A Hero (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Another complex moral drama from Asghar Farhadi

Posted on January 24, 2022 by kaist455

Iranian film “A Hero”, which was released on Amazon Prime in US in last week, is another knockout work from Asghar Farhadi, a masterful Iranian filmmaker who suddenly became quite more prominent to many of us thanks to his great film “A Separation” (2011). After deservedly receiving an Oscar for “A Separation”, Farhadi has seldom disappointed us during last 10 years, and I am glad to report here that “A Hero” is as compelling and enthralling as you can expect from his latest work.

At first, the movie slowly lets us gather its hero’s difficult current circumstance. Due to his failure to pay off lots of debt caused by his big business failure, Rahim Soltani (Amir Jadidi) has been imprisoned for several years, but he is recently allowed to have a two-day leave outside the prison, and we see him going to some old historical site where his brother-in-law Hossein (Alireza Jahandideh) works. It turns out that Rahim has some plan for persuading his creditor to withdraw the complaint against the payment of a part of his debt, and Hossein is certainly willing to help.

Rahim’s plan is based on a handbag acquired on a street by coincidence. This handbag contains a small but very valuable property on a street, and Rahim and his girlfriend Farkhondeh (Sahar Goldoost), whom he will marry once he is released, are going to sell it for getting enough money to convince his creditor, though his creditor is still not willing to reply to him for a personal reason to be revealed later in the story.

However, as he is trying to sell this valuable property along with Farkhondeh, Rahim comes to have second thoughts. While he is still tempted to use it for his own benefit, he also comes to feel some conscience, so he decides to look for the real owner of that property. He and Farkhondeh later put a notice with a telephone number to his prison here and there in the city, and, what do you know, a woman soon contacts with those prison authorities on the phone, and then this woman comes to Hossein’s house or retrieving that property.

Although she does not say much about herself, it looks like this woman is the real owner of that property, and she even gladly gives some little reward for that after leaving Hossein’s house. Once they come to learn about Rahim’s good deed, those prison authorities want it to get reported widely on the media mainly for enhancing the public image of their prison, and Rahim gladly goes along with that because that may benefit him more.

And things subsequently go quite well for him during next several days. After his story is reported on TV, he finds himself regarded as a hero by many people in the city, and a certain prominent charity foundation is willing to help him via collecting enough money for getting him released. As a matter of fact, a considerable amount of money is quickly collected from numerous people shortly after Rahim’s young son Siavashi (Saleh Karimaei), who incidentally has struggled with a speech impediment, tries to make a statement for helping his father in front of others, and Rahim even gets a job offer from the city government.

However, the situation soon becomes much more complex than expected. While Rahim’s creditor is not so eager to settle his financial matter with Rahim, Rahim subsequently faces a serious obstacle when he later attempts to get hired as promised by the city government. The official handling his case adamantly demands more verification on what really happened, and that leads Rahim into a series of more troubles. To make matters worse, the negative rumors about him are spread around in the city, and that makes him and a few others around him more desperate and frustrated than before.

As its hero’s circumstance becomes increasingly messy due to several unwise actions of him and some other characters in the story, Farhadi’s dexterous screenplay steadily grabs our attention as gradually accumulating tension and suspense under the screen. While we are not so surprised to learn later that Rahim was not totally honest from the beginning, we are caught off guard by how that leads to more absurdity and desperation around him, and there is a painfully ironic moment later in the story as he may have to make another lie for saving his face as much as possible.

As usual, Farhadi, who received the Grand Prix when the movie was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in last year, draws good performances from his main cast members. While never making any excuse on his character’s unlikable aspects, Amir Jadidi gives an unadorned but strong performance as the tarnished human center of the film, and he is also supported well by several other cast members including Sahar Goldoost, Mohsen Tanabandeh, Maryam Shahdaei, Alireza Jahandideh, and Sarina Farhadi, who is incidentally Farhadi’s daughter and previously gave a memorable supporting performance in “A Separation”. The special mention goes to young performer Saleh Karimaei, and he is simply heartbreaking during one crucial scene where his character is pushed to do something for Rahim even though he is not so willing to do it from the start.

Overall, “A Hero”, which was selected as Iran’s official submission to Best International Film Oscar in last year and then was included in the shortlist in last month, shows Farhadi back in element after his previous film “Everybody Knows” (2018), which is fairly engaging but feels rather subpar compared to “A Separation” and many of his other works including “The Past” (2013) and “The Salesman” (2016). In short, this is another highlight of last year, and I assure you that its very last scene will linger on your mind for a while after it is over.

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The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The Eyes of Jessica Chastain

Posted on January 24, 2022 by kaist455

It goes without saying that Jessica Chastain is one of the most interesting actresses working in Hollywood during last 10 years. Since she suddenly drew our attention via a string of stellar supporting turns from “The Help” (2011), “Take Shelter” (2011), and “The Tree of Life” (2011), she has steadily risen with a bunch of various performances including that unforgettably intense Oscar-nominated acting in “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012), and that certainly made me admire more of her considerable talent.

In case of Michael Showalter’s new film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”, Chastain, who is also one of its producers, surely does as much as she can do for the role she was determined to play for years since she watched Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato’s 2000 documentary film of the same name. While often immersed in heavy makeup, she grandly and vividly projects disgraced American TV evangelist Tammy Faye Bakker’s irrepressible flamboyance on the screen, and she is certainly ready to go deep inside her character via her considerably committed performance, but, sadly, the movie itself only ends up scratching the surface without any clear direction. To be frank with you, I still do not know whether it simply laughs at its heroine’s absurd and ridiculous aspects or tries to understand what really makes her tick, and that only gives me more dissatisfaction in the end.

Abe Sylvia’s screenplay, which is adapted from the aforementioned documentary, follows a series of ups and downs in Tammy Faye’s life and career, and the early part of the film depicts how eager Tammy Faye was to grab attention from others even during her poor and miserable childhood period. Just because she is the reminder of her Christian mother’s shamefully failed first marriage, young Tammy Faye, who is played by young performer Chandler Head, is frequently pushed aside, but she is not discouraged at all as often praying to Jesus, and she surely impresses her mother’s fellow parishioners when she boldly enters their church and then demonstrates something quite memorable in front of them.

Several years later, Tammy Faye grows up to become your average Christian college student. On one day, she becomes attracted to a male student named Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) mainly because of his youthful charm and energy, and it does not take much time for them to move quickly along several next steps of their budding relationship. After discerning how eager both of them are to devote themselves to evangelism, they instantly quit their college, and they soon become a married preacher couple working from one spot to another.

Jim later turns out to be not so reliable in case of handling their financial matters, but then he and Tammy Faye luckily get themselves associated with a popular TV evangelist named Pat Robertson (Gabriel Olds), who willingly gives them their first break in the world of TV evangelism industry. Thanks to his charming presence and her plucky spirit, Jim and Tammy Faye swiftly rise to the top of their field during next several years, and then they even come to have their own successful TV network as the TV evangelism reaches to the peak in the 1980s. As lots of money is donated from millions of Christian viewers everyday, they live in a big and luxurious house full of expensive stuffs, and Tammy Faye is glad to see that her mother is impressed a bit despite being stern as before.

Of course, this glittering paradise of her and her husband eventually turns out to have many problems behind it. While Jim gets their business into a number of serious financial troubles, he and Tammy Faye find themselves more estranged from each other, and she also becomes a drug addict as constantly pushing herself into her TV work. Feeling lonely and isolated, she becomes tempted to lean on some other guy, but then she comes to clash with her husband over that matter, and she only ends up confessing about her infidelity on TV as suggested by her increasingly untrustworthy husband.

As too busily covering one incident after another in Tammy Faye’s life and career, Sylvia’s screenplay fails to generate much human depth to her, and that consequently makes Chastain’s diligent efforts look more like belonging to a superficial TV comedy sketch. While there are some glimpses of her character’s human complexity as briefly reflected by Tammy Faye’s open public support of sexual minority people and AIDS patients, these interesting elements are simply brushed aside in the end as the movie eventually focuses more on how Tammy Faye and her husband’s business was completely ruined in 1989, and we only come to observe her from the distance without getting to know or understand her much.

Around Chastain and Garfield, whose acting is also hampered a lot by his underwritten role (He was much better in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s recent debut feature film “tick, tick… BOOM!” (2021), by the way), several main cast members dutifully fill their respective spots despite having not many things to do on the whole. While Cherry Jones is seriously under-utilized as Tammy Faye’s disapproving mother, Gabriel Olds and Vincent D’Onofrio, who is nearly unrecognizable as Jerry Falwell, have some little fun while looking as sanctimonious as possible, and it is too bad that they are demanded to do no more than the caricature versions of their respective notorious real-life figures.

In conclusion, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” is not entirely without fun and entertainment thanks to Chastain’s lead performance, but it ultimately feels like a passable demonstration of her undeniable acting talent, and it is also a big letdown compared to Showalter’s previous work “The Big Sick” (2017). That comedy drama film was much more engaging and entertaining in terms of story and characters, and I would rather recommend you to watch it instead of this disappointing misfire.

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The Worst Person in the World (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Several vivid slices of her ongoing life

Posted on January 21, 2022 by kaist455

Joachim Trier’s new film “The Worst Person in the World” cheerfully and thoughtfully rolls along with its ordinary but unforgettable heroine’s life, and I like that a lot. As observing those small ups and downs in her private life, I somehow came to reflect more on how my own private life has been these days, and I eventually felt a little better about my life in addition to wanting to tell her that she is certainly not the worst person in the world. After all, I have been no better than her at all in case of handling life and love since I entered adulthood 22 years ago, and, knowing so well how one can often feel quite bad about oneself, I frequently observed her story with knowing smiles during my viewing.

Consisting of a prologue, 12 chapters, and an epilogue, the movie mainly revolves around a young woman named Julie (Renate Reinsve), and the prologue gives us the overview of her several years of adulthood. At first, she was eager to study medicine, but then she subsequently decided that she was more interested in psychiatry, and then she later moved onto photography once it looked like to her that she fit better in that field.

In case of her private life, we see her quickly attracted to a guy who did some modeling for her photography, but then she comes across Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie), an acclaimed comic artist who is considerably older than her. Despite their age gap, it does not take much time for them to get closer to each other, and, what do you know, they eventually start to live together in his residence.

Several years later, their relationship seems to be more stable than before, but we soon come to sense some strain between them. When Aksel suggests that they should have a child, Julie does not wholly agree to his suggestion, and she becomes more uncertain about having a child when she and Aksel go to the house of one of Aksel’s friends, who incidentally has a wife and several kids. As watching Aksel’s friend and his family, Julie considers changing her position on having a child, but then she and Aksel come to witness some imperfections in the married life of Aksel’s friend, and that seems to solve their relationship issue for now.

However, Julie finds herself subsequently becoming more distant to Aksel. Although they have been pretty accustomed to each other, she cannot help but feel rather discontent about the current state of her life, and then she suddenly comes across the possibility of another romance at a party into which she impulsively slips during one evening. She happens to be spotted by a guy named Elvind (Herbert Nordrum), and she willingly lets herself attracted to this guy as they talk more and more with each other. While they do not cross the line between them at all, they come to feel more of the mutual attraction between them as they playfully interact with each other, and she becomes more aware of her discontent with her relationship with Aksel.

Now the movie may look like your average romantic comedy drama to you, but the screenplay by Trier and his usual collaborator Eskil Vogt frequently surprises us as avoiding those familiar genre clichés and conventions, and the result is quite moving at times in addition to often being very humorous. We get some laughs as our heroine unpredictably bounces from one point to another during her bumpy emotional journey, but we also come to understand and emphasize with her more than expected. Furthermore, the movie pays considerable attention to several other characters in the story including Aksel, who probably understands Julie more than anyone else in the story even though he is not exactly an ideal life partner for her.

As the story casually flows in one direction or another, Renate Reinsve’s strong performance, which deservedly received the Best Actress Award when the movie was shown at the Cannes Film Festival several months ago, keeps holding our attention from the beginning to the end. Thanks to her nuanced natural acting, we gradually come to sense her character’s gradual maturation over the story, and that is why it is touching to see the eventual arrival point of her character’s emotional journey. While there is some bittersweet feeling, life is still going on for her as before, and the movie simply lets us gather that she will be probably fine regardless of whatever will come next in her ongoing life.

Reinsve is also supported well by two main cast members surrounding her. Without overshadowing Reinsve at all, Anders Danielsen Lie, who previously collaborated with Trier in “Reprise” (2006) and “Oslo, 31 August” (2011), effectively complements her during their several key scenes, and he and Reinsve are especially terrific when their characters try to cope with a serious situation which is very painful for both of them. As another man in the story, Herbert Nordrum makes a good contrast with Lie, and we can easily discern what our heroine sees from his character.

On the whole, “The Worst Person in the World”, which was selected as Norway’s submission to Best International Film Oscar a few months ago and then was recently included in the shortlist, is another fabulous work from Trier. I did not like his first feature film “Reprise” enough, but then he impressed me a lot with his next film “Oslo, 31 August”, and then he gave us “Louder than Bombs” (2015) and “Thelma” (2017), which are also interesting to watch in each own way. Although its title is not exactly disarming or uplifting, the movie, which is incidentally the last chapter of his Oslo trilogy after “Reprise” and “Oslo, 31 August”, is much more charming and elevating than you may think, and I am glad to report you here that it is indeed one of best movies of last year.

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Bergman Island (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): A gentle and playful film set in Bergman Island

Posted on January 21, 2022 by kaist455

Mia Hansen-Løve’s new film “Bergman Island” is a gentle and playful drama which will amuse and delight you if you are admire the works of both the director and Ingmar Bergman. While often mentioning Bergman’s life and career, the movie also sensitively focuses on what is happening to and around its heroine, and we gladly go along with that even when it shifts itself a bit into what she has been struggling to create.

The movie is set in Fårö, a big Baltic Sea island of Sweden which incidentally was the main staying place for Bergman. Besides living there for several decades, Bergman often shot some of his great films such as “Through Glass, Darkly” (1961) and “Shame” (1968) there, and, as shown from the film, the island has been a well-known tourist spot with many of Bergman’s private places having been preserved fairly well since he passed away in 2007.

In the beginning, the movie opens with a filmmaker couple arriving in Fårö for some respite and, of course, creative inspiration. While Tony (Tim Roth) is looking forward to having a good time there, Chris (Vicky Krieps) is not so sure about that from the start, and we later observe how different they are in case of their respective opinions on Bergman’s life and career. While Tony is your average hardcore Bergman fan, Chris is not exactly enthusiastic about Bergman’s works, and she also makes a critical point on Bergman’s messy personal life when she and Tony have a little conversation with others at one point.

Anyway, under the tranquil ambiance of the island, both Tony and Chris embark on writing separately, but Chris cannot help but feel frustrated as her writing does not go that well in contrast to Tony. He turns out to be writing much more than her when she looks into his notebook during his absence, and she finds herself becoming more distant to him as she comes to prefer to be alone for a while. He is eager to do some tour around the island, but she simply wants to walk around here and there without anyone, and that is how she later happens to come across a nice lad willing to provide some guide for her.

While Hansen-Løve’s screenplay leisurely moves from one episodic moment to another, the movie gradually immerses us into the quiet and soothing mood of the island, and it occasionally amuses us as showing various spots associated with Bergman’s life and career. If you are quite familiar with his notable works including “Persona” (1966) and “Scenes from a Marriage” (1973), you may easily recognize some of them with a bit of amusement, and I will not deny that I was tickled a little as observing Tony and Chris in Bergman’s private screening room for watching “Cries and Whisperers” (1972), which is certainly not as feel-good as Chris hopes.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Chris finally comes to have a nice story idea, but then the movie takes an interesting narrative turn as she and Tony discuss about how she should end her story, which is mainly about two ex-lovers coming to the island for a wedding. Although they have been distant to each other since their breakup, Amy (Mia Wasikowska) and Joseph (Anders Danielsen Lie) cannot help feel attracted to each other again as they come to spend more time between them, and, of course, their unexpected romantic situation comes to evoke those chamber drama films of Bergman. They do feel happy as rekindling their old romance, but then they are also reminded of the emotional gap still remaining between them, and that is where Chris is hesitating about what to do with her two main characters next.

Well, all I can tell you for now is that Chris eventually finds a rather neat way to end her story, and that brings some extras amusement for us. In case of the ending outside her story, a number of things remained unresolved between Chris and Tony even during the very last shot, but that is pretty much like how life goes on for many of us, and we smile a bit as seeing Chris having a little happy moment of hers.

Hansen-Løve also draws well-rounded performances from her four main performers. As the first pair in the story, Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth are smooth and effortless as conveying to us a sense of shared life between their characters, and Krieps, a Luxembourgish actress who has been more prominent during last several years since her terrific breakthrough turn in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” (2017), deftly handles her character’s emotional arc along the story as ably supported by Roth. In case of Mia Wasikowska and Anders Danielsen Lie, they also hold each own place well on the story besides having enough chemistry between them on the screen, and they also have a little fun with their parts when the movie steps back a bit from their characters’ drama around the ending.

In my inconsequential opinion, “Bergman Island” is one or two steps below what Hansen-Løve achieved in “Father of My Children” (2009) and “Things to Come” (2016), but it is still engaging for its solid storytelling and enjoyable performances. Although it could delve a little deeper into its main subjects, the movie made me reflect a bit on why and how I have admired Bergman’s many works since I watched “Wild Strawberries” (1957) on TV in the early 2000s, and I appreciate that as also coming to hope to visit Fårö someday. That is virtually impossible for now for the reason we all know, but I include that in my trivial bucket list at least, you know.

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Downton Abbey (2019) ☆☆☆(3/4): Downton Revisited

Posted on January 19, 2022 by kaist455

“Downton Abbey”, which continues what was supposedly ended at the end of the final season of the popular British TV drama series of the same name, is a fairly entertaining historical drama film to enjoy. For reviewing this film, I actually watched all the 52 episodes of the TV drama series during last several months, and I can tell you now that the movie is a solid encore to follow its TV drama series.

The movie, which is set in 1927, mainly revolves around Downton Abbey as usual, which is a big old British manor which has been owned and managed by Robert Crawley (Hugh Bonneville), the 7th Earl of Grantham, and his dear family members for years. When they are beginning another day in their manor, a letter is delivered from none other than the Buckingham Palace, and not only Robert and his family but also their servants and maids are both nervous and excited for a good reason. The King of England and his queen are going to stay at Downtown Abbey for one day as going through their routine tour in the country, and that means everyone in Downtown Abbey will have to do their best for serving their highly honorable guests.

Like its TV drama series, the movie gradually gains its narrative momentum as going back and forth between its upstairs and downstairs people. While Mary Talbot (Michelle Dockery), Robert’s eldest daughter who has been managing the estate along with her deceased sister’s Irish husband Tom Branson (Allen Leach), is ready to get everything under control, Edith Pelham (Laura Carmichael), Mary’s another sister who became the Marchioness of Hexham at the end of the TV drama series, gladly comes to Downton Abbey along with her husband, and their mother Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), their grandmother Violet (Maggie Smith), and Mary’s mother-in-law Isobel (Penelope Wilton) are also quite willing to give extra help and support for what may be the grandest day for everyone in Downton Abbey.

In case of a bunch of servants and maids in the estate, many of them are all delighted by the prospect of serving their king and queen, and Mr. Carson, the ex-butler of Downton Abbey who retired as being succeeded by Thomas Barrow (Robert James-Collier), is certainly glad to be back in action for this special occasion, but he and other downstairs people soon face a big annoyance when a group of royal servants and maids arrive in advance. Besides mostly being pretty haughty, these royal servants and maids insist that they should be in the front line when it is the time to serve the king, the queen, and other honorable guest, and Mr. Carson and other employees in Downtown Abbey including Elsie Hughes (Phyllis Logan), who is still the housekeeper of Downton Abbey after marrying Mr. Carson, are certainly not amused at all.

With these two main dramas being developed on the center stage, the screenplay by writer/co-producer Jullian Fellows, who also wrote nearly all of the episodes of the TV drama series, also juggles several other subplots. There is a little romantic trouble between Daisy Mason (Sophie McShera) and Andy Parker (Michael C. Fox) in the downstairs, and then there is a private issue between Edith and her husband in the upstairs, and then there is also a rather suspicious circumstance involved with a stranger who approaches to Tom not long after arriving in the nearby town.

And there is Maud (Imelda Staunton), Lady Bagshaw, who has been the queen’s lady-in-waiting and is also an estranged cousin to Robert. Because Maud is not so willing to make Robert inherit all the assets currently belonging to her, Violet has been not so friendly to Maud for years, and she is more pissed off when she later comes to learn that Maud is going to leave everything to her faithful maid, who happens to befriend Tom not long after she and her lady arrive in Downton Abbey.

While we all know that nothing particularly big or serious will happen when the king and his queen arrive as expected, the movie keeps engaging us as busily rolling its story and characters, and director Michael Engler, who has been mainly working in TV and actually directed several episodes of the TV drama series, did a competent job on the whole. The production qualities of the film are as good as we can expect, and its real locations including Highclere Castle in Hampshire, UK certainly bring some necessary authenticity to the screen.

Above all, the main cast members of the movie are commendable in their effortless ensemble performance as before. While Hugh Bonneville, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, and Michelle Dockery are the most prominent ones in the bunch, many dependable veteran members including Jim Carter, Phyllis Logan, Allen Leach, Laura Carmichael, Sophie McShera, Michael C. Fox, Robert James-Collier, Brendan Coyle, Joanne Froggatt, Lesley Nicol, Kevin Doyle, Raquel Cassidy, Penelope Wilton, and Matthew Goode easily slip into their respective familiar roles as before, and Imelda Staunton and Tuppence Middleton also hold each own place well as the two new main characters.

Overall, “Downton Abbey” is basically more or less than a special TV episode, but it is a well-made one equipped with enough style and substance, and you certainly should not miss it if you enjoyed its TV drama series. As a matter of fact, there will soon be another Downton Abbey movie in this year, and I am already interested in watching that upcoming film.

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Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Coincidence and imagination

Posted on January 18, 2022 by kaist455

Japanese film “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize when it was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival early in last year, is another excellent work from Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who has been one of the notable Japanese filmmakers during last several years. Consisting of three deceptively simple stories, the movie constantly engages us mainly thanks to Hamaguchi’s dexterous storytelling, and I can only admire how effortlessly and thoughtfully it glides from one interesting moment to another.

The first story, which is titled “Magic (or Something Less Assuring)”, opens with two young women going through a photograph shooting together outside. They are Meiko (Kotone Furukawa) and her close friend Tsugumi (Hyunri), and we subsequently watch them having a little private conversation as riding a taxi together. Tsugumi recently met some cool guy who really seemed to click well with her, so she tells her friend a lot about how wonderful it was for her to meet someone like him, and Meiko willingly listens to her friend before she eventually parts ways with her friend.

During the next scene, it turns out that there is a hidden reason why Meiko was quite attentive to what her friend was saying. I do not dare to go into details for not spoiling any of your entertainment, but I can tell you instead that this scene is as compelling as the previous scene. As usual, Hamaguchi deliberately has his performers deliver their lines in a rather flat way, but the result is actually playful at times in addition to being accompanied with considerable dramatic effects, and that is the main reason why the following ending scene works well with haunting emotional resonance.

The second story, which is titled “Door Wide Open”, catches us off guard right from the beginning. At first, we see one college professor teaching students in a small class, but then it turns out that the story is not about him or his students at all when the movie looks at what is happening in the nearby office belonging to a professor named Segawa (Kiyohiko Shibukawa). One of his students desperately is begging this professor not to fail him in one of his classes, but Segawa simply dismisses his student’s desperate plea, and that certainly makes this student become quite spiteful about Segawa.

This student happens to be having a casual affair with a young woman named Nao (Katsuki Mori), and he comes to have a little naughty idea when they spend some time together in his small residence. Segawa has recently gained more prominence thanks to a little novel of his which received some prestigious literature award, and Nao is going to approach closer to Segawa while disguising herself as a former student of his quite impressed by his novel.

All Nao has to do is going to Segawa’s office and then seducing him enough to cause a scandal to tarnish his career and reputation, but then something unexpected occurs between them. Segawa does not respond much to her in the beginning, but then Nao comes to touch something inside him once she reads a certain passage of his novel, and she also comes to reveal herself more to him than expected. The uttermost seriousness of their following conversation feels somehow amusing to us as it delves deep into the rather salacious aspect of that passage of his novel, and then we get another naughty laugh when their situation later takes an unexpected turn with some bitterness to linger around the ending.

The third story, which is titled “Once Again”, starts with some explanation on its alternative world. In 2019, the human society stopped using most of digital technologies due to some powerful computer virus spread around the whole world, but life still goes on as usual, and we see a woman named Moka (Fusako Urabe) attending her all-girls high school reunion. Because she does not remember well many of her old schoolmates, Moka cannot help but feel distant from them, so she eventually leaves without much regret, but then she comes across someone at a train station on the very next day.

I will not reveal here anything about who that person is, but I can assure you that you will be quite amused while observing what is happening between Moka and this figure. As they pull and push each other, we get to know each of them a bit by bit, and then there comes a little surprise for them as well as us. Although the mood remains as phlegmatic as before, these two characters consequently reveal more of their respective feelings to each other, and there is genuine poignancy when they later return to the train station for having a little moment of role-playing between them.

Overall, “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”, whose original Japanese title is “Coincidence and Imagination”, is consistently satisfying in all of its three different parts, and it surely shows again that Hamaguchi is indeed a master filmmaker who can intrigues and engages us as long as he intends. While he could hold our attention for more than 5 hours in “Happy Hour” (2015), he can also easily hop from one short tale to another as shown in “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”, and these two films and “Drive My Car” (2021), which is incidentally another superlative work of his in last year, will certainly make you have some expectation on whatever will come from him next. In short, this is something you should not miss if you admire “Happy Hour” or “Drive Your Car” as much as I do, and I guarantee that you will not be disappointed at all.

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Mass (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Four troubled parents in the room

Posted on January 18, 2022 by kaist455

“Mass” is a modest but undeniably compelling drama about four ordinary people struggling to deal with their respective human losses caused by one terrible incident. While it simply observes a series of tense and strained interactions among them, the movie is often devastating and harrowing as gradually letting us have more empathy and understanding on their pain and sorrow, and it is really poignant to see some little glimpse of hope and healing at the end of their grueling emotional journey.

During its opening part, the movie slowly establishes the situation among its four main characters. In the one room inside a small church located in some little rural town, their private meeting is about to be held, and the movie generates a bit of dry humor as the two employees of the church nervously prepare for the meeting along with a mediator who arranged the meeting for the four main characters in advance.

As the mediator is waiting for the four main characters’ arrival, we meet Jay (Jason Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton) first. They are still conflicted about whether they can really face Richard (Reed Birney) and Linda (Ann Dowd) despite what happened some time ago, but they eventually decide to go to the meeting as planned, and they subsequently find themselves in the room along with Richard and Linda while their mediator makes the final check on whether they are all ready for conversation.

Once the mediator leaves the room, the mood among these four people feels pretty awkward to say the least. All of them try to be courteous and tactful as much as possible, and Jay and Gail generously exchange some personal news with Richard and Linda, but it does not take much time for them to begin to talk about the certain inconvenient fact among them. Several months ago, there was a horrendous shooting incident at the high school attended by their kids, and Richard and Linda’s son was the culprit while Jay and Gail’s son was one of several schoolmates killed by Richard and Linda’s son at that time.

Although they are willing to give Richard and Linda a moment of forgiveness, Jay and Gail cannot help but become fixated on how Richard and Linda’s son came to commit such a horrible deed, but Richard and Linda understandably cannot give Jay and Gail any possible answer for that because, well, they were shocked and surprised as much as Jay and Gail at that time. Yes, their son, who incidentally killed himself in the end, was a shy and introverted loner, and his unmistakable signs of danger look quite clear to them now in retrospect, but they still have no idea on what really drove their son into such an extreme act of violence.

As Richard and Linda come to argue more with Jay and Gail, the mood naturally becomes more intense than before, director/writer/co-producer Fran Kranz, who has mainly worked as an actor for years before making a directorial debut here in this film, subtly dials up the level of emotional intensity. At first, cinematographer Darren Morze’s camera sticks to its static and distant positions, but then the camerawork gradually becomes shaky with more close-ups, and we accordingly find ourselves more immersed in the increasingly dynamic circumstance among its four main characters. As they show each own anger and sadness more and more along the story, our empathy is pulled toward all of them, and Kranz’s screenplay did a skillful job of organically building up its main characters via recognizable human elements.

Above all, his four main performers, who will deservedly receive the Robert Altman Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, are all simply magnificent in their achingly powerful acting without any false note. While Jason Isaacs, a British actor who has been mainly known for his several notable supporting turns including the one in Harry Potter movies, slowly exudes his character’s quiet intensity along the story, Martha Plimpton, a veteran actress whom you probably remember as one of the supporting characters in “The Goonies” (1985), deftly complements Isaacs on the screen, and they instantly convey to us their characters’ emotionally damaged status right from the beginning. At one point later in the film, Plimpton has an unforgettable moment as her character lets out more of her feelings in front of others, and I must confess that that is one of several powerful scenes in the film which almost made me broken down with tears during my viewing.

On the opposite, Reed Birney and Ann Dowd, who also have a considerable acting career just like their co-stars, are an equal acting match for Isaacs and Plimpton. Birney is particularly wonderful when his character indirectly reveals his deep grief and torment behind his seemingly unflappable façade, and Dowd is utterly heartbreaking as her character later confides something important to Plimpton’s character around the end of the story. This scene seems rather redundant at first, but Dowd is devastatingly superb in her delivery, and the result is another emotional blow for us.

In conclusion, “Mass”, which incidentally won the Audience Award when it was shown at the Flash Forward section of the Busan International Film Festival several months ago, is a superb drama film which will knock you down for its sheer emotional power. As writing this review, I often found myself emotionally overwhelmed as remembering how strongly I responded to the film at last night, and I guess that says a lot about what Kranz and his cast and crew members splendidly achieve here.

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The House (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): Three Tales in the House

Posted on January 17, 2022 by kaist455

Netflix animation feature film “The House”, which was released on last Friday, is a curious mixed bag which still engages us even when it does not work as well as intended. Consisting of three different weird tales, the movie tries to scare us, disturb us, and touch us, and the result is not exactly successful, but I really enjoyed its detailed and meticulous stop-motion animation even though I felt some dissatisfaction in the end.

The first tale, which is titled “And heard within, a lie is spun”, is about one very strange circumstance of a young girl named Mable (voiced by Mia Goth) and her poor family. In the beginning, we see how they are disregarded by their more affluent relatives, and that certainly makes Mable’s parents quite humiliated, but then there comes an unexpected change when Mable’s father later comes across some strange architect who presents an offer he cannot possibly refuse. For some unknown reason, the architect is willing to build a big house for the family at a certain spot not so far from the family’s current residence, and Mable’s parents are certainly delighted by this impossibly good offer.

However, of course, it turns out that there is a catch once the house is completed. According to a shady legal representative of the architect, the family must give up everything belonging to them before entering the house, and Mable’s parents do not mind that much despite some initial reluctance. After all, the house looks pretty good inside and outside, and every necessity including food is constantly provided for the family everyday, though they somehow do not see any servant or maid in the house at all.

As days go by, it does not take much time for Mable to sense that there is something very creepy about the house. When it later goes through a sort of renovation for no apparent reason, she and her little baby sister frequently find themselves lost or trapped inside the house, and the mood becomes all the more insidious as their parents become more distant to them as their parents seem to be under a sort of spell conjured inside the house.

What eventually occurs around the end of the story will probably not surprise you that much, the story keeps holding our attention thanks to the competent direction of directors Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels. There are a series of genuinely creepy moments, and you will admire the technical aspects of these moments for those big and small details vividly presented on the screen via stop motion animation.

While it is also mainly set in the same house, the next story, which is titled “Then lost is truth that can’t be won”, presents anthropomorphic rat characters instead of human characters. The house, which is now surrounded by a more modern background, is currently occupied by a struggling developer, and the main humor of this part comes from the growing desperation over his ongoing renovation project. Besides constantly demanded to pay off his bank loans sooner or later, the developer (voiced by Jarvis Cocker) has to work on the house alone by himself, and then he comes to face a very serious pest problem which will amuse anyone who has ever had a domestic pest problem.

Anyway, the developer manages to open the house for potential buyers in the end, but, alas, things only get worse for him when a strange old couple comes into the house. This old couple keeps saying they are “extremely” interested in buying the house, but they do not leave at all, and this certainly annoys and frustrates the developer. No matter how much he tries to get rid of them, this couple still does not go away at all, and the mood becomes all the more surreal as his state of mind gradually crumbles along the story. At one point, we even get a hallucinogenic musical moment, and director Niki Lindroth von Bahr has a lot of naughty fun with that.

Compared to the first two tales, the third tale, which is titled “Listen again and seek the sun”, is relatively milder and gentler in comparison. In this tale, the area surrounding the house has been flooded for some unknown reason, and the house is now inhabited by a few anthropomorphic cat characters including Rosa (voiced by Susan Wokoma), who has attempted to fix the house while also trying to survive along with her two tenants day by day. While quite determined to stay in the house as long as she can, Rosa cannot help but feel exasperated because her two tenants are not particularly cooperative to her, and her frustration is more increased when another figure enters the picture later in the story.

What we get here is a merely whimsical comic drama which meanders from time to time before the eventual finale, but what is presented on the screen by director Paloma Baeza still entertains us nonetheless. Like the two other tales, the third tale distinguish itself fairly well via its own mood and details, and that is more than enough for forgiving its several shortcomings including its rather week narrative.

In conclusion, “The House” is not a total success as its individual tales do not gel together well on the whole, but it is still a nice visual treat for you if you are well aware of the painstaking efforts behind its lovely stop motion animation. It could be more improved in my humble opinion, but it surely has much more style and personality compared to many forgettable Hollywood blockbuster animation films out there, and I am willing to revisit it someday.

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Special Delivery (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): She must deliver this kid to the end

Posted on January 17, 2022 by kaist455

South Korean film “Special Delivery”, whose theatrical release in South Korea was incidentally delayed for around 2 years due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, is a competent genre product to be appreciated for its taut and efficient handling of story and action. While it is clearly influenced by a number of well-known seniors ranging from Walter Hill’s “The Driver” (1978) to John Cassavetes’ “Gloria” (1980), the movie has enough style and substance to engage and entertain us, and it also confirms again to us the considerable talent and presence of its lead performer.

Park So-dam, who has been more prominent these days thanks to her delightfully saucy performance in Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning film “Parasite” (2019), plays Eun-ha, a tough young woman who has earned her living via her particular set of skills. On the surface, she is just a mere employee working at one shabby garage in Busan, but she is actually a very skillful driver who can “deliver everything that the post office service does not handle”, and the opening sequence, which is reminiscent a bit of the opening part of Nicholas Winding Refn’s “Drive” (2011), shows us how deftly and swiftly she handles her latest delivery job without any misstep.

Not long after this job is done, another delivery job is suddenly handed to Eun-ha, and she and her boss, who has virtually been like a good uncle to her, promptly embark on making their delivery plan. Although she has to go to Seoul in this time, all she has to do is waiting at a certain spot before picking up and then delivering whoever will come according to the plan, and she will certainly be paid well once this job is done.

However, not so surprisingly, this delivery job turns out to be much riskier than expected. When Eun-ha is waiting for the client at that certain spot, a young boy is frantically running toward her car, and she instinctively senses that something is terribly going wrong. At first, she considers leaving the spot as soon as possible without looking back at all, but, probably out of pity and compassion, she decides to let the boy get into her car, and then they soon find themselves chased by a bunch of thugs.

Around that point, the movie lets us have a pretty clear idea of what is going on around Eun-ha and the boy. He is the only son of the client, and, before he gets killed in the end, the client gave his son an incriminating piece of evidence against someone with whom he has been associated for years. Of course, that criminal figure in question and those thugs are quite willing to retrieve this evidence by any means necessary, and the situation later becomes more complicated as we get to know more about how dangerous and powerful this criminal organization really is.

As instructed by her boss, Eun-ha could just let the boy handled by one of her boss’ criminal associates, but she eventually decides to take a much harder way for the boy’s safety, and the movie accordingly gives us a series of well-executed moments including a suspenseful scene where our heroine must outwit her opponents as soon as possible. Although her driving skill is utilized less than expected, you will not grumble at all as watching a gritty vehicle action sequence which will grab you hard from the beginning to the end, and director/co-writer Park Dae-min and his crew members did a commendable job of vividly conveying to us many physical impacts during this impressive sequence.

Meanwhile, the movie also pays a lot of attention to the growing relationship between Eun-ha and the boy, who is not just a story element to be wielded in one way or another. Although she simply follows what should be done in her view, Eun-ha comes to care about the boy much more than she admits on the surface, and the boy also comes to depend a lot on Eun-ha as being reminded more that there is no one to help him except her.

It surely helps that Park and young performer Jeong Hyeon-jun, who also appeared as one of the main characters in “Parasite”, click well with each other on the screen. While confidently embodying her character’s toughness and resourcefulness, Park ably demonstrates another side of her talent here in this film, and her terse but undeniably strong acting is complemented well by Jeong’s unadulterated natural performance.

In addition, the movie assembles a group of colorful performers around Park and Jeong. I will not go into details for not spoiling any of your entertainment, but I can tell you instead that Kim Eui-sung, Song Sae-byeok, Han Hyun-min, Yeon Woo-jin, and Yeom Hye-ran are well-cast in their respective supporting roles, and, as a longtime cat lover, I will not deny that I smiled during a few tender scenes between Eun-ha and her grumpy pet cat, who cannot help but steal the scene a bit from Park whenever the camera looks at it.

On the whole, “Special Delivery” did its job as splendidly as expected, and I and a friend of mine had a fairly thrilling time as watching it at a local movie theater during last evening. As a dude who knows a lot about vehicles, he pointed out some unrealistic moments in the film after we came out of the screening room, but both of us agreed that the movie is still entertaining enough nonetheless, and I am sure that you will agree to that after watching it.

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The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A sparse but striking version of that Scottish play

Posted on January 16, 2022 by kaist455

Joel Coen’s first solo film “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, which was released on Apple TV+ a few days ago, is a sparse but striking version of that ‘Scottish Play’ which is incidentally one of the best works of William Shakespeare. While it is mostly faithful to the overall plot of Shakespeare’s play besides some noticeable narrative condensation, the movie is often quite impressive in terms of mood, storytelling, and performance, and it is certainly another interesting movie adaptation to be mentioned along with several notable previous ones including Akira Kurosawa’s “Throne of Blood” (1957) and Roman Polanski’s “Macbeth” (1971).

After the opening scene which succinctly establishes the ominously gloomy tone of the film, we see how Lord Macbeth (Denzel Washington) happens to be tempted by a sudden possibility of attaining more power in the near future. He has been a royal and brave general serving under King Duncan (Brendan Gleeson), and he recently demonstrated his considerable royalty and valor for his king during the latest battle in Scotland, but then he comes across a trio of witches when he is returning to his king along with his close comrade/friend Banquo (Bertie Carvel). These three witches insidiously prophesy that Macbeth is going to be the Thane of Cawdor and then the King of Scotland, and they also give a small but significant prophesy for Banquo.

Macbeth is initially skeptical about the prophecy on his upcoming future, but, what do you know, he soon does become the new Thane of Cawdor as ordered by his king, and that naturally makes him much more ambitious than before. Mainly because he is not that young, he becomes more obsessed with that possibility of becoming the king before his death, and his cunning wife does not hesitate at all to boost his ambition more once she comes to learn of that prophecy from her husband.

And the chance comes to them sooner than expected as King Duncan later visits Macbeth’s castle. Although he is still hesitating over whether he can actually kill his king for becoming the next king, Macbeth eventually lets himself driven further by his ambition as well as his wife, and that consequently leads to a brief but shocking moment of violence.

Once he succeeds in eliminating King Duncan, there is no other obstacle in Macbeth’s subsequent rise to the throne, but, as many of you already know well, Macbeth becomes more paranoid in addition to struggling with the consequences of his horrible crime, and his wife also gradually finds herself being driven into madness as watching how cruel and ruthless her husband can be for maintaining their power as long as he can. While she is pretty good at pushing her husband into killing, she turns out to be much weaker than she thought at first, and we accordingly get that famous scene revealing what has been eating her day by day.

For emphasizing these two main characters’ increasingly unhinged and desperate status, the movie is packed with nightmarish qualities to be noticed. Shot in the black and white film of 1.33:1 ratio, the movie is constantly shrouded in the dry and bleak sense of doom, and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, who previously collaborated with Coen and his brother in “Inside Llewyn Davis” (2013) and “The Ballard of Buster Scruggs” (2018), provides a number of terrific shots to be admired for the skillful utilization of lights and shadows. The production design by Stefan Dechant and the costume design by Mary Zophres are austerely impressive under the stylized ambiance of the film, and I particularly appreciate how the deliberately claustrophobic aspects of Macbeth’s castle convey to us more of Macbeth and his wife’s accumulating desperation and madness.

Above all, the movie is firmly supported by two great American movie performers of our time. Denzel Washington, who is no stranger to Shakespeare plays considering his humorous supporting turn in Kenneth Branagh’s “Much Ado About Nothing” (1993), gives another superlative performance which will surely garner him another Oscar nomination, and he deftly handles several big monologue scenes in the film including that well-known one which begins with “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow”. As his equal acting partner, Frances McDormand, who incidentally played Lady Macbeth on stage before, is convincing in her character’s fateful psychological downfall along the story, and she does not disappoint us at all when her character finally reaches to the bottom of her madness around the end of the story.

Coen assembles a number of interesting performers around Washington and McDormand, and many of them have each own moment to shine. While Brendan Gleeson leaves an indelible impression despite his rather brief appearance, Alex Hassell, Henry Melling, Bertie Carvel, Moses Ingram, Sean Patrick Thomas, Ralph Ineson, Stephen Root, and Corey Hawkins are also solid in their respective supporting roles, and the special mention goes to Kathryn Hunter, who is quite spooky as playing all of the three witches in the story (She also plays another small supporting role in the film, by the way).

Overall, “The Tragedy of Macbeth” may feel a bit too dry for some of you, but it is still a very interesting experience to be savored for its many strong elements including the excellent performances from Washington and McDormand. In short, this is another highlight of last year, and I think you should check it out as soon as possible.

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