Parthenope (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Wandering Beauty 

Posted on October 2, 2025 by kaist455

Paolo Sorrentino’s 2024 film “Parthenope”, which belatedly came to South Korean theaters a few weeks ago, tries something different compared to many of his previous works, and that made me interested to some degree. As shown from “Il Divo” (2008) or “The Great Beauty” (2013), many of Sorrentino’s movies are about aging heroes, but “Parthenope” places a young beautiful lady at its center, and that is sort of refreshing even though the overall result is not satisfying enough in my inconsequential opinion.

The titular character of the film is played by newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta, who instantly grabs our attention with her natural charm and spirit. The opening part of the film shows us when her character, Parthenope Di Sangro, was born to a fairly affluent family in Naples, Italy in 1950, and then the movie instantly moves forward to 1968, when Parthenope is entering adulthood while looking like being quite ready for her upcoming college education.

As your typical natural beauty, Parthenope has certainly attracted the interest of many young guys around her age. While it is apparent that Sandrino (Dario Aita), a close friend of her and her older brother Raimondo (Daniele Rienzo), has been carrying a torch for her for years, she often pays more attention to how she is going to live, and she never responds much to Sandrino’s courtship while merely remaining as a friend to him as before.

Meanwhile, a few older figures come and then go in her life. At a local college, Parthenope impresses an old professor a lot with her intellectual passion, and he willingly becomes a mentor to guide her along the following academic course toward her doctoral degree, though she is also interested in any other possibility in her life besides that.

Several years later, Parthenope goes to Capri along with her older brother and Sandrino, and she is quite excited when she comes across John Cheever (Gary Oldman), a famous American writer who wrote several works admired by her. Although Cheever is your average bitter old drunken man, he and Parthenope come to form a sort of friendship, and he surely has some wisdom to impart to her whenever his inebriated mind becomes a bit more lucid.

And there is a rich old man who is not only the boss of Parthenope’s father but also the godfather of both Parthenope and her older brother. As shown from his extravagant gift in the opening part of the film, he has always loved and cared a lot about his goddaughter, and he and Parthenope get along pretty well with each other as he often cherishes her youthful charm and spirit. 

And then something quite devastating happens to Parthenope, and that leads her to a lot of wandering during next several years. As becoming less interested in her academic career, she tries a bit on becoming an actress, but she is only reminded that this is not exactly what she wants for her life, especially when she encounters an old aging star actress who reveals to Parthenope a lot of bitter personal feelings behind her brash appearance.

While leisurely rolling along with its heroine from one point to another, the movie sometimes intrigues us with a series of oddly striking visual moments to remember. When Parthenope lets herself get involved with a handsome but rather shady lad at one point, we get a brief but dazzling moment filled with a lot of lighted blue baskets descending over a seedy alley, and then we are served with an unnerving sequence where a forced heterosexual copulation is presented in front of a group of older men and women just for an important criminal family business deal.

 However, the movie does not delve that much into its heroine’s personality and humanity as simply following her formative period without much emotional impact. Around the ending, it shows a bit of poignancy as Parthenope and her mentor come to show more affection and respect to each other, but that comes too late to compensate for the rather languid narrative pacing of the story, and the movie feels all the more disjointed with a really bizarre moment involved with her mentor’s private life.

Anyway, Dalla Porta did an admirable job of carrying the movie to end, though the movie does not provide her much to do from the beginning. Thanks to her diligent acting, we sense a bit of how her character gets gradually matured during her wandering period, even though her character is often required to look distant and elusive throughout the film.

In case of a bunch of substantial main cast members, they are mostly limited by their underwritten parts. As the two young main figures in Parthenope’s life, Daniele Rienzo and Dario Aita bring some extra youthful energy to the story, but they are stuck with their thankless supporting roles from the start. Several older performers including Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Peppe Lanzetta, Stefania Sandrelli, and Gary Oldman have some nice juicy moments, and Oldman certainly has a bit of fun with his deliberately hammy performance.

In conclusion, “Parthenope” is another disappointment after Sorrentino’s previous film “The Hand of God” (2021), which I was less enthusiastic than many other reviewers and critics. At least, Sorrentino already moved onto “La grazia” (2025) in this year, and I can only hope that this next film of his will impress me more than this disappointing work.

Posted in Movies | Tagged | Leave a comment

It Was Just an Accident (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A absurd revenge drama by Jafar Panahi

Posted on October 2, 2025 by kaist455

During last 10 years, I have admired the strenuously defiant artistic efforts of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. I must confess that I was not so familiar with his filmography when I heard about his ongoing political conflict with the Iranian government around the early 2010s, but his subsequent works such as “Taxi” (2015) and “No Bears” (2022) showed me that he is indeed one of the best filmmakers working in Iran at present, and I was often impressed by how he has managed to keep making interesting movies to watch despite all those limits and obstacles surrounding him and his collaborators.

In case of his latest film “It Was Just an Accident”, which won the Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival early in this year, it is quite apparent that he will not step back at all in his critical stance against the Iranian government. While looking like a typical revenge drama at first, the movie engages us more than expected as dexterously balancing itself among drama and comedy along the story, and it is certainly another impressive achievement to be added to Panahi’s admirable career.             

At the beginning, we are introduced to a guy driving to his home in the middle of one night along with his pregnant wife and their little daughter. As the camera steadily focuses on their interactions, we get to know these three people bit by bit, and then the quiet mood surrounding them is suddenly interrupted by an unexpected accident involved with some unfortunate dog. As watching this scene, I could not help but amused a little because I happened to watch Christian Petzold’s “Miroirs No.3” (2025) right before watching the movie in the same screening room. That movie also begins the story with a sudden car accident, which leads to the accidental encounter between its two main characters.

That unexpected car accident at the beginning of “It Was Just an Accident” also leads to an accidental encounter, though this encounter is more disturbing in comparison. When it later turns out that his car needs to be repaired, the guy takes his car to a local garage, and then his voice happens to be noticed by a mechanic named Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), who was once arrested and then tortured for some political protest against the Iranian government. During that grim and horrible time, Vahid was severely brutalized by one particular interrogator, and we come to gather that he has suffered a serious kidney problem in addition to still reeling from the trauma caused by those barbaric tortures and abuses inflicted upon him. 

Although he did not see the interrogator’s face in question during that time, the interrogator’s voice and the squeaking sound of his right prosthetic leg remain quite vividly in Vahid’s mind, and that is why Vahid becomes quite certain that he found the interrogator. Once the guy leaves, Vahid follows after him for getting to know more about him, and then he kidnaps the guy for getting his revenge on the interrogator at last.

At first, it seems that all he has to do is taking the guy to some remote spot outside their city and then killing the guy, but then Vahid comes to have some reasonable doubt as the guy, who gets tied up and blindfolded just in case, keeps insisting that he is not the man responsible for Vahid’s misery and torment. Becoming more aware of the possibility of capturing the wrong man, Vahid eventually decides to get some help from several others who may support or confirm his initial conviction, while his captive is locked in a big wooden box in the back of his shabby van.

We subsequently see several other characters getting involved with Vahid’s increasingly tricky situation, and they turn out to have each own pain and anger as being tortured by the same interrogator during that time. Like Vahid, they never saw the interrogator’s face at that time, but they remember a few recognizable things from him as vividly as Vahid, and their traumatized minds are instantly triggered by what they respectively notice from Vahid’s captive, though both they and Vahid are still not absolutely certain about the identity of Vahid’s captive. 

Now this situation is surely reminiscent of Ariel Dorfman‘s famous play “Death and the Maiden”, and the movie, which gradually feels universal as much as Dorfman’s play, certainly becomes more intense as things get all the more complicated for Vahid and several other characters around him, but it also shows some sense of humor via several moments of sheer absurdity. In case of one particular scene, the movie deftly swings back and forth between absurdity and gravitas in one steady unbroken shot, and it even evokes Samuel Beckett’s classic play “Waiting for Godot” to some degree. 

The story eventually culminates to the inevitable resolution of Vahid and several others’ impossible circumstance, but the movie does not lose any of its narrative momentum under Panahi’s confident direction. The setting of the following climactic part may look pretty simple and plain at first, but the resulting emotional intensity on the screen is overwhelming at times, and then there comes the sublime final shot whose effective sound design you absolutely need to experience at movie theater for good reasons. Panahi also draws excellent performances from Vahid Mobasseri and several other main cast members, and the special mention goes to Ebrahim Azizi, who splendidly handles his crucial moment around the end of the film as we keep oscillating between certainty and doubt along with Vahid.    

In conclusion, “It Was Just an Accident”, which was recently selected as the French submission to Best International Film Oscar, is a seemingly modest but undeniably powerful human drama to remember. In short, this is one of the most compelling movie experiences of this year in my inconsequential opinion, and I am glad that I and many other South Korean audiences can watch this terrific film much earlier than expected.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Miroirs No. 3 (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): A minor fun from Christian Petzold

Posted on October 2, 2025 by kaist455

Many of Christian Petzold’s films are interesting for the fascinating psychological tension under their dry and somber mood, and his latest film “Miroirs No.3” is no exception. As revolving around one odd relationship development between its two lead characters, the movie subtly conveys to us whatever is happening between them under the surface, and we come to wonder and care more about what may happen next between them.

At first, the movie introduces us to Laura (Paula Beer), a young woman not so pleased about traveling to somewhere along with her boyfriend and some other couple. In the end, she comes to change her mind, and her boyfriend reluctantly agrees to drive her to a nearby station where she can take a train for going back to Berlin alone by herself.  

However, something quite unexpected happens in the middle of their drive. When they are passing by some small rural town, they happen to come across some middle-aged woman, who is incidentally painting the white fence of her house. Shortly after this encounter, an unfortunate accident occurs, and Laura’s boyfriend dies while Laura is luckily injured a bit on the whole.

Once she sees what has just happened to Laura, that middle-aged woman quickly calls for help. Her name is Betty (Barbara Auer), and she has no problem at all when Laura, who is quite shocked by the incident, needs a place to stay for more recovery for her mind. She willingly lets Laura into her cozy house with warm hospitality, and Laura surely appreciates the kindness of a stranger, but we sense more of a hidden motive behind Betty, especially when she inadvertently calls Laura by some other name.

As days go by, Laura and Betty become closer to each other, and we get to know a bit more about Betty. She is married, but she lives alone in her house while her husband and their adult son, both of whom are incidentally car mechanics, have been living apart from her due to some personal reason. When Betty later invites them just for introducing them to Laura, they are not so amused because they clearly see whatever is happening between Betty and Laura, though it is evident to us that they still care a lot about Betty despite that. As a matter of fact, they fix a few things including an old washing machine in the kitchen of Betty’s house before they leave, and they come to spend more time with Laura without much complaint.   

However, the movie keeps reminding us that something is not all right beneath the surface. Some town residents stare at Betty and Laura a bit too long without a word when they pass by Betty’s house. Betty’s husband comes to have more private conversations with his wife, and Laura only hears a bit of their conversations as watching them from the distance, while Betty’s son seems quite conflicted about something in his rather sullen appearance.

Around that narrative point, you will probably have a pretty good idea on Betty’s personal motive behind her developing relationship with Laura, but you will also wonder more about how Larua exactly feels about her ongoing situation. While she is not so devastated by her boyfriend’s death as coming to accept that she does not love him as much as she thought, she just seems fine with being taken care of by Betty, who comes to regard Laura more like her own daughter. Is she so desperately alone that she needs anyone who can be someone to lean on? And has she ever wondered why Betty is so nice and kind to her from the very beginning?     

Of course, the movie eventually arrives at the point where both of these two main characters face the true nature of their relationship, and that is where the movie stumbles a bit. In my trivial opinion, the story pulls out its ending a bit too hurriedly, and it may leave you wondering about whatever is exchanged between Betty and Laura in the end.    

Nevertheless, Petzold’s skillfully handling of story and characters continue to hold our attention during the rather short running time (86 minutes). Although it is reported that he shot the film within a few days, the overall result does not feel rough or shabby at all, and he and cinematographer Hans Fromm did a solid job of establishing the tranquil but subtly uneasy atmosphere surrounding the main characters on the screen. 

The main cast members are commendable for ably suggesting the hidden emotional undercurrents among their characters. While Paula Beer, who previously collaborated with Petzold in “Undine”, always brightens up the screen with her distinctive presence, Barbara Auer is splendid as her character gets more emotionally entangled with Beer’s character along the story, and Matthias Brandt and Enno Trebs are also effective in their respective substantial supporting roles. 

 In conclusion, “Miroirs No.3” does not reach to the level of Petzold’s better works such as “Phoenix” (2014) and “Afire” (2023), but it is still recommendable for its engaging mood, storytelling, and performance. If you are familiar with Petzold’s movies, you will instantly see what you will get, and you will probably be satisfied even though it does not exceed your expectation.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | 1 Comment

All of You (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): As they meet again and again

Posted on September 29, 2025 by kaist455

Apple TV+ movie “All of You”, which was released on last Friday, explores those tricky matters of heart via one complicated romantic relationship. Like many other love stories out there, it goes up and down as its two main characters pull or push each other along the story, and the overall result is fairly engaging thanks to the solid chemistry between its two lead performers.

At first, the movie quickly establishes its futuristic story premise. At some point in the future, there comes an amazing technology which can instantly identify one’s true soulmate via a simple test, and the opening scene shows many digital advertisements promoting that soulmate test, which emphasize how it has been successful and popular among millions of customers out there for years.

In case of Simon (Brett Goldstein) and Laura (Imogen Poots), both of them do not believe that much in that soulmate test, but they also cannot help but feel insecure about their longtime relationship. So far, they have been each other’s best friend, and they have never considered going further than that, but it does not take much time for us to sense the growing romantic vibe between them during their very first scene in the film.

As a matter of a fact, that is the main reason why Simon convinces Laura to take that soulmate test, but both of them are pretty casual about however their relationship will be changed by the result of the test. After all, they have just been supposed to be no more than very close friends, so it looks like they can remain same to each other as before even though he does not turn out to be her soulmate.

The story moves forward to a point not long after the test result comes out, and we see how things are indeed changed for both Simon and Laura. Via the result of the test, Laura is matched with some other nice guy instead, and Simon does not seem bothered about that on the surface. In fact, they are going to have a double date because Simon happens to be dating some other woman recommended by Laura, and we soon see these four people having a mostly pleasant dinnertime.

However, Simon cannot help but feel more attraction toward Laura, and Laura knows that while also feeling attracted to Simon more than ever. Yes, he is not supposed to be her soulmate, but she only finds herself emotionally depending on him more and more – especially when she is going through a period of loss and grief right after the death of a close family member of hers.

Not long after that point, Laura and Simon begin their romantic affair while not telling anything to others around them. This ironically helps and supports Laura’s relationship with her husband, and there is a little amusing moment when Laura’s husband sincerely confides in Simon about how much he appreciates Simon for being always there for his wife.

However, the screenplay by director/co-producer William Bridges and his co-producer/co-writer Brett Goldstein does not provide a simple answer for its two main characters’ complicated romantic circumstance. Sure, it is possible to both of them that soulmate test is not totally accurate, and Simon actually begins to consider going further with his relationship with Laura, but Laura hesitates for good reasons. Still caring a lot about her husband and their little daughter, she is not so sure about her relationship with Simon, and their situation becomes more difficult as their respective lives continue to bring more complications to their relationship.

While there eventually comes a moment when its two main characters face more of the inherent issues inside their relationship, the movie thankfully does not resort to going too melodramatic as handling the story and characters with enough care and sensitivity. Although there is not much detail outside their relationship, Simon and Laura are gradually fleshed out along the narrative as engaging figures to observe, and we come to care more about their relationship than before.

Furthermore, the movie is constantly buoyed by the good efforts from its two lead performers. Goldstein, who has been more prominent thanks to his Emmy-winning supporting performance in Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso”, shows the more serious side of his acting talent, and Imogen Poots, who has recently appeared in a number of notable films including Oscar-winning film “The Father” (2020), complements her co-star well with her equally sensitive acting. Right from their first scene in the film, we can instantly sense a long history between their characters, and that comes to function as the firm ground for the dynamic relationship drama unfolded between their characters along the story. As the two small but crucial supporting characters in the story, Zawe Ashton and Steven Cree hold each own small spot well around Goldstein and Poots, and Ashton is especially good when her character silently senses whatever is going on between Simon and Laura early in the story.

In conclusion, “All of You” can be regarded as another typical romance drama, but it still holds our attention mainly thanks to a number of intimate moments generated between its two lead performers. Personally, I doubt whether our matters of heart will ever be under any kind of control in the future, but the movie interested and then touched me with its bittersweet qualities, and that is enough for recommendation for now.

Posted in Movies | Tagged | Leave a comment

Red Nails (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Mother and daughter stuck with each other again

Posted on September 28, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Red Nails” calmly but sensitively observes the strained mother and daughter relationship between its two deeply flawed human characters. Although we do not like these two people much even at the end of the story, the movie lets us have some understanding on their problematic relationship at least, and we come to sense a little bit of hope and optimism even though nothing is bright or certain for either of them.

At the beginning of the story, we meet Hong-i (Jang Sun), a woman in late 30s who is going to take her senile mother Seo-hee (Byun Joong-hee) from a nursing home to her little residence in Seoul. On the surface, Hong-i seems to care a lot about her mother’s welfare, but it soon turns out that she has a very selfish motive behind her back. Because she has been struggling to pay off a substantial amount of loan debt, Hong-i really needs the money belonging to her mother, and we subsequently see her using some of her mother’s money for paying off a bit of her loan debt not long after her mother begins to stay at her residence.

In case of Seo-hee, she seems to appreciate her daughter’s phony generosity, but it does not take much for us to sense how much she and her daughter have been estranged from each other for years. Although she occasionally shows some care and attention toward her daughter, this only annoys her daughter instead, and Hong-i has no problem at all with having her mother be taken care of by an old friend of her mother whenever she is busy with her work outside.

As the movie patiently observes the growing strain between its two main characters, we come to see more of how messy and pathetic Hong-i’s daily really is. Besides working at some construction site, she also works at a little private academy for old ladies around her mother’s age, and, despite her sincere efforts, she often stumbles in case of handling her old students, as shown from one brief scene between her and one of them. In addition, she has been in a rather unhealthy relationship with some dude, but she still does not consider breaking up with him for a self-serving reason, even though she is about to have a date with some other guy who seems much nicer in comparison.

And we also come to see more of how insensitive and unpleasant Seo-hee can be at times. While she certainly needs a lot of care and attention due to her worsening medical condition, Seo-hee is not a nice old lady at all, and this aspect of hers becomes all the more evident when she suddenly feels like being insulted for her illness at one point later in the story.

As the mood becomes more distant between her and her daughter along the story, we come to sense more of the remaining pain and resentment between them. We are not so surprised when Hong-i finally reaches to her breaking point, and we also come to wonder more about the past between Hong-i and her mother, but the screenplay by director/writer Hwang Seul-gi, who incidentally made a feature film debut here, does not try to explain too much as simply focusing more on the personality and humanity of its two unlikable but engaging main characters. We continue to wince as observing more of their respective human flaws, but their gradual conflict along the story holds our attention to the end, and we become all the more interested and engaged in their bumpy psychological drama.

It surely helps that the movie is steadily supported by how effortlessly its two lead actresses complement each other throughout its rather short running time (86 minutes). Jang Sun, who was terrific as the hard-working mother of the young heroine of Lee Ji-eun’s impressive debut feature film “The Hill of the Secrets” (2022), looks quite different here in a very passive and subdued appearance, and she is utterly uncompromising as making no excuse on her character’s many unpleasant sides. Yes, Hong-i is often quite unwise and foolish to say the least, but Jang’s nuanced low-key performance lets us have some understanding on Hong-i’s pathetic behaviors, even though we often observe her from the distance. On the opposite, Byun Joong-hee, a 75-year-old actress who has appeared in a number of notable films such as “Star of Ulsan” (2024) during last several years since she started her acting career in 2014, holds her own place well besides her co-star, and she is particularly good when Seo-hee makes a silent but firm decision for her as well as her daughter around the end of the story.

It must be pointed out that the movie shares several common things with Kim Se-in’s stunning debut feature film “The Apartment with Two Women” (2021), which also examines one very troubling mother and daughter relationship in addition to having Lee Yoo-Kyeong as one of the crucial supporting characters in the story. In my inconsequential opinion, “The Apartment with Two Women” is relatively more compelling because of being equipped more energy and edginess, but “Red Nails” is still a fairly solid drama film to be appreciated for its sensitive thoughtful handling of story and characters, and its good moments are already growing on me as I write more and more about it here in this review.

On the whole, “Red Nails” is a modest but interesting character drama, and Hwang, who previously worked in Yoon Ga-eun’s unforgettable first feature film “The World of Us” (2016), demonstrates here that she is another new South Korean filmmaker to watch. In short, this is another notable debut feature film of this year in South Korean cinema, and it will surely be interesting to see whether Hwang will advance more like many of other rising new South Korean filmmakers during last 10 years.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Lee (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): What she recorded with her camera

Posted on September 28, 2025 by kaist455

Lee Miller was surely a remarkable woman to remember. Despite sexism and many other obstacles in front of her, this exceptional American woman willingly pursued her professional passion during the World War II, and her numerous photographs shot during that period are certainly another valuable historical record on the horror and tragedy of the World War II.

However, Ellen Kuras’ “Lee”, which happens to be released belatedly in South Korean theaters, does not satisfy me enough as merely following Miller’s life and career during the 1930-40s. While there are some good moments illuminating Miller’s female perspective on the war to some degree, the movie remains to be your average biographical drama film, and that is a shame considering the solid efforts shown from the screen.

Miller is played by Kate Winslet, who is no stranger to playing strong female figures like Miller. The movie begins with a private interview between older Miller and some young man in 1977, and the bitter and sardonic attitude of older Miller is contrasted with the following scene showing how she was wild and lively during the late 1930s. While she initially worked as a model, Miller subsequently started to pursue the career of a professional photographer, and she became all the more determined about that even after she married Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård), a handsome British artist she came across during a little afternoon party with her close friends.

Not long after Miller and her husband got married, World War II began, and that was when she went further for her professional career. Around the time when her husband joins the British Army, she gets hired as a photographer in Vogue magazine, and she begins to photograph how British people endure the frequent bombings by Nazi Germany, but that is still not enough for her at all. She wants to go to the frontlines of the ongoing war just like many of those male photographers, but, of course, she is not allowed to do that at first mainly because of sexism.

Nevertheless, Miller eventually finds the solution for her problem, and we soon see her arriving in Normandy, France along with her fellow American photojournalist David Scherman (Andy Samberg) shortly after the Normandy Landings in June 1944. Again, she is reminded of how often she can be limited by the prevalent sexism among many male soldiers and officers, but she usually knows how to get things done, and her diligent efforts are appreciated a lot by both Scherman and her no-nonsense magazine editor Audrey Withers (Andrea Riseborough).

The war is being closer to the end around the point when Paris is liberated a few months later, but that does not daunt Miller at all, and the movie sometimes presents how Miller’s female perspective leads her to some unforgettable moments to remember. At one point, she witnesses and records how several young women are cruelly punished for being associated with Nazi German soldiers, and this will remind you again of how often many women have been brutalized in countless wars throughout the human history.

In early 1945, Miller decides to delve more into whatever happened to thousands of civilians taken away by Nazi Germany during the war, and that is when the story becomes darker than before. She and Scherman eventually arrive in one big concentration camp in Germany, and both of them are certainly shocked and devastated by what they behold from this horrible place. Wisely restraining itself, the movie never overlooks the sheer horror and tragedy in what Miller and Scherman phlegmatically observe and record, and the result is the most effective moment in the film.

However, the screenplay by Liz Hannah, John Collee, and Marion Hume, which is based on Miller’s only son Antony Penrose’s 1985 biography “The Lives of Lee Miller”, is rather superficial in the presentation of Miller’s life and career. Sure, the movie did a fairly competent job of presenting the high points of her career including that famous photograph shot in the bathroom of Adolf Hitler’s private apartment in Berlin, but it does not go deeper into her personality and humanity, and this weak aspect of its narrative is exacerbated more by the mostly under-developed supporting characters surrounding Miller.

Anyway, Winslet is dependable as usual at least, and her good performance steadily carries us to the predictably sentimental ending of the film. In case of several notable main cast members including Alexander Skarsgård, Marion Cotillard, Andrea Riseborough, Noémie Merlant, Josh O’Connor, and Andy Samberg, they are sadly under-utilized on the whole, though Samberg surprisingly demonstrates the more serious side of his acting talent in contrast to his usual comic persona.

Needless to say, director Ellen Kuras, who was Oscar-nominated for documentary film “The Betrayal” (2008) and also worked in a number of notable films and documentaries such as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004) and “Jane” (2017), tries to handle the main human subject of her film with care and respect, but I think “Lee” a bit too dissatisfying to recommend. Yes, I came to admire Miller’s life and career more after watching the film, but the movie itself does not go beyond what I can instantly learn via checking Wikipedia right now, and that is a disappointment in my humble opinion.

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

No Other Choice (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Killing for employment

Posted on September 25, 2025 by kaist455

Park Chan-wook’s latest film “No Other Choice” is another dark and twisted genre piece you can expect from its director. Following its plain ordinary family guy’s murderous struggle for getting employed, the movie provides a series of morbidly humorous moments with an abundant amount of style and details to be appreciated, and that compensates for several weak aspects including its rather overlong running time (139 minutes).

Lee Byung-hun, who incidentally collaborated with Park in “Joint Security Area” (2000) 25 years ago, plays You Man-soo, a fortysomething dude who looks like having a fairly good life at the beginning of the story. He and his wife and two kids live in an old but well-decorated house, and the opening scene shows them cheerfully enjoying a little dinner party in the front ground of their house

However, it soon turns out that there is a serious problem at a big paper company where Man-soo has worked for more than 20 years. After recently acquired by a bunch of American businessmen, the company has gone through a lot of downsizing, and Man-soo belatedly realizes that he is one of numerous employees to be fired. During the next three months, he tries to get employed somewhere else in one way or another, but he only gets frustrated and again and again, while he and his family are going to lose their house and many other things for their increasingly difficult economic circumstance.

Not long after going thorough another moment of humiliation, Man-soo comes upon one possible idea. While there are a very few positions available for him, there are also many other desperately unemployed guys just like him, so he begins to consider eliminating several people who may be more likely to get employed than him. First, he posts a fake advertisement to lure a number of possible competitors out there, and we subsequently get an absurd scene where he thoroughly evaluates the résumés of these potential targets one by one for determining whom he must kill first.

The movie surely generates more uncomfortable laugh as its hero embarks on his killing plan in a rather clumsy way. He happens to have an old North Korean gun belonging to his dead father, which is incidentally more than 50 years old but seems to be still good enough for killing. He later spies on his first target for getting any chance to approach closer to this target, but, what do you know, he soon comes across a few setbacks which may jeopardize his plan.

Even while often recognizing how pathetic and desperate its hero is, the movie sticks to its detached attitude. While Man-soo is not so sympathetic from the beginning, most of man-soo’s several targets presented along the story are no better than him. As a result, we come to observe his following acts of killing from the distance without caring that much about him or others around him, and this aspect is more evident from how the movie presents the sequence showing Man-soo’s first attempt to kill under a deliberately loud sound background.

Nevertheless, the screenplay by Park and his co-writers Don McKellar, Lee Kyoung-mi, and Lee Ja-hye, which is based on Donald Westlake’s novel “The Ax” (It was already adapted once for the 2005 film of the same name by Costa-Gavras, to whom Park incidentally dedicates the movie), keeps engaging us with a lot of biting sense of black humor. At one point later in the film, Man-soo comes to use his certain particular set of skills for taking care of a dead body, and that leads to a gruesomely naughty moment to remember. In addition, the story also pays attention to how Man-soo’s relationship with his wife becomes increasingly strained as he hides his murderous secret more and more from her, and the movie even takes some time when this personal conflict between them culminates to an unexpectedly stylish moment of dance and music.

Above all, the movie is drenched in many numerous distinctive touches observed from many of Park’s previous films such as “Oldboy” (2003) and “Decision to Leave” (2022), and Park and his crew members including cinematographer Kim Woo-hyung and editor Kim Sang-bum did a commendable of filling the screen with enough mood and details. Thanks to a heap of interesting details inside and outside it, Man-soo’s house looks as impressive as that slick modern house in Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” (2019), and I particularly appreciate how the movie uses a certain favorite color of Park as frequently as many of Pedro Almodóvar’s movies did green and red.

While Lee holds the center as required with another fine performance in his acting career, several other cast members dutifully fill their respective spots around him. Son Ye-jin, who was memorable in “The Truth Beneath” (2016), has several good moments as her character is getting closer to Man-soo’s growing secret, and Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, and Cha Seung-won are well-cast in their substantial supporting parts.

Overall, “No Other Choice”, which was recently chosen as the South Korean submission to Best International Film Oscar, is not entirely without flaws (For example, its finale could be shortened a bit, and I also do not think a certain notable supporting actor, whose career was tarnished by alleged sexual harassment a few years ago, is really necessary), but it is another compelling work from Park, who has been one of the most prominent South Korean filmmakers during last 25 years. Although it does not reach to the level of “The Handmaiden” (2016) or “Decision to Leave”, the movie intrigued and engaged me enough on the whole, and that is more than enough for now.

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

Linda Linda Linda (2005) ☆☆☆(3/4): Their little high school performance

Posted on September 21, 2025 by kaist455

2005 Japanese film “Linda Linda Linda”, which was re-released in South Korean theaters a few days ago, is a conventional but undeniably likable mix of drama, comedy, and music. Right from the beginning, we get a pretty good idea about how it will eventually end, and the movie does not exceed our expectation much on the whole, but it keeps holding our attention via its solid storytelling as well as the spirited efforts from its main cast. In the end, you will root and then cheer for its main characters more than before, and the movie surely delivers its expected feel-good moments as delightfully as possible.

During the first act, the movie gradually establishes its four main characters one by one. For their upcoming school festival, Kei (Yuu Kashii), Kyoko (Aki Maeda), and Nozomi (Shiori Sekine), who are the students of some high school located in some local city outside Tokyo, are supposed to perform as the members of their little band, but there is one big problem. Not long after their guitarist Moe (Shione Yukawa) happened to get seriously injured in her left hand, Kei clashed with their vocalist Rinko (Takayo Mimura), and this eventually made Rinko quit the band.

While Kei, who has incidentally been the keyboardist of the band, could play a guitar instead, she and the remaining band members still need someone to perform as their vocalist, and they happen to come across an unlikely figure for that role. That figure in question is none other than Son (Bae Doona), a South Korean exchange student who has been pretty much like your average loner in the school due to her rather clumsiness in speaking Japanese. Although Son is not so sure about whether she can sing well in Japanese, Kei and her two fellow band members impulsively decide to have Son join their band, and Son begins to practice singing in Japanese while her new friends also start to prepare for the upcoming performance of theirs.

The screenplay by director Nobuhiro Yamashita and his co-writers Kōsuke Mukai and Wakako Miyashita takes its time as leisurely rolling its main characters from one intimate episodic moment to another. Because they do not have much time for practice from the start, they even sneak into the practice room in their school at night, and, to our little amusement, they naturally come to suffer a lot of sleep deficiency later.

And we get to know more about them bit by bit. While she can be frigid at times, Kei is the one steadily holding the center, and Kyoko and Nozomi willingly stand by Kei via their shared passion on music. We often cannot help but notice more of the language gap between these three girls and Son, but they sincerely support and encourage Son as much as possible, and Son comes to show more dedication as befriending them more along the story.

In addition, the movie pays some extra attention to a number of supporting characters in the story. There is an amusing subplot between Kyoko and a male schoolmate eager to be her boyfriend someday, and then we get a humorously awkward moment between Son and some boy who has clearly been having a crush on her (His clumsy speaking in Korean is certainly extra amusement for me and my fellow South Korean audiences, by the way). As the high school festival begins later in the story, the school is filled with more spirit and excitement as its students actively participate in a number of various stuffs ranging from cooking to running a fun house, and there is a little funny moment involved with the teacher supervising the festival, who turns out to be more understanding than he seemed at first.

During the last act, there naturally comes some suspense on whether its main characters will arrive in time for performing on the stage, but the movie does not hurry itself at all as slowly doling out several good moments. Certain two supporting characters boldly come forward at the last minute for buying some time for Kei and the other band members and, what do you know, their impromptu performances turn out to be more effective than expected. Although the dream sequence right before the finale is rather distracting to me, I enjoyed its absurd touches at least, and I also like a brief but crucial moment between Kei and Rinko, who comes to show a bit of support despite the remaining resentment between them.

The movie depends a lot on the good ensemble performance from its main cast members. Besides effortlessly interacting with her fellow cast members, Bae Doona, a South Korean actress who has steadily advanced as appearing in a diverse array of films ranging from Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Air Doll” (2009) to the Wachowski films “Cloud Atlas” (2012) and “Jupiter Ascending” (2015) has a couple of showstopper moments to remember, and she also did a commendable job in case of the musical performance scenes including the climactic moment when her character must sing well “Linda Linda”, a hit song from the Japanese punk rock band the Blue Hearts. In case of Aki Maea, Yu Kashii, and Shiori Sekine, they have each own moment to shine just like their Korean co-star, and several substantial supporting performers including Takayo Mimura, Shione Yukawa, and Yuko Yamazaki are also well-cast in their respective roles.

Overall, “Linda Linda Linda” remains as a solid crowd-pleaser with a lot of energy and charm although 20 years have passed since it came out. It may look rather plain and modest compared to the more prominent achievements in Japanese Cinema during the 2000s such as Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” (2001) or Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Tokyo Sonata” (2008), and it still entertained me and the other audiences around me, and that is more than enough for recommendation in my trivial opinion.

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

You Burn Me (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): On desire and life

Posted on September 21, 2025 by kaist455

Argentine filmmaker Matías Piñeiro’s latest film “You Burn Me” often baffled and confounded me for good reasons. Probably because I do not have much background knowledge on the main subjects of this experimental film, I simply observed the repeated images and quotes without enough interest, and it was a rather challenging experience on the whole despite its rather short running time (64 minutes).

At least, I knew a bit about what and how the movie is about, because I happened to watch its trailer right before the screening I attended during this afternoon. As the trailer presents a series of seemingly random images, Piñeiro tells us a bit about how the movie will shuffle between the works of two different poets, and we are also introduced to his two lead actresses who will play the central figures of the film.

One of these two central figures is Sappho, a famous ancient Greek poet whose body of work deserves attention as much as her well-known homosexuality (I am sure that you all know well where that well-known word for female homosexuality came from, right?). Unfortunately, as often reflected throughout the film, many of her works have been preserved only in fragmented state, and the movie tells us later that only one of her works remains intact just because of being wholly quoted in the certain famous book of a contemporary male Greek poet.

The main ground for the narrative of the film is actually a chapter from the book of Italian poet Cesare Pavese (1908 ~ 1950), whose tragic death by suicide often resonates with how Sappho killed herself due to a matter of heart. In that part of Pavese’s book, Sappho has a private conversation with a nymph named Britomartis, and their following conversation on life and desire gradually takes the center as the film steadily juxtaposes their words with a number of various images shot in various locations around the world.

Piñeiro and his co-cinematographer Tomás Paula Marques shot these images on 16mm films in the screen ratio of 1.33:1, and they deliberately made them look older and shabbier, probably for evoking the ancient aspects of the conversation between Sappho and Britomartis. As their conversation flows from one ancient Greek tale after another, the movie comes to reflect more on how desire has been a constant fact of human life just like it was a key factor in numerous ancient Greek tales such as “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey” by Homer, and both Sappho and Britomartis also mull a bit on how they were destroyed by desire in one way or another. While Sappho killed herself because of a big heartbreak involved with one certain young lady, Britomartis leapt into the sea for escaping from a man who desired her a lot, and there is a little amusing scene involved with a sketch showing how a certain body part of that dude was absurdly cursed due to his fierce desire toward Britomartis.

Piñeiro’s two lead actresses simply play a bit as Sappho and Britomartis in front of the camera or duly read the quotes from the works Sappho and Pavese. Sometimes these quotes are repeated more than once, and the accompanying images are also repeated along with that. Although this feels a bit frustrating at times, it is apparent that the movie expects us to reflect more on this direct juxtaposition between text and image, and you may also come to mull more on the feministic viewpoint on those ancient Greek tales. For example, how much Calypso felt betrayed and devastated when Ulysses eventually decided to return to his faithful wife after living with her for no less than 7 years? And how did Helen of Troy actually feel about all those epic conflicts surrounding her?

However, because I may not be emotionally matured yet despite being over 40, the words in the film feel rather abstract to me instead of genuinely resonating with my heart. Besides, I usually prefer prose to poetry as a guy inclined to being more direct and straightforward, so I must confess that I struggled over understanding the emotional aspects of whatever implied by those fragmented works of Sappho or the conversation between her and Britomartis in Pavese’s book.

Nevertheless, the movie succeeds to some degree in case of igniting more interest toward Sappho and Pavese from me. Although the movie just explains a bit about the circumstance surrounding his last days, Pavese looks like another interesting artist to explore for me, and I will certainly look for any way to get more access to his works. In case of Sappho, well, I come to learn from the film that she was really much more than a historical woman who originated the aforementioned word for female homosexuality, and I can only hope that more of her works will be discovered in the future, though that may be less possible as more time goes by.

In conclusion, “You Burn Me” did not exactly engage me enough, but it enlightened me a bit at least, and I became more aware of the career of Piñeiro, who has steadily made one film after another since his feature debut film “El hombre robado” (2007). Although “You Burn Me” is an acquired taste to me, I recognize that he is another interesting filmmaker with his own artistic style to notice, and I will probably appreciate more of his talent as watching more of his works in the past and the future. Yes, I am still hesitating to recommend the film to you, but I also want to tell you that it is still worthwhile to try – especially if you are willing to go for something different and challenging.

Posted in Movies | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Roses (2025) ☆☆(2/4): A less vicious and funny remake

Posted on September 21, 2025 by kaist455

Jay Roach’s latest film “The Roses” is too mild and mellow for becoming truly mean and vicious enough to delve into the dark aspects of its story and characters. As unwisely trying to make the two main characters at the center of the story look more sympathetic and likable for us, the movie often becomes less sharp and thorny than it really needs to be, and its middling result is all the more disappointing, considering a bunch of genuinely talented performers gathered here in this film.

As many of you know, the movie is a remake of Danny DeVito’s 1989 black comedy film “The War of the Roses”, which is based on the novel of the same name by Warren Adler. In that movie, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner are darkly hilarious as a married couple going way over the top during their utterly hostile and destructive divorce war, and it is still quite funny to observe how DeVito’s film firmly and admirably sticks to the vicious and unpleasant aspects of its story and characters along with its two fearless lead performers.

In case of “The Roses”, it has Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman. Sure, these two immensely talented British performers can be as funny and vicious as Douglas and Turner in the 1989 film, but, alas, their undeniable comic talents are rather under-utilized here as often being prevented from being truly mean and funny. While their talents do shine a bit more during the third act where the situation becomes darker with more viciousness, that is too late for us, and the movie does not support them well even when it finally arrives at the ending along with them.

The movie opens with their characters, Theo and Ivy Rose, having a private meeting with their marriage counselor. As they interact more with their marriage counselor, it becomes quite apparent that they do have serious relationship issues between them, but they cannot believe that, as their marriage counselor points out, they are not actually capable of solving these problems.

And then they look back at how things felt all right between them when they came across each other in London 13 years ago. While Theo was a promising architecture, Ivy was a talented chef with a lot of potential (This may remind you of Colman’s recent Emmy-nominated guest appearance in American TV series “The Bear”, by the way), and they instantly clicked with each other right from their accidental encounter at a restaurant where Ivy worked. Not long after their first passionate lovemaking which will not be approved by any sensible health inspector out there, they decided to move to California in US, and Ivy devoted herself to domestic matters including raising their two children during next 10 years, while Theo focused more on his work and career.

When his latest building, a big and spectacular naval history museum which is going to be one of the biggest achievements in his career, is finished, Theo decides to buy an abandoned local restaurant house for showing more appreciation to Ivy, who is certainly delighted as finally getting a chance to show off her culinary skills outside their house. Although her modest restaurant business turns out to be far less successful than expected, she is still excited about finally restarting her professional career, and Theo is certainly happy for that.

However, there soon comes an unexpected change of fortune for Theo and Ivy. Their area is suddenly struck by a disastrous storm, which thoroughly destroys that naval history museum to the horror of Theo and many others who happen to be there with him. Meanwhile, this storm incidentally brings much more customers to Ivy’s restaurant at the same time, and, what do you know, one of these customers turns out to be a very influential food critic, who subsequently wrote an enthusiastic review on Ivy’s restaurant.

As his career tumbles toward the bottom, Theo has no choice but to focus on taking care of the domestic matters while Ivy becomes a lot busier and more successful than before. As time goes by, he cannot help but become petty and sulky about how things have changed in their relationship, and his wife also becomes more aware of the growing strain and estrangement between them.

The screenplay by Tony McNamara, who were previously Oscar-nominated for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite” (2018) and “Poor Things” (2023), has some fun with how its two main characters clash with each other more and more along the story, but it unfortunately does not pull all the stops at all. We are occasionally amused by the increasingly bitter and vicious interactions between Theo and Ivy during their following divorce battle, but the movie often seems to hesitate to push them further into more nastiness, even though both Cumberbatch and Colman look like being quite ready for that from the very beginning.

Furthermore, the movie also fails in bringing more life and personality to those numerous supporting characters around Theo and Ivy. For example, their two kids are more or less than mere plot elements to come and then go, and the same thing can be said about a couple played by Andy Samberg and Kate McKinnon, both of whom can be quite funny just like Cumberbatch and Colman but are simply required to look just silly and absurd on the whole. The movie also criminally under-utilizes several other notable performers including Sunita Mani, Zoë Chao, Jamie Demetriou, and Ncuti Gatwa, though Allison Janney manages to steal the show during her brief appearance later in the film.

In conclusion, “The Roses” is just mildly amusing without feeling really biting at all, and my mind kept going back to those many darkly funny moments in the 1989 film, which does not lose any of its dark and vicious sense of humor even at present. While I enjoyed “The Roses” to some degree mainly thanks to the game efforts from Cumberbatch and Colman, they can do a lot better with much sharper and meaner materials in my inconsequential opinion, so I recommend you to stick to the 1989 film instead.

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