Marry Me (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her accidental husband

Posted on March 22, 2022 by kaist455

Right from when I watched its trailer a few months ago, I knew what I would get from “Marry Me”, which was released in South Korean theaters in last week. Like another recent romantic comedy film “I Want You Back” (2022) attempts to follow the footsteps of “Addicted to Love” (1997), “Marry Me” tries to emulate what was successful in “Notting Hill” (1999), and it is predictable to the core in terms of plot and characters, but, to my little surprise, it somehow engaged and then entertained me when I watched it at last night.

The story mainly revolves around two contrasting main characters who cannot possibly be more different from each other. While Katarina “Kat” Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) is an extremely popular pop star, Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson) is a plain anonymous schoolteacher who is also a divorced man living with his daughter, and the only reason why he goes to Kat’s latest concert is that his daughter happens to be her big fan.

Anyway, the concert has received lots of attention from the public and the media because it is the culmination point for what Kat and her boyfriend singer Bastian (Maluma) have been doing for last several months. Having showed off their passionate romantic relationship as a part of the promotion of their ongoing concert tour, they are going to marry as watched by millions of fans around the world, and Kat really have lots of expectation on that because she sincerely believes Bastian is the one who will always love her for the rest of her life.

However, when her concert is about to reach to its expected climax part, there comes an unexpected moment of disaster. It belatedly turns out that Bastian has been cheating on her for a while, and, to make matters worse, this unpleasant fact has already been reported on an online gossip news. While quite devastated to the degree of nervous breakdown, Kat bravely comes onto the stage as everyone is anxiously watching her, and then she spots Charlie, who happens to be holding a sign saying “Marry Me” as asked by his daughter right at that moment. Without any hesitation, she promptly asks Charlie to marry her, and Charlie accepts her request on the spot because he clearly sees that she needs to be rescued from her humiliating public embarrassment right now.

Once her worst moment is over, it seems that all Charlie and Kat will have to do is quickly having a divorce without much fuss, but Kat decides to be around her accidental husband for a while mainly for recovering from that fiasco as soon as possible. Charlie reluctantly agrees because that looks like a right thing to do for her, but, of course, he soon finds himself overwhelmed as getting lots of public attention along with her. Fortunately, his colleague/best friend Parker Debbs (Sarah Silverman) comes to the rescue as his unofficial manager, and he and Kat can have some private time together for getting to know each other a bit as suggested by Kat.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Kat and Charlie come to like each other more than expected, but the screenplay by John Rogers, Tami Sagher, and Harper Dill, which is actually based on the graphic novel of the same named by Bobby Crosby, generates enough warmth and humor to hold our attention. While Charlie appreciates how Kat makes his and his daughter’s daily life much more exciting than before, Kat comes to learn the pleasure of simple life via Charlie, and she also helps Charlie’s daughter a bit on how to manage her stage fright involved with her upcoming math competition.

Of course, the mood becomes a little more serious during its third act as our two main characters come to have doubts on whether they can actually continue their relationship, but the movie thankfully does not push them into cheap plot contrivance for that. Although we can already see how the story eventually ends, the movie handles its plot formula with some care and thoughtfulness, and it surely earns its predictable but effective finale.

In addition, the movie is supported well by its two likable lead performers. Although her character is more or less than the extension of her public image, Jennifer Lopez is as sexy, beautiful, and charismatic as required during several performance scenes in the film, and her indelible presence makes a good contrast with the down-to-earth qualities of her co-star. As humbly standing by his co-star, Owen Wilson ably embodies his character’s warm decency, and he and Lopez’s good chemistry on the screen is the main reason why the movie can often hop over its genre clichés and conventions.

In case of several supporting performers in the film, they bring a substantial amount of personality to the movie while diligently revolving around Lopez and Wilson. While Sarah Silverman and John Bradley are well-cast in their respective supporting roles, Maluma brings some authenticity to his character as another popular pop star in the film, young performer Chloe Coleman holds her own small space well as Charlie’s smart and plucky daughter.

Overall, “Marry Me”, which is directed by Kat Coiro, is surely another your average romantic comedy flick, but it did its job a little better than I thought, and, probably because I happened to go through no less than four dissatisfying films in row before watching it, I decide to be a little more generous to it as giving 3 stars instead of 2.5 stars. To be frank with you, I doubt whether it will be as enduring as “Notting Hill”, but I felt entertained enough, so I will not grumble for now.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Deep Water (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): A tantalizing comeback work from Adrian Lyne

Posted on March 22, 2022 by kaist455

“Deep Water”, which was released on Amazon Prime in last week, works best when it tantalizingly toys with the suspicion and mistrust surrounding a couple at the center of the story. It is a bit disappointing that the movie comes to lose tension around the point where it eventually shows almost every card held behind its back, but the overall result is mostly entertaining as a solid psychological thriller packed with morbidly erotic undertones.

The movie, which is based on the novel of the same name of Patricia Highsmith, is about Vic Van Allen (Ben Affleck) and his wife Melinda (Ana de Armas), a couple with a daughter residing in some small town of Louisiana. Because he earned a lot thanks to his technology business involved with military drones, Vic and his wife and daughter have lived an affluent life together in their house, but we come to sense considerable estrangement between him and Melinda when they are at an evening party held at the house belonging to one of his friends. As drinking a lot, Melinda flirts with a young man who has befriended her and her husband for a while, and she does not mind at all how that looks to others including her husband.

In the end, Melinda comes to have a pretty intimate private time with that lad, and Vic happens to see everything from the distance, but he does not seem to mind at all. It looks like that lad is just the latest dude in his wife’s problematic private life, and it is apparent to us that Vic and Melinda have accepted her infidelity just for maintaining a happy domestic environment for their daughter, though she is not exactly someone to win the mother of the year award.

However, it turns out that Vic has not merely tolerated his wife’s promiscuousness at all. When he happens to have a private conversation with that lad later, he looks totally cool with whatever Melinda is doing with that lad behind her back, but then he says that he killed someone who was also quite close to her just like that lad.

Is he really serious? Or, is he just making a little sick joke on that person, who has been incidentally missing for a while with no apparent reason? While he seems quite serious on the surface, Melinda and others around him including his two best friends are not particularly concerned about that because he has actually said that from time to time for, probably, laughs for others and himself. As a matter of fact, Melinda is quite annoyed when she comes to learn of what her husband said to that lad, so she demands that they should have a dinner with that lad for an occasion for Vic to apologize, but Vic is not so willing to do that, and his subsequent action makes the mood all the more comfortable between him and that lad.

Anyway, things seem to get back to normal for Vic and Melinda later, but then there come a couple of new troubles. Melinda soon gets associated with another man, and everyone including Vic clearly sees what is going on between her and that dude. In addition, there is a writer who recently moves into Vic’s neighborhood, and he is quite interested in delving into that unpleasant rumor about Vic.

The screenplay by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson gradually dials up the level of tension and creepiness beneath the screen as occasionally adding some nice humorous touches to be appreciated. If you know about Highsmith’s longtime fascination with a certain animal in real life, you will certainly be amused whenever the movie shows Vic’s little hobby in the basement of his house, and you will also be tickled by a colorful supporting performance by Lil Rel Howery, who provides an extra dose of humor as he previously did in his breakthrough supporting turn in Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” (2017).

As I said above, the movie becomes less interesting as stumbling more than once during its last act, but director Adrian Lyne, who was somehow dormant for almost 20 years since his last film “Unfaithful” (2002), keeps things rolling as before under his skillful direction. The finale is rather contrived and jumbled in my inconsequential opinion, but the movie still does not lose its sense of humor and irony despite that, and it even throws a little naughty wink at us during the end credits.

In case of Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, who incidentally dated for a while after the shooting of the film, they click well with each other as exuding uneasy chemistry between them on the screen. Affleck, who is no stranger to playing a stoically ambiguous thriller movie character as previous shown in David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” (2014), ably implies the insidious possibilities of his character without exaggerating them at all, and de Armas, who has been more notable since her delightful performance in Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” (2019), embodies well her character’s alluring sensuality, and they are supported well by several good supporting performers including Tracy Letts, who has a juicy fun whenever his writer character regards Affleck’s character with suspicion.

Overall, “Deep Water” is indeed flawed in several aspects, but it shows at least that Lyne, who gave us “9 1/2 Weeks” (1986) and “Fatal Attraction” (1987), has not lose any of his skills yet. Although his territory is not as popular as before, he still can intrigue, tantalize, and entertain us, and I sincerely hope that this 81-year-old filmmaker will be able to make more movies in the future.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Black Crab (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A risk mission on the ice

Posted on March 21, 2022 by kaist455

Swedish Netflix film “Black Crab”, which was released a few days ago, does not bring anything particularly new to its gritty genre territory, and that was rather disappointing to me when I watched it in one early morning. Although it is not boring at all as a fairly passable action thriller flick, the movie merely slides from one expected plot point to another without much surprise for us, and it is also hampered further by its overlong final act which feels pedestrian at best and tedious at worst.

During its opening part, the movie promptly throws us into a grim near-future world which has been torn apart by some big war for years. When its heroine Caroline Edh (Noomi Rapace) arrives at a spot near a military base belonging to her army, the movie gives us a brief glimpse on how dire things have been for not only soldiers but also refugees living around the military base, and then we get the first action scene when our heroine suddenly finds herself ambushed by a bunch of thugs.

Anyway, Edh manages to arrive in the military base in the end, and she and several other selected soldiers soon have a private meeting with Colonel Raad (David Dencik). While their army is hopelessly losing the war at present, there is still a small but significant chance for the ultimate victory for them, and Colonel Raad wants Edh and several other soldiers to accomplish one very risky mission for that. They are going to carry a certain important secret item to a remote island whose surrounding sea area happens to be frozen hard enough for skating across it, and, considering numerous risks including enemy soldiers, this is more or less than a suicide mission for them.

Edh is initially reluctant, but then Colonel Raad has an offer she cannot possibly refuse. As shown from the prologue scene, she unfortunately happened to be separated from her young daughter in the middle of the war, and Colonel Raad promises to Edh that she will reunite with her daughter once she accomplishes the mission. Although she has some doubt on that promise, Edh eventually decides to follow the order, and she and several other soldiers subsequently take the first step of their perilous journey across the frozen sea.

It goes without saying that Edh and other soldiers, led by Forsberg (Aliette Opheim), will have to depend a lot on each other for accomplishing the mission and then surviving in the end. While carefully sliding across the frozen sea, they must be constantly watchful of enemy attack, and, above all, they must be wary of any danger hidden in the frozen ice floor, which can be broken under their feet at any chance.

Not so surprisingly, the situation soon gets worse due to one unfortunate incident, and that leads to a conflict between Edh and Nylund (Jakob Oftebro), whom Edh incidentally met before arriving at their military base. Because of what happened between them at that point, Edh does not trust Nylund much, but she has no choice but to accept his leadership just like other soldiers because, well, they all are expected to follow their military protocol no matter what happens.

As the main characters continue to slide from one spot to another, director Adam Berg, who also adapted Jerker Virdsong’s novel with Pelle Rådström, and his crew members including cinematographer Jonas Alarik fill the screen with more coldness and grimness. At one point, the mood becomes a little warm when Edh and other soldiers come across an unexpected moment of hospitality, but that is soon interrupted by harsh reality, and they are reminded again of how treacherous their journey can be.

That secret item to be delivered to the island functions as a MacGuffin at first, but it is eventually revealed around the midpoint of the film, and that is where the movie becomes less interesting than before. It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that our heroine eventually accomplishes the mission, but the movie attempts to go further than that during its 20 minutes, and what we get is pretty mediocre despite lots of shootings on the screen.

At least, the movie is supported well by another strong performance from Noomi Rapace, who has diligently impressed us since her unforgettable breakout turn in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2009). While Edh is another tough heroine with some vulnerability in her movie acting career, Rapace still plays her character with admirable conviction, and her effective acting holds our attention to the end. In case of several main cast members surrounding Rapace, they are mostly stuck in their thankless supporting roles, but Aliette Opheim, Jakob Oftebro, and Dar Salim bring enough gritty quality to their military characters, and David Dencik leaves a considerable impression despite his very brief appearance early in the movie.

Overall, “Black Crab” is occasionally engaging to watch thanks to Rapace as well as Berg’s competent direction, but it does not distinguish itself enough compared to many other similar military action films out there. When I watched its trailer several weeks ago, I had a pretty good idea about what and how it would be about, and, to my dissatisfaction, it does not exceed my mild expectation without having much to remember. Sure, you can watch it just for killing your free time, but there are better options out there, you know.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Windfall (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Three people stuck in one place

Posted on March 21, 2022 by kaist455

Netflix film “Windfall”, which was released on last Friday, is a little modest thriller which could be a solid entertainment if it simply trusted its three principle cast members. As well-qualified performers, they do their best with its rather thin screenplay, and things always get interesting whenever the movie focuses on whatever is going on among their characters, but, alas, it later loses its narrative pacing too often as our level of interest is decreased bit by bit.

At first, the movie feels like your typical home invasion flick as a nameless dude by Jason Segal, who also wrote the story along with director Charlie McDowell and their screenplay writers Justin Lader and Andrew Kevin Walker, spends some time in a luxurious vacation house located in some remote area. Although it initially seems that he broke into the house just for stealing money and some valuable stuffs inside it, he decides to stay a bit longer as looking here and there in and around the house, and that is when the owner of the house, played by Jesse Plemons, and his wife, played by Lily Collins, arrive at the spot.

Despite his possession of a gun, Segal’s character tries to hide himself from the owner and his wife, but, of course, his presence is soon exposed to them, and that is subsequently followed by a problematic hostage situation among these three figures. It turns out that the owner is a very wealthy man who is incidentally the CEO of some big digital technology company, so he may give the money demanded by Segal’s character, but there is one catch. While the owner does have lots of money, it will take some time for him to get the money delivered in cash, and that naturally means that he and his wife will be held by Segal’s character for one day at least.

As long as the owner and his wife keep themselves still and quiet as demanded by Segal’s character, everything may turn out to be all right for all of them, but, not so surprisingly, the mood gradually becomes tense among them as the owner seems to try on some other options besides giving the money to Segal’s character without complaint. Sure, he is rather casual about losing a bit of his supposedly enormous fortune, but it is apparent that he does not trust Segal’s character much, and he is willing to use his wife as a sort of pawn for any opportunity of gaining an upper hand in his tricky situation with Segal’s character.

In case of his wife, she certainly wants to get away from their increasingly inconvenient circumstance, but it slowly turns out that she has some other thoughts behind her detached façade. While she and her husband look like a fairly good couple on the surface, we gather little by little that they have not been that honest with each other – especially when she happens to have a little private conversation with Segal’s character.

In contrast, the movie is a little too ambiguous about the real intentions of Segal’s character. Although it is apparent that his current financial situation is not so good to say the least, we are not so sure about what exactly he feels and thinks about his two hostages. He certainly dislikes the owner a lot, but he seems to envy all the luxuries belonging to the owner and his wife, and he is also sympathetic to the wife as getting to know her a bit.

Rather than focusing more on the tense and uneasy interactions among its three main characters, the movie unfortunately takes a left turn during its last act, and that is where it begins to stumble more than once while dissipating what has been accumulated on the screen fairly well till that narrative point. When it finally arrives at the finale, it is blandly predictable instead of being surprisingly inevitable, and that is the main reason why the movie feels rather hollow in the end.

Nevertheless, the movie works to degree as the showcase of the talents of its three main cast members, who also incidentally participated in the production of the film. Although he is the weakest one in the group, Jason Segal shows his more serious side which he previously demonstrated in “The End of the Tour” (2015), and he manages to bring some real sense of desperation and frustration to his under-written character. Lily Collins, who has steadily advanced since I noticed her for the first time in “Mirror Mirror” (2012), ably suggests her character’s complicated emotional status along the story, and Jesse Plemons, who has been one of the most dependable actors working in Hollywood since his notable supporting turn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” (2012), has lots of sly fun with his character as giving another fine performance to be added to his impressive acting career.

I could discern how much McDowell, who previously made a solid feature film debut with “The One I Love” (2014), and his crew members tried behind the camera, but “Windfall” does not have enough ground for his main performers to go further than demonstrating their acting ability. As reflected by a number of heavy-handed aspects such as David Marks and Saunder Jurriaans’ occasionally intrusive score, the movie also does not seem to be confident about its main performers, and that makes me wonder more about whether it could actually be more improved via simply observing its main performers doing their job in front of the camera in addition to giving them more stuffs to handle. In short, the movie is not a total dud at all, but I still cannot help but feel that there is a better film somewhere inside it, and that lingering dissatisfaction prevents me from recommending it.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I Want You Back (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Your average rom-com product without much surprise

Posted on March 20, 2022 by kaist455

As your average romantic comedy, “I Want You Back”, which is currently available on Amazon Prime, has some comic substance and chemistry, but it does not have much surprise for us. Yes, it is already expected right from the very beginning that its two different lead characters will eventually come to realize that they actually love each other, and the movie generates some good laughs from how oblivious they are to that undeniable fact till the last act, but that is not enough for compensating for its several glaring flaws including its rather deficient comic momentum.

During the first act, the movie quickly establishes its two lead characters’ respective miserable private situations. When Emma (Jenny Slate) is having a lunch with her gym trainer boyfriend Noah (Scott Eastwood), Noah suddenly announces that he is going to leave Emma because she does not feel like the one with whom he can live for the rest of his life, and Emma is understandably depressed to hear that. When Peter (Charlie Day) is attending the birthday party of the son of one of his close friends, his schoolteacher girlfriend Anne (Gina Rodriguez) unexpectedly reveals that she is going to leave him because she sees no future between them, and Peter is naturally devastated by that.

Incidentally, Peter and Emma work in the same building, and they come across each other by coincidence while they are struggling with their painful feelings in private. As they share more of how much they feel hurt by their respective hurtful breakups, they come to lean on each other more, and then they find themselves checking together what Anne and Noah are respectively doing at present via social media application.

After discovering that Anne and Noah are already moving onto another romantic partner in their respective private lives, Peter and Emma come to concoct a rather selfish plan to benefit both of them. While Peter is going to disrupt the relationship between Noah and his new girlfriend, Emma is going to do the same thing to Anne and her new boyfriend, and they hope that their plan will be succeeded enough for them to get back their respective ex-partners.

On the surface, their respective missions seem to be pretty easy. All Peter has to do is becoming a new physical training client for Noah, and he soon becomes quite close to Noah as he exercises more under Noah’s guidance. In case of Emma, she simply approaches to both Anne and her new boyfriend when they are preparing together for a musical performance in Anne’s elementary school, and it does not take much time for Emma to draw the attention of Anne’s new boyfriend as pretending that she is quite interested in stage acting.

I must point out that the story is basically a variation of “Addicted to Love” (1997), another romantic comedy film about a duo working together for getting their respective ex-partners back by any means necessary. Peter and Emma thankfully do not reach to the utter nastiness of that romantic comedy film, but, unfortunately, many comic moments generated from their inherently nasty plans do not have much edginess. For instance, a scene involved with several young girls with whom Peter and Noah happen to be associated at one point is unfolded in a very predictable fashion without enough surprise to draw chuckles from us, and the same thing can be said about an absurd scene where Emma suggests something sexually bold for Anne and her boyfriend.

The screenplay by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, who also served as the co-producers of the film, later culminates to an eventual narrative point where, this is not a spoiler at all, Emma and Peter cannot hide their plan anymore from others involved with them in one way or another, but there is not enough comic momentum to make that crucial scene really funny, and that is another letdown for us. Furthermore, the movie only comes to fizzle as subsequently trudging toward its expected ending, and, again, it does not exceed our expectation much.

At least, the movie has two talented comic performers at its center, though their good efforts often remind us that they deserve materials better than this. While Charlie Day brings some natural comic intensity to his occasionally neurotic character, Jenny Slate, who has steadily advanced since her breakthrough turn in “Obvious Child” (2014), is delightful to watch as usual, and she and Day mostly click together well with each other throughout the film. In case of several other main cast members in the film, Gina Rodriguez, Clark Backo, Manny Jacinto, and Scott Eastwood are under-utilized due to their flat supporting roles, but Eastwood shows a bit of comic potential during his several scenes with Day, and the special mention goes to young performer Luke David Blumm. This young performer plays one of the kids participating in that school musical performance, and, in my trivial opinion, he holds his own small place well whenever he appears along with Slate on the screen.

In conclusion, “I Want You Back”, which is directed by Jason Orley is not exactly a waste of time, but there are many romantic comedy flicks which are funnier and wittier in comparison. Although I cannot possibly recommend “Addicted to Love” because it is also not a good one at all, I willingly recommend Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza” (2021) instead, and I assure you that you will have a more productive time with that charmingly youthful romantic comedy film.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Master (2022) ☆☆(2/4): A racially tame campus horror flick

Posted on March 20, 2022 by kaist455

“Master”, which was released on Amazon Prime two days ago, feels rather tame in its incoherent mix of racial issues and supernatural elements. The movie initially seems to be ready to tackle these sensitive issues in addition to trying to scare and unnerve us a lot, but the overall result is not particularly successful in either of its two different attempts, and it does not leave much impression on us in the end except a few thought-provoking moments which are unfortunately left underdeveloped without much dramatic impact.

At first, the movie alternates between two different African American women in some prestigious New England college with lots of historical background. As the first colored female master in the campus, Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) is determined to bring some fresh air of change into the campus, and it looks like everything will go well for her as another semester is started in the campus. Besides getting the full support from the faculty staff whose members are mostly Caucasian, Gail has a fairly productive time with those students under her charge during their first meeting, and she is also willing to support more her friend/colleague Liv Beckman (Amber Gray), who is incidentally the only other African American female faculty member in the campus besides Gail.

One of the students under Gail’s charge is a young African American woman named Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), and her first day in the campus is not exactly pleasant to say the least. As one of a very few colored students in the campus, she feels rather daunted right from when she arrives in front of her dormitory building, and her fellow students do not welcome her that much when she happens to be assigned to a certain notorious room. According to an old rumor in the campus, that room has been haunted by the ghost of a woman hanged for witchcraft in the 17th century, and Jasmine later came to learn a bit about how the first African American female student in the campus killed herself in that cursed room many years ago.

Anyway, Jasmine tries to keep focusing on her study, but she cannot help but feel more unnerved about whatever is hovering around her dormitory room. She often has disturbing dreams which may be associated with that malicious ghost, and that accordingly affects her relationship with her Caucasian roommate. They are not exactly close to each other, but her roommate comes to notice that something is going wrong with Jasmine, and the mood accordingly becomes more awkward between them.

Meanwhile, Jasmine also comes to have a trouble at Liv’s literature class. While she tries her best on the latest essay homework, Liv give her an F just because she does not approve of what Jasmine wrote, but she inexplicably does not have much problem with what Jasmine’s roommate casually wrote without much thought, and that eventually makes Jasmine file a complaint against Liv’s class. This puts both Liv and Gail in a rather awkward situation, because Liv is about to be evaluated for her tenure while Gail is supposed to stand by Jasmine even though Gail is also expected to provide some support to Liv.

The screenplay by director/writer Mariama Diallo could delve more into this interestingly tricky circumstance among its three main characters, but the movie instead comes to focus more on terrorizing not only Jasmine but also Gail, who also begins to experience odd and disturbing things day by day. At one point, she is aghast as suddenly encountering a serious pest problem in her campus residence, and that is just the beginning of what will come next for her.

While frequently emphasizing the old historical background of the college, the movie attempts to make some points on how the systemic racism from the past is alive and well under the surface, but these points are often delivered in rather heavy-handed ways. There are a few effective scenes which will make you cringe with indirect racist undertones (I particularly appreciate the evening dormitory party scene where Jasmine has to endure a bunch of Caucasian boys and girls casually appropriating some African American rap music just for fun), but there are also a number of glaringly contrived moments such as when Gail comes to learn of a hidden secret behind one certain supporting character later in the story, and we even get a big burning cross to remind us of how bad things are in the campus.

Furthermore, the movie does not work well as a horror flick either. While we surely get lots of ominous moments as both Gail and Jasmine are disturbed in one way or another, these moments did not add up much to something impactful enough for us, and the movie sadly under-utilizes the considerable presence and talent of Zoe Renee, who admirably tries her best with the bland materials given to her. In case of several other main cast members in the film, Regina Hall demonstrates more of the serious side of her talent as she previously did in “Support the Girls” (2018), but there are not many things to do for her except looking concerned or frightened, and Amber Gray, Talia Balsam, and Bruce Altman are simply required to fill their respective supporting parts.

In conclusion, “Master” is quite disappointing in its failed attempts to mix horror elements with race issues, and its regrettable failure makes me admire more what Jordan Peele accomplishes in his Oscar-winning debut film “Get Out” (2017), which was a bit underrated by me but, as I correctly predicted at that time, has become more iconic during last several years. To be frank with you, I would rather recommend you to watch that seminal film or Netflix TV series “The Chair”, which did a better job of handling race issues in its similar campus background. Believe me, you will have a better time with either of these two special works.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cats’ Apartment (2020) ☆☆☆(3/4): They need more than care…

Posted on March 20, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “Cats’ Apartment” observes a bunch of cats inhabiting in a big old apartment complex located at the eastern end of Seoul. While it is often amusing to watch how these cute cats live day by day, the documentary also focuses on that fragile relationship between cats and human residence regions, and that is why it is sometimes poignant to see how several activists try to help these cats as much as possible.

That big old apartment complex in question was already the main subject of other recent South Korean documentary film “A Long Farewell” (2017). As told to us in that wistful documentary, the apartment complex area is now gone due to the extensive redevelopment process during 2018-2019, and the neighborhood will look certainly different with new and bigger apartment buildings around the end of this year.

Director Jeong Jae-eun, who has been mainly known for several acclaimed urban documentaries besides that wonderful female coming-of-age drama film “Take Care of My Cat” (2001), spent several years in the apartment complex for the shooting of her documentary, and the result, which was incidentally edited from several hundred hours of raw footage clips, is often vivid and intimate to say the least. Although these apartment buildings no longer exist at present, the buildings and their neighborhood exude a palpable sense of history and life on the screen, and it is rather bittersweet to observe them gradually emptied before the eventual beginning of redevelopment.

While all the residents in the apartment complex came to leave one by one, lots of stray cats remained in the neighborhood without having any idea on how much their habitat would be changed during next several years. According to a rough estimation, there were at least 250 ~ 300 stray cats living here and there throughout the apartment complex, and several people who had often taken care of these stray cats were certainly quite concerned about what would happen to these stray cats during the upcoming redevelopment period.

As many of these people try to help these stray cats in one way or another, the documentary sometimes focuses on some of these stray cats, who have each own personality besides their distinctive appearances. In case of one certain cat, it has been a beloved fixture of a local pharmacy, and we cannot help but smile as observing how calmly and playfully it is sitting outside the pharmacy, but the mood becomes rather melancholic as it still occupies its spot even after the pharmacy is shut down forever as its owner leaves just like many of his customers.

And we are also introduced to several other interesting cats in the neighborhood. I was constantly amused and touched as watching how friendly many of these cats are to people without fearing people at all, but I also observed that they could not possibly understand what was going on in their little world right now. I am now reminded of what W.G. Sebald once said: “Men and animals regard each other across a gulf of mutual incomprehension.”

Nevertheless, despite that undeniable mutual incomprehension between them and the stray cats, a number of people who really cared about the stray cats in their disappearing neighborhood tried their best anyway. Besides constantly feeding the stray cats day by day, they also organized their little public association together, and we later see them attending a public meeting for showing many others how important their cause really is.

Of course, they could not possibly save all these stray cats in their neighborhood, but they kept going nonetheless. For controlling the cat population in the neighborhood, they often captured male stray cats for getting them neutered and then releasing them. For making stray cats move to safer habitats, they planned on how to move away their feeding spots bit by bit, and we hear a bit of their sincere and passionate discussion on that.

In addition, they also had some of stray cats adopted after domesticating them a bit during several weeks. While some of them were quite friendly from the beginning, others were not so cordial to say the least, and you will be amused a lot by one particular stray cat, who did not like to be patted on its body at first but then became quite perky and friendly thanks to its temporary owner’s patient efforts.

Meanwhile, the time for redevelopment finally came, and the situation became more difficult for the stray cats. The apartment complex got almost isolated from the surrounding area, and those apartment buildings were demolished one by one, but many stray cats were still not accustomed to how things were drastically changed for them. At one point, we see one of them attempting to return to its old habitat, and then we gasp a bit when it nearly gets itself killed.

On the whole, “Cats’ Apartment” will occasionally melt the hearts of cat lovers for good reasons, but it also works as a thoughtful meditation on our rather problematic relationship with stray cats and other urban animals. In my humble opinion, we should pay more attention to them considering how much their life is affected by our activities, and the documentary will surely make you reflect more on that.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

In Our Prime (2020) ☆☆☆(3/4): His special math tutor

Posted on March 14, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean film “In Our Prime” is an engaging mix of familiar stuffs which dutifully and entertainingly sticks to its formulas from the beginning to the end. While it is pretty apparent that the story and characters are derived a lot from Gus Van Sant’s “Good Will Hunting” (1997) and “Finding Forrester” (2000), the movie is mostly effective as efficiently applying the formulas to its own materials, and you may find yourself rooting for its two very different main characters more than expected.

At first, the movie focuses on how things have been not that good for Han Ji-woo (Kim Dong-hwi), a teenage boy who has just started his first year at a prestigious high school in Seoul. Although his widow mother is very poor in addition to being too busy with earning her living day by day, Ji-woo has tried really hard to study and then excel himself, and that is how he was accepted by this respectable high school without much concern on paying the tuition.

However, he has been an outcast as a poor kid depending on social service support in contrast to many other schoolmates who are quite affluent, and even his class teacher does not help him much just because his grades are not entirely satisfying on the whole. Ji-woo is not particularly good at math, so his math test scores have been rather low compared to many of his classmates, and his teacher condescendingly recommends him to move to some other school just because his imperfect grades can possibly affect the considerable reputation of the school.

When he later happens to be suspended from the school dormitory because of a minor transgression, Ji-woo comes to stay in a little place belonging to the security guard working in the school, who is incidentally the very person who caught Ji-woo on the spot for that transgression. The security guard, who is nicknamed “People’s Army” just because he is a North Korean defector, is rather antisocial to say the least, but he takes a pity on Ji-woo, so he lets Ji-woo stay longer in his place even though he does not welcome Ji-woo much.

This North Korean defector is played by none other than Choi Min-sik (Remember his unforgettably grand performance in Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” (2003)?), so you can instantly sense right from his first appearance in the film that this character is not just your average old security guard. As a matter of fact, he was once a renowned math prodigy during his time in North Korea, and he surprises Ji-woo via quickly solving all of those demanding math problems given to Ji-woo and his classmates as their homework.

Because he really needs to improve his math test scores, Ji-woo asks the security guard to give him some extra teaching. Of course, the security guard is reluctant because he simply prefers to live in solitude just like Sean Connery’s character in “Finding Forrester”, but he comes to accept Ji-woo’s request under a few conditions, and Ji-woo soon begins to study math more under his secret math tutor at every night.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you both Ji-woo and his secret math teacher come to gain a lot from each other, but the movie thankfully does not overplay that aspect while conveying to us a convincing sense of teaching and learning. At one point, the security guard gives Ji-woo a thoughtful lesson on why math is a lot more than memorizing formulas and then solving problems, and that actually made me reflect on how aimlessly I learned math during my high school and college years. Yes, I was fairly smart enough to memorize and then handle all those numerous constants and variables for solving one math problem after another, but my head eventually stopped when I later came to wonder more about why and how math mattered to me – and that was when I recognized my limit.

Around the point where it enters the last act, the movie starts to stumble more than once as attempting some blatant melodrama. Yes, our young hero is unjustly accused of what he did not do. Yes, the security guard turns out to have a very painful past behind his gruff appearance. Yes, both of them should make a choice which will affect their respective lives in one way or another. Yes, we surely get a dramatic big speech moment which is not so far from the finale of “Finding Forrester” while also borrowing a bit from “Scent of a Woman” (1992) and “A Beautiful Mind” (2001).

Nonetheless, the movie still works thanks to its sincere and competent storytelling, and it is supported well by its main cast members. Besides selling that dramatic finale as well as demanded, Choi Min-sik fills his character with enough wit and gravitas, and his seasoned appearance is complemented well by Kin Dong-hwi’s earnest performance. In case of several other cast members, Park Byung-eun, Park Hae-joon, and Jo Yun-seo are well-cast in their respective supporting roles, and Jo brings some charm and spirit to her rather thankless role.

In conclusion, “In Our Prime”, directed by Park Dong-hoon, is not exactly fresh in terms of story and characters, but it is still engaging enough to overlook its several short comings including its heavy-handed last act. I did not expect much from the beginning, and it does not exceed my expectation at all, but I will not grumble for now because it did its job as well as intended in addition to being fairly entertaining.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Turning Red (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Her big red secret

Posted on March 13, 2022 by kaist455

Animation feature film “Turning Red”, the latest work from Pixar Animation Studios which unfortunately goes straight to Disney+ instead of being released in theaters, is a delightful female coming-of-age tale peppered with distinctive cultural touches to be appreciated. Like several recent Disney animation films such as “Encanto” (2021) and “Raya and the Last Dragon” (2021), it embraces and embodies its cultural background with gusto and energy in addition to gleefully brandishing female empowerment and solidarity, and the result is another welcoming dose of fresh air of diversity into Disney animation.

The story, which is set in Toronto, Canada in 2002, mainly revolves around Meilin “Mei” Lee (voiced by Rosalie Chiang), a plucky 13-year-old Chinese Canadian girl who could be my nemesis if my adolescent self were in her middle school. When I was around her age, I was your average Asian overachiever not so different her in many aspects, and I still remember a lot how I was frequently occupied with maintaining a continuous stream of high test scores to impress and please my parents and teachers more. Yes, unless my mind was resting via books and movies, I was often zealously (and psychotically, perhaps) obsessed with being at the top of not only my class but also the whole school, and the World War III could have been possible if I had ever happened to compete with a truly worthy match like Meilin.

Everything in Meilin’s daily life is constantly under control by her strict and overprotective mother Ming (voiced by Sandra Oh), and Meilin has been mostly content with that, but, just like her several close school friends, she cannot help but feel helplessly swooned in case of a certain very popular boy group consisting of five very handsome dudes. They are all excited when they learn that the upcoming concert of that boy group will soon be held in their city, and Meilin is quite determined to attend the concert along with her friends even though she does not tell anything to her parents yet.

However, there comes an unexpected change on one day. Not long after her personal romantic feelings toward a certain boy in the neighborhood get exposed to everyone, Meilin goes through lots of emotional upheavals throughout the following night, and her very intense emotional experience happens to trigger something hidden inside herself. When she wakes up, she is shocked to find herself transformed into a big red panda, and that accordingly causes lots of trouble at her home as well as her school.

Once they find out what happens to their dear daughter, Meilin’s parents belatedly reveal a little family secret. For many centuries, the female members of her old family could transform into big red pandas due to their mystic connection with red pandas, and all Meilin will have to do is holding her emotions under control for avoiding another transformation before eventually going through a magical ritual for getting normal again.

However, of course, it is not so easy to control emotions for Meilin because, after all, she is an adolescent girl susceptible to all those strong emotions associated with adolescence. While never hesitating to generate plenty of gags from her emotional/physical struggles, the film also finds some poignancy from how Meilin’s school friends come to provide support and help once they happen to learn of Meilin’s extraordinary situation, and it is often exhilarating to watch them working together for getting what they are wanting so eagerly.

After cheerfully bouncing from one inspired comic moment to another, the film becomes a bit more serious during its climax part, but the story by director Domee Shi, who previously won an Oscar for her short animation film “Bao” (2018), and her two co-writers Julia Cho and Sarah Streicher never stops rolling. Besides being often rich and interesting in case of small and big cultural/ethnic details, the film depicts its story and characters with considerable wit, care, and affection, and we gladly go along with that as alternatively tickled and touched along the story.

The main cast members of the film are all solid in their effective voice acting. While young performer Rosalie Chiang effortlessly functions as the heart and soul of the film, Ava Morse, Hyein Park, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan are well-cast as Meilin’s best friends, and the unadorned rapport among them and Chiang constantly energizes the screen. While Sandra Oh, an ever-reliable Korean Canadian actress who has seldom disappointed us since her breakthrough supporting turn in Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” (2004), brings an ample amount of personality and humanity to her archetype role, Orion Lee, whom you may remember for his gentle performance in Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” (2019), humbly stays in the background as demanded, and it is certainly nice to see that James Hong, a great Chinese American character actor who appeared in many different films ranging from “Chinatown” (1974) to “Big Trouble in Little China” (1986), is still working as usual.

In conclusion, “Turning Red” is another successful work from Pixar Animation Studios, and it is a shame that we cannot watch it on big theater screen. To be frank with you, I am willing to watch it again sooner or later for appreciating its numerous goodies more, and, as you know, that is a definite sign of excellent animation film.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The Adam Project (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): It is pretty predictable, you know.

Posted on March 13, 2022 by kaist455

Shawn Levy’s Netflix film “The Adam Project”, which was released on this Friday, does not have much surprise for us. Although it is entertaining to some degree thanks to the game efforts from its main cast members, the movie does not bring anything particularly new to its genre territory except some mumbo-jumbo about the futuristic technique in the story, and the result is another safe and colorless product you can expect from Netflix.

After the opening scene set in 2050, the movie moves back to 2020, and we are introduced to a 12-year-old boy named Adam Reed (Walker Scobell). While he and his single mother Ellie (Jennifer Garner) are still emotionally struggling with his scientist father’s death in 2018, Adam often gets bullied by a couple of bigger kids, and that has been the constant source of headache for his mother, who has tried hard to maintain their cozy residence located in the middle of a local forest in addition to earning their living outside.

When Adam is going through the first day of his latest suspension from his school, something seems to crash onto a spot not so far from his house, so he goes outside for finding what really happens, and then he comes across a man who clearly needs some help due to his physical injury. As letting this dude into the house and then listening to what he says, Adam quickly intuits that this dude is none other than his older self from the future, and he is certainly excited by this unbelievable situation.

Anyway, it soon turns out that Older Adam (Ryan Reynolds) does not come to 2020 for merely meeting his younger self. There is a big issue which he believes he can fix before it is too late, and, as already shown from the opening scene, he is being pursued by a bunch of bad guys sent by a certain figure who is incidentally associated with Adam’s dead father. We accordingly get several action scenes as expected, but I must point out that the result depends on CGI so much that it is a bit hard to care about what is being at stake for Adam and his older self or some other characters in the story including a crucial supporting character played by Zoe Saldaña.

Meanwhile, the movie generates some interest from how Older Adam helps his younger self a bit despite their awkward interactions. He surely comes to step forward when his younger self happens to be bullied again, and he also gives a little pep talk to Ellie when they happen to encounter each other at one point. Even though they still bicker with each other at times, Adam and his older self come to discern that they are not so different from each other despite that big gap between them in terms of time and space, and they certainly stick together in front of that main villain of the story.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Adam and Older Adam subsequently go back to 2018 for meeting their father, because, as many of you already know, their father is played by Mark Ruffalo. One of the few refreshing aspects of the film is that, mainly thanks to his lifelong academic interest in the physics of time travel, it does not take much time for Adam’s father to accept that the two different figures in front of him do come from the future, and Ruffalo has some little fun with his character’s neurotic but understandable concern over many possible dangers of time travel.

In the end, the story expectedly culminates to the climactic action sequence packed with lots of flashes and noises, and that is where the movie becomes less fun and entertaining than before. Although it does not lack substance in case of action, the movie is rather bland and unimaginative in case of handling its ever-intriguing science fiction story promise, and that is the main reason why the sentimental finale feels perfunctory instead of being genuinely poignant.

At least, the movie works in case of the rocky relationship development between Adam and Older Adam. Ryan Reynolds, who also participated in the production of the film along with Levy, is mostly on his usual sarcastic attitude he has honed since “Deadpool” (2016), and I must confess that that was a bit tiresome for me from time to time because I am not a big fan of “Deadpool” at all, but he and young actor Walker Scobell complement each other well on the whole. As ably swinging back and forth between drama and comedy together, they carry the film to the end, and their effortless comic chemistry on the screen is certainly the best thing in the movie.

Besides Ruffalo and Saldaña, the two other notable cast members in the film are not utilized that well to my disappointment. Jennifer Garner manages to overcome her thankless role with her warm natural presence, but Catherine Keener is unfortunately stuck in her bland supporting character, and her de-aged appearance later in the story somehow took me back to how she was much more fun and interesting in her saucy Oscar-nominated supporting turn in “Being John Malkovich” (1999).

In conclusion, “The Adam Project” is not as bad as I feared at first, but it is not so distinctive or impressive, and that is a major letdown considering several major Hollywood talents gathered here in the film. I do not regret spending my free time on this passable piece of work, but my mind moved onto the next thing to watch right after the movie was over, and that is all, folks.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment