Falling for Christmas (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): An average Christmas product from Netflix

Posted on November 21, 2022 by kaist455

I am old enough to remember how Lindsay Lohan was a promising actress around the early 2000s. After “Mean Girls” (2004), it looked like she was ready to move onto the next step of her burgeoning acting career as shown from her fine supporting turn in Robert Altman’s poignant last film “Prairie Home Companion” (2006), but, alas, she unfortunately became a notorious troublemaker/laughingstock due a series of big and small problems in her life and career, and she actually appeared in only two movies since Paul Schrader’s “The Canyons” (2013).

Anyway, it seems she has been climbing up from her personal/professional bottom these days, and Netflix film “Falling for Christmas”, which was released early in this month, shows that she is still a good performer who can be funny and delightful. While she is not so supported well by the movie itself, she carries it to the end through her fairly commendable efforts, and the overall result is not as terrible as I feared at least.

In the movie, Lohan plays Sierra Belmont, a spoiled and superficial daughter of one wealthy businessman who owns and runs a big ski resort in Aspen, Colorado. She is recently employed as the “vice president of atmosphere” of the resort, but everyone including herself knows well that her father simply wants her to keep her around him during the Christmas season, and she is usually more occupied with interacting with her boyfriend, who is equally superficial as your typical social influencer.

Not long after he arrives in the ski resort, Sierra’s boyfriend pulls off a little surprise for her just because that will draw more attention to them from those countless online followers of his out there. He takes her to a remote spot outside the ski resort, and then he blatantly proposes to her with a big wedding ring which incidentally does not fit with her little finger that well.

Sierra says yes without much thought, but then something unfortunate happens. She and her boyfriend happen to be on a high spot covered with lots of snow, and they accidentally tumble down from that spot in opposite directions. In case of Sierra, she is not injured much on the whole, but she gets her head hit by a tree. After she is fortunately rescued and then sent to a local hospital, she wakes up to find herself totally incapable of remembering who the hell she is, and she has no choice but to stay in a small local ski resort run by Jake Russell (Chord Overstreet), a nice (and handsome) dude who kindly rescued her at that time.

Jake and Sierra, who is now called “Sarah”, actually came across each other before, though neither of them cannot remember well even though that happened not long before Sierra’s accident. Because his little ski resort business has not been going well, Jake attempted to approach to Sierra’s father for some financial help, and that was when he had a rather unpleasant encounter with Sierra, who just looks vaguely familiar to him as “Sarah” at present probably because she does not wear all those fancy clothes and accessories.

Anyway, Sierra agrees to help Jake’s ski resort business a bit as a temporary employee, and the movie certainly gives us a series of silly comic moments showing how woefully inexperienced she really is. It looks like there is not any other employee besides her and Jake’s hearty mother-in-law Alejandra (Alejandra Flores), and Alejandra gladly helps “Sarah” get accustomed to her new job although “Sarah” will stay for just several days.

While often being around Jake, Sierra gets to know more about Jake, and, what do you know, she comes to care about him and his ski resort business more than expected. His ski resort actually came from his dead wife’s family, and he has really tried a lot to prevent it from being shut down because he knows how much it means to not only himself but also his mother-in-law and his cute little daughter, but, alas, it looks like he may have to close it down once the current Christmas season is over.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that our heroine eventually finds a nice solution for Jake and his sky resort – and that she also falls in love with him while wholeheartedly supported by Alejandra and her granddaughter. After all, her granddaughter wishes her daddy to be really happy, and the movie even has a certain supporting figure who may be a sort of Christmas spirit or an undercover Santa Claus.

The movie is often distracting whenever it focuses on a comic subplot involved with how Sierra’s boyfriend struggles to survive out there in the meantime, but it surely feels warm and cheerful when it is focusing on Sierra’s expected growth along the story. Lohan is often amusing and charming in addition to fitting very well to her role mainly due to her current public image, and she demonstrates here that she deserves the second chance as much as, say, Robert Downey Jr. In case of several other main cast members, Chord Overstreet and George Young are sadly stuck in their respective thankless cardboard roles, and Alejandra Flores and young performer Olivia Perez acquit themselves well as bringing some decent holiday cheer as required.

Directed by Janeen Damian, “Falling for Christmas” is not particularly recommendable for being a bit too familiar and predictable, but it is mostly passable as another safe Christmas product from Netflix. Yes, there are much better movies for Christmas out there, but it will probably not disappoint you much if you simply want to spend your free time without much expectation.

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Bantú Mama (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): A small interesting film from the Dominican Republic

Posted on November 20, 2022 by kaist455

“Bantú Mama”, which was released on Netflix in US a few days ago and also recently selected as the Dominican Republic’s official submission to Best International Film Oscar, is a small film too good to be overlooked in my inconsequential opinion. Although it simply presents a modestly shabby human drama on the surface, it handles its story, background, and characters with considerable care and thoughtfulness, and it may be regarded as a solid breakthrough for its promising director who will probably impress us more in the future.

At the beginning, the movie succinctly establishes how a young African woman named Emma (Clarisse Albrecht) gets herself into a big trouble shortly after leaving her current residence in France. She initially seems to be merely enjoying a vacation in Santo Domingo she could somehow afford, but it gradually turns out that she got herself involved with a local criminal organization, and we soon see her nervously attempting to smuggle a considerable amount of drug as demanded at the airport.

Unfortunately, Emma is arrested by the local police right before getting on the airplane, and then she becomes a fugitive once she manages to escape thanks to a sudden accident in the middle of her transfer to the jail. She happens to be within a very notorious slum neighborhood in Santo Domingo, but she is fortunately rescued by T.I.N.A. (Scarlet Reyes) and $hulo (Arturo Perez), two adolescent siblings who have struggled to earn their living for themselves in the absence of their parents.

T.I.N.A. and $hulo willingly take Emma to their little shabby residence where they have lived along with their little young brother Cuki (Euris Javiel). Because T.I.N.A. and $hulo are usually busy with earning money by any means necessary outside, Emma naturally comes to take care of Cuki at their home, and we observe how she gradually comes to function like a mother figure in the house as she stays longer than expected.

Quite grateful to Emma for her little but precious help, T.I.N.A. tries to help Emma go back to France as much as possible. Because the local police is still looking for her, Emma should be really careful especially when she is outside the house, and she surely has a tough lesson when she almost gets arrested and then exposed later in the story.

Meanwhile, the movie also pays attention to how things have been desperate for T.I.N.A and $hulo. Expecting to earn some money sooner or later via some drug dealing, $hulo thinks things will soon get a bit better for him and his two younger siblings, but T.I.N.A. knows better as clearly discerning lots of despair and desperation in their slum neighborhood. As she bitterly admits at one point, she and her older brother will probably be stuck there for the rest of their life even if they are lucky enough to avoid jail unlike their prisoner father, and that is why she is really concerned about Cuki’s life.

At least, things do not look bad for now thanks to Emma’s presence in the house. When she does some African dance along with Cuki and his two older siblings, the mood gets lightened up a bit in the house, and the movie subtly makes an interesting point on the racial and cultural background of its main characters. While Emma is quite different from Cuki and his two older siblings in many aspects, she and they make some human connection via their shared racial background, and that eventually motivates T.I.N.A. to make a hard but necessary choice around the end of the story.

These and other soft and sensitive moments in the film are often contrasted with the gritty realism of the slum neighborhood surrounding its main characters, and director/co-writer/co-producer Ivan Herrera, who previously made a feature film debut with “Pueto Pa’ Mi” (2015), and his crew members including cinematographer Sebastian Cabrera Chelin did a commendable job of imbuing the screen with a considerable degree of verisimilitude. According to the IMDB trivia, they used only one camera lens during their shooting, but the movie does not look cheap or shabby at all, and it even has some sublime poetic moments including the recurring ones involved with a kite in the sky.

In case of the small main cast of the film, they are quite natural in their unadorned ensemble performance. Clarisse Albrecht, who wrote the screenplay with Herrera, gracefully conveys to us her character’s gradual development along the story, and we can really sense how much her character is true to herself in the end. Euris Javiel and Arturo Perez are effective as two very different siblings who have no choice but to stick togeher for not only themselves for their dear little younger brother, and Euris Javiel is also fine as another crucial part of the story.

In conclusion, “Bantú Mama” is fairly impressive in terms of mood, storytelling, and performance, and Herrera shows here that he is another interesting new filmmaker to watch. Although it surely requires some patience as your typical arthouse movie, the movie will engage you more than expected once you give it a chance, and you may even come to wish that it is a little longer. That is surely something not many movies can do, isn’t it?

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Falling for Figaro (2020) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Following her dream

Posted on November 19, 2022 by kaist455

“Falling for Figaro” is a mild and pleasant comedy film which will probably not leave much impression on you when it is over. While it is buoyed a lot by the charming natural presence of its lead actress, it is also pretty predictable and conventional to the core, and I must confess that I simply observed its story and characters from the distance even while getting some entertainment from time to time during my viewing.

Danielle Macdonald, a likable Australian actress who previously drew my attention via her enjoyable lead performance in Netflix comedy film “Dumplin’” (2018), plays Millie Cantwell, a young female American fund manager who suddenly decides to give up her promising professional career just for pursuing her personal dream. After watching a fabulous opera performance during one evening, she becomes quite determined to try on becoming a professional singer, and that certainly perplexes her boyfriend a lot, who is also incidentally her direct supervisor in their workplace.

Surely well aware of how inexperienced she is in many aspects, Millie looks for any good teacher who may be interested in helping her improve her singing skills, and she subsequently approaches to Meghan Geoffrey-Bishop (Joanna Lumley), a former diva who has focused on teaching since she left stages many years ago. Millie is warned about how harsh and cranky Meghan can be, but she is not daunted at all, and we soon see her driving up to a small Scottish village where Meghan has resided since her retirement.

Of course, things do not look that good right from when Millie arrives at the village. There is only one inn which is also the only pub in the village, and the room given to her is not exactly ideal to say the least. Although she has to stay there for next several weeks at least, Millie remains optimistic as before, and she also draws lots of attention from the crusty innkeeper and several other villagers who certainly welcome a little unexpected change in their mostly uneventful village.

However, Millie’s singing teacher is not so impressed or charmed by Millie at all. Right from their first singing lesson session, Meghan sharply points out how horribly amateurish Millie is, and Millie actually comes to consider quitting after her first grueling experience with Meghan, but she soon regains her plucky spirit nevertheless while also trying as hard as possible. Still strict and acerbic as usual, Meghan comes to discern considerable raw potential from her new student, and Millie consequently becomes more professional bit by bit under Meghan’s guidance.

Meanwhile, the movie also focuses on a local lad named Max Thistlewaite (Hugh Skinner), who was incidentally Meghan’s only student before Millie came. As Meghan’s attention is drawn more to Millie, Max cannot help but become jealous a times, but he also finds himself more motivated than before. Both he and Millie are going to participate in the upcoming nationwide singing competition, so Meghan has them practice together for enhancing each other, and, what do you know, we sense certain mutual feelings gradually developed between them.

After taking some time in establishing its main characters during its first half, the screenplay by director Ben Lewin and his co-writer Allen Palmer hops from one expected moment to another during its second half. Yes, our heroine surely becomes quite nervous and vulnerable during a local preliminary contest, but it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that she will eventually overcome, though I must say that there is a little surprise from what she sings during this part. Yes, our heroine becomes a bit conflicted when her boyfriend comes to show some support while she feels attracted to Max, but you can clearly see how this situation will be resolved in the end.

Anyway, the movie does not disappoint us at all in case of its several performance scenes. The arias from many different famous operas ranging from “La Traviata” to “The Barber of Seville” are performed on the screen, and, yes, that famous aria from “The Marriage of Figaro” also appears during one showstopper moment later in the story.

The solid performance from the three main cast members in the film overcome the conventional aspects of the story and characters at times. While Macdonald’s spirited comic performance ably carries the film to the end, she and Hugh Skinner, whose singings are respectively done by Stacey Alleaume and Nathan Lay, have nice low-key chemistry between them, and it is a shame that the movie often pushes their good efforts into distracting plot contrivance instead of going for more development on their characters’ rocky relationship. Around Macdonald and Skinner, Joanna Lumley has some juicy fun with her cantankerous character, and she is especially funny during her several scenes with Gary Lewis, who holds his small place fairly well as a supporting character who was probably quite close to Meghan some time ago.

On the whole, “Falling for Figaro” mostly works as a casual crowd-pleaser for general movie audiences, and I was not surprised when an acquaintance of mine told me later that she actually watched it twice. I can now think of several better comedy films about opera singing such as “Florence Foster Jenkins” (2016), but it is not boring at least, and I think you will not waste your time and money if you just look for some lightweight fun.

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Stutz (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Meet his therapist

Posted on November 18, 2022 by kaist455

Jonah Hill’s Netflix documentary film “Stutz”, which was released a few days ago, is a modest but interesting work to admire. As Hill and his therapist Dr. Phil Stutz are talking and discussing about many personal things besides Dr. Stutz’s unconventional therapy philosophy, we come to discern more of their respective human aspects, and we also come to appreciate how Hill sincerely and thoughtfully presents himself and his therapist without any vanity or pretension.

The early part of the documentary shows Hill and Dr. Stutz in one cozy space, and we see them going through an interview/therapy session between them. As Hill expresses his eagerness for introducing Dr. Stutz and his therapy philosophy, Dr. Stutz willingly explains a bit about that as occasionally talking about his life. While his early life was not that happy due to many things including his parents’ considerable personality difference, he was a natural listener with considerable empathy, and that was probably one of the reasons why he became a therapist.

Dr. Stutz’s therapy philosophy is pretty simple, but it is still interesting besides being quite helpful according to Hill himself, who frankly tells Dr. Stutz (and us) about his serious personal problems. Even after he became a major Hollywood actor with considerable professional success, Hill often felt lots of insecurity and anxiety in fact, and it seems that his sessions with Dr. Stutz really helped him cope with these mental problems during last several years.

According to Dr. Stutz, we all have each own personal demon to deal with, which he calls “Factor X”. In his viewpoint, we should deal with Factor X in one way or another while also accepting that life is never free from pain, uncertainty, and constant work, and he emphasizes a lot on how we should pay more attention to a number of important things one by one as trying to deal with Factor X instead of ignoring it.

Now this sounds like your average self-help book humbug, but Dr. Stutz comes to us a decent man really serious and passionate about his therapy philosophy. First of all, he does not intend to give us the solution for everything in our life, and, as far as I can see from the documentary, he really understands how messy life and people usually are. Nobody is perfect, and life will continue to be messy as usual, but, in his opinion, we keep trying to live another day nonetheless. Yes, this surely sounds clichéd, but, as a man who has had his own depression and anxiety problem for many years, I know too well that it is indeed one undeniable fact of life.

As requested by Hill, Dr. Stutz is candid as much as possible, and he does not hesitate to talk about a number of personal problems in his life. He is still haunted by the early death of his younger brother who was very ill at that time, and he has also been coping with his incurable illness which may terminate his professional career someday. He is mostly casual about that in front of the camera, but he looks regrettable when he subsequently talks a bit about how his illness affected a certain personal relationship of his.

On the opposite, Hill responds to his therapist with much more candidness than expected. In addition to revealing more of his personal vulnerability in front of the camera, he also shows a lot of his production process behind the camera, and that is where the documentary becomes more interesting than before. Without resorting to any kind of narcissism, Hill seriously discusses with Dr. Stutz on how he should shape his ongoing personal project, and the mood becomes a bit more amusing when Hill’s mother joins them at one point. Like her son, Hill’s mother is pretty candid and forthright as talking with her son on their personal issues, and Dr. Stutz is effortless while smoothly functioning as an unobtrusive mediator between them.

This moment later resonates with when Dr. Stutz reminisces about his mother, who also had her own personal issues just like her son. Besides being often unhappy with her life, she was not exactly a good mother to her son, but she eventually came to live her life more fully than before as overcoming her personal demons during her later years, and Dr. Stutz certainly admires her a lot for that, though he also recognizes that her mother’s personality problem was probably the main reason why he did not get along that well with women.

As he and Hill talk more and more with each other, we come to feel more of the deep friendship between them, and we also sense some bittersweet feeling as they talk more about the approaching end of Dr. Stutz’s life. At least, he has peacefully accepted that for years, and Hill provides a little poignant moment as he has his therapist have some little therapeutic comfort around the end of the documentary.

In conclusion, “Stutz” works as a respectful personal tribute to its interesting human subject, and Hill impresses us again as showing another side of his multifaceted talent. Besides being capable of going back and forth between comedy and drama as shown from his Oscar-nominated turns in “Moneyball” (2011) and “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013), he also made a solid directorial debut via “Mid90s” (2018), and “Stutz” shows that he is indeed a good filmmaker to watch besides being one of more interesting performers working in Hollywood. I do not know what he will do next, but, considering what I saw from “Mid90s” and “Stutz”, I guess I can have some expectation.

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The Fall (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Stuck at the top of a 600-meter tower

Posted on November 18, 2022 by kaist455

“The Fall” often made me wince and cringe for good reasons. As I said several times before, I have considerable aversion to high places, and I must say that the movie did a pretty good job of unnerving me as frequently emphasizing how its two main characters are helplessly being stuck at the top of a very, very, very tall TV tower. Although I also must point out that it is often rote and conventional in terms of story and characters, the movie still works thanks to not only admirable technical aspects but also some committed acting to be appreciated, and that may be good enough for you if you have some free time to spend.

During its opening part, the movie quickly establishes the very troubled status of one of its two main characters. Since she saw her dear husband falling to his death in the middle of their very risky rock-climbing attempt, Becky (Grace Caroline Currey) has struggled a lot with her loss and grief during several months, and that certainly affects her relationship with her father. He is genuinely concerned about his daughter, but they argue with each other when he confronts her not long after her another morose drinking evening, and that adds more estrangement to their strained relationship.

Meanwhile, Becky is approached by her friend Hunter (Virginia Gardner), who was incidentally with Becky and her husband at the time of that unfortunate accident. Unlike Becky, Hunter has busily been doing a series of risky climbing activities for her online fans out there, and she suggests to Becky that she really should try climbing again for herself. As a matter of fact, she is soon going to climb to the top of an abandoned TV tower in the middle of some remote area, and she wants Becky to accompany her.

Becky is naturally reluctant at first, but she eventually joins her friend because she does feel that she needs the closure for her immense loss along with some healing. Once they succeed in climbing to the top of that TV tower, she is going to spread the ashes of her dead husband up in the air, and her friend will gladly record everything for entertaining her online fans later.

When they come to that remote area, everything looks fine and well to them, and they subsequently begin their climbing along that TV tower, which looks quite unreal in contrast to the sheer flatness of the surrounding landscape. Believe or not, this TV tower, which is around 2000 feet (600 meters), is actually based on the KXTV/KOVR Tower radio tower in Walnut Grove, California, and I learned from Wikipedia that it is really around 600 meters besides being much taller than the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Around the point when Becky and Hunter are almost close to the top of the TV tower, there come some small warning signs as expected, but they keep climbing, and then they eventually arrive at the top as enjoying the breathtaking view surrounding them. While it is clear that lots of CGI was used for the production of the film, the result of the technical efforts from director/co-writer/co-producer Scott Mann and his crew members including cinematographer Miguel “MacGregor” Olaso is vivid and striking to say the least, and we can really believe that the two main characters of the film are taking considerable risk as they climb higher and higher.

Of course, things go quite wrong around the time when Becky and Hunter are about to climb down the TV tower, and they consequently find themselves stuck at the top of the TV tower without any possibility of getting help. While nobody knows where they are right now, they cannot use their smartphones to call anyone, and, to make matters worse, they do not even have anything to eat or drink at present.

This is surely a nice setup for solid survival drama, and the screenplay by Mann and his co-writer Jonathan Frank diligently supplies one danger after another along the story, but it stumbles more than once when it attempts to develop its two main characters and the drama between them. While Becky is mostly defined by her grief and desperation, Becky’s estranged relationship with her father feels artificial and redundant, and Hunter’s certain complicated personal situation with Becky will not surprise you much without bringing much to the story on the whole.

Anyway, the movie works best whenever it simply focuses on danger and survival, and you will seldom be bored during this part. I particularly like the scene involved with vicious condors (This is not much of a spoiler because they appear early in the film in advance), and I also appreciate the believable acting from Grace Caroline Currey and Virginia Gardner. I am sure that they took much less risk than Tom Cruise in his recent Mission Impossible flicks, but, boy, they still look pretty convincing nonetheless as their characters deal with one peril after another on the screen.

Overall, “The Fall” is relatively less satisfying that recent survival drama films ranging from “Gravity” (2013) to “The Shallow” (2016), but it does its job fairly well in its very limited main background. Despite its several notable flaws, it surely reminds me again that I really do not like going up to high places at all, and I guess that is enough for recommendation for now.

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Causeway (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): A modest character drama starring Jennifer Lawrence

Posted on November 16, 2022 by kaist455

“Causeway”, which was released on Apple TV+ early in this month, is a modest character drama which will engage and then touch you a bit more than expected. Although it is quite familiar in terms of story and characters, the movie gradually holds our attention as calmly focusing on the genuine human interactions between its damaged heroine and several other main characters around her, and, above all, it is also strongly anchored by another good performance from its wonderful lead actress.

Jennifer Lawrence, who quickly rose to stardom after her Oscar-nominated breakthrough turn in “Winter’s Bone” (2010), plays Lynsey, a female US military soldier who has been going through her difficult recuperation period since she got badly injured in her brain during her tour in Afghanistan. The early part of the film focuses on how she struggles to get better bit by bit under the care of a kind old caregiver played by Tony-winning actress Jayne Houdyshell, and Houdyshell’s warm supporting performance functions as a good counterpoint to Lawrence’s unadorned embodiment of her character’s physical and mental damages.

When it seems that she is recovered enough to leave, Lynsey returns to her hometown New Orleans, Louisiana. Although her hometown is the last place she wants to go for some personal reasons, she has no choice but to wait there while being ready for any chance of redeployment, and that means she will have to stay at her old family house where her mother Gloria, played Tony-nominated actress Linda Emond, is still living alone. Although Gloria is glad to for her daughter’s return, it does not take much time for us to sense the considerable estrangement between them, and we can easily guess the reason as observing how Gloria is more occupied with her current relationship with some guy (We never see him on the screen, by the way).

Anyway, Lynsey decides to be a little more active about her ongoing recuperation process. After a brief online job searching, she goes to a swimming pool cleaning service company, and she soon gets hired. While she does not get paid much, she is happy to do something outside, and that is certainly better than doing almost nothing inside her family house.

Meanwhile, she also happens to befriend James (Brian Tyree Henry), a local auto mechanic who helps her a bit shortly after her old truck had some problem. When Lynsey later asks more help from him, James kindly helps her without hesitation, and then they find themselves spending more time together as sensing loneliness from each other.

Now you may have some idea on what may happen next between them, but the screenplay by Ottessa Moshfegh, Luke Goebel, and Elizabeth Sanders wisely does not hurry itself in addition to avoiding clichés. Yes, Lynsey and James surely come to open themselves more to each other along the story, and James even suggests at one point that they should live together in a house where he lives alone at present, but this suggestion comes from kindness and compassion rather than romantic feeling. In case of Lynsey’s mother, she may not win the mother of the year award, but she does cares about her daughter nonetheless, and there is a nice intimate scene as she and her daughter become a little more honest about their flawed relationship.

During its last act, there eventually comes a point where our heroine comes to face not only her current problems but also some personal issues in the past, but the movie sticks to its calm and sensitive storytelling approach as before, and we are served with several small but undeniably touching moments to be appreciated. When the camera closely looks at our heroine’s face around the end of the film, we can feel how she feels a bit better than before, and that is why the following last shot leaves considerable impression on us.

Of course, the movie depends a lot on Lawrence’s presence and talent, and she demonstrates here that she has not lost any of her acting talent despite her recent brief break. Never showing off her character’s damaged status, she subtly conveys to us her character’s inner thoughts and feelings, and it is really engaging to see how she still can be as natural and unaffected as she did in “Winter’s Bone”, which is still at the top of her acting achievement list in my inconsequential opinion.

Furthermore, Lawrence is supported well by several recognizable character performers including Emond and Houdyshell. Bryan Tyree Henry, who has never disappointed us since his Emmy-nominated supporting turn in TV comedy series “Atlanta”, is simply wonderful as his character slowly and tentatively approaches closer to Lawrence’s character, and I enjoy their effortless interactions throughout the film. Stephen McKinley Henderson, a Tony-nominated actor who has been more notable thanks to his stellar recent supporting performances in “Fences” (2016) and “Lady Bird” (2017), is also fine as Linsey’s caring doctor, and Russell Harvard, a deaf actor who was memorable in his guest performance in the first season of TV drama series “Fargo”, shines in his single crucial scene with Lawrence later in the story.

In conclusion, “Causeway”, which is incidentally the first feature film of Lila Neugebauer, did its job as much as it can with its plain but intimate character drama, and the overall result is much better than “Raymond & Ray” (2022), another recent character drama from Apple TV+. While I came to almost nothing in case of the latter, the former let me get to know and understand its main characters more than expected, and that is certainly enough for recommendation.

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Raymond & Ray (2022) ☆☆(2/4): As they bury their father

Posted on November 15, 2022 by kaist455

“Raymond & Ray”, which was released on Apple TV+ in last month, merely trudges along its very familiar plot with its two ever-reliable lead performers who deserve better than this disappointing mush. While there are some good moments whenever they share the screen, the overall result is too rote and clichéd as filled with superficial sentimentality, and we are only left with rather hollow impressions when it eventually reaches to its lackluster ending.

Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke, who have been admirably steady during last three decades with each own talent and presence, play Raymond and Ray, two estranged stepbrothers who have been quite miserable in their respective lives. While Raymond is about to fail in his third marriage, Ray is a recovering addict who lives alone by himself without much care, and he is not so pleased at all when Raymond suddenly visits him with an unexpected news. Their father, who has been absent in their life for many years, died recently, and Raymond wants Ray to attend their father’s upcoming funeral with him, even though both of them do not like their father much for good reasons.

Because he still remembers how terrible their father was in many ways, Ray refuses to attend the funeral along with Raymond, but Raymond is persistent because he really needs some help from Ray. Besides needing someone else to drive for him instead (He has a little driving license problem, by the way), Raymond is afraid of becoming too emotional at the funeral, and Ray eventually agrees to accompany Raymond while also providing some emotional support for him.

However, not so surprisingly, Raymond and Ray do not get along that well with each other from the beginning. While both of them surely feel hurt as remembering those good and bad moments involved with their father, they often argue with each other during their journey to their father’s funeral, and McGregor and Hawke did a good job of embodying their respective characters’ damaged souls. Here are two man who were hurt and broken in one way or another in their shared past, and Hawke and McGregor ably establish not only their characters but also the long history between them.

I wish the movie would simply trust McGregor and Hawke more and then delve into their characters more, but, alas, it begins to lose its focus when Ray and Raymond eventually arrive at a town where their father lived during his last years. It tries some humor as Raymond and Ray are often perplexed by how his father were regarded well by several people who knew him before his death, but that becomes rather tiresome as it tries that again and again, and we never get to know that well who their father really was.

As a matter of fact, Raymond and Ray’s father feels like more like a plot device especially when his instruction on his own funeral is notified to Ray and Raymond. He requested that Raymond and Ray should bury his dead body for themselves as a part of the funeral ceremony, and that is surely the last thing both Ray and Raymond want to do right now.

Nevertheless, they follow their father’s instruction anyway as wondering what their father really wanted to do via that odd instruction of his, and they also come to spend some time with a few persons who were close to him around the time of his death. There is a Latino woman who turns out to be more than a merely close friend to him, and there is also a local pastor who is certainly ready to lead both Raymond and Ray to reconciliation and forgiveness.

And there is also a female hospital nurse who nursed Ray and Raymond’s father during his final days. Although their accidental encounter was not exactly pleasant, Ray finds himself attracted to this nurse, and she seems to be really interested in getting closer to him when she comes to see the burial of his dead father’s body, though he still has lots of emotional burdens besides his complicated feelings toward his dead father.

All these and other story elements could be handled well enough to engage us, but the screenplay by director/writer Rodrigo García often meanders without generating enough narrative momentum to hold our attention. Simply moving from one predictable moment to another, the story feels more tedious and hollower, and it even does not deliver well a certain expected payoff moment involved with a gun shown during the first act (Remember a term named Chekhov’s gun?).

Furthemore, the movie does not utilize well several good supporting performers surrounding McGregor and Hawke. Maribel Verdú and Sophie Okonedo surely do as much as they can do with their respective supporting roles, but they do not have much to do except functioning as possible love interests for Hawke’s and McGregor’s character, and the same thing can be said about Vondie Curtis-Hall, who manages to acquit himself well despite his woefully underwritten character.

On the whole, “Raymond & Ray” is not a total dud at least thanks to its good main cast, but it is a major letdown compared to García’s much better films such as “Nine Lives” (2005) and “Mother and Child” (2009). While these two films really surprised and moved me, “Raymond & Ray” just bored me without much satisfaction, and I am already ready to move onto whatever I am going to watch next.

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My Father’s Dragon (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Another charming animation film from Carton Saloon

Posted on November 14, 2022 by kaist455

Netflix animation feature film “My Father’s Dragon”, which was released a few days ago, is another charming work from Carton Saloon, an Irish film production company which gave us a series of stellar Oscar-nominated animation films including “The Secret of Kells” (2009) and “Wolfwalkers” (2020). Like these stellar works, “My Father’s Dragon” engages us a lot via a number of gorgeous visual moments, and these wonderful moments further accentuate the emotional aspects of its very simple but ultimately poignant fantasy tale.

At the beginning, the narration by Mary Kay Place, who has become more notable thanks to her recent acclaimed performance in Kent Jones’ “Diane” (2018), sets the tone of the film, and we are introduced to a young boy named Elmer (voiced by Jacob Tremblay) and his mother Dela (voiced by Golshifteh Farahani). They have been happy together as running a little shop together, but, unfortunately, their happy time does not last long due to some serious economic recession, and Dela has no choice but to close down the shop and leave for some big city along with her son.

Shortly after arriving in the city, Dela and her son come to stay in a little shabby building belonging to one cranky old lady. She promises to Elmer that everything will be fine in the end, but, no matter how much she tries, she cannot find any opportunity for earning some money for them, and we come to sense her growing desperation unlike Elmer, who still believes his mother’s white lie about their current status.

Eventually, Elmer becomes quite disillusioned after clashing with his mother due to a matter involved with one stray cat. That prompts him to run away from his mother, and that is how his little adventure begins. When he subsequently arrives at a pier at the fringe of the city, he is surprised when that stray cat, which happens to follow after him, suddenly talks to him, and the cat tells him about a certain island full of wild animals. In that island, there is a dragon which can help him solve his and his mother’s current problem, and Elmer is soon taken to that island by a talking whale once he agrees to go there.

Around the time when Elmer arrives at the island, the island, which looks like a big giant ball floating on the sea, is going through its latest peril. For some reason, the island keeps getting sunk, and Saiwa the Gorilla (voiced by Ian McShane), the leader of many different wild animals in the island, has exploited the flying power of the dragon to prevent their island from being completely sunk.

It seems that all Elmer has to do is rescuing the dragon and then finding the solution to the imminent crisis of the island, but the situation turns out to be more complex than expected. For example, the dragon, which is incidentally named Boris (voiced by Gaten Matarazzo), turns out to be a naïve young dragon which still has not done his coming-of-age ritual yet, and the story has some silly fun with his childish personality. In case of Saiwa the Gorilla, he is not an evil character at all, and we come to see that he really wants to save the island and his fellow wild animals because, well, he does care a lot.

As the screenplay by Meg LaFauve, which is based on the children’s novel of the same name by Ruth Stile Gannett, leisurely moves from one narrative point to another, the film gives us many superb scenes of splendid visual beauty. While the island surely looks magical on the outside as required, a number of various spots inside the island also shine with simple but sublime qualities, and several different wild animal characters introduced along the story bring extra wonder to the overall picture.

All these and many other things in the film are gorgeously presented on the screen via cell animation style, and that brings a lot of charm and personality to the film. The characters and backgrounds mostly look simple and broad, but they are full of distinctive details to notice, and the overall result often looks more vivid and impressive while also enhancing the story itself. Although the story feels a bit overlong during its last act, the visual power of the film still holds our attention at least, and the story wisely lets us gather what Elmer comes to learn during his adventure with Boris – and how he comes to grow up a lot around the end of the story.

Director Nora Twomey, who co-directed “The Secret of Kells” and then directed “The Breadwinner” (2017), assembles an impressive array of performers around Jacob Tremblay and Gaten Matarazzo, whose good voice performances work well as the heart and soul of the film. Golshifteh Farahani, Ian McShane, Whoopi Goldberg, Rita Moreno, Dianne Wiest, Chris O’Dowd, Judy Greer, Alan Cumming, and Jackie Earle Haley are all solid on the whole, and Farahani and McShane deserve some praise for ably handling their complex supporting characters.

In conclusion, “My Father’s Dragon” is a lovely animation film which is enjoyable in terms of mood, details, and storytelling. Like another recent Netflix animation film “Wendell & Wild” (2022), the film is surely brimming with life and personality, and I think kids can enjoy it as well as adults. Yes, it may be a little too slow for kids, but I think they will eventually savor its colorful moments, and adult accompanying them will certainly appreciate the considerable efforts shown from the screen.

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Enola Holmes 2 (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Miss Holmes Returns

Posted on November 14, 2022 by kaist455

Netflix film “Enola Holmes 2”, the sequel to “Enola Holmes” (2020), has more fun and excitement with its plucky titular heroine and several other characters around her. Based on the acclaimed young adult novel series by Nancy Springer, the movie cheerfully and thrillingly bounces around here and there in its 19th century Victorian background as its young heroine tries to solve her latest case, and you will appreciate its vibrant wit and humor as well as some nice modern touches throughout the story.

The story, written by director Harry Bradbeer and his screenplay writer Jack Thorne, begins at the point a few years after where the previous movie ends. Our heroine Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) has tried to start her own little detective agency in London, and she surely aspires to become as prominent as her famous older brother Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) someday, but, alas, things have not been going that well for her. Just because she is a woman, she is always disregarded and underestimated by those potential clients of hers, and she is about to give up running her detective agency when an unexpected client suddenly shows up in front of her.

That client in question is a little underage female factory worker named Bessy Chapman (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss), and she wants Enola to find her older sister who was suddenly disappeared for no apparent reason. Both Bessy and her older sister happen to be the employees of some big local match factory, and, after doing some investigation at their match factory whose shabby environment surely evokes Charles Dickens novels, Enola comes to see that the disappearance of Bessy’s older sister is somehow connected with whatever is going inside the factory.

However, the situation turns out to be much more perilous than expected as Enola delves more into her case. I will not go into details here for not spoiling your fun, but I can tell you instead that she soon gets herself into a big trouble as shown from the opening scene of the film, and it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that she comes across her older brother again, who has incidentally been having some big headache over a rather complicated financial case.

Besides Enola’s famous older brother, several other characters from the previous film also return to help Enola in one way or another. Enola’s radical suffragette mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) and Eudoria’s old friend Edith (Susie Wokoma) are certainly ready to help Enola a bit later in the story, and there is also Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), a young reformer nobleman who had some adventurous time along with Enola in the previous film. When he and Enola come across again, the mood is rather awkward as both of them hesitate to express their mutual feeling, and we later get more amusement when they have another unexpected encounter while Enola tries to focus more on solving her current case.

Meanwhile, it gradually turns out that Enola’s case is also connected with her older brother’s case. There is someone who seems to be having a naughty criminal fun against them, and it does not take much time for both Enola and her older brother to realize that a corrupt cop named Grail (David Thewlis) is involved with this hidden figure, who has no qualms at all about blocking Enola and her older brother by any means necessary.

As Enola moves from one point to another in her increasingly risky investigation, the movie provides several nice action scenes. Although the climactic action sequence is a bit too long in my humble opinion, the movie thankfully does not lose any of its spirit and momentum at all even at that point, and the finale is pretty satisfying as everything in the story clicks together with simple clarity before culminating to the Victorian equivalent of that famous moment in “Norma Rae” (1979). As shown at the end of the story, Bessy’s older sister is based on a real-life female match factory worker, and she and many other female match factory workers really fought hard for changing their very unhealthy work environment.

The movie is also supported well by the colorful performances from its various cast members, some of whom are incidentally interesting color-blind casting choices. Steadily carrying the film as required, Millie Bobby Brown, who has been already ready to move onto the next step of her promising acting career since her breakthrough turn in Netflix TV series “Stranger Things”, effortlessly exudes her character’s irrepressible charm, spirit, and intelligence, and Henry Cavill, who has demonstrated that he can do more than solemnly playing a certain well-known superhero, has his own good moments as a more caring version of Sherlock Holmes. While Helena Bonham Carter, Louis Partridge, Susie Wokoma, and Adeel Akhtar are solid as before, David Thewlis, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Hannah Dodd, Serrana Su-Ling Bliss, and Himesh Patel are also well-cast in their respective supporting parts, and Thewlis, who can be quite subtle if necessary, willingly chews his scenes as the main villain of the film even though he does not have any moustache to twirl.

Overall, “Enola Homes 2” is one or two steps over the previous film in many aspects. If the previous film is a test run, the movie goes further with what makes the previous film so enjoyable, and Bradbeer and his cast and crew members did a commendable job on the whole. In short, this is one of the best movies from Netflix during this year, and I must confess that I am already looking forward to enjoying its heroine’s next adventure.

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Is That Black Enough for You?!? (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A sincere and enthusiastic presentation of the African American movie history

Posted on November 13, 2022 by kaist455

Netflix documentary film “Is That Black Enough for You?!?”, directed and written by African American critic Elvis Mitchell, is more than a quick and useful guide for the African American movie history. Besides being enlightening as well as entertaining, the documentary works a sincere and enthusiastic tribute to a certain important part of the American cinema, and you can really sense genuine care and passion as Mitchell diligently and excitingly examines one interesting part after another of the African American movie history.

While its main subject is the rise and fall of the African American movies during the 1970s, the documentary also focuses on what came before that. Since the beginning of the American cinema history, African American movie characters had often been grossly marginalized or stereotyped in numerous notable major Hollywood films ranging from “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) to “Gone with the Wind” (1939), but a number of independent African American filmmakers including Oscar Mischeaux tried to present their people more on the screen, and the documentary delves a bit into how they made and distributed their films despite many systemic limits during that period. At least, things began to change around the 1950s with the emergence of African American Hollywood movie stars such as Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, and Harry Belafonte, but there were still barriers for many African American filmmakers out there nonetheless, and the documentary sharply points out how the Hollywood system kept standing on the road to more changes even after Poitier became the first black Best Actor Oscar winner in 1964.

However, there eventually came a point where Hollywood could not ignore African American people anymore. As the civil rights movement in US gained much more momentum during the 1960s, the need for African American movies grew a lot more than before, and some of notable films during the late 1960s already showed what would come sooner or later. In case of George A. Romero’s seminal horror film “The Night of the Living Dead” (1968), it boldly had an African American hero at the center of the story, and the devastating demise of that character at the end of the film certainly resonated a lot with what was going on outside in the American society during that time.

After making “The Learning Tree” (1969), African American filmmaker Gordon Parks, who was a well-known professional photographer before moving onto filmmaking later, made a little crime action movie called “Shaft” (1971), and, as many of you know, the rest is history. With its confident African American private detective hero coupled with Isaac Hayes’ cool soundtrack (He deservedly won a Best Song Oscar, by the way), the movie opened the door to many different African American stars and films of the 1970s, and it is often fun to see some of them introduced and examined one by one in the documentary.

One of those prominent African American filmmakers during that period is Melvin van Peebles, and the documentary spends some time on showing and telling us how savvy he was as a filmmaker/entrepreneur. As a part of the promotion for his notable films such as “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” (1971), he often hired popular African American musicians for the soundtracks of his films, and that was how movie soundtracks became more popular than before. Many other African American filmmakers quickly followed his smart movies, and, as shown from a certain familiar classic song by Marvin Gaye, some of those soundtracks actually last a lot longer than their movies.

Around that point, African American cinema was not a mere underground area anymore. While “Shaft” and “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song” led to the emergence of more Blaxploitation films in the downstairs, there were also more, uh, respectable but equally important movies such as “Sounder” (1972) and “Lady Sings the Blues” (1972) in the upstairs, and they all surely gave more and more boost to African American cinema. In addition, a number of African American actors and actresses such as Billy Dee Williams and Pam Grier became far more notable than before, and Glynn Turman, a veteran actor who recently appeared in Oscar-winning film “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” (2020), tells us an amusing episode on how he was approached by Ingmar Bergman (!) thanks to his performance in “Cooley High” (1975), which is incidentally available on Criterion DVD/Blu-ray at present.

However, like many good things, the prime of African American cinema during the 1970s did not last long. With the subsequent rise of Hollywood blockbuster films such as “Jaws” (1975) and “Star Wars” (1977), African American cinema became less popular than before, and its cool stuffs were quickly appropriated by many contemporary mainstream Hollywood films including “Rocky” (1976) and “Saturday Night Fever” (1977). Around the point where Charles Burnett’s great film “Killer of Sheep” (1978) is introduced, the mood understandably becomes mournful because the movie, which did not draw much attention at the time of its initial theatrical release, was one of the last notable films of that great era for African American Cinema.

Nevertheless, African American cinema has kept going on during next several decades, and numerous prominent African American filmmakers and performers interviewed in the documentary certainly confirm that to us. Besides Spike Lee, many different African American filmmakers ranging from Barry Jenkins to Dee Rees have respectively carried the torch as learning a lot from that prime period, and we have surely enjoyed their memorable films for many years.

In conclusion, “Is That Black Enough for You!?!” works well as an illuminating film essay, and Mitchell did a commendable job of juggling numerous archival footage and interview clips along with some personal history of his. I love documentaries which make me more aware of blind spots in my inconsequential knowledge, and I am glad to report to you that this is certainly one of such fantastic documentaries.

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