Parallel Mothers (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Two mothers’ complicated situation

Posted on February 16, 2022 by kaist455

Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film “Parallel Mothers” is another fascinating work to be added to his long and illustrious career. Because, like many of Almodóvar’s notable works such as “Talk to Her” (2002), the movie engages us to a surprising degree as delicately taking a number of unexpected plot turns, I will be very discreet in the next several paragraphs, but I suggest that you should stop reading my review and then watch the movie now, if you want to be entertained as much as possible.

At the beginning, the movie just seems to be about its heroine’s old family history. When she is doing her latest job as a professional photographer, Janis Martínez Moreno (Penélope Cruz) comes to befriend a famous forensic archaeologist guy named Arturo (Israel Elejalde), who is incidentally the one to be photographed by her for some magazine. As they spend more time together, Arthuro shows a genuine interest in not only Janis but also her longtime wish to excavate a certain rural spot where her great-grandfather and several other local people were killed and then buried in the middle of the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, and they soon find themselves in a close romantic relationship even though he is a married man.

Some time later, we see Janis pregnant with her lover’s baby. For a reason to be revealed later in the story, she decided to raise the child alone, and she is totally fine with that even though she becomes more anxious as her delivery date is approaching day by day. At least, she gets some support from a young pregnant woman named Ana Manso Ferreras (Milena Smit) as they share the same hospital room, and they become closer to each other after finally giving birth to their respective daughters on the same day.

After that point, the movie alternates between its two main characters’ respective mothering periods. With some help and assistant from her two employees, Janis pays full attention to raising her little daughter in her house packed with those distinctively colorful touches by Almodóvar, and she does not mind at all when Arthuro subsequently comes to see her as well as their baby. In case of Ana, she has to depend a lot on her actress mother Teresa (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), but then Teresa becomes unavailable due to her upcoming tour, and Ana has to raise her little daughter alone in Teresa’s house while occasionally helped by Teresa’s maid.

However, there comes a little problem. When he finally sees Janis’ daughter, Arthuro is initially delighted, but then he says the baby does not feel or look like their child. Although she naturally does not believe at first, Janis comes to have more suspicion as she reflects more on this rather incredulous issue, and she eventually comes to take an active action for that.

Now you may think you know where the story is heading, and Almodóvar’s screenplay simply follows the logical consequence of Janis’ aforementioned action for a while, but then it surprises us via a series of unexpected story developments between Janis and Ana. Coming to care more about Ana than before, Janis becomes more conflicted about how to handle a very complicated situation between them, but she only finds herself more emotionally entangled with Ana, and Ana still has no idea about what is going on behind Janis, while also getting much closer to Janis than before.

I will not go into details here, but I can tell you at least that I appreciated how Almodóvar masterfully handles his story and characters. As subtly accumulating the tension around its two main characters’ melodramatic circumstance along with Alberto Iglesias’ graceful Oscar-nominated score, the movie impresses us a lot via its delicate mood and colorful details, and Almodóvar certainly does not disappoint us at all with his skillful utilization of bright colors on the screen. I must confess that the epilogue part felt rather redundant to me at first, but this part becomes gradually poignant, and the last shot of the film will linger on your mind for a while.

The dramatic suspense of the movie depends a lot on the dynamic interactions between its two main actresses, and both of them are simply fabulous as they constantly revolve around each other. While Penélope Cruz, who received the Best Actress award when the movie was shown at the Venice International Film Festival in last year and then deservedly received an Oscar nomination in last week, ably holds the center with another excellent performance in her remarkable acting career, Milena Smit holds her own place well besides Cruz during their several key scenes in the film, and they are also supported well by several different supporting performers including Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, and Rossy de Palma, who steals the show a bit from Cruz and Smit whenever she enters the screen.

On the whole, “Parallel Mothers” is an admirable piece of work to be savored for its mood, detail, and performance, and that reminds me again of how Almodóvar has been a consistently interesting filmmaker to me since I watched “High Heels” (1991) and “All About My Mother” (1999). As touchingly reflected by his previous film “Pain and Glory” (2019), he is surely going through what will be the last chapters of his life and career, but “Parallel Mothers” demonstrates that his artistic spirit remains as vivid and vibrant as before, and we are certainly lucky to watch another good film from him.

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BigBug (2022) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Another whimsical work from Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Posted on February 16, 2022 by kaist455

A few days ago, I was rather amused to see that many people remember Sam Raimi for a number of recent horror flicks produced by him instead of the Evil Dead trilogy or “Drag Me to Hell” (2009), and now I am wondering whether these people know Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Like Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton, this French filmmaker delighted me and other audiences via a series of whimsically offbeat works, and I was certainly charmed by “Amélie” (2001) again when it happened to be re-released in South Korean theaters a few months ago.

As reviewing “Amélie”, I checked Jeunet’s recent filmmaking activities, and I was a little depressed to see that he was not so successful or prominent during last decade. After “A Very Long Engagement” (2004), there came “Micmacs” (2009) and “The Young and Prodigious T. S. Spivet” (2013), but they did not draw as much attention as his more successful works, and that was followed by quite a long period of absence before he worked on his latest film “BigBug”.

After coming to learn that “BigBug” would be soon released on Netflix, I was certainly intrigued, but, alas, I only got mixed feelings when I watched it at last night. Sure, the movie has all those distinctively whimsical touches you can expect from Jeunet, and I accordingly felt a bit nostalgic during my viewing, but I also have to tell you that the movie is too thin and shallow in terms of story and characters as often spinning its wheels in its small fancy playground.

The story, which is set in a suburban area outside Paris around the middle of the 21st century, is your average comic dystopian tale, and the opening scene catches us off guard with a bizarre reality TV show showing people letting themselves treated like animals by android robots. In this futuristic world, almost everything is taken care of by robots and computers, and the early part of the movie gives us several amusing moments as its several human main characters are casually enjoying themselves inside a house while frequently served by their dutiful robots.

Not long after a few more human figures come into the house, something strange begins to happen. At first, the people in the house are not so alarmed by a TV news report on the inexplicable traffic jam in the city, but then they belatedly come to realize how serious the situation really is outside. For some rather unspecified reason, a bunch of android robots called “Yonyx”, who incidentally look a lot like the robot hero of “RoboCop” (1987) without helmet, suddenly start a big-scale dominion on humans with no mercy or consideration, and this sudden emergency leads to the quick lockdown on the house and everyone inside it by the computer system in the house.

What follows next is a quirky cross between the works of Jacques Tati and Luis Buñuel. Helplessly stuck inside the house just like those bourgeois characters of Buñuel’s “The Exterminating Angel” (1962), the human characters try to find any possible way to get out of the house, but, not so surprisingly, their desperate attempts fail again and again to our little amusement. For example, they try to break the glass of the windows, but, of course, these glass windows turn out to be nearly unbreakable, and we later get a funny scene where they try again with a much bigger object.

In the meantime, several robots in the house try to serve the humans in the house as much as they are programmed to do, and then they come to have a sort of evolution process as getting to know more about humanity. Although humanity remains an alien concept to them as before, they still try their best for understanding and then embracing it, and that leads to their silly conversation on some corny matters of existence.

As frequently going back and forth between its human and robot characters, the movie tries to generate more fun and laugh, but it is not always successful in my humble opinion. Several comic scenes involved with the carnal desire of the human characters are rather repetitive and tiresome instead of amusing and tickling us, and there is not enough depth or intrigue on the ‘emotional development’ of the robot characters along the story, which is mostly perfunctory without much surprise for us. Furthermore, both the robot and human characters in the film are more or less than broad neurotic caricatures, and we come to observe them from the distance without much care or interest, though I must tell you that the robot characters are much more colorful than the human characters at least (I actually grew fond of that little cute white robot, by the way).

During its second half, the movie becomes a bit darker and more serious with the appearance of a certain robot figure, and, sadly, that is where it becomes more predictable and pedestrian. Although I enjoyed how the human characters execute a rather brilliant plan involved with lots of frozen clothes, the following action sequence did not engage me much as merely destroying lots of stuffs in the house, and the finale feels pretty contrived to say the least.

Overall, “Big Bug” shows that Jeunet is still a colorful filmmaker who gave us “Delicatessen” (1991) and “Amélie”, but it is a disappointing misfire as being merely quirky and whimsical without much substance to hold our attention. I would rather recommend the two aforementioned films instead, but it is nice to see another work from Jeunet, and I sincerely hope that he will soon get another chance to make a movie.

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Lucky Grandma (2019) ☆☆☆(3/4): Can she really be lucky?

Posted on February 15, 2022 by kaist455

“Lucky Grandma” is a little comedy film which also works as an engaging mix of crime thriller and character drama. Mainly revolving around one cantankerous old Chinese lady, the movie delves into its distinctive cultural background as humorously going up and down along with its aging heroine, and it is further enhanced by the very enjoyable performance from its exceptional lead actress who has steadily worked during last several decades.

At the beginning, the movie, which is mainly set in the Chinatown area of New York City, shows its old heroine checking out the current status of her luck from her frequent fortune teller. When her fortune teller tells her that she will be soon very lucky, she promptly decides to test on how lucky she is going to be, and we later see her withdrawing all the cash in her local bank account before she gets on a bus going to some casino outside the city.

Things look quite good as she tries on her supposedly good luck again and again at the casino, but then, not so surprisingly, the situation takes an unexpected downturn, and then there comes what can be regarded as another moment of good luck for her. When she is going back to New York City by the same bus, she happens to sit right next to some guy, and, due to a rather unfortunate incident for him, she later finds that a bag belonging to this guy is full of cash. Firmly believing in her luck, she does not hesitate to snatch this bag while nobody is looking around her, and she succeeds in bringing this bag to her little residence without any trouble.

It seems that all she will have to do is quietly keeping the money to herself for a while without telling anyone, but, what do you know, she soon comes to realize that she may be in a very big problem. A couple of thugs belonging to some local criminal organization come into her residence on the very next day, and she staunchly denies everything without revealing anything, but these two thugs are already suspecting her even though they do not know where she is hiding the money at present.

Knowing quite well that these two thugs are going to keep harassing and menacing her, our old heroine decides to do something about that. She later approaches to some other local criminal organization, and she requests protection in exchange of a bit of the money. It takes some time before she and this criminal organization reach to the full agreement on who is going to protect her as well as how much she is going to pay, but she eventually gets what she wants at a ‘discounted’ price, and she is soon constantly accompanied by a hulking young dude.

For a while, the situation seems to be under control for her, but, of course, the circumstance turns out to be much more complicated than our old heroine expected at first. From a close friend of hers, she comes to learn that the owner of the bag had actually worked under a very powerful local criminal organization, and it does not take much time for her to discern that not only its ruthless boss but also many other criminal figures in the Chinatown area are searching for the bag and the money inside it.

Around that narrative point, you can easily see where the story is going, and the movie will probably not surprise you much in the end, but it continues to engage us as patiently building up the tension around its old heroine. While persistently holding the money behind her just because she still believes in her good luck, she naturally gets herself into a series of dangers, and we become more interested in how she can possibly get out of her increasingly perilous situation without getting herself maimed or killed.

In the meantime, the screenplay by director Sasie Sealy, who incidentally made a feature film debut here after making several short films, and her co-writer Angela Cheng slowly reveals more human depth from its old heroine. Although she is your average cranky chain-smoking granny, we come to understand its old heroine more especially when she finally reveals what has been churning behind her sullen façade for years, and that is the main reason why we come to care about what is being at stake for her around the end of the film.

Above all, everything in the movie is held up well together by Tsai Chin, a veteran Chinese actress who has been known to us mainly for her substantial performance in Wayne Wang’s film “The Joy Luck Club” (1993). Although she is approaching to 90 at present, Tsai Chin is still working as recently shown from her brief supporting turn in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” (2021), and “Lucky Grandma” certainly gives her a rare opportunity to take the center stage. While never making any excuse on her character’s behaviors, she effortlessly fills her role with a palpable sense of life and history, and I particularly admire how she deftly handles the aforementioned emotional moment without asking for any pity or sympathy on her character from us.

Overall, “Lucky Grandma”, which got released in US and then quickly forgotten a few years ago, is a little overlooked gem which deserves more attention for several good reasons including Chin’s colorfully unforgettable lead performance, and I also appreciated its distinctive ethnic background details a lot. Like Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” (2019), this is surely one of notable Asian American films during several recent years, and I assure you that you will never forget its old heroine after watching it.

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Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom (2019) ☆☆☆(3/4): A new teacher comes to the town

Posted on February 15, 2022 by kaist455

You cannot possibly be grouchy about Bhutanese film “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom”, which was Bhutan’s submission to Best International Film Oscar in last year and then garnered a surprise nomination on last Tuesday. While it is pretty plain and simple in terms of story and characters, the movie is packed with a considerable amount of good will and soothing charm in addition to being a fairly good drama movie, and you will find yourself alternatively amused and touched as observing a small real world quite different from ours.

At first, we are introduced to Ugyen Dorji (Sherab Dorji), a young man who has lived with his grandmother in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. While he has worked as a teacher during last four years, Ugyen is not particularly interested in teaching, and he has yearned for going to Australia someday for pursuing his musician career. As a matter of fact, he has already applied for the visa for that, and it seems that he will just have to wait for several more months before the end of his mandatory teaching period.

However, there comes an unexpected situation. During his routine meeting with his director supervisor, Ugyen is notified that he is soon going to be transferred to a small village called Lunana, and he is not so pleased to hear about that for a good reason. Lunana is actually one of the most remote spots in Bhutan, and it will take at least eight days to go there. Furthermore, the village lacks many modern stuffs including Internet, and that means Ugyen will be nearly isolated from the outside world during next several months.

The following sequence shows us how remote Lunana really is. At first, Ugyen takes a bus going to the closest town to Lunana, and he is greeted by two guys from the village after the bus arrives in its destination, but, to his frustration, he now has to walk up to the village during next several days along with these two villagers. When the first day of their long journey is over, they come to stay at a mountainous spot only occupied by one generous family, and this family’s shabby daily life reminds us more of how much this region is separated from our modern world.

When Ugyen finally arrives in Lunana, many villagers including their chief are already waiting for him outside the village, and they are all eager to greet him because they finally get a new teacher to teach their kids after several months. Understandably being aghast at how poor living condition is in the village, Ugyen soon comes to consider leaving the village as soon as possible, but he is going to be stuck in the village during next several days anyway, and he has no choice but to work as a teacher as requested at least for a while.

Of course, he is not so enthusiastic about doing his duty right from his first day, but he cannot possibly say no to those little kids so excited about learning new things from their teacher. Although their classroom does not even have a blackboard or papers and pencils, they are quite ready to be good students, and Ugyen eventually comes to try his best for his little pupils as days slowly go by in the village.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that our disgruntled hero comes to love and care about the village and his students much more than expected. The screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Pawo Choyning Dorji simply has the story and characters leisurely rolling from one episodic moment to another, and the movie lets us gradually immersed more in its tranquil ambience. We are often tickled and fascinated as it vividly observes numerous realistic details including those yaks around the village (You will get some laugh from one of their useful aspects, by the way), and Dorji and his cinematographer Jigme Tenzing did a splendid job of presenting a number of impressive landscape shots on the screen.

Meanwhile, the movie also focuses a bit on the relationship between Ugyen and a young female herder in the village, who kindly sends an old yak to his classroom later in the story. After listening more to her performing folk songs to soothe her yaks, he comes to pay more attention to the village and his students, and, to our little amusement, he takes some active actions for educating his students more. We see how he and several villagers make a blackboard and pieces of chalk for his classroom, and the mood is brightened up more when he later receives a number of useful stuffs for his students’ education as well as their entertainment.

Dorji and his crew members actually shot their film in Lunana, and he just let a group of real villagers, who incidentally had no movie acting experience before, play themselves more or less. Their line delivery feels rather monotonous at first, but we come to sense more of their gentle humanity exuded from their unadorned acting, and their good performances surely bring considerable spirit and personality to the film as Sherab Dorji’s humble lead performance earnestly holds the center as required.

Personally, I value movies which can take us to different worlds and people out there with empathy and understanding, and “Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom” is certainly one of such good films. While it may look pretty modest compared to its fellow Oscar nominees including “Drive My Car” (2021) and “The Worst Person in the World” (2021), this is still a solid piece of work to be admired and savored for mood and details, and I think you should check it out when you have some free time to spend.

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Licorice Pizza (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A charming coming-of-age tale a la Paul Thomas Anderson

Posted on February 13, 2022 by kaist455

Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film “Licorice Pizza”, which recently received 3 Oscar nominations including the one for Best Picture, is his sweetest work since “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002). At first, the movie seems to be just another familiar mix of coming-of-age drama and romantic comedy with some dose of nostalgia, but then it smartly avoids rote genre clichés and conventions as freely bouncing from one episodic moment to another along with its two different main characters, and it eventually becomes more humorous, charming, and poignant than you may expect at the beginning.

Set in the San Fernando Valley area of the LA county, California in 1973, the movie opens with an offbeat variation of Meet Cute moment between its two main characters. When he is preparing for his high school picture day along with his schoolmates, Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) comes across a young woman working as the photographer’s assistant, and he is instantly smitten by this lass even though she is 25 while he is only 15. Although she is just mildly amused by his innocent approach at first, Alana Kane (Alana Haim) subsequently lets herself getting involved more with him, and that is the beginning of their unusual relationship.

While Alana still puts some distance between Gary and herself, they become close friends instead, and she gladly functions as a babysitter/chaperon for him whenever his mother is too busy with her work. Gary has occasionally worked as a child actor, so we later see him flying to New York City along with Alana for participating in one TV show performance led by a popular actress who is clearly the fictional version of Lucille Ball, and we get a little amusing moment when he tries to throw one naughty joke for Alana right in front of the camera.

However, Alana and Gary soon find themselves drifted from each other when one of Gary’s fellow child actors shows his interest toward her, and that hurts Gary’s feeling a lot, though they remain close to each other despite that. When he decides to start his own small business, Alana willingly participates in his business operation, and we get another big laugh when she boldly attempts to try to sell his product to one hesitating customer on the phone.

Meanwhile, she also decides to try on movie acting career, and Gary is certainly willing to help her a bit, but that does not go so well as he and Alana come to argue with each other on how much she is ready to show herself in front of the camera. They become distant to each other again after one brief but hilarious moment, and that is how Alana finds herself getting involved with an aging actor who is apparently the fictional version of William Holden. Although he has rarely tried comedy since his Oscar-nominated comic turn in Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown” (1999), Sean Penn demonstrates that he can be really funny, and his cameo appearance is further enhanced by the brief but equally uproarious appearance of Tom Waits, whose character is somewhere between Mark Robson and John Huston.

As its two main characters continue to revolve around each other as before, Anderson’s screenplay keeps doling out small comic moments as usual. In case of the sequence involved with a supporting character drolly played by Bradley Cooper (This character is based on a real-life film producer Jon Peters, who, as mentioned in the film, was Barbra Streisand’s boyfriend around that time), the mood becomes a bit tense, but then there comes an unexpectedly thrilling payoff moment, which I will simply let you see for yourself without spoiling your entertainment at all.

While things eventually become a bit more serious during its last act, the movie still maintains its lightweight tone under Anderson’s masterful direction. He and his co-cinematographer Michael Bauman vividly and tenderly establish the authentic period mood on the screen, and the resulting ambiance is further elevated by its wonderful soundtrack, which deftly utilizes a number of recognizable old pop songs from the 1970s as well as the sparse but gentle score by Jonny Greenwood (He had a very productive year as also working on “The Power of the Dog” (2021) and “Spencer” (2021), by the way)

The movie depends a lot on the charm and charisma of its two lead performers, and they constantly click well with each other throughout the film although they never acted before. Cooper Hoffman, who is incidentally the son of late Philip Seymour Hoffman, demonstrates here that he is a good actor with considerable potential, and it will be interesting to see whether he will have a solid acting career just like his father. On the opposite, Alana Haim, who has mainly been known for her pop rock band Haim, imbues her character with enough spirit and pluck, and I sincerely hope that we will see more of her acting talent in the future.

While reminiscent of many other similar films such as George Lucas’ “American Graffiti” (1973), “Licorice Pizza” is as distinctive as you can expect from a Paul Thomas Anderson film, and it surely reminds me again of how unpredictably interesting his filmmaking career has been during last two decades. After “Punch-Drunk Love”, there came “There Will Be Blood” (2007) and “The Master” (2012), and then they were followed by “Inherent Vice” (2014) and “Phantom Thread” (2017), and now he takes another turn to our delight and entertainment. I do not know where he will go next, but I am sure that he will interest us as much as before.

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Ascension (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): Chinese Dream from bottom to top

Posted on February 13, 2022 by kaist455

Documentary film “Ascension”, which received an Oscar nomination in last week, is often mesmerizing in its restrained but effective presentation of the social/economic landscapes of the Chinese society. Because it simply looks at a number of various places and people during its 97-minute running time without any background explanation, the documentary requires some patience from us at first, but we gradually come to see its big picture step by step as it observes the pursuit of the Chinese Dream from bottom to top, and that big picture is alternatively haunting and disturbing to say the least.

After the short excerpt from a 1912 poem written by director Jessica Kingdon’s great-grandfather, the documentary looks at numerous people looking for a job on some urban street. They are all ready to accept any job for earning money, and there are already several company recruiters prepared to draw these job searchers’ attention. Although there are some restrictions, many of them are soon hired, and we soon see them being taken to those factories where they will be hired to work.

The next part shows us a series of manufacturing processes and workers behind these processes. At one point, we observe how plastic bottles and caps are manufactured step by step, and then we see several factory workers examining whether there is any visible defect in the plastic bottles. In case of what may be one of the most amusing scenes in the documentary, we watch a group of female workers doing their respective tasks on many sex dolls, and it is rather fascinating to watch how they put some extra details on these sex dolls.

When the documentary subsequently observes the relationship between workers and their employers, there are some funny moments to observe. During one scene, we see applicants going through a sort of military training, and their instructors often emphasize to them how important their loyalty is to their company. As watching these applicants instructed to keep the small guidebook written by their company CEO, I could not help but think of Red Guard soldiers holding Mao Zeodong’s book, and I found myself sardonically wondering what Mao would think of this rather absurd moment, which is certainly quite opposite to everything he believed.

The rapid changes in the social/economic landscapes of the Chinese society during last 30 years are more apparent when the documentary goes up a bit to show us the middle echelons of the Chinese society. We see a group of young people eagerly listening to an instructor who explains a lot about how they should sell themselves as brands for the ongoing era of digital social media, and we later observe how several social media influencers work in front of their smartphone cameras. Most of them do not look particularly affluent, but they all hope for any chance for big online success, and we surely get some small laughs as observing their efforts.

Another amusing part in the documentary comes from a training session for young people willing to become bodyguards. Under their stern instructor, they go through a series of elementary training sessions, and you may chuckle when they are trying to pass a test demanding a certain driving skill – or when a couple of goats, which seem to belong to their instructor, happen to steal the show a bit later.

When the documentary goes higher along the ladder of economic success and wealth, the mood becomes quite different compared to the early scenes of the documentary. We see a group of young people ready to learn how to work for their rich employers as servants or butlers, and it is certainly odd and funny to watch a certain brief scene if you have ever watched British TV drama series “Downton Abbey”. The documentary, whose production incidentally took place in 51 different locations throughout China, also shows some nice and luxurious places including a big waterpark and a huge aquarium, and we are reminded more of the considerable economic gap in the Chinese society when several businesspeople are enjoying their expensive dinner at some fancy restaurant.

And these and several other scenes in the last part of the documentary surely exemplify how much the Chinese society has rapidly advanced, and you will be amazed from time to time, but the documentary does not overlook the downsides of these swift social/economic changes and developments. The more they manufacture, the more they consume and waste, and that is clearly reflected by the last several shots of the documentary. Sure, the country will grow more and more during next several years at least, but there will be the price to face in one way or another, and I am afraid that will be a big problem for not only the Chinese people but also all of us around the world.

While it mostly sticks to its clinically objective attitude, “Ascension” is a rewarding experience on the whole, and Kingdon, who also edited the documentary in addition to serving as its co-producer and co-cinematographer, demonstrates here that she is another interesting documentary filmmaker to watch. Although she only made a number of short documentary films before making a feature debut here, the overall result shows considerable talent and confidence, and it will be interesting to see what may come next from her.

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The Good Boss (2021) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A mild Spanish social satire starring Javier Bardem

Posted on February 13, 2022 by kaist455

Spanish film “The Good Boss”, which was selected as the Spain’s entry to Best International Film Oscar instead of Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers” (2021), is a mild social satire which could be tauter and edgier for more laughs. Although it is carried fairly well by the good lead performance at its center, its ironic comic moments do not strike us that hard due to being often deficient in surprise, which is always a crucial element for laughs. Right from the beginning, we can clearly see where the story is heading, and the movie takes a very predictable course without generating enough comic momentum to hold our attention.

Javier Bardem, a charismatic Spanish actor who has steadily impressed us since his international breakthrough turn in Julian Schnabel’s “Before Night Falls” (2000), plays Julio Blanco, a middle-aged businessman who has run a small company producing industrial scales for years. During the opening part, we see Julio about to begin another busy week along with the employees of his company, and we come to gather that he is very anxious about getting some prestigious local industrial award again, but it turns out that there are a few serious problems on his way to that glorious achievement. There is an ex-employee who is very angry about suddenly becoming unemployed, and Julio also notices that Miralles (Manolo Solo), a close friend of his who has also worked under him for many years, is not doing that well for some personal reason he is not so willing to tell.

As the boss of the company, Julio tries to handle these problems as soon as possible before those evaluators come to his company factory for the final evaluation, but the situation only becomes more complicated to his frustration and exasperation. While that unemployed dude begins to protest against Julio right in front of the company factory day by day, Miralles turns out to be much messier than expected, and Julio has no choice but to get involved more into Miralles’ private life as an old friend, though it is revealed later that their relationship is not as truthful as he has believed.

Meanwhile, a trio of young female interns start to work in Julio’s company, and Julio finds himself quite attracted to one of these young ladies. Because he already had an affair with a previous female intern without getting noticed by his trusting wife, he has no qualms about approaching to this lass a bit closer, and, what do you know, she does not mind his indecent approach at all. When they later happen to come across each other at a nightclub, both of them are ready to move onto the next step, but, not so surprisingly, there is something important she has not revealed to him yet.

The screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Fernando León de Aranoa has some fun with throwing more troubles into its hero’s increasingly difficult circumstance, but the overall result does not surprise or shock us enough. For example, the part involved with that unemployed dude feels repetitive as going nowhere till the last act of the story, and there is not much surprise in what eventually happens between him and Julio. In case of the subplot involved with that female intern, we do get some laughs from the absurd situation between her and Julio, but de Aranoa’s screenplay does not push this situation further while only rolling it toward a predictable outcome.

Of course, the movie frequently attempts to ridicule and satirize its hero’s gradually emerging hypocrisy, but its attempts are not accompanied with enough edge and bare. As merely observing how selfish and hypocritical its hero really is, the movie seems to maintain its supposedly balanced viewpoint, but its resulting lack of attitude often makes it feel shallow and superficial, and that only accentuates its rather thin narrative and broad characterization.

Anyway, Bardem, who was incidentally Oscar-nominated in last week for a bit better performance in Aaron Sorkin’s “Being the Ricardos” (2021), dutifully holds the center via his engaging performance. While never making any excuse on his character’s unlikable aspects, Bardem effortlessly handles a number of comic moments in the film, and he is particularly funny during one scene where his character happens to have a dinner with his wife and several other figures who make him very uncomfortable for a good reason. Without any ounce of exaggeration, Bardem deftly conveys to us his character’s growing inconvenience and annoyance, and we are tickled by how his character manages to hide his feelings in front of others except one particular figure.

In case of the other main cast members in the film, they fill their caricature supporting roles as much as they can. While Manolo Solo, Almudena Amor, and Óscar de la Fuente are notable as more colorful ones in the bunch, Sonia Almarcha does not have much to do as Julio’s unsuspecting wife, and Celso Bugallo gains some sympathy from us as an old employee exploited by his employer in more than one way.

Although it is occasionally amusing mainly thanks to Bardem’s solid lead performance, “The Good Boss” did not elicit enough chuckle from me while failing to develop its comic potential as fully as possible, and I walked out of the screening room with lingering dissatisfaction as reflecting on how it could be more effective and hilarious. I am certainly ready for any good satire on business and capitalism, but this is not a good one in my trivial opinion, and I am already ready to move onto whatever I am going to watch next.

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Death on the Nile (2022) ☆☆(2/4): Dirge on the Nile

Posted on February 10, 2022 by kaist455

Kenneth Branagh’s “Death on the Nile”, which is finally released after a rather long period of delay due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, is a bland and joyless product which did not refresh me much at last night. I happened to be pretty exhausted due to having quite a busy day at my workplace, and I was accordingly ready for any chance for fun, but I was only disappointed as being more aware of many artificial aspects of the movie.

As many of you know, the movie is based on the famous mystery novel of the same name by Agatha Christie, and it is mostly faithful to Christie’s novel, but it strikes a wrong chord right from its prologue scene set in a battlefield of the World War I. I will not go into details here, but I tell you instead that Branagh and his screenplay writer Michael Green attempt to bring more backstory into his detective hero Hercules Poirot, and the result is pretty awkward and distracting for several good reasons. While we get to know a bit more about what happened between Poirot and his lover in the past, we also get to learn of how the hell he came to have that big and ridiculous mustache, but, unfortunately, these elements do not enhance our brilliant detective character that much while only making the movie feel gloomy and ponderous.

Anyway, the main story starts from the point not long after the final scene of Branagh’s previous Poirot film “Murder on the Orient Express” (2017). Our detective hero has just returned to London after solving some difficult case in Egypt, and then he happens to spot an interesting triangle relationship when he is spending one evening at a local night club. At first, Jacqueline de Bellefort (Emma Mackey) and Simon Doyle (Armie Hammer) are a young couple clearly in passionate love, but then the situation is quickly changed when Jacqueline’s immensely wealthy friend Linnet Ridgeway (Gal Gadot) enters the scene later, and our detective hero instinctively senses a certain kind of trouble as observing what is going on among these three figures.

Several months later, Poirot is supposedly enjoying a holiday in Egypt, but then he encounters his young friend Bouc (Tom Bateman), who has also been spending some free time in Egypt along with his painter mother Euphemia (Annette Bening). When Bouc subsequently has Poirot meet Linnet again, Linnet is now married to Simon, and she and Simon are having their honeymoon trip in Egypt, but, of course, there is a big problem for them. They have been followed by Jacqueline since Simon left Jacqueline before marrying Linnet, and Jacqueline shows up again while looking quite vengeful as expected.

As Poirot gets himself more involved in this problematic circumstance, it turns out that Jacqueline is not the only one who does not like Linnet, and we get to know a number of other characters surrounding Linnet. For example, we see a nobleman doctor still struggling with his complicated personal feelings toward Linnet, and then we meet a shady cousin of Linnet who is also a lawyer managing Linnet’s assets, and then there is also a haughty old lady who does not hide her left-wing political belief at all in front of Linnet and others even though she is actually Linnet’s godmother.

Everyone except Jacqueline soon comes to a big ship sailing along the Nile, and then, as many of you have already expected, a murder occurs not long after Jacqueline gets on the ship somehow, so Poirot comes forward for solving the case. It is apparent that somebody on the ship committed that murder, but the most likely suspect happens to have an undeniable alibi, and he may have to focus on others on the ship, who all have each own motive for that murder.

Around that narrative point, we are supposed to be more intrigued and interested, but the movie only comes to slouch as flatly going through a series of blunt questioning scenes conducted by our detective hero, who looks glummer and more serious as the situation becomes more complicated along the story. As Poirot delves more into his suspects, Green’s screenplay tries some modern touches including the ones associated with racism and homophobia, but these story elements merely remain on the surface level, and we just simply wait more for the eventual scene where our detective hero is going to explain everything in front of his possible suspects.

As he did in “Murder on the Orient Express”, Branagh assembles a group of various performers here. While Branagh holds the center in a rather perfunctory fashion, his main cast members try as much as they can do with their broad archetype roles, and they mostly succeed to varying degrees. Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, who has become a disagreeable figure as much as Johnny Depp for being recently accused of sexual abuses, and Emma Mackey are believable in their characters’ unnerving triangle relationship, and the notable cast members including Tom Bateman, Annette Bening, Russell Brand, Ali Fazal, Sophie Okonedo, Jennifer Saunders, and Letitia Wright are also well-cast on the whole, though they still look less impressive compared to the big stars of John Guillermin’s 1978 film which is also based on the same novel.

In conclusion, “Death on the Nile” is less enjoyable even compared to Branagh’s previous Poirot film, and I doubt whether he will make more Poirot movies in the future. Although his recent Oscar-nominated film “Belfast” (2021) has been criticized for being rather plain and simple, that little modest movie is much better than his two Poirot flicks in my humble opinion, so I sincerely recommend you check it out instead.

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MLK/FBI (2020) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A close look into the FBI surveillance on MLK

Posted on February 6, 2022 by kaist455

Documentary film “MLK/FBI” is often compelling in its calm but sobering presentation of what happened between one great American figure and a very powerful government agency quite willing to suppress him by any means necessary. While it will not probably surprise you much if you are familiar with its main subjects, the documentary did a fine job of illuminating not only his complex human sides but also one of the most shameful moments in the history of that government agency, and you may be more curious about what may be revealed via the declassification of certain old classified government documents in 2027.

At the beginning, the documentary follows how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rose to a prominent social position around the late 1950s. After the considerable success of the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, he drew more public attention to the ongoing Civil Rights Movement as the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and then there came a historical moment as he delivered that famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28th, 1963. As a result, the Civil Rights Movement came to gain much more momentum, but it also came to draw a lot more attention from the FBI and its director J. Edgar Hoover, who had virtually ruled over the agency since he founded it in 1924.

To Hoover, Dr. King was a subversive who could be a big menace to the US government as well as the status quo of the American society, and he and his FBI guys tried to dig up anything suspicious about Dr. King. For example, Dr. King happened to be closely associated with a civil rights attorney named Stanley Levinson, and the FBI paid lots of attention to whatever was going between Dr. King and Levinson mainly because Levinson had a very unpleasant past with the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) in the 1950s for his old association with communists.

After Hoover reported that to President John F. Kennedy and his younger brother Robert F. Kennedy, who was the US Attorney General at that time, President Kennedy warned Dr. King about that in private, but Dr. King ignored his warning. That eventually led to the permission from Robert F. Kennedy on the following surveillance on Dr. King, and Hoover and the FBI were certainly eager to dig up more information on whatever Dr. King was doing behind his back.

To their disappointment, the FBI could not find any incriminating evidence to show Dr. King being influenced by Levinson’s left-wing political view, but they found something else to be used against Dr. King. As some of you already know, Dr. King was not so staunchly monogamous in his private life, and it did not take much time for the FBI to gather lots of salacious pieces of information from Dr. King and a number of women who happened to have some intimate private time with him.

Hoover and the FBI attempted to use this undeniable fact to expose Dr. King as a big hypocrite, but, to their bafflement, they failed every time. They actually sent their dirty information to a number of newspaper reporters and church pastors, but that did not lead to any scandal at all, and the public image of Dr. King was heightened further in the meantime when it was announced that he was chosen as the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Not long after Hoover called Dr. King a liar in public, they had a private meeting at Hoover’s office, and, regardless of whatever happened between them at that time, Hoover and the FBI went further for bringing down Dr. King to the bottom. Besides sending Dr. King’s wife a tape recording of one of King’s recent extramarital affairs, they also sent vicious anonymous blackmail letters intended to drive him to suicide, and several interviewees in the documentary tell us how much Dr. King emotionally struggled behind his back during that time.

At least, Dr. King was supported by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and their joint efforts led to several monumental political successes including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but there was one problem: the Vietnam War. Although he was mostly silent on this issue at first because of having President Johnson as one of his main political allies, Dr. King eventually decided to become quite outspoken about his negative opinion on the Vietnam War, and that certainly resulted in a big conflict between him and President Johnson.

While knowing well that the FBI was watching on him more than ever as a result, Dr. King did not hesitate to go further, but then, unfortunately, he was assassinated on April 4th, 1968. Regardless of how much they actually knew about what would happen on that tragic day, Hoover immediately ordered a quick and intensive investigation on this incident because, well, he did not want any more trouble. Nevertheless, as recently depicted in Oscar-winning film “Judas and Black Messiah” (2021), he and the FBI continued to suppress any possibility of another “Black Messiah” after Dr. King during next several years.

In conclusion, “MLK/FBI” is a splendid documentary which shows and tells us a lot about some inconvenient facts about both Dr. King and the FBI, and I appreciate how director Sam Pollard, who has been mainly known for his editing works in Spike Lee’s several films including “Mo’ Better Blues” (1990) and “Jungle Fever” (1991), deftly juxtaposes various archival footage clips with his several interview recordings. In short, this is another interesting documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950-60s, and it will certainly make you reflect more on its main subjects after it is over.

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Nightmare Alley (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): A fatalistic neo-noir film by Guillermo del Toro

Posted on February 4, 2022 by kaist455

Guillermo’s del Toro’s latest film “Nightmare Alley” is an admirable genre piece whose strength mainly lies in mood and details rather than the story itself. There are several weak parts in the story which could be improved more in my inconsequential opinion, and I am still wondering whether del Toro is a bit too softy and sensitive for the deeply cynical and pessimistic heart of darkness inside the story, but the movie itself is still a visual pleasure wonderful enough to forgive a number of small but notable shortcomings.

The movie is based on the novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, which was already made into a movie starring Tyrone Power in 1947. Although it was considerably limited by the production code of its era, that rather overlooked classic noir film, which was thankfully released on DVD and Blu-ray by Criterion in last summer, is still compelling to watch for many reasons including one of the best performances in Power’s career, and its darkly ironic tale of human wickedness and weakness remains fresh and timeless because, well, our human nature still are as flawed and indecent as ever.

Like the 1947 version, the movie, which is also set in US around the early 1940s, begins with how its opportunistic hero finds his calling in a wandering carnival troupe. Not long after arriving at some place by a bus, Stanton “Stan” Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) just takes a look into one of the main attractions of the troupe along with many others, but then he finds himself getting hired as a temporary worker when the troupe folds everything and then is ready to move to somewhere else, and he gets to know and learn more about its seedy business mainly from its unscrupulous manager Clement “Clem” Hoately (Willem Dafoe), who does not flinch at all from any opportunity to earn a bit more.

Meanwhile, Stan also comes to befriend a number of various colorful figures in the troupe. Zeena Krumbein (Toni Collette), who works as a clairvoyant with some assistance from her alcoholic husband Pete (David Strathairn), lets Stan participate in her main act, and the movie has some fun with how Zeena and Pete deftly fool their audiences. As a matter of fact, Pete was once a fairly excellent master of “cold reading” thanks to a complex system of codes concocted by him and his wife, and, as a lad who has always been eager to get more, Stan is quite willing to listen and learn whatever Pete will generously impart to him.

And there is also Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara), a sweet and charming young woman who has enjoyed a fair share of success via her electricity show. As she and Stan get to know each other bit by bit, they become more attracted to each other, and then Stan, who becomes more confident as learning more and more from Pete, promises her a bigger success for both of them. They come to dream more of leaving together someday, and Bruno (Ron Perlman), an aging strongman who has been a father figure for Molly for years, is not amused by that at all.

Although the adapted screenplay by del Toro and his co-writer Kim Morgan spends a bit too much time during its first half, del Toro does not miss any chance of filling the screen with heaps of baroque details to amuse or disturb us. Mainly thanks to its top-notch production design by Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau, the first half of the movie effortlessly immerses us into a shabby and seedy world inhabited by Stan and several other main characters surrounding him, and there are plenty of grotesque elements including a menagerie of gruesome oddities in glass jars – and a pitifully desperate figure who has been at the bottom of the hierarchy inside the troupe.

During its second half, the movie switches onto a different kind of darkness with more slickness in terms of mood and style. Not long after they eventually left the troupe, Stan and Molly become a fairly successful duo for his own clairvoyant act, but Stan still wants more nonetheless, and then he finds himself seduced by an opportunity presented by a slick and confident female psychiatrist named Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett). Although their first encounter is not exactly pleasant, Lilith later offers a supposedly lucrative partnership between them, and Stan grabs this chance without any hesitation despite the sincere concern from Molly and Zeena, who tactfully warns him of what may happen to him according to the fortunetelling from her tarot cards.

The climatic part mainly revolves around Stan’s attempt to deceive a certain rich and powerful man who promises him lots of money for getting what he has yearned for many years, but the movie somehow does not generate much suspense. Instead of getting accelerated with more heat and tension, it merely trudges toward its fatefully inevitable arriving point, and it also feels rather mild in case of handling the human passion and obsession inside the story, though the finale is accompanied with enough emotional gut-punch tinged with stark irony.

Anyway, the movie is still a splendid visual experience supported well by a bunch of talented performers. While Bradley Cooper, who has been steadily matured during last several years since his first Oscar-nominated turn in “Silver Linings Playbook” (2012), intensely holds the ground with another fine performance to be added to his advancing career, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, who incidentally once appeared together in Todd Haynes’ great lesbian romance film “Carol” (2015), make an effective contrast to each other as the good girl and the bad lady in the story, and Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman, David Strathairn, Holt McCallany, Mary Steenburgen, Clifton Collins Jr., and Tim Blake Nelson dutifully come and go while ably bringing considerable life and personality to their respective archetype supporting roles.

In conclusion, “Nightmare Alley” is one or two steps down from del Toro’s previous work “The Shape of Water” (2017), but it is still another distinctive and interesting work from del Toro, who has never let me down since his first feature film “Cronos” (1993). I am not wholly enthusiastic about the overall result, but I admire the film enough despite my reservation, and I am willing to revisit it someday just for appreciating its commendable technical aspects more.

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