Nanny (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A nanny under the influence

Posted on January 12, 2023 by kaist455

“Nanny”, which was released on Amazon Prime in last month, is an uneven mix of immigrant drama and horror. Although it is held together fairly well thanks to its competent direction as well as the good lead performance at its center, the movie stumbles more than once as trying to balance itself between its two very different genres, and then, to my little disappointment, it simply stops when it could go further for more exploration in terms of story and characters.

Anna Diop, who previously appeared as one of the main characters in Jordan Peele’s “Us” (2019), plays Aisha, a Senegalese immigrant who has been just hired as a nanny for some affluent family living in New York City. While she is not that confident about her job, it does not take much time for her to get friendly with a little young girl of whom she is hired to take care, and it looks like this job will help her saving more money for bringing her little young son in Senegal to New York City someday.

Surely feeling alone at times, Aisha gets some comfort from several people around her. While she receives some generosity from her black landlady, there is a Nigerian hairdresser who has been her best friend for a while, and she also comes to befriend a black guy named Malik (Sinqua Walls), who incidentally works in the same apartment building where Aisha goes for her daily babysitting work. He turns out to be really interested in getting closer to her, and Aisha does not mind at all when he suggests later that they should have a little date together.

However, Aisha is still missing her son a lot. She sometimes talks with her son via international video phone, and she always promises to him that she will bring him to New York City as soon as possible, though that will not be possible for a while. When she cannot talk with her son on the phone, she checks out her phone conversations with him again and again, and that reminds her more of how much she really wants to reunite with him.

Anyway, Aisha keeps working as usual, but something strange begins to happen. She starts to experience a series of disturbing dreams involved with water and a certain mythical figure, and she has no idea on why this is occurring upon her. Is possible that this is just an anxiety/exhaustion problem which has been suppressed inside her due to insufficient rest and comfort during last several months? Or, is this actually caused by something real and frightening with possibly insidious motives?

In the meantime, things begin to fall apart for Aisha bit by bit. The more she spends time at her employer’s apartment, the more she senses the growing awkwardness between her employer and the employer’s husband, who often does not provide much emotional support for his wife as often busy with his works outside. Aisha’s employer is mostly fair and kind, but she cannot help but become neurotic as trying to balance herself between her work and her daughter, and we are not so surprised when she comes to clash with Aisha over a trivial matter at one point later in the story.

As more concerned about how unstable her job has become, Aisha naturally seeks some comfort from talking with her son, but she only finds herself more disturbed as she cannot contact a family member who has been taking care of her son in Senegal. Through Malik’s grandmother, who incidentally has some considerable knowledge on spiritualism, Aisha comes to learn more about that certain mythic figure in her dream, and the mood becomes ominous as her mind trembles between reality and dream more frequently than before.

Because Jason Blum serves as one of its executive producers, you will certainly expect to be scared or disturbed sooner or later, and the movie does not disappoint you at all during its last act where our heroine’s mind becomes more unreliable. There are several tense moments as she is thrown into more confusion and anxiety, and we come to worry more about what may happen to not only her but also that little girl under her care.

When the screenplay by director/writer Nikyatu Jusu, who won the Grand Jury Prize when the movie was shown at the Sundance Film Festival early in last year, eventually reveals everything around its finale, it is not exactly surprising to us, but it mostly works thanks to the Diop’s nuanced natural acting. She did a commendable job of conveying her character’s growing anxiety and confusion along the story without exaggerating that at all, and her good performance is the main reason why we keep paying attention to the screen before the movie eventually reaches to its rather fizzling ending.

Around Diop, Jusu ably establishes the plain but vivid realistic background, and the supporting performers are convincing as various people you may come across in New York City, though I wish the movie developed their characters more. While Sinqua Walls clicks well with Diop in their several key scenes, Leslie Uggams has a couple of effective scenes as Malik’s knowledgeable grandmother, and Michelle Monaghan acquits herself fairly well despite her thankless role.

On the whole, “Nanny” is not so recommendable for me, but it still shows Jusu, who previously made several short films before making a feature debut here, is a talented filmmaker with considerable potential. I am not satisfied enough, but I am interested in what may come next from her, and I hope I will be more impressed in the next time.

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The Pale Blue Eyes (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A gloomy mystery with young Poe

Posted on January 11, 2023 by kaist455

Netflix film “The Pale Blue Eyes”, which was released in last week, is a gloomy mystery which did not exactly satisfy me. While it has some interesting elements to draw my attention for 2 hours, the movie just ponderously trudges along its mystery plot without enough interest or intrigue, and I did not get much satisfaction even when everything in the story was clearly explained and then resolved.

The story, which is mainly set in West Point, New York around 1830, begins with when Augustus Landor (Christian Bale), a retired New York City detective, is suddenly visited by an officer from the US military academy in West Point on one day. One of the cadets in the academy was found dead outside the academy under a rather suspicious circumstance, and this incident was followed by another weird happening. Superintendent Thayer (Timothy Spall) wants everything to be solved and then handled as soon as possible for avoiding more troubles, and that is why he requests some unofficial help from Landor.

Although he is reluctant at first, Landor agrees to investigate the case, and we soon see that there are many questionable things in the case. It turns out that the dead cadet was actually killed by someone, and it is quite possible that the killer is also the person who took out the heart of the dead cadet while the body was kept in the academy doctor’s workplace later. There is considerable possibility that the killer is in the academy, but it is difficult for Landor to know what is really going among the cadets and officers in the academy, so he really needs someone inside for helping his investigation.

Fortunately, Landor soon gets the one right for his investigation. The person is a young cadet named Edgar Allen Poe (Harry Melling), and, though he always draws attention from others due to his quirky personality and awkward attitude, he turns out to be quite useful for Landor in more than one aspect. Besides being pretty good at getting any chance for gathering inside information from other cadets, Poe turns out to be smart enough to be Landor’s unofficial investigation partner, and there is an amusing moment when he cannot help but act like a detective as he tells Landor about what he deduces from a little clue given to him by Landor.

Meanwhile, the situation becomes more complicated due to several more gruesome happenings around the academy. Several incidents of dead livestock which are gruesomely maimed occur, and that is soon followed by another murder case to disturb everyone in the academy. Quite more concerned about the reputation of his academy, the superintendent comes to put more pressure on Landor, but Landor remains unflappable as before, while also continuing to delve into the case step by step along with Poe.

As they get closer to the possible answer to everything in the case, the movie shrouds the screen with a palpably grim atmosphere along with some Gothic touches which will surely take you back to those dark literature works written by Poe. Thanks to cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi, the screen is constantly shrouded in a cold and unnerving sense of dread and anxiety, and we are not so surprised to learn later that the case may be involved with some diabolical practice of devil worship.

In the meantime, the screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Scott Cooper, which is based on the novel of the same name by Louis Bayard, focuses on a bit of romance between Poe and a beautiful young woman who happens to be the daughter of the academy doctor. As getting to know her and her family more, Poe comes to have some understandable suspicion, but he cannot help but attracted to her as they recognize a sort of kinship between them as two differently melancholic souls, and there is a little tender moment when he recites a bit of one of his latest poems to her at one point.

In the end, there comes a point where Landor and Poe uncover something dark behind the case, and the movie surely gets more insidious than before, but it comes to fizzle during the overlong finale where it plods a bit too much for explaining everything in the story. Although there are some unexpected plot turns for us, we are not so shocked at all, and the movie eventually arrives at its final scene with a whimper.

At least, the main cast members dutifully fill their roles as much as required. While Christian Bale, who also participated in the production of the film, gives another intense and brooding performance to be added to his career, Harry Melling, who has steadily advanced as a promising character actor since his breakout turn in the Coen Brothers’ “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” (2018), has a number of juicy scenes as embodying Poe’s uncanny melancholy, and he and Bale are also surrounded well by a bunch of notable performers including Timothy Spall, Simon McBurney, Toby Jones, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Lucy Boynton, Gillian Anderson, and Robert Duvall, who is still active despite having his 92nd birthday in last week.

In conclusion, “The Pale Blue Eyes” is not entirely without enjoyable stuffs, but it is relatively less satisfying compared to Cooper’s several better works including “Hostiles” (2017). While it certainly has plenty of mood and details to be appreciated, the mystery inside its story is not particularly compelling in my humble opinion, and you will probably have a better time if you read instead one of those dark short stories written by Poe.

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Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Puss in Boots back in action

Posted on January 9, 2023 by kaist455

Animation feature film “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”, which is the sequel to “Puss in Boots” (2011), has a fair amount of fun and charm to justify its rather redundant existence. While its irreverent fairy tale world, which is borrowed from “Shrek” (2001) and the following several sequels, has not been so fresh or original during last two decades, the film diligently provides a series of funny and entertaining moments as expected, and that is enough for me for now.

The story, which begins at quite several years after the ending of the previous film, quickly establishes how things have become quite different for our furry outlaw hero. While he has enjoyed a considerable amount of fame and notoriety during these several years, Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) comes to face the undeniable fact that he has the only one life left after dying no less than eight times, and, what do you know, he is soon approached by a certain ominous figure eager to give him, uh, the eternal peace. Understandably quite terrified, our furry hero quickly runs away from his fearsome opponent, and he eventually lets himself adopted by an old lady who already lots of other cats in her house.

For some time, the situation does not look that bad for our furry hero once he gets accustomed to the mundane (and mindless) daily life of a pet cat, but, of course, there eventually comes an opportunity for adventure he cannot possibly resist. It turns out that Goldilocks (voiced by Florence Pugh) and her trio of bears are looking for his little criminal service, and their ultimate goal, a big star hidden somewhere inside a dangerous magic forest, may get our furry hero to have extra lives. Naturally, he quickly embarks on acquiring the magic map which will lead him to that big star, and he also happens to be accompanied with Perrito (voiced by Harvey Guillén), a little happy-go-lucky dog who has disguised himself as a cat for his practical survival.

Of course, things soon turn out to be a bit more complicated than our furry hero expected at first. It seems that all he will have to do is stealing the map from one certain greedy industrial figure, but this loathsome figure also wants to locate that star for his megalomaniac ambition. In addition, our furry hero also comes across Kitty Softpaws (voiced by Salma Hayek Pinault), another outlaw cat who was once very close to him and is also quite willing to get the map by any means necessary for her little personal purpose.

While reluctantly working together for their common goal, Puss in Boots and Kitty Softpaws find themselves rekindling those old romantic feelings between them, though neither of them can easily admit that they are still attracted to each other despite all those years of separation between them. At least, Perrito is always willing to soften the mood between his two feline companions, and that makes both of them a bit more willing to open themselves to each other, though the map and that big star remain a big issue between them.

As cheerfully rolling these three and several other characters from one point to another, director Joel Crawford and his crew serve us several good action sequences packed with enough wit and style to be appreciated. These sequences often look rough via their deliberate cell animation style, but this interesting stylistic choice brings some extra energy and spirit to the screen, and we remain engaged and excited even when lots of things happen here and there across the screen.

The screenplay by Paul Fisher and Tommy Swerdlow, which is based on the story written by Swerdlow and his co-writer Tom Wheeler, allows occasional character development in the meantime. While our furry hero’s conflict with the growing possibility of his death brings enough gravitas to the story, there is some poignancy in the respective simple wishes of his two accidental companions, and we are also touched a bit when Goldilocks, who actually cares about her bear family more than she admits, makes an important choice for her alternative family later in the story.

Above all, the voice cast members of the film have lots of fun as imbuing their characters with a substantial amount of life and personality. While he has been considerably matured during last several years as shown from his moving Oscar-nominated turn in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” (2019), Antonio Banderas still can be very funny as recently shown from Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn’s “Official Competition” (2021), and his delightful voice performance perfectly captures his character’s irrepressible bravado as before. Besides Salma Hayek Pinault and Harvey Guillén, both of whom hold each own spot well around Banderas, Florence Pugh, Ray Winston, Olivia Colman, Samson Kayo, John Mulaney, Wagner Moura, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph are well-cast in their respective supporting parts, and Moura is particularly effective as our furry hero’s fearsome opponent.

In conclusion, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” is a predictable but enjoyable product, and it will certainly appeal to both cat and dog lovers for good reasons. To be frank with you, I did not expect much when I came into the screening room during last evening, but I found myself chuckling from time to time, and I was also often amused by how actively two young audiences behind me responded to the film. Yes, I could recommend them several better recent animation films such as “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” (2022), but we had enough fun anyway, and I can only hope that they will soon go for better stuffs out there.

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Fragrance of the First Flower (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): Still attracted to each other

Posted on January 9, 2023 by kaist455

Taiwanese film “Fragrance of the First Flower” is a familiar but engaging melodrama about two women who still cannot help but attracted to each other despite several years of separation between them. As alternating between their past and present, the movie lets us know more about their emotional bond as well as the complicated circumstance surrounding them, and we come to care more about them as their emotional journey eventually culminates to an important moment of decision for both of them.

The movie opens with an accidental encounter between Ting Ting (Lyan Cheng) and Yi Ming (Zaizai Lin) at the wedding ceremony of their mutual schoolmate. At first, they look just pleased to see each other again after their high school years, and we later see them spending a little more time together, before Yi Ming returns to her residence where she lives with her husband and their little son.

Not long after that, Yi Ming decides to meet Ting Ting again for their old time’s sake, and Ting Ting has no problem at all with seeing her again. As they talk more with each other, they become more friendly to each other, and Ting Ting is eventually introduced to Yi Ming’s family thanks to a little accidental encounter between her and them.

In the meantime, the movie goes back to the past between Yi Ming and Ting Ting during their high school period in the early 1990s. When they first came across each other, Ting Ting was a freshman who had just started her first year at their school, and Yi Ming was a confident senior who had also been the captain of the volleyball team of their school. Right from when she saw Yi Ming, Ting Ting found herself quite attracted to Yi Ming, and that was the main reason why she came to join the volleyball team.

When Ting Ting eagerly approached to her, Yi Ming did not mind much because it was nice to have someone willing to be under her wings, but, what do you know, they soon became each other’s best friend. As they spent more time together, they shared a lot of feelings and thoughts between them, and, of course, there eventually came a point where Ting Ting showed more of her infatuation with Yi Ming. While perplexed a little at first, Yi Ming did not reject Ting Ting’s affection at all, and that made them much closer to each other, though Yi Ming mostly regarded Ting Ting as her best friend.

As remembering those old times with Ting Ting, Yi Ming naturally finds herself drawn more to her, but things are now more complicated for her. Although homosexuality has been accepted much more than before in her society, she is still afraid of admitting more of how she is still attracted to Ting Ting, and, above all, she cannot simply walk away from her family life right now. While she is frequently frustrated with her plain and dull husband who usually takes everything for granted, she still cares a lot about the welfare of their little son who is incidentally on autism spectrum, and disrupting her son’s daily life is certainly the last thing she wants.

As Yi Ming becomes more conflicted about her feelings toward Ting Ting, we also get to know more about how they became estranged to each other during that time. Due to one very unpleasant incident at one night, Ting Ting almost exposed her relationship with Yi Ming to others at the school, and Yi Ming was not so pleased about that at all. She began to distance herself more from Ting Ting as time went by, and they eventually became all the more separated from each other than before when Yi Ming subsequently began her college years.

Directed by Angel Ihan Teng, the movie is actually the condensed feature film version of the first season of a popular streaming service drama series. I have not seen the drama series yet, but I can tell you that the movie itself mostly works well without much narrative gap. Although there are some visible interruptions, the movie steadily develops its story and characters on the whole, and it also pays some attention to a few other main figures around Yi Ming and Ting Ting.

In the end, there comes an expected moment as Yi Ming and Ting Ting come to confront their situation with total honesty, and we surely get a substantial amount of tears, but the movie sticks to its restrained mode even at that point. Our two heroines are reminded again of how much they are still emotionally attached to each other, but there are also some serious issues to deal with in one way or another, and they will have to tackle them if both of them are really ready to take another forward step toward each other.

The movie is firmly carried by the strong lead performances from its two good actresses. While Lyan Cheng’s charming performance functions as the main catalyst for the dramatic tension throughout the film, Zaizai Lin is terrific whenever her character quietly struggles with her complicated matters of heart, and they constantly click with each other well as their characters push or pull each other along the story. In case of a few main cast members surrounding them, Lee Yi acquits himself well despite his rather thankless supporting role, and the movie thankfully does not allow any pity on his incorrigibly insensitive character.

Overall, “Fragrance of the First Flower” is a modest but solid queer melodrama to be appreciated for its sensitive mood and storytelling, and you may also get interested in checking out that drama series (Its second season is already being in production, by the way). Although it does not exceed my expectation, I appreciate its strong elements nonetheless, and I recommend you to give it a chance someday.

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Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Can she make a wish?

Posted on December 31, 2022 by kaist455

George Miller’s latest film “Three Thousand Years of Longing” is a modest but haunting fantasy drama about life and storytelling. While it is relatively less ambitious and memorable compared to the greatness of his previous film “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015), the movie is often visually striking as doling out one splendid moment after another, and it eventually reaches to its expected finale with substantial poignancy for us.

At the beginning, we meet Alithea Binnie (Tilda Swinton), a female narratologist who has always been interested in stories throughout her whole life. When she comes to Istanbul, Turkey for attending an academic conference, she is baffled as suddenly experiencing a couple of odd incidents, and then a really strange thing happens to her later. At a local antique market, she happens to acquire a little old glass bottle, and it soon turns out that this glass bottle contains a Djinn, an old supernatural entity who can grant three wishes to whoever releases him.

While quite surprised and perplexed by this unexpected discovery, Alithea tries to handle her situation as sensibly as possible. As a story expert, she knows too well that she should be careful about whatever she may wish, and the Djinn, played by Idris Elba, consequently finds himself in a rather difficult circumstance as she refuses to make any wish. For gaining his freedom, he must convince her that he is not one of those naughty Djinns, and, what do you know, he comes to tell her a lot about his long life history.

What follows next is three different stories set in three different periods, respectively. At first, we get a story involved with the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, whose ardent courtship toward the Queen of Sheba eventually led to the banishment of the Djinn into a metal container during next several centuries. The second story is about one plain lass who yearned for the crown prince of the Osman Empire, and it goes without saying that her story did not end that well although she got her big wishes via the Djinn. In case of the third story, it mainly revolves around a very unhappy woman trapped inside her old wealthy husband’s house, and the Djinn naturally comes to feel some kinship between them as spending next several years with her in her little private place.

For each segment, the movie unfolds one impressive visual moment after another, and Miller and his crew members including cinematographer John Seale, who came out of his retirement again as he previously did for Miller in “Mad Max: Fury Road”, did a splendid job of bringing considerable style and personality to each segment. Although it is clear that they depended a lot on CGI, the result is filled with distinctive mood and details to be appreciated, and that is the main reason why each segment in the story comes to function as a part of narrative development between Alithea and the Djinn. Because of her longtime fascination with stories, she cannot help but enthralled by his stories, but she still hesitates to make her three wishes no matter how much he tries to persuade her, and that certainly frustrates him a lot.

As Alithea and the Djinn continue to cope with their seemingly intractable situation, the movie continues to impress us with more wonder and imagination, and the overall result is not so different from Tarsem Singh’s “The Fall” (2006), which shares lots of common things with Miller’s film. Besides mainly fueled by their respective directors’ ambitious storytelling experiments, both of these films often emphasize to us the power of storytelling via their sheer visual prowess, and they touchingly remind us of why we always needs stories throughout our constantly messy and chaotic life.

During the last segment, the movie stumbles more than once due to its rather uneven narrative pacing, but it still works because of what has been patiently established and then developed between its two main characters. Even though she has been quite detached to her life as well as those stories she has made or collected, Alithea comes to accept that she cannot be distant to her ongoing life story anymore, and she eventually makes an active choice for not only her but also the Djinn. While it is possible that the whole story is more or less than a piece of imagination from Alithea, the screenplay by Miller and his co-writer Augusta Gore, which is based on A.S. Byatt’s short story “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye”, never overlooks its emotional ground, and that is why the somber final scene is emotionally resonating.

Above all, the movie is carried well by its two captivating lead performers. While she initially seems to be stuck in a thankless role, Tilda Swinton gives another engaging performance as gradually revealing her character’s hidden deep emotional needs along the story, and Idris Elba, who has always been reliable with his natural charisma just like Swinton, finally gets a role for fully demonstrating his undeniable presence and talent. He and Swinton constantly hold our attention although they simply interact with each other within a small, limited background throughout the film, and we can always sense something interesting happening between their characters, while gladly going along with them to the end of the story.

Overall, “Three Thousand Years of Longing” is one or two steps down from what Miller achieved so awesomely in “Mad Max: Fury Road”, but it is his another distinctive work at least, and I recommend it mainly for its several strong elements including the commendable acting from Swinton and Elba. To be frank with you, I admire it instead of really liking it, but, in my inconsequential opinion, you should give it a chance because, after all, this is not something you do not see at theater everyday.

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Official Competition (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): A director and her two difficult stars

Posted on December 31, 2022 by kaist455

“Official Competition” is simply hilarious as having a naughty fun with its one-joke story premise. Although it comes to lose some of its comic momentum during its last act where the mood becomes a bit more serious, the movie continues to tickle us as before, and it is also supported well by the entertaining comic performances from the three main cast members at the center of the film.

Everything in the story begins from a wealthy old man who is just having his 80th birthday. Although he has accomplished a lot via his big pharmaceutical company for years, this old guy wants to leave behind a more enduring legacy before he dies, and he eventually decides to produce a great movie to be remembered, though he does not know anything about filmmaking from the beginning.

Anyway, the old man tries his best. First, he purchases the copyright of the novel of some famous author who won a Nobel Prize, and then he approaches to Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz), an acclaimed movie director who is quite serious about filmmaking in her own idiosyncratic way. Although he does not even know what or how the novel is about, he is willing to promise her the total artistic control over the production of their movie, and Lola accepts his request without much hesitation.

For the two contrasting lead characters of her movie, Lola cast two actors who cannot possibly be more different from each other: Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez) and Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas). While Iván is a very serious stage actor with a big artistic ego behind his seemingly humble appearance, Félix is your typical charismatic but arrogant movie star, and it goes without saying that they do not get along well with each other right from their first day with their director at a charity foundation building belonging to the old man.

At first, all they will have to do is reading their director’s screenplay for more preparation before the shooting, but, not so surprisingly, Lola turns out to be much more demanding than expected. As your average perfectionist, she frequently pays painstaking attention to every minute detail of her movie, and that often baffles her two stars. At one point, she demands Iván to deliver one very simple line as exactly as she wants, and that leads to a little moment of amusement for us as he patiently tries to follow her fastidious request.

And that is just the beginning of many outrageous things Lola are going to do for preparing her two stars for her movie. For example, she puts her two actors under a possibly risky situation, just because she wants to extract the right emotions from them. Needless to say, both of them cannot help but become nervous even while trying their best as much as possible, and the deft utilization of sound effects brings more hilarity to this loony moment.

Although it is more or less than a series of comic episodes among its three main characters, the screenplay by directors Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn and their co-writer Andrés Duprat keeps holding our attention with more outrageousness to be served to us. In case of a little audition for the old man’s young daughter who is eager to play a certain substantial character in Lola’s movie, you will definitely roll your eyes for good reasons, while also chuckling a lot. I will not go into details for not spoiling any of your fun, but I can tell you instead that the performers in this scene play absolutely straight to their characters’ increasingly absurd circumstance, and that surely generates more laughs for us.

While enduring one demanding session after another under their director, Iván and Félix come to dislike their director more and more, but they also hate each other’s guts more than before as they get themselves entangled into a sort of acting one-upmanship between them. Naturally, Lola comes to have lots of headache thanks to the increasing conflict between her two stars, and, not so surprisingly, there eventually comes a point where she reaches to a breaking point, though she is still stopped at all as driven by her artistic passion.

During its last act, the movie loses its focus a bit after a certain narrative point, but it maintains its twisted sense of humor as before despite having less surprise and hilarity in comparison. Although the story is unfolded mostly inside one limited background, the movie seldom feels stuffy or constrained, and Duprat and Cohn add some nice visual comic touches to the screen at times.

Their three main cast members, who incidentally participated in the production of the film as its executive producers, are willing to hurl themselves into lots of absurdities for more laughs for us. While Penélope Cruz dexterously maintains the balance between her two co-stars, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez are often hilarious as their characters pull and push each other throughout the story, and they and Cruz keep the movie rolling as providing the constant amusement for us.

In conclusion, “Official Competition” is entertaining for its skillful serving of silly but effective comic moments. Its goal is modest, but it succeeds as much as intended, and I often found myself laughing or chuckling loud along with the audiences around me when I watched it during last evening. Considering that I am usually a very quiet audience, that tells a lot about its effectiveness, doesn’t it?

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Hero (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A passable musical film about one patriotic activist

Posted on December 30, 2022 by kaist455

I was ready to give a chance to South Korean musical film “Hero” even though it is not for me from the beginning. No, I have no problem with its genre at all, but, just like many of its director’s films, the movie often tries too hard for squeezing laughs or tears from the audiences, and I only found myself quite distracted while not caring much about its story and characters.

The movie, which is based on the local hit stage musical of the same name, mainly revolves around An Jung-geun (Jung Sung-hwa), who was one of the most prominent real-life Korean-independence activists during the early 20th century. During that time, Korea was about to be colonized by Japan, and An and many other activists were determined to stop this by any means necessary. What he eventually committed has still been remembered and admired by many people in South Korea, though that did not stop Japan at all in the end.

Anyway, the movie starts with the grand opening number scene where An and a bunch of his comrades show their considerable commitment with a rather gruesome act of self-mutilation. You may wince for good reasons, but then the music swells as everyone sings together on the screen, and the resulting mood is as forceful as that certain highlight moment from “Les Misérables” (2012).

During the early part of the film, we get to know a bit about An’s personal life. When he is about to leave his hometown in Korea for fighting for the independence of his country, his wife and children are not so happy about that, but his mother understands and accepts his decision – despite knowing that she may never see her son again.

What follows next is how An fights along with many other activists during next several years. Although they score some big victories at first, they are eventually overwhelmed by a massive attack from the Japanese Army, and we are naturally served with lots of bangs and explosions as An and his comrades are desperately fighting against the Japanese soldiers.

After this devastating defeat, An and his comrades go undercover for some time in Vladivostok, Russia, but then there comes a possible big chance for their independence movement. There is one prominent Japanese political figure who has been leading the ongoing colonization process of Korea under Japan, and he will soon drop by Harbin in Northeast China for meeting a Russian minister. An believes that killing this Japanese politician may stop that process via demonstrating more defiance of Korean people against Japan, and his several comrades willingly join him even though being well aware of the considerable risk in their assassination plan.

Of course, they should be more careful as their fateful day is approaching. While they are constantly informed about their target from their spy who manages to get quite close to their target, they are chased by a vicious Japanese detective who surely looks villainous with a mustache to swirl. At one point, he and his men brutally beat one of An’s comrades just for squeezing any information from him as soon as possible, and the mood becomes quite solemn as he eventually dies without telling anything at all.

However, this gritty and violent aspect of the movie often clashes with its less serious parts. Many of substantial characters surrounding An in the film are more or less than broad caricatures mainly existing for cheap laughs or blatant melodrama, and that is not so surprising considering several previous works of director/co-writer Yoon Je-kyoon such as “Miracle in Cell No.7” (2013). Although I did not like that film much, I observed how much it appealed to the audiences around me, and I noticed that “Hero” also worked on the audiences in the same way during my viewing.

At least, the songs in the film are mostly fine on the whole. I must tell you that they are not as catchy as, say, the songs from “Hamilton”, but Yoon and his crew members did a fairly competent job of presenting these big musical moments on the screen. While some of them feel stagy at times, they are handled with enough skill to compensate for that, and I appreciate that even though, to be honest with you, I cannot hum any of the songs in the film.

The main cast members of the movie try as much as they can do with their respective archetype roles. While he is not a bad singer at all, Jung Sung-hwa is usually stuck with looking serious and determined throughout the film, and many of his fellow cast members are under-utilized due to their superficial supporting roles, though some of them manage to distinguish their parts more than expected. While Kim Go-eun and Park Jin-joo have each own moment to shine as two substantial female characters in the film, Kim Sung-rak, who plays that Japanese politician, delivers his two Japanese musical scenes with gusto, and Na Moon-hee brings some presence to her thankless role even though she does not speak much on the screen.

In conclusion, “Hero” does not annoy me like many of Yoon’s previous films, and that is the only consolation for me. Yes, he and his crew and cast members surely did a lot, and that surely shows on the screen, but the movie still does not engage me much due to its weak storytelling and thin characterization. Incidentally, this is the last South Korean film of this year for me, and that is a shame, considering that there are many better South Korean films during this year. Please watch “Decision to Leave” (2022) or “The Apartment with Two Women” (2021) instead, and you will thank me for that.

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Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): An enjoyable standard movie adaptation

Posted on December 27, 2022 by kaist455

“Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical”, which was released on Netflix on Christmas, is as cheerful and naughty as you can expect from the film adaptation of a popular stage musical based on one of the well-known works from Roald Dahl. While it is sweet, cheery, colorful on the whole, the movie also has some dark and vicious sides to amuse or scare its young target audiences, and everything is mostly packaged well together along with a number of nice musical scenes.

Because I have not seen the stage musical itself, the adaptive screenplay by Dennis Kelly, who wrote the musical version along with director Matthew Warchus and songwriter Tim Minchin, is fairly faithful to Dahl’s original children’s book. Our plucky little young heroine Matilda Wormwood (Alisha Weir) has often been neglected by her callously self-absorbed parents since she was born, but she has managed to grow up pretty well alone by herself, and she does not have much problem with her parents as long as they let her spend her own time with books without bothering her at all.

However, Matilda’s daily life happens to be disrupted when her parents, who did not care about her education at all from the beginning, comes to send her to a local private school run by its stern and imposing headmaster Miss Agatha Trunchbull (Emma Thompson). Right from its first appearance, the school looks gloomy and harsh enough to be described as Dickensian, but Matilda is not daunted at all, and her considerable intelligence and spirit soon comes to draw the attention of everyone in the school including her classroom teacher Miss Jennifer Honey (Lashana Lynch), a kind and tender young woman who is frequently daunted by Miss Trunchbull just like many others in the school.

Of course, Miss Trunchbull does not want anyone to disrupt her firm status quo in the school. No matter how much Matilda and her schoolmates try to be cheerful and defiant with their songs and dances, Miss Trunchbull is determined to crush all their spirits by any means necessary, and there is one grotesque moment when she casually wields a certain athletic skill of hers in front of her terrified students.

Meanwhile, our young heroine is also harassed more by her parents, and she usually finds herself escaping into a little story she makes up and then shares with Mrs. Phelps (Sindhu Vee), a local mobile librarian lady who are always ready to borrow her many different kinds of books. Matilda’s story is a sort of fairy tale about one young circus couple and their little daughter who has to endure a lot due to her evil step-aunt, and it goes without saying that this story is eventually connected with the main narrative of the film.

As she pours more emotion into her story, Matilda somehow acquires a telekinetic power, and this special power of hers is increased as she uses it more and more during next several days. While she is told early in the film that she should not be bad to others even if they are not so nice to her at all, she cannot help but mischievous and furious, and it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that, after learning of something personal between Miss Honey and Miss Trunchbull, she will eventually use her special power against her hateful schoolmaster.

This story setting surely can be as dark as, say, “Carrie” (1976), but the movie steadily maintains its cheery mood as usual. As a matter of fact, even Miss Trunchbull comes to have her own fantasy musical moment in the middle of the story, and we surely have a little laugh from that before we wince again for her sheer nastiness which may influence a lot Imelda Staunton’s equally mean character in “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2007).

Technically, the movie is more or less than a standard musical adaptation, but it delivers its musical sequences fairly well on the whole, and young performer Alisha Weir duly holds the center as required. Along with a bunch of child performers on the screen, she brings a considerable amount of natural charm and spirit into their big musical scenes in the film, and I would have not mind at all if they had suddenly performed instead that striking school musical scene from “Pink Floyd – the Wall” (1982).

Around Weir, several other adult cast members have some fun with playing their colorful caricature roles. Sindhu Vee and Lashana Lynch are effective as two kind adult characters in the Matilda’s life, and Lynch demonstrates here a considerable range of her talent while feeling quite different from her tough supporting turns in “No Time to Die” (2021) and “The Woman King” (2022). As Matilda’s utterly obnoxious parents, Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough willingly throw themselves into their crude supporting parts, and the same thing can be said about Emma Thompson. Even though she is actually not taller or bulkier than me, she somehow looks quite heavy and imposing in the film, and she surely enjoys every nasty but undeniably juicy moment handed to her.

In conclusion, “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical” is an enjoyable musical movie mainly thanks to the engaging performances from its main cast members, and I was entertained by its delicious mix of sweetness and nastiness. Although it does not surpass the 1996 movie adaptation of Dahl’s book, the movie has enough charm and spirit to keep things rolling to the end at least, and it may cheer you up a bit in the middle of the ongoing holiday season.

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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Blanc back in action

Posted on December 24, 2022 by kaist455

Rian Johnson’s new film “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”, which was released on Netflix yesterday, is another delicious murder mystery to be savored and appreciated. Like its predecessor “Knives Out” (2019), it is constantly witty, intriguing, and suspenseful as throwing one surprise plot turn after another, and you will enjoy many fun and colorful moments in the movie even if you can easily guess the answer in advance.

Daniel Craig, who recently ended his tenure in the James Bond series, is back as Benoit Blanc, who is incidentally the best detective in the world according to Google. He happens to be invited to a little private party to be held in a small Greek island belonging to the owner of a prominent technology company, and he subsequently finds himself surrounded by a bunch of figures who are also invited to the party for a personal reason. All of these figures have been associated with Miles Bron (Edward Norton) in one way or another for years, and Bron is going to have another fun time with them just like he and they have done every year.

Not long after Blanc arrives in Bron’s island along with the other guests, Bron reveals something to Blanc in private. As a matter of fact, Blanc was not actually invited, and it goes without saying that somebody wants Blanc to attend Bron’s party for some unknown reason. Because Bron plans a murder mystery game for his guests who do not like him much for each own reason, Blanc tactfully warns Bron, but Bron does not pay much attention to Blanc’s warning.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that the situation becomes much more serious for everyone later, but now I have to be a lot more discreet about describing the story and characters. Once everyone sees how serious the circumstance really is, Blanc steps forward as expected, but the mystery handed to him looks quite difficult to solve. For instance, every living figure around him has a good motive and chance for committing that crime in question, and the mood certainly becomes more tense and disturbing as he and others are going to be stuck inside the island during next several hours.

As the story briskly rolls from one unexpected moment to another, the movie deftly doles out a number of hints and clues as expected, and the main pleasure comes from how Johnson’s screenplay cleverly builds them up to an eventual narrative point where everything perfectly and beautifully fits together in the end. While there are several big plot turns to catch off you guard, the movie never loses its narrative momentum at all as firmly holding our attention, and we are completely satisfied by how it delivers a cathartic moment of resolution with sheer thrill and excitement.

In technical aspects, Johnson and his crew members have a lot of fun with imbuing the main background of the movie with a considerable amount of style and details. Bron’s big manor in the island, which is more or less of the reflection of his ego which is as big and vain as Elon Musk’s, is filled with interesting stuffs to draw our attention, and my personal favourite one in the film is a garden which happens to be a non-smoking area for a reason to be revealed later in the film. The production design by Rick Heinrichs and the costume design by Jenny Eagan are often impressive to say the least, and their splendid works are captured well on the screen by cinematographer Steve Yedlin.

At the center of the film, Craig goes all the way with his character’s exaggerated accent while also exuding his character’s irrepressible wit, charm, and intelligence. Blanc looks rather silly at times, but, like Hercules Poirot in Agatha Christie’s mystery novels, he is always watchful as enthusiastically drawn to another crime mystery to be solved, and Craig ably conveys to us a strong sense of decency and justice behind his character’s unabashedly comic appearance. At one point early in the film, Blanc emphasizes that he just cares about facts only, but, of course, he does care much more than he seems on the surface, and you will smile as observing how he slyly lets the justice served around the end of the story.

Around Craig, Johnson assembles a number of various performers, and each of them surely has each own fun with their broad but colorful archetype roles. While Edward Norton is suitably obnoxious as required by his character, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, and Janelle Monáe are also effective as the other potential suspects in the story, and Monáe is especially terrific when her character, who is quite bitter about Bron and most of his guests for an understandable reason of her own, mercilessly roasts them all at one point. In addition, a number of notable figures and performers make their cameo appearances here and there throughout the film, and it is certainly a bit poignant to see the last movie appearance of Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim (The movie is dedicated to both of them, by the way).

On the whole, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” is thoroughly enjoyable thanks to Johnson’s dexterous handling of story and characters and many other strong elements including the spirited efforts from Craig and the other main cast members. It is a shame that I and other South Korean audiences could not have a chance to watch at movie theater, but I had a pretty good time with it today anyway, and I sincerely urge you to check it out as soon as possible before exposed to any spoiler.

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The Big 4 (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Very silly – and very violent

Posted on December 24, 2022 by kaist455

Indonesian Netflix film “The Big 4”, which was released in last week, is a very violet action flick which is also quite silly and melodramatic at times. Although this extreme mix is mostly too uneven and shallow for me, the movie seldom bores its target audiences as diligently doing one thing after another during its 141-minute running time, and you may come to have some expectation on its possible sequel, if you enjoy it more than me.

Right from the opening sequence unfolded inside a seemingly benevolent charity organization which turns out to be quite atrocious, the movie strikes us hard with its deliberately jarring concoction of extreme violence and silly gags. Once they are ready to attack their latest target, Topan (Abimana Aryasatya) and his three team members go all the way for rescuing those poor children to be dissected for illegal organ trafficking sooner or later, and we are surely served with lots of bloody and gory moments as they swiftly and mercilessly eliminate every opponent in their sight.

These four persons have been under the guidance of Petrus (Budi Ros), an old man who has been a father/mentor figure since they were very young. When his daughter Dina (Putri Marino) becomes a police officer at last, Petrus decides to retire just because he does not want to have more problem between him and his daughter, and his four pupils respect his decision even though they are not so happy about his decision.

However, Petrus is suddenly killed while being ready to move onto the next chapter of his remaining life, and that certainly devastates both Topan and Dina. Dina becomes quite determined to find out who killed her father, but the case remains unsolved during next three years, and that makes her quite frustrated to say the least – until she accidentally comes across a little thing which leads her to something her father hid from her for years.

Dina subsequently goes to a little island which is a well-known spot for tourists, and that is how she comes to encounter Topan, who has been living a relatively quiet life in the island just like his fellow team members since their mentor’s death. Right from their first encounter in a shabby little hotel, Dina instantly senses something is not quite right, and, what do you know, Topan soon finds himself wielding his good old killing skills when it turns out that there are some dangerous people following after Dina.

These dangerous people are led by a ruthless figure named Antonio Sandoval (Marthino Lio). When he is introduced to us early in the film, he and his gang members are eliminating their latest opponents, and he enjoys every minute of it while also showing off his jacket which is not so different from the one worn by Ryan Gosling in “Drive” (2011).

As gradually revealed along the story, Antonio is driven by a certain personal motive besides being hired by someone eager to eliminate Topan and his team members, and Topan and his team members have no choice but to go back to their good old killing mode in addition to working along with Dina. Although she does not trust Topan and his team members much at first, Dina eventually helps them because there is not anyone to help her besides them, and, not so surprisingly, she also finds herself attracted to Topan as she gets to know him more.

While these main characters bounce from one narrative point to another, the movie keeps things rolling as pouring lots of action and comedy onto the screen. You may chuckle while watching a number of broad comic moments including the one involved with a sudden catfight between Dina and the only female member of Topan’s team, and then you will be quite thrilled or shocked by several relentless action sequences. As far as I observed from the film, it kills as much as its fellow Indonesian action movie “The Raid: Redemption” (2012), and I assure you that the movie is equally violent except that it also does lots of silly gags even during its most violent moments.

That brings a sort of personality to the film, but I often felt distant to it even while admiring the considerable efforts put into its main action sequences. I appreciate how the main cast members willingly throw themselves into both action and comedy, but their acting often feels cartoonish to me as frequently swinging back and forth between heavy-handed melodrama and cheap comedy, and their characters do not have much substance behind their colorful appearances. In the end, I did not care much when the movie arrived at its expected big finale filled with lots of bangs and crashes.

In conclusion, “The Big 4” is not entirely without good things to enjoy, but I still hesitate to recommend it due to many reasons including its overlong narrative and superficial characterization (Several main female figures in the film are mostly defined by how attractive they look, for example). Maybe because I did not enjoy much “The Raid: Redemption” and its following 2014 sequel unlike many others, I was not entertained a lot by what is so loudly and violently presented in the film, but I have to say that director/co-writer/co-producer Timo Tjahjanto is a good action movie director who does know how to present action on the screen well for us. Seriously, I can only hope that he will do a better job in terms of story and characters in his next film.

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