Homeward Bound (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Guess who’s coming to her home…

Posted on September 13, 2025 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Homeward Bound” is a little family movie with secrets to be revealed in one way or another. As each of its main characters struggles to handle their rather tricky circumstance while hiding each own secret, the movie earnestly and steadily develops the story with human details to observe, and we come to care more about their respective issues. 

The center of the story is a middle-aged female schoolteacher named Jeong-ha (Jang Young-nam). Although she lost her husband due to an unfortunate incident more than 10 years ago, she remains unmarried as teaching art at a high school located in some local city, and her only son Jin-woo (Ryu Kyung-soo) has been in Canada for some time for preparing for getting a good company job in South Korea someday.

Around the time when she is going to take a leave due to some illness, Jeong-ha is surprised to see that Jin-woo returns to South Korean along with his Korean Canadian girlfriend Jenny (Stephanie Lee). Although nothing much is certain for them at present, Jin-woo and Jenny recently decided to marry simply because they love and care about each other a lot, and Jeong-ha has no problem with that even though she is still concerned about her son’s prospect. While Jenny is soon going to become a medical doctor, Jin-woo has seriously been considering following his real personal passion, and Jeong-ha is not so sure about whether her son makes the right decision about his life and career.

However, it later turns out that there is something Jeong-ha did not tell her son, not long after she lets her son and Jenny into her little but cozy house. A woman named Ji-seon (Ok Ji-young) unexpectedly comes to the house, and we gradually gather that she is actually Jeong-ha’s longtime partner, though Jeong-ha hesitates to reveal their romantic relationship as well as her current illness to her son and future daughter-in-law. 

And then things become more complicated when it also turns out that Jenny’s parents, Moon-cheol (Park Ji-il) and Ha-yeong (Park Ji-a), come to the town without telling anything to their daughter in advance. Mainly because they cannot get any hotel room to stay due to some big local event, Jenny’s parents agree to stay in Jeong-ha’s house, and this surely makes Jeong-ha feel more awkward than before. She simply presents her partner as a close friend, but everyone else naturally wonders more about why Jeong-ha has lived so closely with Ji-seon under the same roof.

As Jeong-ha tries to find the right moment for telling everything to her son and Jenny, the movie generates some laughs from how rude and superficial Jenny’s father is. He only cares about whether his future son-in-law can meet his expectation, and this certainly makes everyone around him quite uncomfortable to say the least. While Jenny comes to show more discontent and resentment toward her father, Ha-yeong tries to handle the situation as peacefully as possible, and we come to sense more of how much she has probably tolerated her husband for many years.

Now you may be reminded of similar queer family films such as, yes, Mike Nichols’ “The Birdcage” (1996), but the movie distinguishes itself as showing some sympathy and understanding to all of its main characters, who turn out to be a bit more complex than expected. While trying to make her son have some second thought about his life and career, Jeong-ha finds herself trying to have him under her control just like her husband did in the past. While certainly frustrated with Jeong-ha hiding their relationship from the others around her including her son, Ji-son remains patient and understanding as a person who has known and loved her a lot for a long time. In case of Jenny’s parents, it is later revealed that they have some personal issues of their own, and that is often contrasted with the loving relationship between Jin-woo and Jenny, who do not care that much about the scale of their wedding simply because, well, they love each other.

You will not be surprised when the story eventually culminates to a dramatic moment among these main characters as their hidden issues are uncovered one by one, but the screenplay by director/writer Kim Dae-hwan, who previously impressed me a lot with “The First Lap” (2017), tactfully handles this expected part with enough humor and sensitivity, and the movie is also supported well by the solid acting from its small main cast. As Jang Young-nam diligently holds the center with her low-key performance to be appreciated for subtle touches to notice, Ryon Kyung-soo, Stephanie Lee, Ok Ji-young, and Park Ji-il have each own good moment around Jang, and the special mention goes to Park Ji-a, who fills her rather thankless supporting role with a considerable amount of personality and humanity.

On the whole, “Homeward Bound” is relatively lightweight compared to “The First Lap”, but it is still an enjoyable mix of humor and drama which will also indirectly remind you of why it is important to show more love, support, and recognition to many LGBTQ+ people out there. Around the end of the story, there are a lot of things to handle for Jeong-ha, but there is also a little but precious sense of hope and optimism for her and her partner nonetheless, and you will come to root for her more as the end credits roll.

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Princess Mononoke (1997) ☆☆☆☆(4/4): An epic fantasy drama by Hayao Miyazaki

Posted on September 10, 2025 by kaist455

Hayao Miyazaki’s 1997 animation feature film “Princess Mononoke”, which happens to be re-released in South Korean theaters today, is an epic fantasy historical drama to behold and admire. While its story engages us as a complex drama of ideas, intrigues, and beliefs, the film is visually enchanting for its beautifully wondrous details to observe and appreciate, and it has not lost any of its immense artistic power even though almost 30 years have passed since it came out.

 The story, which is set around the Muromachi-era Japan (1336 ~ 1571), begins with the stunning opening scene. A giant demonic entity suddenly appears near an isolated mountain tribe village located somewhere in the eastern region of Japan, and then it is stopped and then killed by Ashitaka at the last minute (voiced by Yōji Matsuda), a young prince of the tribe who is incidentally the sole male descendant of his royal family. Unfortunately, he gets wounded and cursed in his right arm by the destructive power of that demonic entity, and he is told that he will die soon if he does not find any possible way to remove that curse from him.

Eventually, Ashitaka leaves the village along with his faithful red elk. As looking for the origin of his curse in the western region, he is alarmed to discover that his cursed arm is pulsating with that destructive power of that demonic entity, and we get a brief but rather gory moment of action when he happens to be attacked by several soldiers at one point early in the story. 

After the encounter with a silly but shady monk named Jigo (voiced by Kaoru Kobayashi), Ashitaka arrives in the region surrounding an industrial town ruled by Lady Eboshi (voiced by Yūko Tanaka), a strong-willed noblewoman who has been clashing with the mythic animal creatures of a big nearby forest for getting more iron and power for her and her people. As a matter of fact, her new weapons caused the creation of that demonic figure which cursed Ashitaka, and Ashitaka certainly feels the hate and rage inside his cursed power when he has a private meeting with Lady Eboshi later.

And he also gets to know about San (voiced by Yuriko Ishida), a mysterious young woman who is incidentally the titular figure of the story. She has been tried to protect the forest from Lady Eboshi and her people along with a trio of big wolves including the one who raised her since she was an abandoned baby girl, and Ashitaka soon finds himself in the middle of the ongoing conflict between San and Lady Eboshi.

Now this sounds like a simple conflict between good and evil, but Miyazaki’s screenplay brings some unexpected complexity to the story and characters. While she hates humans as much as her wolf family, San is also a human, and then she finds herself touched by Ashitaka’s courageous act of good will and compassion. In case of Laby Eboshi, she is not a mere antagonist at all, and she is also driven by her will and belief as much as San. In addition, she is actually a fairly good leader for her people, and some of the most poignant moments in the film come from how much her people including a bunch of lepers and ex-prostitutes appreciate her generosity as well as her leadership.

And the story becomes all the more complicated with more conflicts and intrigues circling around its main narrative. Besides battling against those mythical animal creatures including a certain elusive magical entity who is the main life force of the forest, Lady Eboshi must deal with some other lord who has coveted her iron and wealth, and she later gets allied with Jigo, who turns out to have his own sneaky plan involved with that elusive magical entity in question.

While taking its time for letting us process and understand the motives and plans of many different figures in the story, the film dazzles us with the sheer mastery of mood, style, and detail from Miyazaki and his crew. As many of you know, Miyazaki and his crew drew every shot of the film from the beginning, and the result is often strikingly impressive to say the least. Thanks to their painstaking efforts, many details in the film ranging from those wormy tentacles of those demonic figures to the ethereal appearance of that elusive magical entity look quite vivid and distinctive, and that will remind you again of why cell animation usually shows more artistic human touches than digital animation – and why that recent AI imitation program based on the works of Studio Ghibli is quite an unspeakable abomination.

In the end, the story culminates to the climax where a lot of things happen across the screen, but it stays focused on the dynamic dramas among its main figures while never overlooking what is being at stake for them, respectively. According to recent documentary film “Miyazaki: Spirit of Nature” (2024), Miyazaki struggled a lot for getting the right ending for the story even during the production, and all I can tell you is that he did a commendable job of leading the story and characters to a satisfying resolution. 

Overall, “Princess Mononoke” is one of many highlights in Miyazaki’s legendary career, which gave us numerous top-notch animation films such as “My Neighbor Totoro” (1988) and “Spirited Away” (2001). When I watched it for the first time in 2003, it instantly became one of my favorite animation films, and I felt my mind recharged again as revisiting it after more than 20 years since that. This is indeed a great work, and I am glad that I and many other South Korean audiences can watch it on big screen right now.

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Highest 2 Lowest (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): A colorful NYC remake from Spike Lee

Posted on September 9, 2025 by kaist455

Spike Lee’s latest film “Highest 2 Lowest”, which was released on Apple TV+ in last week, is an interesting remake of “High and Low” (1963), one of the classic films from great Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. While mostly following the same basic plot based on the Ed McBain’s 1959 novel “King’s Ransom”, the movie attempts to do its own stuffs here and there, and the result is another colorful New York City movie from Lee.

Denzel Washington, who collaborated with Lee again after “Inside Man” (2006), plays David King, a wealthy and prominent music producer currently living with his family in one of those big and posh penthouse apartments in New York City. Although it seems that his music business career has passed its prime, King has been trying to reach for another big opportunity, and he is now virtually betting all of his money and asset on completely buying out his prestigious record company.

Alas, when King is almost close to his goal, there suddenly comes a big problem for him. Somebody calls King, and he is notified his teenage son is kidnapped. Quite shocked and devastated, King and his wife Pam (Ilfenesh Hadera) soon call the police, and a bunch of detectives promptly work on tracking down King’s son and his kidnapper, but, what do you know, it eventually turns out that the kidnapper took away the only son of King’s driver Paul Christopher (Jeffrey Wright) instead.

While certainly quite relieved, King finds himself facing a serious moral dilemma as the kidnapper still demands that he should pay the ransom. Christopher, a widower who is incidentally a reformed ex-criminal, has been much more than a hired guy for him for many years, and Christopher’s son has been pretty much like a brother to King’s son. Still hoping for the complete buyout of his company, King seriously considers not paying the ransom, but, as one of his business partners warns, that may ruin the public image of him and the company. Now I am reminded of that memorable line from Michael Mann’s “The Insider” (1999): “Fame has a fifteen minute half-life – infamy lasts a little longer.”

As King becomes more conflicted on this impending issue of his, Lee and his crew members including his cinematographer Matthew Libatique did a fluid job of maintaining the tension around King and several other main characters while also adding some interesting details to observe here and there inside King’s penthouse apartment. Besides a number of things from his glorious past, his apartment is also decorated with a lot of valuable artworks associated with African American culture, and they remind us more of his social and racial class as well as his considerable wealth and luxury.

While Kurosawa’s 1963 film focuses more on the diligent works of a bunch of detectives assigned to the kidnapping case, the screenplay by Alan Fox continues to focus on King’s ongoing plight instead, and we see how things get more complicated for him as time goes by. In the end, he chooses to do what should be done for Chrisotpher’s son, but there come more big problems to handle, and it looks like he is tumbling down toward the end of his career.

As his character struggles in one way or another along the story, Washington’s good performance steadily carries the film. Although he is 70 at present, Washington demonstrates again that he is one of the most charismatic actors working in Hollywood, and he also does not hesitate at all in embodying the human flaws and weaknesses of his character. While he cares a lot about the people close to him, King cannot help but remind them of who the man in the house is, and that is evident during a crucial private conversation between him and his son later in the story.

 With Washington’s strong performance functioning as its emotional engine, the movie deftly moves from one narrative point to another as often providing interesting moments to observe. In case of the sequence where King must deliver a bag of ransom money as required, it happens to be juxtaposed with the nearby Puerto Rican Day Parade, and this surely brings extra personality to the soundtrack as well as the vivid and realistic urban atmosphere of New York City in the movie. Around the last act, music and King’s profession turn out to be more integral to the story than expected, and that leads to more irony when King finally confronts the kidnapper.

Around Washington, Lee places several notable performers here and there. While Jeffrey Wright holds his own place well besides Washington (His son Elijah Wright plays his character’s son in the film, by the way), Ilfenesh Hadera and Aubrey Joseph also have each own small moment to shine, and John Douglas Thompson, Dean Winters, LaChanze, Michael Potts, Wendell Pierce, and ASAP Rocky are well-cast in their substantial supporting parts. 

On the whole, “Highest 2 Lowest” balances itself well between old and new things while also having enough style and personality to distinguish itself well from Kurosawa’s 1963 film. Although being one or two steps down from its senior, the movie is still another interesting work to be added to Lee’s long and illustrious filmmaking career, and it is certainly one of better things to watch at your home during this year.

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The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Another spooky case of Mr. and Mrs. Warren

Posted on September 9, 2025 by kaist455

“The Conjuring: Last Rites”, which another entry of the Conjuring franchise, delivers more or less than what you can expect from it. While there is nothing particularly new or surprising here, the movie gives us a fair share of shock and awe, and I was not quite bored even while recognizing several weak aspects including its rather plodding narrative pacing.

During the first act, the movie pays considerable attention to the personal life of Lorraine Warren (Vera Farmiga) and her husband Ed (Patrick Wilson). As many of you remember, Lorraine is a gifted clairvoyant and medium while Ed is a professed demonologist, and the opening part of the film shows us how their daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) got involved with one of her parents’ early cases at the time of her birth.

Probably because of that, Judy became quite sensitive to those supernatural stuffs just like her mother, so Lorraine and Ed tried to protect their daughter as much as possible during next several years. However, Judy often cannot help but feel more of something disturbing around the time when she is going to marry her ex-policeman boyfriend Tony (Ben Hardy), and her mother naturally comes to sense that even though Judy does not tell a lot to her mother.

Meanwhile, we are introduced to a certain middle class family living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who soon find themselves under the influence of something sinister not long after one of the daughters in the family received a big old mirror as her birthday gift. Not so surprisingly, that big old mirror is the one associated with that early case of Lorraine and Ed, and whatever inside it begins to haunt and then terrorize the family in one way or another.

It does not take much time for the family to realize that they have a really serious supernatural problem, and there subsequently comes a priest who is incidentally a close friend of Lorraine and Ed. When the priest requests some help from Lorraine and Ed, Ed declines mainly because 1) he and his wife want to have a less uneventful life now and 2) he is now having a serious medical problem which can be fatal when he and his wife confront those demonic forces out there again.

Of course, it goes without saying that Lorraine and Ed eventually get involved with that haunted family, but the movie does not hurry itself as trying more character development in Lorraine and Ed’s personal life. While Lorraine is more concerned about whatever is troubling her daughter, Ed shows more of his profession to his future son-in-law, and it seems possible that Tony and Judy will continue what Lorraine and Ed have worked on for many years.

Around the middle point of the story, the movie throws more shock and awe as expected, and there are several nice moments including the one involved with the close examination of a family video clip. In the end, there comes a point where Lorraine and Ed must come forward to confront their old opponent, and the mood certainly becomes a lot more intense than before.

Mainly because I heard a lot about that how untrustworthy Mr. and Mrs. Warren were in real life, I could not help observe the film with a considerable amount of skepticism as I did while watching many other Conjuring franchise flicks, but I was rather amused by how the movie is quite serious about their drama whenever it is not on its shock and awe mode. It is often sincere in the depiction of Lorraine and Ed’s partnership/relationship along the story, and it also handles their faith and belief with some respect and care.

Needless to say, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are dependable as before. While they easily slip into their familiar respective roles right from the start, they remain engaging thanks to the effortless acting chemistry between them, and you can instantly sense the strong emotional bond between their characters. Farmiga, who has steadily advanced since her notable supporting role in Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” (2006), fills her role with genuine warmth and sensitivity, and Wilson, who has also been one of the most interesting performers working in Hollywood just like Farmiga, exudes authentic decency as deftly complementing his co-star.

However, the movie feels deficient in case of its supporting characters surrounding them. Although Mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy are mostly solid, their characters are less engaging in comparison, though there will probably be more character development for them in the possible sequels to follow. In case of the haunted family in the story, they simply get disturbed and scared throughout the film without receiving much character development on the whole, and they are even conveniently put aside from the center during the expected climactic sequence.

In conclusion, “The Conjuring: Last Rites” is at least better than its predecessor “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” (2021), which is also directed by director Michael Chaves. Because it is not better than “The Conjuring” (2013) and I gave that film 2.5 stars, I give “The Conjuring: Last Rites” the same star rating, but you will probably not be disappointed if you steadily follow the Conjuring franchise, and that is all I can say for now.

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The Naked Gun (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): A thoroughly silly fun

Posted on September 8, 2025 by kaist455

“The Naked Gun”, a legacy sequel to the Naked Gun franchise, is as thoroughly silly and funny as required. Just like its three predecessors including the 1988 film of the same name, the movie is willing to throw a heap of gags and jokes from the beginning to the end, and the overall result is mostly successful enough to draw laughs and chuckles from us.

Liam Neeson, who gives the funniest performance in his career since his droll supporting voice performance in “The Lego Movie” (2014), plays Lieutenant Frank Drebin Jr., who is incidentally the son of the hero of the three Naked Gun films played by Leslie Nielsen. The opening scene shows Drebin swiftly (and hilariously) handling a bunch of bank robbers, and that is more than enough to see how willing Neeson and the movie are to do anything to amuse or tickle us.

Anyway, after clashing with his ever-suffering boss, Drebin is assigned to some other case which looks more trivial compared to that bank robbery incident. A certain prominent engineer is found dead, and it seems to be a mere unfortunate car accident, but Drebin is soon visited by Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson), who is the sister of the victim and has also been a fairly popular novelist. She believes that her brother was actually murdered because he was about to disclose something about his boss, but Drevin’s mind is more occupied with how sexy she looks during their first meeting.

Nevertheless, Drevin begins to suspect the victim’s boss Richard Cane (Danny Huston), who is incidentally your arrogant tech billionaire not so different from Elon Musk and does have a diabolical plan behind his back. With a special device called P.L.O.T. (“Primordial Law of Toughness) Device” (Don’t laugh, folks), he is about to do something not so far from what Samuel L. Jackson’s villain character attempts to do in “Kingsman: The Secret Service” (2015), and he is certainly ready to have his henchmen take care of Drevin once Drevin comes to meddle with his plan in one way or another.

Meanwhile, things become a bit more complicated for Drevin’s investigation as Davenport gets herself more involved in the case. Although he does not welcome this much at first, it does not take much time for them to sense the mutual attraction between them, and that leads to a couple of hilarious sequences to behold. It is too bad that the trailer of the movie showed us a bit of one of these sequences in advance, but both of these sequences are still hilarious enough to make me laugh a lot during my viewing.

Despite its short running time (85 minutes), the movie comes to lose its comic momentum around its climactic part unfolded in a mixed martial arts match on the night of New Year’s Eve, but the screenplay director Akiva Shcaffer and his co-writers Dan Gregor and Doug Mand continues to throw many gags and jokes as before, and we come to laugh again thanks to another outrageous moment to behold. I will not go into details here, but I can tell you that it is funny enough for me to overlook the laws of physics for a while.

Above all, it is really amusing to see Leeson firmly sticking to his usual absolute seriousness without any hint of self-consciousness. For this, he surely brings his tough guy persona which has been utilized well in a fair share of good and bad action thriller films during last 17 years since “Taken” (2008), but he ably demonstrates the more lightweight side of his acting talent with his thoroughly deadpan performance, which constantly anchors the film even when it stumbles a bit from time to time.

On the opposite, Pamela Anderson, whose career has been rising again thanks to her recent acclaimed performance in “The Last Showgirl” (2024), holds her own place well besides her co-star, and the result is commendable enough to be compared with her brief cameo appearance in “Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” (2006). Just like Neeson, Anderson plays straight to her comic materials without any self-aware wink, and she and Neeson also click well together with undeniable comic chemistry.

Around Neeson and Anderson, the movie assembles a number of notable performers, and they also stick to being quite serious without any misstep. While Paul Walter Hauser, who incidentally plays the son of George Kennedy’s character in the first three Naked Gun movies, is certainly dependable as usual, Danny Huston and Kevin Durand have each own fun moment as the main villain characters of the story, and CCH Pounder, a veteran actress whom I still fondly remember for Oscar-nominated film “Baghdad Cafe” (1987), is effectively unflappable as demanded. In addition, I also enjoyed the unexpected cameo appearance of one certain recognizable actor around the climactic part of the film, about whom I will not say anything for not spoiling any of your fun.

In conclusion, “The Naked Gun” may not reach to the sheer zaniness of its three solid predecessors (Full Disclosure: I even like “The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult” (1994) mainly for that hilarious sequence unfolded at the Academy Awards ceremony), but it is still a fairly enjoyable comedy film, and I will be delighted if Neeson gets another chance to play his character. I do not know whether he will follow the footsteps of Neeson after this movie, but it is nice to see how funny he can be, and he needs to do that more in my inconsequential opinion.

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Nobody 2 (2025) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A killer’s family vacation

Posted on September 7, 2025 by kaist455

“Nobody 2”, a sequel to “Nobody” (2021), attempts to generate more laugh and thrill from the one-joke promise of its predecessor. Although it is a fairly competent product, the result is more or less than a pointless rehash in my inconsequential opinion, and that is a shame considering the game efforts from its good lead actor and a few other notable supporting performers around him.

Bob Odenkirk, who also served as one of the producers of the film, plays Hutch Mansell, a former government assassin known as “Nobody”. As shown from the previous film, Hutch tried to live as your average suburban family guy for a while, but his accidental clash with a local Russian gang awakened his good old killer instinct, and he eventually decided to get back in his killing business around the end of the previous movie.

Nevertheless, Hutch also tries to maintain his suburban family life as before, and that certainly burdens him as well as his family at times. Although his dear wife Becca (Connie Nielsen) and their two children try to understand and accept whatever he is doing behind his back, he often finds himself being too busy to spend more time with his family, and this naturally frustrates both him and his wife a lot.

In the end, Hutch decides to have a real vacation with his dear family as finally taking some free time from his killing business, and he actually has a modest but sincere plan for them. He is going to take them to a certain amusement park, which was incidentally a very special place during his childhood. His father David (Christopher Lloyd), who also has a particular set of skills just like his son, once took young Hutch and his half younger brother to that amusement park, and that was the only time when young Hutch felt like being plain and ordinary.

When Hutch and his family eventually arrive at that amusement park, he is a bit disappointed to see that the place has changed a lot now. Nevertheless, his wife and kids are glad to have a real family time along with him, and Hutch cannot help but feel a little nostalgic as looking around those old spots he still remembers well.

However, as his handler warned him in advance, it seems that Hutch is always bound to get himself into trouble no matter how much he tries to be plain and ordinary. When his son happens to clash with some boy around his age, Hutch tries to avoid any possibility of trouble at first, but, what do you know, he soon lets himself driven by his violent sides, and this consequently leads to another conflict between him and his wife.

And the situation turns out to be much more problematic than expected. Due to the trouble caused by him, Hutch comes to draw the attention of the local sheriff, who is not so amused to say the least. While Hutch simply wants to continue his family vacation, the sheriff becomes quite determined to show Hutch who the boss is in the town, but, of course, his goons make a big mistake of underestimating Hutch, and we get a tense but absurd action scene unfolded in the middle of a boat ride.

Coming to realize that he should take care of the mess caused by him as soon as possible, Hutch prepares for whoever he is going to confront in the end, and we are accordingly introduced to a certain female criminal boss quite willing to eliminate any trouble in her criminal empire as quickly and ruthlessly as possible. Although her prime has passed years ago, Sharon Stone knows how to chew every moment of her scenes with gusto, and it is too bad that the movie does not give her more space for her deliberately hammy villain performance.

Around the narrative point where Stone’s criminal boss arrives at the amusement park along with a heap of armed goons as expected, the movie naturally goes for a full-throttle action mode, and director Timo Tiahianto, an Indonesian filmmaker who previously made “The Big 4” (2022) and “The Shadow Strays” (2004), serves us an intense mix of brutal action and carefree comedy. You will wince because of several extreme moments of violence, but you may be tickled a bit by the occasional moments of absurdity, and you will probably not mind the sudden insertion of a certain well-known pop song around the end of the film.

However, the movie is also hampered by the lack of character development in the story. Despite Odenkirk’s diligent acting, Hutch remains pretty much like what we saw from him in the previous film, and that is the main reason why the movie is less engaging compared to the previous film. In case of several substantial supporting characters, Hutch’s wife and their kids are mostly put aside for plot convenience, and Connie Nielsen is seriously under-utilized again before getting her own moment later in the story. In case of RZA, who plays Hutch’s half-brother, Colin Hanks, who plays that corrupt sheriff, and Christopher Lloyd, they simply come and then go as required, but I must admit that it is nice to see Lloyd still active despite being over 80 at present.

Overall, “Nobody 2” does not bore me during its rather short running time (89 minutes), but it is one or two steps from the level of entertainment of the previous film. Although I understand that it is supposed to be sort of a violent variation on “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (1983), it is deficient in terms of wit and personality, and my mind is already ready to move onto better stuffs while not remembering much from this passable product.

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Devo (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): The story of one defiantly unconventional American band

Posted on September 7, 2025 by kaist455

Netflix documentary film “Devo”, which was released in last month, looks into the history of Devo, a defiantly unconventional American band which simply tried to do something quite different during the 1970-80s. To the frustration and bafflement of its members, the social messages behind the absurdly subversive artistic musical expressions from the band were not often appreciated enough even when it was pretty popular, but they do not regret anything at all, and the documentary cheerfully takes us into some of the best and worst points in the career of their band.

At first, the documentary shows and tells us how the band was conceived mainly via the interview clips of the two members of Devo, Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale. Around the early 1970s, Mothersbaugh and Casale were studying at Kent University in Ohio, US, and, just like many other young American people during that time, they were influenced a lot by the turbulent social/political situation of the American Society during that period. As the hope and optimism in the American society during the early 1960s got smashed and dissipated, the country seemed to be on the way toward regression and devolution instead, and that inspired Mothersbaugh and Casale to found a little avant-garde band of theirs for throwing urgent social messages on what was happening around them and many others in the American society.  

Although the first public performance of Devo was not exactly successful to say the least, that did not deter Mothersbaugh and Casale at all, as they became more confident about their artistic vision. Around the time when Mothersbaugh’s brother Bob Mothersbaugh, Casale’s brother Bob Casale, and Alan Myers joined the band, they willingly went for many different unconventional stuffs, and they even made a number of cheap but amusing short music films, which can be regarded as the precursors to all those bold and flashy music videos during the 1980s.

In the end, Devo came to amass a considerable number of fans and admirers as one of their short music films got a lot of attention at several notable film festivals. As the band eventually performed not only in LA but also New York City, the unorthodox style and performance of the band drew more public attention than before, and the members of the band were certainly excited when David Bowie showed his interest in working along with them on their first album. Although Bowie later gave up their project because of juggling too many projects during that time, he introduced the band to Brian Eno instead, and their eventual first album, “Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!”, led the band to a big breakthrough in 1978.

Because they were already quite accustomed to mixing music along with theatrics and visual styles thanks to making their short music films, the members of Devo got quickly comfortable with the rise of MTV around the early 1980s. As its popularity got boosted further by MTV, Devo kept advancing with several hit songs including “Whip It”, and the members of the band ironically found themselves stuck inside the mainstream they had frequently criticized and satirized via their music. 

As Mothersbaugh and Casale frankly admit in their interviews, they and their fellow band members tried to be practical as balancing themselves between their artistic integrity and the constant demands from their record company. Thanks to their ongoing commercial success, they were allowed to have some artistic freedom, and they kept defying against the expectations from critics and fans as much as possible. However, there eventually came a point where the band began to lose its popularity in public, and everyone in the band became more aware of the beginning of the end when their sixth album turned out to be a big commercial failure despite their good efforts. 

However, what really bothered and baffled the members of the band was how most of their audiences responded to their music. Even though the satiric messages on the rise of social/commercial conformism in the American society are quite evident in many of their hit songs, their audiences usually regarded the songs as another cool new ones to consume and then discard, and the documentary does not miss the sheer irony and absurdity in that. As reflected by the name of their band, the members of Devo tried to warn about the human devolution caused by social/commercial conformism, but their works and the messages inside them were inevitably diluted or buried as they became a part of the American mainstream pop culture.

Moreover, as many of us know too well, things have only gotten worse and worse in not only the American society but also the whole world during last several decades. Mothersbaugh and Casale understandably feel bitter about that, but they remain proud about their band in addition to being quite active artists even at present, and, as some of you know, Mothersbaugh has been one of the most prominent film music composers working in Hollywood.  

 In conclusion, “Devo” is an engaging documentary which gives us enough insight on its fascinating main subject, and director Chris Smith, who has been mainly known for “American Movie” (1999), did a competent job of presenting a fairly comprehensive picture of the rise and fall of Devo. Yes, I must confess that I did not know much about its main subject from the beginning, but the documentary intrigued and informed me enough, and that is more than enough for recommendation in my trivial opinion.

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E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) ☆☆☆☆(4/4): A boy and his alien friend

Posted on September 7, 2025 by kaist455

Steven Spielberg’s 1982 film “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial”, which was re-released in selected theaters in South Korea in this week, is a pure cinematic magic to behold even though more than 40 years passed since it came out. On the surface, it is a pretty modest science fiction adventure film, but it is filled with a lot of wonder, skill, and heart to be appreciated, and that is why it has been regarded as one of the greatest achievements in Spielberg’s long and illustrious filmmaking career.

While watching the film again at a local theater, I admired again how steadily the movie sticks itself to the viewpoint of its young hero. After the opening sequence showing how its titular alien figure happens to be left alone near a suburban area, the movie follows the accidental encounter between this alien figure and him, and it takes time as sensitively depicting the developing connection between these two very different characters. Although he is quite frightened at first, Elliot (Henry Thomas) soon becomes curious and sympathetic, and he eventually befriends this alien figure, which he incidentally calls “E.T.”.

Although we sometimes see a group of government agents searching for E.T., the movie mostly focuses on how Elliot comes to bond more with his alien friend along the story. Without telling anything to his divorced mother, he keeps E.T. inside their house, and his two siblings agree to go along with that, though their respective first encounters with E.T. are not exactly pleasant to say the least. Once they come to understand that E.T. really needs some help for getting back to the home planet, Elliot and his two siblings willingly plan to help their alien friend, and that leads to an amusing scene where E.T. gets disguised in a rather crude Halloween attire for avoiding any unnecessary attention.

During my viewing, I wonder again who E.T. really is and what this alien character thinks and feels about his extraordinary circumstance on the Earth. Yes, this alien character has certainly been remembered as one of the most memorable alien creatures in the movie history, and you may scratch your head a bit if you reflect more on many mysterious sides of this alien character. For example, is E.T. male or female? And how old actually E.T. is compared to Elliot? Above all, when E.T. gets connected with Elliot in more than one way, is this actually just a survival strategy instead of merely being much closer to Elliot?

Regardless of whatever you and I think about those elusive matters with this alien character, the screenplay by Melissa Mathison follows the logic of fairy tale while not explaining too much to us, and we come to accept that without any question mainly thanks to Spielberg’s masterful handling of story and characters. He trusts us to understand that Elliot just follows what he sincerely feels about his alien friend, and he effortlessly makes us empathize more with Elliot’s viewpoint along the story. As a matter of fact, the camera of cinematographer Allen Daviau often stays around the level of Elliot’s viewpoint, and that gives us several memorable shots while we become more aware of how those government agents get closer to Elliot and his alien friend.

Things certainly become quite tense and serious around the last act, but the movie still maintains its fairy tale qualities even at that point. When Elliot’s mother reads to her daughter a certain part of J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan” at one point early in the story, this moment feels a bit too blatant at first, but it later resonates with what dramatically occurs later in the story. As a result, we all come to root all the more for Elliot and E.T. than before, and we certainly become quite exalted when E.T. demonstrates his special power again at the last minute.

Around that narrative point, the movie is buoyed further by its superb technical qualities provided by Spielberg and his excellent crew members including Daviau. The editing by Carol Littleton, who received an Honorary Oscar a few years ago, is particularly impressive during that famous climax action sequence which is still a marvel to behold for its brimming sense of unadulterated thrill and excitement, and the unforgettable score by John Williams, who deservedly won his fourth Oscar for this film, soars along with the movie whenever that is required.

The main cast members of the film are believable as their characters experience or behold all those wondrous moments in the film. Although he has steadily maintained his acting career during last four decades, Henry Thomas has been always remembered for his earnest performance here in this film, and it is still the best work in his career. Around Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, and Drew Barrymore hold each own place as Elliot’s family members, and Peter Coyote is also solid a government agent who turns out to be much more sympathetic and understanding than expected.

On the whole, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” is a great film to be remembered for its sublime mix of SF, fantasy, and adventure, and I am glad that I could watch it again at a movie theater today. When I watched it for the first time around the early 1990s, it was simply an entertaining movie to me just because I was a young boy at that time, but I came to appreciate more of its immense emotional power as well as its top-notch technical aspects when I watched it again around 10 years later, and the movie still interested and touched me a lot again today. To be frank with you, I am already considering showing it someday to my little niece who has been growing up day by day, and I’d love to observe how she will respond to it.

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Roman Holiday (1953) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): One free day of a princess

Posted on September 5, 2025 by kaist455

William Wyler’s 1953 film “Roman Holiday”, which is being shown in selected theaters in South Korea, is a witty and charming work absolutely tailor-made for its lead actress. Here is an exceptional actress whose charm and presence have never been surpassed by any other actress during last seven decades, and the movie has indubitably been immortalized by her breakthrough performance to remember.

Yes, that actress is none other than Audrey Hepburn, who was one of the greatest Hollywood actresses during the 1950-60s. Although her movie acting career was nearly over after “Wait Until Dark” (1967) and “Two for the Road” (1967), she left her own indelible image in the movie history in a number of notable films such “Sabrina” (1954) and “Charade” (1963), and “Roman Holiday” is one of the best examples in the bunch. 

Hepburn plays Princess Ann, who is a very, very, very important royal figure of an unspecified European country. As the heiress to the throne, Princess Ann has certainly been burdened with a lot of royal duty, and the opening part of the movie shows how busy she is as visiting one European country after another for serving her country. Around the time when she visits Rome, she cannot help but feel quite tired and suffocated, and, to make matters worse, nobody around her seems to understand her mounting stress and fatigue.

Eventually, Princess Ann impulsively decides to sneak out of the embassy of her country when no one is looking, but there is one small problem. Shortly before her elopement, she happened to be medically sedated, and she soon becomes quite groggy around the time when she is discovered by an American newspaper reporter named Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck). After seeing how helpless she is, Bradely decides to take her to his current staying place, while having no idea about her real identity.

Of course, around the next morning, Bradley belatedly comes to learn who she really is, and there soon comes a very good idea to benefit him and his career. When Princess Ann becomes interested in having some free time in the city, he gladly volunteers to be a generous guide for her, while also having his photographer friend Irving Radovich (Eddie Albert, who was deservedly Oscar-nominated for providing some extra humor to the film) photograph their private moments without being noticed by her at all.

After establishing its two main characters during its first half, the screenplay by Dalton Trump, Ian McLellan Hunter, and John Dighton gives a series of lightweight moments during its second half (Its rather checked history caused by the blacklisting against Trump and many other left-wing Hollywood figures during that time is dramatized in “Trumbo” (2015), by the way). While freely wandering along with Bradley, Princess Ann feels much happier than before, and, not so surprisingly, Bradley comes to care more about her even though he still does not reveal to her that he knows her real identity.  

Because of the inherent human decency in Gregory Peck’s rather plain but undeniably wholesome screen persona, there is not much suspense on Bradley’s eventual choice later in the story, but I must point out that Peck humbly supported his co-star in and out of the screen. Cary Grant, who was incidentally considered first for Peck’s role, might have been more believable in the wily sides of Bradley, but Peck’s unadorned acting lets his co-star shine more and more along the story. As a matter of fact, his earnest acting works better as things get more serious around the last act of the movie, and that is one of the main reasons why the expected finale is accompanied with genuine poignancy. 

In addition, Peck also made Hepburn presented as his co-star in the main title, and that was quite generous to say the least considering that Hepburn was just a young unknown newcomer at that time. Hepburn, who won a Best Actress Oscar for the film, is indeed the real star of the movie, and we can only imagine how refreshing she looked to the audiences at that time. With her own charm and presence, she effortlessly radiates as a singular beauty to behold, and she also did a stellar job of conveying to us her character’s inner drama along the story. While surely having more fun and freedom than she can ever imagined thanks to her unexpected American friend, there eventually comes a point where Princess Ann must return to her royal duty and position, and Hepburn is terrific when her character must hold her aching personal feelings in front of others including Bradley around the end of the story.       

The movie is certainly one of many highlights in the illustrious filmmaking career of Wyler, who made some of best works from the classic Hollywood era during the 1930-60s and also won no less than three Best Director Oscars for “Mrs. Miniver” (1942), “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946), and “Ben-Hur” (1959). He and his crew including cinematographers Henri Alekan and Franz Planer did a stellar job of vividly capturing numerous real locations in Rome on the screen, and you can easily see how the city was destined to be brimming with more class and glamour as shown from “La Dolce Vita” (1960).         

In conclusion, “Roman Holiday” is a classic Hollywood romantic comedy film mainly distinguished by Hepburn’s exceptionally luminous presence. During last several decades, many different young actresses were compared to her, but she remains irreplaceable even at this point, and she and her several good films including this lovely movie will probably remain forever in the history of cinema.

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The Ugly Stepsister (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): The stepsister’s grotesque struggle for beauty

Posted on September 5, 2025 by kaist455

“The Ugly Stepsister” is a twisted mix of horror and comedy which will alternatively amuse and unnerve you from the beginning to the end. Inspired by one of the most famous fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm, the movie is willing to go all the way for grotesque and absurdity, and you will appreciate that if you know how the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale is quite darker compared to that Disney animation version.     

The heroine of the movie is Elvira (Lea Myren), one of the two daughters of a middle-aged widow who is going to marry a widower currently living with his only daughter. When they arrive at the big house of that widower, he wholeheartedly welcomes them and then marries Evira’s mother, but, alas, he suddenly dies not long after that, and it later turns out that he is not as wealthy as he seems on the surface.

Now becoming a widow without much money again, Elvira’s mother must find any possible chance for financial stability, and, what do you know, there soon comes a chance. The handsome prince of their kingdom is soon going to hold a ball at his palace for finding any suitable young woman to marry, and every eligible young woman in the kingdom is invited to the ball. When she is invited along with her stepsister Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss), Elvira cannot help but become quite excited, because she has yearned to win the prince’s heart and then marry him someday.

 However, she is disadvantaged in many aspects compared to her stepsister, who is incidentally more charming and beautiful. Elvira’s mother certainly knows this too well, and she is already quite ready to push her daughter for more beauty. First, she has Elvira go through sort of plastic surgery on her nose after her dental brace is removed, and that is just the beginning of many sufferings to be inflicted on Elvira along the story. 

Nevertheless, Elvira remains to feel inferior compared to her stepsister. When they practice along with many other young women for the dance performance for the prince, Agnes becomes the lead performer without much difficulty, and Elvira manages to become one of the supporting performers just because, as their coach flatly tells her later, her mother bribed the coach in advance. Even after her plastic surgery turns out to be fairly successful, she cannot help but feel how she is constantly compared to her stepsister all the time, and that certainly drives her into more misery and resentment.

Meanwhile, the movie has a lot of naughty fun with its stark and cynical variation of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy story. There are several deliberately gross moments involved with the dead body of Agnes’ father, which has been simply left in a room without any proper care. There is also a rather embarrassing moment between Elvira and the prince, who turns out to be a cad definitely not as charming or romantic as she has imagined. In addition, Elvira’s stepsister is no saint at all, and we get an unnerving scene where Elvira happens to witness what her stepsister has been doing behind her back.

We also get more disturbed by how far Elvira is willing to go for beating her stepsister in their ongoing battle for beauty. Just for losing her weight more effectively, she tries something quite drastic and disgusting as recommended to her later in the story (It is involved with a certain kind of parasite, by the way), and this will make you wince a lot for a good reason. Nevertheless, she still struggles with her inferiority complex, and this eventually makes her do a very mean thing to her stepsister right before the ball is about to be held in the palace.

Although the ending is predetermined to say the least, the movie keeps pushing the story and characters to the extreme. While the mood becomes a bit brighter when Agnes gets an unexpected help at the last minute and then wins the prince’s love in the end (Is this a spoiler?), the movie still goes for more darkness and grotesque as closely sticking to Elvira’s viewpoint, and there eventually comes a deranged moment not so far from what happens around the end of the original fairy story.

Director/writer Emilie Blichfeldt, who incidentally makes a feature film debut here, did a competent job of handling her story and characters with enough wit, mood, and style. She also draws the strong lead performance from Lea Myren, who shows a lot of commitment during a number of striking scenes which depend a lot on her solid acting. In case of several substantial supporting performers, Ane Dahl Torp, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, and Flo Fagerli, and Isac Calmroth are well-cast in their respective parts, and Torp is particularly impressive as Elvira’s stern and harsh mother, who turns out to be driven toward to her own goal as much as her daughter.

In conclusion, “The Ugly Stepsister” is a stark but undeniably compelling genre piece, and I admire how it delves deep into the dark aspects of the Brothers Grimm’s fairly story. Yes, this is certainly not something you can casually watch on Sunday morning, but it is another interesting female body horror film to notice, and it will be interesting to see what will come next from Blichfeldt after this unforgettable debut of hers.

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