Everything Went Fine (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A restrained but poignant drama by François Ozon

Posted on September 12, 2022 by kaist455

French film “Everything Went Fine” is restrained but poignant as simply observing a very serious family matter. While never overlooking its main characters’ emotional struggles over that matter, the movie thoughtfully lets us get to know more about them and their life along the story, and we come to reflect more on its sensitive main subject as they finally come to reach to the end of their hard and difficult human experience.

The movie begins with a sudden illness of André (André Dussollier), who is the father of Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau) and Pascale (Géraldine Pailhas). Shortly after having a stroke, he is promptly sent to a hospital while his two daughters are around him, but, though he still speaks fairly well, it turns out that his stroke seriously affects his physical state on the whole, and both he and his daughters are certainly devastated for that.

He can recover from this to some degree, and he is also affluent enough to receive a very good treatment and rehabilitation process, but André comes to feel rather miserable about his current medical status. While he willingly goes along with the following recuperation period, he often tells Emmanuèle about how he does not feel like himself anymore, and then he requests something his daughter does not accept that well at first. He wants to die as soon as possible, and he is going to need some assistance from her and her younger sister for that.

Of course, Emmanuèle is upset by this grim request from her father. As shown from several brief flachback scenes, André was not exactly someone to win the Father of the Year award, but both she and Pascale still love and care about their father nonetheless, and that certainly makes them feel quite conflicted about his request. Yes, they may follow that as his dear daughters, but, needless to say, there are surely lots of legal and ethical matters surrounding euthanasia, which happens to illegal in France.

Nevertheless, as watching how her father becomes more miserable and helpless due to his illness, Emmanuèle eventually decides to give what her father wants, and Pascale reluctantly joins her later. After doing some online search, Emmanuèle comes upon a Swiss institution for euthanasia, and the information from its website reminds her again of what a tricky matter euthanasia really is. While euthanasia is legalized in Switzerland, it is still a matter to be handled with uttermost caution and consideration, and that aspect is evident when Emmanuèle meets a middle-aged woman coming from that institution. It is apparent that this old lady has seen a lot as meeting people like André and Emmanuèle, and she dutifully informs Emmanuèle on how discreet the institution is from the beginning to the end. Besides not leaving any possibility for legal trouble, they are also going to make sure about André’s wish to die – even right before the point of no return.

Because there is still some possibility for dissuading her father from killing himself, Emmanuèle holds onto some hope while continuing to prepare for his death. As everything is ready for his death step by step, André actually feels better than before, and he is even willing to live a bit more just because he wants to attend a little private concert where one of Pascale’s kids will perform.

Meanwhile, we get to know more about some old problems in André’s family. While feeling a little sorry for him, his frigid ex-wife Claude (Charlotte Rampling) does not particularly want to spend more time with him, and the main reason for that is gradually revealed via a certain supporting character who is not so welcomed by his daughters. They are ready to stop this figure from approaching to André, but then it turns out that, despite his fear and worry, André still has some feeling toward this figure. As watching them in one brief scene, we can only guess how complicated their relationship is, and the movie wisely does not try to explain more.

In the end, there comes a point where André is supposedly ready for his euthanasia, and the situation becomes a bit tense as he and his daughters come upon another trouble on their way, but the screenplay by director/writer François Ozon, which is based on Emmanuèle Bernheim’s autobiographical novel of the same name, maintains its restrained attitude as usual. I have no idea on how much the movie is actually close to Bernheim’s novel or her real-life experience, but I can tell you instead that the movie did a deft balancing act between humor and drama, and its eventual arrival point is quietly touching as a result.

Under Ozon’s thoughtful direction, the main cast members are believable in their characters’ recognizable human behaviors. While Sophie Marceau demonstrates here that she is still a good actress, André Dussollier ably swings back and forth among different harrowing emotions, and Géraldine Pailhas and Charlotte Rampling are also solid as two other substantial characters in the story.

On the whole, “Everything Went Fine” is another fine work from Ozon, who recently impressed me a lot with “By the Grace of God” (2019) but then disappointed me a lot with “Summer of 85” (2020). After “Everything Went Fine”, he soon moved onto “Peter von Kant” (2022), and, considering how he bounces back here, I guess I can have some expectation on that next film of his.

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Jazz on a Summer’s Day (1959) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Jazz on the seaside

Posted on September 11, 2022 by kaist455

“Jazz on a Summer’s Day”, whose recent 4K remastered version was somehow released in South Korean theaters a few days ago, is an interesting time capsule which attempts to bring us into one day of the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. Although it feels rather tame and limited in many aspects, this famous 1959 concert film is still worthwhile to watch for a number of well-known musicians at the height of their careers, and I assure you that these musicians surely do not disappoint us via their sheer talent and presence.

At the beginning, the directors Bert Stern and Aram Avakian (Stern also served as the main cinematographer of the film while Avakin served as its chief editor, by the way) establishes the main tone of the film via a series of leisurely moments captured on the camera. While we see many cars arriving in Newport, the film gives us a brief audio interview with one of those festival attendants, and it also observes how some of local people are rather annoyed by the resulting festive mood surrounding their seaside town, which also happened to hold the 1958 America’s Cup yacht races during that time.

Frequently showing those competing yachts as well as the sea, the film slowly starts with Jimmy Guiffre as the first musician to perform on that day. Although he is relatively less well-known to many of us compared to other more prominent jazz musicians in the film, Guiffre and his band members did a fairy good job as the opening part, and then the film begins to roll further as other guest performers appear one by one. In case of Thelonious Monk, it is a bit shame that the film does not show more of his excellent performance on the stage, and I must tell you that I was quite impressed by the following performance of Anita O’Day, though I later learned via the IMDB Trivia that she was not exactly in her best condition at that time due to her longtime drug addiction problem.

Meanwhile, I also noticed how the audiences at the festival were rather mild in their reactions and responses. To be frank with you, most of them look like mere spectators instead of really interested audiences, and the film also seems to be bored a bit as occasionally shifting its focus onto what is going on outside the festival. At one point, we see a musician practicing a bit with his instrument, and that is surely more interesting moment to watch compared to those plain sights of frequently distracted festival audiences under the broad daylight.

Anyway, the mood of the festival thankfully continues to go up and up as before, and things get more interesting when the night is about to begin. After a terrific performance by Dinah Washington, we are treated with a special appearance by Chuck Berry. Though I must point out that this is not exactly one of the highpoints in his career, Berry’s performance galvanizes those festival audiences enough, and it was rather amusing for me to observe how they become much more responsive and enthusiastic compared to what I observed from them during the daytime.

Later in the film, Louis Armstrong finally appears, and it is noteworthy that this is one of very rare film appearances in his legendary career. According to the IMDB Trivia, Stern had to pay Armstrong no less than $ 25,000 for that, and Armstrong surely gave a moment to remember along with Jack Teagarden, though I must point out that the camera often focuses on their faces a bit too much instead of trying to immerse us more into what they generated along with other musicians on the stage.

After Armstrong and Teagarden’s duo performance, there comes Mahalia Jackson, and she certainly gives another highlight via her gracefully powerful performance of “The Lord’s Prayer”, which was incidentally the one to close the concert of that day. My eyes were initially focused more on the Korean subtitle, but I came to pay more attention more on how skillfully she delivered the intense emotions inside her performance, and it is no wonder that she has been remembered as one of the most influential American gospel singers for more than 50 years since her death in 1972.

While enjoying these and other highlights in the film to considerable degree, I must tell you that I also could not help but observe a number of weak aspects in the film. While it is indeed one of the notable concert films from the 1950s, Stern and Avakin’s rather earnest approach to their materials sometimes prevents the film becoming truly vivid and visceral, and you may need to get some extra background information in advance, because the film mostly presents its raw footage clips without much explanation.

Nevertheless, “Jazz on a Summer’s Day” is still highly recommendable for not only its cultural importance (It was already selected for preservation in the US National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1999, by the way) but also its entertaining musical moments to savor. As a concert film, it feels technically less impressive compared to many of its juniors such as “Woodstock” (1970), but it is indubitably an important piece of work to be cherished and remembered, and I am happy to report that its 4K remastered version today, which, as far I could see, looks fairly clean and sharp on the big screen. In short, this is a little nice surprise treat for me and many other audiences in South Korea, and I do appreciate that despite some grumble.

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Kim Min-young of the Report Card (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): As they are drifted apart from each other

Posted on September 11, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Kim Min-young of the Report Card” is a calm but intimate observation on the slow dissolution of the friendship among its three young female characters. As they try to live their respective lives in each own way after one certain turning point, they also find themselves getting drifted away from each other bit by bit, and there are several quiet but achingly bittersweet moments which will linger on your mind for a while after the movie is over.

During the opening scene, we are introduced to three female senior high school students: Yoo Jeong-hee (Kim Joo-ah), Kim Min-yeong (Yoon Ah-jung), and Choi Soosanna (Son Da-hyun). Although they have been pretty close to each other via their little creative writing circle (It seems that they are its only members, by the way), they all will have to prepare more for the upcoming college entrance examination which will incidentally be held exactly 100 days later, so they are holding a little private ceremony for closing down their creative writing circle for a while at least.

After that, we see what happens next to each of them after the college entrance examination. While Soosanna eventually goes abroad for studying at a certain Ivy League college in US, Min-yeong manages to be accepted to a university in Daegu, and Jeong-hee fails to get into any suitable college mainly because she was not particularly interested in going for higher education from the beginning. She does care about what she is going to do for her life, but she does not feel like being ready for that yet, and her parents do not seem to mind that much about her current status while sincerely hoping for the best for her.

We later see Min-yeong casually applying for a rather menial part-time job at a local private tennis court, and the movie draws a number of little humorous moments as she shows more diligence than expected. At one point, she decides to utilize a bit of her considerable drawing talent for more promotion for the tennis court, and she also gets a bit closer to the young son of her boss, whom she accidentally encountered and then helped a bit some time ago.

Meanwhile, Min-yeong and her two friends try to communicate with each other as much as before, but that becomes more difficult for them as time goes by. Because of not only the time difference between US and South Korea but also being often occupied with some matters in her current college life, Soosanna comes to feel quite burdened and annoyed, and we are not so surprised when she subsequently decides that enough is enough.

With Soosanna’s following absence, Jeong-hee naturally attempts to spend more time with Min-yeong, but Min-yeong has also been occupied with her own matters behind her back. As befriending some other friends at her university, she does not feel much need to spend time with her supposedly best friend, and, above all, her mind is mostly focused on how to get herself transferred to some better university in Seoul.

After leisurely strolling from one episodic moment to another during its first half, the screenplay by directors/writers Lee Jae-eun/Lim Ji-sun, who incidentally make their feature debut here, comes to build more narrative momentum when Jeong-hee visits a little apartment in Seoul where Min-yeong is staying during her summer vacation. Right from when Jeong-hee arrives, we can clearly sense considerable awkwardness between her and Min-yeong, and that becomes all the more palpable as they come to spend some time together during next several days.

While the story later reaches to a sort of breaking point as expected, the movie seldom raises its tone as Jeong-hee and Min-yeong’s relationship fluctuates between estrangement and affection along the narrative. As reflected by a little cheerful scene where they ride bicycles together, Jeong-hee’s presence brightens up Min-yeong’s daily life a bit, but they also come to feel more of the growing distance between them, and it becomes more apparent to Jeong-hee that she is not so welcomed by her friend as before – especially when Min-yeong comes to let out some of her negative feelings toward Jeong-hee later in the story.

These and other substantial moments in the film are handled well with subtle emotional intensity and sensitivity thanks to the directors’ excellent direction, and their main cast members are believable in their respective characters’ eventual growth and change along the story. While Kim Joo-ah’s unadorned but engaging performance conveys well to us her character’s rather offbeat qualities, Yoon Ah-jung complements her co-star well with her character’s practical cynicism, and Son Da-hyun is also fine as another crucial part of the story. These three wonderful actresses click so well with each other during the opening scene, and that is the main reason why the somber but undeniably haunting key scene around the end of the film works with considerable emotional resonance below the surface.

Overall, “Kim Min-young of the Report Card”, which won the Grand Prize when it was shown in the Jeonju International Film Festival early in last year, is a modest but commendable debut work by Lee and Lim, who are another new interesting South Korean filmmakers to watch in my humble opinion. Like many of recent South Korean independent films such as “Rolling” (2021), the movie reminds me again of how much South Korean cinema needs more female films these days, and I sincerely hope that Lee and Lim will keep advancing after this little but significant achievement of theirs.

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The Black Phone (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): A familiar but solid genre mix

Posted on September 8, 2022 by kaist455

“The Black Phone” did not surprise me much, but I was entertained nonetheless. As your average seasoned moviegoer, I clearly discerned what I was going to get from this effective genre piece, and it did not exceed my expectation much on the whole, but it still could engage me enough thanks to its creepy mood and solid storytelling. Yes, it did not take much time for me to guess where the story and characters are going, but the movie did a skillful job of making me care about what it is being at stake in the story, and I do appreciate that.

The movie is based on the short story of the same name by Joe Hill, who is incidentally the son of Stephen King. Although I have not read Hill’s short story yet, I have to point out that the movie is often reminiscent of his father’s several novels such as “It”, and it even has a very twisted villain who terrorizes a neighborhood as frequently kidnapping boys. This evil dude usually uses black balloons whenever he strikes down upon his target, and you may wonder whether he is related to Pennywise the Dancing Clown.  

Anyway, the story, which is set in Denver, Colorado in 1978, is mainly about Finney (Mason Thames), a young adolescent boy who has been often bullied inside and outside his home. Inside his home, he and his younger sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) have to be very cautious due to their alcoholic widower father who can be quite abusive to them, and he is also frequently tormented by several mean kids at his school. Compared to these two terrible issues of his, a series of kidnapping incidents in his neighborhood do not look that grim to him, though he worries about what actually happened to those vanished boys just like many others in the neighborhood.          

 It is clear that there is a serial kidnapper on the loose, and he is even nicknamed “the Grabber”, but, unfortunately, the local police do not still have any substantial clue to help tracking down this diabolical criminal. As a matter of fact, a couple of detectives later approach to Gwen just because she happened to dream about the Grabber at times, and that says a lot about how desperate their situation really is.

Meanwhile, the Grabber continues his reign of terror over the neighborhood. Not long after the Grabber took away one of his close friends, Finney comes upon a stranger while he is going to back to his home alone by himself, and, what do you know, this stranger turns out to be the Grabber, who swiftly kidnaps Finney while no one is around them. When Finney subsequently wakes up, he finds himself trapped inside a basement cell belonging to the Grabber, and the Grabber soon comes down to the basement for having some morbidly sadistic fun.

Once he is left alone in the basement cell again, Finney tries his best for finding any chance for escape, but there comes a little surprise as he becomes more frustrated and depressed after failing to find anything helpful in the basement cell. There is a little black phone which is supposed to be disconnected, and it suddenly rings to his surprise more than once. He hesitantly answers the phone later, and then he finds himself talking with one of those boys kidnapped and then murdered by the Grabber.

After that, one dead boy after another approaches to Finney via the black phone, and the story becomes more interesting as Finney gradually gets some chances for escape via these dead boys. Some of them tell him about certain things hidden here and there in the room, and one of them even warns him about how cruelly the Grabber is going to punish him for being, well, bad.

While our young hero keeps trying with more caution, the movie also focuses on Gwen, whose dreams turn out to be sort of clairvoyant and may actually help her finding where her brother is. As her father does not want to hear anything about her dreams for understandable personal reasons, Gwen decides to be more active than before, but, to her frustration, she still cannot have her exceptional talent under control.

In the meantime, the movie attempts to jolt us more than once via sudden shock and awe as expected, but they are effectively delivered without disrupting mood or narrative pacing at least. Director/co-writer/co-producer Scott Derrickson, who has mainly been known for several horror films including “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” (2005) and “Sinister” (2012), did a competent job of accumulating a palpably creepy sense of dread and suspense on the screen, and I particularly like a tense scene where our young hero must be really, really, really quiet in front of another possible chance for escape.

The main cast members of the movie are convincing in their respective parts. While Mason Thames diligently carries the film, Ethan Hawke effortlessly exudes menacing creepiness although his face is usually masked throughout the film, and Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and James Ransone are also fine as several other crucial characters in the story.

In conclusion, “The Black Phone” is a standard genre mix which does not transcend its genre elements but ably generates some dark fun from combining them. It is indeed familiar in many aspects, but it is done fairly well with enough skill and personality at least, and that is surely enough for recommendation in my trivial opinion.

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Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Will they overcome?

Posted on September 5, 2022 by kaist455

“Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” is a wry satire about one certain amusing side of the American culture. Mainly revolving around the two central figures of an African American megachurch who really need to overcome their disgraced public status, the movie cheerfully bounces from one witty moment to another along with its two charismatic lead performers, and their enjoyable comic performances are the main reason why I can willingly overlook several shortcomings including its rather anti-climactic ending.

At the beginning, the movie gives us some background information on its two main characters: Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and his wife Trinitie (Regina Hall). During last several years, Lee-Curtis was a very influential African American Christian pastor in Atlanta, Georgia, and he and his wife were certainly proud of their megachurch which was incidentally the main source of their fame, wealth, and power in the local community. Around the height of their success, the number of the congregants of their church was around 25,000, and it was surely a wonderful American dream for both of them.

However, their church was subsequently hit by a series of serious allegations against Lee-Curtis, who was accused of committing very inappropriate things to some of young congregants. As this came to draw more attention in public day by day, lots of congregants left the church, and Lee-Curtis and his wife became quite desperate while also coping with the legal trouble resulted from those serious allegations.

Nevertheless, they do not totally give up their hope yet. As the Easter week is approaching, Lee-Curtis and his wife plan a big church event where he is supposed to repent and then, yes, get born again in front of many audiences. As a matter of fact, they even let a documentary filmmaker and a small number of technical crew members follow and then record their ambitious journey to redemption, though we do not see much of these filmmaking folks behind the camera.

In front of the camera, Lee-Curtis and Trinities try their best for presenting themselves as positively as possible, but, of course, they only come to show how woefully they are unprepared from the beginning, and the movie naturally shifts itself on mockumentary mode at times. At one point, we are told that there are only five congregants still going to Lee-Curtis and Trinitie’s church, and these congregants surely bring some extra amusement during the scene where they try to assist Lee-Curtis and Trinitie’s rehearsal at the church.

To make matters worse, somebody is already ready to take over Lee-Curtis and Trinitie’s congregants. They are a promising young pastor named Keon Sumpter (Conphidance) and his wife Shakura (Nicole Beharie), and we get a little humorous moment when Lee-Curtis and Trinitie attempt to stop Keon and Shakura from ruining their big day to come. Although these two couples are courteous to each other on the surface, what is actually exchanged among them beneath their polite words and smiles are pretty evident to us, and that accordingly brings us another chuckle.

Above all, Lee-Curtis and Trinitie have serious personal issues to deal with, and the movie delves more into their increasingly strained relationship via a series of private moments between them. Although both of them never talk directly about what Lee-Curtis actually committed, we gradually come to have a pretty good idea about whatever happened between Lee-Curtis and those young congregants, and he certainly looks quite hypocritical when we see him preaching a lot about a certain sexual issue in front of his congregants. While well aware of her husband’s hidden problem, Trinitie tries to endure nonetheless as doing whatever she must do as a dutiful preacher’s wife, but she cannot help but feel like running out of patience – especially when her husband does not look like learning any lesson from his disastrous scandal.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that the movie eventually reaches to a sort of breaking point along with its two main characters, but the screenplay by director/writer Adamma Ebo, which is based on her 2018 short film of the same name, holds our attention to the end as providing more comic absurdity along the story. It also generates some gravitas via several more serious scenes, and one particularly strong scene sharply conveys to us how willingly Lee-Curtis looks away from his misdemeanor despite facing its grave ramifications right in front of him.

Above all, the movie is buoyed by the excellent comic chemistry between its two lead performers. While Sterling K. Brown, who has been mainly known for his Emmy-winning turn in TV drama series “This Is Us”, surprises us with his unexpected comic talent, Regina Hall, an underrated actress who can be not only very funny but also genuinely touching, is stellar as usual as steadily holds the ground for her co-star, and she is particularly good when her silent face speaks volumes around the end of the film. In case of Nicole Beharie and Conphidance, they ably function as the counterpart for Hall and Brown, but I cannot help but wonder whether they could be utilized further for more laughs for us.

On the whole, “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul” is not entirely without weak aspects, but it is still a fairly good feature debut work from Ebo, who has closely collaborated with her producer/twin sister Adanne Ebo. In my inconsequential opinion, it pulls its punches a bit too much especially during the last act, but it is still funny enough for recommendation thanks to the game efforts from Hall and Brown, and you may enjoy it more than me if you happen to be its target audience.

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I Came By (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Competent but ultimately flawed

Posted on September 5, 2022 by kaist455

I must confess that I found it rather challenging for me to talk about Netflix film “I Came By”, which was released a few days ago. Because many of crucial moments in the film depend on unexpected narrative turns, I will try as much as possible for not spoiling any of your entertainment while delving a bit into its story and characters, but I sincerely recommend you to watch the movie instead of reading the next paragraphs, especially if you are already interested in checking out this competent but ultimately flawed genre piece.

At first, the movie, which is mainly set in London, shows us the latest private secret mission of a lad named Toby Nealy (George MacKay) and his longtime childhood friend Jameel “Jay” Agassi (Percelle Ascott), For last several months, they broke into the residences of rich folks and then left a distinctively graffiti of theirs, and this illegal activity of theirs has drawn considerable attention on the internet while regarded as a bold act of defiance against the capitalistic system.

Not long after successfully accomplishing their latest mission, Jay happens to come across a suitable target for their next mission. The target in question is a retired judge named Hector Blake (Hugh Bonneville), and this guy looks fairly respectable and admirable for his dedication to civil rights, but Toby is skeptical just because Blake seems rather hypocritical considering his very privileged family background.

Anyway, breaking into Blake’s house looks pretty easy to say the least. He lives alone in his house, and, thank to Jay, Neil can easily turn off the security system of Blake’s house, but there comes a major setback for Neil. After learning that his girlfriend Naz (Varada Sethu) becomes pregnant, Jay decides that he really should be more careful and responsible than before, and he becomes all the more determined about that when Naz’s conservative parents later disown her due to her pregnancy. 

In the end, Neil decides to break into Blake’s house alone by himself, and everything seems to be going well for him at first, but, of course, there soon comes another problem. It turns out that Blake has one big terrible secret hidden inside his house, and that naturally puts Neil into a very complicated circumstance. Sure, he may call the police and then show them what he discovered, but this will definitely expose not only him but also Jay, who, as a young black man with a substantial criminal record, does not want to get into another legal trouble.

Now I should be more careful as going further into details, so I will just say that Neil’s opponent is not only smart and resourceful but also quite formidable to say the least. When his house is subsequently searched by the police later in the story, Blake is not so perturbed at all because of his respectable status, and, thanks to his several influential friends, he can also pull some strings for preventing any further investigation.

Around that narrative point, the screenplay by director/co-producer/co-writer Babak Anvari and his co-writer Namsi Khan gradually shifts its focus to Blake’s twisted criminal mind. There is a quiet but creepy scene where he casually reveals more of what has made him tick since his childhood years, and we are more chilled by how he methodically takes care of his current problem with no remorse or hesitation at all.

Meanwhile, the movie also pays some attention to Jay and the other main character in the story. Although her relationship with her son has been quite strained, Lizzie (Kelly Macdonald) decides to get to the bottom of whatever his son gets himself into, and she soon gets some clues thanks to a little indirect help from Jay, who still does not reveal everything to her or his girlfriend. It does not take much time for Lizzie to grasp the overall situation surrounding her son and Jay, and she comes to fear more than before when she happens to come upon one sudden incident while doing her little stakeout outside Blake’s house.

Up to that point, the movie engaged me fairly enough, but then, unfortunately, it takes a series of contrived plot turns to my dissatisfaction. Although its plot did surprise me more than once, I came to observe its story and characters from the distance in the end due to a number of flaws in terms of storytelling and characterization, and I was also quite disappointed with how it pulls off its eventual finale too conveniently.

In case of the main cast members of the film, they do try whatever they can do with their respective roles, but they are often limited by their rather conventional character. While George MacKay and Kelly Macdonald are stuck in their thankless parts, Percelle Ascott and Varada Sethu manage to acquit themselves well despite their underdeveloped supporting roles, and Hugh Bonneville is effectively chilling without disrupting his character’s supposedly clean-cut appearance at all.

Overall, “I Came By” is a little better than Anvari’s middling previous work “Wounds” (2019), but it is still a letdown compared to his impressive debut feature film “Over the Shadow” (2016). In short, this is an average Netflix flick you may come by, but I would rather recommend you to check out “Over the Shadow” instead, and you will probably thank me for that.

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Sundown (2021) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): He just wants to stay there…

Posted on September 4, 2022 by kaist455

“Sundown” is so adamantly distant and opaque in terms of attitude and narrative that you may find yourself constantly wondering about how it really regards the elusive behaviors of its exasperatingly self-absorbed hero. To be frank with you, I am not so sure about whether it actually has any idea or opinion despite a few striking moments, and I must confess that I merely observed its story and hero with increasing detachment, though, to some degree, I appreciate how it competently catches us off guard from time to time.

At first, the movie looks at how its hero spends a family holiday along with his three family members. While his sister and her two children are willing to enjoy all those luxuries they can get during their ongoing stay at some posh hotel in Acapulco, Mexico, Neil (Tim Roth) is not so interested in getting any fun or relaxation in contrast, and the camera phlegmatically observes how he goes through one sunny day after another without much enthusiasm.

And then something occurs unexpectedly on one day. His sister receives a call from London, and she is devastated to learn that their mother becomes gravely ill and then is being sent to a hospital. She decides that they all should go back to London as soon as possible, so they promptly leave for the airport, but, alas, she and Neil are soon informed that her mother died shortly after being taken to the hospital.

While his sister becomes more devastated than ever, Neil remains quite detached as before, and then he tells her that he somehow forgot to bring his passport. Although she says that she and her children may wait for another plane while he gets back his passport, he insists that she and her children should go now, so she and her children eventually get on the plane to London while he supposedly goes back to the hotel.

However, it soon turns out that Neil actually lied to his sister. Once he gets on a taxi, he instructs its driver to take him to any hotel available, and the driver takes him to a rather cheap hotel which looks quite shabbier compared to his previous staying place. While not minding this big environmental change at all, he simply goes through one day after another as before, and he even comes to befriend a young local woman he later happens to encounter.

Of course, his sister begins to call him as handling the aftermath of their mother’s death, but Neil keeps lying to her as giving several false excuses, and he also does not give a damn about whatever is happening around him. At one point, he and others around him are suddenly struck by one very nasty incident, but that does not seem to shake him up at all, and he just continues to stick to his current status.

While making us more wondering about the reasons behind his adamant detachment, the screenplay by director/writer/co-producer/co-editor Michel Franco gradually lets its hero roll down into more misery and suffering. There eventually comes a point where his sister becomes frustrated with him and consequently decides to take care of the matter for herself, but that does not seem to affect him at all, and she becomes all the more exasperated than before, though he is willing to sign on anything necessary for him to let himself free of everything in his life.

Now some of you may guess a bit on what a privileged life Neil probably had before becoming a major headache for his sister, who is apparently the head of their big family company. I will not go into details here not for spoiling anything for you, but I can tell you at least that Neil comes to suffer more as trying to walk away from his privileged status, and that is where he comes to show a bit more emotion than before.

Nevertheless, the movie stays on its detached mode even as things get worse and worse for its hero, and it also becomes harder for us to care about him. Sure, we may feel a bit sorry for whatever he is actually suffering behind his disaffected façade, but he is still more or less than your typical privileged Caucasian male, and the movie does not seem to decide on whether it should care or laugh about his ongoing plight. It tries a few surreal touches later, but these touches do not fit well with its cold-blooded objective attitude to the story and characters, and the finale fizzles without much dramatic impact even though it gives us some hint on why Neil has been so detached from the very beginning.

Anyway, the movie is carried fairly well by the solid lead performance from Tim Roth, who has always been good at exuding weary detachment without overemphasizing it. Whenever the camera looks at his face, you can always get some subtle sense of whatever his character is feeling and thinking, and Roth’s engaging presence makes the film worthwhile to watch to some degree, while also reminding us again of how this wonderful British character actor has been consistently interesting for more than 30 years.

On the whole, “Sundown” has several good things to admire besides Roth’s commendable efforts, but it does not satisfy me enough for recommendation, and I am also quite dissatisfied with how the movie under-utilizes Charlotte Gainsbourg and several other performers around him. At least, I did not grumble that much as going through its rather short running time (82 minutes), and it is a bit better than Franco’s obnoxious previous film “New Order” (2020), so I will let you decide on whether you will spend some time on this competent but ultimately superficial cinematic exercise.

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Nocturne (2020) ☆☆☆(3/4): A son, his mother, and her other son

Posted on August 28, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “Nocturne” follows the cacophonic life story of a mother and her two very different sons. Because one of these two sons happens to have a serious case of autistic disorder, his younger brother as well as his mother often face considerable difficulties in communicating with him besides dealing with each own personal issues, and it is touching to see how these three main figures of the documentary eventually come together via what have dominated over their life for years.

After the opening scene showing a little special concert held in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2018, the documentary goes back to 10 years ago, and we look into the daily life of Eun Sung-ho, an autistic lad living with his divorced mother Son Min-seo and his younger brother Eun Gun-ki. While he has a considerable musical talent, Sung-ho constantly needs the care and attention from his devoted mother, so she becomes concerned more than before because of the upcoming concert, but, to her frustration, Sung-ho’s autistic mind is often drawn to the world of television and video game whenever he is not playing music.

Once he is prepared well by his mother, Sung-ho does the concert as well as expected, and we get to know more about her endless devotion to him. He is often very difficult to deal with, but she responds to him with enough tactfulness and discipline, and you can clearly see that he is always under control as long as she is around him.

Meanwhile, the documentary also focuses on Gun-ki, who also looks promising as he often plays the piano in their apartment. Although Min-seo does not forget telling her younger son that he can be as good as his older brother, Gun-ki knows too well that his mother is a lot more occupied with his older brother, and his rather sullen attitude clearly conveys to us his longtime resentment about not getting enough attention and affection from her.

Anyway, Gun-ki tries to be a promising musician just like his older brother, but he only comes to see his older brother continuing to rise as an exceptional pianist and clarinet player, while his life keeps going down to his frustration. When the documentary moves forward to several years later, we see him earning his meager living day by day, and he bitterly tells us about a series of unfortunate downturns in his life he went through shortly after quitting his college education due to the tuition problem. With no bright promise in his life, he often looks morose and disaffected, and that certainly affects his relationship with his mother and his older brother.

Meanwhile, Min-seo continues to support and promote Sung-ho as usual, and we cannot help but notice how much she looks older than before. Although her economic situation becomes worse than before, she is still willing to invest everything into Sung-ho’s life and career, and, so far, the result has been fairly rewarding for her thanks to Sung-ho’s significant career advancement.

However, Min-seo is well aware that there may come the day when she cannot be around Sung-ho anymore, and that is why she wants Gun-ki to be closer with Sung-ho, but, not so surprisingly, that turns out to be quite a daunting task. While Gun-ki visits her and Sung-ho for having a dinner with them, he soon comes to clash with not only Sung-ho but also their mother, and that is certainly the most painful human moment in the documentary.

Around that point, the documentary alternates between Gun-ki and Sung-ho as their respective lives continue as before. Gun-ki eventually decides to have some change in his life, so he goes abroad for working as a tour guide, and he subsequently goes through a mandatory military service period. In case of Sung-ho, he does a number of big concerts while improving his musical skills step by step, and his mother is certainly prouder of him than ever.

The documentary stumbles a bit as its three main figures come to gather again because of one sudden incident. It does not delve much into what exactly caused Gun-ki’s sudden hospitalization, but this incident somehow brings back him to his mother, and we soon see how things get better for him as well as his mother and his older brother during following several years. Although he has been pretty skeptical about his mother’s emotional/financial investment into his older brother’s career, Gun-ki is eventually convinced to help his mother and his older brother, and his mother is certainly glad when Gun-ki accompanies Sung-ho during Sung-ho’s concert travel to St. Petersburg.

While it still regards Sung-ho with distant respect as before, the documentary generates some emotional poignancy as observing how much Gun-ki is changed in comparison. Although he often struggles to have his older brother’s affairs under control, he comes to understand and care more about his older brother than before, and there is a genuinely touching moment when he comes to have an unexpected moment of communication with his older brother via their shared musical talent.

On the whole, “Nocturne”, directed by Jeong Kwan-jo, is admirable in the earnest handling of its human subjects, and I also enjoyed the effective utilization of a number of recognizable classic pieces including those well-known nocturnes composed by Frédéric François Chopin. I must point out that it does not go beyond the level of plain TV documentary film, but it has its heart in the right place at least, and I certainly appreciate that.

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Rolling (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): As she begins to roll under the pandemic

Posted on August 28, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Rolling” is a modest but sensitive character drama surrounding its young heroine’s emotional journey toward regained hope and optimism. Although it initially requires some patience from us due to its rather slow narrative pacing, the movie eventually comes to engage and move us more than expected, and you may find yourself cheering for its young heroine as observing how she finally becomes ready to roll again for her life.

During its first half, the movie slowly establishes how things have been depressingly aimless for its young heroine. Since quitting her college education and then breaking up with her boyfriend for some unknown reason, Joo-ri (Shim Dal-gi) has been stuck in a long period of lethargy as living alone in a one-room residence belonging to her mother, and the first scene in the film succinctly conveys to us her messy and melancholic status as she is flaccidly going through another summer day.

However, this pathetic life condition of hers is suddenly interrupted by one forceful demand from her single mother. Joo-ri’s grandmother recently happens to become very ill, and Joo-ri’s mother must go back to her family house as soon as possible, so she demands that Joo-ri should take care of her kimbop shop instead during her temporary absence. Although not welcoming this demand at all, Joo-ri has no choice from the beginning because her mother threatens to kick her daughter out of that one-room residence, so she soon begins to work at the kimbop shop although she does not know that much about how to make kimbops as well as her mother.

Now some of you is surely wondering what the hell kimbop is, so I will explain to you a bit about what kimbop is. It is a common Korean rice roll wrapped in dried seaweed, and it also contains several other ingredients such as meat and vegetable, depending on its maker’s choice. While I often enjoy eating it at local kimbop shops, I also like a lot eating the ones made by my mother, and I gladly help her a bit whenever she is going to make kimbops for my family.

Anyway, after a number of clumsy trials, Joo-ri begins to make fairly passable kimbops. After all, all she has to do is following her mother’s own preparation process, and those few customers coming to the shop do not have much problem with her kimbops on the whole. In addition, the shop is frequently empty due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (The movie is one of a few recent South Korean films depicting the current pandemic, by the way), so she simply occupies the spot without working that much.

Nevertheless, as her mother comes to stay around her grandmother longer than expected, Joo-ri finds herself interacting more with the outside world than before. There is a shy lad who comes to the shop everyday for eating a kimbop, and Joo-ri becomes closer to this young dude after she hurriedly takes him to where he must take a very important examination on one day. Although he inadvertently causes more inconvenience for her, he sincerely apologizes later, and she willingly lets him come into her daily life because, well, he is really nice to her.

In the meantime, Joo-ri also comes to reflect more on how long her life has been stalled. As looking for a certain old item requested by her mother, she comes upon several other old items from her past, and they naturally remind her of how she was more spirited compared to her current status. After that, she gradually becomes more active about her life, and a series of small episodic moments let us sense more of her slow inner change along the narrative.

The mood becomes a little more serious because of a sudden incident happening outside the screen, but the movie steadily maintains its dry and restrained attitude as before. When Joo-ri and her mother happen to have a moment for honest conversation between them later in the story, the movie wisely avoids unnecessary melodrama, and that is why this moment feels more sincere and poignant than expected.

Above all, the movie is carried well by the strong presence of its lead actress. I only came to notice her via her notable supporting performance in “Snowball” (2021), but I can tell you here that Shim Dal-gil is one of the most promising newcomers to watch in South Korean cinema. While never making any excuse on her character’s human flaws, Shim’s engaging performance holds our attention even when the movie is spinning its wheels a bit, and she is both funny and touching especially when her character has an unexpected moment of epiphany on what she can and must do for her life right now. In addition, she is also supported well by several good supporting performers including Jung Eun-kyung and Woo Hyo-woon, and Jung and Shim click well together as a mother and daughter who have known well each other for many years.

Overall, “Rolling”, which is incidentally the second feature film of director Kwak Min-seung, is worthwhile to watch for its sensitive storytelling as well as its commendable lead performance, and I particularly appreciate a glimmer of hope and optimism shown from the very last scene of the film. Yes, there will probably be a lot more difficulties for her, but she surely knows where she is going now, doesn’t she?

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Bullet Train (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Killers on a Train

Posted on August 28, 2022 by kaist455

“Bullet Train” gives us a brutal and relentless mix of comedy, action, and thriller which worked to some degree for me. While it is often entertaining to watch the game efforts from the cast and crew members of the movie, the movie does not have many things to distinguish it from many other similar action flicks out there, and I was also frequently distracted by its rather superficial handling of story background and characters.

At the beginning, the movie quickly establishes its story setting and premise while also introducing us to a seasoned mercenary who is currently called “Ladybug” (Brad Pitt). After some soul-searching and a series of psychiatric sessions, Ladybug has been determined to be as non-violent as possible for the rest of his career, and the latest job handed to him by his handler seems appropriate for that. All he has to do is finding and then retrieving a certain metal brief case on a Bullet Train ready to leave Tokyo early in the morning, and it looks like he will easily and quickly get the job done before the train arrives in Kyoto.

However, of course, it gradually turns out that the situation is a lot more complicated than our hero expected at first. There are already several mercenaries on the train, and they are certainly as dangerous as our hero can be. In case of one young woman introduced to us as “The Prince” (Joey King), she looks like your average British schoolgirl on the surface, but she is actually quite a lethal schemer, and her wily plan is already being executed mainly via a certain desperate Japanese dude who unwisely gets himself involved in her plan.

The movie also pays attention to an assassin duo called “Tangerine” (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and “Lemon” (Brian Tyree Henry), who are somehow called “twins” despite their apparent racial difference. As shown to us via a couple of very violent flashback sequences, they are pretty skillful killers, but they are also rather silly for their eccentric aspects, and one of the most amusing moments in the film comes from one of them frequently talking about the characters of a certain famous classic TV animation series for children.

Anyway, we later come to gather that these and other main characters in the story are the crucial parts of a secret plan involved with the fearsome Russian boss of a powerful gang organization in Japan. Tangerine and Lemon’s job is simply retrieving this Russian boss’ kidnapped son and the ransom money on this dude, but then they belatedly come to realize that they have been set up from the beginning, and they soon get themselves entangled with Ladybug and several other mercenaries on the train.

While the train keeps running rapidly on its course as usual, all these and some other characters clash with each other in one way or another, and director/co-producer David Leitch, who previous gave us “John Wick” (2014) and “Atomic Blonde” (2017), and his crew members accordingly serve us a series of frantic action scenes unfolded among Ladybug and other main characters in the film. At one point, our hero must confront a certain opponent of his without drawing any attention from nearby passengers, and that will certainly generate some amusement for you besides a substantial amount of thrill and excitement.

The screenplay by Zak Olkewicz, which is based on Kōtarō Isaka’s novel, also tries to bring some gravitas to its story and characters, though the result is often uneven and shallow in my humble opinion. All the main characters in the film remain to be more or less than cartoonish archetypes, so it is a bit too jarring when the movie becomes more serious with the late entrance of a certain important character. After juggling so many characters and actions, the movie literally gets derailed along with the train (Is this a spoiler?) around the narrative point where that fearful Russian boss character finally reveals himself as expected during the final act, and it eventually becomes less fun as drenched in heaps of uninspired CGI.

At least, the main cast members of the film have some juicy fun with their respective roles. While Brad Pitt usually functions as the straight hero of the story, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brian Tyree Henry often steal the show thanks to their effortless comic chemistry, and Henry, who has been one of the most reliable actors working in Hollywood since his excellent supporting works in “Widows” (2018) and “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018), is utterly uproarious as deftly balancing his character between seriousness and absurdity. Although her role is apparently a whitewashing version of your typical Japanese schoolgirl, Joey King manages to acquit herself at least. In case of several other main cast members including Andrew Koji, Hiroyuki Sanada, Zazie Beetz, and Benito A. Martínez Ocasio, who is also known as “Bad Bunny”, fill their respective spots as much as they can, and, if you still do not know anything about that, I will let you be surprised by the special appearance of two certain well-known Hollywood performers during the final act of the film.

In conclusion, “Bullet Train” is a fairly competent product, but it is not entertaining enough to compensate for a number of glaring flaws ranging from its weak storytelling to its strained attempt to westernize many of its main characters in the Asian background. Because it is one or two steps from “John Wick” and “Atomic Blonde” and I gave three stars to “John Wick” and “Atomic Blonde”, I give it 2.5 stars, but you will probably enjoy it enough if you ever happen to come across it while casually changing TV channels.

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