Happening (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): It’s happening to her…

Posted on March 13, 2022 by kaist455

French film “Happening”, which won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice International Film Festival, often feels like a hard empathic gut-punch. Firmly sticking around its young heroine who happens to be in a very unfortunate situation, the movie gradually lets us immersed in her increasingly desperate status step by step, and we come to understand and empathize more with that as bracing ourselves for whatever she may have to endure along the story.

The movie, which is based on Annie Ernaux’s confessional essay “L’événement”, immediately put us into its young heroine’s world without much background explanation. The main background is some college campus in France of the early 1960s, and the opening scene shows Anne (Anamaria Vartolomei) preparing for having another fun evening along with her two close college friends. We subsequently see them entering a local bar full of young people just like them, and we sense a trouble as Anne finds herself attracted a bit toward of one of those young men at the spot.

However, it soon turns out that she has already been in a big trouble. Having been quite disturbed by having no menstruation at all for more than one month, Anne goes to a doctor, and, what do you know, she turns out to have been pregnant for several weeks. Anne naturally cannot believe this news at first, but her body does not lie, and she comes to experience more signs of pregnancy as days go by.

As a smart and intelligent student who wants to study more for realizing her aspiration, Anne naturally does not want her life and dream to be ruined by this unwanted pregnancy, but, unfortunately, there is not any easy option for her from the beginning. Believe or not, abortion was strictly forbidden by the French government during that period, and any attempt on illegal abortion could lead to a criminal prosecution followed by incarceration.

What follows next is not so far from what millions of women are silently and miserably suffering around the world even at present. While not so willing to tell anyone about her ongoing pregnancy, Anne tries to find any possible way to get an abortion, but, not so surprisingly, she often finds herself against the wall more than once. Her doctor is sympathetic to her to some degree, but he does not want to get into any trouble. Her close college friends feel sorry for her when she finally confides her pregnancy to them, but they do not want to know more once she tells them about abortion. The lad responsible for her pregnancy is certainly caught off guard by the news, but this prick is not so willing to help her while evading his responsibility. In case of some other doctor she later visits for a second opinion, well, all I can say is that I still want to pummel and then strangle this m*therf*cker for a good reason.

As the situation gets direr for her, Anne tries to keep things under control as before, but her state of mind is gradually overwhelmed by her growing dread and anxiety, and that affects her relationships with several figures who care about her a lot. She begins to underachieve in her recent tests, and her professor, a caring educator who has noticed her for a while, personally asks her whether there is any problem, but she cannot possibly answer. Because her parents have had lots of expectation on her, she cannot tell them about her pregnancy either, and that results in considerable emotional strain between her and her mother.

Around the point where our heroine finally gets an opportunity to have an abortion, the movie continues to maintain its austere storytelling approach under the skillful direction of director Audrey Diwan, who also adapted Ernaux’s essay with Marcia Romano and Anne Berest. As cinematographer Laurent Tangy’s handheld camera constantly focuses on our heroine during many key extended scenes in the film, we come to sense more of her biological clock ticking day by day, and her palpable sense of desperation and suffocation is further accentuated by the screen ratio of 1.33:1.

This is surely not something easy to watch, but the movie does not let its heroine and itself merely mired in misery and despair, and, above all, it is strongly held together by the powerful lead performance by Anamaria Vartolomei. While ably conveying to us many different feelings and thoughts swirling inside her character, Vartolomei balances her performance well between vulnerability and resilience, and she is the main reason why we keep focusing on the screen during several certain harrowing scenes in the film. These scenes will definitely make you wince more than once, but you will also admire how deftly Diwan and her cast and crew members handle these scenes with considerable restraint and skill while not pulling their punch at all.

Around Vartolomei, Diwan assembles a number of good performers. You may instantly recognize more notable cast members including Kacey Mottet Klein, Sandrine Bonnaire, and Fabrizio Rongione, but they dutifully stay in their respective spots without overshadowing Vartolomei at all, and the special mention goes to Anna Mouglalis, who brings some life and personality to a no-nonsense illegal abortionist who comes to help our heroine more than expected.

On the whole, “Happening” strikes us hard as much as other similar acclaimed female drama films such as Christian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” (2007) and Eliza Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” (2020). This is indeed a very tough stuff, but it is still worthwhile to watch for not only its ever-relevant main subject but also its considerable technical achievement and emotional power, and it surely earns its haunting finale after its grueling but gripping emotional journey.

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Sophie’s World (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): Four days in Bukchon

Posted on March 12, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Sophie’s World” reminds me again of how influential Hong Sang-Soo’s films have been during last two decades. Although it is not made by or associated with Hong, its several notable aspects including its very plain title design may fool you enough to mistake it for Hong’s latest work, and the only difference between this film and Hong’s works is that its running time is a bit too long in comparison.

Like some of Hong’s best films, the movie is mainly set in the Bukchon neighborhood of Seoul while mostly revolving around a few main characters. One of them is a young married woman named Soo-yeong (Kim Sea-byuk), and the opening scene shows her casually checking an online travel blog belonging to her foreign friend Sophie (Ana Ruggiero), who happened to stay at Soo-yeong’s residence around two years ago.

As Soo-yeong reads what Sophie wrote during that brief period, the movie moves back to when Sophie was going through her first day in Soo-yeong’s cozy residence located somewhere in Bukchon. Sophie’s main purpose of visit to Seoul is meeting an old South Korean friend of hers who means a lot to her for an unspecified personal reason, and, as far as she knows, this dude is supposedly running a bookstore in Bukchon, but she does not know where that bookstore exactly is. Right from the morning of her first day, she tries to find it while going around here and there in Bukchon, but she still cannot find him or his bookstore, and even a couple of generous local guides she come across at one point cannot help her at all.

Meanwhile, Sophie gradually notices a domestic conflict between Soo-yeong and her husband Jong-goo (Kwan Min-gyoo). At one point, she happens to hear them arguing a lot over something, but she cannot understand at all because she does not know Korean much, and then we see their argument in detail as Soo-yeong looks back on that difficult time between her and her husband. At that time, they happened to have a serious financial problem due to the sudden illness of one of his family members, so they had no choice but to move out from their residence sooner or later, and both of them felt bad about that while also clashing a lot with each other.

During one extended scene, the camera simply looks at the ongoing argument between Soo-yeong and her husband from its static position, but the growing tension on the screen feels more palpable to us as Soo-yeong tries to handle her husband’s petty anger as much as possible. No matter how much she tries, her husband, who has been mired a lot in pathetic self-pity, cruelly lashes her more and more, and she is eventually driven to her breaking point while he belatedly comes to discern the consequence of his pettiness.

While Soo-yeong and her husband struggle to deal with their domestic problem behind their back, Sophie continues her search for that dude as before, and the movie shows us more of what a nice and neighborhood Bukchon is. I must confess that I have never been there, but many sites look pretty familiar thanks to Hong’s films, and, as shown from a number of key conversation scenes in the movie, director Lee Jae-han and his crew members did a good job of imitating that dry but subtle comic tone of Hong’s films.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Sophie eventually discovers where that dude and his bookstore is, but the movie still has some surprises for us before that narrative point. I enjoyed an absurd encounter between Sophie and Soo-yeong’s landlady, and I was also entertained by the quiet but cheerful sequence unfolded between Sophie and another old friend of hers. They just simply spend their time together, but they feel good to be around each other, and Sophie is certainly disappointed when that friend of hers happens to be unavailable on the next day.

When it arrives at its rather melancholic finale, the movie also shows a bit of optimism. Although Sophie’s brief journey in Bukchon did not satisfy her much, what she observed during that short period makes Soo-yeong look back on what happened between her and husband, and there is a little poignant moment as Soo-yeong and her husband come to reflect on how much they have been matured since that point.

Lee draws unadorned but solid performances from his small cast. While Kim Sae-byuk, who is incidentally no stranger to Hong’s films, and Kwak Min-gyoo are believable as a couple with some issues, Ana Ruggiero holds her own place well as another main character in the story, and several other supporting performers including Kim Woo-kyum and Moon Hye-in are also fine in their small respective parts.

In conclusion, “Sophie’s World” emulates fairly well what works in many of Hong’s films, though, in my inconsequential opinion, it does not surpass what was already achieved by a bunch of similar films ranging from “Worst Woman” (2016) to “Lucky Chan-sil” (2020). At least, I was amused and entertained enough during my viewing, and you will appreciate its enjoyable elements if you have admired many of Hong’s films like I have, but please do not expect too much from this modestly engaging piece of work.

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Lucy and Desi (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): On their life and partnership

Posted on March 12, 2022 by kaist455

Amy Poehler’s documentary film “Lucy and Desi”, which was released on Amazon Prime in last week, is sincere and respectful toward a famous couple behind their groundbreaking American TV sitcom series. While cheerfully examining how exceptional their achievement on TV was at that time, the documentary also focuses on their rather imperfect romantic relationship which remained strong throughout the rest of their life, and the overall result is both entertaining and touching as it shows us more of their extraordinary life and career.

The couple in question is Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, the two well-known stars of classic American TV sitcom “I Love Lucy”. When “I Love Lucy” was shown during the 1950s, Ball and Arnaz were virtually at the top of the world thanks to the enormous success of “I Love Lucy”, and this unexpected big success was so influential that it continued to influence their respective lives and careers even after they were no longer a couple inside and outside TV.

During its early part, the documentary informs us on the respective early lives of Ball and Arnaz. Because of a very unfortunate accident which caused a serious financial blow to her family in New York state, Ball was determined to earn money for her family as much as she could, and that was how she later came to enter show business in New York City around the early 1930s. Although she was not that great as a dancer or an actress, Ball was ready to grab any opportunity for her nascent show business career, so she did not hesitate when she came across an accidental chance to go to Hollywood.

She did not expect much at first, but, what do you know, she soon became a fairly prominent studio actress several years later thanks to her diligent efforts. While she was usually assigned to those B-movies, Ball also came to have a good reputation among her notable peers ranging from Ginger Rogers to Katharine Hepburn, and, above all, she earned enough for supporting her family a lot more than before.

And then there came an unexpected romance via Arnaz, who had steadily rose during last several years as a popular Cuban musician. When he fled to Florida after his affluent family lost everything due to the Cuban revolution in 1933, Arnaz was literally penniless, so he had to earn money via many menial jobs including cleaning canary cages, and then he tried on his musical talent later. Although the beginning was not so successful to say the least, he kept trying and learning nonetheless, and that eventually led to a big career break. He subsequently started to work in Hollywood because of not only his musical talent but also his dashing Latino appearance, and that was how he happened to work along with Ball in a musical film named “Too Many Girls” (1940).

Although their first encounter was not exactly romantic, it did not take much time for Ball and Arnaz to fall in love with each other, and, despite their notable racial difference, they soon got married to the surprise of everyone in Hollywood. While they were quite happy to be with each other at first, they subsequently came to feel the growing estrangement between them as both of them were often busy with their respective show business careers, and that estrangement was more increased when Arnaz joined the US Army in the middle of the World War II.

Nevertheless, they searched for any possible solution for their strained married life, and, what do you know, there came a very good chance. During the late 1940s, Ball came to have an unexpected success from a CBS radio show titled “My Favorite Husband”, and she was later requested to appear in a TV show developed from that. Ball accepted the request, but there was one condition she would not give up at any chance. She insisted that her husband should play her character’s husband, and, despite understandable reservation from those executives of CBS, she and Arnaz eventually appeared together as a wife and a husband in front of the TV camera.

Besides their undeniable comic chemistry which was already tested on stage in advance, Ball and Arnaz turned out to be a peerless duo in many aspects. Ball was a sheer perfectionist who strenuously prepared for every comic scene in their TV show in advance. In addition to being an effective straight figure in many comic moments between them, Arnaz also passionately worked as a producer behind the camera. As a dude with a shrew sense of business, he knew well how to negotiate with those executives of CBS and sponsoring companies, and he was also pretty keen in selecting the right crew and cast members for their TV show.

As a result, “I Love Lucy” was pretty successful in its first season, but that was almost nothing compared to much more success Ball and Arnaz had during the following season. Although there later came a big trouble due to Ball’s inconsequential connection with the Communist Party in the past, Arnaz managed to get Ball’s innocence guaranteed by none other than FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and American people came to love them more than before.

Ball and Arnaz had many breakthrough moments together as they diligently brought laughs to millions of audiences, and their independent TV production company later became a crucial part of the American TV history as producing a number of various TV series ranging from “Mission: Impossible” to “Star Trek”, but they eventually decided to end their marriage in 1960 after having more domestic conflicts between them. Both of them came to have a second spouse not long after that, but they remained to be close with each other to the end while enjoying each own life and career, and the documentary pays some attention to how Ball generously encouraged and supported her juniors on Broadway during her later years.

On the whole, “Lucy and Desi” is an engaging documentary thanks to Poehler’s competent handling of archival footage clips and interview clips, and it is clearly a labor of love for Poehler, considering that she has been one of the most popular comedians on American TV and surely owes a lot to Ball just like many other American female comedians of her generation. In short, this solid documentary can be a good companion piece to Aaron Sorkin’s recent Oscar-nominated film “Being the Ricardos” (2021), and you will surely appreciate more of Ball and Arnaz’s ever-delightful achievement more.

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Tina (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): As she looks back on her life and career

Posted on March 9, 2022 by kaist455

HBO documentary film “Tina” gives us a wide and insightful look on the life and career of Tina Turner via herself and several others willing to talk about her. As many of you already know, Turner had quite a hard time due to her toxic relationship with her ex-husband who was also her main artistic collaborator, but the documentary shows much more than that, and it is often touching to observe how she regained the control on her life and career – and how she eventually walked away with enough success and satisfaction.

The first chapter of the documentary naturally focuses on how Turner came to work with Ike Turner during the 1950s. At that time, he was a pretty popular musician thanks to his hit song “Rocket 88”, and she was just a plain young woman from a small village in Tennessee, but he came to notice her considerable talent thanks to her persistence. Not long after that, she became a crucial part of his band, and that is how she, who was incidentally born as Anna Mae Bullock, became Tina Turner.

That changed name was actually forced upon her by her husband, who was already quite determined to control everything in Turner’s career mainly due to his deep fear and insecurity. Because he had got pushed away from considerable success more than once before he met Turner, he was often afraid of losing that big opportunity via Turner, and he eventually married her as a part of his selfish plan on her.

Anyway, things went fairly well for both of them as they enjoyed lots of success during next several years. As a good songwriter, Turner’s husband steadily provided a series of hit songs to be performed by her, and she still remembers well how she became more experienced and hardened as often facing his strict perfectionism along with other musicians working with them. Besides spending lots of time in recording studios, they also worked a lot in an endless series of concerts every year, and she still feels regrets on how she could not spend much time with her kids at their home.

Meanwhile, her husband came to abuse her more and more as time went by. As a matter of fact, he was quite abusive to her even at the beginning of their married life, but Turner chose to stick to him as she promised to him from the beginning of her career, and she really tried hard to hide her growing marital problem while keeping her face straight and confident whenever she was in front of her audiences.

In the end, there finally came a point where Turner came to decide that enough is enough. On one day of 1976, her husband hit her again just because of a minor complaint of hers, but, this time, she did not just let herself beaten by him again. Although she did not have much money for herself at that time, she soon left him without any hesitation, and that was followed by their divorce in 1978.

At the time of their divorce, Turner chose to give up every right on whatever she made with her husband for avoiding more pain and headache, but she did not step back at all in case of her stage name. She was quite determined to going her way alone as Tina Turner, and she was not afraid of performing at any place for earning enough for herself and her kids.

Turner did struggle a lot during her first few years without her ex-husband, but she endured and then prevailed in the end. Thanks to her new manager who really believed in her, she got an opportunity to make and then release her first solo album “Private Dancer” in 1984, and that album was a phenomenal success with that memorable song “What’s Love Got to Do with It”.

In the meantime, Turner also became quite open about how much she was frequently abused by her ex-husband. Although she was certainly very afraid of revealing her traumatic period to many others out there (After all, it was more than 35 years before the #MeToo movement, you know), she received enormous amount of support and empathy from the public, and that helped a lot her healing process along with her Buddhist belief.

And her solo career rapidly rose during next several years. Besides receiving several Grammys for “Private Dancer”, she also gave a solid supporting performance in George Miller’s “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” (1985), and her real-life story associated with her ex-husband was made into the 1993 film “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, which garnered well-deserved two Oscar nominations for the electrifying lead performances by Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne.

Although her time with her ex-husband still hurt her a lot even during that period (She could not watch that movie at all, for instance), she kept going as usual in addition to finding a new love from her second husband with whom she is currently living in Switzerland, and she could let her old pain and trauma go a bit around the time when her ex-husband died in 2007.

On the whole, “Tina” is an excellent documentary illuminates more on its remarkable human subject, and directors Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin, who won an Oscar together from the 2011 documentary film “Undefeated” (2011), did a commendable job of presenting Turner’s life and career with enough care and respect. Now she is going through the closing chapter of her life and career, but it is evident from the documentary that she is still in full control over her life and career, and that is really moving to watch, you know.

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Zappa (2020) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Much more than a rock musician

Posted on March 8, 2022 by kaist455

I have only once heard about Frank Zappa (1940-1993) during my old college years. During that cold winter semester of 2001, I attended a philosophy class just for getting extra credits, and its young lecturer introduced to us a bit on Zappa and his music on one day. At that time, it seemed to me that Zappa was just your typical rock musician in the 1960s, but, probably because of that lecturer’s genuinely enthusiastic presentation, Zappa has somehow stayed in the corner of my brain even though I just merely remembered his name without much interest in his artistic career.

That is why I became interested in Alex Winter’s documentary film “Zappa” when I heard about it around the end of 2020, and I had a very enlightening time when I belatedly watched it in this morning. At first, it feels like your average musician biography documentary, but then it freely examines many different interesting aspects of this famous musician, and the overall result is alternatively informative and entertaining through the 127-minute running time.

After the opening part showing Zappa’s 1991 concert in Prague, Czech, the documentary moves onto Zappa’s early life. After becoming quite interested in music during his adolescent years, he absorbed various kinds of music ranging from R&B to avant-garde orchestral music during his following self-taught period, and he soon started to work as a rock band member although his parents did not approve of that much.

In 1965, Zappa came to have his own band, and this band, named the Mothers of Invention, gradually gained its status with its first two albums: “Freak Out” and “We’re Only In it for the Money”. As a musician influenced a lot by modern avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse, he never hesitated from doing anything new or experimental, and that drew more attention from not only many rock music fans but also a number of notable musicians such as the Beatles, who actually attempted to emulate Zappa’s musical style in case of one certain famous album of theirs.

The carefree mood of the 1960s in California was eventually shattered by that infamous incident involved with Charles Manson and his murderous followers, and then Zappa’s career took a downturn when he was suddenly attacked by some crazy dude during a stage concert in 1971, but that did not daunt him at all. While he had to be wheelchair-bound for a while due to his physical injury, he never stopped pursuing his musical passion, and he also made a number of stop-motion animation short films just because he got very interested after meeting one enthusiastic animator.

During the 1980s, Zappa was not so amused by the prominent commercialization in the American music industry, but that did not stop from his accidental artistic collaboration with one of his four children. As his wife Gail points out during her interview, he was not exactly a model husband and father to his family for many years, but he later came to spend more time with his family, and, to everyone’s delight and excitement, what he made along with his daughter became a popular hit song which subsequently garnered them a Grammy nomination.

He also became an unlikely defender of artistic freedom when some right-wing American politicians and activists attempted censorship on the American music industry. For persuading many people out there, Zappa made himself much more presentable than before, but that did not affect his sharp wit and intelligence at all, and he certainly drew lots of public attention on his cause, though the outcome was not entirely satisfying for him due to a bit of compromise.

As entering the 1990s, Zappa was ready for the next chapter of his life, but then there came a bad news. He was diagnosed to have pancreas cancer, and his treatment seemed to work well for a while, but it eventually turned out that he did not have much time to live not long after when he did a concert performance in Prague in 1991. Nevertheless, he kept working as usual before he died in 1995, and we get a poignant moment when the Kronos Quartet plays one of his later works composed during that period.

It is clear that Winter, who has been mainly known to us for “Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989) and its two sequels, has lots of respect and affection to the main subject of his documentary, and he skillfully mixes a bunch of interview clips and archival footage clips for giving us a vivid and interesting portrayal of Zappa’s life and career. Many interviewees in the documentary willingly and candidly talk about Zappa and his music as his friends and collaborators, and I was particularly interested to see Ian Underwood, who is not only one of Zappa’s close collaborators but also, as any film music enthusiast like me will gladly tell you, a frequent keyboardist in many works of late James Horner.

In conclusion, “Zappa” is a commendable tribute to Zappa’s life and career, and you will have some interest in his works even if you have not heard much about him. To be frank with you, I do not love all those works of his appearing in the documentary, but I was still impressed a lot by how dexterously he swung over many different musical genres, and I am actually considering checking out some of his other works later. That says a lot about how much the documentary works for me, isn’t it?

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After Yang (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Farewell to Yang

Posted on March 7, 2022 by kaist455

I value good films which make me reflect on life and existence, and I am glad to report to you that Kogonada’s latest film “After Yang” is one of such cases. As a simple but undeniably sublime science fiction tale, the movie has a number of quiet but poignant human moments to haunt your mind for a long time, and I am still admiring how Kogonada pulls off that via his thoughtful handling of story and character.

The movie, which is based on Alexander Weinstein’s short story “Saying Goodbye to Yang”, is set in a near-future world where androids are quite common thanks to considerable technological advance. For their Chinese adopted daughter Mika (Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja), Jake (Colin Farrell) and his wife Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith) bought a secondhand android named Yang (Justin H. Min), and Yang has been a good nanny for years while occasionally giving Mika valuable knowledge associated with Chinese heritage. As warmly reflected by the opening scene, he has been more or less than the fourth member of the family, and we subsequently get an unexpectedly spirited moment as they joyously dance together in their house as a part of their daily routine.

However, Yang happens to have a sudden malfunction problem not long after that, and Jake tries to get Yang repaired as soon as possible for his daughter, but it seems there is nothing he can do for fixing Yang. Because Yang is a secondhand product, it is not possible to get any helpful service from the manufacturing corporation, and even an illegal repair shop recommended by one of Jake’s close neighbors cannot help that much as Yang turns out to be a more sophisticated machine than expected. Considering that Yang’s physical status is getting deteriorated day by day, it may be better for him to be donated to a science technology museum where he will be preserved and then analyzed for the better understanding of “techno-sapiens”.

Being well aware of how much his daughter has been emotionally attached to Yang, Jake is naturally reluctant about donating Yang to that science technology museum, but he also becomes quite interested in accessing to whatever has been stored in a hidden memory bank inside Yang. When he subsequently checks Yang’s memory bank, it turns out to contain thousands of recorded private moments from not only his family but also many other people, and, as checking one recorded moment after another, he comes to notice a young woman who seems to be very special for Yang.

While searching for that young woman, Jake also comes to reflect more on how his family lived with Yang, and Kogonada’s adapted screenplay begins to flow freely between their personal memories of Yang and Yang’s recorded moments. Using two different screen ratios, the movie initially draws the line between Yang’s recorded moments and flashback scenes, but both of them come to resonate with each other along the story, and we later get a powerful visual moment when Jake delves further into Yang’s memory bank for getting to know and understand Yang more.

Under Kogonada’s serene but confident direction, the movie steadily engages us as thoughtfully exploring its main subjects without sentimentalizing them at all. While it is moving to see Yang often providing advice and comfort to Jake and his family, he is still basically a machine driven by programs, and he has been always conscious of that, as reflected by a private conversation scene between him and Jake at one point. He surely induces a new professional passion inside Jake as seriously discussing with Jake on how he came to choose his profession, but what exactly he ‘feels’ from that is rather elusive even to himself, and the same thing can be said about his supposedly private relationship with that young woman.

Leisurely rolling from one interesting human moment to another, the movie gradually exudes tranquil qualities to engage and then soothe us. The cinematography by Benjamin Loeb is static but observant thanks to precise camera angle and scene composition, and the resulting meditative atmosphere is gently enhanced by the score by Aska Matsumiya and Ryuichi Sakamoto. The futuristic background details of the film are rather plain and simple on the whole, but they look and feel realistic enough on the screen, and we become more immersed in the world inhabited by its main characters.

The performances from the main cast members are finely tuned to the overall low-key tone of the film. Colin Farrell, who has been one of the most interesting movie actors of our time as demonstrating the wide range of his acting talent, diligently holds the center via his understated acting which feels quite different from his sleezy villain performance in Mat Reeves’ recent Batman movie. Jodie Turner-Smith, who recently drew our attention for her breakout turn in “Queen & Slim” (2019), Malea Emma Tjandrawidjaja, and Justin H. Min are equally solid as the other crucial parts of the story, and several other cast members including Haley Lu Richardson, Sarita Choudhury, and Clifton Collins Jr. also have each own moment to shine.

In conclusion, “After Yang” is another fantastic work from Kogonada, who previously made an impressive feature film debut in “Columbus” (2017). These two films show that he is indeed a talented filmmaker with distinctive personal touches to be admired and appreciated, and I will certainly have some expectation on whatever will come from him next.

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Fresh (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): I recommend you to watch it fresh (If you are ready)

Posted on March 7, 2022 by kaist455

It is not so easy to tell you what and how “Fresh” is really about. Because its effectiveness mainly depends on a series of twisted surprises popping up along its diabolical plot, I will try as much as possible for avoiding any substantial spoiler, but I sincerely recommend you not to read further if you want to watch it fresh while also being ready to be entertained or repulsed.

The opening part of the movie, which is incidentally around 30 minutes, initially shows its heroine’s rather unhappy status. While she does not hesitate to try any opportunity for romantic relationship via those dating online applications, things have been not that good for Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones), and her blind date with some young guy only results in bitter disappointment as she comes to discern what a crummy dude he really is. Besides casually wielding his sexist viewpoint, this prick also insults her in more than once, and that makes Noa wonder more about whether she will have to focus on herself and her life more instead of trying to find any good boyfriend for her.

And then there comes an unexpected surprise for her on one day. While she is doing some shopping at a local supermarket, Noa comes across a handsome guy named Steve (Sebastian Stan), and she soon finds herself smitten with him as they come to talk a bit with each other. When she eventually gives him her phone number, she does not expect much, but, what do you know, he calls her a few days later, and she becomes more attracted to him as they come to spend more time with each other.

However, as her best female friend Mollie (Jonica T. Gibbs) later points out, there is something strange about Steve. For example, he says he is a plastic surgeon working in some hospital, but he is not so specific about where he exactly works, and he does not even use any social media application at all although any successful plastic surgeon is supposed to have an Instagram account for showing off his works at least.

Nevertheless, Noa cannot possibly break up with Steve because, well, he is simply wonderful and charming. Yes, he is surely a bit too good to be true, but she is still helpless in her growing attraction toward him, and it looks like he is also drawn to her a lot. Not long after they eventually move onto the next step of their developing relationship, he suggests that they should go somewhere for having a nice private time together, and she does not mind this at all while feeling more blissful than usual.

Around that point, there are already several bad signs here and there. For example, Steve suddenly changes their plan at the last minute, and then he takes Noa to his residence which happens to be located in the middle of some remote area. The area is actually so remote that her smartphone is virtually useless, and that makes Noa a little nervous even though she remains cheerful on the surface.

Of course, it eventually turns out that Steve has a horrendous intention behind his back, and Lauryn Kahn’s screenplay naturally enters the grim territory of a certain horror exploitation genre. I must warn you that, due to Steve’s unspeakable nature, there are a number of brief but gruesome moments which will make you cringe and wince a lot for good reasons, and you will also come to brace yourself more as often horrified by what our unfortunate heroine will have to endure.

With its heroine’s horrifying ordeals, the movie is quite unpleasant to say the least, but it is also equipped with wit and gravitas at least. While dutifully following its genre conventions, it often wields its own naughty sense of black humor, and that aspect is particularly evident when our heroine must hold herself well in front of a demented offer she cannot possibly refuse. The relationship dynamics between her and Steve is engaging enough to hold our interest, and the movie also pays some attention to several other characters in the story, though I must point out that it could delve more into Steve’s deranged domestic relationship with a certain female character in the story

Above all, the movie relies on the uneasy onscreen chemistry between its two lead performers, who click well with each other right from their first scene and then willingly hurl themselves into the devilish mix of loony humor and stomach-churning horror. While Daisy Edgar-Jones, a British actress who has been more notable thanks to TV miniseries “Normal People”, gives a solid performance which functions as a strong emotional anchor onto which we can hold, Sebastian Stan, who has been demonstrated that he can do a lot more than appearing in those Marvel Cinematic Universe flicks, effortlessly goes back and forth between his character’s demented generosity and demonic nastiness, and several other main cast members including Jonica T. Gibbs, Charlotte Le Bon, and Andrea Bang are also well-casted in their respective supporting roles.

Again, I empathize to you that “Fresh” is definitely not for everyone, but this is a fairly well-made genre product, and director Mimi Cave and her crew members including cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski deserve some praise for presenting its many gruesome moments with enough skill and personality on the screen. Yes, I do not want to see it again soon, but I must admit that it does work as well as intended, so I recommend it with some reservation.

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Against the Ice (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Two Men Against the Ice

Posted on March 6, 2022 by kaist455

Netflix film “Against the Ice”, which was released on March 2nd of this year, works best whenever it focuses on the coldly grueling plight of two real-life figures at the center of the story. As watching their despairing struggles on the screen, I often wondered whether I could survive if I were in such a harsh situation like theirs, and that often made me chilled and terrified during my viewing, though I also frequently observed several glaring weak aspects including its rather ponderous narrative.

The movie, which is based on Danish polar explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen’s memoir “Two Against the Ice”, opens with the ongoing expedition led by Mikkelsen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in 1909, and we gradually gather the main purpose of this expedition in North-Eastern Greenland. Two years ago, a Danish expedition was sent there for getting a definite topographical evidence to disprove the claim of the US government on North-Eastern Greenland, but this previous expedition only resulted in the death of all of the expedition members. Because it is quite possible that these ill-fated expedition members might have left anything good enough to be used as the evidence against the claim of the US government, Mikkelsen and his expedition members have been trying to locate the dead bodies of the previous expedition members, but there has been much progress yet, and they come to have more doubt on whether they can really succeed in the end.

Nevertheless, Mikkelsen refuses to give up because he found an important clue during his first search attempt. When he discovered the frozen body of one of the previous expedition members, there was also a journal, which says that the previous expedition members did accomplish their mission before their eventual death. Their records are kept at a certain spot out there, and all Mikkelsen will have to do is going to that spot along with anyone willing to accompany him.

However, not so surprisingly, many of his expedition members are not so eager to join him due to what Mikkelsen’s right-hand guy suffered and endured during his previous search attempt. In the end, a lad named Iver Iversen (Joe Cole) volunteers mainly because he simply wants to be more useful, but he is seriously inexperienced compared to most of expedition members, and that is pretty apparent to everyone else as he clumsily tries to prepare for Mikkelsen’s second search attempt on the next day.

Anyway, Mikkelsen has no choice but to depend on Iversen, and Iversen is determined to help and support Mikkelsen as much as possible, but, of course, he soon comes to realize how much he is unprepared for their long and difficult journey across North-Eastern Greenland. Besides the harshly cold weather which they have to endure every day and night, they also have to be constantly careful about a number of possible dangers such as glacial crevices hidden under snow, and Iversen later comes to get one particularly painful lesson as warned in advance.

After several weeks later, Mikkelsen and Iversen finally arrive at that certain spot (Is this a spoiler?), and they are excited to find what they are searching for, but, alas, it subsequently turns out that they are going to suffer much more and longer than they thought at first. While there is still some possibility of survival, their situation becomes more despairing day by day, and we are not so surprised when Mikkelsen becomes increasingly unhinged despite his desperate efforts on keeping things under control for him and Iversen. As he often dreams of his longtime lover, his sense of reality gets deteriorated bit by bit, and he eventually finds himself frequently talking with her in his mind.

In the meantime, the movie also pays attention to what is going on in Denmark. Two of Mikkelsen’s expedition team members try to convince their government to help finding and then rescuing Mikkelsen and Iversen, but their request is flatly rejected because almost everyone in the country believes that Mikkelsen and Iversen died. Although he briefly appears in a few scenes in the film, Charles Dance smoothly steals the show as a stern and unflappable government minister, and that says a lot about what a wonderful veteran performer he really is.

During its last act, the movie comes to lose its narrative momentum as trudging from one expected moment to another, and I often found myself becomes impatient during this part, but I still admired its commendable technical aspects. Director Peter Flinth and his crew members including cinematographer Torben Forsberg utilized many different real locations in Iceland and Greenland, and their result shown on the screen looks pretty vivid and realistic to say the least. Sure, they surely used CGI in several key scenes including the ones involved with polar bear attack, but the icy sense of remoteness and hopelessness surrounding the two main characters of the film is always palpable to us, and that is the main reason why the movie can hold our attention to the very end.

In case of the two main performers of the film, they look convincing as going through one hardship after another along the story. While Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who also wrote the adapted screenplay with Joe Derrick in addition to participating in the production of the movie, ably supports the ground with low-key intensity, Joe Cole holds his own place well beside his co-actor, and they click fairly well with each other enough to compensate for their broad archetype characters.

In conclusion, “Against the Ice” does not bring anything particularly new to its genre territory, and it does not overcome its rather trite storytelling enough in my inconsequential opinion, but it is at least enjoyable to some degree thanks to its good production qualities and the solid efforts from Coster-Waldau and Cole. I am still hesitating to recommend it due to my considerable dissatisfaction with it, but I will not stop from you spending your free time on it, and I am sure that you will be not disappointed if you just want a competent adventure drama film to chill you a lot.

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The Weekend Away (2022) ☆☆(2/4): Her BFF is vanished…

Posted on March 6, 2022 by kaist455

Netflix film “The Weekend Away”, which was released a few days ago, is a run-of-the-mill thriller flick which will not surprise you much if you are a seasoned moviegoer. For example, we are supposed to be quite surprised at a certain narrative point later in the story, but that sudden moment of revelation is pretty contrived and predictable to say the least, and I bet that you will already expect something else to occur next because the movie still has more than 10 minutes to be filled in one way or another.

The movie opens with its heroine’s arrival in a popular tourist city in Croatia, and its first act quickly establishes her long relationship with her best friend. Because things have not been that good between her and her husband, Beth (Leighton Meester) decides to refresh herself a bit as spending some free time along with Kate (Christina Wolfe), and Kate is already ready to have lots of fun with Beth right from when Beth arrives at a house where they are supposed to stay during next several days. Although she and her rich husband are going through a divorce, Kate can still spend lots of money freely, and Beth does not mind her friend’s luxurious hospitality at all.

However, the mood becomes rather unnerving when they try to enjoy their first night in the city. There is a little problem with Kate’s credit card, and then Beth witnesses Kate having an argument with someone on the phone. Despite these two troubles, Kate remains vivacious as before, and she later takes Beth to a local nightclub for more fun and drinking.

Of course, not long after they encounter a couple of local guys in the nightclub, Beth becomes unconscious for no apparent reason, and, what do you know, she subsequently finds herself waking up at her staying place in the next morning. Quite perplexed and confused, Beth naturally looks for her friend, but her friend is not in the house, and then Beth notices a few suspicious signs including a broken wine glass on the floor.

As her friend remains to be missing during next several hours, Beth goes to a local police station, but a couple of local detectives assigned to her are not particularly interested in finding her friend. After all, Kate is not the only person who got recently vanished in their area, and, as suggested by her cynical ex-husband, it is quite possible that she is simply hiding herself for getting more attention from others around her as before.

Nevertheless, Beth cannot possibly believe that her friend is pulling a naughty prank on her because her few fragments of memory from that confusing night clearly suggest that something bad happened to her friend. Besides, it looks like Kate was hiding some serious secret from her best friend, and that may be involved with her missing.

As she tries to get to the bottom of the situation, Beth comes to get an unexpected help from Zain (Ziad Bakri), a Syrian refugee taxi driver who already met Beth when she had just arrived in the city. Looking quite sympathetic to her trouble, he comes to help her more than expected as a guy who can speak Croatian besides English and Arabic, and, thanks to his invaluable assistance, Beth comes to acquire a few things which might give her the answer to what really occurred during that night.

Considering what is already shown in the very first shot of the film, I guess it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that the circumstance becomes more desperate and complicated for our heroine. As thrown into more confusion and paranoia, Beth cannot trust anyone around her, and even Zain turns out to have something hidden behind his back besides his painful past involved with the ongoing Syrian Civil War.

Around that narrative point, the screenplay by Sarah Alderson, which is based on her novel of the same name, attempts to catch us and its heroine off guard more than once, but the result is not that successful on the whole. For example, we instantly come to have suspicion on a creepy local lad running the house, so we are not so surprised by what is revealed later in the story. Above all, the movie dutifully follows the time-honored Law of Economy of Characters, so you will come to regard a certain character in the story with more suspicion for good reasons.

While I got disappointed more and more with its lackluster storytelling, I reflected more on how much the main cast members of the film try to keep us interested, though their fine efforts are not always successful enough to compensate for broad characterization. Leighton Meester, who has been mainly known for TV drama series “Gossip Girl”, acquit herself well despite being often demanded to look merely panic and desperate, and Christina Wolfe and Ziad Bakri are mostly effective as filling their respective spots as much as required.

Overall, “The Weekend Aways” is not awfully bad at all, and director Kim Farrant and her cast and crew members did try their best with the materials given to them, but the movie still does not entertain me much. As a matter of fact, it has already been getting forgotten in my mind, and my mind is already ready to move onto whatever I am going to watch next.

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The Batman (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): A very noirish Batman movie

Posted on March 2, 2022 by kaist455

“The Batman” is palpably drenched in sheer darkness and grittiness from the beginning to the end, and I admire and appreciate that even though I have some reservation on its relentlessly grim style and rather sprawling narrative. I am not sure whether this can be described as fun or entertaining, but I must admit that I was often enthralled by its considerable style, mood, and details in addition to being more interested in the story and characters. Therefore, I guess I can conclude that the movie does work fairly well despite its several notable weak aspects.

As a reboot, the movie is thankfully being disconnected from any recent DC Extended Universe (DCEU) movie for now, and its early part establishes the uneasy status of Bruce Wayne/Batman (Robert Pattinson) in Gotham City. It has been two years since he began to fight against crime on the streets and alleys of Gotham City, but the city is still getting worse and worse due to poverty and crime, and Wayne wonders more about whether it is really worthwhile to continue his secret nocturnal activity.

While Wayne struggles with his growing conflict, there comes a horrible incident which shocks the whole city. A certain prominent figure is brutally murdered, and the perpetrator behind this incident does not hide at all his intention. It is apparent that he is going to strike again, and, not so surprisingly, his diabolical plan happens to include Batman, who must deduce his opponent’s ultimate goal from a series of riddles and clues left by his opponent before it is too late for him and everyone else in Gotham City.

As it gradually turns out that there is the long shadow of past all over the case, Wayne delves more into the underworld of Gotham City, and the movie naturally becomes quite noirish as evoking a number of neo-noir films ranging from Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown” (1974) to David Fincher’s “Se7en” (1995). As a matter of fact, many key scenes in the film are as murky and rainy as “Se7en”, and the main antagonist of the film, who is chillingly played by Paul Dano, will surely take you back to not only “Se7en” but also “Zodiac” (2007), Fincher’s another neo-noir movie about serial killing.

Struggling both internally and externally, Wayne comes to depend more on the only two people whom he can trust in Gotham City. His loyal butler Alfred Pennyworth (Andy Serkis) often provides assistance and advice as usual, and Lieutenant James Gordon (Jeffrey Wright) lets Batman help his ongoing police investigation even though, unlike Alfred, he does not know the true identity of Batman just like many others in the city.

And there is Selina Kyle (Zoë Kravitz), a masked cat burglar who is virtually the Catwoman of the story and also quite determined to find out what really happened to a close friend of hers. The answer seems to be held by her sleazy boss and a certain powerful crime figure behind that dude, and that is how she comes across Batman. As he tries more to figure about what these two shady figures are hiding behind them, he finds himself getting more involved with Selina, and it goes without saying that there comes a point where both of them come to realize that they are attracted to each other more than they can admit. After all, as two troubled black-clad figures, they look like a pretty good match to each other, don’t they?

Meanwhile, the screenplay by director/co-producer Matt Reeves, who previously impressed us a lot with “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (2014) and “War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017), and Peter Craig keeps things rolling as before, and Reeves and his crew members including cinematographer Greig Fraser, who was recently Oscar-nominated for Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” (2021), gives us a series of intense moments including the stupefying action sequence where the Batmobile in the movie makes its first appearance. Although I must point out that the movie frequently looks a bit too dark and murky (I really recommend you to watch it in a big Dolby Cinema screening room, by the way), its action scenes are presented well with enough physical and dramatic impact, and Michael Giacchino’s brutal orchestral score adds extra thrill and excitement on that.

The main cast members of the film are believable as the gloomy inhabitants of Gotham City. Robert Pattinson, who has been quite more interesting since he left those Twilight flicks, conveys to us his character’s emotional conflict well even though he is mostly masked throughout the film, and his intensely brooding performance is certainly an improvement over Ben Affleck’s rather colorless acting in those recent several DCEU flicks. While Zoë Kravitz, who recently demonstrated more of her acting talent in Steven Soderburgh’s “Kimi” (2022), holds her own place well in addition to having a nicely understated chemistry between her and Pattinson, Andy Serkis and Jeffrey Wright are dependable as usual, and John Turturro and Colin Farrell, who is quite unrecognizable under lots of makeup, have some nasty fun with their respective supporting roles.

Despite its glaring flaws including its overlong running time, “The Batman” does not reach to the greatness of Christopher Nolan’s monumental Dark Knight trilogy, but it is still an interesting superhero hero packed with style, ambition, and personality, and that makes it much more distinctive than most of recent superhero movies. When a friend of mine asked whether he could show it to his little young son, I recommend him not to do that because it is a bit too dark and intense for kids in my humble opinion, but his son may admire it a lot when he grows up enough to watch it several years later.

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