Full Time (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her full-time predicament

Posted on August 19, 2022 by kaist455

French film “Full Time” is a calm but intense observation of one desperate personal struggle. As its heroine tries her best for herself and her children despite an increasingly difficult circumstance, the movie gradually immerses us into her situation via a number of dry but emotionally tense moments, and we come to have more understanding and empathy on her grueling predicament.

At the beginning, the movie quickly establishes how things have been bad for its heroine. Julie Roy (Laure Calamy) is a young divorced mother of two little kids, and she has earned her meager living via working as a maid in some five-star hotel in Paris. She and her two kids live in a suburban area outside Paris mainly because she thought it will provide a better environment for her kids, so she has to go back and forth between Paris and that suburban area by train on every weekday, but that has been quite difficult for her due to an ongoing transit strike. Because there are much fewer trains now, she must wake up earlier than before, and she usually returns to her home very late while her two kids are waiting at the house of a kind old neighbor.

Constantly following its heroine, the movie lets us get to know more about how she has been cornered in many aspects. At her workplace, she is always busy as frequently demanded to do one thing after another, and her direct supervisor may fire her at any point just because she is often late for work due to the transit strike. At her home, she is usually too tired to pay more attention to her kids, and that neighbor of hers becomes more reluctant to babysit her kids for understandable reasons. In addition, her ex-husband has not yet sent the routine support money for her and her kids, and, to her growing exasperation, he does not even answer to her calls at all.

At least, there is some hope for Julie because she is soon going to do an important job interview, though it does not look that promising to her. As a woman who has enough education and experience for that job, she might actually succeed in getting that job, but she will have to take the risk of losing her current job for that small possibility, and the mood becomes more nervous as she later attempts to do the job interview even though she is supposed to be working in the hotel.

Meanwhile, the situation keeps getting worse for her day by day. At one point, Julie has no choice but to sleep at a shabby little hotel in Paris because there is no bus or train for her and many others, and she certainly feels ashamed when she picks up her kids at that neighbor’s house on the next day. At her workplace, she comes to conflict more with not only several colleagues of hers but also her supervisor, who is not so pleased about what Julie did for going to that job interview.

Around that point, the screenplay by writer/director Eric Gravel provides relatively more relaxed moments to our relief. Despite many problems she has to deal with in one way or another, Julie does not forget preparing for the birthday party for one of her kids, and she feels a bit happy as playing with her kids and other kids invited to the party. She also comes to befriend some guy in the neighborhood, and we sense her attraction toward him when he kindly fixes the faulty boiler of her house.

Of course, the mood soon becomes quite urgent for her again, and Gravel and his crew members did a splendid job of generating a moody but palpable sense of desperation on the screen. While cinematographer Victor Seguin presents the urban backgrounds surrounding the heroine in cold and harsh ambience, the propulsive electronic score by Irène Drésel frequently accentuates her urgency, and we come to brace ourselves more than before. This is certainly not a comfortable experience at all, but our eyes keep following her plight thanks to Grave’s skillful direction, and we come to care more about what may happen to her next.

Above all, the movie is firmly held together by its unadorned but strong lead performance. Laure Calamy, who won the Best Actress award when the film was shown in the Orizzonti section of the Venice International Film Festival in last year (The movie also won the Best Director award, by the way), is superlative as effortlessly embodying her character’s weary desperation on the screen, and she is particularly stunning when her character must try anything for not losing her job. As the camera looks at her face closely, we can feel how desperate her character really is, and it is really devastating to see what eventually happens not long after that. In case of several other main cast members in the film, Anne Suarez, Geneviève Mnich, and Cyril Gueï are also fine in their respective supporting roles, and Mnich provides some human warmth as her character shows some sincere concern to Julie.

I always cherish movies which can function as the window to different human conditions and experiences, and “Full Time” is surely one of such good films. Yes, this is indeed a tough stuff to watch, but it is still engaging mainly thanks to the commendable efforts from Gravel and his cast and crew members, and its last scene will linger on your mind for a while after it is over. On the whole, this is one of more interesting films of this year, and I think you should give it a chance someday.

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Nope (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Something Wicked This Way Flies

Posted on August 19, 2022 by kaist455

Jordan Peele’s third feature film “Nope” is a terrific genre piece to admire and enjoy. Although there are some parts which do not seem to work as well as intended, I was entertained a lot by how the movie skillfully engages us from the beginning to the end, and even those seemingly weak parts of the film somehow fit into its big picture as I reflect more on them after watching it two days ago.

Because the trailer of the film does not show much of what it is about, I will only describe the story as little as possible without spoiling your entertainment. After quoting an excerpt from the Bible just like Peele’s previous film “Us” (2019) and then jolting us with its gradually chilling prologue scene, the movie, which is mainly set in a horse ranch located in some remote area of California, introduces us to Otis Haywood Sr. (Keith David) and his son Otis Jr. “OJ” Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya). When they are training a horse in their ranch as usual, something inexplicable suddenly happens upon them, and, along with the prologue scene, this succinctly establishes the overall tone of the movie in addition to giving us another big shock and surprise.

After that gruesome incident, OJ tries to run and maintain the ranch just like his father did for many years. They have been known well for training horses for movie and commercial production, and his father openly claimed that his ancestor was actually that African American jockey in “Plate 626” from Eadweard Muybridge’s Animal Locomotion series of photographs, though there is not anything to support his claim.

Because of his rather introverted personality, OJ lets his younger sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) do some promotion while he is mostly focusing on horses, and we get a little humorous moment as she cheerfully promotes their ranch a bit in front of a bunch of people preparing to shoot a commercial. However, due to a subsequent little happening, they unfortunately get fired, and that makes OJ sullener and more frustrated than before.

Meanwhile, a series of odd things happen around their ranch, and the movie slowly dials up the level of tension after OJ comes to spot something very strange in the sky. He and Emerald decide to delve more into this mysterious matter for themselves, and they get some technical help from Angel Torres (Brandon Perea), a young local tech salesman who also gets involved into their circumstance later in the story.

Now I should be more discreet about explaining to you on how much I enjoyed the rest of the film. If you watched the trailer, you may already have guessed what you are going to see, but you will be surprised by how the movie dexterously plays on your expectation, and I particularly appreciate its effective utilization of sound effects. I will not go into details here, but there are truly frightening moments which depend a lot on sound effects, and I was often quite chilled as watching the film in a Dolby Cinema screening room.

In addition, the movie shows some twisted sense of humor via two other main characters in the film. I was initially not sure about whether a subplot involved with Steve Yeun’s character is really connected that well with the main narrative, but I guess this gives some personal motive behind what this character attempts to do, and the movie does not disappoint us as striking us with another chilling highlight in the end. In case of a seasoned Hollywood cinematographer wryly played by Michael Wincott, he is surely amusing to watch as often reminiscent of Werner Herzog, and you will get some morbid laugh from how boldly and fearlessly he handles what may be the greatest challenge in his entire professional career.

All these and other things eventually culminate to the climactic sequence where lots of things happen on the screen, but the movie keeps us focused on what is being at stake for OJ and several other main characters. This sequence feels a bit too long, but the movie steadily maintains what has been carefully accumulated up to that point, and the result is definitely something worthwhile to watch on big screen.

Above all, the movie is supported well by two good performers at its center. As Daniel Kaluuya, who has been quite more prominent since his unforgettable breakthrough turn in Peele’s Oscar-winning debut feature film “Get Out” (2017), stoically holds the ground as required, Keke Palmer, whom I still fondly remember for her plucky performance in “Akeelah and the Bee” (2006), ably complements Kaluuya with her spirited performance, and it is often entertaining to watch how their very different characters dynamically interact with each other along the story. In case of several other main cast members including Brandon Perea and Keith David, Perea provides some extra humor to the story as holding his own place between Kaluuya and Palmer, and Keith David leaves a lasting impression on us despite his brief appearance in the film.

In conclusion, “Nope” is another commendable work from Peele after “Get Out” and “Us”. Although it does not reach to the devious narrative precision of “Get Out” or the endlessly thought-provoking aspects of “Us”, it is still quite enjoyable in terms of mood, storytelling, and performance, and I am already willing to watch it again for savoring its highlights more. In short, this is another fun summer film of this year after “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022), and I sincerely urge you to check it out as soon as possible.

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Day Shift (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): It’s hard out here for a vampire hunter…

Posted on August 15, 2022 by kaist455

Netflix movie “Day Shift”, which was released on last Friday, tries to have some fun with vampire hunting, but the overall result is rather colorless in my inconsequential opinion. Although it has a fair share of solid action, it could have more wit and guts for distinguishing itself more in its familiar genre territory, and the overall result accordingly feels like a mere opener for whatever will come next.

The early part of the movie mainly revolves around how its vampire hunter hero, Bud Jablonski (Jamie Foxx), earns his living day by day in San Fernando, California. Although he has been removed from a local vampire hunter union due to many violations, Bud keeps walking as usual while disguising himself as a pool cleaner on the surface, and the opening scene shows his latest vampire hunt as he sneaks into a house which turns out to be a secret nest of vampires.

Anyway, Bud subsequently sells the fangs of the two vampires killed by him in that house, but that is still not enough for supporting his ex-wife Jocelyn (Meagan Good) and their dear little daughter. While still not telling them about his real occupation, Bud really needs to secure a certain amount of money within one week because his daughter needs to pay for her necessary dental care in addition to paying her school tuition, so he comes to request help from his old friend/colleague Big John Elliott (Snoop Dogg), who happens to be one of the most prominent vampire hunters in the area.

Thanks to Big John’s help, Bud manages to be allowed into the union again, but there is a little annoying catch for him. The local head of the union, who is your average constipated bureaucrat, demands that Bud should be always accompanied with a union employee to monitor him, and that turns out to be a nerdy lad named Seth (Dave Franco). Although accompanying a vampire hunter is the last thing he wants to do right now, Seth reluctantly follows his boss’ order mainly because he really wants to get promoted as soon as possible.

What happens next between this mismatched duo will not surprise you at all if you are a seasoned moviegoer like me. As your typical by-the-book dude, Seth certainly does not approve much of how often Bud bends or breaks rules for his ultimate goal, and Bud is naturally annoyed by this while also frequently getting exasperated about Seth’s sheer inexperience and clumsiness. At one point, Seth manages to provide some little help during Bud’s latest vampire hunt, but then he also comes to embarrass himself a lot because of being so overwhelmed by those dangerous vampires.

Meanwhile, the story also focuses on an insidious conspiracy planned by a sassy and ambitious vampire named Audrey San Fernando (Karla Souza). While working as a successful real estate businesswoman on the surface, she is going to do some aggressive area expansion for herself and many other vampires under her command, and she even does not hesitate at all to kill a rival vampire of hers for getting closer to her final goal.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Bud later comes to draw Audrey’s attention for a certain reason, and the movie accordingly serves us a series of action scenes as Bud and Seth fight against a bunch of vampires more than once. At one point, they happen to work along with a pair of well-known vampire hunters in one substantial vampire nest, and the movie has lots of fun with how these four characters battle against those gruesome bloodsuckers in one way or another.

This and several other action scenes in the film are handled well under the skillful direction of director J.J. Perry, who worked as an actor/stuntman for many years before making a directorial debut here. Like his fellow Hollywood stuntmen Chad Stahelski, who is incidentally one of the producers of the film, and David Leitch did in “John Wick” (2014), Perry demonstrates here that he is a good filmmaker who does know how to present actions on the screen in effective ways, and I particularly enjoyed a solid vehicle action sequence which is more impressive than whatever I saw from Michael Bay’s “Ambulance” (2022). Unlike that film, this sequence generates a substantial amount of real thrill and excitement without losing any sense of direction or physical impact, and we gladly go along with that without getting too dizzy or confused.

Unfortunately, the screenplay by Tyler Tice and Shay Hatten is rather flat without having its own substance and personality, and I must point out that the finale feels anti-climactic despite lots of actions and shootings filling the screen. At least, Jamie Foxx and several other main cast members including James Franco, Snoop Dogg, Meagan Good, Peter Stormare, and Karla Souza have some fun with their broad archetype roles, but their characters are ultimately limited by genre conventions and clichés, and this makes the movie look like a big-budget TV pilot episode full of characters in the need of more development later.

On the whole, “Day Shift” did not bore me in addition to being a fairly competent Netflix product, but it is not funny or thrilling or colorful enough compared to its many seniors including “Fright Night” (1985) and “The Lost Boys” (1987). At least, Perry shows here that he has enough skill and talent as an action movie director, and I can only hope that his next film will be more interesting and exciting than this warm-up work of his.

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Under the Open Sky (2020) ☆☆☆(3/4): After he is released into the world outside

Posted on August 14, 2022 by kaist455

Japanese film “Under the Open Sky”, which was belatedly released in South Korean theaters a few days ago, is a dry but poignant drama revolving around one ex-con’s difficult struggle for rehabilitation. Although he is not a very nice person to say the least, the movie slowly lets us have some understanding and empathy on its flawed hero, and it also makes some sharp points on its social issues via his long way toward readjustment.

Kōji Yakusho, who has been one of the best actors working in Japan as appearing in a series of notable films ranging from Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Cure” (1997) to Hirokazu Koreeda’s “The Third Murder” (2017), plays Masao Hikami, an ex-Yakuza gang member who has been incarcerated in a prison for more than 10 years due to an impulsive act of killing. Because he still thinks he was unjustly punished at that time, Masao does not have much regret on his act of killing, and that causes a rather disagreeable moment between him and the warden of the prison when he is about to be released at last.

As he settles in a little neighborhood in Tokyo, things seem to be fairly going well for Masao. He has a decent sponsor willing to help his adjustment process as much as possible, and a welfare service guy assigned to him turns out to be more caring than expected although their first meeting is not so pleasant to say the least. In addition, there is a young TV director who is going to present Masao’s journey toward rehabilitation on some popular TV show, and Masao actually hopes that his appearance on TV may reach to his lost mother, who abandoned him when he was very young.

Through that young TV director’s little investigation into Masao’s life, we get to know more about how Masao happened to stray into the life of a criminal. Even when he was put into an orphanage, he was a big troublemaker, and, after he eventually ran away from the orphanage, he naturally got himself involved into the seedy world of Yakuza gangs. Even before that murder case, he had already been to prison several times, and nearly half of his life was wasted in prison as a consequence.

Anyway, Masao does not want to go back to crime because of how things have changed in the world outside. While his old criminal world has been going away into past, he comes to learn that he has a serious illness which may cause his death at any point, so he has no choice but to do anything required for his ongoing rehabilitation process.

However, not so surprisingly, his rehabilitation process turns out to be more difficult and frustrating than expected. Because he is too proud to merely depend on welfare money, Masao attempts to get employed as soon as possible, but he is only reminded again and again of how his society is not so kind to ex-cons like him. At least, he gets some generous help and support from several people around him, but the situation becomes often exasperating for him, and we are not so surprised when he unwisely lets himself driven by his old nature at one point.

Meanwhile, that young TV director becomes more conflicted about how to present Masao for his little project. When he happens to come across a moment when Masao becomes quite violent, he shoots almost everything as demanded by a female TV producer who hires him, but then he changes mind because he comes to care a lot about Masao, and that leads a conflict between him and Masao when he comes to delve a bit deeper into Masao’s longtime resentment toward his mother.

Around that narrative point, the screenplay by director/writer Miwa Nishikawa, which is based on the novel written by Ryūzō Saki (He also wrote “Vengeance Is Mine”, which was subsequently adapted into Shohei Imamura’s 1979 film of the same name), takes a little left turn as its hero is tempted by his old criminal life more than before, but the movie sticks to its calm and thoughtful tone as before. Although he feels a bit better than before as welcomed by a certain old criminal friend of his, Masao is reminded again that his good old time will never come again, and there is a little melodramatic moment when he is sincerely advised to do what is really the best for himself.

During its last act, the movie becomes rather predictable as its hero comes to open his eyes more to whatever he should do for the rest of his life, but Yakusho’s strong performance keeps holding our attention under Nishikawa’s sensitive direction. As Masao eventually comes to find how to adjust himself more than before, we observe how much he is changed in comparison, and Yakusho quietly conveys to us his character’s gradual inner transformation without emphasizing that too much.

In conclusion, “Under the Open Sky” is another solid work from Nishikawa, who previously impressed me and other audiences via her previous film “The Long Excuse” (2016). She once worked under Koreeda in “After Life” (1998), so it is not so surprising that both of these two films show the clear influences from her mentor, but they also show her own directorial touches in terms of mood and storytelling, and, in my humble opinion, she deserves more attention as another promising Japanese filmmaker besides, say, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. In short, this is one of better films I saw during this year, and I sincerely urge you to give it a chance someday.

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Carter (2022) ☆☆(2/4): An intensely hollow action flick

Posted on August 14, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean Netflix film “Carter”, which was released early in this month, is an intensely hollow action flick which did not impress me much for many bad reasons. Its frantic and relentless presentation of stylish action sequences may grab your attention for a while, but these action sequences ultimately feel quite empty and superficial without any solid story element to support them, and you may find yourself wishing to see instead a documentary about how they were actually prepared and then shot.

The story promise of the movie is quite familiar to the core. When its hero, played Joo Won, wakes up, he cannot remember who he really is or how the hell he ended up being in a shabby motel room, and he is all the more flabbergasted when he is promptly ambushed by a bunch of CIA agents demanding the information involved with a certain prominent North Korean doctor. As shown from the prologue scene, this North Korean doctor seems to succeed in developing the cure for a certain dangerous virus threatening not only North Korea but also South Korea, and it looks like CIA is trying to snatch the cure as well as the doctor for some murky reason.

Anyway, though he is baffled and confused, our hero soon comes to show that he is as lethal as Jason Bourne, and we accordingly get the first of many action sequences in the film which all are incidentally presented in one long and continuous shot. As our hero fiercely fight against many opponents of his, the camera smoothly and frantically moves around him and others for capturing every physical movement of theirs, and it steadily follows our hero even when he jumps from a window and then crashes into a building right next to the motel, which also functions as the space for another action sequence to be unfolded.

While I watched the movie along with my younger brother and his fiancée in last evening, my younger brother said that it was pretty much like watching a video game being played by someone else, and I could not possibly agree more with him. Our hero is more or less than a video game figure, and the movie simply moves from one stage to another along with him as he kills and maims a heap of figures ready to defeat him by any necessary. As a matter of fact, he is also constantly instructed and assisted by a female figure who communicates with him via a device planted inside his head, and that surely accentuated what I and my two fellow audiences felt from the movie.

As our hero bounces from one spot to another, his mysterious helper gives him bits of information about his identity, though we cannot entirely be sure about whether they are true or not. According to her, he is an ex-CIA agent who defected to North Korea several years ago, and it seems that he volunteered to do a certain mission involved with both North and South Korea, though he had to erase all of his memories for some unknown purpose.

That mission in question is rescuing the daughter of that North Korean doctor, who happens to hold the key to the cure developed by her father. When our hero goes inside a place where she is being held by CIA agents, she is not so sure about whether she should trust this sudden rescuer of hers, but she has no choice but to trust him because, well, she really wants to go back to her dear father.

All our hero has to do is taking back this girl back to a secret facility in North Korea where her father is waiting, but, not so surprisingly, things continue to get more complicated than before. After surviving another intense action sequence, our hero manages to bring the girl to the people ready to fly her back to North Korea, but, of course, it soon turns out that there is another conspiracy, and we are accordingly served with more actions. At one point, our hero desperately clings onto a flying airplane, and that will probably take you back to the similar scene in “Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” (2015).

Around the narrative point where our hero gets to know more about what is really going around him, we are supposed to care more about him and a few other characters around him, but the screenplay by director Jung Byung-gil and his co-writer/co-producer Jung Byeong-sik often stumbles in case of storytelling and characterization. Because the plot is quite convoluted with many twists, we are often confused a lot while not caring that much about whatever may happen next, and the main characters are so bland and superficial that they are even overshadowed by zombie-like figures appearing later in the film.

As a result, the main cast members of the film are mostly under-utilized or thoroughly wasted on the whole. While he is an adequate action movie hero, Joo Won does not demonstrate much beyond his physical commitment during those action sequences in the film, and several substantial supporting performers including Lee Sung-jae and Jeong So-ri merely fill their respective spots without many things to do besides that.

In conclusion, “Carter” is another disappointment from Jung, who previously gave us “The Villainess”. Like that film, “Carter” can be admired for its considerable technical efforts, but its weak story and characters are too distracting to ignore, and I observe its action sequences without much fun and excitement. Considering its very last moment, we will probably get a sequel which will reveal more about its hero, but, to be frank with you, I do not give a damn about that at least for now.

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Hunt (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A tense but convoluted spy hunt movie  

Posted on August 11, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean film “Hunt” tries really hard, but I observed it from the distance even while admiring a number of good moments in the movie. It wants to be not only a serious spy drama movie but also an intense action thriller flick, and it succeeds to some degree, but it was often hard and difficult for me to care about what was happening on the screen, mainly because of its frequently convoluted narrative as well as its rather broad and superficial characterization.

I am also wondering whether I was too distracted by how fictional the story is in many aspects while clearly inspired by several real-life incidents during the 1980s. Born in 1983, I was too young to remember anything during that period, but I know enough about these real-life incidents thanks to many anti-communist kid magazines I eagerly devoured during the early 1990s, so my mind constantly kept drawing the line between history and fiction instead of really enjoying the film itself.

The story mainly revolves around two high-ranking members of KCIA: Park Pyong-ho (Lee Jung-jae) and Kim Jung-do (Jung Woo-sung). Although they are supposed to work together for the safety of their country and its current president as two of the most prominent figures in KCIA, it turns out that there is some bad history between them, and Park is not so pleased when Kim later attempts to be a bit more friendly to him via their little private meeting.

Anyway, things have been quite problematic in KCIA after what unexpectedly occureed during the president’s visit to Washington D.C. It seems that North Korea is trying to assassinate the president before attacking South Korea again, and there comes another surprise for KCIA when a certain important North Korean figure approaches to KCIA for his defection. According to this figure, there is a mole at the center of KCIA, and his information soon turns out to be quite accurate as the latest covert operation of KCIA in North Korea is disastrously failed.

Naturally, both Park and Kim are ordered to flush out this mole by any means necessary, and that leads to the growing uneasiness inside KCIA. At one point, those low-ranking KCIA officials in charge of documents and records become very nervous about how to balance themselves between Park and Kim, because even a small wrong decision may lead to dire consequences for them. Everyone knows too well how brutal and merciless KCIA can be to anyone deemed as the enemy of the state, and we surely get glimpses into many atrocities committed inside the torture chambers of KCIA during that period.

As delving more into their common matter, Park and Kim come to conflict with each other more than before as regarding each other with more doubt and suspicion. Park is clearly having some objection to how his organization works for serving the president who killed and maimed lots of people for usurping the country, and he has also been involved with a young female college student whom he has often helped for some personal reason. In case of Kim, he seems to be associated with several suspicious figures, and he is certainly not so pleased when he learns that his rival is digging into that.

Meanwhile, the situation becomes more complicated as the president is ready to go abroad again for a series of diplomatic meetings. The president’s schedule must be prepared and then secured without any trouble, but then the mole inside KCIA becomes active again, and Park and Kim become all the more desperate as relentlessly going after each other.

I will not go more into details for not spoiling your entertainment, but I can tell you instead that the screenplay by first-time director Lee Jung-jae and his co-writer Jo Seung-hee keeps things rolling as adding one plot turn after another, and the movie also serves us several skillful action sequences which are often tense and visceral thanks to Lee’s first-rate crew members including cinematographer Lee Mo-gae and editor Kim Sang-bum. When the movie eventually arrives at the expected climactic part which is loosely based on a certain shocking real-life incident in 1983, Lee and his crew members go all the way for throwing more thrill and excitement, and Lee, who has been much more prominent thanks to his Emmy-nominated performance in South Korean Netflix TV series “Squid Game”, shows here that he is a good action director who really knows how to present action scenes well on the screen.

However, as so busy with its numerous narrative turns, the movie fails to bring enough depth and personality to its characters, who are more or less than mere cogs in its efficient but ultimately colorless plot mechanism. Although Lee and his co-star Jung Woo-sung, who is also soon going to release his first directorial work, are surely good actors, they just look stoically tense and elusive throughout the film, and many of other main cast members simply come and go as required by their respective thankless roles, though Go Yoon-jung and Jeon Hye-jin manage to distinguish themselves as two of a few substantial female characters in the story.

Overall, “Hunt” does not impress me enough for recommendation, but I do appreciate its considerable technical efforts, and I think you may enjoy it more than I did at last night. Anyway, we can all agree that Lee is a promising filmmaker, and it will be interesting to see what he will give us next after this fairly competent debut work.

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DC League of Super-Pets (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Superman’s best friend – and his animal friends

Posted on August 11, 2022 by kaist455

Animation feature film “DC League of Super-Pets” is a delightful product which brings some lightweight spirit to its local genre territory. Unlike many of recent products from the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), the film simply tries to have lots of fun and excitement with its numerous superhero characters from the DC Comics, and, above all, it will surely amuse and appeal to any caring pet owner a lot for good reasons.

In the beginning, the film quickly establishes its amusing story promise, which puts a little variation on the origin story of Superman/Clark Kent (voiced by John Krasinski). As many of you know, Superman was sent to the Earth when he was just a little baby, but he happened to be accompanied with his little pet dog at the last minute, and this pet dog, named Krypto (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), eventually becomes Superman’s trusted sidekick because he has superpowers just like Superman.

As they often work together for catching bad guys or saving the citizens of Metropolis, Krypto has been quite emotionally attached to Superman, and Superman does care about his canine sidekick, but then there comes a little issue into their private life. After having been quite close to a plucky TV news reporter named Lois Lane (voiced by Olivia Wilde) for years, Superman decides to go further in their developing romantic relationship, and Krypto is not so pleased about that – especially when Superman attempts to bring Krypto to a local animal shelter where Krypto may have some social experience via several pet animals living there.

While Krypto becomes more troubled about the future of his relationship with Superman, something unexpected happens. When Superman’s longtime arch-nemesis Lex Luthor (voiced by Marc Maron) attempts to capture a certain asteroid which may benefit him at lot, Superman and a bunch of other DC Comics superhero characters instantly come upon the scene and then stops Luthor in the end, but there is one little problem. A tiny piece of that asteroid happens to be acquired by a certain power-mad pet animal in that animal shelter, who has been quite determined to impress and then be recognized by Luthor because of their old relationship in the past. Once getting considerable superpower via that asteroid piece, this animal character soon goes all the way for capturing not only Superman but also all the superhero colleagues of his, and, despite their mighty efforts, Superman and his superhero colleagues are subsequently captured and then trapped somewhere in the city.

Krypto certainly tries to rescue them all, but, alas, his superpowers happen to be neutralized as planned by that animal villain character in advance. Fortunately, he comes across several animal pet characters who happen to acquire each own superpower via that asteroid piece, and he manages to persuade them to help his search and rescue operation, though it soon turns out that these animals need some coaching as struggling to control and adjust themselves to their respective superpowers.

While Krypto and his animal colleagues clumsily bounce from one narrative point from another, the film throws lots of silly gags and self-referential jokes to draw some chuckles from us. Although your degree of amusement may depend on how much you are familiar with those DC Comics superhero characters, the film diligently amuses us at least, and I particularly like the scene involved with a cute little kitten which turns out to be much more dangerous than expected.

In the end, everything in the story culminates to the climactic action sequence which surely serves us lots of bangs and crashes just like any other recent superhero movies, but this climactic part is still driven by its main characters and their personalities at least, and it reminds me again of why animation is relatively more suitable for superhero stories than live action movies. Besides having much more freedom in terms of style and movement, animation usually has inherent lightweight qualities, and that is the main reason why lots of mass destruction during the climactic part of the film is far less bothersome compared to those bombastically destructive action sequences of live action superhero movies.

The voice cast members of the film bring a substantial amount of humor and cheerfulness. While Dwayne Johnson deftly goes back and forth between humor and drama, Kevin Hart, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, and Diego Luna are well-cast in their supporting roles, and Kate McKinnon is terrific as gleefully demonstrating that superhero movies can only be as good as their villains. In case of several prominent cast members in the film including John Krasinski, Jameela Jamil, Marc Maron, Jemaine Clement, Daveed Diggs, and Thomas Middleditch, they have each own small fun at the fringe of the story, and Keanu Reeves is particularly hilarious in his deadpan voice performance.

Although it does not exceed its genre conventions, “DC League of Super-Pets” succeeds as much as intended, and I was entertained enough even though I was well aware of what I was going to get from it. I must point out that it is rather modest compared to “The Incredibles” (2004) and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” (2018), but it is better than “Justice League” (2017) and several other ponderous DCEU products at least, and I am willing to watch whatever will come next in the future.

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Prey (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her big game

Posted on August 7, 2022 by kaist455

“Prey”, the fifth installment of the Predator franchise which was released on Disney+ two days ago, is a wonderful surprise for this summer. This is another variation of the story formula established in “Predator” (1987), but it has enough style and personality to distinguish itself well on the whole, and it is really a shame that this solidly entertaining flick somehow went straight to streaming service instead of released in theaters.

In contrast to its predecessors which are set in a contemporary or near-future background, the movie is set in the Great Northern Plain of North America in 1719, and its opening part quickly introduces and then establishes its young Native American heroine. She is Naru (Amber Midthunder), and this plucky Comanche lass has aspired to be recognized as a hunter just like her older brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) and other male tribe members, but, to her frustration, she is usually expected to do what most of female tribal members are expected. She does try a lot, but she still has lots of things to learn and experience for attaining her goal, and even her brother has some reservation on whether she can actually succeed.

Anyway, Naru follows after her brother and several other young tribal members when they go into a nearby forest for tracking down a mountain lion which took away one of their tribe members. She is naturally not welcomed much, but Tabbe allows her to join the group mainly because she can be useful as a tracker in addition to being able to provide some medical help.

It seems that they will soon accomplish their task, but Naru comes to notice something strange at one point. What she discovers suggests that there is something more dangerous lurking somewhere in the forest area, and she suspects that this is connected with a certain strange happening in the sky she previously witnessed. Not so surprisingly, her brother and his male colleagues do not pay much attention to her discovery or what she says, because they are mostly occupied with tracking down that mountain lion and then rescuing that poor dude.

Of course, Naru’s instinctive inference turns out to be right, and we are soon served with what we expect from the very beginning. A member of that infamous alien tribe already came into the area for its hunting time, and, as frequently covering itself with that familiar invisible shield, it commits gruesome savagery on any animal which looks threatening enough to be hunted and then killed, At one point, it surreptitiously watches upon a wolf which happens to be preying upon a little cute rabbit, and then it swiftly strikes upon that wolf with no mercy while probably enjoying the nasty pleasure for showing who is the boss.

Meanwhile, Taabe and his colleagues eventually accomplish their task, but Naru is still fixated on her odd discovery, so she decides to take care of the matter for herself. Without telling anyone, she leaves along with her dog for tracking down for whatever is lurking out there, and she soon comes to face a number of challenges in the wilderness which surely test how brave and resourceful she can really be.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that our heroine eventually comes to behold that vicious alien hunter, but the screenplay by Patrick Aison has a few nice surprises for us while steadily accumulating tension and suspense along the narrative. At one point, the situation unexpectedly becomes more complicated as Naru happens to be stuck between the alien hunter and a bunch of unpleasant figures introduced later in the story, and we surely get some morbidly ironic fun from that.

Nevertheless, the movie still focuses on how its heroine comes to show more shrewdness and toughness along the story. She does not seem to have much chance in defeating the alien hunter in many aspects, but she comes to discern several things which she can use for her advantage, and she is certainly willing to take a chance for proving herself in addition to surviving her perilous circumstance in the end.

During its last act, the movie goes for a full-action mode as expected, and director Dan Trachtenberg, who previously drew our attention for his solid debut feature film “10 Cloverfield Lane” (2016), skillfully handles the following action scenes. These action scenes are packed with considerable visceral thrill and excitement, and the movie does not disappoint us at all when it finally arrives at the rousing climax where our heroine goes all the way for defeating her mighty opponent.

As the center of the film, Amber Midthunder gives a strong lead performance, and she is also supported well by her fellow Native American cast members including Dakota Beavers and Michelle Thrush, who provides some wordless gentleness as Naru’s concerned mother. For bringing extra authenticity to the film, Trachtenberg also prepared the Comanche version in addition to the English version, and it will be interesting to see how this version, which is also available on Disney+, feels different compared to the English version.

In conclusion, “Prey” provides us more than gory and violent entertainment, and I enjoyed its efficient handling of mood, story, and characters. I must confess that I only watched “Predator”, but that did not prevent me from being entertained by a number of effective moments in “Prey”, and that surely says a lot about its considerable accomplishment.

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Thirteen Lives (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): A redundant but solid docudrama from Ron Howard

Posted on August 7, 2022 by kaist455

Ron Howard’s new film “Thirteen Lives”, which is now available on Amazon Prime, attempts to give us a close look into the events of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue, and it succeeds to some degree despite its several inherent weak aspects. Although most of us know well the eventual outcome of that dramatic rescue operation, the movie did a fairly good job of presenting its real-life story with some attention and care besides generating enough tension and suspense for us, and that compensates for its rather redundant existence in my inconsequential opinion.

At the beginning, the movie shows us what happened on June 23rd, 2018 in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand. After doing some afternoon practice on that day, 12 boys of a local junior association football team and their coach decide to spend some free time in the cave before going to the upcoming birthday party of one of these 12 members, and they are not so worried because the monsoon season has not begun yet, but, alas, it begins to rain earlier than expected not long after they entered the cave together. Several hours later, the parents of the boys are naturally worried as the boys do not return, and then they belatedly discover that the boys and the coach are inside the cave, which is already overflown with lots of rainwater.

Naturally, a rescue team mainly consisting of Royal Thai Navy SEAL soldiers are immediately assembled under the supervision of the local governor, but the situation looks pretty grim from the beginning. They do not know the exact location of the boys and the coach inside the cave, and, as one foreign expert shrewdly points out, the underwater passage of the cave is not so easy to go through due to a number of very challenging aspects besides the rapidly increasing level of water in the cave.

Around that point, the movie introduces us to Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and John Volanthen (Colin Farrell), two British civilian cave divers who instantly come to the scene after hearing about this urgent circumstance. They are not so welcomed at first, but Stanton and Volanthen soon come to show others on the scene that they are really ready for this very daunting rescue operation as experienced experts, and they eventually come to play a crucial part in locating where the boys and the coach has been in the cave during last several days.

Everyone is certainly relieved and delighted that the boys and their coach are all alive for now, but both Stanton and Volanthen know too well that there will be much more challenges to come in the next step of the rescue operation. Because the oxygen level in the temporal refuge spot of the boys and the coach inside the cave is dangerously low, they must be rescued as soon as possible, but, due to their inexperience as well as the very tricky underwater passage of the cave, they cannot possibly go all the way through the cave even if they are accompanied with professional divers.

In the end, Stanton comes to have one possible idea which can be done but is also quite risky to say the least, and that is where his Australian colleague Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton) comes into the picture. As a professional anesthetist, Harris can concoct a plan for steadily making the boys and the coach sedated and unconscious during several hours for their transportation along the underwater passage of the cave, but he understandably hesitates because so many things can go wrong even if they prepare and try as much as possible.

It goes without saying that the movie often cannot help but focus more on Stanton and his colleagues because they happen to be played by well-known actors like Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton, but the screenplay by William Nicholson occasionally pays some attention to the considerable efforts of a bunch of local people willing to help the rescue operation as much as they can. For stopping the rainwater from flowing into the cave, they quickly build makeshift dams and waterways, and local farmers do not object to this at all although this will inevitably ruin their rice paddies. In case of the governor and other local officials, they understandably worry about the worst while also quite concerned about how much their public image can be damaged, but they give full support to their rescue teams as well as Stanton and his colleagues nonetheless, because everyone is well aware that time is running out for the boys and the coach minute by minute.

During the eventual climactic part, the mood naturally becomes more intense than before, but the movie thankfully shows some restraint, and Howard and his crew members including cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom did a splendid job of conveying to us the claustrophobic suspense surrounding the characters in the film. I must point out that those recreated moments of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s acclaimed documentary film “The Rescue” (2021) are relatively more vivid and impressive in comparison, but what is presented on the screen is mostly competent on the whole, and the performers look believable as their characters take enormous risks for what should be done right now.

Overall, “Thirteen Lives” is a rather plain docudrama which does not show us anything particularly new or revealing beyond what is so compellingly presented in “The Rescue”, but it is at least better than Howard’s disappointing previous film “Hillbilly Elegy” (2020). I recommend it for that reason only, but I will not urge you to watch it if you already watched “The Rescue”, so I will just let you decide on whether you will give the movie a chance or not.

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Ali & Ava (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): A little romance in the middle of their life

Posted on August 7, 2022 by kaist455

“Ali & Ava” is a little intimate drama about one accidental romantic relationship between two different people. While it is rather predictable in terms of story and characters, the movie gradually engages us as observing how they tentatively approach to each other as two lonely persons, and it is also supported well by the unadorned realistic acting of its two lead performers.

During the first act, the movie looks into its two main characters’ respective daily lives in a town in Yorkshire, England. While Ava (Claire Rushbrook) is an Irish assistant teacher in a local elementary school, Ali (Adeel Akhtar) is a married South Asian Muslim guy who has also been the friendly landlord of a house where one Hungarian immigrant family lives, and he and Ava come across each other on one day when he comes to her workplace for picking up the little daughter of that family, who happens to be under Ava’s charge. He kindly suggests to her that she should get on his car along with that little girl mainly because they all live in the same neighborhood, and she gladly accepts his generous offer.

As they talk with each other for a while in his car, Ali and Ava come to see how much they are different from each other besides their cultural/racial difference. While Ava loves country and folk music, Ali is a passionate fan of techno and trance music as a guy who once worked as a DJ before marrying his wife, and we are not so surprised when the movie later shows his private place full of numerous albums in addition to a recording equipment for composing his rap songs.

Nevertheless, Ava and Ali cannot help but attracted to each other when they come across each other again, and Ali eventually decides to visit Ava’s house for himself later. As spending their little private time together, they willingly share each other’s favorite music genres, and that leads to a small but sweet intimate moment between them, though that is unfortunately interrupted by the sudden appearance of Ava’s volatile son Callum (Shaun Thomas)

While more attracted to each other, Ali and Ava soon come to face each own difficulties in front of them. Although they remain married while living together in the same house, Ali and his wife Runa (Ellora Torchia) have actually been separated from each other, and his wife is already considering leaving him as soon as possible, though they are still hiding their ongoing separation from his family, who has no idea on what is going on between them when they are invited to another family dinner. In case of Ava, she is still haunted by what her second husband, who was not a very nice person according to her, did to her and her eldest daughter from the previous marriage before she eventually decided to leave him along with her children, and she certainly feels hurt whenever she sees how much Callum still misses his father without knowing the awful truth about his father at all.

Nevertheless, both Ava and Ali keep meeting each other as ‘friends’, and it looks like they can step forward a bit toward each other. Ali does not hide at all that he is still technically married, and that makes Ava rather unsure about their developing relationship, but she still likes him anyway, and she does not say no when they eventually move onto the next step of their relationship.

Although it is often conventional, the screenplay by director/writer Clio Barnard pays attentions to the specific details of the lives of its two main characters, and that contributes considerable realism to the story. Through a number of ethnic characters surrounding Ali, we observe how much the world of the British working class has been changed during last several decades, and the same thing can be said about the school class handled by Ava, which is filled with various kids from different racial backgrounds.

Above all, the movie moves us with a number of small poignant personal moments showing its two main characters’ aching loneliness. Still struggling to accept the fact that his wife does not love him as much as before, Ali often lets out his conflicted feelings whenever he is alone in the middle of a misty morning field, and his emotional pain is evident even when the camera observes him from the distance. Although she still does not know that much about Ali, Ava decides to take a chance with him, but her decision causes an unintentional conflict between her and Callum, who cannot accept that well that his mother simply wants to have a boyfriend.

The last act of the movie feels a bit too hurried, but Adeel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook still hold our attention as before. While Akhtar, who has been more notable as appearing in several recent films including “Four Lions” (2010) and “Enola Holmes” (2020), subtly conveys to us his character’s complicated human feelings without exaggerating them, Rushbrook, who played Brenda Blethyn’s feisty daughter in “Secrets & Lies” (1996), ably generates gentle warmth behind her plain appearance, and they are also supported well by several other main cast members including Ellora Torchia, Shaun Thomas, Natalie Gavin, and Mona Goodwin.

On the whole, “Ali & Ava” is worthwhile to watch thanks to not only Akhtar and Rushbrook’s praiseworthy efforts but also Barnard’s sensitive handling of story and characters, and I am also impressed by how it effectively utilizes several songs for effective dramatic moments. To be frank with you, I am not so interested in folk or techno, but the movie made me appreciate a bit more of a certain famous Bob Dylan song as well as one techno song prominently featured in the film, and I guess that is a sort of achievement.

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