Jurassic World: Dominion (2022) ☆☆(2/4): A sequel of dominant tedium

Posted on June 1, 2022 by kaist455

“Jurassic World: Dominion” is a sequel of dominant tedium which bored me and then exhausted me for many bad reasons. Besides its lackadaisical handling of story and characters, the movie seriously lacks awe and wonder in case of those big dinosaurs, and I must confess that, instead of paying a full attention to the screen, my mind was often more engaged in whatever a friend of mine was doing with his iPhone right next to me.

At the beginning, the movie shows us how much the human world has been changed during next several years since what happened at the end of “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” (2018). As dinosaurs have been quickly spread around the world due to a number of reasons including illegal breeding, there have naturally been lots of discussion on how to control this serious ecological change around the world, but, as already warned by Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) in the previous film, things seem to be increasingly uncontrollable even though one certain powerful corporation and its ambitious CEO has attempted to get things under control.

Meanwhile, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) have been trying to protect dinosaurs as much as they can in each own way, but they are actually more concerned about Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon), a very special girl whom they have hidden from the outside world during last several years. Like many other adolescent girls around her age, Maisie wants to see and experience more outside a remote spot where she is quietly residing along with Owen and Claire, and that certainly leads to a growing conflict between her and her adopted parents.

However, that little family issue of them is swiftly put aside when Maisie is later kidnapped along with an offspring of Blue, a female Velociraptor which was once trained a bit under Owen as shown in “Jurassic World” (2015). Although Blue and Owen are not that friendly to each other at present, Owen decides to rescue Maisie as well as Blue’s offspring, and Claire surely joins Owen as he embarks on tracking down those bad people who kidnapped Blue’s offspring and Maisie.

Thanks to a bit of help from two supporting characters associated with them, Owen and Claire eventually locate where Maisie is being held before taken to somewhere else, and we are soon served with a frantic action sequence which often looks like imitating the gritty realism of Jason Bourne movies. Although the result is too choppy and disorienting to hold my attention, I admire the considerable commitment shown from Bryce Dallas Howard, who willingly hurls herself into lots of risky actions through which her character has to go during this sequence. In my humble opinion, she is too good to appear in the film, but I guess she felt the need to finish her job to the end instead of handing it to some other actress.

On the other side, we see more of who is behind the kidnapping of Blue’s offspring and Maisie, and that is where Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) enter the picture. After invited to a certain remote preservation area by Dr. Malcolm, Dr. Sattler, who has been investigating one inexplicable ecological change, approaches to Dr. Grant, and Dr. Grant reluctantly agrees to join her even though he still prefers dead dinosaurs to living ones.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that they and several other main characters are thrown into lots of dangers thanks to not only the villain of the film but also a number of different dinosaurs including, yes, Tyrannosaurus rex. Later in the story, this big dinosaur comes to get a big moment to be compared with the climactic part of “Godzilla vs. Kong” (2021), and that is where we become much less interested in whatever will happen to the human characters who happen to be there.

However, this climactic part is not particularly fun or exciting because of its rather perfunctory special effects, and we become more aware of numerous flaws in terms of narrative and characterization. As juggling so many main characters, the movie frequently loses its narrative pacing, and many of main characters in the film remain rather bland and uninteresting despite the diligent efforts from its main cast members. While Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, and Sam Neill have a little fun together as they previously did in “Jurassic Park” (1993), they do not have many other things to do except often evoking some nostalgia from us. In case of Chris Pratt, he often seems to be on autopilot, and that is the main reason why Dewanda Wise, who plays one of substantial supporting characters in the story, or Isabella Sermon can easily steal the spotlight from him.

In conclusion, “Jurassic World: Dominion” is another disappointment after its two recent predecessors, and it reminds me of how its franchise has become more mundane inconsequential. The direction of director/co-writer Colin Trevorrow, who previously directed “Jurassic World”, is fairly competent, but the overall result is mostly devoid of awe or surprise, and, again, you can easily predict which main human character will be eventually eaten by those carnivorous dinosaurs in the film.

By the way, I happened to revisit “Jurassic Park” a few weeks ago for writing a bit about it. I was quite glad to see that this classic film is still a top-notch entertainment despite the considerable technological advancement in special effects during last 29 years, and, if you are rather cold to “Jurassic World” and its 2018 sequel film like I am, I suggest that you should just stick to “Jurassic Park”. Believe me, you may thank me for that later.

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Homeroom (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The class of 2020

Posted on June 1, 2022 by kaist455

You may wonder about how the story of Hulu documentary film “Homeroom” could have been different if it had not been for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. During its first half, the documentary effortlessly immerses us into the lives and activities of a bunch of politically engaged students at the Oakland High school during 2019, and we cannot help but reflect on how their world would soon be turned upside down in the very next year. Things surely became quite different for them, and that is why it is often poignant to see how they kept going nonetheless while remaining politically active as before.

Often reminiscent of the recent documentaries of Frederick Wiseman such as “City Hall” (2020), the documentary, which is the final chapter of Peter Nicks’ Oakland trilogy following “The Waiting Room” (2012) and “The Force” (2017), simply presents what Nicks and his cinematographer/co-producer/co-writer Sean Havey closely and vividly captured on the camera inside the Oakland High School in Oakland, California. We see a number of various moments unfolded here and there inside the school, and then the documentary gradually comes to revolves around several senior students quite willing to voice the opinions of them and many other students on a certain public issue in the city.

That public issue in question was the presence of police officers in the schools in the city, and many students and parents strongly demanded the removal of those police officers from the schools for their understandable concerns. Some of those city administrators flatly argued that the schools need police officers for safety, but most of students and parents protested that police officers do not make the schools safe at all, and their arguments took my mind back to how police officers did not help at all during that recent tragic shooting incident in Texas.

In case of Denilson Garibo, a student governing board representative who slowly becomes the unassuming center of the documentary thanks to his natural charisma and spirit, he was certainly passionate about this issue, and he and his fellow student representative Mica Smith-Dahl tried their best at the public school administration board meeting, but their opinions did not draw much attention from the adult board members. When the board eventually decided to let police officers inside the schools as before, Garibo and Smith-Dahl expressed their bitter disappointment and frustration, but, again, nobody in the board paid any particular attention to their thoughts and feelings.

Meanwhile, time passes by as usual for them and other students at their school. A brief scene shows the joy and excitement of the 2019 homecoming day of the school, and then we look at a number of students preparing for their little musical performance to be held in early 2020. Garibo and many of his friends are now focusing on their college application, and they are certainly looking forward to taking the first step toward their upcoming adulthood. When they hear about the first news about COVID-19, they are not particularly concerned, but we cannot help but notice a few students wearing mask just in case.

Of course, the situation subsequently became pretty bad for them and many others in city as the whole country was swept by the first wave of COVID-19. Their school was closed as demanded, and a number of online videos show how they struggled with the following lockdown day by day. At one point, the camera looks around the empty rooms and corridors of their school, and that makes a striking contrast to all those lively moments shown to us during the first half of the documentary.

However, Garibo and his friends including Dwayne Davis were not daunted about this at all as paying more attention to current social issues. When the tragic death of George Floyd sparked massive public protests in many American cities including Oakland, they did not hesitate at all to participate in a big protest in the city, and their protest later culminated to where they and many others showed a sign of solidarity in front of the residence of the mayor of Oakland.

In the end, there came a small but significant change for them and many other students in the city. Not long after their protest, several adult members of the school administration board came to change their positions, and that subsequently led to the agreement on the removal of police officers from the schools in the city. That was certainly a progress to be celebrated by Garibo and many other students, though they were still limited a lot by the ongoing pandemic as later reflected by their online graduation ceremony.

To be frank with you, I wish it showed more of their activities inside and outside the school, but “Homeroom”, which won the Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award when it was premiered at the Sundance documentary early in last year, is still excellent enough to recommend, and I appreciate how it indirectly resonates with Nicks’ previous documentary “The Force”, which is incidentally about the deeply flawed aspects of the Oakland Police (I have not watched yet “The Waiting Room”, which looks into the daily matters inside one hospital of Oakland). Sometimes I have serious doubts about our future, but the documentary reminds me that, at least, there is still lots of hope and energy from many young people out there, and I can only hope that they will be more supported and encouraged instead of being ignored and blocked.

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Hommage (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Her journey of restoring a film

Posted on May 30, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean film “Hommage” reminds me again of that considerable gap between me and many old South Korean films in the past. Like many other audiences, I usually regard them as something no more than inconsequential artifacts, but, regardless of whether they were lost forever or not, they all are worthwhile to be remembered and researched as the parts of the South Korean movie history, and the movie makes a good point on that as poignantly resonating between past and present.

At first, the story mainly revolves around Ji-wan (Lee Jung-eun), a middle-aged female independent filmmaker who has been quite frustrated with how her filmmaking career has been going nowhere for years. Mainly because her latest movie does not draw enough audiences just like her previous works, Ji-wan and her producer, who has also been her best friend, cannot find any chance for the investment on their next film, and, as her best friend is going to quit her movie-producing career, she becomes more doubtful about whether she can go on or not.

In case of her private life, things have been not that good for her either. Her husband comes to show more of his discontentment on how she has often neglected him and their son as focusing more on her filmmaking career, and their son, who is a college student, does not hesitate to tell her that she has not achieved much as a filmmaker, though he still cares about his mother as reflected by his little gesture of affection at one point.

While she struggles to write the screenplay for her next film, Ji-wan is approached by an old colleague of hers on one day. He offers a little film archive project in the need of a supervisor, and, though she is not so eager to do another work at present, Ji-wan eventually accepts the offer mainly due to her current financial difficulties.

However, the job turns out to be more demanding than Ji-wan expected. They want to restore “A Woman Judge” (1962), the third and last film directed by a real-life South Korean female director Hong Eun-won in the 1960s, and they recently discover an old print of that film, but the second part of this print is heavily damaged on the soundtrack. Naturally, they will have to re-record all the dialogues in that damaged part, so Ji-wan embarks on searching for anything to help the restoration process. Thanks to Hong’s daughter who has preserved lots of stuffs from her mother who died around 20 years ago, Ji-wan can find the original screenplay written by Hong, but she still needs more information and help, so she begins to look for anyone associated with the production of “A Woman Judge”.

Around that narrative point, the movie gradually blurs the border between fact and fiction. As Ji-wan meets several characters probably based on real-life persons who actually worked with Hong during that time, we get to know more about how difficult it really was for Hong and a few other female filmmakers during that time. Hong was in fact the second female filmmaker in the South Korean cinema history, and, needless to say, she had to constantly struggle with sexism before eventually quitting her filmmaking career. Just imagine how things would have been different for South Korean cinema if she and other fellow female filmmakers had been allowed to have artistic/professional freedom as much as Kim Ki-young or Im Kwon-taek during that period. She could have been admired as much as Ida Lupino, you know.

Looking more into “A Woman Judge” as well as Hong’s tragically short filmmaking career, Ji-wan comes to reflect more on how her life and career have been stuck at a dead end for years. Sure, things have been changed a lot for her and many other contemporary South Korean female filmmakers, and there was a time when she was considerably promising, but she has been neglected more as she gets older year by year. When she later happens to have an unexpected medical problem, she comes to reflect more on that universal question we are bound to ask sooner or later in our life: Is that all there is?

I will not go into details on how the screenplay by director/writer Shin Su-won pulls off a small but precious glimpse of hope and optimism for its heroine, but I can tell you instead on how effortlessly Lee Jung-eun, who has been more prominent thanks to her breakthrough supporting turn in Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning film “Parasite” (2019), carries the film via her unadorned acting. While she never seems to strive for emotional effects, Lee subtly but palpably conveys her character’s feelings and thoughts to us, and she steadily holds the film even when the film enters the realm of fantasy. In case of several main cast members surrounding Lee, Kwon Hae-hyo and Tang Jun-sang provide some humor as Ji-won’s two close family members, and Lee Joo-sil has a very poignant moment later in the story as one of a very few surviving persons associated with “A Woman Judge”.

In conclusion, “Hommage” is as sincere and respectful as its very title suggests, and it is surely another compelling work from Shin, who previously drew my attention for “Pluto” (2012) and “Madonna” (2014). As showing genuine care and respect to Hong and other female South Korean filmmakers in the past, she also seems to be ready for what may be the next chapter of her filmmaking career, and I sincerely hope that she will remain as active as before.

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Emergency (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): One unlucky night of theirs

Posted on May 28, 2022 by kaist455

“Emergency”, which was released on Amazon Prime on this Friday, is an interesting mix of campus comedy and social commentary. Although its overall result does not always work, the movie keeps rolling till the expected finale thanks to the game efforts from its young main cast members, and I enjoyed its several funny moments while also musing on its edgier moments involved with certain relevant social issues in the American society.

At first, the movie feels like your typical buddy comedy unfolded in one college campus. Our two young heroes are Kunle (Donald Elise Watkins) and Sean (RJ Cycler), and the movie quickly establishes the longtime relationship between these two African American lads. Although they are quite different from each other in many aspects, they have been close friends for years, and Sean is eager to have a big fun time along with Kunle during one particular evening when a number of fraternity houses in the campus are going to hold each own evening party. He has been planning to attend all these fraternity parties with Kunle, and that might bring some distinction to them later.

However, despite his willingness to join his friend in this wild campus adventure, Kunle is mostly occupied with his college study. He has actually studied in a microbiology lab in the campus, and we see him paying a lot of attention to culturing some bacteria strains. If he makes some significant progress from that, that will help him a lot when he goes to Princeton University in the next semester, though he has not told anything about that to his friend yet.

When they eventually embark on executing their plan, Kunle and Sean soon come across two different troubles. When he left his laboratory along with Sean, Kunle forgot locking up a faulty refrigerator where those bacteria cultures of his are stored, and that means, to Sean’s annoyance, he must go back to the laboratory as soon as possible.

However, that problem is nothing compared to what Kunle and Sean subsequently encounter when they go to their residence for getting their car. They find an unconscious young Caucasian girl on the floor of their living room, and their roommate Carlos (Sebastian Chacon), a Latino dude who is your typical nerd occupied with online video games, has no idea on who the hell this young girl is. When Kunle immediately attempts to call 911, Sean stops him for good reasons. Yes, this young girl, who is apparently quite drunk, needs to be taken to a hospital as soon as possible, but, needless to say, three colored lads with an unconscious white lass will not look that good to those police officers who will come to the scene immediately if they call 911.

In the end, Kunle and his friends decide to take the young girl to a nearby hospital or somewhere else for themselves, but, of course, things do not go that well from the very beginning. When their first plan is hilariously failed, they resort to the other plan, but, not so surprisingly, their circumstance only gets worse and worse no matter how much they try. In addition, it later turns out that there is something important revealed later from the young girl, and that leads to one of the funniest moments in the film, though, sadly, it is already shown in the trailer.

Meanwhile, we are also introduced to two Caucasian college students named Alice (Madison Thompson) and Maddie (Sabrina Carpenter), who turns out to be the young girl’s older sister. While they are enjoying themselves at a certain fraternity house, they belatedly come to realize that Maddie’s younger sister, who is supposed to be around them, is gone missing, and they understandably become quite frantic. Fortunately, they can locate the current whereabouts of Maddie’s younger sister via her smartphone, and they and a certain dude soon embark on their urgent search.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that these two different narratives eventually converge during the last act, but the screenplay by KD Dávila, which is developed from the 2018 short film of the same name written by him (It won the Special Jury Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at the 2018 SXSW, by the way), deftly goes back and forth between comedy and drama, and director Carey Williams, who made a feature film debut here after making several short films including the aforementioned one, did a competent job of maintaining enough momentum to engage us. Although the finale is rather blatant, the movie still does not lose its sense of humor, and you may smile a bit while reflecting more on its social issues.

Williams also draws solid performances from his main cast members. While RJ Cycler and Donald Elise Watkins effectively complement with each other throughout the film, Sebastian Chacon holds his own place well between them, and Maddie Nichols, Sabrina Carpenter, Madison Thompson, and Diego Abraham are also well-cast in their respective supporting roles.

In conclusion, “Emergency”, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award when it was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival early in this year, may disappoint you if you expect it to be as uproarious and raunch as, say, “Superbad” (2007), but it has enough humor and gravitas at least. In short, this is one of better new films available on streaming services, and I am sure you will enjoy it if you admire its several notable seniors including “Dear White People” (2014).

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Becoming Cousteau (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): Meet Jacques Cousteau

Posted on May 23, 2022 by kaist455

Documentary film “Becoming Cousteau”, which is currently available on Disney+ here in South Korea, looks into the life and career of Jacques Cousteau, a famous French marine explorer who brought considerable innovation into marine exploration in addition to making those memorable documentary films about the endless wonder of oceans and sea creatures. Besides informing us a lot on his life and career via its skillful mix of various archival materials, the documentary also works as a vivid and intimate human portrayal to engage and touch us, and you will be certainly moved by how he kept going even during the last chapter of his life.

At first, the documentary shows and tells us about how Cousteau became interested in diving during his early years. Around the time when he joined the French Navy, young Cousteau aspired to be a pilot someday, but his aspiration was subsequently dashed because of an unfortunate car accident. As recovering after that accident, he came to try diving as a part of healing process, and, what do you know, he became quite passionate about not only diving but also exploring underwater world.

During the late 1930s, he and his two colleagues gained considerable reputation as “three diving musketeers” as frequently diving together in the beach areas of Southern France, but their enthusiastic diving activities were soon suspended as the World War II was started in 1939 and then their country was occupied by the Nazi Germany in the following year. Once the war was over in 1945, Cousteau and his colleagues resumed their marine exploration, and that led to a number of crucial technological developments including the first open-circuit, self-contained underwater breathing apparatus for divers. Thanks to this invention, they could explore underwater world more easily than before, and they also could record their explorations via their special waterproof cameras.

During the 1950s, Cousteau’s marine exploration reached to the peak as he and his team members sailed around here and there in the world via their old British minesweeper ship. Cousteau frequently filmed a lot of their marine exploration during that time, and that led to his ground-breaking documentary film “The Silent World” (1956). When the film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, it was a huge critical success besides winning the Palme d’Or award, and he became all the more famous around the world when the documentary subsequently garnered the first Oscar for him (He later won two more Oscars, by the way).

Not long after that, Cousteau was approached by several American TV broadcasting companies, and that eventually led to his classic TV documentary series “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau”. From 1968 until 1976, he and his teams brought their awesome marine explorations into the homes of millions of people around the world, and that certainly boosted his fame and reputation in public.

However, around that point, Cousteau became more aware of the growing environmental crisis in the global world, and he also came to discern some undeniable errors of his marine explorations. Sure, he was simply curious and passionate about underwater world, but many of his marine explorations happened to be financed by those big oil companies, who have always been one of the major reasons behind the marine pollution around the world. Realizing how his marine explorations were a part of the problem, Cousteau could not help but feel bitter about his achievements, and he became more despaired when one of his two sons, who was as passionate about marine exploration as his father, died due to a plane crash incident.

Nevertheless, Cousteau did not resort to despair and misery at all. As becoming a passionate environment activist, he established a global non-profit organization for spreading environmental messages more around the world, and he actually achieved several important things in the process. Via his fame and reputation, he made many leading politicians around the world listen to him, and he was actually invited to the United Nations’ International Conference on Environment and Development in 1992.

The documentary skillfully shuffles a bunch of numerous archival records and footage clips, and the resulting collage is commendable on the whole. While we get close glimpses into Cousteau’s marine explorations, we also get to know more about Cousteau as a human being with some glaring flaws. As frequently occupied with his professional passion, he was not a very good father to both of his two sons, and he was not so faithful to his first wife either. For many years, he remained quite close to a woman who would eventually become his second wife later, but he never left his first wife till her death, and she had no problem with that because, as the daughter of a seaman family, she was happy to manage his ship and its crew.

Overall, “Becoming Cousteau” is engaging in addition to being fairly informative, and director/co-producer Liz Garbus, who previously directed “What Happened, Miss Simone?” (2015) and “All In: The Fight for Democracy” (2020), handles her human subject with enough care and respect. I wish it showed more of his life and career, but the documentary did a good job of summarizing his life and career on the whole, so I will not grumble for now.

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Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): They’re back… with lots of IPs

Posted on May 23, 2022 by kaist455

My mind mildly alternated between nostalgia and annoyance while I watched “Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers”, which was released on Disney+ on last Friday. Because that old Disney TV animation series of the same name has occupied a small but special place among my good old childhood memories for years, I was certainly delighted to see its two little heroes back in action, but I was also sometimes distracted by the overwhelming smorgasbord of intellectual properties in the film, and I must confess that my judgment on the film frequently went back and forth between 2.5 and 3 stars during my viewing.

At first, the film quickly establishes its fantasy world which is virtually the extension of what we saw from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” (1988). For many years, human and animation figures have nicely co-existed together, and the opening scene shows the early years of its two main characters: Chip (voiced by John Mulaney) and Dale (voiced by Andy Samberg). Mainly because they were the only two chipmunk animation figures in their school, Chip and Dale quickly befriended each other right from their first encounter, and they went to Hollywood together several years later. Although their first years of acting in Hollywood were not that easy, they eventually became pretty popular because of their TV animation series, and they and several other cast members enjoyed their big success during next several years.

However, getting tired of being sort of second banana to Chip, Dale attempted to begin his own career to Chip’s dismay, and that led to the serious downturn for both of them as their TV animation series was eventually canceled. After giving up his acting career, Chip has earned his living via selling insurance, and Dale, who is turned into a computer graphic animation figure thanks to a ‘surgery’, still tries to revive his popularity despite many other previous failures.

And then there comes one serious case which gathers them together after many years of estrangement. When an old colleague of theirs calls for a certain addiction problem, Chip quickly comes to help this dude, and that is how he comes across Dale, who was also called just like Chip. When their colleague is vanished not long after that, Chip has no choice but to work along with Dale as before for finding their colleague, and Dale is certainly excited because they can be back in business together if they successfully solve the case together and then gain lots of publicity.

While getting some assistance from a plucky human female detective named Ellie Steckler (KiKi Layne), Chip and Dale delve more into the case as following a few clues, and, of course, they soon discover a diabolical criminal scheme involved with a certain famous Disney animation character. I will not go into details on the identity of this villain, but I can tell you instead that Will Arnett has another juicy fun after a number of colorful voice performances during recent several years, and it is a shame that the film does not mention anything about his character’s infamous arch-nemesis.

Once its main characters are established, the film throws lots of actions and gags into the screen as expected, and some of those comic moments in the film are funny enough to draw chuckles from us. While I was tickled by an impromptu rap scene between our two little heroes, I was constantly amused by many different kinds of animation figures appearing in the film, and my biggest laugh in the film comes from an unexpected parody of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991).

However, my mind and eyes also often became tiresome due to heaps of various intellectual properties popping up and here throughout the film. Besides all those familiar stuffs from Disney, the film also borrows lots of other stuffs from other companies including Sony and DreamWorks, so we are served with not only that notorious CGI version of Sonic the Hedgehog but also those dreadful cat figures from, yes, “Cats” (2019). Sure, it is surely a fun to see those numerous references in the film for a while, but it depends a bit too much on flaunting all the intellectual properties it can possibly amass, and that aspect becomes rather vulgar and grotesque during the climax sequence for good reasons.

Anyway, John Mulaney and Andy Samberg are well-cast in their respective roles, and the comic chemistry from their contrasting voice performances keeps holding our interest to the end. Eric Bana, Seth Rogen, Dennis Haysbert, Keegan-Michael Key, and J.K. Simmons also have each own small fun with their respective animation characters in the film, and KiKi Layne functions well as a solid counterpart to Chip and Dale while playing straight as much as she previously did in “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018) and “The Old Guard” (2020).

In conclusion, “Chip ’n Dale: Rescue Rangers” does not reach to the sublime qualities of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”, but it is not a bad animation film at all thanks to director Akiva Schaffer’s competent direction, though I would rather recommend you to watch “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” or that Disney TV animation series instead. In my inconsequential opinion, both of them have a lot more wit and imagination than this rather shallow amalgam of intellectual properties, and, to be frank with you, I really want to revisit either of them right now.

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The Valet (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): So he becomes her fake lover…

Posted on May 23, 2022 by kaist455

“The Valet” does not feel that fresh to say the least, but it turns out to be more likable than expected. While this is the American remake version of the 2006 French film of the same name directed by Francis Veber, it is also instantly reminiscent of countless other comedy films ranging from “Notting Hill” (1999) to “Marry Me” (2022), but it did a fairly good job of entertaining us during its 2-hour running time, and I also appreciate several moments which are genuinely sweet and poignant to my little surprise.

Like “Notting Hill” and “Marry Me”, the movie mainly revolves around the unlikely relationship between two very different persons. While Antonio Flores (Eugenio Derbez) is a plain Mexican American dude who has been one of the countless parking valets working in LA, Olivia Allan (Samara Weaving) is a big Hollywood star actress in contrast, but they happen to come across each other by coincidence when she and her married billionaire lover happen to be spotted by a couple of paparazzi during one evening. Because both she and her lover must avoid a public scandal for their respective reasons, Antonio is subsequently requested to disguise himself as Olivia’s lover for a while, and he accepts the request mainly because he will be rewarded with enough money for getting his separated wife back.

As Antonio and Olivia hang around with each other in public for those hungry paparazzi, the movie generates a series of expected comic moments from how awkward Antonio looks and feels as suddenly thrown into spotlight along with his ‘girlfriend’. As everyone wonders what exactly she sees from him, he tries his best with some assistance from her, but he still looks pretty awkward, and, to make matters worse, there are already a couple of private investigators watching on him and Olivia.

Steadily maintaining the comic tension around its two main characters, the screenplay by Bob Fisher and Rob Greenberg thankfully does not push them into conventional romantic relationship. As spending more time with each other along the story, Antonio and Olivia come to open themselves more to each other, and they soon find themselves confiding a lot to each other on their respective matters of heart. While Olivia remains conflicted about what she should do with her apparently untrustworthy lover, Antonio desperately wants to reunite with his separated wife, but it is apparent to us from the very beginning that his wife does not have much compunction on exploiting his remaining feelings toward her. Just because she feels jealous after seeing him being with Olivia, she tries to attract his attention, and Antonio cannot help but drawn to the possibility of their reunion, while being pretty oblivious to what is being developed between him and a certain nice lady in his neighborhood.

Besides this main narrative, the movie also juggles several subplots, and the best part comes from Antonio’s aging mother Cecilia (Carmen Salinas), who, to his little embarrassment, recently happens to find the second romance in her life. When her son comes to learn of that, Cecilia does not feel any shame about that at all, and that subsequently leads to an amusingly sweet scene where Olivia is greeted by not only Cecilia’s family members and neighbors but also her lover’s family members not long after she happens to stay at Antonio’s home after one eventful night.

During the last act, we certainly get a big moment of conflict between our two main characters, but the movie keeps things rolling even when the mood becomes a bit more serious than before. Although the finale is delivered in a way too neat and convenient in my humble opinion, it has some elements of surprise at least, and I will not deny that I got some good laughs from that.

The movie depends a lot on the comic chemistry between its two lead performers, who complement each other well in addition to being believable in their respective characters’ growth and development along the story. While less flamboyant compared to his recent supporting turn in Oscar-winning film “CODA” (2021), Eugenio Derbez is funny and engaging in his earnest performance, and Samara Weaving, who has already shown her considerable comic talent in “Ready or Not” (2019), is often touching as her character gradually earns our sympathy. Never softening her character at all, Weaving effectively conveys to us how Olivia comes to find her better self along the story, and she is particularly good when Olivia comes to find some real comfort from those Mexican dished made by Cecilia.

In case of a number of supporting performers in the film, their colorful performances spice it up to say the least. While Max Greenfield is as obnoxious as required, Diany Rodriguez, Noemi Gonzalez, Marisol Nichols, and Betsy Brandt bring some personality to their rather thankless roles, and Ravi Patel and John Pirruccello are always fun to watch as two different private investigators who get much closer to each other than expected. Carmen Salinas is inarguably the ace in the hole, and, considering that she passed away several months ago, her work here in the film feels all the more moving.

Overall, “The Valet”, which is directed by Richard Wong, is an enjoyable product which does its job as well as intended. Because I have not seen the original French version, I cannot tell you whether it is an improvement over the original French version, but I can tell you instead that it is better than I thought when I watched its trailer some time ago, and I am willing to check out the original French version someday.

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On the Count of Three (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): Their little suicidal adventure.

Posted on May 22, 2022 by kaist455

Personally, suicide is not a laughing matter at all to me. To be frank with you, I was suicidal more than once throughout my 39-year life, and, as far as I remember, I actually attempted to kill myself twice. Although the reasons for my suicide attempts feel rather silly whenever I reflect on those depressing moments, I also remember well how I was not so willing to live another day to say the least, and I am glad that I eventually managed to keep going in both cases.

That is the main reason why I am usually quite sensitive to movies about suicide, and some of them annoyed or infuriated me for the crass handling of their serious main subject, but I am happy to report that Jerrod Carmichael’s debut feature film “On the Count of Three” amused and engaged me more than expected. While never overlooking the dark sides of its story, the movie humorously bounces from one narrative point to another along with its two deeply troubled characters, and you will come to care more about what may happen to them in the end – even while having some good chuckles from what may be the last day of their life.

At the beginning, we are introduced to Val, played by Carmichael, and his best friend Kevin (Christopher Abbott) as they are respectively going through another desperate day of their life. A few days ago, Kevin attempted suicide, but he fortunately failed and then was sent to a local mental hospital. As he talks with a psychiatrist assigned to him, we come to gather that he already tried to kill himself several times before, and he is not so willing to cooperate with his psychiatrist because there is no solution for his ongoing mental predicament in his depressed viewpoint.

In case of Val, he looks mostly fine on the surface as beginning to work at his workplace, but he turns out to have his own mental problem even though he does not tell anything about this to others around him. When his boss notifies that he will get a promotion, he is not cheered up at all, and he has also distanced himself a lot from his girlfriend for some personal reason, even though he once considered proposing to her. At one point, he actually tries to kill himself, but he only ends up miserably failing to kill himself, and that reminds me of how miserable my two suicide attempts in the past were. I tried to suffocate myself to death in both cases, but I only found that, like him, I was not so willing to push myself beyond that grim point of no return.

Not long after that, Val comes to have another idea for his suicide. Knowing well how suicidal Kevin has been for years, he decides to commit a suicide along with Kevin, so we soon see him helping Kevin escape from that mental hospital. Val has already prepared two guns for them, and all they will have to do is shooting each other’s head at a spot right next to a local strip club.

However, not so surprisingly, it turns out that both Val and Kevin are not so willing to pull the trigger as promised to each other. While they are still fairly suicidal, they decide to enjoy themselves a bit together before finally killing each other, and, because they have nothing to lose for now, they also concoct an impromptu plan associated with someone mainly responsible for Kevin’s damaged mental status.

Now, this feels like a setup for your typical life-affirming drama, but the screenplay by Ari Katcher and Ryan Welch, which received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award when the movie was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival early in last year, does not soften or cheapen its story and characters at all as often wielding its morbid sense of black humor. While there are a few moments of cheerfulness for our two troubled heroes, the movie shows us more of how pathetic and pitiful they are in many aspects, and that is particularly exemplified well by when Val tries to have some reconciliation with her girlfriend later in the story. Although he is sincere in his attempt, his girlfriend sees through him right from the beginning, and she does not pull any punch at all as clearly discerning the origin of his ongoing problems.

During the last act, the situation becomes a lot more serious than before due to an unexpected narrative turn, but the movie still balances itself well between absurdity and gravitas as its two main characters inevitably arrive at a crucial point where they must respectively make a choice for each other. I will not go into details about how the movie makes an exit along with them, but I can tell you instead that it does earn the poignant feelings generated from its very last shot.

As the center of the film, Carmichael and his co-star Christopher Abbott, a talented actor who has steadily risen since his heartbreaking breakthrough performance in “James White” (2015), deftly convey to us the complicated emotional bond between their characters, and they are supported well by several notable performers, who have each own moment to shine at the fringe of the story. As Val’s no-nonsense girlfriend, Tiffany Haddish, who shows more of the serious side of her considerable talent here as she previously did in Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter” (2021), steals every second of her brief appearance in the film, and J. B. Smoove, Lavell Crawford, and Henry Winkler are also well-cast in their small but substantial supporting roles.

Overall, “On the Count of Three” is an entertaining black comedy which deals its sensitive main subject with enough humor and thoughtfulness, and I admire Carmichael’s economic storytelling as well as how he draws good performances from himself and several other main cast members in the film. To be frank with you, I feel a bit better about my inconsequential life after watching it, and that is what good films often can do, isn’t it?

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Foxhole (2021) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Three different wars

Posted on May 22, 2022 by kaist455

“Foxhole” is a modest war movie which presents three different wars and then clumsily tries to make some universal statements from them. Although I do not think it works as well as intended, there are several effective moments to be appreciated at least, and they are supported mostly well by its small cast members, who appear in all these three main parts of the film as playing different characters.

The first part is unfolded in one foggy battleground of the American Civil War in the 19th century. During the opening scene, the camera looks over lots of dead soldiers on a wide field, and then it suddenly focuses on one Confederate Army soldier who manages to survive but then comes to have an urgent matter of life and death due to an enemy soldier.

However, this part is not about these two soldiers but four other Union Army soldiers who happen to be digging their foxhole at a nearby spot. When they hear a gunshot from somewhere outside their spot, they certainly become nervous, and then there comes a wounded black soldier, who survived the aforementioned incident. Due to his critically injured status, he must be sent to a hospital as soon as possible, but that hospital is a bit far from their spot, and they must finish digging their foxhole before their enemies come.

Because the black soldier tells them that the enemies will come upon them after several hours, their dilemma becomes much more difficult than before. Yes, it is morally right to send the black soldier to the hospital right now, but that means two of them will be dispatched along with him, and the two remaining members will continue to dig their foxhole and then may defend their spot by themselves alone.

I wish the movie delves more into this moral dilemma before eventually moving onto the second part, but the screenplay by director/writer Jack Fessenden, who also handled the music and editing of the film, succinctly establishes the characters and their circumstance at least. The main characters are your average broad archetypes, but they slowly come to engage us as they conflict more over their increasingly urgent matter, and what eventually happens may touch you a bit even though it is not so surprising.

The second part, which is shot in black and white film, is unfolded in a battlefield of the World War I in the early 20th century. We meet five American soldiers doing a certain important mission across the no man’s land between their army and the German Army, and they must be very careful because they can be noticed and then shot by their enemies at any chance.

And then there comes one big trouble for them. While they are carrying out their mission, they come across a wandering young German soldier, and they quickly hold him in their custody, but this will jeopardize their mission because at least one of them should watch over this German soldier while others continue to carry out their mission. While some of them begin to consider killing him for their convenience and safety, others reject that option for humane reasons, and the following conflict becomes more serious as it later turns out that time is running out for them minute by minute.

Although the second part feels a bit contrived around its eventual finale, Fessenden and his crew members did a good job of generating a sense of urgency around the main characters in the film. Due to their limited production budget, this part often looks artificial, but the actors look convincing as ably conveying to us the growing conflict among their characters, and we come to care about what choice they are going to make in the end.

The third part is set in the Iraq War in the early 2000s, and it is mainly unfolded inside a Humvee military truck going somewhere. It is carrying five American soldiers, and things look mostly fine as they are casually talking with each other, but we come to brace ourselves nonetheless as our rather limited perspective often reminds us that they are virtually moving in the middle of nowhere.

Of course, these soldiers soon find themselves stuck at a remote spot due to an unfortunate incident, and, to make matters worse, they are also surrounded by enemy snipers hiding somewhere outside. They have no choice but to wait inside their truck, but, as time goes by, the chance for rescue is decreased to their frustration, and the seriously injured status of one of them also gets worse.

As their story reaches to its inevitable point, it is juxtaposed with the other two stories of the film, but, instead of making them resonating with each other, the movie only leaves a rather jarring impression as hammering its points on us again and again. Nevertheless, the main cast members try their best with their respective multiple roles, and the special mention goes to James LeGros, who gradually comes to function as the moral center of the film via his solid supporting performance.

Overall, “Foxhole” does not bring anything particularly new to its genre territories, and it does not succeed that well in handling its familiar main themes associated war and humanity, but it did not bore me at least thanks to the competent efforts from Fessenden and his good cast and crew members. Although this is only his second feature film, Fessenden demonstrates here that he is a filmmaker with some potential, and I can only hope that he will soon move onto better things to show us.

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The Survivor (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A boxer who survived

Posted on May 17, 2022 by kaist455

Barry Levinson’s new film “The Survivor”, which was released on HBO Max a few weeks ago, patiently and thoughtfully presents the guilt and trauma of one Holocaust survivor. While never sentimental or exploitative in its stark depiction of the evil and horror he endured during that grim period, the movie calmly looks into his deeply traumatized psyche as well as his harrowing struggle for closure, and the overall result is all the more memorable thanks to one of the strongest lead performances of this year.

Ben Foster, an ever-reliable character actor who can be subtly intense and powerful without never being showy at all, plays Harry Haft, a real-life Polish survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp during the World War II. Haft was one of several notable Jewish boxers who were forced to box fellow inmates to survive, and his horrific story of survival probably feels familiar to you if you have ever watched “Triumph of the Spirit” (1989), where Willem Dafoe plays a real-life Greek Jewish boxer who was also pushed into such an impossible situation like that during that time.

The screenplay by Justin Juel Gillmer mainly focuses on the postwar period in Haft’s life. After the war was over, Haft moved to US along with his brother who also managed to survive thanks to him, and he has tried on a professional boxing career there during next several years, but things have not been going that well for him. Although he was promising at first, he has recently lost less than 6 times in low, and now it looks like he will have to retire sooner or later.

Nevertheless, Haft still wants to box more, and he really hopes to have a match with the current national champion for one personal reason. Before he was taken to Auschwitz, he was very close to a young girl in his hometown in Poland, and he wants her to learn of his survival via his big match with that champion – if she really survived as he has hoped for years.

For making that big match possible, Haft surely needs some extra publicity besides being a boxer who survived the Holocaust, and that is where a journalist named Emory Anderson (Peter Sarsgaard, who looks as suave and aloof as required) enters. Although talking about that grim period is the last thing he wants, Haft willingly tells almost everything to Anderson, and Anderson’s following article does draw more attention to Haft, though, not so surprisingly, some people are repulsed by what he did in the name of survival.

Bit by bit along the main narrative, a series of flashback scenes, which is shot in black and white film, show us what Haft suffered at the Auschwitz concentration camp. On another grueling day at the concentration camp, he happens to be noticed by an SS officer named Dietrich Schneider (Billy Magnussen) for his potential as a boxer, and, after some training, he is soon put into the ring to fight against an inmate. Whoever loses will be promptly killed, but, as Schneider sardonically points out at point, it is slightly better than being sent to a gas chamber at least.

As he keeps winning and surviving, Haft surely feels more disgusted and conflicted, but he has no choice from the beginning. He always has to depend on Schneider for his survival whenever he is not boxing, and Schneider shows Haft some generosity at times. He is cynical and rather perceptive about what is being cruelly committed by him and many other German people now, but that still does not stop him at all from having a sadistic fun and entertainment from forcing Haft into the ring, and Billy Magnussen’s effective acting does not let his supporting character turned into a merely monstrous caricature.

Meanwhile, the main narrative alternates between Haft’s training for his bit match and his accidental romantic relationship with an American Jewish lass named Miriam Wofsoniker (Vicky Krieps). You will be disappointed if you expect any exciting training montage, but the movie gives us instead several small but fine character moments between Foster and several dependable veteran actors including John Leguizamo and Danny DeVito, who shows here that he is still one of the most colorful character actors in Hollywood. In case of Foster and Krieps, they click well with each other as their characters tentatively approach closer to each other along the story, and Krieps is particularly good when her character comes to have a little serious conversation on God with Haft at one point later in the story.

Although that eventual big match of Haft is surely depicted with considerable intensity as expected, the movie goes further than that point, and that is where Foster’s performance becomes more crucial than before. In addition to constantly looking convincing in the two very different parts of the film, Foster deftly embodies his character’s guilt and trauma without any false note, and the rather somber final act is more poignant than expected as his character eventually arrives at the end of his long and difficult emotional journey with some peace of mind.

In conclusion, “The Survivor” is impressive in terms of storytelling and performance, and it is probably Levinson’s best work since his another notable HBO movie “You Don’t Know Jack” (2010). Although his prime period mainly represented by “Rain Man” (1988) and “Bugsy” (1991) may have already passed, he is still a good director nonetheless, and it is a shame that this very good film went straight to TV instead of being released in movie theaters.

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