The Creator (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A knockout SF film from Gareth Edwards

Posted on September 23, 2023 by kaist455

Gareth Edwards’ latest film “The Creator” intrigued me and then engaged me much more than expected, and that is quite an achievement. Yes, its story premise and ideas are quite familiar to say the least, but the movie handles its story, character, and background with a lot of curiosity, intelligence, and sincerity. As a matter of fact, its relatively quieter and smaller moments for building the characters and the futuristic world inhabited by them feel more important to me, though I also really appreciate the considerable skills and efforts put into those expected epic moments in the film.

At the beginning, the movie succinctly establishes its futuristic alternative world where artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been developed much faster than ours. At first, the humanity embraced AI with fascination and enthusiasm, but US and most of western countries became quite hostile to a certain disastrous incident which wiped out the downtown area of LA. This eventually led to the beginning of a long battle between the US Army and the New Asia, where many AI robots such as androids called “Simulants” want to live freely and peacefully along with humans.

When we are introduced to an American soldier named Joshua (John David Washington, who has gradually emerged as a distinguished actor even though occasionally channeling his father Denzel Washington in terms of his voice tone), he has been secretly trying to track down a certain mysterious figure known as the creator/savior to many AI robots out there, but, alas, his undercover operation subsequently gets botched with another personal loss in his life. Five years later, he is approached by the two figures from the US Army, and they have a mission to be accepted by him. There is a powerful secret weapon developed by that mysterious figure associated with AI robots, and they need Joshua to locate and then destroy that weapon. Although he is not so reluctant at first, Joshua eventually agrees to accept the mission mainly because he wants to meet again someone who was very important to him in the past.

That person in question a young woman named Maya (Gemma Chan), and a number of brief flashback moments show us more of how much she and Joshua loved each other around the time of his undercover operation. He approached to her as a part of his undercover operation, but he found himself caring about her much more than expected. Although her character is another typical case of a tragic female figure hovering over the hero’s mind, Chan fills her rather conventional character with enough warmth and presence at least, and she and Washington are believable in their few intimate moments in the film.

Anyway, Joshua soon goes to a certain remote spot in the New Asia along with a bunch of soldiers led by a tough commander played by Allison Janney, and he and other soldiers subsequently invade a secret facility where that secret weapon is supposed to be stored. When a certain big bunker inside the facility is opened, Joshua encounters that secret weapon, and, what do you know, it turns out to be a little AI robot girl. When it seems that this little AI robot girl has some information about Maya, Joshua decides to focus more on his personal business instead of the mission, and he and the little AI robot girl consequently find themselves chased by not only the US Army but also the local authorities of the New Asia.

Rather than hurrying the story and characters, the screenplay by Gareth and his co-writer Chris Weitz takes its time for developing the characters and their futuristic world more. While Joshua’s strained relationship with that little AI robot girl, who is casually nicknamed “Alfie” at one point, is handled with enough care and sensitivity, the movie also pays a lot of attention to building up its futuristic background with lots of style and details to be appreciated. For example, several urban locations in the film will definitely take you back to Ridley Scott’s classic SF film “Blade Runner” (1982), and it is not surprising that many of AI robot characters in the movie poignantly feel more human than most of human characters in the film besides Joshua and Maya. Cinematographers Greig Fraser, who recently won an Oscar for Denis Villneuve’s “Dune” (2021), and Oren Soffer did a stunning job of vividly presenting many different landscapes on the screen, and the production design by James Clyne is simply superb as constantly providing awe and wonder which deserve to be savored at big screening room.

In case of several action sequences in the film, they are presented with enough dramatic impact accompanied with an aching sense of horror and tragedy. The US Army in the movie incidentally has a gigantic battleship floating above the Earth for attacking any base of AI robots in the New Asia, and how it mercilessly attacks will probably remind you of how horrific and devastating the attacks of the Death Star felt in Gareth’s previous film “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016). At one point later in the story, the movie just watches the destruction of a base from the distance, but it still feels quite devastating to us nonetheless, and the South Asian landscapes in the film being invaded the US Army will also evoke the Vietnam War at times.

Above all, we actually come to care about Alfie and the journey she takes along with Joshua, and young performer Madeleine Yuna Voyles does a lot more than holding her place well among Washington and the other notable main cast members including Ralph Ineson, Veronica Ngo, and Ken Watanabe. Like Alicia Vikander’s AI robot character in Alex Garland’s little SF masterpiece “Ex Machina” (2014), Voyles brings uncanny qualities to her AI robot character, and, though you may not be surprised by her hidden origin or her special abilities, it is touching to observe her “emotional” growth along the story. In my skeptical viewpoint, AI and the humanity will regard each other forever over the gap which may never be filled for good reasons, but isn’t it nice to imagine that AI entities can learn and acquire the best qualities of the humanity?

In conclusion, “The Creator” a knoukout Hollywood blockbuster film which actually cares about amazing and attracting us with ideas and visuals, and Edwards demonstrates again that he is one of the most dependable genre filmmakers out there. Since his admirable first feature film “Monsters” (2010), he has steadily advanced with “Godzilla” (2014) and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, and now here comes his best work to date. Even though I was rather dissatisfied with the screening condition of a sneak preview I attended with many others, the movie really captivated and excited me, and I will certainly soon watch it again under a better screening condition.

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Flora and Son (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): As she learns music

Posted on September 23, 2023 by kaist455

John Carney’s new musical film “Flora and Son” tries to do two different things together, and the result is rather uneven in my inconsequential opinion. On one hand, we have an engaging drama about one accidental online relationship between two very different characters, and that works mainly thanks to the good chemistry between its two main cast members. On the other hand, we also have a dysfunctional family drama revolving around the heroine of the movie, but this part is unfortunately often distracting while never getting mixed that well into the overall story.

Eve Hewson, an Irish actress who has steadily advanced during last several years since her supporting role in Paolo Sorrentino’s “This Must Be the Place” (2011), plays Flora, a single divorced mother living with her adolescent son in Dublin, Ireland. The opening scene of the movie shows Flora having another wild night at a local nightclub, and it does not take much time for us to gather that she has not been a very good mother to her son. As a matter of fact, her son, Max (Orén Kinlan), does not like being around her, and he prefers to stay in her ex-husband Ian (Jack Reynor) just because his father is less meddlesome in comparison.  

Anyway, Flora still tries a bit for being a good mother to her son, and she has earned their living via babysitting, though she is not exactly a model babysitter as reflected by one brief moment early in the film. When she happens to spot an abandoned guitar on one day, she does not hesitate to take it and then get it fixed for giving it to Max as his birthday present. After all, Max has been interested in music, and Flora sincerely wants to encourage him just like her ex-husband, who was once a promising musician before eventually giving up his career later.

However, Max does not give much damn about his birthday present, mainly because he is more interested in electronic music. Quite angry and frustrated about this, Flora subsequently decides to learn a bit about playing guitar, and that is followed by the amusing montage sequence showing her checking out a series of guitar lesson YouTube clips one by one. While not so impressed by many of these YouTube clips, she happens to notice Jeff (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a young but retired musician living in LA. Although his online lesson fee is not that cheap, Flora contacts with him anyway, and they soon come to have the first online lesson between them.

While their first online lesson does not end up that well mainly due to Flora’s rather inappropriate behavior driven by several glasses of wine, Flora sincerely apologizes to Jeff later, and Flora finds herself learning more and more from Jeff as she continues the online lesson with him during next several weeks. He may not be a good musician, but he is a fairly good teacher at least, and he makes her more interested and passionate about music than before.

As they become closer to each other despite the long distance between them, Flora shows more of herself to Jeff, and Jeff also comes to show more of himself to her while steadily being tactful with Flora’s playfully flirtatious attitude. He presents a little song written by him some time ago, and, though she is still a novice in terms of musical talent, Flora sees the considerable possibility in his song. While his song is not that good, she feels that it can be improved here and there, and Jeff certainly appreciates her feedback as gradually finding his old passion rejuvenated thanks to her.

This part of the story works mainly thanks to the effortless interactions between Hewson and her co-star. Although his performance is often confined in the monitor of Flora’s laptop, Joseph Gordon-Levitt flawlessly interacts with his co-start throughout their several key scenes, and that is the main reason why we do not have any problem with Flora frequently imagining Jeff being right next to her during their online lessons.

However, the subplot about Flora’s troubled relationship with her son is relatively less engaging due to several plot contrivances. Despite Orén Kinlan’s earnest efforts, Max is not developed as well as Flora or Jeff, and his relationship with Flora often fluctuates between two opposite ends a little too jarringly. When Max lets Flora participate in his little musical project, things seem to get better for both of them, but then the plot throws another conflict between them later in the story, and the following resolution feels contrived instead of being organically developed from the story. In addition, Jack Reynor, who was incidentally terrific in Carney’s previous film “Sing Street” (2016), does not have much to do as being stuck in his thankless supporting role, though he and Hewson has a little naughty scene showing how their characters still care about each other their estranged relationship.

In conclusion, “Flora and Son” is not so satisfying compared to Carney’s several previous films including “Once” (2007), which is incidentally his best work to date. Sure, it does not disappoint us in case of serving its big musical finale as expected, and the original songs by Carney and his co-composer Gary Clark are mostly solid, but I still think the movie could be more improved in terms of story and characters. Anyway, I will not stop you from watching it, but I would rather recommend you to watch “Once” or “Sing Street” first if you have not seen either of them yet, and you may thank me for that later.

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Hatching (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Her issues get hatched…

Posted on September 21, 2023 by kaist455

It is difficult not to be impressed by the offbeat qualities of Finnish horror film “Hatching”. Besides several memorably gruesome moments of body horror to be admired for the considerable skills and efforts behind them, the movie mostly works mainly because of its increasingly unnerving mood coupled with interesting subjects including dysfunctional mother and daughter relationship, and that is enough for compensating its several notable weak aspects.

The movie opens with the banally wholesome introduction of a young girl named Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) and her suburban family by her mother, who is incidentally your average social media influencer. Inside their glaringly artificial domestic environment filled with lots of shiny and glassy stuffs, Tinja’s mother cheerfully presents her and her family in front of her smartphone, and her husband and their children go along with that without much complaint – until a crow suddenly enters their home and then spoils everything as flying to here and there inside their house.

Anyway, Tinja manages to catch this bird in the end. When she gives it to her mother, her mother snaps its neck without any hesitation to the little shock of Tinja, and then she tells her daughter to take the dead bird to a trashcan outside their house. During the following night, Tinja wakes up to have a rather horrific experience involved with that dead bird outside the house, and then she takes a little egg to her house after noticing it at the spot.

Of course, it turns out that this egg is not just a normal bird egg at all. As Tinja takes care of it in her bedroom, it grows much bigger than before, and there eventually comes the moment of, yes, hatching. While quite surprised by what comes out of the egg, Tinja decides to take care of this supposedly avian creature, and she even names it “Alli”.

After that narrative point, the screenplay by Ilja Rautsi alternates between Tinja’s handling of this creature and her increasingly exasperating relationship with her mother. For boosting her online image further, Tinja’s mother wants her daughter to excel herself more at the following gymnastics competition, and that certainly pressures Tinja a lot – especially when a nice girl who recently moved in the house right next to Tinja’s turns out to be a serious competitor for Tinja.

Tinja gets some consolation from taking care of Alli as much as possible, but it also seems that her negative feelings seem to be channeling into Alli. As time goes by, Alli resembles Tinja more and more, and Tinja and Alli even form a sort of psychic link between them. Whenever Tinja gets asleep, Alli is driven by all the anger and frustration repressed inside Tinja, and the following consequences are not so pretty to say the least.

When Tinja comes to realize what is going on, she is naturally quite horrified, but she also becomes very conflicted about how she should handle her situation. When she and her mother happen to spend several days at the house of her mother’s lover, Alli naturally follows her as expected, and Tinja is nervous about what may happen to her mother’s lover, who turns out to be a pretty nice and considerate guy.

In the meantime, the movie keeps serving us a series of disturbing moments, some of which will make you wince for good reasons. I cringed as watching how Tinja feeds Alli like its mother bird, and I was also unnerved a lot by when Tinja must make a choice immediately due to the next horrible thing to be committed by Alli in the middle of what may be a very important moment for her and her mother.

Around that narrative point, the movie stumbles more than once as struggling to balance itself between the two problematic relationships at the center of the story. In addition, many of other characters in the story besides Tinja and her mother are not particularly developed well, and Tinja’s father and son are almost non-existent even during the climactic part where Tinja and her mother somehow come to stick together in front of their little domestic problem.

Nevertheless, the movie remains fairy engaging thanks to director Hanna Bergholm’s competent direction. She and her crew members including did a skillful job of maintaining the eerie ambience on the screen from the beginning to the end, and the special mention goes to the crew members of the special effects and make-up department. Although the production budget of the film is modest, the overall result is pretty impressive on the screen, and young performer Siiri Solalinna is convincing as ably going back and forth between her two roles later in the movie. On the other hand, Sophia Heikkilä is utterly uncompromising in depicting all the toxic sides of Tinja’s mother, and it is a shame that the movie does not delve further into the dysfunctional relationship between her character and Tinja.

“Hatching” is incidentally Bergholm’s first feature film, and she demonstrates here that she is a good filmmaker who knows how to attract and then engage us. Sure, the movie is not entirely without flaws, but it is still a solid genre film packed with a number of strong points, and it will be interesting to see what may come next from her in the future.

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The Blue Caftan (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A quiet triangle at one caftan store

Posted on September 21, 2023 by kaist455

“The Blue Caftan”, which was selected as the Moroccan submission to Best International Film Oscar in last year, is about three good people who happen to find themselves facing their matters of heart in one way or another in their little world of tradition and craftmanship. Just like they carefully handle those lovely clothes in the film, the movie subtly and sensitively handles their hidden emotions below the surface, and it is often poignant to see how they try their best to deal with their tricky personal circumstance.

Saleh Bakri, a Palestinian actor who was one of the supporting characters in “The Band’s Visit” (2007), plays Halim, a middle-aged guy who has run a caftan store along with his wife Mina (Lubna Azabal, who was unforgettable in Oscar-nominated film “Incendies” (2010)) in Salé, Morocco. Although things have been not so good for their business as handmade caftans become less popular, Halim and Mina keep going nonetheless, and we come to see more of how much he has depended on his wife while he mostly focuses on making those beautiful caftans in his workplace behind the counter.

And then there comes a little change via a handsome young man named Youssef (Ayoub Missioui), who happens to be hired as a new apprentice of the shop. Although both Halim and Mina do not much expect much from him because they have seen so many other lads merely come and then go, Youssef somehow feels different to Halim, and Halim cannot help but become more conscious of Youssef as mentoring him day by day.

Not so surprisingly, it is gradually revealed that Halim is a gay man who has been hiding his sexuality for many years behind his stoic and reserved appearance. The movie often shows him visiting a local bathhouse where he can have a quick hookup in a private place, and we also see how Mina has accepted her husband’s closeted status just because she really loves him despite their incompatibility. Although they have been more like business partners/roommates instead of real spouses, Halim appreciates Mina’s affection and devotion nonetheless, and that is the main reason why Mina has been content with her rather barren married life.

As a woman who has known and understood her husband well, Mina soon comes to sense what has been going on between her husband and Youssef. At one point, she has been rather hostile to Youssef due to a little matter involved with a supposedly missing roll of fabric, and that certainly adds more tension among her and the two men in the store.

However, as already shown to us earlier in the film, Mina has been quite ill, and there eventually comes a point where she must stay at her home as her illness gets worsen hopelessly. After being told that there is nothing he can do for her except standing by her to the approaching end, Halim does not hesitate to stop working for a while, even though he has been working on a certain expensive caftan for some snotty customer.

The mood surely becomes a little more melodramatic, but the screenplay by director Maryam Touzani, who previously made a feature film debut with “Adam” (2019), and her producer/co-writer Nabil Ayouch takes its time as usual while never losing its human dimensions. Throughout the film, we often observe more details on Halim’s craftmanship, and the movie is constantly filled with melancholic qualities as he is frequently reminded of how his old traditional craft has been overlooked and forgotten bit by bit. There are not many craftsmen like him out there, and there is a little bittersweet moment when he examines a very old caftan which still looks gorgeous but will probably be never made again.

Touzani also did a commendable job of immersing us into Halim and Mina’s little isolated world. Cinematographer Virgine Surdej’s camera usually sticks around the main characters and their respective viewpoints, and their surrounding environment is seldom opened up until the very last shot of the film, while we occasionally hear the sound of the nearby beach from the distance. As a result, we are reminded more that Halim and Mina have had only each other despite the emotional distance between them, and that is why it is so moving to see what Mina does for Halim later in the story.

The movie depends a lot on its three main cast members, who are all convincing in their respective roles. Quietly holding the center as required, Bakri slowly lets us to sense his character’s growing emotional conflict along the story, and he is especially terrific when Halim is barely holding his feelings when he could respond more to Youssef. On the opposite, Azabal is equally powerful as vividly illustrating Mina’s complex emotion, and she and Bakri effortlessly embody a long history between their characters. While Youssef is relatively less developed in comparison, Ayoub Missioui holds his own place well between Bakri and Azabal, and he is effective when his character come to show more care and sincerity than expected.

On the whole, “The Blue Caftan” is a slow and restrained drama of repressed feelings and thoughts, so it takes some time for you to get accustomed to its rather dry storytelling and leisurely narrative pacing. Nonetheless, this is still an engaging human story filled with not only empathy and compassion but also specific mood and details to be appreciated, and it will come to you as another interesting window to others different from you.

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El Conde (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Pinochet the Vampire

Posted on September 19, 2023 by kaist455

Pablo Larraín’s new film “El Conde”, which was released on Netflix in last week not long after it was shown at the Venice International Film Festival, is a horror black comedy which depicts a notorious real-life Chilean dictator as a 250-year-old vampire. This sounds like a mere one-joke premise on the surface, but the movie is willing to go for more gore and grotesqueness for its dark laugh and ridicule, and you will be often amused by how it makes acerbic points on evil and fascism under its austerely deadpan storytelling approach.

Mainly set in an unspecific remote and isolated rural area, the movie initially establishes how things have been depressing for Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) since he faked his death several years ago. There was a time when he has been quite thirsty for not only blood but also many different revolutions ranging from the French one in the late 18th century to the Russian one in early the 20th century, but, after becoming a powerful dictator in Chile, 1973, he found himself losing the will to live and suck blood more. As a matter of fact, the main reason of faking his death is that he simply wants to die quietly without having to answer for many of those crimes committed under his dictatorship.

As he has stopped ingesting human blood, Pinochet has become much more aged and fragile, but it seems that there is still a desire for blood and life somewhere inside him. At one point early in the film, a figure in full military attire surreptitiously flies to Santiago at one night, and we surely get a series of gruesome moments including the one showing a human heart vigorously ground in a blender (According to the English narrator of the movie, this particular human organ is a delicacy for vampires).

Naturally, the world outside Pinochet’s residence is shaken by this bloody killing, and that prompts his several human children to visit their vampire father, but, not so surprisingly, their father’s welfare is the last thing to concern them. Unabashedly greedy and opportunistic, they all want him to reveal any information involved with the family’s secret fortune gathered during their dictatorship era, but this turns out to be rather difficult due to Pinochet’s equally depraved wife and his longtime right-hand guy, who has incidentally served him for decades since the Russian revolution and surely enjoyed every brutal and sadistic moment of his during Pinochet’s dictatorship period.

Pinochet’s children try a little scheme to persuade their father, and that is why a young nun comes to Pinochet’s residence as a confidential accountant to sort out all those hidden assets of his. Although she is not a certified public accountant, this young nun turns out to be pretty good at what she is supposed to do on the surface, and Larraín and his co-writer Guillermo Calderón, who won the Screenplay award together at the Venice International Film Festival, have a lot of naughty fun as the young nun later corners Pinochet’s children in one way or another during her separate interviews with them.

Willingly quite oblivious to all those evil deeds committed under their father’s dictatorship, these dirty rotten people impertinently justify their ownership of those hidden assets, and so does Pinochet. Probably because of his unspeakable nature, he does not have much problem with being accused of lots of other crimes including torture and murder, but, ironically, he does not want at all to remembered as a scumbag who stole lots of assets from the country.

Meanwhile, the situation surrounding Pinochet becomes more absurd – especially when he somehow regains the lust for life and blood as being seduced by that young nun. Even though she does not hide much what she was ordered by her church from the very beginning, he cannot help but attracted more to her, and his wife, who has remained as a human as he has insisted for many years, is not so amused at all when it looks like her husband is eager to give the young nun the eternity of which she has been denied.

Around that narrative point, the movie springs up more darkness coupled with eerie surrealism, and the following scenes shine with a lot of twisted humor. Cinematographer Edward Lachman, who has been known for his frequent collaborations with Todd Haynes, provides a series of wonderful visual moments full of stark black-and-white beauty, and I particularly enjoyed when the young nun comes to experience a sort of liberating unholiness at one point later in the story. By the way, if you think the mostly offscreen narrator of the movie sounds rather familiar, you will not be surprised much when this figure in question finally makes an appearance in the last act, and this figure surely adds extra black humor to what has been so humorously built up along the story.

Although he drew my attention a lot with his compelling Oscar-nominated film “No” (2012), I found many of Larraín’s following works rather cold and distant despite also being compelling enough for recommendation in each own way. “El Conde”, which incidentally means “The Count” in Spanish, is no exception with its dryly cerebral handling of mood, story, and character, but it ultimately works well a sharply droll mix of horror and black comedy on the whole, and I found myself amused more than expected when I watched it at last night. In my humble opinion, this is one of Larraín’s more interesting works, and I wholeheartedly recommend you to give it a chance someday.

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Love at First Sight (2023) ☆☆(2/4): Statistically boring

Posted on September 18, 2023 by kaist455

Netflix film “Love at First Sight”, which was released a few days ago, is a joyless experience which made my certain several flight experiences relatively less boring in comparison. Yes, it was sometimes hard for me to endure for more than 10 hours inside an airplane, but I would rather go through that experience again in exchange for not subjecting myself ever again to the 90-minute boredom of this utterly bland Netflix product.

For not boring any seasoned moviegoer like me at any chance, I will simply focus on many annoying genre clichés and conventions instead of merely describing the story and characters. Like many other countless romantic comedy films out there, the movie begins with the Meet Cute moment, and it surely emphasizes on how much its two main characters are different from each other in many aspects. While Hadley Sullivan (Haley Lu Richardson) is your average plucky American girl, Oliver Jones (Ben Hardy) is your typical reserved British lad, and they happen to encounter each other as they have to wait for the same airplane to London at the JFK international airport of New York City. At first, their encounter seems brief as they are going to sit separately in the airplane, but, what do you know, they soon find themselves sitting right next to each other due to a little problem with Oliver’s seat.

You can easily guess what follows next after this point, and even the movie directly confirms us via its snooty narration, which frequently points out how statistically improbable Hadley and Oliver’s encounter is in many aspects. As a matter of fact, Oliver happens to be a statistical mathematician who has been always concerned about risk probability due to his mother’s illness, but the movie does not make much laugh or amusement from this supposedly interesting character detail.

As Hadley and Oliver interact a bit with each other during the next several hours on the airplane, you might hope for something not so different from Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunset” (1995), but, alas, the screenplay by Katie Lovejoy, which is based on Jennifer E. Smith’s 2011 novel “The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight”, simply meanders while not really knowing what to do with its two main characters except making them saying lots of trite stuffs to each other at times. No matter how much the movie emphasizes that they will eventually fall in love each other, we do not sense any development of romantic chemistry between them, and we are more frustrated to see that there is still one hour to go as the airplane subsequently arrives in London.

After Hadley and Oliver get separated from each other shortly their arrival in London for a rather contrived reason, the movie attempts to develop them more along the story, but both of Hadley and Oliver remain merely plain as before. Hadley has an emotional issue involved with her father’s recent divorce and following second marriage, but this conflict of hers is resolved too conveniently in the end. In case of Oliver, he has been struggling with an important personal matter involved with his dear mother, but the movie does not generate much gravitas while only ending up using this subplot as a sort of comic relief.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Hedley and Oliver come across each other later in the story, but, again, the movie lets us down a lot. Yes, they certainly show more of themselves to each other during their little private moment, but, of course, their supposedly romantic situation is soon ruined by a familiar case of what my late friend/mentor Roger Ebert called “Idiot Plot”. If Hedely and Oliver were as sensible as many of us, they would simply apologize and accept at that point before moving onto the next step of their romance, but, no, the movie still needs more conflict between them, and they conveniently get separated from each other again.

To more of our frustration and disappointment, the movie comes to depend more on plot contrivance during the last act, and this aspect is pretty evident from a curiously ubiquitous figure played by Jameela Jamil, who is also the narrator of the film. Her character often pops out here and there whenever Hedley or Oliver needs to be pushed more along the story, and the movie even resorts to making Jamil do some smug self-conscious gestures right in front of our eyes.

More and more dissatisfied with the overall result of the film, we become more conscious of how much its two lead performers struggle with their respective cardboard figures. As shown from “The Edge of Seventeen” (2016), Haley Lu Richardson can be quite funny and charming, but there is nothing much she can do here, and she and her co-star Ben Hardy simply occupy the screen together without generating any kind of romantic tension between them. As saddened by their futile efforts in the movie, I was reminded of how effortlessly Richardson clicked well with John Cho in Kogonada’s exceptional film “Columbus” (2017), and that certainly made me revisit that little overlooked gem more than before.

In conclusion, “Love at First Sight” is pointless and tedious in addition to not brining anything particularly new to its familiar genre territory, and I also did not like how it thoroughly wastes not only its two lead performers but also several substantial other main cast members including Rob Delaney, Dexter Fletcher, and Sally Phillips, who manage to acquit themselves fairly well despite their thankless supporting parts. In short, this is one of the more forgettable products from Netflix during recent years, and you will not miss anything especially if you have been tired of the growing homogeneity of romantic comedy films in these days.

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The turtles are back

Posted on September 18, 2023 by kaist455

Animation film “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is probably the best theatrical movie version from the comic series created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman. Considering how all those previous feature films were forgettable or dreadful, that is not much of an achievement in my inconsequential opinion, but the movie is mildly entertaining at least, while also occasionally taking me back to my old memories associated with the franchise.

The best thing about the film is how it distinguishes itself to considerable degrees via the stylish freedom via its deliberately rough but undeniably striking animation style. Mainly thanks to this visual setting of the film, our mutant turtle characters look far less grotesque compared to the hideous live-action CG figure versions in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (2014) and the following 2016 film (I do not know why their ungainly appearances are still associated with the current Boston Globe critic Odie Henderson in my mind, by the way), and they and many other characters in the story are depicted with much more spirit and style than before.

The story, written by director/co-producer/co-writer Jeff Rowe and his several co-writers including Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, is your average superhero original tale. A certain mysterious radioactive material developed by a mad scientist voiced by Giancarlo Esposito is leaked into the sewer system of the New York City, and four little turtles and a rat are turned into humanoids after getting exposed to this radioactive material by accident. Under the wise guidance of the rat, named Splinter (voiced by Jackie Chan), these four turtles, Leonardo (voiced by Nicholas Cantu), Raphael (voiced by Barry Noon), Michelangelo (voiced by Shamon Brown Jr.), and Donatello (voiced by Micah Abbey), become plucky adolescent ninja warriors eager to experience the world outside, but that is the last thing Splinter wants for understandable reasons.

Having been rather bored with their routine night missions mainly involved with getting groceries (After all, they all get to eat, don’t they?), the turtles is quite excited when they happen to across a chance to be recognized as heroes. While they are having a little time for fun outside, they see an aspiring high school student named April O’Neil (voiced by Ayo Edebiri) having a trouble with some street criminals, and that is how they come to demonstrate their particular set of skills much more than before, though they are rather clumsy during the first combat in their life.

Anyway, this incident leads the turtles and April to a secret plan of a mysterious criminal mastermind named Superfly (voiced by Ice Cube), and April cannot help but thrilled about this as a girl still aspiring to be recognized as a journalist despite a very humiliating public incident caused by the anxiety problem she still has to overcome even at present. Despite the difference between her and the turtles, it does not take much time for her to befriend them, and Leonard comes to have a little crush on her to his colleagues’ amusement (Don’t ask me about how that is possible despite their apparent species difference).

During the rest of the story, the film relentlessly throws lots of gags and actions into the plot. Around the narrative point where the turtles finally confront that mysterious criminal mastermind, the film introduces more mutant humanoid characters, and it surely has some fun with juggling these many various figures, though the result feels rather superficial as these figures remain no more than mere plot elements even during the last act. While things get a bit more interesting as the turtles become conflicted a bit on matters of acceptance and freedom, but that is quickly discarded in the end as the film goes for more action instead of more depth.

The climactic action sequence of the film is mostly exciting while making some reference on those Godzilla flicks, and it is also more effective than many of recent passable Hollywood blockbuster products such as “Fast X” (2023), but the film still trudges due to its weak story and thin characterization. Although they are respectively imbued with some broad personal quality, our turtle characters do not have much personality beyond that, and they are marginally distinguishable from each other mainly due to the different colors of their headbands. As a result, they are occasionally overshadowed by more colorful characters in the story including April and Splinter, and we can only hope that there will be more character development in the possible sequel to follow.

At least, Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon are believable with the youthful spirit of their voice acting, and a bunch of notable performers ranging from John Cena to Paul Rudd are solid in their respective supporting roles. While Jackie Chan certainly brings a bit of his familiar movie image to his rodent master character, Ayo Edebiri, who has been more notable thanks to her Emmy-nominated supporting turn in TV comedy series “The Beart”, is likable as required, and Ice Cube surely savors every nasty moment of his as the main villain of the story.

On the whole, “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is a bit better than expected, but it also feels like a mediocre warm-up exercise while also being two or three steps below “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (2023), which is incidentally one of the best animation films of this year. I was not bored, but the film could do better, and I sincerely hope that the turtles will impress and engage me more in next time.

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Afire (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Four young people in hot summer days

Posted on September 17, 2023 by kaist455

Christian Petzold’s new film “Afire” surprises me for being more humorous and playful compared to some of his more serious films such as “Phoenix” (2014) or “Undine” (2020). Mainly revolving around four different young people who happen to get involved with each other in one way or another during hot summer days, the movie subtly but palpably illustrates the complex emotional undercurrents among them, and then it becomes more poignant than expected after it literally sets the finale on fire.

The movie opens with the arrival of two lads who come to a rural seaside area for spending several summer days at a holiday home in the middle of the local forest. Leon (Thomas Schubert), who is a young promising writer, simply wants to have a quiet time for working more on his second book before his publisher comes, but his friend Felix (Langston Uibel), who is an art school student currently preparing an important photography portfolio of his, is ready to have some fun while also searching for any suitable theme for his portfolio, and this difference between them is more evident when they come across a little unexpected problem shortly their arrival in the holiday house. Somebody is already occupying the holiday house due to a little mistake of Felix’s mother, and Leon is quite annoyed as he and Felix have no choice but to be stuck with this stranger there during next several days.

This stranger in question is a young woman named Nadja (Paula Beer). At first, she is just a distant stranger occupying the room right next to the one occupied by Leon and Felix, but it does not take much time for Leon to become curious about this young lady – especially as he seems to be going nowhere in improving the draft of the second book. He keeps saying he has to work, but he only finds himself procrastinating in one way or another, and there is even an amusing moment which may take you back to a certain similar scene in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” (1980).

In contrast, Felix actually becomes more inspired and productive as enjoying the summer days as much as possible unlike Leon. At one point, he happens to notice a young lifeguard on the nearby beach, and this leads him to a wonderful artistic idea for his portfolio. Incidentally, this lifeguard, Devid (Enno Trebs), has occasionally visited the holiday house for having sex with Nadja, so Najda willingly invites him to a dinner later, and then we observe how sexually fluid this handsome dude is. After holding everyone else’s attention with his little amusing fictional tale, he makes a little surprise move, and Najda is not bothered by that at all because, well, she and Devid’s relationship has been pretty casual with no string attached from the beginning.

Even though the others around him are simply enjoying themselves, Leon still cannot help but become sullen and petty due to his accumulating artistic frustration, and he remains quite self-absorbed even as the surrounding area is being threatened by a forest fire started from a nearby region. Although it looks like they and others in the area will be safe, the forest fire gradually becomes an ominous fact hovering over them – especially when they watch the forest fire approaching from the distance during one evening.

Once everything in the story is set for the next act, Petzold’s screenplay goes for the jugular. While getting to know more about Nadja, Leon finds himself more attracted to her, and he even lets her read what he has been trying to improve, but, of course, her following response is not exactly what he hopes for. As a matter of fact, she turns out to be much more sophisticated than he thought at first, and there is even a sublime moment when she recites a work of one famous German poet in front of others including Leon’s publisher, who, to more of Leon’s frustration, seems to be more impressed by her than Leon’s second book.

Around that narrative point, you may have some good idea on the eventual arrival point of Leon’s pathetic artistic struggle, but then the movie springs up more honesty and sincerity as abruptly taking an unexpected plot turn later in the story. I will not go into details on that here, but I can tell you instead that what follows next almost perfectly fits with what has been gradually developed along the plot, and the movie eventually comes to us as a humorous but thoughtful exploration on life and writing.

Petzold also draws stellar performances from his several main cast members. As providing some gravitas to his writer character’s inner conflict and frustration, Thomas Schubert ably handles a number of humorous scenes driven by Leon’s silly pettiness, and he and Paul Beer, who previously collaborated with Petzold in “Undine”, have a tentative chemistry between them during their several key scenes in the film. While Langston Uibel and Enno Trebs have each own moments to shine as the two other substantial characters in the story, Matthias Brandt steals the show as Leon’s no-nonsense publisher, and he is simply terrific when his character dryly but emphatically peruses Leon’s latest creation around the end of the story.

Overall, “Afire”, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize when it was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival early in this year (It was also recently selected as Germany’s submission to Best International Film Oscar, by the way), is alternatively funny and touching in its dexterous mix of comedy and drama, and Petzold surely has a breezy fun to share with us. In short, this is one of the more enjoyable arthouse films of this year, and you should check it out as soon as possible especially if you have admired many of Petzold’s works like I have.

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A Million Miles Away (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A migrant farmworker who became a NASA astronaut

Posted on September 16, 2023 by kaist455

“A Million Miles Away”, which was released on Amazon Prime in this week, is a rather tame presentation of one inspiring real-life story which deserves better in my inconsequential opinion. While the story itself is fascinating enough to hold my attention for a while, the movie also often feels flat and bland in terms of storytelling and characterization, and that is a shame considering all the good efforts behind the screen.

The movie is about the dramatic life journey of José Hernández (Michael Peña), who was a child of poor Mexican immigrant family in the late 1960s. Around the time when his family settled in California instead of going back to Mexico, young Hernández came to aspire to become a NASA astronaut someday after watching the launch of Apollo 11 on TV, and he is all the more motivated as he graduates from a local college and then begins to work as an engineer at a government facility in the 1980s.

Of course, things are often hard and difficult for Hernández mainly because of his racial background. Right from his first day, he is ignored a lot by the supervisor and other engineers, and he is even mistaken for a janitor at one point. Nonetheless, he keeps going as usual while still reaching for his longtime goal, though his application letter for the NASA astronaut training program keeps getting rejected everytime.

Meanwhile, his life comes to have a little unexpected change via Adela (Rosa Salazar), a young Mexican American woman he happens to encounter at her current workplace. When Hernández shyly asks for a date, Adela accepts his request without much hesitation, though their first date turns out to be very awkward for him due to her parents and several other family members who are quite protective of her.

Around the time when Adela eventually becomes Mrs. Hernández, Hernández comes to draw some attention from his supervisor after showing his considerable skill and talent at last. He comes to receive some respect and recognition in addition to getting promotion, but he still wants to reach for the space as before, and that creates some tension in his relationship with his wife, who also has her own dream to pursue even while raising their kids in his frequent absence.

However, Adela also advises to her husband that he should try much harder for increasing the chance for realizing his lifelong dream, and what follows next is a typical montage sequence showing how Hernández does much more than merely keeping trying during next several years. Besides sending the application letter to NASA every year, he studies and trains himself a lot on many different things ranging from several foreign languages to aviation and scuba diving, and that makes him more determined and confident than before.

Hernández eventually succeeds in his 12th attempt, but, not so surprisingly, he soon comes to face a number of daunting obstacles as warned to him and many other selected trainees on the first day of their astronaut training program. Naturally, he comes to have doubts on whether he can really make it to the end, and he also conflicts with his wife at times as his mind is often busy with the ongoing training program.

Unfortunately, the screenplay by Bettina Gilois, Hernán Jiménez, and Alejandra Márquez Abella, which is based on Hernández’s memoir “Reaching for the Stars: The Inspiring Story of a Migrant Farmworker Turned Astronaut”, simply trudges from one small conflict after another without much dramatic effect. In case of a little human moment between Hernández and one colored female astronaut who was one of the ill-fated crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, it generates some poignancy as the two characters have a sincere and honest conversation between them, but the movie just quickly passes through the following tragedy before moving onto when Hernández finally gets an opportunity to go to the space several years later.

Around the point where the movie expectedly reaches to its feel-good finale, we are touched to some degree as reflecting more on Hernández’s humble beginning, but we still do not get to know him much as a human being because the movie only focuses on his decency and determination without paying much attention to anything else. Michael Peña, who has shown considerable versatility since his small breakout supporting turn in Oscar-winning film “Crash” (2004), gives an earnest performance as diligently carrying the film as required, but his solid efforts do not wholly compensate for his blandly wholesome character, and you may also be distracted by the notable age difference between him and his character early in the story. On the opposite, Rosa Salazar manages to surpass her rather functional supporting role, and several other main cast members including Garret Dillahunt and Julio Cesar Cedillo also leave some impression besides filling their spots as demanded.

In conclusion, “A Million Miles Away”, directed by Alejandra Márquez Abella, is a mildly watchable biography drama film which could be more compelling considering the undeniably inspiring human figure at its center. It is surely well-intentioned to say the least, but it is evidently deficient in terms of substance and personality, and it is already fading away as my mind is occupied more with whatever I am going to watch next.

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Sitting in Bars with Cake (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A bit too bitter under its sweet surface

Posted on September 16, 2023 by kaist455

“Sitting in Bars with Cake”, which is currently available on Amazon Prime, leaves a rather uneven taste on me. While it attempts a sincere mix of comedy and drama, its titular subject is often curiously put aside as the movie comes to pay more attention to a serious situation surrounding its two main characters, and you may be disappointed if you expect to see lots of cake and some romance to come along with them.

The movie, which is loosely based on the nonfiction book “Sitting in Bars with Cake: Lessons and Recipes from One Year of Trying to Bake My Way to a Boyfriend” by Audrey Schulman (She also did the adaptation, by the way), mainly revolves around the friendship between two young women living in LA: Jane (Yara Shahidi) and Corine (Odessa A’zion). While Corine works as an assistant under the owner of one prominent Hollywood agency company, Jane has worked in its mailroom for a while, and she has also been preparing to go to any nice law school in California as expected by her successful lawyer parents.

However, Jane usually finds herself being more interested in making cakes during her spare time, and she certainly makes a nice cake for Corine’s birthday party. After her cake happens to draw the attention of several guys at a bar where Corine’s birthday party is being held, Corine suggests a little nice idea for Jane. Considering that Jane has not had much luck in attracting any guy at bars, her cakes may help increasing her opportunity in romance, and Jane reluctantly agrees to her friend’s suggestion even though she is not so sure about this rather unconventional strategy.

First, she and Corine make a little plan on a number of selected bars in the city, and that is followed by a series of amusing moments as Jane is surprised to find their plan works better than expected. While there are some rude men who send the photographs of their genitals after their encounter with Jane via her cakes, Jane is delighted to see how her cakes attract a lot more men to her than before, and she and Corine also have lots of fun along with their several close friends as dropping by one different bar after another. Some of these places are quite colorful to say the least, and there is a little naughty moment involved with a bar decorated with some sexual elements.

Meanwhile, Corine is excited when she is promoted to become a new junior agent, but, alas, there comes the bad news on one day. It turns out that she has a certain kind of brain tumor which cannot be surgically removed, and this medical problem seriously affects her life as well as her career. While she immediately gets a treatment recommended by her doctor, there is not much hope in her case, and things only get worse as she is subsequently notified that her illness advances to the terminal stage.

As her best female friend who has known her for a long time since their childhood years in Phoenix, Arizona, Jane naturally stands by Corine as much as possible, and so do Corine’s parents, who immediately fly from Phoenix after hearing about their dear daughter’s illness. In contrast to Corine’s vivacious personality, Corine’s parents are dry and plain to our little amusement, and their considerable personality difference often functions as a little source of humor along the story.

Not so surprisingly, Shulman’s screenplay leans more to the clichés of many similar films involved with female bond and terminal illness, and that is where the movie becomes less engaging than before. While Corine’s terminal illness is surely a crucial part which prompts Jane to reflect more on what she really wants to do for her life, this part also inevitably eclipses the titular subject of the movie, and those lovely cakes of Jane consequently become less prominent in the end. In case of the subplot involved with a male intern who has attracted Jane’s attention, that feels redundant at best and artificial at worst, and the same thing can be said about a supporting character played by Bette Midler, though her appearance here in the film may take you back to “Beaches” (1988), a well-known melodrama film about two best female friends.

I still wish the movie delved more into how Jane makes her cakes, but I also appreciate the considerable chemistry between its two good lead actresses, who may move onto better things to come in the future. Yara Shahidi brings unadorned natural charm to her character, and she and her co-star Odessa A’zion are effortless in several key scenes between their characters. Even though Jane and Corine do not talk that much about their long past, we can instantly sense that as observing the casual intimacy between them, and that is the main reason why several sappy melodramatic moments later in the story work despite their conventional aspects. In case of several supporting characters surrounding them, Ron Livingston and Maia Mitchell have their own little moments at time, and Aaron Domínguez and Rish Shah acquit themselves well despite their thankless roles.

Overall, “Sitting in Bars with Cake”, directed by Trish Sie, is often entertaining mainly thanks to the likable performances from Shahidi and A’zion, but you may be frequently dissatisfied with its uneven storytelling like I was during my viewing. Yes, it could be more interesting in my humble opinion, but I will not stop you from watching this passable product if you just want to kill your spare time.

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