Castle in the Sky (1986) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The first official Ghibli work from Miyazaki

Posted on January 28, 2026 by kaist455

Hayao Miyazaki’s 1986 animation feature film “Castle in the Sky”, which was re-released in South Korean theaters in last week, still soars high even after 40 years. When I walked into the screening room on last evening, I did not expect much because I already saw it in 2010, and I was actually rather tired at that time, but my mind soon became quite energized as appreciating its vivid animation style full of charm, spirit, and imagination.

The film is actually the first official animation film from Studio Ghibli, which was founded by Miyazaki and producer Isao Takahata, who also would be known for his several notable Ghibli animation films such as “Grave of the Fireflies” (1988), not long after the considerable commercial success of Miyazaki’s previous animation film “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” (1984). As a matter of fact, you can recognize a lot of common elements shared between “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” and “Castle in the Sky” such as aviation, retro-futuristic style, and ecological philosophy, and you can also see how Miyazaki advanced further with his own style in “Castle in the Sky”.

The film, which is mainly set in what can be regarded as a fantasy version of European country around the early 20th century, opens with a thrilling action scene in which a little orphan girl named Shita (voiced by Keiko Yokozawa) escapes from shady government agents when their airship is suddenly attacked by the pirates led by an old lady named Dola (voiced by Kotoe Hatsui). Thanks to a mysterious stone in her possession, Shita manages to survive even though she falls from the sky, but she becomes unconscious, and then her unconscious body happens to fall right in front of Pazu (voiced by Mayumi Tanaka), a young orphan boy working in a shabby mining village.

Not long after Pazu takes her to his little residence, Shita regains her consciousness, and they instantly befriend each other as two orphan kids, but, of course, the situation soon becomes quite perilous for both of them. Not only those government agents but also the pirates are already searching for Shita, and Pazu, who comes to like her a lot, willingly tries to protect her from anyone trying to take her away. What follows next is the action sequence which is as exciting as that memorable chase sequence in Miyazaki’s first feature film “The Castle of Cagliostro” (1979), and you will also get some good laughs from how this sequence can be as funny and daring as those Buster Keaton films. At one point, our two orphan kids hurriedly try to get away from their two opponents via a little steam locomotive along a very tricky railway, and we come to brace ourselves more as Miyazaki gleefully adds more wit and action into this impressive action sequence.

Meanwhile, we come to know more about why the government agents keep pursuing after Shita. She turns out to be the last member of a kingdom named Laputa, which was once quite powerful for its highly advanced technology but now seems to be lost forever along with its floating castle (Yes, this will definitely remind you of that famous classic novel by Jonathan Swift). That mysterious stone of hers can actually show where Luputa is, and the government agents are very interested in getting something quite valuable in Laputa.

Because his father told him about his accidental encounter with Laputa, Pazu gets himself more involved into Shita’s ongoing circumstance, even after Shita tries to distance herself from him for protecting him from any danger. Fortunately, he and Shita subsequently get unexpected help from Dora and her merry band of pirates most of whom are actually her sons, and they all certainly encounter a lot of danger and adventure along the story.

The last act of the story eventually culminates to the point where its main characters finally arrive in Laputa, but the film takes its time as letting us behold a heap of enchanting details observed here and there from the screen. While still fully functional due to its advanced technology, the floating castle of Laputa is also covered with a lot of greenery and flower, and there is also a big robot reminiscent of not only that giant robot in “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” but also the robot characters in Brad Bird’s “The Iron Giant” (1999) and Chris Sanders’ “The Wild Robot” (2024).

Of course, when it shifts itself onto action mode during its expected climactic part, the film does not disappoint us at all as deftly balancing itself between humor and thrill. While Dora and her pirates provide some comic relief, Pazu comes to take a lot more risk than expected for saving his dear friend, and you will be alternatively amused and thrilled by how he goes through a series of very risky actions which may even impress Tom Cruise. In addition, there is some real precious poignancy from when Pazu and Shita stick together as making a big decision for not only themselves but also many others out there, and the ecological message of the film surely feels all the more relevant, considering how many of us have let ourselves detached from the world and the nature due to the rapidly advancing technology during last several decades.

On the whole, “Castle in the Sky” remains quite charming and entertaining thanks to Miyazaki’s skillful handling of style and substance. While it does not reach to the greatness of his next work “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988), the film is still a quintessential work from Miyazaki nonetheless, and that is more than enough for recommendation in in my inconsequential opinion.

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Videodrome (1983) ☆☆☆(3/4): A grotesquely prophetic nightmare from Cronenberg

Posted on January 27, 2026 by kaist455

David Cronenberg’s 1983 film “Videodrome” is a grotesquely prophetic nightmare I still observe from the distance. There are a number of striking visual moments which have lingered on somewhere in my mind for more than 30 years, and they chillingly serve and amplify the interesting ideas and themes in the movie which become all the more relevant in our ongoing era of digital media. That is the main reason why I find the movie more fascinating than before, even while recognizing its several limits and flaws again.

At the beginning, we are introduced to Max Renn (James Woods), who runs a small UHF (Ultra-high Frequency) television station in Toronto, Canada. His company has mainly broadcast sleazy and sensational stuffs like Japanese softcore flicks, and he has always looked for anything more shocking just for drawing more viewers out there.

On one day, Max comes across something unusual via one of his main employees, who can search and then record anything via his pirate satellite dish. It is called “Videodrome”, and Max instantly gets intrigued because its raw presentation of sex and violence looks so real to him. When it later turns out that Videodrome has been produced somewhere in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he becomes more interested in obtaining and then broadcasting it someday.

Needless to say, he is soon warned about how dangerous Videodrome is. Max’s frequent supplier Masha (Lynn Gorman) is reluctant to tell much about it after doing her own search, but she eventually suggests that he should go to Dr. Brian O’Blivion (Jack Creley), who has been known as a “media prophet” in public. Although he cannot meet Dr. O’Blivion for some reason, Max meets his daughter Bianca (Sonja Smits) instead, and she gives something supposed to help him learn more about Videodrome.

Around that point, the story becomes more confusing due to its hero’s gradually unreliable viewpoint, which is emphasized by a series of weird and grotesque moments including that unforgettable scene where he puts his head into the bulging television screen. The more he searches for the answer on who is really behind Videodrome, the more confused he becomes with the increasing sense of paranoia and doom. As a consequence, it is apparent that there is the only way out for him at the end of this nightmarish plight of his, though we are not so sure about whether that is really chosen by his free will or not.

However, I still feel quite distant to the story and characters. The story sometimes feels like a mere ground for its many unpleasant and freakish moments, and I also find that it does not have much depth in terms of characterization. James Woods and several other main cast members including Debbie Harry, Sonja Smits, Peter Dvorsky, Leslie Carlson, Jack Creley, and Lynne Gorman play their materials as serious and straight as possible, but I must point out that they are often limited by their superficial roles and clumsy dialogues full of mumbo-jumbo about Videodrome and the upcoming brave new world it represents.

Did Cronenberg have a clear vision on what he was going to present on the screen? I am not that sure, but the ideas and themes in his movie feel much more alarming and interesting than before. Like Sidney Lumet’s great media satire “Network” (1976), the movie shrewdly recognizes not only our insatiable thirst for shock and sensationalism but also how media can manipulate and then engulf us as providing whatever we want. As a matter of fact, we have seen such cases too often during last two decades thanks to the rapid rise of social media service, and the movie becomes a bit more ironic as Woods, who was supposed to be one of the most intelligent actors working in Hollywood, became one of those pathetic cases as spending too much time on a certain social media application and then being transformed into your average hateful right-wing weirdo.

In case of technical aspects, the movie is impressive for the special effects by Rick Baker, who was already at the top of his field after winning his first Oscar for John Landis’ “An American Werewolf in London” (1981). Needless to say, many of the special effects in the film are not CGI at all, and their deliberately fleshy texture certainly generates more sticky and unpleasant feelings to the film just like Rob Bottin’s equally memorable special effects in John Carpenter’s “The Thing” (1982). Besides that bulging TV screen, you will never forget that grotesque cleavage suddenly appearing on Max’s belly, and you may be a bit amused by when Baker and Cronenberg seem to attempt to surpass Bottin and Carpenter’s achievement around the end of the movie.

In conclusion, “Videodrome” is everything to be recognized as a distinctive Cronenberg film, but I regard is as one of his early test runs just like “The Brood” (1979) and “Scanners” (1981), which are also interesting in each own way but not very successful in my trivial opinion. Not long after “Videodrome” came out, Cronenberg returned with “The Dead Zone” (1983), and that is more engaging besides being another stepping stone for his fascinating filmmaking career, which subsequently gave us “The Fly” (1986), “Dead Ringers” (1988), “Naked Lunch” (1991), “Crash” (1996), “A History of Violence” (2005), “Eastern Promises” (2007), “A Dangerous Method” (2011), and “Crimes of the Future” (2022). As shown from his latest work “The Shroud” (2025), he is still working as usual, and I sincerely hope that he will continue to disturb and fascinate us at least for a while.

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The Secret Agent (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A look into that dangerous period in Brazil

Posted on January 26, 2026 by kaist455

 Kleber Mendonça Filho’s latest film “The Secret Agent”, which won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Films Festival early in last year and then garnered 4 Oscar nominations including the ones for Best Picture and Best International Film, is another ambitious work from its director. While it initially seems to be a bit too sprawling, the movie gradually immerses us into that dangerous period surrounding its hero and a bunch of other characters in the story, and that is something you will not easily forget after it is over.

The opening scene succinctly establishes the overall tone of the story, which is mainly set in early 1977, when the Brazilian society was being oppressed by the military dictatorship. The mood is initially cheerful with some radio music on the soundtrack, but then we get disturbed by what is shown next on the screen. A little yellow Volkswagen arrives in a gas station located at some remote rural spot, but the owner of the gas station does not care much about what has been right in front of his gas station, and neither are the two highway police officers who subsequently arrive there. As a matter of fact, the officers are more occupied with how to get any kind of bribe from the driver of Volkswagen, who is not so pleased but tries to be tactful with them as much as possible.

This driver in question presents himself as Marcelo Alves (Wagner Moura) when he arrives in Recife and then goes to where he is going to stay. He is wholeheartedly welcomed by the old landlady of his staying place, and he is also introduced to a number of various people staying there under his landlady’s protection. 

Now you sense something fishy about Marcelo and his current situation, and the movie slowly reveals who he is and why he comes to Recife along the story. He subsequently gets hired at a local identification card office, whose archival room is full of countless identification cards. He is particularly interested in finding the identification card of a certain female figure, and the supervisor of the identification card office is willing to help him as one of a few persons who knows who he actually is.

And it also turns out that Marcelo has a young son, who has been taken care of by his parents-in-law in Recife shortly after his wife’s death. When he visits his parents-in-law at one point early in the story, it is apparent that he really cares about his son’s welfare, but he must be careful about his ongoing circumstance, which turns out to be riskier than it seemed at first. Someone rich and influential is very angry at him, and this figure in question already hired two guys willing to eliminate Marcelo.

Even at this narrative point, the screenplay by Mendonça Filho takes its time for building up the story and its hero with more detail and mood. Thanks to cinematographer Evgenia Alexandrova, everything looks plain and fine under bright sunlight on the surface, but we also often observe the sleazy and dangerous sides of dictatorship and corruption mainly via a trio of local dirty cops. Ironically, these dudes show Marcelo a bit of hospitality, and that certainly makes him all the more nervous behind his back.

The movie also tries a gruesome but amusingly offbeat subplot which is clearly inspired by a certain brief but horrific moment in Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” (1975), which Marcelo’s young son is obsessed with even though he has not watched it yet. You will be tickled by how this subplot culminates to an unexpectedly surreal moment later in the story, and you may be also often delighted by the occasional small references on several recognizable movies such as Richard Donner’s classic horror film “The Omen” (1976).

On the top of all and many other things in the story, the movie adds an extra perspective from our contemporary period. This feels rather redundant at first, but it slowly sets the ground for the eventual finale, which may surprise you for being deliberately anti-climactic but will linger on your mind for a while as reminding more of how many people like its hero struggled during that dark time in Brazil – and how their gloomy past has been fading away due to that inevitable passage of time.

As the strong human anchor of the movie, Wagner Moura, who deservedly received the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival and then got recently Oscar-nominated for this film, gives a subtly multi-layered performance as steadily carrying the story to the end. At first, we often wonder about his character’s true identity and whatever he is hiding behind his back, but we come to care about Marcelo as the movie reveals more of his past and humanity along the story, and there is a poignant scene where he and his temporary neighbors open themselves a bit to each other while not revealing that much on the surface. Around Moura’s quietly powerful lead performance, Mendonça Filho assembles a bunch of colorfully diverse performers who contribute more personality to the film, and the special mention goes to Carlos Francisco, Tânia Maria, and Udo Kier, who sadly passed away not long after the movie came out.

Overall, “The Secret Agent” is another interesting work from Mendonça Filho, who previously gave us “Aquarius” (2016) and “Bacurau” (2019). I must confess that I underrated “Bacurau” just because I simply thought it could have been wilder and quirkier, but then it somehow grew on me during next several months, and the following second viewing made me realize that I was wrong in my 2.5-star review. Just like “Bacurau”, “The Secret Agent” is an equally rich cinematic experience to be savored and appreciated, and it is certainly another commendable addition to the current Brazilian cinema in my humble opinion.

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Sentimental Value (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Can she work with her filmmaker dad?

Posted on January 25, 2026 by kaist455

Joachim Trier’s new film “Sentimental Value”, which won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film Festival early in last year and then recently received no less than 8 Oscar nominations including the ones for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best International Film, is a somber but deeply sensitive family drama to remember. As freely and leisurely rolling its several main characters, the movie deftly captures and illustrates achingly human moments along the story, and we come to care more about its main characters while gradually getting to know and understand them in one way or another.

The story, which is mostly set in Oslo, Norway, mainly revolves around the troubled personal relationship between an actress named Nora Borg (Renete Reinsve) and her filmmaker father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård). Although he has been a fairly well-respected filmmaker throughout his filmmaking career, Gustav has not been a very good dad to Nora and her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) as shown from the prologue scene of the movie, and Nora is understandably not so pleased when her father comes to her recently deceased mother’s funeral.

Not long after that, Gustav approached to Nora again, and he turns out to have something to offer for her. Although he has not been active for more than 10 years, he is planning to make another movie, and he has already written the screenplay, which turns out to be loosely inspired by his family history. He hopes that the heroine of this screenplay of his, who happens to be based on his mother to some degree, will be played Nora, but Nora flatly refuses to do that even without taking any look into her father’s screenplay.

Nevertheless, Nora is gradually reminded again of how her life cannot be totally separated from her father due to a lot of unresolved emotional issues between them. While her younger sister, who incidentally works as an academic historian although she once acted for one of her father’s notable works many years ago, has calmly accepted how flawed their father has really is, Nora comes to feel more anger and confusion in contrast, and that also begins to affect her life and career, no matter how much she struggles to keep things under control.  

Meanwhile, shortly after he got rejected by Nora, there comes a possible idea for Gustav. At another retrospective event for those old movies of his, he comes across Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), a famous American actress who becomes quite excited to spend some time with him. Although she cannot speak Norwegian at all, Kemp looks like a fairly good alternative to Gustav, who is certainly willing to translate his original screenplay in English for her once she agrees to join his movie project. 

As Kemp and Gustav begin their pre-production process for his movie project, we see more of how personal the movie is to Gustav – and his two daughters. He is going to shoot many of the key scenes of the movie inside their old family house in Oslo, which is currently resided by Agnes and her family but still technically belongs to Gustav. He gladly shows Kemp here and there in the house as a part of her character study, and we get a little amusing moment involved with a certain small room inside the house.

Nora and Agnes do not mind this that much at first, but, what do you know, both of them come to feel more uncomfortable as their father enters their life more and more. While Trier and his co-writer Eskil Vogt’s smart and considerate screenplay seldom underlines anything at all, we come to sense more of the accumulating emotional turmoil surrounding them and their father, and the plot thickens a bit more when Agnes delves into the dark and disturbing past of Gustav’s mother via some old archival documents. She comes to feel more of how her father’s movie project is not going in the right direction at all, and she also has to confront her own old emotional issues with him just like her older sister – especially when he attempts to get herself more involved into his movie project later in the story.

Under Trier’s sensitive and thoughtful direction, the four main cast members of the film give one of the most impressive ensemble performances of last year, and they all richly deserve their respective Oscar nominations. Renate Reinsve, who was absolutely memorable in Trier’s Oscar-nominated film “The Worst Person in the World” (2021), gives another strong performance to admire, and she is especially wonderful when Nora subsequently goes through a sort of healing process via opening herself more to her complex feelings toward his father. On the opposite, Stellan Skarsgård, who has been always reliable in many various films for more than 30 years (I still fondly remember his crucial supporting turn in Gus Van Sant’s Oscar-winning film “Good Will Hunting” (1997), by the way), is fabulous as a flawed old man who knows well that filmmaking is his main way of making genuine human connection with others around him, and his masterful performance is full of small nuances and details to be noticed here and there from the beginning to the end. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas is equally compelling in her low-key acting which comes to function as the solid ground for Reinsve and Skarsgård, and Elle Fanning, who had a really productive time thanks to this film and Dan Trachtenberg’s “Predator: Badlands” (2025), has her own moment to shine as her seemingly superficial character comes to show a lot more care and intelligence than expected.  

On the whole, “Sentimental Value” is another knockout work from Trier. Although his first feature film “Reprise” (2006) did not impress me much, he steadily advanced with a series of stellar works including “Oslo, August 31st” (2011) and “The Worst Person in the World” during last 20 years to the big delight of me and many others, and I am really glad to report to you that he achieves a lot again. This is indeed one of the major highlights of last year, and, considering its little wry wink on Netflix, you should not miss it when you can see it at movie theater.

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The Alabama Solution (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The systemic failures of Alabama prisons

Posted on January 21, 2026 by kaist455

HBO documentary film “The Alabama Solution” is often sobering as presenting the alarming failures of the prison system of the state of Alabama in US. It may not surprise you much if you have ever heard about how problematic the American prison system has been for many years, but the documentary is still captivating on the whole, and we come to care more about the stories of several defiant inmates still struggling under their oppressive system even at this point. 

The documentary begins with when directors/co-writers/producers Andrew Jarecki, who has been mainly known for his Oscar-nominated HBO documentary film “Capturing the Friedmans” (2003), and Charlotte Kaufman came to Easterling Correctional Facility in Alabama in 2019. The purpose of theirs was simply shooting a religious revival meeting among a bunch of inmates in the prison, but then a number of inmates approached them off-camera in the middle of the shooting, and what these inmates told them led them to more investigation during next several years. Via contraband cellular phones, Jareki and Kaufman could subsequently correspond with several prison inmates, who surely had a lot of things to show and tell them.

Among these prison inmates willing to step forward for the human rights of theirs and many other fellow inmates, the documentary comes to pay more attention to two of them: Robert Earl Council and Melvin Ray. Both of them are smart and articulate dudes who have learned and experienced a lot as being stuck in prison for many years, and they are certainly very determined to get the stories of them and their fellow inmates known more in public, though they may never be free for the rest of their life.

As they and some other inmates show and talk about many serious problems of their prison system, the documentary presents more facts on why their system really needs to be changed from the top to the bottom. For example, many of the state prisons in Alabama have dreadfully understaffed while the number of inmates has been way beyond their maximum capacity, and it is often horrifying to see how poor the life conditions inside these state prisons really are. Not so surprisingly, things can often become very stressful for many of those inmates incarcerated there, and violence has naturally become a usual part of their daily prison life, but those authorities in the state department of correction have ignored this and many other problems in their prison system.

In addition, there have also been countless incidents of abuse committed by prison guards and wardens. In case of a lad named Steven Davis, he was beaten by his several prison guards so severely that he was quickly taken to a local hospital, but he died a few days later, and this certainly devastated his family a lot. Still grieving over her son’s unjust death, Davis’s mother tried to find what exactly happened to her son, but the state department of correction was more occupied with covering up everything as much as possible, and that certainly exasperated and frustrated her.

At least, her son’s cellmate could be a possible witness to testify, but Davis’s mother and her lawyer were only reminded again that how things were disadvantageous for their possible lawsuit. While the state of correction kept blocking them from getting more information as before, Davis’s cellmate understandably declined to tell more mainly because he could be released within a few months, though, as he saw almost everything at that time, he promised to see and talk with her once he felt safe enough outside.

 Meanwhile, we also see more of how Council and Ray kept struggling day by day. As a little human rights movement of theirs got known more on the Internet, the systemic failures of the Alabama state prison eventually got a lot more attention than before, but, again, the state government led by Governor Kay Ivey, who is still occupying her position even at this point, was determined to block any reformation or progress. When the federal government attempted to intervene, Ivey, who is your average conservative Southern politician, insisted that it was just a state problem to be handled and then solved by her state government itself, but, of course, her state government only came to start building three bigger prisons to replace the old ones.

And we see more of what has motivated Governor Ivey and many other powerful political figures in Alabama: money and profit. As already shown from Ava Duvernay’s Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary “13th” (2016), the American prison system has virtually a modern slavery exploiting the labor force of millions of inmates for almost free, and the prison system of Alabama is no exception at all. Council and Ray eventually organized a massive statewide strike along with many inmates of the state prisons, and that surely caused a headache for the state government as well as its department of correction, though they were soon cruelly and systemically punished for their brave act of defiance.    

In conclusion, “The Alabama Solution”, which was recently included in the shortlist for Best Documentary Oscar, handles its main subject with enough care and thoughtfulness. Vividly presenting the long history of human damage and devastation caused by a very flawed system, the documentary will leave you a lot of things to muse on after you watch it, and it is definitely one of the better documentaries of last year in my trivial opinion.

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2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): In the middle of a battle over one Ukrainian village

Posted on January 20, 2026 by kaist455

Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov’ latest documentary film “2000 Meters to Andriivka”, which won the Directing Award when it was premiered at the World Cinema Documentary section of the Sundance Film Festival early in last year, is a pretty grim experience to say the least. Closely following a battle over one Ukrainian village in 2023, the documentary gives us a vivid and close look into the horror and devastation of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, and it feels all the more depressing considering how things are still getting worse in Ukraine even at this point.

The documentary mainly consists of not only what Chernov and his fellow journalist Alex Babenko recorded with their camera but also a bunch of body-cam footage clips recorded by a number of Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield near a village named Andriivka during that time. Thanks to the latter, we are thrown into one perilous situation right from the beginning of the documentary, and this effectively sets the overall tone of the documentary before it begins its main narrative.

As reflected by the very title of the documentary, the Ukrainian army was fairly close to liberating Andriivka during that time, but, as Chernov’s phlegmatic narration explains to us, the Russian army was surely ready to stop its opponent by any means necessary. There was only one possible route which was a very narrow forest area surrounded by minefields and trenches, and those Ukrainian soldiers had to advance bit by bit along this route even though they could be heavily attacked at any point.

Considering how much it has been devastated by the ongoing battle, liberating Andriivka seemed rather meaningless, but most of those Ukrainian soldiers accompanied by Chernov were willing to fight more for their country nonetheless. From time to time, Chernov talked a bit with some of them, and their impromptu interview scenes feel poignant when Chernov tells us how many of them died in one way or another. We are amused a bit when one young solider and Chernov come to find some common area between them, but then we come to learn that this young soldier was unfortunately killed on another battlefield several months later.

As the Ukrainian soldiers continued to get closer to Andriivka, the opposing Russian soldiers attacked them more, and the documentary gives us several strikingly intense moments to remember. I must point out that those body-cam footage clips often look like the live-action version of video game demonstration, but this impression quickly goes away as we become more aware of the imminent peril faced by those Ukrainian soldiers. No matter how quickly they think and act, they can get themselves killed at any point, and their increasingly grim circumstance comes to overwhelm us more than expected.

The documentary occasionally provides bits of background information, and we get more understanding of how despairing things are really in many aspects. While the Ukrainian army was confident in its ongoing counterattack operation against its enemies, but the Russian army remained as a formidable opponent despite many setbacks in their invasion plan, and the battle over Andriivka eventually became stuck in stalemate even though the Ukrainian army managed to advance toward the village bit by bit.

Needless to say, the documentary does not overlook the human toils behind this battle. At one point later in the documentary, a soldier becomes seriously shell-shocked after another dangerous moment on the battlefield, and it is harrowing to observe how his face looks hard and numb even while a lot of things are happening around him. As following the funeral of one particular soldier who was once a truck driver before the war was begun, the documentary shows how many people in his village including his mother grieved over his death, and there is a somber but powerful moment when the camera simply looks over a cemetery filled with a lot of newly added graves.

Around the point where the battle over Andriivka finally came to end, there came some relief as expected, but Chernov expresses weary skepticism in his narration. As many of us know too well, there is still no end in sight for the Russo-Ukrainian war, and now it is the matter of which one will endure longer in the end. It goes without saying that Russia will stagnate Ukraine by any means necessary, and that will certainly corner Ukraine more than before.

On the whole, “2000 Meters to Andriivka”, which was selected as the Ukrainian submission to Best International Film Oscar (It was also included in the shortlist for Best Documentary Oscar, by the way) is another solid work from Chernov, who won an Oscar for his previous documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” (2023). Although it is relatively less engaging compared to “20 Days in Mariupol” because of the rather distant attitude, it is still worthwhile to watch as another important documentary to be added the growing list of the Russo-Ukrainian war documentaries, and I appreciate its visceral qualities while admiring Chernov and his crew’s dedicated efforts. As far as I can see from his two documentaries, he is quite determined to follow and then record the war to the end, and I can only hope that his possible next Russo-Ukrainian war documentary will be a bit less grim at least.

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Cover-up (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A journalist still fighting for truth and transparency

Posted on January 19, 2026 by kaist455

Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ Netflix documentary film “Cover-up”, which was released around the end of the last year, gives an overview on the career of Seymore Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning American investigative journalist who deserves to be known more in my humble opinion. As following his several big scoops in the past, the documentary presents well his long and tenacious fight for truth and transparency, and that is why it is touching to see how he keeps going as before even at present.  

The early part of the documentary mainly revolves around an infamous incident in Vietnam which was a big breakthrough in Hersh’s career. In the late 1960s, Hersh was just a plain journalist who got tired of how he and his fellow journalists simply wrote down whatever the US government told them, but then he came across an opportunity for big scoop not long after he became an independent journalist. He happened to learn a bit about a massive civilian massacre which occurred in some rural region of Vietnam, and he became all the motivated as investigating more on how the US government had been trying to cover up this horrible incident which would eventually be known as My Lai Massacre. 

It goes without saying that his eventual article on My Lai Massare was disregarded by many major newspapers in US, but, once it got printed on Chicago Sun-Times in 1969, all the American newspapers became quite interested in this incident. Needless to say, Hersh virtually became a persona non grata to the US government. Although he later got hired in New York Times as he accordingly became more prominent, the US government kept watching for him – especially when he reported on a covert CIA operation against the left-wing student organizations in US. 

In case of the Watergate scandal, Hersh actually could have delved more into it from the very beginning, but New York Times was not so willing to allow that just for not ruining its good relationship with the US government, and, as many of you know, the ball was eventually handled to that famous duo of the Washington Post. Nevertheless, once the Washington Post reported more and more on the Watergate scandal, Hersh indirectly supported his competitors at the Washington Post via a series of crucial articles on that scandal, which ultimately led to more public interest in that scandal and then the eventual political downfall of President Richard Nixon.  

During next several decades, Hersh kept working steadily. After getting more disillusioned about how New York Times has been willing to bend itself to the US government as well as those wealthy corporations in US, he eventually left and then became an independent journalist again. Nonetheless, many people still approached to him as insiders with important information or secret as usual, and he even published a number of books which certainly did not please many people out there. 

Nevertheless, Hersh has always stuck to his professional integrity for many years without any compromise. Unless his informant is dead for a long time or agrees to come out, he refuses to reveal many of his numerous informants, and that occasionally causes frequent conflicts between him and the directors. As a matter of fact, Poitras actually tried to make a documentary about him around 20 years ago, but he did not accept her proposal at that time, and he agreed to be interviewed only after Poitras decided to make a documentary along with Obenhaus, who had also tried to delve into Hersh’s career for years just like Poitras.

Moreover, Hersh is also rather guarded about his personal life. He is quite willing to tell about his rather unhappy childhood and adolescent period as well as how he got a very fortunate opportunity to become a newspaper reporter in his hometown Chicago, but that is all he can openly talk about in front of the camera. At one point, he talks a bit about how supportive his wife has been to her for many years, but that is all we can learn about his family life here in this documentary.

Nevertheless, we come to admire Hersh more as observing more of his professional diligence. During the 2000s, he drew public attention again for his sobering article on what was committed in the name of War on Terror in Iraq, and that certainly made him less welcomed by the US government than before. At this point, he works on the investigative reporting on the ongoing human tragedy in Palestine, and, not so surprisingly, he tries to cover his sources as much as possible even when he generously lets us get some glimpse on his ongoing journalistic project. Although he is approaching to 90 at present, he remains as active as before, and you will be touched by how much he is still driven by his strong professionalism as before.   

 In conclusion, “Cove-up” is a compelling documentary which presents well its human subject with enough care and interest, and Poitras, who has steadily impressed us with several excellent documentaries including “Citizenfour” (2015) and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” (2022), and Obenhaus surely deserve all the praises they have received during this award seasons. Although the documentary does not point out how much American journalism has hit the bottom more than once during last several years, its engaging presentation of Hersh’s intrepid professionalism during last several decades is more than enough to make many of us reflect more on that serious issue in the American society, and you will surely come to think more about that undeniable value of good journalism in democracy.

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The Straight Story (1999) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Lynch at his most sincerely heartfelt

Posted on January 19, 2026 by kaist455

David Lynch’s 1999 film “The Straight Story”, which happened to be shown in selected South Korean theaters along with his several other works in last week, shows Lynch at his most sincerely heartfelt. While many of his works are filled with dark, strange, and disturbing surrealistic elements, there is also a considerable amount of sincerity which sometimes seems to you as corny and clichéd as a piece of cheery pie and a cup of black coffee as shown from “Blue Velvet” (1986) or his cult TV series “Twin Peak”. With the gently sincere and haunting sensibility of “The Straight Story”, he demonstrates here that there has indeed been heart behind his darkly wild style and imagination from the very beginning of his filmmaking career, and this modest but special film can be regarded as an important artistic breakthrough as much as his subsequent film “Mulholland Drive” (2001).

The movie, which is based on the true story of an old man named Alvin Straight, begins with the opening scene which evokes a bit of “The Elephant Man” (1980) and “Blue Velvet”. At first, we see the big and wide sky full of shining stars which will surely take you back to the ending of “The Elephant Man”, and then the movie looks over and around a small little town in Iowa which looks and feels not so different from that suburban world in “Blue Velvet”. However, nothing serious or ironic or disturbing happens on the screen in this time, except a sudden little medical problem for Straight, played by Richard Farnsworth.

Once his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek) and his neighbors find him collapsed on the floor, Alvin is subsequently taken to a local hospital. His doctor advises that he should pay more attention to his aging body which may stop functioning at any time, but he does not follow the doctor’s advice at all while continuing his usual lifestyle as before. He keeps doing his daily stuffs, and Rose, who incidentally has some mild mental retardation, is always around him whenever she is not working on birdhouses.

And then there comes an unexpected news from Wisconsin. Alvin’s estranged brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) had a serious case of stroke, and Alvin comes to decide that he should really go to see Lyle, though they have never talked with each other for around 10 years due to some personal clash between them. Because of his weak eyesight and fragile legs, driving is out of question for him from the beginning, and there is no direct bus going to where Lyle lives, so Alvin eventually decides to use his old lawn mower for his long journey from Iowa to Wisconsin.

Although there is some amusement during the first days of Alvin’s journey, the screenplay by editor/co-producer Mary Sweeney and her co-writer John Roach sticks to its plain sincere attitude as before. When his lawn mower turns out to be not so reliable not long after he leaves his town, Alvin simply buys another lawn mower and then starts the journey again. The lawn mower can only move at a maximum speed of 5 miles per hour (8.0 km per hour), and he will have to cross over the distance of 240 miles (390 km), but he is not daunted at all as patiently driving along the road to his brother’s place.

Just like many other road movies out there, the movie doles out a series of episodic moments as he meets a number of different people one by one along his journey, and Lynch presents them with a considerable amount of restrained sensitivity. For example, when Alvin comes across a young female hitchhiker, we are not so surprised that they eventually spend a night together, but we are later touched by how sensitively the movie handles the brief but meaningful conversation between them. In case of a scene involved with one particularly unlucky woman who seems to come from a usual Lynch film, the movie surprises us as thoughtfully and empathically regarding her anger and pain along with Alvin, and then we get a little genuine laugh from how he takes care of the mess from her another unfortunate accident.

And we get to know more about Alvin and his past. It is revealed later in the story that he fought in World War II, and there is a quiet but powerful moment when he reveals a bit of his personal demon as talking with an old man who understands him well as a fellow World War II veteran. The camera simply focuses on his rough and wrinkled face during this moment, but we become more engaged, while sensing more of his old personal pain from the past.

Leisurely rolling the story and its hero along its mildly eventful narrative course, Lynch and his crew fill the screen with the warm and gentle rural atmosphere you can expect from the midwestern American background of their movie. While cinematographer Freddie Francis, who previously collaborated with Lynch in “The Elephant Man” and “Dune” (1984), did a splendid job of presenting wide and beautiful landscapes with unadorned realism and poetic beauty, and the score by Angelo Badalamenti, who was also one of Lynch’s main collaborators, is appropriately folksy at times as subtly capturing the emotional line of the story.

Above all, the movie depends a lot on the wonderful lead performance from Farnsworth, who was Oscar-nominated not long after his death. Thanks to his nuanced acting, we come to sense more of his character’s humanity along the story, and he is especially terrific during a mildly amusing scene where his character tells something important to the two brothers working on his broken lawn mower. He does not sound preachy or condescending to them at all as simply talking a bit about his relationship with his estranged brother, and those two brothers clearly get the point even though they say nothing at all.

Around Farnsworth, a number of various supporting performers simply come and then go along the story, but they are quite believable as the real people you may encounter while you travel across the midwestern American regions. In case of Sissy Spacek and Harry Dean Stanton, they are reliable as usual while functioning as the crucial parts of the story, and Stanton, who is virtually Colonel Kurts of the story, is effortlessly poignant with Farnworth during the expected finale.

Overall, “The Straight Story” is surely quite an abnormally plain, humane, and normal work in Lynch’s idiosyncratic filmmaking career, but it is much more than that. Just like the Coen brothers in “Fargo” (1996), Lynch came to show more heart than before here in this little but exceptional movie, and I believe that was really vital for the critical success of “Mulholland Drive”, where he finally hit the right balance between his nightmarish genre exercise and the sincere aspects of his distinctive artistic sensibility. In my humble opinion, the movie deserves to be admired and cherished as much as many of Lynch’s other works, and I assure you that you will not forget its aging human hero after watching it.

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Inland Empire (2006) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): An actress under Lynchian influence

Posted on January 18, 2026 by kaist455

David Lynch’s 2006 film “Inland Empire”, which is being shown along with his several works at selected South Korean theaters, is still capable of alternatively baffling and dazzling me. Although I already watched it a couple of times, I am still not so sure about what it is exactly about, but my eyes and mind somehow got engaged in how it is about during my recent viewing despite its rather long running time (179 minutes).

As many of you know well, the movie was a little experimental filmmaking project from Lynch. After the considerable critical success of his Oscar-nominated film “Mulholland Drive” (2001), Lynch was ready for anything new and different, and then he became interested in shooting a film via digital camera mainly because it might allow him more creative freedom. Although he did not have a finished screenplay from the start, he began to shoot the film anyway, and most of the movie was actually developed on scene-by-scene basis during the rather long and loose shooting period during next three years.

The story initially seems to be about the making of the latest movie of a Hollywood actress named Nikki Grace (Laura Dern). Not long after she is introduced to us after the elusively surreal opening part featuring a trio of talking rabbit figures, she gets cast as the lead actress of a movie titled “On High in Blue Tomorrows”, and she is quite excited for working with the prominent lead actor and director of that movie, both of whom are also eager to work along with her.

However, of course, there was already a bad sign for Grace. Early in the film, she was visited by a weird middle-aged lady, and this strange lady, who is incidentally played by Grace Zabriskie from Lynch’s iconic TV drama series “Twin Peaks”, baffled her a lot as saying a series of incomprehensible things and then eventually leaving.

In addition, the movie gives several more ominous signs to notice along the narrative. Grace is married to a wealthy and influential man who looks rather menacing to say the least, and he does not seem that pleased about whom she is going to play with, mainly because the lead actor of “On High in Blue Tomorrows” is your average ladies’ man. Although her co-star, played by Justin Theroux from “Mulholland Drive”, assures that nothing will happen between him and Grace, but, what do you know, they soon find themselves attracted to each other as trying to channeling their respective roles as much as possible in front of the camera and their director.

On one day, something odd occurs when Grace and her co-star prepare a bit along with their director on the set, and the director, who is flatly played by Jeremy Irons, confides to them about a hidden fact behind their movie. According to him, their movie is in fact a remake of some unfinished German film based on a cursed Polish folktale, and the production of that German film was halted after its two lead performers were found murdered under a very mysterious circumstance.

After coming to learn about this disturbing background of her movie, Grace gets gradually disturbed in one way or another. While trying to keep acting as before, she somehow finds herself quite confused between reality and fiction, and her viewpoint becomes all the more unreliable when she later gets tumbled into what can be described as your typical Lynchian dreamland. As she becomes more stuck in this nightmarish labyrinth, many seemingly random moments pop up here and there, and we naturally become more and more confused just like our heroine.

While Lynch might not have any clear idea on his big picture from the very beginning, we come to sense a sort of dream logic beneath the increasingly baffling narrative flow of the film thanks to his casual but confident direction. Just like “Mulholland Drive”, the movie feels quite confusing and incoherent at times, but it keeps engaging and then intriguing us with its sheer style and mood nonetheless. Its visual quality is rather rough as Lynch, who also served as the editor and cinematographer of the movie, shot it on low-resolution digital video, but that somehow fits with its the overall dreamy atmosphere, and Lynch occasionally adds extra digital effects for more surrealistic mood, as shown from a truly frightening moment later in the movie which can be regarded as one of the scariest cinematic moments during last several decades.

Above all, the movie is steadily anchored by the strong performance from Laura Dern, who was no stranger to Lynch’s singular artistic vision considering her appearances in “Blue Velvet” (1986) and “Wild at Heart” (1990). Regardless of whether her character is real or just a mere projection of some very unhappy young woman’s state of mind, Dern always holds the emotional center of the film, and it can be said that her rather overlooked performance here in this movie led her to another chapter of her impressive acting career, which is filled with a series of equally stellar performances including her Oscar-winning supporting turn in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” (2019).

Just like Zabriskie, Irons, and Theroux, many of the main cast members in the film simply come and go as dutifully supporting Dern. Despite their brief appearances, William H. Macy, Laura Harring, Julia Ormond, Nastassja Kinski, Mary Steenburgen, Terry Crews, Harry Dean Stanton, and Diane Ladd, who is Dern’s mother and sadly passed away a few months ago, leave some impression on us, and Naomi Watts, who was the heart and soul of “Mulholland Drive” along with Harring, provides the voice for one of those recurring rabbit figures in the movie.

In conclusion, “Inland Empire” is relatively less accessible compared to what Lynch achieved so fantastically in “Mulholland Drive”, but it remains as another important work in Lynch’s long and illustrious career. Yes, this turned out to be his final feature film, but he kept entertaining us with a number of various stuffs ranging from the long-awaited third season of “Twin Peaks” to the enjoyable cameo appearance at the end of Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” (2022), before he sadly died early in last year. He will be missed more and more, but we will continue to admire and cherish many of this great American filmmaker’s interesting works at least.

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The Rip (2026) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The trouble with the rip

Posted on January 18, 2026 by kaist455

Netflix film “The Rip”, which was released on this Friday, is a typical crime action thriller film which will not surprise you much if you are familiar with its genre clichés and conventions. While it is relatively more competent than many of average Netflix products, the movie does not bring anything particularly new or fresh to its genre territory, and it is a bit disappointing to see a number of prominent performers merely filling their respective roles as much as they can.

The movie opens with what we have seen from countless police movies out there. Captain Jackie Valez (Lina Esco), the key member of the Miami-Dade Police Department, is murdered when she is investigating on something quite serious, and the members of her specialized unit are immediately investigated by FBI right after that. Needless to say, everyone in the unit including Valez’s second-in-command Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Matt Damon) becomes a possible suspect, and even their chief, Major Thom Vallejo (Néstor Carbonell), is not so willing to help or support them.

Meanwhile, Dumars suddenly brings another task to handle despite this tricky situation of theirs. According to him, he recently received a tip on a certain drug house located in some neighborhood of Hialeah, and his four fellow detectives, JD Byrne (Ben Affleck), Miko Ro (Steven Yeun), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), and Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno), go along with him to that place despite their reluctance.

Of course, it soon turns out that Dumars and his fellow detectives get themselves into a very serious situation. When they knock on the front of the door of that place, a young woman named Desiree “Desi” Molina (Sasha Calle) comes out, and it is apparent to them that this young lady seems to be hiding something behind back. After thoroughly searching here and there inside Molina’s house, they eventually discover a hidden space, and, what do you know, there is a lot of drug money inside this secret space.

As they check on how much the money actually is, Dumars comes to look more untrustworthy to everyone around him. For example, he still does not tell the others more about how he received that tip in question, though we already had a pretty good idea even before the movie reveals that early in the story. In addition, he told each member of his a different figure when asked about how much money they would find, and that makes him look all the more suspicious.

Anyway, Ro, Baptiste, and Salazar just follow Dumars’ instructions as expected, but Byrne comes to regard Dumars with more reservation and suspicion. Mainly because he was quite close and loyal to Captain Velez, Bryne has been determined to find whoever is responsible for her death, and it looks increasingly possible to him that Dumars is the one he is looking for.

Meanwhile, the situation expectedly becomes more complicated than before, and the movie did a good job of dialing up the level of tension on the screen. It seems that not only Dumars but also several other main characters in the story are not so reliable, and Dumars and his fellow detectives feel more pressured and cornered after it turns out that there is also someone else targeting on the money they are checking on.

Around that narrative point, you may easily guess the real villain if you are familiar with the law of Law of the Character Economy, though the movie does a fairly good job of distracting us from that. Around Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, the movie assembles a bunch of notable performers such as Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha Calle, Scott Adkins, Kyle Chanlder, Lina Esco, and Néstor Carbonell, so it is a bit difficult for you to get the answer at first, but then you will see that the answer is pretty obvious right from one of these main cast members appears on the screen for the first time.

Nevertheless, director/screenplay writer Joe Carnahan, who wrote the story with Michael McGrale, keeps thing rolling before the movie eventually arrives at the expected finale where everything is fully explained as required. Steadily maintaining its level of suspense during its second half, the movie serves us with a couple of intense action sequences, and Carnahan, who previously gave us “Narc” (2002) and “The Grey” (2011), demonstrates that he is a dependable action movie director as usual.

In case of Damon and Affleck, who also serve as the producers of the film, they ably carry the film together as clicking with each other as well as they once did in their Oscar-winning film “Good Will Hunting” (1997), and their solid chemistry compensates for the clichéd aspects of the story from time to time. In contrast, many of the main cast members in the film are sadly under-utilized, but Taylor, Calle, and Moreno manage to hold each own small place well despite their thankless supporting roles.  

Overall, “The Rip”, whose title incidentally comes from a slang meaning police seizure, is a passable genre product with some entertaining moments thanks to the diligent professional efforts from its overqualified cast and crew members. To be frank with you, I do not think I will remember it much around the end of the year, but I will not stop you from spending your spare time on it.

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