Grand Tour (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): A pair of tours across Eastern Asia

Posted on April 6, 2025 by kaist455

Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Gomes’ latest film “Grand Tour”, which was selected as Portugal’s submission to Best International Film Oscar in last year, a baffling but interesting work with some artistic touches to admire and appreciate. While you may occasionally scratch your head as wondering what it is actually about, it is often intriguing to observe its unconventional mix of past and present along with a number of various languages, and I observed this odd concoction with enough interest despite getting impatient from time to time.

At first, the movie, which is loosely based on the W. Somerset Maugham’s “The Gentleman in the Parlour: A Record of a Journey from Rangoon to Haiphong”, seems to be about Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a young British lad working as a civil servant in Myanmar under British colonial rule, 1918. In the beginning, he is waiting for the arrival of his fiancée Molly (Crista Alfaiate) at the port in Rangoon, but then he becomes afraid of marrying her, so he impulsively decides to leave for Singapore right before her arrival.

Edward simply expects Molly to go back to London, but, alas, his trouble does not get solved that easily. Once he arrives in Singapore, he comes across a cousin of hers, and then he is notified that she will also come to Singapore soon. Becoming more desperate than ever, he quickly gets on a train going to Bangkok, Thailand, but then the train gets unexpectedly derailed in the middle of its route to Bangkok, and he soon finds himself depending on a local guide accompanied with his three wives.

Around that point, we begin to sense that the movie is more about mood and details than story and characters. At one point in the middle of the story, we see a smartphone, and that is just another example showing how the movie freely and fluidly moves from back and forth between past and present. As Edward moves from one Eastern Asian city to another, the movie usually shows the montage of many different sights observed from these cities in our time, and the narration, which is delivered in several different languages according to the locations, phlegmatically describes whatever Edward does and experiences during his increasingly complicated tour across Eastern Asia.

 This strange juxtaposition between past and present in the film surely baffles us from the very beginning, but it is also somehow amusing for the surreal qualities generated from this offbeat narrative approach. As the past and the present continue to swirl around each other, the movie becomes more reflective on the gap and connection between its two different parts, and it also provides a number of gorgeous visual moments provided by cinematographers Gui Liang, Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, and Rui Poças. Curiously, many scenes in the movie are shot in black and white film, but its “dream” parts are shot in color film in contrast, and this certainly contributes extra surrealism to the overall result.

Around the narrative point where our hero eventually ends up being somewhere in China, the movie shifts its focus to his fiancée, who is not daunted at all even after she arrives in Singapore and then finds that Edward already left for Bangkok. Molly continues to follow his trail, but then she discovers that she is much more physically fragile than she thought, when she comes to receive a bit of hospitality from some rich dude smitten with her.

Without hurrying itself at all, the movie steadily rolls toward its eventual destination, and we keep getting more of what has been gorgeously presented across the screen, though it continues to disorient us as before. During one particular scene around the end of the film, the movie deliberately shows the artificial aspect of this scene, and this will make you muse more on how the movie is about instead of what it is about.

I must confess that I am still trying to process and understand the film, but I also find it fascinating for its indelible atmosphere and detail, and I can only enumerate what lingered on my mind for a long time after the movie was over. I remember a striking scene where two very different moments overlap with each other for no apparent reason but generate an interesting dramatic effect on us. I remember a sublime moment where the relentless flow of urban traffic is accompanied with that famous classic waltz piece by Johann Strauss II. And I also remember an uncannily ethereal shot which simply looks at a foggy mountain forest for a while.

Because I have not watched many of his works including “Tabu” (2012) and “Arabian Nights” (2015) yet, I cannot say whether the movie is one of the better works in Gomes’ career, but I admire his confident handling of mood and details on the whole. Yes, I did feel frustrated or impatient at times during my viewing, but I also sensed the clear artistic vision inside the film, which continued to hold my attention to the end.

In conclusion, “Grand Tour”, which received the Best Director award when it was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival early in last year, is not definitely something you can casually watch for fun and entertainment, but I recommend it especially if you are really looking for something different and challenging. Although I still have some reservation, it is an interesting experience nonetheless, and I think you should try it someday.

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The End We Start From (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her motherhood after a disaster

Posted on March 31, 2025 by kaist455

“The End We Start From” is a simple but compelling movie which follows a young woman’s struggle for survival and motherhood after one big national disaster. Mostly limiting itself around its heroine’s viewpoint, the movie often accentuates how things become more uncertain and desperate around her, and that is why we are touched by how she somehow comes to find the will and determination to start again for herself as well as her little child.

The movie opens with how everything is suddenly turned upside down for its heroine, who is simply named “Mother” in the end credits. She is going through the late stage of her pregnancy, so her baby may come out sooner or later, but the situation outside her cozy residence somewhere in London is getting quite troubling at present. For some unspecified reason, rain has kept pouring down upon the whole country during last several days, and the situation becomes all the more serious as her neighborhood is gradually flooded more and more.

We later see the heroine eventually delivering her baby at a local hospital, and she and her boyfriend are relived at least for now, but they still have to deal with the national emergency situation just like many others in the country. It looks like many parts of the country including London are seriously flooded, and thousands of resulting refugees including the heroine and her family must find any possible shelter to stay right now.

Luckily for them, they subsequently find the shelter in the boyfriend’s hometown, and they are welcomed by the boyfriend’s parents, but, not so surprisingly, things get worse during next several days. While it seems that the heroine and her family can be safe and fine at the house of the boyfriend’s parents, they soon need to get some food supply for their survival, and the heroine finds herself left along with her baby after the others go outside for getting any food for them and her.

Needless to say, the circumstance gets worse than the heroine expected. She and her baby eventually get separated from the boyfriend, and now she has to take care of herself and her baby alone by herself. She and her baby are a bit safer along with some other refugees, and she also gets some help and support from some other woman with a baby, but she is reminded again and again of how things continue to get worse as the whole nation is still struggling to deal with the aftermath of that unprecedented disaster.

Steadily following its heroine’s plight, the screenplay by Alice Birch, which is adapted from the novel of the same novel by Megan Hunter, does not give much detail on what is going on around its heroine, but it instead focuses more on how she tries to recover from her devastated condition. While becoming more aware of her maternal responsibility, her mind cannot help but go back to those good old days of hers as reflected by occasional brief flashback scenes, whose warm and sunny mood makes a striking atmospheric contrast with her daunting current status.

Later in the story, she comes to learn about the existence of a safer shelter which is incidentally a little isolated commune. For her baby’s safety and welfare, she is certainly willing to take some risk for going to that commune, but she also comes to have the growing doubt on whether she is making the right decision or not. Can she and her baby really make a new start over there? And, above all, can she possibly leave behind everything in her life just for that?

As the movie sticks to its non-judgmental attitude, we come to focus more on the solid lead performance by Jodie Comer, who has been more prominent during last several years thanks to her appearances in several notable films including “The Last Duel” (2021). Subtly imbuing her character with enough human details to be observed along the story, Comer ably carries the film to the end without any misstep, and we eventually care more about her character when she makes a big decision on her and her baby’s future during the last act of the story.

Around Comer, a number of recognizable performers come and then go while having each own moment to remember. As the heroine’s caring boyfriend, Joel Fry has several poignant scenes between him and Comer, and we understand why the heroine is often haunted by the memories of her boyfriend. Mark Strong, Benedict Cumberbatch, who incidentally serves as one of the executive producers of the film, Katherine Waterston are also solid in their small but crucial supporting parts, and Waterson brings some warm decency to her character as her character comes to bond more along with the heroine as they go through a series of difficult circumstances together.

On the whole, “The End We Start From” requires some patience from you for being a bit too dry and slow at first, but it still works as a competent survival drama supported well by its good mood, storytelling, and performance. Director Mahalia Belo, who previously made several short films and TV episodes, makes a commendable feature film debut here, and I appreciate the technical efforts from her and her crew members including cinematographer Suzie Lavelle, who did a nice job of filling the screen with a grim sense of uncertainty and devastation throughout the film. Although it does not surprise me much, the movie engaged me enough as doing its job as well as intended, so I recommend you to take a chance with it someday.

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The Match (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The competition between a mentor and his pupil

Posted on March 30, 2025 by kaist455

There are several factors preventing me from being really entertained by South Korean film “The Match”. While it did a fairly good job of presenting a series of intense Go matches on the screen, the movie feels rather unbalanced as often focusing more on one of the two Go players at the center of the story, and this glaring imbalance is further accentuated by how its trailer and promotion have put much emphasis only on one of its two lead performers for a big reason to be discussed later.

The two real-life figures at the center of the story are Cho Hun-hyun (Lee Byung-hun) and his pupil Lee Chang-ho (Yoo Ah-in), both of whom have been known well for many years as two of the best Go players in not only South Korean but also the international field. The early part of the movie, which is set in the 1980s, begins with how Cho became the world champion after a big match in Singapore, and then we see him being celebrated by many of his countrymen as a national hero while also being regarded as an ultimate opponent to be defeated someday.

On one day, Cho comes across Lee, who is played by young performer Kim Kang-hoon at this point. Although he is quite young to say the least, Lee already shows considerable potential as a future Go player, and Cho becomes more interested when Lee later solves a little but challenging Go problem from him. Nurturing Lee’s talent looks like another exciting challenge given to him, so Cho eventually takes Lee under his wing, and we soon see Lee becoming a member of Cho and his wife’s little domestic life.

After next several years of study and training, Lee, who is now played by Yoo Ah-in, impresses his mentor more and more, and his mentor decides that it is really the time for Lee to go out for himself for the first time. At first, Lee seems quite underachieving, but he gradually establishes his own methods and strategies for playing Go, and Cho naturally becomes prouder of his pupil as Lee rises further in his own way.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that Cho subsequently finds himself in a rather tricky situation as his pupil advances much faster than expected. During one national tournament, Lee swiftly defeats one opponent after another, and, what do you know, he inevitably confronts his mentor in the final match. While firmly encouraging his pupil that he should always do his best regardless of whoever will be his opponent, Cho cannot help but become more aware of the growing possibility of losing his No.1 position, and so are many others around them.

The second half of the movie are driven mainly by a series of big matches between Cho and Lee, and the screenplay by director Kim Hyung-ho and his co-writer Yoon Jong-bin deftly handles many details observed from these matches. To be frank with you, I do not know that much about how to play Go, but the movie kept me engaged nonetheless as diligently doling out enough amount of necessary information and detail for understanding whatever is being exchanged between Lee and Cho on the screen, and that is a commendable thing in my inconsequential opinion.

However, the movie is also hampered by the narrative imbalance between its two main characters. As focusing more on Cho’s inner conflict caused by his matches with Lee, the movie fails to delve more into Lee instead, and Lee consequently becomes too bland and colorless to hold our attention. Sure, he is supposed to feel conflicted a lot between his own ambition and his deep admiration toward his mentor, but he only ends up remaining a merely blank counterpart to Cho, and that is the main reason why the movie loses some of its narrative momentum during its last 30 minutes.

Is this the fault of Yoo, who has incidentally been one of the most overrated South Korean actors to me and many others? As far as I can see, his earnest efforts here in this film do not sink the whole movie, but I must point out that Yoo’s blandly low-key acting is overshadowed by the more spirited performance from Kim, who looks promising considering that he does more than holding his own small place well in front of Lee Byung-hun during the early part of the film.

In addition, there has been a big promotion problem which has riddled the movie during last several years. The movie was supposed to be released by Netflix two years ago, but it was quickly shelved after Yoo’s big public scandal involved with not only drug abuse but also some allegation on same-sex sexual assault. The movie was finally released in South Korean theaters a few days ago, but I and many other South Korean audiences could not help but notice the unmistakable absence of Yoo in its trailer and promotional posters, all of which only emphasize his co-star again and again throughout last several weeks.

Lee, who also had a fair share of public scandal around 10 years ago, handles his part fairly well, and so are several other cast members including Ko Chang-seok, Hyun Bong-sik, Jo Woo-in, Jeon Moo-song, and Jeong Suk-yong. As the sole substantial female character in the film, Moon Jeong-hee manages to overcome her rather thankless role, and she is particularly good when her character sharply reminds Cho of what is more important for him later in the story.

In conclusion, “The Match” is often problematic for a number of reasons inside and outside it despite some entertaining elements. Mainly because my mind was frequently distracted because of what I pointed out in this review, I give it 2.5 stars, but I will not stop you at all if you just simply want to enjoy the movie itself as an audience, and let’s discuss later more about that lasting question on whether we can really separate art from artist.

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Arcadian (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): In their arcadian post-apocalyptic world

Posted on March 29, 2025 by kaist455

“Arcadian” tries to tackle its very familiar genre territory, and I like its earnest attempt to some degree. Yes, the overall result is still basically another typical post-apocalyptic horror drama film which does not break any new ground in my inconsequential opinion, but it is not entirely without engaging elements at least, and you may gladly go along with it before it eventually arrives at its predictable last act. 

During the opening scene, we are introduced to a plain dude named Paul (Nicholas Cage), and then we soon see how things quickly fall apart around him and many people out there. For some rather unspecific reason, the human civilization is almost wiped out within a short period, and a few remaining survivors like Paul must struggle day by day for their survival, while also having to protect themselves from the freakish entities originated from this apocalyptic situation of theirs.

Anyway, Paul has two baby sons under his sole care, and his sons’ safety is certainly his No.1 priority. 15 years later, his two sons, Thomas (Maxwell Jenkins) and Joseph (Jaeden Martell), grow up to become teenage boys who are now big enough to take care of themselves, but he is still concerned about their safety nonetheless. While they are now happily living together in a shabby farmhouse located in the middle of some quiet rural area which surely looks as arcadian as the very title of the movie suggests, they must always be very careful whenever night begins, because that is when those hideous entities will come out and then look for any chance to break into their residence.

However, things always look fine and well whenever another day begins with sunrise, and we get to know more about how Paul and his sons live day by day. While Thomas usually goes to a nearby farmhouse belonging to a couple and several others mainly because of seeing the adolescent daughter of that couple, Joseph prefers to stay inside their residence, but he has also been interested in how he and his family should handle their increasingly difficult problem with those hideous entities. It seems to him that these creatures have some intelligence, and he is willing to test his theory on them sooner or later, regardless of whether his father approves of that or not.

On one day, Paul lets his sons spend some time alone by themselves. However, Thomas subsequently decides to see that girl again while not telling his father at all, and then he happens to have an accident while returning from that girl’s farmhouse around the end of the day. Quite worried about Thomas’ safety to say the least, Paul immediately goes out for searching for him, and Joseph is consequently left alone by himself inside their residence as another night is beginning.

Needless to say, the mood becomes tense as Paul and his two sons are inevitably terrorized by those freakish creatures, and we get to see more of how monstrous these entities are. Whenever they are about to strike upon their prey, they show more gruesome sides to behold, and then it turns out later that they are indeed smart enough to plan how to attack their human targets more successfully, though they are still not so different from what we have seen from those countless zombie movies. 

Meanwhile, the screenplay by Michael Nilon, who also serves as one of the producers of the film, sometimes observes how harsh its post-apocalyptic world can be. While the parents of that girl are mostly nice and benevolent on the surface, they can also be rather selfish in case of maintaining their current status, and that eventually leads to a little conflict between Thomas and their daughter, who naturally feels guilty when their parents flatly refuse to help Paul at one point later in the story.

In the end, the story culminates to the climactic moment when Paul and several other main characters desperately try to defend themselves against a bunch of those hideous creature, and that is when the movie becomes less interesting than before. Merely going for its action mode without much surprise, the movie just throws a lot of CGI creatures onto the screen, and this sometimes overshadows the ongoing drama among the main characters.

At least, the movie still engages us thanks to the diligent efforts from its main cast members. Nicholas Cage, who also participated in the production of the film, wisely dials down his usual intense presence as gradually stepping aside for his younger co-stars, who are convincing as the two contrasting brothers who have maintained a strong bond between them despite their considerable personality difference. Jaeden Martell, who has been more prominent since his breakthrough turn in “St. Vincen” (2014), and Maxwell Jenkins ably complement each other throughout the film, and Jenkins also clicks well with Sadie Soverall in a few intimate scenes between them. 

On the whole, “Arcadian”, directed by Benjamin Brewer, does not distinguish itself much in terms of story and character, and I wish it had more mood, detail, and personality, even though I appreciate the competent efforts on and behind the screen. Considering that it is not a total bore at least, I will not stop you from watching it if you simply want to kill some free time of yours, but, folks, there is nothing particularly new or fresh for you here if you are a seasoned moviegoer like me, and you will soon move onto next things to watch once it is over.

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Azrael (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A wordless post-apocalyptic horror flick

Posted on March 29, 2025 by kaist455

When did I begin to notice Samara Weaving? Well, that was actually not a long time ago at all, considering her delightful breakout performance in “Ready or Not” (2019). Since that point, she has impressed us more and more as steadily appearing in a number of various films ranging from “Bill & Ted Face the Music” (2020) to “Chevalier” (2022), and “Azrael” surely confirms her undeniable talent to us again, though it regrettably fails to be more than the mere showcase of her acting ability.

At the beginning, the movie quickly establishes its modest post-apocalyptic background. After the human civilization was collapsed to some epic biblical incident, some survivors choose to lose their ability to speak as a sort of repentance in addition to forming a hardcore religious cult group, and the opening scene shows how Weaving’s lead character, whose unspoken name is revealed only in the end credits, is suddenly captured along with some handsome stranger by those malevolent cult members.  

While these cult members are taking our heroine to somewhere in the middle of their forest region, it becomes quite apparent to us that they are going to make her into the sacrifice for their brutal ritual. Once they tie her to one spot, they begin their little ceremony, and we soon get some glimpse of whatever she is going to be sacrificed for.

Yes, as some of you may already have guessed, the approaching entity in question is something not so far from what we have seen from those countless zombie flicks out there. It looks rather slow in its lurching movements, but it can be quite savage once it detects the smell of blood, and we surely behold its sheer barbarity not long after our heroine manages to escape at the last minute. 

As she tries to get away from not only the cult members but also those horrible entities in the forest, the movie shows more of how the cult members have stuck together under their female leader, who is played by Danish actress Vic Carmen Sonne (She was utterly unforgettable in Oscar-nominated film “The Girl with the Needle” (2024), by the way). While having incidentally been pregnant for several months at least, the leader seems to exert considerable influence over her followers, and there is a creepy moment when she and her followers silently pray together over the little but disturbing sound of a wind coming into their derelict church. 

However, the movie does not clarify much on what these insidious people exactly want from our heroine, and the screenplay by Simon Barrett does not elaborate a lot on who she is. Except for her fierce will to survive her increasingly perilous situation, we do not get to know that much about her at all, and her accidental relationship with a certain supporting character at the beginning of the story remains redundant without giving more human depth to her or that character.

 In case of those gruesome entities occasionally appearing here and there throughout the film, they surely look as scary as required, but they do not have much detail or personality either except their very, very, very hideous appearance. At one point later in the story, one of these entities makes a sort of emotional connection between itself and our heroine, but the movie remains rather ambiguous about what actually happens between them, and that is why the finale feels rather perfunctory without much dramatic impact.

Nevertheless, I still admired how Weaving continues to carry and then drive the movie to the end, Although her strong performance is occasionally limited by the contrived setting of the movie, she mostly overcomes that with her commendable efforts on bringing more presence to her character, and she also willingly throws herself into a lot of grime and blood as demanded during the last act of the film.

Around Weaving, Sonne and several other main cast members also try as much as possible. While Soone has a few big moments as expected around the climax part of the movie, Estonian actress Katariina Unt is solid as another main villain figure in the story, but both of these good actresses are unfortunately inhibited a lot by their thin supporting roles. In case of Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, he and Weaving are effortless as illustrating the mutual feelings developed between their characters during the opening part, but he also ends up being limited by his thankless role.

“Azrael” is the third feature film from director E. L. Katz, who previously made a feature film debut with “Cheap Thrills” (2013). That little black comedy thriller film is quite vicious and disturbing to say the least, but I enjoyed its naughty sense of humor while admiring how its main cast members boldly subject themselves into a number of darkly challenging comic moments.

Compared to “Cheap Thrills”, “Azrael” is relatively less impressive due to its rather superficial narrative and flat characterization, but I will not deny that I was entertained to some degree by how much Weaving tries for expanding the range of her acting talent. Besides “Borderline” (2025), she already has no less than three movies to be added to her advancing career at present, and I sincerely hope that her undeniable talent is utilized more effectively in any of these upcoming movies.

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Crash (1996) ☆☆☆(3/4): The morbidly metallic exploration of a sexual fetish 

Posted on March 27, 2025 by kaist455

David Cronenberg’s 1996 film “Crash”, which happens to be re-released in South Korea this week, is still capable of challenging us even after almost 30 years since it came out. As a cold and dispassionate exploration of one deliberately weird sexual fetish, it will constantly make you disturbed and uncomfortable, but you may come to admire it for how it boldly handles its tricky main subject with style, intelligence, and commitment. 

The story, which is based on the cult novel of the same name written by J. G. Ballard, is pretty much like what may come from an AI screenplay writing software after it studies a lot of those kinky erotic drama films such as Bernardo Bertolucci’s infamous movie “Last Tango in Paris” (1972) and then all those Fast & Furious flicks. While there are lots of physical sex scenes throughout the film, there are also a number of fascinatingly morbid scenes where cars are used for sexual arousal in one way or another. This truly bizarre juxtaposition between metal and flesh will certainly amuse you if you are a fan of Cronenberg’s films, many of which are about the horribly compelling exploration of body and mind.

After the opening scene which will instantly challenge you for a good reason, we are introduced to James Ballard (James Spader) and his wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Under), an odd married couple looking for anything to spice up their sexual relationship. At present, they respectively try on extramarital sex for getting more sexual pleasure between them, but it is apparent that they are already getting bored with that. 

And then something happens at one late night. While returning to his residence by his car, Ballard happens to have an accident due to his serious mistake, and his car crashes right into the car belonging to Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter) and her husband, who instantly gets killed on the spot. As Ballard and Dr. Remington are watching each other across the distance between them, something seems to be aroused between them, and that is accentuated further by Howard Shore’s metallic score.

Quite seriously injured as a consequence just like Dr. Remington, Ballard has to spend a lot of time at a hospital, and that is when he encounters a guy named Robert Vaughan (Elias Koteas) for the first time. At first, this rather weird dude just seems to be fascinated with all those scars and injuries on both Dr. Remington and Ballard, but it later turns out that he has been obsessed with a very weird sexual fetish: car crash. 

Now many of you may roll your eyes for this apparently strange (and very unlikely) sexual fetish, but the movie phlegmatically tackles this undeniably strange subject with clinical interest, and we are alternatively horrified and fascinated with how the main characters virtually or literally drive themselves further for more pleasure and thrill. Once he gets himself associated more with Vaughn via Dr. Remington, Ballard soon finds himself drawn more and more to that strange fetish shared along them, and his wife is certainly eager to join them as a person always welcoming anything kinkier.

Needless to say, their sexual obsession with car crashes including those famous cases including James Dean and Jane Mansfield becomes more perilous along the story, but, not so surprisingly, this does not stop them at all. Quite heedless about the undeniable danger of car crash as before, they keep exploring how they can possibly get more kick from their shared sexual fetish. You may understand them to some degree, if you have ever toyed with your own sexual fetish in private just for, well, getting more.

Everything in the movie depends a lot on Cronenberg’s coldly analytical approach to his inherently controversial story materials – and how the main cast members of the film willingly throw themselves into this daring artistic attempt of his. While James Spader, who is usually good at being odd and morbid as shown from Steven Soderbergh’s “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” (1989), brings some offbeat quality to Ballard’s detached fascination with his newly discovered sexual fetish, the other main cast members including Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Kara Unger, and Rosanna Arquette are also equally fearless, and Unger and Koteas are particularly terrific as their respective characters show more of their fluid sexuality later in the story.  

 Besides being one of the most notable works in Cronenberg’s filmography, “Crash” adamantly remains as one of those challenging cult films you will admire regardless of whether you like it or not in the end. To be frank with you, I still hesitate to embrace it more than before, but I observed its many boldly sexual moments with a lot of fascination from the beginning to the end, and I was sort of glad that the movie is not aged at all in its disturbing but undeniably interesting qualities.

As appreciating more of the distinctive qualities of “Crash”, which should not be confused with that Oscar-winning film at any chance, I now reflect more on how steadily Cronenberg have continued in his distinguished filmmaking career. Even though you may not like all of his films, he has been quite consistent as developing and expanding his own territory for more than 40 years, and, as recently shown from Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” (2024), his films have considerably influenced many other filmmakers out there during last two decades. He is indeed one of the most important movie directors of our time, and I sincerely hope that he will keep fascinating us as before.

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Origin (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A Writer’s Journey

Posted on March 25, 2025 by kaist455

Movies about writers and ideas are not usually something really engaging or compelling to watch, but Ava DuVernay’s latest film “Origin” is one of those rare exceptions. In addition to being a touching human drama to observe, the movie also works as the fascinating sociological presentation on caste and its toxic effect on the humanity, and its humanist ideas are certainly all the more relevant considering how our global world has been thrown into the dark bottom of apathy and cruelty these days.

The movie, which is based on Isabel Wilkerson’s acclaimed book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent”, follows how Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) came to write the book around the late 2010s. When the killing of Trayvon Martin happens in 2012, Wilkerson is approached by an old colleague of hers, who suggests that, as a prominent African American writer, she should write about the complex racial issues surrounding that tragic incident. Although she is not so willing to do that mainly because she wants to have some rest after writing her first book which incidentally won a Pulitzer Prize, Wilkerson cannot help but become quite disturbed when she later listens to a piece of recording associated with the incident.

Meanwhile, Wilkerson tries her best in taking care of her aging mother along with her white husband, but then there come a couple of devastating personal incidents which turn her life upside down. Despite still struggling with her immense loss and grief, Wilkerson embarks on her next book project, which is going to find and explore a common theme among Nazi Germany, the American Slavery, and the Indian caste system.

Now it will probably sound rather boring to some of you, but the movie gives us a series of interesting human moments as Wilkerson delves more into the main subjects of her book project. In Germany, she does some extensive research on how Nazi Germany systemically oppressed many Jewish people in the country during the 1930s, and there is a rather amusing moment when a German friend of hers insists that the Holocaust is quite different from the American Slavery even though both of them are basically driven by racism.

Meanwhile, Wilkerson comes upon a revealing moment when she reads a piece of record which inarguably proves a surprising connection between Nazi Germany and the American Slavery. According to that record, those racist policies of the Nazi Germany were actually inspired a lot by how the American society discriminated and oppressed its African American citizens in one way or another, and that makes Wilkerson more convinced that her research process is going on the right way.

For making Wilkerson’s intellectual journey of discovery more palpable to us, the movie sometimes directly shows us several real-life stories she encounters during her research. In case of a real-life African American couple, they came to Nazi Germany around the early 1930s simply for doing some academic research, but they came to witness more of the racism and fascism growing inside the country day by day. When they subsequently returned to America and then did a rather risky academic research on the Southern American society along with a white Academic couple, they faced a racial caste system not so far from what they saw from Nazi Germany, and they and their white partners eventually wrote an influential book based on their joint research.

While the American slavery still exerts its virulent influence over the American society via its lasting caste system, the movie observes along with Wilkerson that caste system and its resulting discrimination and oppression have actually been pretty common around the world. When Wilkerson later visits India for meeting a prominent Indian intellectual, she get to know more about how those people at the bottom of the last caste system in the country have frequently been discriminated and disregarded throughout their whole life, and there is some bitter irony in how one of the founding fathers of India was actually a member of the lowest group in the Indian caste system.

Steadily making a number of strong points on racism and caste, the movie also focuses on a number of intimate human moments observed between Wilkerson and several others around her. We get to know a bit more about the strong marital bond between Wilkerson and her husband, and we are touched as observing how Wilkerson gets some emotional support from a close cousin of hers who has been like a sister to her. When some other cousin of hers reminisces about her first experience of racism later in the story, Wilkerson listens to her cousin’s painful story with empathy and compassion, and that is one of the most poignant moments in the story.

As the human center of the story, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who has been more prominent thanks to her recent Oscar-nominated supporting turn in “King Richard” (2021), gives another stellar performance to remember, and she is constantly engaging as her character becomes more passionate about her book project along the story. She is also surrounded by a bunch of good performers including Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash, Emily Yancy, Finn Wittrock, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Connie Nielsen, Blair Underwood, and Nick Offerman, and each of them have each own moment to shine around her.

Overall, “Origin” is another excellent work from DuVernay, who steadily advanced since her first feature film “I Will Follow” (2010). Besides being quite enlightening in many aspects, the movie also comes to us as a powerful drama just like DuVernay’s previous film “Selma” (2014), and it will certainly leave you something to muse on after it is over. In short, this is one of the most thoughtful and intelligent films I have ever watched during last several years, and I think you should check it out as soon as possible.

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Presence (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): A presence in the house

Posted on March 24, 2025 by kaist455

Steven Soderbergh has tried many different things during last several years. Although he announced his decision to retire around the time when he gave us “Side Effects” (2013) and “Behind the Candelabra” (2013), he came back in business with little comedy film “Logan Lucky” (2017), and he has been quite productive since that point as deftly handling a number of various genres ranging from sports drama (“High Flying Bird” (2019)) to psychological thriller (“Kimi” (2022)).

In case of “Presence” (2024), which came out in US not long before his next film “Black Bag” (2025), Soderbergh attempts to tackle a certain horror subgenre, and the result is another interesting genre exercise from him. While the story and characters are quite typical to the core, the movie firmly sticks itself to the omnipresent viewpoint of something hovering around the main characters from the beginning to the end, and we are alternatively fascinated and disturbed to the end of the story.

At the beginning, we get the ambiguously ominous opening scene unfolded via the viewpoint of that unknown entity moving around here and there inside one suburban house. Not long after that, we see a local realtor coming inside the house for checking out its current condition, and then we observe a family looking around the house along with the realtor. Once Rebekah (Lucy Liu) and her husband Chris (Chris Sullivan) decide to live in the house, the house is subsequently remodeled a bit by a bunch of workers, and then Chris and Rebekah and their two adolescent children, Tyler (Eddy Maday) and Chloe (Callina Liang), soon move into their new home.

During their first days, everything seems mostly okay on the surface, but we begin to notice some serious issues inside the family. Rebekah and Chris have been estranged from each other as Rebekah has been trying to cover up whatever she has illegally done at her workplace, and this surely makes Chris quite conflicted about what he should do as a spouse and father. At one point, he tries to get some legal advice from a lawyer friend of his without telling everything, and we can only guess how serious Rebekah’s crime really is.  

Meanwhile, their kids are occupied with each own issues. As a prominent school athlete, Tyler cares more about being popular in their high school, and he does not care a lot about Chloe’s ongoing mental struggle associated with the recent death of her best friend. Her best friend and some other girl died due to some drug overdose, and Chloe is still trying to process her devastating personal loss, but her mother, who usually pays much more attention to her son, mostly disregards that as often saying that time will take care of her daughter’s issue in the end. 

Probably because of her grieving status, Chloe begins to sense the presence of that unknown entity in the house, and the screenplay by David Koepp, who also wrote the screenplay for “Black Bag”, gradually dials up the level of creepiness along the story. We see this unknown entity moving several objects inside Chloe’s bedroom, and then we see Chole being quite perplexed by the resulting difference. When she later gets closer to a friend of Tyler, this seems to anger this unknown entity a lot for some reason, and that is when Chloe becomes more aware of it. 

Steadily maintaining the ambiguity surrounding this unknown entity, the movie expectedly arrives at the point where even Chloe’s family cannot possibly ignore whatever is going inside their house. Fortunately, their realtor happens to have a sister quite sensitive to sort of spiritual energy, and this lady instantly senses something wrong inside the house right from when she and her husband enter the house.

Soderbergh, who also serves as the unofficial editor and cinematographer under pseudonyms as usual, tries an interesting visual approach for emphasizing the omnipresence of this unknown entity. Always functioning as the viewpoint of this unknown entity, his camera fluidly and continuously moves around the spaces occupied by the main characters in the film, and its wide angel lens often accentuates the uncanny situation surrounding them along with the occasionally dramatic score by Zack Ryan. The result is all the more impressive considering that the movie was actually shot in a real house over only 11 days, and Soderbergh also maintains the narrative pacing of the film well via his skillful editing.

Soderbergh’s main cast members do a bit more than filling their respective archetype roles. Callina Liang is definitely a standout as the most sympathetic character in the story, and she is also supported well by her fellow cast members. While Chris Sullivan has a poignant private moment when his character comes to have a honest conversation with Chloe later in the story, Lucy Liu and Eddy Maday are stuck in their rather thankless parts, but Liu manages to overcome this around the end of the film where her frigid character comes to show that she does have a heart to bleed just like her daughter.          

On the whole, “Presence” brings a bit of fresh air to its genre territory, and I was entertained enough by its mood, storytelling, and performance. Although it is a little dryer than many of recent similar horror flicks, it is certainly another fascinating genre piece from one of the best filmmakers in our time, and I am really interested in checking out how Soderbergh and his crew members made it. That is what any well-made movie usually does, isn’t it?

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All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A stream of her memories

Posted on March 23, 2025 by kaist455

“All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” requires you to take your time for reflecting more on its many individual moments to be savored and cherished. Yes, this is surely one of those “slow movies” demanding some patience from you, and you may struggle a bit at first as trying to understand what and how it is about. Nonetheless, you may eventually find yourself immersed in a seemingly random but ultimately absorbing stream of personal memories, and you will probably admire its little artistic achievement.

The backbone of the non-linear narrative flow in the film is the life of one plain African American woman living somewhere in a rural region of Mississippi. Her name is Mack (Charleen McClure), and the movie begins with a piece of her childhood memory associated with her parents. As her parents teach her a bit on how to catch and handle fish in the river of their neighborhood, the camera lingers on small details here and there on the screen, and we become more attuned to whatever is being observed and remembered by young Mack (Kaylee Nicole Johnson).

As the movie freely moves from one personal memory to another in a non-chronological way, we gradually gather the outline of Mack’s life story bit by bit. We see young Mack hanging around with one of those neighborhood boys, and then we later observe how they became more than friends when they were about to enter adulthood – and how what happened next between them led to a heartbreaking moment between them for a rather unspecified reason. We also see how close young Mack and her younger sister Josie (Jayah Henry) were to their mother, and we come to learn more of how much both of these young girls were devastated by their mother’s death.

Curiously, the movie does not give a lot of specific details on how these and many other things happened in Mack’s life. While the cause of her mother’s death remains quite elusive, we never get to know that much about why Mack eventually decided to break up with her boyfriend instead of marrying him, and we also do not get much information on how she came to get another chance for love later in her life.

I must confess that this was initially quite confusing for me during the first 30 minutes of the film, but I also came to admire the considerable confidence of director/writer Raven Jackson, who incidentally made a feature film debut here after making several short films. She simply lets us fill some gaps in the story for ourselves and then follow the free-flowing emotional narrative behind it, and she did a commendable job on that. Each individual moment is organically connected with each other via mood and details, and we are more engaged as sensing more of personal feelings beneath the screen.

According to the IMDB trivia, many of the key scenes in the film were inspired by not only the photograph albums of Jackson’s maternal grandmother but also a number of photography books including “The South in Color” by William Ferris, and what Jackson and her cinematographer Jomo Fray present on the screen is quite impressive to say the least. Shot on 35mm Kodak film, the movie is often imbued with the sense of old times being remembered, and Fray’s handheld camera brings a considerable amount of realism and verisimilitude as deftly capturing a series of small but undeniably poetic moments to remember.

What I particularly remember from the film is how it often captures the hands of the main characters throughout the narrative. I remember young Mack’s hand immersed in the muddy water of river. I remember young Mack and her sister’s hands being together with their paternal grandmother’s. And I also remember the hands of Mack and her boyfriend well in the middle of their bittersweet reunion, which tell a lot about their wistful feelings toward something which will never return to them. Later in the film, we see Older Mack (Zainab Jah) putting her hand in the river, and this act of hers speaks volumes even though the movie does not specify her quiet but palpable sense of loss at all.

Even at the end of the film, we do not get to know that much about Mac and several characters around them, but they look and feel vividly real as we go down further along the rather twisty memory lane of hers, and the main cast members of the movie ably embody their respective roles as required. While Charleen McClure, Kaylee Nicole Johnson, and Zainab Jah are flawlessly connected together in their performance, Jayah Henry and Moses Ingram are also effective as Mack’s sister, and several other cast members of the film including Reginald Helms Jr., Preston McDowell, Sheila Atim, and Chris Chalk are well-cast in their small but crucial supporting parts.

In conclusion, “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt”, which incidentally refers to the common practice of eating clay dirt among poor African American people in the Southern US, is another interesting addition to African American cinema, and its unique poetic qualities will linger on your mind for a long time after it is over. As a foreign audience, I still do not think I totally process and understand what and how it is about, but I was intrigued and impressed enough during my viewing at least, and Jackson is certainly a new talented filmmaker to watch in my inconsequential opinion. I will have some expectation on whatever she will make next, and I am certain that she will go further than this modest but admirable debut.

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Black Bag (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Between marriage and espionage

Posted on March 23, 2025 by kaist455

Steven Soderbergh’s new film “Black Bag” is a slick and efficient genre piece to be savored for many good reasons. Although it may feel a bit too murky for you as you try to discern its rather twisty plot, the movie effortlessly bounces from one narrative point to another without any misstep, and the result is another small gem to be added to Soderbergh’s long and illustrious career.

The story opens with its spy hero receiving an important tip from one of his colleagues. George Woodhouse (Michael Fassbender) is a British intelligence agent, and his agency has been in a big trouble because somebody in the agency stole and then leaked something quite dangerous from the agency. It seems that there are five suspects, and Woodhouse is not so amused when he comes to learn that his wife Kathryn (Cate Blanchett), who incidentally also works in the agency, is one of these suspects.

Anyway, along with his wife, George subsequently invites the other four suspects to a little private dinner to be held at his house. They are 1) Freddie Smalls (Tom Burke), a close friend/colleague of George who has some messy private issues behind his back; 2) Clarissa Dubose (Marisa Abela), a young junior agent who has recently had an affair with Freddie; 3) Colonel James Stokes (Regé-Jean Page), a dashing and ambitious dude recently promoted to a rather unspecified position which seems very important nonetheless; and 4) Dr. Zoe Vaughan (Naomie Harris), a psychiatrist monitoring the mental status of many agents inside the agency.

Not so surprisingly, these four people already know George’s hidden motive behind his dinner invitation, and both George and Kathryn also know this too well. As a consequence, the mood gradually becomes tense as everyone gathers at the dinner table, and then Michael makes his intention quite clear to the others around him.

However, in contrast to those four other suspects, Kathryn does not look particularly nervous about whatever her husband is planning to do, because she and George have steadily maintained their married life via being quite honest to each other about who they are despite also being often elusive about whatever they respectively do outside. They supposedly trust and love each other on the surface, but they also do not ask or tell each other too much even inside their little domestic environment. According to George, that is the main reason how he and his wife have so successfully balanced themselves between work and marriage for many years.

In the end, this increasingly uncomfortable dinnertime eventually culminates to a striking act to be committed by one of these six persons at the table, and the movie follows how George embarks on his little secret investigation after shaking up the tree via his rather disastrous dinner party. As he delves more into the case, every suspect on the list seems more untrustworthy, but then he finds himself focusing more on whatever his wife is doing behind her back. As usual, he does not ask too much, and neither does she, but she looks more like a prime suspect as he continues his investigation.

Playfully toying with this possible crisis in the professional/private relationship between Geroge and Kathryn, the screenplay by David Koepp, who previously collaborated with Soderbergh in “Kimi” (2022) and “Presence” (2024), deftly doles out a number of small and big plot turns along the story, and Soderbergh, who also served as the unofficial editor and cinematographer under pseudonyms again, ably rolls the story and characters via his own distinctive filmmaking touches. His cinematography feels dry but slick as providing enough atmosphere and suspense to the screen, and this solid visual result is further enhanced by not only his judicious editing but also the effective score by his usual collaborator David Holmes. 

Above all, Soderbergh draws enjoyable performances from his main cast members. As the center of the film, Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett always click well with each other as much as, say, William Powell and Myrna Loy in W.S. Dyke’s classic comedy mystery film “The Thin Man” (1934), and their effortless chemistry on the screen is the constant source of tension and humor throughout the film. Fassbender, who has been always good at playing cold and detached characters as recently shown from David Fincher’s recent Netflix film “The Killer” (2023), steadily and stoically carries the ground as required, and his unflappable appearance is complemented well by the frequently wily attitude of Blanchett, who surely has a ball with her character’s many elusive aspects.

Around Fassbender and Blanchett, several other main cast members hold each own place well as having each own moment to shine along the story. While Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, and Regé-Jean Page are dependable as usual in each own way, Marisa Abela also deserves some praise as another crucial supporting character in the story, and Pierce Brosnan has a brief but juicy fun as the suave head of the agency.              

In conclusion, “Black Bag” is one of the better works from Soderbergh, and I admire more of how consistently productive he has been during last several years since he announced his retirement and then changed his mind not long after that. Around the time of his retirement announcement, he did not seem to feel no particular need for achieving more, but then he has impressed us more and more since that, and I am sure that he will continue to do that for another decade at least. In short, this is one of more interesting films of this year, and you certainly should check it out if you have admired many of his good works as I have.

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