2/4): Another ambitious misfire from Iñárritu

Posted on October 3, 2026 by kaist455

Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s latest film “Digger” looks quite ambitious at first but then eventually ends up digging not so much on the whole. As I struggled to adjust myself its broadly and unevenly shrill tone during its first half, I came to have some ideas on what the director tries to convey to us, but I also found myself getting more distant to its story and characters without much care. In the end, we are only left with some grand artistic gestures from the director and the deliberately hammy efforts from his lead actor, and that is not enough for recommendation in my humble opinion.

By the way, when there were several previews right before when the movie was officially released in South Korean today, the audiences attending these previews were advised not to reveal any possible spoiler about the film. Although I watched the film early in this morning, I guess I also have to follow this instruction for any audience wanting to watch the movie without being exposed to any spoiler. Therefore, please do not read further if you are one of such audiences.

Okay, now let me describe what is unfolded during the early part of the screenplay by Iñárritu and his co-writers Alexander Dinelaris, Nicolás Giacobone, and Sabina Berman, which is developed from the story by Berman, Iñárritu, and their co-writer Jex Butterworth. After the rather surreal opening scene, we are introduced to Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise), a wealthy Texan oil tycoon who has been clearly cocooned inside his power and wealth for years. While there comes an alarming report from his big oil rig located somewhere in Greenland, all he cares about is 1) whether that will jeopardize his business and 2) whether his dying pet cat will survive another day of its increasingly miserable existence.

Needless to say, things soon begin to fall apart from Digger. Something quite catastrophic happens on that oil rig in Greenland, and that can be just the beginning of more catastrophes to come. The US President, played by John Goodman, and his cronies including the vice president played by Michael Stuhlbarg immediately come to Digger’s big residence for an emergency meeting, but, not so surprisingly, they are no better than those bumbling figures in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (1964) or Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up” (2021).

Now it sounds like a potentially rich ground for satire, but the movie unfortunately bludgeons us with relentlessly broad touches here and there. Almost everyone in the film including Digger himself are extremely exaggerated caricatures (They mostly look as pale and cadaverous as the characters in Roy Andersson’s Living Trilogy, by the way), and they usually shout or scream a lot just for emphasizing how stupid or deluded or incompetent they really are. To make the matters worse, the score by Cosmo Sheldrake is so cacophonously intrusive here and there that you may often mistake it for some sloppy job by the sound department of the movie.

Maybe the main point of this abrasively warped satire of the movie is intended to reflect how chaotic and idiotic our world has become during these days, but then it only lets itself getting diffused as taking a sudden left turn for revealing the other main narrative beneath what has been unfolded during its first 40 minutes. Now, if you are still reading this review but really want to any spoiler nonetheless, I ask you again not to read further.

Okay, now I can tell you that what has been presented on the screen is actually the rehearsal process of a big theater production of a certain play about Digger. Around that point, you will be certainly reminded of Iñárritu’s previous Oscar-winning film “Birdman” (2014), but, sadly, the movie fails to fly as high as that amusing backstage comedy movie without bringing much depth or humor to its story and characters. Unlike the desperately struggling hero of “Birdman”, we never get to know or understand that much about the actor playing Digger on the stage, and everything around him remains as more or less than mere background details. At least, the movie tries to make some point on the meaning of art later in the story, and that feels too hollow and superficial besides being too late to save the film from digging down further without much substance.

In case of Tom Cruise, this probably looked like a good opportunity to go all the way with the certain parts of his acting ability which have been quite dormant during last 25 years. There are indeed several showy moments where he chews every line of his with unrestrained gusto, but he is still limited a lot by his utterly superficial character, and so are many other notable main cast members including Goodman and Stuhlbarg. While Sandra Hüller is totally wasted in her thankless supporting part, Riz Ahmed manages to bring a bit of intelligence to his character even though there is not much he can do from the beginning, and Jesse Plemons provides a little but thankful dose of calmness to the screen during his brief appearance later in the story.

In conclusion, “Digger” is another regrettably self-indulgent misfire from Iñárritu after “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” (2022). As I think more about the ending of the film, I sense that he sincerely hopes that we will still be able to enjoy and appreciate those acts of art including cinema even when things fall apart a lot for all of us in the end, but his movie only scratches the surface without truly digging deep into its comic ideas and materials, and that is really a shame.

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The Assassin(s) (2026) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Against a cover-up

Posted on September 28, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean film “The Assassin(s)” is a well-made political thriller drama which does not go further than what I already know about its main subject and time period. Inspired by a lot of reasonable questions and doubts surrounding the attempted assassination of Korean President Park Chung-hee, the movie focuses on how its several fictional main characters’ desperate struggle against the following massive cover-up, and it did a fairly good job of bringing us back into that grim period. However, it does not distinguish itself enough from many other similar South Korean films out there, and I only came to observe its plot and characters without much care. 

The opening part is the best part of the film. On August 15th, 1974, President Park attended an Independence ceremony along with his wife at the Seoul National Theater of Korea, but then there came several shots which threw everyone at the spot into panic and terror during next few minutes. A Zainichi Korean named Mun Se-gwang, who is incidentally presented as Moon Tae-kwang (Park Jeong-min) here in this film, was quickly captured, and President Park was not shot at all, but, unfortunately, his wife and a young girl were shot and then died not long after they were taken to a hospital.

While shocked a lot by this sudden incident, which happened to be broadcast on live TV, just like many others around him, Kim Jae-hwan (Park Hae-il), an editor of the social affairs department of some big local newspaper instantly embarks on what should be done as soon as possible. A rookie reporter named Han Young-il (Lee Min-hoo), who happened to be at the spot, quickly follows the instructions from him, and it does not take much time for them to see how serious the situation really is.

Just like many other TV and newspaper reporters, they are certainly ready to report on why and how the incident could happen in detail, but the South Korean government is not so willing to tell everything to say the least. It quickly concludes on the case once a full confession from Moon came after a few days, and Jae-hwan begins to sense something fishy after receiving a tip from Park Cheol-gu (Yoo Hae-jin), a police superintendent who was also at the spot along with many of his colleagues.

As Jae-hwan and Cheol-gu delve more into the incident together with some help from Young-il, they come to see that there are many odd and suspicious things in the incident. For example, six bullets were shot during that time, but it is undeniable that Moon could not shoot the last one because it was shot right after he was captured. In addition, all those bullets at the spot were taken away by Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), and the one which supposedly killed President Park’s wife was somehow gone.

Needless to say, Jae-hwan and Cheol-gu are soon cornered by KCIA in one way or another – especially they investigate more on the assassin’s background. On the surface, Moon is supposed to be a North Korean sympathizer who acted alone by himself, but there is a lot of difference between the investigation report from the South Korean government and what the Japanese Police discovered. Above all, it also becomes quite possible that Moon actually had someone who accompanied him when he entered South Korea.

Although the possibility of conspiracy becomes more palpable to us, the movie thankfully does not go down into rabbit hole too much while showing and telling us how grim and volatile the South Korean society was under President Park’s dictatorship during the 1970s. For suppressing the growing demand toward democratization, he and his cronies were willing to do anything, and they were responsible for the kidnapping incident of congressman Kim Dae-jung in Japan, a prominent progressive South Korean politician who would become a South Korean president in 1998. This certainly put a lot of strain on the diplomatic relationship between the Japanese and South Korean government, and the movie presents a rather plausible theory on how this kidnapping incident might have led to the assassination incident one year later. 

However, the movie did not interest me enough in terms of story and characters. The main characters are more or less than flat archetypes from the start, and the main cast members are simply required to fill their respective spots as much as required. Yoo Hae-jin, who also appeared in “The King’s Warden” (2026) early in this year, is a wonderful character actor to watch, but this is not exactly one of his best works, considering how he has steadily provided a series of enjoyable performances for more than 20 years. While Park Hae-il and Lee Min-ho are often limited by their thankless parts, the movie peppers the story with a heap of various notable performers including Bae Seong-woo, Park Ji-hwan, Jung Woo-sung, Shim Eun-kyung, Park Hae-joon, Oh Dal-soo, Shin Hyun-been, and Park Jung-min, and you may have some fun with watching them popping up here and there along the story.

On the whole, “The Assassin(s)” works to some degree with a number of competent moments including an effective chase sequence clearly influenced by that memorably rainy one in “Seven” (1995), but it is not one of better works from director Hur Jin-ho, who has diligently given us several good films such as “Christmas in August” (1998), “Happiness” (2007) and “A Normal Family” (2023). I was not bored at all during viewing, but I was not engaged or enlightened enough, and, in my humble opinion, it could do more than merely bringing us into its period background.

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Blanket Wearer (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her penniless one-year nomad project

Posted on September 27, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean independent documentary film “Blanket Wearer” is a likable chronicle of one interesting personal quest. Yes, as shown from the documentary, its director/producer/cinematographer/co-editor Park Jeong-mi really attempted a penniless one-year nomad project after being so suffocated by her static and stressful status of life, and we are alternatively touched and tickled as she looks back at this unconventional journey of hers with witty and thoughtful reflection.

At the beginning, Park tells us how hard and difficult things were for her in London. When she moved to London for her new job, she hoped that she would feel much better than when she worked in Seoul, but, unfortunately, she still did not feel that good as her new job turned out to be no better than the previous one. In addition, she also struggled to pay a rather expensive rent for her tiny residence month by month, and this surely made her all the more frustrated at times.

And then there came one risky but seemingly feasible idea to Park. She decided to live without spending or earning any money at least for one year, and that actually turned out to be more feasible than expected. Thanks to some convenient online networking, she could usually find places where she could stay for days or weeks, and there is an amusing scene when she has to take care of a big river boat in exchange for taking care of it instead of its absent owner for a few weeks. We later see her staying in an empty building during several days thanks to her two “squatter” friends, and she attentively listens to them talking a lot about the problematic housing system in UK in front of her camera.

In case of getting food day by day, London turns out to have many different spots where Park could pick up a bunch of discarded food for free, and this instantly took me back to Agnès Varda’s wonderful documentary “The Gleaners and I”. Just like those gleaners in Varda’s documentary, Park freely acquired many different kinds of discarded food ranging from bread to vegetables, though her friends frankly recognize that they always have to cook and eat them as soon as possible for good reasons.

The documentary becomes more interesting when it shows Park staying and working at a couple of rural organic farms. In case of one of these two organic farms, its members try to live away from modern technology as much as possible, and there is an amusing moment when Park tries to handle her biological matter inside a very crude outhouse in the middle of one night.

While she initially intended to do her one-year survival quest within UK, the scale of Park’s ongoing quest eventually became quite wider when she subsequently decided to join a certain private festival to be held somewhere in Slovakia. Right from when she crossed the English Channel, she depended wholly on hitchhiking, and she was certainly quite willing to take the considerable risk from that (I am sure many of you heard about those numerous real-life horror stories involved hitchhiking).

Although her journey across the Europe continent via hitchhiking was not entirely without unpleasant moments, Park eventually arrived at the festival in time, and she came to reflect more on where her life had been going. She had yearned for freedom because of her stressful jobs, but she also often found herself in the need of any sense of control, and we are not so surprised to learn later that she once tried on military career in the past.

However, around the point where Park came across a group of hippies riding on a big camping vehicle, things became more unpredictable for her ongoing journey. She initially agreed to go to Turkey along with that for helping those unfortunate Syrian refugees there, but she eventually found herself entering Turkey alone by herself, and she got a series of small but precious surprises as she was often welcomed by those kind strangers she met along her journey. At one point, she was allowed to stay in a big empty hospital room, and she was certainly grateful to the generosity of the hospital staff.

As feeling more like a pilgrim in the search of the meaning of life, Park decided to visit a certain religious city in Iran. She had to make an exception due to paying for a tourist visa, but this did not matter that much to her, because one year had already passed even before she entered Turkey. Again, she was genuinely touched a lot by the hospitality of many different strangers on her way, but then there came a shocking incident which traumatized her so much that she came to have a lot of doubts on whether her journey project was really meaningful to her.

I wish the documentary allowed more time for this painful personal struggle of hers, but it thankfully maintains enough wit and spirit to engage us. While she is often behind her camera, Park’s presence and personality are palpable on the screen as she willingly shares her personal feelings and thoughts with us, and we come to cheer for her more as observing how she becomes wiser and more matured about her life after the eventual end of her quest.

In conclusion, “Blanket Wearer” is both funny and moving as an intimate presentation of one personal journey, and I was not surprised at all as observing how often the audiences around me actively responded to a number of key moments in the documentary. If you enjoyed not only “The Gleaners and I” but also Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” (2020), this solid documentary will certainly interest you from the beginning, and I assure you that it will bring you some smile in the end.

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