The French Dispatch (2021) ☆☆☆1/2 (3.5/4): Lovely newspaper tales a la Wes Anderson

Posted on November 18, 2021 by kaist455

Wes Anderson’s latest film “The French Dispatch” feels like reading a fine copy of some smart and sophisticated urban magazine. As serving us everything we can expect from Anderson, the movie shows Anderson being at the top of his distinctive mastery of mood, style, and attitude as he previously did in “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012) and “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014), and I frequently found myself quite charmed and amused by those humorous offbeat moments in the film during my viewing.

Mainly consisting of five different parts, the movie opens with the part showing the bittersweet end of an American newspaper called, yes, the French Dispatch. Since it was founded by a Midwestern American named Arthur Howtizer Jr. (Bill Murray) in some small French town, the French Dispatch has flourished during next several decades under Howtizer’s editorship which supported many different colorful staff writers, but, alas, its era now comes to end with his sudden death just because Howtizer, who is incidentally based on New Yorker co-founder Harold Ross, already made it clear in his will that the French Dispatch should be shut down after his death.

The movie subsequently delves into the main contents of the last edition of the French dispatch one by one, and the first one involves with an eccentric travel write named Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson), who is based on New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell. As the movie busily hops from one shot to another, Sazerac enthusiastically shows us here and there in the aforementioned French town, and this part effectively sets the overall comic tone for the following parts to come.

The second one is presented by J.K.L. Berensen (Tilda Swinton), who has lots of things to tell about a certain set of unconventional paintings from a convict artist named Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro). Before being incarcerated for a very violent act of killing, Rosenthaler showed some artistic potential as a painter, but he stopped drawing for his next 10 years in prison, and then, what do you know, he suddenly came to resume his artistic activity for no apparent reason. Although his several works did not draw much attention at first, they eventually draw the attention of a fellow prisoner who happens to be an art dealer, and that consequently leads to considerable fame and reputation for Rosenthaler, though he remains incarcerated as usual.

While generating some naughty laughs from the uneasy partnership between Rosenthaler and his art dealer, the movie also focuses on the odd romantic/professional relationship between Rosenthaler and a young female prison guard named Simone (Léa Seydoux). In addition to being Rosenthaler’s persona guard, Simone willingly lets herself function as his muse and enabler, but she often puts some distance between herself and Rosenthaler, and she makes her position perfectly clear to him during a little funny private scene between them. Looking quite mismatched from the beginning, del Toro and Seydoux ably complement each other as a sort of Beauty and the Beast, and Adrien Brody provides some extra humor around them as Rosenthaler’s neurotic art dealer.

The third one is presented by Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand), a middle-aged female journalist who happens to get involved with a bunch of young college revolutionaries including a lad named Zeffirelli (Timothée Chalamet). Although their first encounter via Zeffirelli’s parents is rather awkward to say the least, Krementz subsequently finds herself getting quite closer to Zeffirelli, and she gets an opportunity for the closer observation on the political activities of Zeffirelli and his comrades including his girlfriend Juliette (Lyna Khoudri), but she still keeps trying to maintain some distance between her and Zeffirelli, even when things later become quite more serious for everyone.

Although this part is the weakest one in the film in my inconsequential opinion, Anderson, who wrote the screenplay along with Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness, and Jason Schwartzman, and his crew members keep things rolling as usual. Thanks to editor Andrew Weisblum and cinematographer Robert D. Yeoman, the movie smoothly moves among several different visual textures and screen ratios, and the resulting eclectic style is further enhanced by the commendable efforts from production designer Adam Stockhausen, costume designer Milena Canonero, and composer Alexandre Desplat.

The fourth one is presented by Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright), a food journalist who is more or less than the amalgamation of James Baldwin and A. J. Liebling. His article is about one very eventful evening when he was simply supposed to enjoy a special private dinner with the police chief of the town, and I can only tell you that the movie virtually goes all the way for lots of stylish exaggeration once that special event is unexpectedly interrupted by a sudden emergency. As Jeffrey Wright dutifully holds the ground as required, a bunch of diverse performers including Mathieu Amalric, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber, Saoirse Ronan, and Willem Dafoe willingly let themselves become many different dolls to be utilized by Anderson, and the special mention goes to Stephen Park, who has his own little priceless moment to shine around the end of the segment.

Overall, “The French Dispatch” is another typical dollhouse playing by Anderson, but it is still quite enjoyable thanks to not only its indelible mood and dexterous storytelling but also all these colorful performers assembled together for the film. Sure, we can say that Anderson virtually repeats himself only with more dolls and sets, but, as usual, he gladly shares his own fun and amusement with us from the beginning to the end, and that is more than enough for me at present.

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Coming to You (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): As they stand by their sexual minority kids

Posted on November 18, 2021 by kaist455

I often could not help but become a bit emotional as watching South Korean documentary film “Coming to You”. Mainly focusing on two different mothers willingly standing by their respective sexual minority kids, the documentary lets the audiences have more empathy and understanding on their sincere efforts for making a better world for their kids and many other sexual minority people out there, and, as a gay man who has had his own hard moments, I was touched a lot by a series of genuine personal moments observed from these two mothers and their kids.

These two mothers are ‘Nari’ and ‘Vivian’, and the early part of the documentary shows us a bit about how active these middle-aged women have been in each own life. While Nari is a veteran firefighter, Vivian is a flight attendant, and both of them clearly love their respective jobs with considerable professional dedication. We see Nari deftly handling a number of usual routines at her workplace, and then we also watch Vivian confidently going for her another flight at the Inchon international airport.

Both of these two cool ladies love their respective kids a lot just like any good mothers, but they were all certainly shocked when their respective kids revealed their sexual identity several years ago. After many years of conflict and agony, Nari’s kid Hankyeol confessed to her that he had been quite willing to go through female-to-male transition, and it took some time for Nari to process and accept Hankyeol’s rather complex sexual identity as an asexual transgender. When Vivian’s son Ye-joon was about to leave for Canada for his study, he gave a letter to tell her everything, and Vivian also needed to some time for coming to realize that there was another side in her son she did not know that much before.

Of course, it was not so easy for both Vivian and Nari as things were accordingly changed a lot between them and their kids. As both of them frankly admit in front of the camera, they became quite concerned and agonized over this undeniable truth about their respective kids, and they even inadvertently hurt their kids’ feelings. Although she came to understand more of why her kid had been so inclined to wear male clothes during all those years, Nari still struggled a lot to understand Hankyeol’s wish to change gender, and she still feels regrettable about her rather insensitive words to her kid before finally giving Hankyeol her unconditional support.

As trying to understand their kids more, Vivian and Nari came across the association of the parents of sexual minority people, and that is where they came to realize that they are not alone at all. As meeting many other members and their various sexual minority children, they gradually opened their eyes more to sexual minority people, and they also were reminded again of why their kids needed support and love from them more than ever. Worrying more about the considerable social prejudice against sexual minority people, they came to see that their society must be changed for the equal human rights for their kids and many other sexual minority people, so they courageously step forward along with many other new colleagues of theirs.

The documentary also pays some attention to Hankeyol and Ye-joon, and their daily life shows us how much the South Korean society has been changed – and how much it still needs to advance more for numerous sexual minority people like them. Although he initially considered staying in Canada more because he feels more comfortable about his sexuality there compared to South Korea, Ye-joon eventually decided to return to South Korea because of his South Korean boyfriend, and we get a warm and heartfelt moment when he introduces his boyfriend to his parents. When he and his boyfriend later go to Busan for meeting the mother of his boyfriend, Ye-joon is naturally a bit nervous, but, what do you know, his boyfriend’s mother turns out to be more open-minded than expected – and she also comes to join the association.

In case of Hankyeol, he and his mother had to stick together more when he tried to get his new sexual identity recognized and certified by the South Korean government. Just for getting his case reviewed by the high court in Seoul, he and his mother had to prepare more than 15 different kinds of documents, and the following court decision by an apparently prejudiced judge reminds us again of how difficult it really is for many transgender people to live in the South Korean society. Nevertheless, Nari and her son were not daunted at all, and it is a little comforting to see that there was a small but significant change in the South Korean legal system not long after they finally got what they wanted.

While simply maintaining its earnest attitude, the documentary steadily engages and enlightens the audiences more, and its narrative eventually culminates to a plain but powerful moment. As already reflected by one scene showing those deplorable people openly brandishing their hate and prejudice in public, Nari, Vivian, and many colleagues of theirs still have many social obstacles in front of them, but they are determined to overcome via their love and acceptance, and their passionate public activities are quite moving to say the least.

Overall, “Coming to You” is a plain but undeniably powerful documentary, and director Byun Gyu-ri did a commendable job of presenting its relevant social issues with enough sincerity and respect. In my humble opinion, this excellent documentary should be watched by many South Korean parents trying to deal with their sexual minority kids, and I really hope that my parents, who have incidentally been still in denial for last several years since I came out of my closet in 2016, will see it someday and then reflect more on our current strained relationship. I have no problem with who I am, but can they ever recognize my sexuality? Time will tell, folks.

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Perhaps Love (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): It’s complicated among them

Posted on November 17, 2021 by kaist455

South Korean comedy film “Perhaps Love” caught me off guard for several solid moments for laughs and chuckles. Cheerfully hopping among a number of different colorful comic characters, the movie frequently shines with considerable wit and humor, and then it also somehow generates some genuine poignancy while never interrupting its lightweight overall tone.

The early part of the movie mainly focuses on how things have not been that good for Hyeon (Ryu Seung-ryong.) at present. While he has been regarded as one of the most prominent writers in South Korea since he published a very successful novel several years ago, Hyeon has not written any book yet after that novel, and that has certainly frustrated not only him but also Soon-mo (Kim Hee-won), Hyeon’s publisher who has also been his best friend.

And then there comes an unexpected change into Hyeon’s life. When he happens to drop by the house of a gay writer friend of his at one night, he meets Yoo-jin (Mu Jin-sung), a young aspiring writer who has lived with that gay writer for a while. Although their first encounter is rather brief, Yoo-jin subsequently comes to Hyeon’s apartment, and Hyeon is flabbergasted when Yoo-jin later reveals to Hyeon that he has had a crush on Hyeon for years. As a married heterosexual dude, Hyeon is not particularly interested in responding to Yoo-jin’s drunken words, but then Yoo-jin keeps approaching to him as one of students attending his college class, and Hyeon does not know what to do about this rather tricky circumstance – especially after Yoo-jin gives him a short story too good to be ignored.

Meanwhile, we also get to know the other messy side of Hyeon’s private life. As his second wife and their young daughter have been absent for last several months, he has felt rather lonely, so he drops by the residence of his ex-wife Mi-ae (Oh Na-ra), who has still corresponded with him mainly due to their problematic adolescent son Seong-kyeong (Sung Yoo-bin). Although they try to look like they are cool about each other, it does not take much time for Hyeon and his ex-wife to sense the return of their old feelings, and that accordingly leads to one of the funniest moments in the film.

In case of Seong-kyeong, this troubled kid surely has lots of emotional issues too much for any other adolescent kid around his age, and his vulnerable emotional state happens to draw the attention of Jeong-won (Lee Yoo-young), a young woman who happens to live at a residence across from Seong-kyeong’s. As spending more time with this young woman, Seong-kyeong finds himself more attracted to her, and he eventually decides to go further when his mother is going to be absent for next several days.

While he is supposed to check on Seong-kyeong in the meantime, Hyeon only finds himself getting more involved with Yoo-jin. As they come to work very closely with each other on expanding and developing Yoo-jin’s original short story, Hyeon makes it clear to Yoo-jin that he is simply having a professional collaboration with Yoo-jin without any romantic feeling, but Yoo-jin does not step back at all as showing more affection and admiration toward Hyeon, and Hyeon comes to feel more conflicted as finding himself not only rejuvenated by their collaboration but also caring a lot about Yoo-jin’s feelings.

Deftly juggling its several plotlines, the movie smoothly moves back and forth between comedy and drama, and I particularly appreciate the precise comic timing of a certain key sequence. We already get a pretty good idea of what will happen among several main characters, but we cannot help but tickled more and more thanks to the precise coming timing between the performers on the screen, and then there comes a payoff moment much more uproarious and hilarious than expected.

In addition, we also come to like and care more about the main characters of the film. While Hyeon and Yoo-jin’s strained relationship is depicted with enough sensitivity and gravitas, Mi-ae and Soon-mo come to show more of each own human depth along the story, and the same thing can be said about Seong-kyeong and Jeong-won. It goes without saying that Jeong-won is simply having a fun with attracting Seong-kyeong’s attention, but, not so surprisingly, she does care a bit about Seong-kyeong as reflected by a brief moment later in the story.

Although it comes to lose some of its comic momentum as reaching to the resolution during the last act, director Jo Eun-ji, who has been mainly known for her acting work in a number of notable South Korean films including “Forever the Moment” (2007), keeps things rolling under her competent direction, and she also draws the effortless ensemble performance from her main cast members. While Ryu Seung-ryong steadily holds the center as required, Oh Na-ra, Kim Hee-won, Lee Yoo-young, Sung Yoo-bin, and Mu Jin-sung bring life and personality to their respective characters, and Oh Jung-se, Choi Hee-jin, and Ryu Hyun-kyung are also effective in their small supporting roles.

Overall, “Perhaps Love” is one of the funniest South Korean films of this year, and Jo demonstrates well another side of her talent here just like Kim Yun-seok recently did in “Another Child” (2018). She certainly makes a fairly good feature film debut, and it will be interesting to see whether she will rise more as another notable female filmmaker in South Korea.

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7 Prisoners (2021) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Exploitation at the bottom of a city

Posted on November 16, 2021 by kaist455

Brazilian film “7 Prisoners”, which was released on Netflix a few weeks ago, is a darkly vivid and harrowing examination of labor exploitation. As phlegmatically observing one young hero’ grim struggle to survive in the middle of one big city in Brazil, this powerful film often chills and saddens us a lot, and we come to reflect more on the big and heartless economic system which will continue to exploit not only him but also many others out there.

At the beginning, we are introduced to Mateus (Christian Malheiros), an 18-year-old lad who is going to leave his small countryside hometown for earning more money for his mother and younger siblings. Along with several other young men including a close friend of his, he will be taken to São Paulo by a local broker who is supposed to get them a job in the city, and they are all hopeful about coming back to their hometown with enough money for them and their families within a short time.

However, once they eventually arrive in a junkyard located somewhere in São Paulo, their hope is gradually broken as they find themselves becoming sort of modern slaves under the owner of the junkyard. Although Luca (Rodrigo Santoro) does not look that bad at first, this seedy dude soon gives some harsh dose of reality to Mateus and other lads, and Mateus and his fellow workers are reminded again and again of how much they are trapped in this circumstance in many aspects. Besides not getting paid at all, they are never allowed to leave the junkyard just because of a considerable amount of debt forced upon them from the beginning, and there is no one to help around them, let alone those local policemen who have been in Luca’s pocket. Besides, Luca knows about their families, and he will have their families get hurt or threatened if they ever attempt to run away.

As the most sensible one in the group, Mateus tries to cope with this daunting circumstance as much as he can. It does not take much time for this smart lad to become the de factor foremen of the group, and Luca comes to rely on him more especially after Mateus shows Luca that he and his fellow workers can work more under his conduct. After testing Mateus a bit more, Luca lets Mateus handle several other things in his shabby business, and Mateus’ status accordingly becomes a bit better than before while his colleagues are not so pleased about what is going on between him and Luca.

Mateus naturally becomes conflicted as willingly doing whatever Luca demands him to do, and his conflict grows more as seeing more of what Luca has been doing in the name of survival and business. There is a chilling scene where Mateus witnesses Luca casually handling his another exploitative business, and we are more chilled when Mateus is later tasked with doing something to make himself more distant to his colleagues, who now come to regard him with more disgust and contempt.

Yes, he could simply choose to say no to Luca, but Mateus only finds himself more hesitating while letting himself pushed to do more by Luca as usual, and the screenplay by director/co-producer/co-writer Alexandre Moratto and Thayná Mantesso steadily builds up the moral tension surrounding its hero. At one point later in the film, Mateus comes to have an unexpected moment when he must make a choice between Luca and his colleagues, and we are not so surprised by his eventual decision which eventually leads to one very bitter moment around the end of the story.

While mostly confined within a small background inhabited by Mateus and several other characters in the story, the movie, which is co-produced by Ramin Bahrani and Fernando Meirelles, also gives a wider view on the system which has constantly exploited them. During one particular scene where Luca and Mateus drop by the residence of some affluent local politician, it turns out that Luca is also more or less than another cog in the system, and we come to discern more of how vast and corrupt the system really is – and how easily Mateus is tempted to grab any opportunity for survival and benefit as conforming to the system.

Even when reaching to its logical conclusion, the movie keeps holding our attention, and Moratto, who previously made a feature film debut with “Socrates” (2018), draws good performances from his main cast members. While Christian Malheiros, who was the lead actor of “Socrates”, ably conveys to us his character’s development along the story, Rodrigo Santoro, who has been mainly known for his several notable Hollywood films including, yes, “300” (2007), is equally engaging while never making any excuse on his character’s deplorable sides, and several other cast members including Bruno Rocha, Vitor Julian, and Lucas Oranmian are also solid in their respective supporting roles.

On the whole, “7 Prisoners” is definitely not something you can casually see on Sunday afternoon, but it is still a very compelling work to be appreciated for its skillful storytelling coupled with sharp social observation. Like Meirelles’s “City of God” (2002) and Bahrani’s “Chop Shop” (2007), the movie looks deep into the life and struggle of people at the bottom of the society with considerable compassion and empathy, and it will leave an indelible impression on you once it is over. In short, this is one of the more interesting movies I saw during this year, and you should give it a chance as soon possible.

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Kim Jong-boon of Wangshimni (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): As she keeps living

Posted on November 14, 2021 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “Kim Jong-boon of Wangshimni” is a plain but intimate portrayal of one ordinary old lady who has some interesting life stories to tell. While she is the mother of a young activist who tragically died during the South Korean democratization movement in the early 1990s, that is just one aspect of her long life, and it is often touching to see this her still going on as she always did before.

During its first half, the documentary simply looks into the current daily life of its human subject. On a street near the Exit 11 of Wangshimni subway station in Seoul, there is an 82-year-old woman named Kim Jong-boon, and we observe how she earns her meager living every day. At a small stall belonging to her, she sells vegetables and several other stuffs including boiled corn and grilled rice cake, and she is surely proud of still being alive and active despite her old age.

When she is not that busy, Kim sometimes spends time with her fellow stall owners. They are as old as Kim, but they are also as lively and plucky as their old friend, and they surely have many things to tell just like Kim. Like Kim, they have worked in Wangshimni for many years, and they are certainly not going to give up as long as they are able to work and earn their living as usual. Although things become a bit more difficult for them due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they all continue to work nonetheless, and I must confess that I was a bit amused as observing how they often wear their mask rather incorrectly.

In the meantime, the documentary begins to delve into Kim’s past. She started to work on the streets of Wangshimni mainly for supporting her dear children instead of her mostly useless husband (He died more than 30 years ago, by the way), and her surviving children remember well how much their mother dedicated herself to their welfare. Although they were still poor, their mother always tried her best for providing a nice environment for all of them to grow up well and then get good education, and she was certainly delighted when one of her daughters, Gui-jeong, began to study at one of the most prestigious universities in Seoul in 1988.

Like many other college students during that period, Gui-jeong soon came to participate in the ongoing democratization movement, and some of her friends/colleagues reminisce about how active and spirited she was. The political mood of the South Korean society became relatively less perilous as the country seemed to leave behind that dark period of dictatorship during the 1960-80s, but many citizens and students still demanded more democratization on streets, and Gui-jeong was quite willing to do more for that noble cause along with many of her colleagues.

However, the South Korean government was led by President Roh Tae-woo during that time, who was the right-hand guy of his predecessor Chun Doo-hwan and incidentally died a few weeks ago without any apology on his many wrongdoings. Just like his predecessor’s government, Roh’s government was ready to suppress the public demand for more democratization by any means necessary, and that resulted in lots of public demonstrations throughout the country in 1991. During one big demonstration which was held in Seoul on one day of May 1991, many students and citizens were brutally suppressed by the police and right-wing goons , and that was when Gui-jeong’s unfortunate death happened.

When she heard about her daughter’s death, Kim was certainly devastated, but she did not stand back at all when the South Korean government tried to cover up the situation surrounding her daughter’s death. Along with many other people who also lost their loved ones due to the brutal suppression of their government, she openly demanded truth and justice in public, and it was eventually revealed later that the South Korean government was indeed responsible for Gui-jeong’s death. Gui-jeong was subsequently buried along with many other young dead activists who were killed during that time, and we see Kim and others having a small memorial meeting in front of the graves of Gui-jeong and other young dead activists.

It is still hurtful for her to be reminded of her daughter’s death, but Kim has kept living during next 30 years nonetheless. She continues to be active about remembering what Gui-jeong tried to fight for, and we see her attending a small symposium on the South Korean democratization movement during the 1980-90s. She also remains close to not only her children but also her siblings, and there is a warm scene where she spends a little nice private moment with her siblings at an apple orchard.

Above all, she has steadily worked at her stall, and we observe some friendly interactions between Kim and her usual customers. One of them is an old guy who has not been that reliable due to his constant credit problem, but Kim is still nice to this old dude despite that, and we come to sense a sort of friendship between them as they talk a bit with each other at one point.

Overall, “Kim Jong-boon of Wangshimni” is an engaging documentary thanks to the unadorned human quality of its human subject, and director Kim Jin-yeul did a good job of presenting Kim with sincere respect and admiration. To be frank with you, I did not know much about Kim’s daughter before watching the documentary, so I am glad to know more about her now, and I will certainly not forget her as well as her mother.

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Our Midnight (2020) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Their midnight stroll

Posted on November 14, 2021 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Our Midnight” gives one of the most haunting visual presentations of Seoul I have ever encountered during last several years. Although many of those locations shown in the film are not that familiar to me, they look quite vivid and mesmerizing as beautifully presented on black and white film, and it is a shame that the movie did not engage me that much in terms of story and characters.

The movie opens with the dry depiction of its hero’s miserable status of life. Ji-hoon (Lee Seung-hun) is a young struggling actor living in Seoul, and a series of brief moments show us how things have been quite frustrating for him. Besides being unemployed for a while, he has not been paid yet for his previous part-time job, and his girlfriend, who seems to have tried to support and stand by him for years, announces to him that she is going to leave him because she does not see any future between them.

While naturally quite depressed, Ji-hoon still tries to keep going on. Although he remains unemployed as before, he manages to get his delayed wage from his former employer. When he happens to meet an old school senior of his, this senior, who happens to be working as a public servant, offers a part-time job, and Ji-hoon does not hesitate to grab this offer as having been short of cash.

His job is a pretty simple one. All he has to do is patrolling on one of those big bridges on the Han River during nighttime and preventing anyone from jumping from that bridge, and his first night seems to be pretty uneventful except many cars passing by him – until he happens to notice a young woman alone at the middle of the bridge.

This young woman is Eun-yeong (Park Seo-eun), and we already got a brief glimpse on her recent trouble. She was in a relationship with one of male employees at her workplace, but something quite serious happened between them. She subsequently reported this to the police, but then she found herself becoming a pariah among her colleagues as a consequence, and she certainly feels like being on the edge when she is at the middle of the bridge.

When Eun-yeong is suddenly collapsed for no apparent reason, Ji-hoon instantly takes her to a nearby hospital, but then he comes across her again on the bridge not long after that incident. Although they do feel awkward due to that incident, it does not take much time for them to get friendly with each other, and we soon see them spending more time with each other.

After they get to know a bit about each other, Ji-hoon suggests that they should play against each other, and Eun-yeong goes along with that despite her initial reluctance. When there is no one around them at one empty spot, Ji-hoon plays her ex-boyfriend right in front of her. His fairly convincing performance initially daunts her, but Eun-yeong comes to play herself in response, and that helps her a bit on what she should do about her difficult current situation.

Once Eun-yeong becomes more relaxed than before, she and Ji-hoon go around several other different nearby places, and the movie did a good job of presenting these various places with considerable tranquil beauty. As the mood becomes more comfortable between them, Eun-yeong and Ji-hoon open themselves more to each other, and then there comes a little unexpected magical moment while Ji-hoon provides some nice amusement for Eun-yeong around an old movie theater.

Around that point, it is clear to us that the movie tries to emulate Richard Linklater’s Before Trilogy, but the screenplay by director/writer Lim Jung-eun stumbles more than once as bringing a number of unnecessary elements into its supposedly simple and free-flowing narrative. For example, a scene involved with a certain female supporting character whom Ji-hoon tries to help at a local cafe feels like an artificial counterpart to Eun-yeong’s ongoing plight, and many of supporting characters in the story are not developed enough to generate dramatic resonance during a short montage scene around the end of the film.

While gradually feeling dissatisfied with its several glaring flaws during my viewing, I also notice a number of good elements in the movie, and one of them is the solid acting of its small cast. Besides complementing each other well during their several key scenes, Lee Seung-hun and Park Seo-eun are engaging to observe in each own way, and Park is particularly good when her character firmly sticks to a certain important decision of hers despite the considerable pressure upon her. In case of the other cast members in the film, Lim Young-woo, Go Wang-jae, and Han Hae-in are well-cast in their small but crucial supporting roles, and Min Hyo-kyung’s brief but effective acting compensates for the heavy-handed aspects of her single scene.

Although I cannot recommend it because its story and characters feel a bit too thin to me, “Our Midnight” is not a bad piece of work at all, and Lim Jung-eun, who previously made several short films before making her feature film debut here, demonstrates here at least that she is a talented filmmaker who knows how to establish a good mood to engage us. The movie is still not good enough for me, but it does show considerable promise, and I sincerely hope that Lim will soon move onto better things to come.

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A Cop Movie (2021) ☆☆☆(3/4): An unconventional Mexican cop documentary

Posted on November 14, 2021 by kaist455

Mexican documentary film “A Cop Movie”, which was released on Netflix in last week, is an interesting piece of work attempting an unconventional approach to its familiar main subject. At first, it seems to be merely following the story of two different real-life police officers in Mexico City, but then it unexpectedly shifts onto a different viewpoint, and we come to see more of how problematic their system really is.

At first, the documentary introduces us to a seasoned female officer named Teresa, and the opening scene shows her going through another busy night in Mexico City. As she drives her patrol car here and there in the city, we constantly hear numerous reports and reports on her radio, and then we later see her handling a serious medical circumstance for herself. While a woman is about to give birth to her baby, no ambulance or paramedic has come yet, so, though she does not know much about how to handle such a situation like that, Teresa has no choice but to help this woman as much as she can.

While the camera is steadily around her, we get to know Teresa more as she tells us a lot about her family background. Her father is also a police officer, and she wanted to be just like her father even when she was young, but she only found herself often disregarded and underestimated by her father. Nevertheless, she did not give up at all, and she eventually went to the police academy when she was only 17, and her father came to recognize and respect his daughter around the time when she began to work outside as a police officer.

It is clear that she is proud of how she has dutifully worked for more than 15 years, but she also admits how it is often hard and difficult for her to go through one day after another. Like many other police officers, she frequently struggles with the lack of resource in the system, and she also sometimes has to accept some bribe due to her difficult economic status. In addition, it is suggested that she initially had to deal with the misogyny of many male police officers around her, and even her father clearly notified to her in advance that he did not want to get involved with any sexual harassment problem she might have.

In case of a male police officer nicknamed Montoya, he also has a fair share of problems he is willing to share with us in front of the camera. Like Teresa, he is a fairly good police officer, but he often gets frustrated with how he and many other police officers are not appreciated much by many citizens out there. During one amusing scene, we see him and several other police officers doing their job in the middle of the pride parade for sexual minority people, and the camera captures a series of silly brief moments as he is ridiculed by some participants of the pride parade.

Like Teresa, Montoya aspired to be a police officer even when he was very young. He was quite impressed by an older brother who was a police officer, and, despite his poor family background, he managed to fulfill his wish instead of becoming street criminals just like many of his neighborhood friends. At one point, he reminisces about a chance encounter between him and an old friend of his, and he muses a bit on how things could turn out to be quite different for him if he had not been determined to join the police.

Not long after revealing the unexpected connection between its two different human subjects, the documentary catches us off guard as both Teresa and Montoya in the documentary turn out to be the performers playing their real-life counterparts, and we subsequently observe these two performers, Raúl Briones and Mónica Del Carmen, going through each own preparation period. For making their performance more convincing, they study and absorb the interview clips from their real-life counterparts, and they also go through the training session along with many real trainees before spending some time with real police officers.

While getting to know more about police officers and their system, both of these two performers certainly have lots of things to tell us. They talk about how problematic the training process is in many aspects, and they also come to have some empathy and understanding on what numerous police officers have to deal with day by day.

As they get closer to their respective roles, Briones and Del Carmen are gradually overlapped with real Teresa and Montoya, and that is why the following moment, which is the enactment of an incident which really happened to Teresa and Montoya, works well with considerable dramatic effects. Briones, Del Carmen, and several other performers in this scene did a commendable job under director/co-writer Alonso Ruizpalacios’s competent direction, and you will be more infuriated as Teresa and Montoya phlegmatically tell us how they were unjustly punished after that incident.

On the whole, “A Cop Movie”, which won the Silver Bear Award for its editing by Yibran Asuad when it was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival early in this year, is worthwhile to watch for its engaging presentation of social issues which relevant to many of us. It is always interesting to observe different worlds and people via good documentaries, and I assure you that “A Cop Movie” is one of such documentaries.

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Finch (2021) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Man, Dog, and Robot

Posted on November 13, 2021 by kaist455

“Finch”, which was released on Apple TV+ in last week, has some good elements to engage us but does not bring enough freshness or creativity to its familiar genre territories. As your typical post-apocalyptic tale, it surely has all the bleak and stark stuffs to decorate the screen, and it is supported well by the convincing duo performance at its center, but you will not be surprised much by what happens along its predictable road movie plot.

At the beginning, the movie promptly puts us into its grim and perilous background surrounding its isolated hero. Several years ago, the Earth happened to be hit by a massive solar flare which scorched the whole planet, and the planet was turned into a very harsh place due to the following extreme climate change. Because of the absence of the ozone layer in its atmosphere, the planet is constantly exposed to lots of solar ultraviolet besides becoming quite hot during daytime, and there are also massive sandstorms frequently occurring here and there on its vast wastelands.

As a result, not only the human civilization but also the whole ecosystem of the Earth were almost wiped out, but Finch Weinberg (Tom Hanks), a middle-aged robotics engineer living in St. Louis in Missouri, has managed survive alone in an abandoned laboratory of some company for which he worked before the catastrophe happened. When he needs something for a dog which has been his only organic companion, we see him searching around in the city while wearing his protection suit, and we come to gather that this is not his first attempt of scavenging for anything valuable.

And we also get to know what Finch has been working on during last several years. He has been developing an artificial intelligence robot alone by himself, and, though he has to depend a lot on various spare parts including the certain one borrowed from his other robot, it looks like he is finally reaching to the breakthrough he has yearned for a long time. Once it can recognize Finch in addition to being able to communicate with him, his new robot begins to learn more bit by bit, and Finch is certainly delighted to say the least.

However, there comes a big trouble approaching toward Finch’s residence and its surrounding area. It turns out that three sandstorms will merge together in the area and then become a big giant sandstorm which will probably wipe out all the area, and that means Finch must evacuate within 24 hours for saving himself as well as his dog and robots. Although he cannot be sure about where he should go, he decides to leave for San Francisco, which has been a personal special place even though he has never been there throughout his whole life.

As Finch drives his modified recreational vehicle along the road to San Francisco, his dog and his new robot often lighten up the mood a bit in each own way. While his dog reminds him of why he should keep going on as before, his new robot gradually becomes somebody to depend on despite its innocent clumsiness, and Finch, who becomes quite concerned about his dog after noticing his serious health problem, already made sure that his new robot will protect his dog above all else, via giving it one additional imperative besides those famous three imperatives for robots conceived by Isaac Asimov.

As these main three characters roll along the road to San Francisco, the movie naturally doles out one episodic moment after another. There is an intense scene involved with an unexpected appearance of tornado, and that took me back to when I was amused and thrilled by the similar moments in “Twister” (1996). In case of a small poignant scene between Finch and his dog at an empty diner, and that shows more of how much he cares about his dog, and we are not so surprised when Finch tells more about his dog to his new robot later in the story.

However, the screenplay by Craig Luck and Ivor Powell subsequently becomes rather flat during its second half as beginning to lose its narrative momentum. Director Miguel Spochnick, who recently won an Emmy for HBO TV drama series “Game of Thrones”, did a competent job of making various bleak landscapes look real and vivid on the screen, but that does not compensate much for the lackluster arrival point for the story and its main characters.

At least, the two main performers of the movie did their best for carrying the movie together, and they remind us again of each own considerable talent and presence. While he is virtually doing something not so far from his Oscar-nominated performance in Robert Zemeckis’ 2000 film “Cast Away” (Incidentally, Zemeckis serves as one of the executive producers of the movie), Tom Hanks demonstrates again that he is a dependable star actor, and Caleb Landry Jones, who has been one of the most promising new talents to watch since his notable supporting performance in “Get Out” (2017) and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (2017), is alternatively amusing and touching in his voice performance. In addition, the special mention goes to the dog playing Finch’s dog, which holds its small place well between Hanks and Jones throughout the film.

On the whole, “Finch” is a fairly well-made genre piece, but it will not impress you that much if you are, like me, a seasoned movie audience who has seen countless SF movies about robots. Sure, I came to like and care about its robot character more than expected, but the story is not fresh enough to distinguish itself, and I am afraid that the movie will be soon forgotten as swept by the continuing waves of new online movies to come.

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The Dissident (2020) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Behind the assassination of one Saudi Arabian journalist

Posted on November 8, 2021 by kaist455

Documentary film “The Dissident” will alternatively chill and infuriate you for good reasons. While going into the details on the shocking death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, the documentary also gives us the alarming presentation of how the Saudi government has recently tried to control and suppress local and international dissent by any means available to them, and it is really disturbing to see that the prominent figure behind everything will probably never get arrested or investigated just because of his considerable power and wealth.

At first, the documentary gives us the overview of what happened to Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkey on October 2nd, 2018. At that time, Khashoggi was about to marry his Turkish fiancée Hatice Cengiz not long after divorcing his wife in Saudi Arabia, and he already came to the Saudi consulate on September 28th for getting the certification document on his recent divorce. Because nothing much happened on that day, Khashoggi did not worry that much when he entered the consulate alone several days later, and that was the last time when he was seen alive.

Once she sensed some time later that something went quite wrong for her fiancé, Cengiz notified Khashoggi’s disappearance to several of colleagues of his. Within a few days, lots of reporters and journalists came to gather right in front of the consulate while the Turkish government promptly embarked on the investigation of this situation, and they were all shocked to learn that what they had been dreading from the very beginning turned out to be true.

The Turkish government naturally became more determined to get to the bottom of the incident, but, of course, the Saudi consulate and government were not so cooperative to say the least. It took more than 10 days before the Turkish police were allowed to examine a room where Khashoggi died, and the investigators noticed the signs of extensive cleanup in the room, but they did discover the clues suggesting that Khashoggi was murdered in the room.

As following how more information about Khashoggi’s death was revealed via more investigation during next several months, the documentary also focuses on how Khashoggi happened to become a persona non grata to his own country. Since he rose to prominence in the 1990s, Khashoggi had been one of the leading local journalists associated with the Saudi government, and he was often one of its most vocal advocates, but his relationship with the Saudi government became quite strained when he became a supporter of Middle East democratization after the Arab Spring movement was started in 2011. When he became the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia shortly after his father became the new king of the country in 2015, Mohammed bin Salman promised lots of changes and reforms at first, but he turned out to be more interested in being the de facto ruler of his country, and Khashoggi came to criticize Bin Salman’s ruthless pursuit of more power and wealth a lot via media outlets including his own Twitter account.

Not so surprisingly, Bin Salman and his inner circle members soon embarked on suppressing Khashoggi, and Khashoggi had no choice but to leave his country alone in June 2017, but he was not stopped at all. After settling in Washington D.C. and then hired at the Washington Post, he became more active than ever during next several months, and that certainly displeased the Saudi government.

To the Saudi government, Khashoggi was just a bigger one among many dissidents to be stopped, and a young Saudi activist named Omar Adulaziz willingly tell us about his ongoing plight. Although he fled to Canada before getting arrested, the Saudi government has kept threatening Abdulaziz in many ways, and his two brothers and many friends in Saudi Arabia have already been incarcerated even though there is not any official legal charge against them.

As trying to continue his political activities on the Internet, Adulaziz soon found himself targeted by an army of hackers and online trolls hired by the Saudi government. Because of the wide popularity of Twitter and other social media applications in the country, the Saudi government has actively tried to manipulate the public opinion among its people on the Internet, and the documentary shows us how it can do that and other insidious activities via highly advanced digital tools, which surely come handy thanks to its enormous wealth. After interacting a bit with Adulaziz, Khashoggi, who also suffered a fair share of Saudi online trolls just like Adulaziz, was quite interested in fighting against those dirty digital tactics of the Saudi government, and they were actually beginning their little but significant project before Khashoggi’s death.

After Khashoggi’s death, Adulaziz naturally becomes more alarmed than before, but he keeps trying to continue political activities with more caution. Although many prominent nations and big corporations initially expressed disgust and contempt about what Bin Salman and the Saudi government blatantly committed, Bin Salman and the Saudi government virtually got away with that while not receiving any legal or political comeuppance due to that orange-faced prick who happened to be in the White House at that time. As shown at the end of the documentary, it did not take much time for US and many other prominent nations to shake hands cordially with the Saudi government as if nothing serious had happened at all.

Directed by Bryan Fogel, who won an Oscar for his previous documentary “Icarus” (2017), “The Dissident” is an illuminating documentary on the murder of Khashoggi just like another recent documentary “Kingdom of Silence” (2020). Although that documentary is relatively plain and modest in comparison, but it complements “The Dissident” well as providing a more intimate human portrayal of Khashoggi, and they will make an interesting double feature show for you if you are interested in getting to know more about its remarkable human subject and his unjust death.

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Coup 53 (2019) ☆☆☆(3/4): The story behind the 1953 coup in Iran

Posted on November 7, 2021 by kaist455

Documentary film “Coup 53” leads us into the hidden story behind the 1953 coup d’état in Iran, and it is often compelling to watch even if you already have some background knowledge on its main subject like me. Although it has been no secret that the American and British government were deeply involved in overthrowing the Iranian government at that time, the documentary delves deeper into how that actually happened, and then it sharply reminds us of how this historical incident has influenced not only the Middle East but also the rest of the world during next several decades.

At first, the documentary follows its director/co-producer/co-writer Taghi Amirani’s long personal research on the 1953 coup. As an Iranian who was born and then grew up in Iran during the post-coup period, he is clearly passionate about this project of his, and the documentary shows him visiting a number of various archival institutes including the one located in Washington D.C., where heaps of old declassified CIA documents have been stored for historical research.

While looking into the declassified CIA documents involved with the 1953 coup, Amirani notices a passage recognizing the involvement of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) at that time, and he decides to go further for finding more about this rather unknown historical fact. He subsequently comes to delve into a bunch of archival interview clips and transcripts for the production of an old British TV documentary made in 1985, and, to his surprise, he comes across a transcript containing the forthright admission on the involvement of MI6 in the 1953 coup.

Although the interview clip associated with this transcript cannot be found, Amirani already knows the name of that interviewee in question. He is an MI6 official named Norman Darbyshire, and what he told besides that admission during the interview is pretty illuminating to say the least. When Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh embarked on the nationalization of the oil industry in his country in the early 1950s, the British government, which had benefited a lot from virtually owning the oil industry in Iran since the early 20th century, was certainly not so pleased to say the least. While Mossadegh, who was a humble but exceptional politician who could have been a shining emblem of Middle East democracy if not for the 1953 coup, simply wanted to bring back the enormous profit of the Iranian oil industry to the people of his country, this was regarded as a considerable loss of global political and economic power for the British government and its prime minister Winston Churchill, and they were willing to do anything for eliminating Mossadegh as soon as possible.

However, things did not look exactly promising for the British government at the beginning, because UN and the International court said no to its following political tactics for retrieving the Iranian oil industry. In addition, the US government led by President Harry S. Truman had no particular problem with having a good diplomatic relationship with Mossadegh, who had made pretty good impressions on many American and international politicians via his natural charisma.

However, unfortunately, the tide was soon turned opposite for Mossadegh when President Truman was succeeded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. As beginning to play the Cold War diplomatic game with the Soviet Union, Eisenhower and his US government were compelled to go for more drastic measures for securing more political power and influence around the world, and CIA, which was led by its newly appointed director Allen Dulles at that time, soon came to work closely with MI6 once Iran was regarded as another precious geopolitical spot to be secured by any means necessary.

While meeting a wide range of various interviewees willing to tell more about the 1953 coup, Amirani also shows us how he worked closely with his co-writer/editor Walter Murch (Yes, he is that legendary editor who won three Oscars while working on many famous films including “Apocalypse Now” (1979)), and we get some glimpses on how they gathered various pieces together for the big historical picture of their documentary. Furthermore, Amirani has Ralph Finnese speak as Darbyshire in front of the camera, and Finnese’s fine delivery of Derbyshire’s words on that transcript is flawlessly mixed along with many different archival interview clips used in the documentary.

The documentary eventually culminates to that fateful day of August 1953, and Amirani did a skillful job of shuffling between archival records, interview clips, and a series of animation scenes recreating several key happenings during that day. Despite some setbacks, the coup was successful in the end because of the last-minute push from CIA and MI6, and several Iranian interviewees in the documentary emotionally reminisce about what they experienced during that tragic day for Iran. While Mossadegh was eventually ousted then jailed till his death in 1967, lots of Iranian people were killed as Mohammad Reza Pahlavi gladly seized absolute power as the Shah of Iran, and, as many of you know, his brutal regime only led to the Iranian Revolution in 1979. In case of the US government, it became more confident about overthrowing unfavorable foreign governments, and what was resulted from that still affects our world even at present.

Although it feels rather unfocused at times as popping up many different pieces of information here and there, “Coup 53” still intrigued and engaged me enough thanks to Amirani’s competent direction. It did not surprise me much, but I got informed more on its main subject in addition to being entertained by its good presentation, and that is enough for me now.

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