Happy Gilmore 2 (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): He’s back on the green…

Posted on July 27, 2025 by kaist455

Netflix film “Happy Gilmore 2”, which was released a few days ago, made me laugh and chuckle much more than its predecessor did, and that is sort of achievement in my inconsequential opinion. While I dislike “Happy Gilmore” (1996) a lot mainly for the dull and witless handling of its story and characters, I like its sequel for being willing to go further for more ridiculousness in addition to bringing some depth and wit to its titular character.

This substantial change in terms of story and character sometimes resonates with how its lead actor have gained some admiration from us during the last three decades. Sure, Adam Sandler still tends to waste his time and talent on many forgettable flicks which even do not deserve to labeled as comedy, but he has also become more interesting thanks to several acclaimed films including Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002), and he even demonstrated that he can easily dial down his usual comic persona as shown from Jeremiah Zagar’s recent Netflix film “Hustle” (2022).

The movie opens with the summary of what Sandler’s titular figure went through after his glorious victory at the end of the 1996 film. Thanks to his rather unorthodox but undeniably powerful golf swing method as well as his tempestuous personality, Happy Gilmore became legendary during the next several years, and he also had a happy family life thanks to his wife Virginia (Julie Bowen) and their five kids. Alas, Virginia accidentally got killed when he demonstrated his own special golf swing again at his latest golf tournament, and his consequent grief and guilt on her death drove him into alcoholism besides ruining both his career and family life.

At least, Happy, who is now working as a local supermarket employee, has been a bit wiser about controlling his temper issues, and he still gets a lot of love and support from his dear children, but then there comes a serious financial matter. His only daughter Vienna (Sunny Sandler, who is one of Sandler’s two real-life daughters) is now a promising ballet dancer, and her teacher, who is incidentally played by Sandler’s real-life wife Jackie Sandler, recommends that Vienna should go to Paris for joining a prestigious ballet company, but, of course, the annual tuition for that is pretty expensive to say the least.

And that is when Happy is approached by Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie, who previously collaborated with Sandler in “Uncut Gems” (2019), the sleazy CEO of a popular energy drink company. Manatee has been planning a new professional golf league called “Maxi Golf”, and he wants Happy to join the Maxi Golf League, but Happy is not so interested even though his unconventional career inspired the Maxi Golf League to some degree.

However, Happy soon begins to consider being back in the game, and that naturally leads to several hilarious moments including the scene which has the brief appearances by Eric André, Martin Herlihy and Margaret Qualley. Although the start is quite rocky for him, Happy soon comes to see that he has not lost any of his skill and talent yet, and then he willingly steps forward as one of many professional golfers to compete against the members of the Maxi Golf League.

Around that narrative point, the main source of comedy comes from how Happy must hold himself as much as possible. Thanks to a regrettable incident caused by his alcoholism, he has to attend an Alcoholic Anonymous meeting which turns out to be quite suspicious mainly because it is managed by Ben Stiller’s character from the 1996 film, and he also still finds himself haunted by his wife’s unfortunate death. While he is less edgy compared to how he was in the 1996 film, Sandler somehow strikes the right balance between humor and gravitas for his relatively more matured character, and this actually makes Happy likable even during his most preposterous moments in the film.

Meanwhile, the movie recalls the story elements and characters from the 1996 film as frequently as Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” (2025) did from its 1996 predecessor, and some of them are fairly funny while the others are merely redundant. As vividly remembering the blatant promotion of that famous sandwich franchise company in US in the 1996 film, I smiled a bit as noticing its logo on Happy’s golf bag (the company is still in business at present, you know), and I will not deny that I laughed and winced hard as watching Happy introducing his own way of physical training to his several fellow professional golfers at one point later in the story. In case of several minor characters associated with the certain supporting characters in the 1996 film, I do not think their scenes are particularly necessary except evoking some nostalgia from the 1996 film, and these scenes actually slow down the narrative pacing of the movie to a considerable degree.

Sandler places a bunch of various figures around himself, and their game efforts support the film to the end even though it often stumbles a bit during the expected climactic part where his character must cope with a lot of outrageous stuffs as competing against those Maxi Golf League members. As the main villain of the film, Benny Safdie gleefully chews every moment of his before he is upstaged by Christopher McDonald, who is absolutely hysterical as Happy’s loony arch-nemesis who eventually works with Happy after beholding the sheer vulgarity of the Maxi Golf League. While Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, a popular musician who is also known as “Bad Bunny”, shows some comic talent as Happy’s woefully inexperienced caddy, Sunny Sandler and Julie Bowen provide some warmth and common sense as required, and Sadie Sandler, who is Sandler’s another real-life daughter, has her own small moment as one of Happy’s fellow alcoholics.

Overall, “Happy Gilmore 2”, directed by Kyle Newacheck, is more enjoyable compared to its 1996 predecessor, and it amused me enough to consider showing it to my parents someday. Who knows? Considering how much they often have enjoyed playing golf as well as watching those golf tournaments on live TV, they may actually enjoy the movie as well as its 1996 predecessor more than me.

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Happy Gilmore (1996) ☆☆(2/4): There is something schizophrenic about Sandler

Posted on July 27, 2025 by kaist455

Dennis Dugan’s 1996 comedy film “Happy Gilmore” is a prime example of how schizophrenic many of those early comedy movies of its lead actor Adam Sandler feel even at present. Sandler always seems ready to go all the way with playing deeply unpleasant characters with violent and destructive temper, and he is very good at that, but this abrasive comic persona of his is usually limited or dulled by the half-hearted attempts to be ingratiating and likable to audiences.

Sandler probably knew well this inherent vice of his early comedy films, considering that they all written or produced by him, but he kept repeating himself just because “Happy Gilmore” and several subsequent comedy films of his including “The Wedding Singer” (1998) and “Big Daddy” (1999) were commercially successful on the whole. Fortunately, Paul Thomas Anderson, who is a longtime admirer of Sanders’s comic talent, demonstrated in “Punch-Drunk Love” (2002) that Sandler can be really funny and even quite poignant, but Sandler continued to make more dumb comedy movies, even while truly impressing us at times as shown from his stupefyingly intense performance in the Safdie Brothers’ “Uncut Gems” (2019).

Compared to Sandler’s superlative achievements in “Punch-Drunk Love” and “Uncut Gems”, what he did in “Happy Gilmore” is pretty much like a lumpy test drive on what he is naturally capable of. As a matter of fact, you can actually see a lot of Barry Egan or Howard Ratner from his titular character, and that is why it is often so depressing to see that the movie does not have enough wit or skill or guts to push its edgy hero for real mean and uncomfortable laughs.

Anyway, let me talk a bit about how Sandler’s titular character made me wince more than once during the first 20 minutes of the film. On the surface, Happy Gilmore looks like a plain sweet loser to amuse you, but he often cannot control his serious temper problem, and many of the gags in the film come from how easily he is triggered to punch or hit anyone to annoy or insult him. Despite his longtime aspiration of being a professional ice hockey player someday, he is reminded again and again that he is not a very good ice hockey player from the beginning, and this certainly makes him quite angry more than once as shown from Sandler’s very first scene in the movie.

Nevertheless, Happy’s grandmother still sees the better sides of her dear grandson (Please don’t ask me how the hell that is possible), and he surely appreciates that, but there comes a big trouble for her on one day. Due to some serious tax problem, her old house and everything inside it get foreclosed by Internal Revenue Service, and the house will be put on an auction unless she and her grandson find any possible way to pay no less than $ 250,000 within 30 days.

After his grandmother has no choice but to go to a local facility for old people (Ben Stiller makes a cameo appearance as a vicious employee of that facility, by the way), Happy becomes quite devastated to say the least, but then there comes an unexpected opportunity when he discovers his unlikely potential in playing golf. Because he is pretty good at slapshot, his golf swing can actually drive a ball 400 yard (around 365 meter) at least, and his following golf hustlings get noticed by a retired professional golf player named Derick “Chubbs” Peterson (Late Carl Weathers, who fortunately manages to keep his dignity intact despite being required to many silly things throughout the film).

After getting some advice from Peterson, Happy participates in a local golf tournament, and he surely gets a lot of public attention right from the first day thanks to his powerful swings, though he remains to be a rather clumsy player and still shows a lot of temper problems. Nevertheless, he subsequently becomes more popular as playing in a series of the following golf tournaments, and he also learns a bit on how to make him a little more likable in public thanks to the public relations director of the professional golf tour who somehow finds herself quite attracted to Happy (Julie Bowen is sadly stuck in this fairly thankless supporting role, by the way).

Of course, like many of sports comedy films out there, the movie has a villainous opponent, who is determined to stop Happy’s earnest quest for earning $250,000 by any means necessary. That figure in question is an arrogant professional star golfer named Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), and he is definitely not amused at all as Happy keeps drawing all the attentions away from what may be the highest point in his professional sports career.

Like Sandler, McDonald seems quite committed to go all the way as required by his role, but, again, the movie often does not support his game efforts well. His character’s several attempts of sabotage on Happy are so predictable that they look merely silly and annoying on the whole, and we are not so surprised even when, after deliberately heckled more than once, Happy comes to clash with a certain celebrity who happens to be playing with him on the spot. In case of the expected climactic part, it is riddled with not only countless clichés and but also a lot of the blatant promotion of a certain famous sandwich franchise company in US, and I absolutely agree with what my late mentor Roger Ebert observed in his 1.5-star review: “Halfway through the movie, I didn’t know what I wanted more: laughs, or mustard.”

So, is it still worthwhile to watch “Happy Gilmore” just for watching its recent sequel later or observing what was bound to emerge in Sandler’s much better films including “Punch-Drunk Love”? Yes, I was often quite bored or repulsed by its lame comedy during my viewing, but I also came to appreciate more of how far Anderson and the Safdie Brothers pushed Sandler’s genuine acting talent glimpsed a bit from the movie. Therefore, I guess there is some value in this deeply disagreeable comedy film and Sandler’s other equally ludicrous comedy films, and I hope that my 2-star review will help you decide on whether you will watch “Happy Gilmore” or not.

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When This Summer is Over (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): A bad influence

Posted on July 27, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “When This Summer is Over” is often disturbing for good reasons. Phlegmatically following how its plain young hero tumbles down into a number of crimes and misdemeanors thanks to his new “friends”, the movie gives us a sobering examination of toxic masculinity, and that often keeps us on the edge even when the story is approaching to its inevitable finale.

The story, which is set in a rural town which will be redeveloped sooner or later for urbanization, opens with the arrival of a 12-year-old boy named Gi-joon (Lee Jae-joon) and his mother. Very dedicated to her son’s future education and welfare, Gi-joon’s mother decided to move into this town in advance because its upcoming urbanization will affect not only its education system quality but also its real estate value, but Gi-joon is not so pleased about this environmental change because, well, the town looks quite boring without nothing much to do outside his new school and home.

And the first day in Gi-goon’s new school is not so promising to say the least. He comes along with his mother for completing his transfer process, and his new teacher is certainly ready to welcome him, but then he gets his new pair of sneakers stolen. While the teacher suspects that one of his class students stole Gi-joon’s sneakers, there is no incriminating evidence, and Gi-joon’s mother is not bothered that much, because she can surely afford to buy the new ones for her son as your average affluent middle-class mother.

Once he begins to study along with his new classmates, Gi-joon comes to befriend some of them including Seok-hoon (Jeong Joon), who is incidentally the prefect of their classroom. Seok-hoon often comes to Gi-joon’s new house for playing a video game together for a while, and Gi-joon’s mother does not mind this at all as long as her son does not cause any serious trouble in the school. After all, she is now quite busy as participating in a local protest along with many of her new neighbors just for getting a bit more benefit from the upcoming urbanization in their town.

Of course, a trouble soon comes when Gi-joon later gets himself associated with one of his classmates, who was the prime suspect of that theft incident. His name is Yeong-moon (Choi Hyun-jin), and we get to know more about how problematic he and his older brother Yeong-joon (Choi Woo-rok) are. Although they are technically orphans due to their parents’ absence, they defiantly refuse to receive any social service, and many of the town residents feel sorry for them even though Yeong-joon is clearly your typical juvenile delinquent.

And Gi-joon soon comes to witness what these two problematic brothers have been doing behind their back. Yeong-joon often extorts money from some of Gi-joon’s classmates, and, not so surprisingly, nobody in the class dares to mess with Yeong-moon. As Gi-joon befriends Yeong-moon more, Yeong-joon willingly has Gi-joon under his protection, and he savagely beats a student who punched Gi-joon in the face for a petty issue.

This unnerving scene is soon followed by more disturbing moments of violence, but the movie wisely avoids being unnecessarily gratuitous in the depiction of these violent moments. Most of the acts of violence in the film are not shown on the screen, but their virulent emotional effects on Gi-joon are palpably conveyed to us as the camera often focuses on his face, and we come to understand more of how he becomes more involved with Yeong-joon and Yeong-moon.

As our young hero commits more crimes and misdemeanors along the story, the level of tension is quietly increased under the competent direction of director/writer Jang Byung-ki, who previously made a feature film debut with “A Family Man” (2019). He and his crew members including cinematographer Choo Kyeong-yeob did a commendable job of establishing the mundane but realistic atmosphere of the rural background of the film, and that is why those restrained moments of violence in the movie feel quite intense and striking at times.

In addition, Jang’s screenplay also brings some human complexity to its story and characters. While Yeong-joon and Yeong-moon are surely the main source of bad influence upon Gi-joon, the movie also recognizes how vulnerable they are in one way or another – especially when they get punished hard by an older juvenile delinquent later in the story. In case of Gi-joon, he was not a totally innocent victim at all from the beginning, and that makes him all the conflicted when he eventually faces the consequences of his reckless actions.

Jang draws good performances from his main cast members. While Lee Jae-joon is convincing as his character willingly lets himself drawn more into the criminal world of Yeong-joon and Yeong-moon, several other young actors including Choi Hyun-jin, Choi Woo-rok, and Jeong Joon are well-cast in their respective supporting roles, and Ko Seo-hee holds her own small place well as Gi-joon’s increasingly concerned mother.

Overall, “When This Summer is Over” is quite uncomfortable to watch at times, but it will still hold your attention thanks to its deft handling of story and character. In my trivial opinion, this is one of more interesting South Korean films of this year, and you will be reminded of why the education on toxic masculinity is important for boys as well as girls.

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The Uniform (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): A tale of two students

Posted on July 27, 2025 by kaist455

Taiwanese film “The Uniform” is a typical coming-of-age tale about two different female high school students who happen to share the same desk in their classroom right from their first year. As their accidental friendship goes through several ups and downs during next several years, they become more aware of the social distance between them, and it is touching to observe how they still care about each other despite that.

The story begins with their first day at some prestigious high school in Taipei, 1997. Because she unfortunately underperformed in the high school entrance examination, Ai (Buffy Chen) has no choice but to enroll in the night program of that school, and she understandably cannot help but feel inferior compared to those day program students, who all got a better score in the examination. Her widow mother, who is incidentally a teacher, is quite excited about her daughter’s enrollment in the high school and ready to support and motivate her daughter as much as possible despite their poor economic status, but this only pressures Ai more than before.

Anyway, Ai and her fellow classmates are going to share the same classroom with a group of day program students, and Ai comes to share a desk with Min (Chloe Xiang), who is incidentally one of the most promising students in the day program of their school. As they subsequently exchange some notes between them during next several days, Ai and Min get closer to each other, and they eventually become each other’s best friend, though there is not much time for them to be together in their school.

Nevertheless, they soon find how to spend more time with each other. Min gladly lends one of her uniforms to Ai for helping her disguise as a day program student, and Ai is certainly delighted as getting more chance to be with her best friend, while also experiencing how things are a bit different to the day program students compared to the night program students in the school. As frequently going back and forth between the day and night program thanks to her best friend, she feels more like belonging to the day program, but, not so surprisingly, skipping her night program more than once consequently affects her test scores, and she comes to hide this serious problem from her mother.

Meanwhile, the situation becomes a little more complicated due to a hunky boy Ai met at a local table tennis coaching academy where she has worked as a part-time employee. He turns out to be a day program student of her school, and, what do you know, he also turns out to be the boy on whom Min has had a crush for a while. Unfortunately, Ai is also attracted a lot to this boy, and he seems to be more interested in Ai, but Ai lets her best friend try to get closer to him while hiding her personal feelings toward him

 As this tricky triangle is continued among its three main characters during their second year at the school, the movie immerses us more into their youthful daily life with some amusing period details to notice. If you are around their age in the late 1990s like me, you surely remember those early years of the Internet, and you will be tickled a bit when Min, who is incidentally much more affluent than Ai compared to Ai, casually talks about how fast her Internet connection is (Remember when even a one-megabyte file was too hefty to download?).

When that boy eventually comes to show more of his feelings toward Ai, she lies a bit to him just for impressing him more, and, of course, this consequently leads to more conflict for her. Becoming more aware of how promising and privileged he is just like Min, she feels more like an imposter, and, of course, there inevitably comes a point where she cannot maintain her little lies anymore.

Around its three main characters’ final year at the school, the screenplay by Hsu Hui-fang and Wang Li-wen expectedly becomes melodramatic. After a sudden big catastrophe occurs all over Taiwan (Yes, this did happen in 1999), Ai becomes more serious about what she should do for her future, and she also comes to appreciate more of the sincere support from her mother, who has struggled a lot for the family in one way or another while hoping for the best for her two daughters. In case of her strained relationship with Min, she eventually finds a way to mend their relationship, and there is a brief but moving moment when they come to show each own anxiety to each other.

The three main cast members are well-cast in their respective parts. Buffy Chen is engaging in her introverted character’s gradual maturation along the story, and she also did a good job of handling a certain cliché associated with Superman’s human alter ego later in the story. On the opposite, Chloe Xiang complements her co-star well with her more confident appearance, and Yitai Chiu looks good enough as the object of admiration to Ai and Min. Around the main story, Chi Chin often steals the show as Ai’s mother, and her adamantly frugal lifestyle is a constant source of amusement throughout the movie.

On the whole, “The Uniform”, directed by Chuang Ching-shen, does not bring anything particularly new or fresh to its genre territory, but it has enough heart and spirit to interest us just like many other solid coming-of-age tale drama films. I surely knew where it is heading from the very beginning, but I could feel that its main characters do grow up in the end, and that is enough for me for now.

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): A lightweight fun in retro style

Posted on July 26, 2025 by kaist455

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps”, the latest product from Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), is a lightweight fun in retro style. Although this is not exactly new or fresh in my humble opinion, it is relatively more entertaining than many of recent MCU flicks, and I could forget my growing exhaustion about superhero flicks at least for a while.

Because there were no less than three movies based on its four superhero characters (and, to put it mildly, none of these movies was not so successful as many of you remember), the obligatory introduction part of the film is fairly quick and brief. In the Earth in an alternative universe different from the one associated with most of MCU flicks, the four prominent scientists, Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), her younger brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), were sent into the space for their scientific mission, but they had an unexpected incident involved with a big wave of space radiation. When they were subsequently back on the Earth, they found that they somehow acquired each own superpower, and they soon became a lot more famous as the dependable guardians of their planet during next several years.

And then there comes an unexpected change to Reed and Sue, who has incidentally been Mrs. Richards and suddenly finds herself pregnant. When they later notify this surprise news to Ben and Johnny, Ben and Johnny are certainly delighted about that, but, alas, their happy time is soon interrupted by what turns out to be the biggest threat they have ever faced as superheroes. This entity in question is a mighty (and humongous) alien named Galactus (Ralph Ineson), and he is mainly represented by a metallic figure nicknamed “Silver Surfer” (Julia Garner), who comes to the Earth in advance for delivering a very, very, very bad new for all the people and every other life forms on the Earth. Galactus is going to devour the whole planet as he has done to many other planets selected by his dutiful servant, and he is already heading to the Earth from somewhere outside in the universe.

Needless to say, our four superheroes quickly ready themselves for confronting their very powerful opponents, but they are reminded again of how daunting the situation is. They try to do some negotiation at first (How nice it is to see superheroes attempting a reasonable talk first instead of going all the way for a senseless fight!), but both Galactus and Silver Surfer do not step back at all, and Galactus corners them into a difficult moment of choice. After sensing how special Reed and Sue’s child really is, he demands that Reed and Sue give up their child to him in exchange for not eating the Earth, and Reed and Sue certainly become quite conflicted about what to do next. Yes, giving up their precious baby for saving the planet as well as the humanity looks like a right and logical choice in this circumstance, but they know too well that this is also a big compromise against what they and their two colleagues have stood for.

 While we can easily guess what our four superheroes will choose to do in the end, the movie keeps us engaged as ably balancing the story and characters between humor and sincerity, and it also has some stylish fun with its futuristic world decorated with a lot of retro touches to notice. Although the technology of this alternative world looks quite advanced on the whole, the production design and costumes of the film are often reminiscent of New York City during the 1950-60s, and this amusing aspect is further accentuated by the busy and colorful design of the main title and end credits of the movie. The score by Michael Giacchino is often as colorful and exuberant as the one he composed for Oscar-winning Pixar superhero animation film “The Incredibles” (2004), and this certainly contributes some extra fun and style to the film.

In addition, like recent Superman movie, the movie is also willing to go further for more hope, care, and optimism. Sure, it eventually becomes quite loud and bombastic when the story eventually reaches to the big climatic action sequence where a lot of things are smashed or crushed across the screen, but it thankfully does not overlook small human moments amid lots of crashes and bangs, while maintaining well its sense of fun as before.

The four main performers of the film click well together as deftly going back and forth between comedy and drama. Pedro Pascal brings enough charm and gravitas to his character, and Vanessa Kirby is believable during her character’s several big moments including the one which may take you back to her Oscar-nominated turn in “Pieces of a Woman” (2020). Joseph Quinn, a British newcomer who previously appeared in “A Quiet Place: Day One” (2024) and “Gladiator II” (2024), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who has been more notable thanks to his Emmy-winning supporting turn in TV comedy series “The Bear”, have each own moments around Pascal and Kirby, and Moss-Bachrach is particularly good whenever he brings a surprising amount of quiet sensitivity to his literally rocky character.

In case of several other main cast members in the film, they fill their respective parts as much as possible. While Julia Garner and Ralph Ineson generate enough menace as required, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, and Paul Walter Hauser are also solid as the substantial supporting characters in the story, and it is rather interesting to see how Lyonne, who plays Ben’s possible love interest, can effortlessly dial down her distinctive persona to some degree.

In conclusion, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”, directed by Matt Shakman, is as promising as its subtitle suggests besides being fairly entertaining enough for recommendation. Although I must point out that “The Incredibles” is still relatively better because of handling its similar superhero story more dexterously and memorably, the movie did its job as well as intended, so I will not grumble for now as having a bit of expectation on whatever will come next.

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Moving (1993) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): After the divorce

Posted on July 26, 2025 by kaist455

Shinji Sōmai’s 1993 film “Moving”, whose recent 4K restoration version is currently being shown in South Korean theaters, is about a 12-year-old girl trying to process a considerable domestic change in her daily life. At first, we are often amused by her bumpy emotional journey along the story, but we come to have more understanding and empathy on her ongoing inner struggles, and that is why it is poignant to observe how she comes to have a genuinely meaningful moment of maturation at the end of her journey.

The movie opens with a home dinner between Renko (Tomoko Tabata) and her parents. On the surface, everything seems fine and well as Renko tries to brighten up the mood among them, but it gradually becomes apparent to us that her parents, Kenichi (Kiichi Nakai) and Nazuna (Junko Sakurada), are quite estranged to each other. As a matter of fact, Renko’s parents are soon going to have a divorce, and we subsequently see Kenichi moving out of the family house along with a bunch of stuffs belonging to him.

Not totally understanding the personal reasons behind her parents’ divorce yet, Renko, who incidentally stays with her mother, acts as if nothing serious happened to her and her parents. While not telling anything about her parents’ divorce to her schoolmates, she attempts to maintain her relationship with her father as usual just because she likes him a bit more, but that is not welcomed much by her mother, who really wants to leave behind her unhappy married life.

As our young heroine struggles to adjust herself to her changed domestic environment, the movie lets us sense more of her accumulating anxiety and frustration along the story. No matter how much she tries hard, it becomes all the clearer to us that her mother and father will never be together again, and the resulting conflict inside her eventually leads to several troubles in her elementary school. Needless to say, Nazuna is quite exasperated and frustrated about this problem, and Renko only becomes more rebellious while not appreciating much of her mother’s sincere efforts.

And she comes to learn more of how imperfect her parents are with each own human flaws. While Nazuna is often absent due to for being quite busy with her job, Kenichi turns out to be quite a lousy husband besides being still in the need of growing up more, and Renko inadvertently makes her parents show their worst sides to each other at one point later in the story.

After going through a fair share of anger, denial, and depression, Renko later concocts a little scheme as a part of what can be regarded as a sort of bargaining. She persuades her mother to go to a certain special place in their family life along with her, but, of course, her plan crumbles right from when they arrive at that place, and that consequently throws her into more conflict and confusion.

Even around that narrative point, the movie keeps maintaining its calm attitude, and then there come a series of somber but haunting human moments to remember. In case of an unexpectedly touching scene where Renko happens to receive the kindness of an old couple, she comes to learn from them a bit about how to accept loss, and the movie wisely does not spell out that small but valuable lesson of hers, while simply observing the gentle interactions between her and that old couple.

Around the finale, the mood becomes a bit dreamier as our young heroine aimlessly wanders around here and there in the middle of a big local festival, but the movie does not lose any of its emotional tension thanks to Sōmai’s skillful direction. As he and his crew members including cinematographer Toyomichi Kurita steadily carry the film via an ample amount of realism and verisimilitude on the screen, we become more absorbed in Renko’s conflicted mind, and the movie keeps us engaged as before – even when the story suddenly enters the realm of illusion along with its heroine.

The movie also depends a lot on the unforgettable lead performance of Tomoko Tabata, who incidentally began her acting career with this film. Effortlessly conveying to us her character’s difficult progress toward growth and acceptance, Tabata’s excellent performance holds the center to the end, and she is also supported well by Kiichi Nakai and Junko Sakurada. Nakai, whose first name was given by none other than Yasujirō Ozu (His actor father, Keiji Sada, appeared in Ozu’s several notable films including “An Autumn Afternoon (1962)”), makes his character somehow likable and understandable despite numerous flaws to observe, and Sakurada, who regrettably retired from acting not long after the movie came out, is equally convincing as her character goes through her own personal growth along the story.

In conclusion, “Moving” is a wonderful coming-of-age drama film from Sōmai, who deserves more recognition considering how much many of his works have been respected by many notable Japanese filmmakers including Hirokazu Kore-eda and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Along with “Typhoon Club” (1985), which happened to be released in South Korean theaters in last year, the movie shows me that he is indeed one of the most important filmmakers in Japanese cinema, and I am certainly willing to get to know more about his career and achievement.

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Fear Street: Prom Queen (2025) ☆☆(2/4): No more than your average slasher flick

Posted on July 25, 2025 by kaist455

Netflix film “Fear Street: Prom Queen”, which was released a few months ago, is no more than your average slasher flick, and that is a big disappointment compared to how much the Fear Street trilogy achieved a few years ago. Yes, that trilogy was more or less than an exercise in genre variation, but the overall result was often fun and engaging enough to hold our attention as willingly going against the rules of its genre along with its main characters. In case of “Fear Street: Prom Queen”, this merely follows its genre clichés and conventions, so there is not much fun or thrill for us, no matter how many figures are maimed or killed in gruesome ways along the plot.

Set in 1988, the story, which is based on the novel of the same name in the book series from R.L. Stein, revolves around the upcoming prom of the high school in Shadyside, which, as shown in the Fear Street trilogy, has been riddled with many horrible incidents for more than 300 years in contrast to its more affluent and peaceful neighbor town. For changing the public image of Shadyside, the vice principal of the high school is quite determined to make the prom as safe and wholesome as possible, and everyone in the school is certainly interested in who will be chosen as the prom queen in the end.

Everything thinks Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza), who is incidentally the most popular girl in the high school, will be the prom queen, but Lori Granger (India Fowler) is quite willing to compete against Tiffany even though she is a lot less popular than Tiffany due a notorious past involved with her mother. Around the time Tiffany’s mother got pregnant right before her high school prom, her boyfriend, who is Tiffany’s father, was murdered, and many people in the town think she killed him even though she was eventually released later.

Reminded again and again of her family’s disturbing past, Lori becomes all the more determined to become the prom queen and then get a moment of redemption for her as well as her mother, and her best friend Megan Rogers (Suzanna Son) is surely ready to support Lori to the end. For example, Megan willingly accompanies Lori as her prom partner because no boy in their school dares to defy Tiffany and her selected group of mean girls, and Lori certainly appreciates that. 

Needless to say, it looks like Tiffany is going to be the new prom queen as expected, but something very disturbing is already happening behind the prom. One of the six prom queen candidates including Tiffany and Lori was killed even before the prom is started, and the killer, who is naturally and conveniently masked while also wearing a strikingly red raincoat, seems to be going to eliminate the remaining candidates one by one.

While this murderous figure continues the killing spree here and there in the school, those boys and girls continue to have a good time without noticing anything, and the movie expectedly uses a number of notable songs of the 1980s. At one point, a certain recognizable song is played in the background, and, not so surprisingly, this leads to a moment when Lori comes to rise up as a considerable competitor to Tiffany’s annoyance. Besides, Tiffany’s hunky boyfriend comes to show more interest in Lori, and this certainly makes Tiffany all the more furious to say the least.

In case of several killing scenes in the film, director/co-writer Matt Palmer surely makes us wince more than once, but these scenes are just bloody and violent without contributing much to the story and characters while remained as mere shockers. In many of those killing scenes in the Fear Street trilogy, we are often quite engaged and then horrified because we actually come to know and then care about some of its main characters. In case of “Fear Street: Prom Queen”, many of its main characters are no more than cardboard figures to be eliminated sooner or later, and we simply observe its predictable plot progress from the distance without much care.

 The main cast members of the film try to overcome their rather forgettable characters as much as they can. India Fowler manages to bring a bit of life and personality to her very clichéd heroine, and she and Suzanna Son click together so well that you may be very disappointed with how the movie does not delve more into these two outsider girls’ friendship. On the opposite, Fina Strazza is effective as your typical high school queen bee who turns out to be more anxious and pressured than she seems on the surface, and Lili Taylor, Katherine Waterston, and Chris Klein, who incidentally looks much older and more different compared to when he appeared in those American Pie flicks many years ago, are regrettably wasted in their thankless supporting roles, which will only remind you of my late mentor Roger Ebert’s indisputable Law of Economy of Characters.

In conclusion, “Fear Street: Prom Queen” is quite rote and conventional in terms of storytelling and characterization, and it does not surprise us much even during the last act where it is supposed to throw some obligatory plot twists as required (Is this a spoiler, folks?). While getting more and more dissatisfied with the film, I was reminded again and again of how refreshing the Fear Street trilogy was besides being solid genre flicks, and, as a matter of fact, I am actually planning to revisit that trilogy soon, considering how long and hot this summer has been during last several weeks.

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Saturday Night (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A very typically crowded backstage tale

Posted on July 22, 2025 by kaist455

I do not know that much about its main subject, but I can tell you at least that Jason Reitman’s latest film “Saturday Night”, which is currently available on Netflix in South Korea, is a very typically crowded backstage tale. Mainly revolving around the premiere of one important American TV comedy sketch variety show in 1975, the movie throws and juggles a lot of stuffs in the air, but I doubt whether any of these supposedly interesting stuffs will linger on your mind after the very last shot of the film.

At the beginning, the movie, mostly set in NBC Studios in New York City during the late night of October 11th, 1975. introduces us to Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle), a rather inexperienced but ambitious young TV producer quite determined to give a night to remember for the American TV audiences as well as him and many others around him. After managing to gather a bunch of young, talented, but relatively unknown comedians, he and his colleagues have prepared a lot for what these comedians are soon going to do on live TV during the next 90 minutes, and everyone is quite nervous because, well, there was nothing like that before in the American TV broadcasting history and they are certainly taking a big chance as entering a new territory.

Nevertheless, Michaels is ready to try anything for the successful premiere of “Saturday Night”, which would be later known as, yes, “Saturday Night Live”. Although it becomes more apparent later that NBC is simply using his nascent TV show as a bargaining chip for its ongoing contract negotiation with Johnny Carson, he is not daunted by that at all, and many of his colleagues including his wife/professional partner Rosie Shuster (Racheal Sennott) are also willing to try their best for their approaching big time on live TV.

Of course, things are not going that well for Michaels and his colleagues as their showtime is approaching second by second. While it is often hard and difficult to get their comedians including John Belushi (Matt Wood) under control, there comes one technical problem after another on the set of “Saturday Night”, and arranging all those planned comedy sketches into the 90 minutes given to them looks relatively easy compared to the accumulating troubles here and there around the set. 

And Michaels gets all the more pressured by NBC, which is mainly represented by David Tebet (Willem Dafoe). At first, this supposedly benevolent NBC executive seems to be his biggest ally in NBC Studios, but he may eventually give the spot reserved for “Saturday Night” to Carson at the last minute if it ever looks not so promising to him at any chance.

While Micheals constantly struggles to get everything under control as much as possible, the screenplay by Reitman and his co-writer/co-producer Gil Kenan also presents a number of subplots popping up here and there around Micheals. While one of his main writers often keeps clashing with an NBC employee checking on any sensitive thing in his comedy sketches, Belushi turns out to be a bigger headache as refusing to sign on his contract, and his fellow comedian Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) is no better than that. In case of Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), he becomes more aware that he is the only Black guy in the main cast of “Saturday Night”, and he seriously questions himself on whether “Saturday Night” is actually below his talent and potential.      

 All these and many other elements in the story look fairly interesting regardless of how much the movie is actually close to its real-life story, but Reitman and Kenan’s screenplay only ends up scratching the surface as cramming too many things into its rather short running time (109 minutes). For example, a part involved with Milton Bearle (J. K. Simmons) is not so necessary in my humble opinion, and the movie does not delve enough into the private/professional relationship between Michaels and his wife. Around the last act, there eventually comes an expected moment when Micheals and many others really stick together for his ambitious vision at the last minute (Is this a spoiler?), but there is no surprise for us in the end, and the following reenactment of the very first minutes of “Saturday Night” feels merely obligatory on the whole.

Gabriel Labelle, who has been more notable thanks to his excellent performance in Stephen Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” (2022), attempts to carry the movie with his earnest lead performance, but his efforts are often overshadowed by some of the more colorful performers in the bunch. Willem Dafoe, J.K. Simmons, and Tracy Letts are surely reliable as usual even though they are mostly required to fill their thin supporting parts with each own presence. In case of Cory Micheal Smith, Dylan O’Brien, Matt Wood, Matthew Rhys, and Nicholas Braun, they are fairly good, but we cannot help but become more of their attempts to imitate those legendary real-life figures played by them in the movie. While Rachel Sennott, who can be really funny as shown from her breakout performance in Emma Seligman’s “Shiva Baby” (2020), and Kim Matula are unfortunately wasted due to their under-developed parts, Lamorne Morris, who recently won an Emmy for his good supporting turn in the recent season of American TV drama series “Fargo”, manages to overcome his rather thankless role at times, and his best moment in the film comes from when his character gladly steps forward for making “Saturday Night” feel a little more exciting later in the story.

Overall, “Saturday Night” feels a bit too thin and scattershot as trying to present too many things at once, though it may make you reflect more on how its titular TV comedy sketch variety show has endured during last five decades. Yes, they did try to do something different at that time, and the rest is indeed history, but the movie is merely another backstage tale to my little dissatisfaction.

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Apocalypse in the Tropics (2024) ☆☆☆1/2 (3.5/4): The ongoing crisis of Brazilian democracy

Posted on July 21, 2025 by kaist455

Watching Netflix documentary film “Apocalypse in the Tropics” is one of the most alarming experiences I have ever had during this year. To be frank with you, I and many other people in South Korea recently went through a political crisis not so far from the one presented in the documentary, and I could not help but notice how many moments in the documentary frighteningly resonate with what I saw from the South Korean society during last several months.

The documentary can be regarded as the next chapter coming after director/co-producer/co-writer Petra Costa’s Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary “The Edge of Democracy” (2019). In that documentary, Costa calmly observed on how the Brazilian democracy was seriously threatened by the rapid political rise of Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right Chrisitan politician who eventually won the Presidential Election in late 2018 as shown around the end of that documentary. In case of “Apocalypse in the Tropics”, it observes the following social/political turmoil in the Brazilian society during the Bolsonaro presidency, and it also examines the big political/religious groups behind it, which are still exerting a considerable influence over many Brazilian citizens in the name of faith and God even at this point.

 Some of the key moments in the documentary focus on Silas Malafaia, who has been one of the most prominent figures in the evangelical movement in Brazilian politics. In front of the camera, Malafaia is quite frank about his aggressive mix of politics and religion, and he certainly boasts a lot about his longtime role as a kingmaker in Brazilian politics. As a matter of fact, he actually associated himself with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the early 2000s, but then he moved onto one right-wing politician after another before eventually supporting Bolsonaro around the 2010s. 

And he is just one of many influential evangelists out there in Brazil. Right from the beginning, the documentary shows us how many of powerful Brazilian politicians have been associated with the big evangelical groups in one way or another, and you will be amazed to see that some of these politicians are also pastors. They all are quite willing to make the Brazilian society and government dominated more by their religion than before, and it is disturbing to see that they do not have any problem with that.

 As looking back on the past of her country, Costa sharply points out the dark origin of the evangelical movement in Brazil. Around the 1960s, Brazil seemed quite ready to embrace democracy more as reflected by the construction of its new capital city, but there came a military coup d’état, and the American government had no problem with going along with that as a part of its Cold War game. As many Catholic priests in Brazil leaned more on social justice, the US government was very determined to suppress this via spreading its own evangelism here and there in Brazil, and you will not be surprised to see who led this political/religious movement during that time.

The documentary also shrewdly observes that the basis of the aggressive political stance of both the American and Brazilian evangelical movement came from a radical but game-changing interpretation on the Book of Revelation by one Irish pastor in the 19th century. This radical interpretation virtually justifies the holy war for the apocalypse to come, and, as many of you know too well, this inherently fanatic idea has driven many Christians toward more hate and intolerance on the people outside their groups. 

Even when the Brazilian society got turned upside down during the COVID-19 pandemic period due to the sheer incompetence and irresponsibility of the Bolsonaro Presidency, millions of Christian Brazilians kept supporting Bolsonaro as told by their evangelical leaders, and it is really depressing to observe some of these people showing the worst sides of the humanity without any shame or hesitation. When Lula was released from a prison and then allowed to run for the Presidential Election in 2022, Malafaia and many other evangelists were certainly ready for stopping Lula by any means necessary, and, as reflected by one brief interview with a Christian lady, their followers believed in their false information and fake news without much doubt.

As observing more of the social/political turmoil in Brazil during that time which inevitably culminated to the 2022–2023 Brazilian election protests orchestrated by Bolsonaro and his supporters, I bitterly reflected more on how much the South Korean society and politics are influenced by those influential right-wing evangelical leaders in South Korea in these days. Closely associating themselves with President Yoon Suk-yeol and his deplorable cronies during last several years, these evangelical groups kept aggressively expanding their political power and influence, and many of prominent South Korean politicians remain associated with them as before, even though many of these evangelical groups willingly supported President Yoon’s shocking attempt of coup d’état in last December. His successor, President Lee Jae-myung, seemed to represent the democratic defiance against President Yoon when he eventually won the Presidential Election in last month, but then, what do you know, he made a lot compromise here and there just for getting more future political support from the local evangelical groups later, like, as shown later in the documentary, Lula did right before eventually winning the 2022 Presidential Election by a narrow margin.

In conclusion, “Apocalypse in the Tropics” is a sobering political documentary which feels all the more important considering the current political situation of our world, and Costa, who also did the narration as she previous did in “The Edge of Democracy”, succeeds in going further than what she admirably achieved in her previous documentary. Yes, this is definitely not something you can casually watch on Sunday afternoon, but it will surely lead you to a lot of concern and reflection on our increasingly disconcerting era.

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My Neighbor Totoro (1988) ☆☆☆☆(4/4): A simple but indelible country fantasy tale

Posted on July 21, 2025 by kaist455

As revisiting Hayao Miyazaki’s classic animation film “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988), I observed again how plainly simple it is in terms of story and characters. The story can be just described as a series of episodic childhood moments unfolded in a small rural village. Its main characters can be regarded as broad archetypes who often look very exaggerated in their emotional expression. Nevertheless, everything in the story including the titular mythic creature feels quite real, if not realistic, to me besides being quite charming and lovely to say the least.

And that probably makes the film the purest example of that distinctive style and mood shown from Miyazaki’s works, which have seldom disappointed me and other during last 46 years since his first animation feature film “The Castle of” Cagliostro (1979). His works distinguish themselves a lot via their vivid and meticulous cell animation which often evokes the texture of watercolor paintings, and they always fly high with a lot of wondrous imagination and compassionate humanistic touches. In short, this is something which cannot possibly be imitated by that abominable AI program which both disgusted and infuriated me and many others a few months ago.

 After the cheerful main title which will instantly appeal to your inner child, the film, whose story is probably set in Japan around the 1950s considering its several notable period details, introduces us to Satsuki (voiced by Noriko Hidaka) and Mei (voiced by Chika Sakamoto), two little young girls who move to a little country village along with their father on one sunny day. Because their mother is currently in a nearby local hospital due to some unspecified illness, the girls have to be taken care of by their father or an old woman who is one of their new neighbors, and things seem all right for them as they enthusiastically look around here and there inside the house they are going to reside along with their father.

The girls are told later that the house, which looks like a juxtaposition between Western and Japanese cultural elements (This is one of the recurring aspects shown in many of Miyazaki’s works, by the way), is your average old haunted house, but that does not stop their enthusiasm at all. As a matter of fact, they happen to encounter something odd and curious when they check out the attic of the house, and that makes them all the more excited about their new place.

It is still refreshing even for an Asian audience like me to observe how the adult characters in the story casually accept what the girls think they see inside the house, instead of flatly disregarding their words. Their father, your typical intellectual who incidentally teaches at a big university in Tokyo, kindly tell his daughters that what they saw in the attic is supernatural entities called “dust bunnies”, and that old woman hired by him confirms his explanation without any objection.

While this is the girls’ first step into the realm of fantasy, the film patiently and sensitively establishes the daily mood and background of their ongoing summer days without hurrying itself at all. We see them and their father trying to get accustomed more to their new residence, and that leads to one little humorous moment when they feel a bit scared in the middle of their evening bath. We see Satsuki continuing her education at a local elementary school, and the situation becomes a bit awkward for her when her younger sister comes to the school for some emotional issue. In addition, there is also a funny subplot involved with a local boy who apparently likes Satsuki but, like many boys around their age, hesitates to show his feelings toward her.

 All these and other small moments in the film are presented via a lot of atmosphere and details to observe and appreciate. Many of seemingly inconsequential details ranging from an abandoned piece of trash in a little stream to the contents of the lunch boxes prepared by Satsuki are clearly drawn with a lot of care and skill, and they help us immerse more into Satsuki and Mei’s innocent viewpoint. Around the point where the titular mythic creature of the film appears, we are so fully engaged in their small world which always seems ready to evoke another awe and wonder for them that we willingly accept whatever they encounter along the story.

The titular mythic creature of the film, whose big, wide, friendly smile always somehow reminds me of Cheshire Cat, is certainly one of the most enduring animation characters of our time, and I am amazed again by how endearing it is even though it does not speak at all and the film also never tries to explain it at all. Is it just a piece of the girls’ shared imagination? Or do it and its several fellow creatures including what can be called “Catbus”, really actually inhabit around that big camphor tree in a Shinto shrine not so far from the girls’ house? The film leans a bit toward the second possibility during a little but sudden dramatic situation involved with the girls’ mother later in the story, but it still strikes the right balance between fantasy and reality even at that point, and its final shot is genuinely poignant without being unnecessarily melodramatic or sentimental.    

On the whole, besides being one of the best works from Studio Ghibli, “My Neighbor Totoro” is still a great animation film to be enjoyed by both young and adult audiences out there for its sublime gentle qualities. Since I watched it for the first time in 2003, the film has never left my mind, and I assure you that you will revisit it from time to time just for cherishing its superlative beauty and wonder more and more.

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