Ghostlight (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A personal healing via art

Posted on September 22, 2024 by kaist455

“Ghostlight” is a modest but extraordinary human drama about the surprising healing power of art. Mainly revolving around one plain man’s struggle to understand and process his anger and grief via one unlikely artistic opportunity, the movie comes to show a lot of compassion and understanding to not only him but also several other characters in the story, and we are eventually touched a lot as observing how much he gets better around the end of the movie.    

At the beginning, the movie slowly and subtly establishes how things have been quite depressing for a construction worker named Dan Mueller (Keith Kupferer). He and his wife Sharon (Tara Mallen, who is incidentally Kupferer’s real-life wife) have been estranged from each other for a certain issue to be revealed later in the story, and we also come to gather that this certain issue in question also puts a lot of strain on his relationship with his adolescent daughter Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer, who is, yes, Kupferer and Mallen’s real-life daughter).

 On one day, Mueller happens to have a little clash with some very rude driver when he is working outside, and then he is approached by an actress named Rita (Dolly de Leon, who looks quite different from her breakthrough supporting turn in Ruben Östlund’s Oscar-nominated film “Triangle of Sadness” (2022)). She and several other performers are preparing for a little local stage production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, and, after seeing what has just happened to Mueller, Rita thinks he needs some positive influence for dealing with whatever he is struggling with.    

All Mueller has to do is reading a few lines for Rita, who is going to play Juliet, and her fellow performers, but then he finds himself getting involved into their stage production much more than expected. He comes to show more interest in acting, and he even asks a bit about that to his daughter, who incidentally has a fair amount of stage experience due to the extracurricular activity in her school. Thanks to his daughter, he come to learn about how to memorize lines efficiently, and he also comes to learn from his new colleagues that acting is much more than memorizing lines.  

When the actor who is going to play Romeo suddenly quits due to his petty problem with looking intimate with Rita, that leads to an unexpected breakout for Mueller. After he shows much more of the personal grief behind his taciturn attitude, Rita and her colleagues console him a lot, and then he finds himself being cast as the new Romeo for their stage production.

Meanwhile, Sharon and Daisy come to suspect that something fishy is going on behind him, especially after they happen to witness and then misunderstand a little private moment between him and Rita. Fortunately, the screenplay by directors Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, who previously collaborated with each other as the lead actress/writer and the director in “Saint Frances” (2019), is too thoughtful to resort to “Idiot Plot”, a term popularized by my late friend/mentor Roger Ebert. Instead of wasting its running time on any contrived situation of misunderstanding and obliviousness between Mueller and his wife and daughter, the story goes straight to a quick moment of resolution among them, and we get a bit more amused as his wife and daughter provide more help and support than expected.

However, the movie never overlooks their lingering anger and grief associated with their big personal loss. I will not go into details here, but there is a good reason why “Romeo and Juliet” resonates a lot with Mueller’s grieving mind, and we are not so surprised when Muller finds it quite difficult to do the rehearsal on that famous climactic scene of “Romeo and Juliet”.

As the quiet but ultimately harrowing center of the story, Keith Kupferer is particularly good when his character struggles to hold himself for what is supposed to be a very important moment for himself and his family later in the story. As Mueller is trying to depict what is probably the most painful moment in his whole life, Kupferer is dexterous in his character’s dynamic emotional shifts, and the result is devastating to say the least. Considering that he has been relatively unknown despite starting his movie acting career 20 years ago, the movie is certainly Kupferer’s big breakthrough moment, and his superb performance here in this film may led to better things to come in his career.

Around Kupferer, O’Sullivan and Thompson assemble a number of engaging performers to watch. While Tara Mallen and Katherine Mallen Kupferer always click well with Kupferer in their interactions on the screen, their unadorned natural supporting performance is another crucial factor in the dramatic effectiveness of the climactic part of the film. Dolly de Leon and several other performers playing Rita’s colleagues are believable in their occasional moments of collective positive vibe, and they certainly make a good counterpart to the dark emotional issues surrounding Muller and his family.   

On the whole, “Ghostlight”, whose title refers to a theatrical tradition that calls for a single bulb to remain lit on a stage even when the rest of the theater is literally (and figuratively) dark, is an earnest but powerful piece of work which distinguishes itself a lot via its sensitive and thoughtful handling of story and characters, and its somber but moving final shot, which subtly suggests a bit of hope and optimism, will linger on your mind for a while after it is over. In my inconsequential opinion, this little precious gem is really too good to be overlooked, and I assure you that you will agree that it is also one of the best films of this year.

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His Three Daughters (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): As they wait for their father’s death

Posted on September 22, 2024 by kaist455

Netflix film “His Three Daughters”, which was released a few days ago, trusts its main cast members for going up and down within its modest but intense chamber family drama, and I enjoyed that a lot. As its three main characters clash with each other in one way or another, we get to know about them as well as their troubled relationships, and it surely earns all the emotions unfolded along the story.

The movie opens with a rather awkward private conversation among three sisters: Katie (Carrie Coon), Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), and Christina (Elizabeth Olsen). Their ailing father, who has been taken care of by Rachel during last several years, seems to be going through the last few days of his life, and Katie and Christina, who have respectively lived away from Rachel and their father, come to Rachel and their father’s old apartment for having their last moment with him.

As they are merely waiting for their father’s death which may come sooner or later, we gradually gather some personal details about them. While Katie is often frigid as taking care of several matters including making her father sign a Do Not Resuscitate (DNR), Christina is usually trying to make the situation less unpleasant for everyone including herself, and Rachel, who is incidentally the daughter of their father’s second wife (Both of his two wives already died, by the way), does not look that responsible as frequently smoking marijuana, though it is undeniable that she is the one who has always stood by their father during his ongoing period of illness.

It goes without saying that Katie does not approve much of how Rachel has responded to their ongoing circumstance, and that naturally becomes the main source of tension along the story. As they frequently conflict with each other over one matter of another, Christina is always the one who must calm down her two sisters, but then there eventually comes a point where she almost runs out of her patience.

Meanwhile, several other people come and go as they continue to wait for their father’s death. A hospice worker and a nurse make a routine visit on their father, and both of these figures show some care and compassion to them and their father as seasoned professionals. As a matter of fact, the hospice worker carefully suggests to them that an “accident” can happen to shorten their father’s ongoing pain before his eventual death, but they decide to keep waiting instead of doing such a questionable thing like that.

Another crucial supporting character in the story is Rachel’s boyfriend, who drops by her residence for giving some comfort and consolation. Like us, he instantly discerns the emotional distance between Rachel and her two stepsisters, and he sharply points out to Katie and Christina that Rachel actually feels more pain and grief for having been with their father all the time.

The third act of the story becomes melodramatic as the three sisters come to express more anger, sadness, and resentment among them, but the movie never loses its control as immersing us more into their situation. While looking a bit static at first, the cinematography by Sam Levy gradually becomes fluid in its subtle movements, and we come to observe more of the accumulating emotional tension among the main characters.

The screenplay by director/writer/editor/co-producer Azazel Jacobs also did a splendid job of fleshing out its main characters more along the narrative. While Katie turns out to have held a lot of frustration with her own life behind her rather haughty façade, Christina is revealed to have her own personal doubt behind her sunny attitude, Rachel comes to show more thoughtfulness behind her rather messy appearance.

In case of the finale, I will not tell you anything except that I really admire how effortlessly Jacobs and his main cast members deliver the emotional high point of the story. At first, I thought the movie showed a bit too much of what is going on among its main characters, but, what do you know, there comes an unexpectedly sublime moment to behold, and you will surely appreciate the emerging poignancy behind it.

The three main cast members of the film are all terrific in each own way. While Carrie Coon, who has steadily risen since I and many others noticed her substantial supporting turn in David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” (2014), ably imbues enough humanity to her rather edgy character, Nathasha Lyonne, who has been more notable thanks to her breakthrough turn in Netflix TV series “Orange Is the New Black”, is splendid as slowly revealing her character’s complex emotional issues, and Elizabeth Olsen, who is capable of doing many other things besides those Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) products, is equally excellent as deftly holding her own place between her two co-starts. In case of several minor supporting performers in the movie, Jovan Adepo, Rudy Galvan, Jose Febus, and Jasmine Bracey are all solid in their respective parts, and the special mention goes to Jay O. Sanders, who has a fabulous showstopper moment later in the story.

In conclusion, “His Three Daughters” is quite compelling thanks to its skillful handling of story, mood, and characters, and Jacobs, who previously drew my attention for “Terri” (2011) but disappointed me a bit in “French Exit” (2020), and his crew and cast members surely deserve to be praised for their superlative result. In short, this is one of the better movies from Netflix during this year, and I wholeheartedly recommend you to check it out as soon as possible.

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Hundreds of Beavers (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The Trouble with Beavers

Posted on September 21, 2024 by kaist455

“Hundreds of Beavers” is a little quirky independent film which never stopped amusing or surprising me. Steadily building up its comic momentum along its hilariously loony narrative, the movie provides a series of very funny and creative moments to be savored, and it will certainly linger on your mind for a long time along with those many beavers in the movie.

The movie, which is set in somewhere in the northwestern region of US during the 19th century, begins with a musical sequence humorously introducing an applejack salesman named Jean Kayak (Ryland Brickson Cole Tews, who wrote the screenplay along with director/editor Mike Cheslik in addition to serving as a co-producer) – and how his big orchard is unfortunately destroyed not long before snowy winter comes. Naturally becoming quite cold and hungry, Kayak desperately tries to find any possible option for his survival, and the movie serves us a number of broad but amusing slapstick moments reminiscent of those old silent film comedy films including Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush” (1925). Despite the frequent absence of dialogues, the comic setup of these moments is clearly and precisely conveyed to us, and the movie always finds something to surprise or amuse us as its hero fails to achieve his goal again and again.

Anyway, after numerous silly but uproarious incidents of trials and errors, Kayak manages to survive, and then he comes to work as a fur trapper after getting some help from some other fur trapper. As he subsequently becomes a bit more skillful in hunting those furry creatures out there, he finds himself very attracted to the young and beautiful daughter of a local merchant, who, of course, does not approve of this at all even while dealing with Kayak as usual.

Like many heroes of the silent comedy films of Buster Keaton, Kayak certainly gets quite determined to get the merchant’s approval of marrying his pretty daughter, and we soon see how he concocts a number of funny and clever plans to catch a lot more of those furry animals out there. His usual targets are beavers, but, what do you know, those beavers turn out to be rather challenging targets as they are building something huge on a nearby river, and there are even two certain beavers investigating on a series of killings committed by him (How they look like is another big laugh in the film, by the way).

As far as I can remember, more than 300 beavers are killed on and off the screen in the film, but I assure you that you do not have to worry at all even if you are an ardent animal lover. All the animal figures in the film are not real as being played by the actors wearing animal suits or presented via animation, and this silly surreal touch is actually more enhanced by the grainy black and white film style of the movie. At first, this certainly looks outrageous to us, but we somehow come to accept this as being more amused by a considerable amount of humor and wit behind this. While the movie gleefully pushes its premise and style further, we are more impressed in addition to being more tickled than before, and you will not mind at all even when the movie throws several hilariously gruesome moments later in the story.

In the end, everything culminates to a big clash between our hero and hundreds of beavers trying to do much more than stopping him. I will not tell you anything about what they are willing to do to him, but I can tell you instead that they can be as unpleasant and disturbing as those big parakeets in Hayao Miyazaki’s recent Oscar-winning animation film “The Boy and the Heron” (2023).

According to the Wikipedia, its production budget was only $150,000, but the movie does not look that cheap at all as Cheslik, who incidentally made a feature film debut here and after previously making several short films, and his small crew members tried as much as they could with their small budget. You will instantly see how Cheslik added low-budget special effects here and there in the film, but the overall result is not only effective but also serves well the surreal comic style of the movie on the whole, and I particularly enjoyed the sheer comic lunacy of the climax sequence where our hero is frantically running away from hundreds of beavers.

Once the shooting was completed in early 2020, Cheslik and his small crew members had to go through a rather long period of post-production before the film was eventually premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2022. The movie subsequently got more attention as being shown at several other film festivals, and then it received a video on demand (VOD) release in US early in this year. So far, it has drawn lots of positive responses from audiences and critics. and that is how it came to draw my attention several weeks ago. Although I was a bit tired at last night, my mind soon got stimulated by its quirky style and naughty sense of humor, and I and a friend of mine had a really fun time together as getting constantly amused throughout our viewing.

In conclusion, “Hundreds of Beavers” is a truly singular comic piece of work to be admired and appreciated, and it is definitely something worthwhile to check out if you are really looking for something fresh and different. In short, this is one of the most impressive films of this year in addition to being one of the funniest ones I have ever seen during last several years, and I am already ready to revisit it someday for getting more laughs.

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Thelma (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): One spirited old lady

Posted on September 21, 2024 by kaist455

The most marvelous thing about “Thelma” is how its lead actress makes the movie more special in addition to being perfectly cast for her titular role. Although she is soon going to have the 95th birthday, June Squibb has been more prominent than before as one of the most dependable character actresses in Hollywood since her late Oscar-nominated breakthrough turn in Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” (2013), and now she gladly takes the center at last as bringing a lot of heart and spirit to the film.

At the beginning, we get to know a bit about the daily life of Squibb’s character. Although she is over 90, Thelma does not have much problem with living alone in her residence located somewhere in a suburban neighborhood around LA. While her daughter and son-in-law are usually too busy to pay much attention to her, her adult grandson Daniel (Fred Hechinger) is the one who occasionally comes to her house and handles his grandmother’s daily matters because, well, there is nothing much to do for him besides that at present, and there is an amusing moment when he patiently guides her on how to use the Internet with her computer.

On one day, Thelma receives a call supposedly from her grandson, which urgently requests her to send a substantial amount of cash as the bail to get him out of a county jail as soon as possible. Needless to say, this turns out to be a voice-phishing scam, and she belatedly comes to realize that not long after sending the money via mail. While consoled a bit by her family members, she soon becomes determined to locate that voice-phishing criminal, and, fortunately, there is the address for a certain P.O. box where her cash was sent.

However, Thelma still needs a bit of extra help, so she looks for any friend who may help her, but she is reminded again of how her life has been getting smaller and emptier. Many of her friends were gone in one way or another, but a certain close friend of hers is still alive and well in a local facility for old people. That person in question is Ben (Richard Roundtree), and he happens to have an electronic 2-person scooter. Despite his initial reluctance, he eventually joins Thelma’s rather risky quest, and Thelma surely feels a little more excited for having her friend behind her.

As these two characters are slowly moving toward their final destination, the movie takes some time for more character development. At one point, Thelma and Ben drop by an old friend of theirs for a certain hidden purpose, and the mood becomes humorous when Thelma is trying to find something upstairs while Ben is buying time downstairs, but they also notice how things have been depressingly static and barren for their friend, who simply seems to be spending her whole day in her living room sofa.

While being reminded more of her approaching mortality, Thelma is not daunted at all because she is willing to go for more as enjoying her life, and we get a few comic scenes where she and Ben have to be a little more physically active. Although she is not as virile as Tom Cruise at all, Squibb demonstrates here that she can be quite feisty and spirited just like my grandmother who is also over 90 now, and we laugh more whenever her character seems to recognize someone in the past just like many old persons often do.

Meanwhile, the movie sometimes shifts its focus to Thelma’s family members including her grandson, who are certainly alarmed when she goes out for her little mission without telling them anything about that. Although this part feels rather perfunctory, the movie shows some care to these supporting characters as they come to show more sincerity as trying to locate where the hell Thelma is now. As Thelma’s daughter and son-in-law, Parker Posey and Clark Gregg provide extra humor to the film, and Fred Hechinger is also fine in his earnest supporting performance. Although Daniel may be your average slacker, he really cares a lot about his grandmother, and he also becomes a bit more serious about where his life has been going.

In the end, the story arrives at the expected climactic part along with Thelma and Ben, but the screenplay by director/writer/editor Josh Margolin does not hurry the story and characters at all even at that point. I will not go into details here for not spoiling the fun from the brief but effective appearance from a certain recognizable actor, but I can tell you instead that Squibb deftly holds the center to the end with the steady support from Richard Roundtree, who sadly passed away in last year.

Overall, “Thelma” is a small but charming comedy film which reminds me again of how fortunate I and many other moviegoers have been for watching Squibb appearing here and there in a number of various notable films such as Martin Scorsese’ “The Age of Innocence” (1993) and Todd Haynes’ “Far from Heaven” (2002). Believe or not, she actually began her acting career in 1948, and she only started to appear in movies after she made a debut in Woody Allen’s “Alice” (1990). According to Internet Movie Database (IMDB), she already has three new films to be added to her long filmography, and I sincerely hope that she will keep moving on during several more years at least while putting more dent on the ageism in Hollywood show business.

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The Nature of Love (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her messy pursuit of romance

Posted on September 18, 2024 by kaist455

Canadian French film “The Nature of Love” is about one intelligent adult woman’s messy pursuit of romance. As following the ups and downs in its heroine’s romance story, the movie makes some sharp points on love and relationship, and the result is alternatively humorous and poignant before eventually reaching to the inevitable point where she must be really honest about her feelings.

At the beginning, the movie observes how things are mostly stable and comfortable for Sophie (Magalie Lépine-Blondeau), a forty-something lady who has taught philosophy at some university in Montreal, Canada. She has lived with a guy named Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume) during last several years, and we see that both of them have been pretty fine with their current married life. Although they use separate bedrooms in their apartment, they are quite frank about themselves to each other, and there is an amusing scene where Sophie teasingly asks her husband whether he was really attracted to a certain young woman they met via a close friend of theirs.

And then there comes an unexpected moment of sexual attraction for Sophie on one day. When she comes to their country house outside the city, she encounters a hunky local handyman named Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), and she cannot help but attracted more to him as he casually points out many stuffs to be fixed in the country house. After their first meeting, she cannot help but think more and more of this handsome dude, and then, what do you know, Sylvain turns out to be quite attracted to her, too.

Once they confirm their mutual attraction to each other, Sophie and Sylvain let themselves driven more by it, and we are accordingly served with several carnal moments between them. As they spend more time together, they become more fixated on each other, and this bothers Sophie a lot. Although she and Xavier actually agreed to be flexible about their relationship, her feelings toward Sylvain only get stronger day by day, and there eventually comes a point where she spills out everything in front of her husband, who is not that surprised but feels quite hurt nonetheless when Sophie tells him that she will soon leave him for Sylvain. 

For a while, Sophie feels really happy and excited to be around Sylvain, but, not so surprisingly, it does not take much time for her to see more of Sylvain’s less attractive sides. For example, Sylvain is your average working-class dude who is far less sophisticated than Sophie, and we become more aware of the considerable social/cultural gap between him and Sophie – especially when they happen to have a dinner with his family at one point. In addition, Sylvain also can be quite rude and harsh to Sophie over petty matters, and that is more than enough to make her very disillusioned about their relationship.

While its heroine comes to struggle over her matters of heart in one way or another, the screenplay by director/writer Monia Chokri, who also incidentally played Sophie’s best friend in the film, observes her increasingly messy circumstance with more humor and understanding. We get some laughs as she makes several unwise choices along the story, but we also come to understand her confusion and conflict more. Yes, she simply wants more romance and excitement in her life, and you will surely emphasize with her more if you have ever been as messy as her in your pursuit of love and relationship (Full Disclosure: I have been in such a state more than once during last several years since I came out as a gay in 2016). 

In the end, everything in the story culminates to the climactic scene where our heroine should make a big decision for herself, and I admire how deftly Chokri handles this crucial moment. While nothing is directly expressed across the screen, a small action made by our heroine feels quite dramatic nonetheless, and we can clearly sense her silent but firm decision on her life.

The movie depends a lot on the romantic mood generated between its two lead performers, who often spark the screen with the palpable chemistry between them. As the center of the film, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau is engaging as flawlessly illustrating her character’s complex feelings during several key scenes of hers in the film, and she is complemented well throughout the film by Pierre-Yves Cardinal, whom you may remember for his solid supporting performance in Xavier Dolan’s “Tom at the Farm” (2013). As Sophie’s less-than-perfect husband, Francis-William Rhéaume holds his own place well around the story, and he is especially good when his character desperately attempts to get closer to his ex-wife later in the story.

In conclusion, “The Nature of Love” is pretty familiar in terms of story and characters, but its story is presented well with enough intelligence and emotion in addition to giving us some valuable insights on love and relationship, which remind me of what my late mentor/friend Roger Ebert wrote in his review on Woody Allen’s “Husbands and Wives” (1992): “True love involves loving another’s imperfections, which are the parts that tend to endure.” Like the main characters of that incisively funny but painful comedy film, Sophie comes to learn that hard truth around the end of the story, but I think she will be eventually okay even though many things remain very uncertain around her. At least, she has now a full control on her life and herself as before, doesn’t she?

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Transformers One (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): One of better Transformers flicks

Posted on September 17, 2024 by kaist455

Animation feature film “Transformers One” is one of the better Transformers flicks during last 17 years. Yes, I did not like most of those Transformers movies except a very few cases including “Bumblebee” (2018), so this may not sound like much of a compliment (I still shudder at how much I suffered due to “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (2009) and several following pointless sequels, by the way), but I must tell you that “Transformers One” leaps way, way, way beyond the dreadfully low standard of these awful products at least.  

The early part of the film quickly establishes the history of the alien planet where its main characters and many other robots live. For many ‘cycles’, most of them have worked as miners because their underground city constantly needs a precious energy source after a big battle with some other alien race, and they all certainly hope that their current leader, Sentinel Prime (voiced by Jon Hamm), will eventually find a certain invaluable item outside and then free them from their relentlessly demanding mining work someday. 

However, a young robot named Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) is not someone who will just wait for any possible salvation. Quite determined to find any clue which may lead him to that invaluable item in question, Orion is ready to try anything for his ultimate goal, and he frequently causes new headaches for his two close colleagues D-16 (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry) and Elita-1 (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).

When a big annual race is about to be held in the city, Orion comes to have a rather impulsive plan for proving himself more to others including Sentinel Prime. He participates in that race along with D-16 without telling anything to D-16 in advance, and we accordingly get the first main action sequence in the film, which feels quite frantic at first but seldom gets us confused thanks to the strong visual sense of direction.    

Anyway, Orion and D-16 consequently get themselves demoted to a more miserable job, and that is the beginning of their little adventure outside their city. Thanks to a little help from their accidental robot friend, they soon find themselves exploring the surface of their planet along with him and Elita-1, who reluctantly joins their quest for that invaluable item.

Now the story feels pretty much like your average dystopian tale, and the screenplay by Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer, and Gabriel Ferrari is rather predictable in the following narrative development, but director Josh Cooley, who received an Oscar for his previous animation film “Toy Story 4” (2019), and his crew members fill the screen with small and big background details to be appreciated. While the result may not look that impressive compared to the standard of Pixar or Ghibli animation films, the film is actually packed with much more style and personality compared to many of live action Transformers flicks, and it surely reminds me again that the Transformer robots are more suitable for animation than live action film. In my reviews on many of recent Transformers movies, I frequently complained that I could not hardly distinguish one robot from another except Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. In contrast, the robot characters in “Transformers One” are much more colorful with enough detail and personality to be appreciated, and I was particularly amused by a herd of robot deer shown during the middle of the film (How do they eat and live, I wonder?).

Above all, the movie gives us the story and characters we can actually care about. While Orion’s narrative often feels conventional, it is engaging to watch how he is changed via his earnest quest for proving himself, and the story also becomes a bit more gripping for the dramatic character arc of D-16, who becomes quite different after he and his colleagues later come to learn about how they and many other robots have been deceived and exploited for a long time. The film inevitably goes for a lot of action during its last act, but we remain engaged in the story and characters nonetheless, and that is the main reason why the finale works even though it was pre-determined from the very beginning.

Furthermore, the robot characters in the film sound relatively more individual as the main voice cast members are allowed to bring more spirit to their respective roles. While Chris Hemsworth did a commendable job of sounding both noble and earnest with some sense of humor, Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Jon Hamm, Steve Buscemi, and Laurence Fishburne are also solid in their game efforts, and Brian Tyree Henry, who has steadily risen as one of the most dependable actors in Hollywood during last several years, is an inarguable standout as powerfully illustrating his character’s narrative with a devastating sense of classic tragedy.

On the whole, “Transformers One” surprised me for being much more entertaining than expected. Yes, this is still a standard origin story, but the overall result is definitely a significant improvement compared to many Transformers flicks at least, and it is even more recommendable than several forgettable animation films of this year including, say, “Despicable Me 4” (2024). While I still have some reservation at this point, I am glad to see that there is a bit of hope and potential in its franchise at last, so I guess I can have some expectation on whatever may come next after this solid piece of entertainment.

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Speak No Evil (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): A less disturbing but competent remake

Posted on September 16, 2024 by kaist455

When I heard about the production of an American remake of 2022 Danish film “Speak No Evil” in last year, I instantly had a few reasonable concerns. Considering that the original version is one of the bleakest “feel-bad” movies I have ever watched during several recent years, I naturally worried about whether I could endure more, and I also worried about whether how much of the original story and characters would be changed in the American version for being more, say, “audience-friendly”.

Although it does provide a less disturbing version of the original version, I am glad to report to you that the remake version is a fairly competent genre product with enough interest to hold my attention. No, it does not surpass the sheer nihilistic evil of the original version at all, but it did its job pretty well with its modified story and characters while also often skillfully making us uncomfortable and unnerved as expected, and I appreciate that to some degree.

The opening part of the remake version is pretty much same as the beginning of the original version except some changes in the character background. This time, we are introduced to an American couple, Ben (Scoot MaNairy) and Louise (Mackenzie Davis), and their 11-year-old daughter, and we also get to know a bit about how their family life has been rather problematic since Ben decided to move to London for his professional career a few years ago.

Anyway, Ben and Louise are trying to enjoy their little vacation along with their daughter somewhere in Italy, and that is how they come across Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi), a British couple who instantly draws Ben and Louise’s attention not long after they arrive along with their mute young son at one night. Looking like your average confident alpha male, Paddy surely makes Ben look meeker, and Paddy’s seemingly passionate marital relationship with Ciara certainly makes an interesting contrast with Ben and Louise’s rather plain status.

Nevertheless, Paddy and Ciara gladly befriend Ben and Louise when these two couples come across each other again later, and they even suggest to Ben and Louise that Ben and Louise should visit their country house in Devon, England someday. Although they still do not know that much about Paddy and Ciara, Ben and Louise eventually decide to visit Paddy and Ciara along with their daughter not long after they return to England, and Paddy and Ciara look quite eager to greet Ben and Louise with hearty hospitality.

However, of course, we begin to notice a number of bad signs here and there, and so are Ben and Louise, to some degree. For example, Paddy and Ciara’s country house is indeed located in somewhere in Devon, but its location is so remote and isolated from the world outside that Ben and Louise could almost lose their way before eventually arriving at their destination.

Furthermore, Ben and Louise often find themselves quite bothered by Paddy and Ciara’s rather rude and unpleasant behaviors. For example, Paddy blatantly offers a piece of cooked duck meat to Louise even though Louise previously told him that she is a vegetarian, but Ben and Louise hesitate to say no because they do not want to disrupt the supposedly pleasant mood between them and their hosts.

From that point, Paddy and Ciara continue to annoy or disturb their guests bit by bit, and the screenplay by director/writer James Watkins has a vicious fun with how Ben and Louise still hesitate to be honest about how uncomfortable they really are with Paddy and Ciara’s frequent rudeness. Besides being constantly running out of her patience, Louise becomes more exasperated by her husband’s meekly indecisive attitude, and this consequently brings more strain on their martial relationship, which turns out to be more troubled than it seems on the surface.

Around the narrative point where Paddy and Ciara eventually reveal what has been behind their back all the time, the movie shifts itself on a full-throttle thriller mode, and that is where the movie deviates more from the original version. As a result, it becomes relatively less dark and impactful than the original version, but it still engages us at least after building up enough ground in terms of story and characters. While the main characters of the original version are merely the monsters or puppets of its cruel and heartless genre exercise, the main characters of the remake version are depicted with a little more depth here, and we actually come to care a bit about what is being at stake for them during the climactic part, which incidentally often feels like a morbidly reversed version of many home invasion flicks such as Sam Peckinpah’s “Straw Dogs” (1971).

It helps that the main cast members of the movie are quite committed to their respective roles. While James McAvoy has the most fun in the bunch as gleefully swinging back and forth between casual charm and unnerving menace throughout the film, Aisling Franciosi also brings a fair share of tension the story, and James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis complement well McAvoy and Franciosi’s showier acting. As another crucial part of the story, young performers Alix West Lefler and Dan Hough are also solid, and Lefler is particularly excellent when her character must hold herself as much as possible under a very tricky circumstance for her and her parents during the last act of the story.

Overall, “Speak No Evil” may feel rather redundant because it comes out only 2 years after the original version was shown in US, but it is not as disastrous I worried at first. Sure, it is indeed safer and milder than the original version in many aspects, but it is mostly effective on the whole, and I will not deny that I was relieved to see that I did not feel that bad when the movie was over.

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Blesser (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Trying to raise her autistic son

Posted on September 16, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “Blesser” vividly shows how life can be like a sheer hell for a woman who happens to have an autistic kid. While it will surely try to pull your heartstrings via one personal hardship after another unfolded along the story, the movie holds our attention via its earnest storytelling and strong lead performance, and it certainly earns a little moment of hope and optimism around the end of the story.

When she is having a honeymoon week in 2008, Sang-yeon (Kim Jae-hwa) seems to have everything in order. She is a promising young political reporter of some prominent newspaper, and she is confident that her married life will not affect her professional career much even though she is going to take some break after getting pregnant with the twin babies. As a matter of fact, her boss is willing to take her back once her maternal vacation period is over, and her husband is also ready to support her as much as possible during next several years.

However, things unfortunately do not go as well as Sang-yeon hoped. When she eventually gives birth to her two kids, everything looks okay on the surface, but then she and her husband begin to notice something odd about one of their two kids a few years later. While their daughter grows up to become your average plucky little girl, their son looks rather slow in terms of mental development, and then Sang-yeong and her husband belatedly come to learn that their son actually has a serious case of developmental disability involved with autism.

Quite shocked and devastated by this unexpected news, Sang-yeon tries to deal with her son’s disability as much as possible, but she only finds herself saddled with more despair and frustration day by day, and the movie shows us more of how hard it really is to raise a kid with developmental disability. As time goes by, her son becomes more and more difficult to handle, and her resulting stress and exhaustion naturally affect her relationship with her husband and their other kid. While her husband feels pressured a lot as he has to provide more for supporting his wife and their son, their daughter already feels quite neglected as her mother is usually occupied with handling her brother.

At least, the situation turns out to be not entirely hopeless for Sang-yeon. She approaches to an old school senior of hers who also has a kid with serious developmental disability, and her senior gladly gives her a number of valuable advices including the one on his education issues. To make him a bit more socially adjusted, Sang-yeon must try a lot of things on her son, and one of the things is sending him to a local elementary school, where he may learn social skills to some degree before eventually being transferred to a special school for kids with developmental disability like him.

Of course, as many of you already expected, this also turns out to be quite challenging for Sang-yeon right from the very first day. While quite concerned about her son’s condition, she also must be on good terms with the parents of the classmates of her son, and this seems to work fairly well for Sang-yeon and her son for a while – before she later come to learn more about the social prejudice against her son’s disability.

While struggling with one hardship after another, Sang-yeon feels more like being against the wall, and we are accordingly served with a series of heart-wrenching moments, but the screenplay by director Lee Sang-cheol and his co-writer Shin A-ga, which is inspired by the memoir written by a former newspaper reporter not so different from Sang-yeon, thankfully does not resort to wallowing in pity and despair like your average misery porn. Yes, Sang-yeon is surely driven to the edge more than once throughout the film, but she somehow regains her strength via her problematic but ultimately strong relationship with her son. Sure, he is frequently quite distant and impossible to say the least, but he shows some affection to his mother at times, and there is a little poignant moment when he unexpectedly gives a little mental support to his mother when she is at another bottom of desperation.

I wish the movie delved more into how Sang-yeon and many other similar mothers try hard for fighting against the social prejudice against their dear kids, and a subplot involved with one smarmy politician who casually throws an empty promise to Sang-yeon and her fellow mothers is rather half-baked in my inconsequential opinion. Nevertheless, the movie still engages and then touches us via its strong heroine and her numerous struggles along the story, and Kim Jae-hwa, who looks and feels quite different here compared to her hysterical comic turn in “Extreme Festival” (2022), is often heartbreaking as ably conveying to us many ups and downs in her character’s story. There are several scenes where she is required to be quite melodramatic, but Kim brings enough sincerity and realism to these emotionally heightened moments, and we come to care and empathize with Sang-yeong’s struggle more instead of merely pitying her.

Overall, “Blesser” may feel like a public service movie at times, but its heart is right in the place because of its sincere and thoughtful storytelling as well as Kim’s solid lead performance. I had a pretty good idea on what and how it is about before the movie began, and it does not do anything particularly unexpected on the whole, but, as a guy on the mild range of autistic spectrum, I must admit that I could not help but become quite emotional during my viewing. If it could melt the heart of a seasoned autistic moviegoer like me, it can surely appeal to any other decent audience out there, and I sincerely hope that it will be watched by many local audiences during this Chinese Thanksgiving holiday week in South Korea.

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Concerning My Daughter (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Facing her daughter’s girlfriend

Posted on September 15, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Concerning My Daughter” tries two different things together. On one side, it is a typical queer drama about one mother trying to deal with her lesbian daughter who suddenly comes with her lover. On the other side, it is also a harrowing story about aging and death as closely observing the mother’s struggle to do the right thing for a senile old lady under her care. Although these two stories seem to be simply rolling in parallel without much interaction between them, the movie handles both of its two stories with equal care and sensitivity, and it is moving to observe how these two stories eventually converge around the end of the movie.

In the beginning, we see how things have often been difficult for its unnamed heroine, who is simply listed as “Mom” in the end credits. She is a plain ordinary middle-aged widow who has earned her small living via working as one of the caregivers at a local facility for old people, and we see her paying a lot of attention to one particular old lady. While she was once a prominent public figure for founding some well-known charity foundation, this old lady has been going through the later stage of Alzheimer’s disease, and our heroine cares a lot about her mainly because there has not been anyone to visit her except the occasional visits from a few folks from that charity foundation.

And then there comes an unexpected change into our heroine’s daily life. When her daughter, who has taught at some local college, soon has to leave her current residence due to some financial problem, she suggests to her daughter that she should move back into their family residence where she has lived alone for years since her husband’s death, but she is caught off guard to see that the daughter brings in a young woman who has been her lover for 7 years.

Because she has been well aware of her daughter’s homosexuality, the mother is not shocked or enraged at all, but we soon begin to sense the considerable awkwardness among the three people in the house. Still believing that her daughter’s homosexuality is a temporary thing, the mother prefers to face her daughter’s lover as less as possible, but her daughter’s lover tries her best for being nice and courteous to her lover’s mother, though there is always a cold sense of disapproval whenever the mother comes across her daughter’s lover inside or outside the house.

However, as a woman who still cares a lot about her daughter’s welfare, the mother comes to know more about what her daughter and her daughter’s lover have to deal with everyday, and we accordingly get some glimpses on how homophobic the South Korean society can possibly be. When a fellow professor of the daughter was fired by their college just for being a lesbian, the daughter boldly comes forward to protest along with a number of supporters, and the mother happens to witness her daughter’s latest struggle at one point.

However, this does not change much the mother’s prejudice against homosexuality. Having watched how her favorite patient and many other old ladies miserably spend the remaining few days of their lives alone without no one to be around them, the mother has been afraid of her daughter tumbling into such a dire circumstance someday, but she still cannot accept that her daughter’s lover will be the one who may stand by her daughter, even after she comes to have a bit of honest conversation with her daughter’s lover.

Never overlooking the irony of its heroine’s refusal to give her daughter and her daughter’s lover the same compassion and empathy she has given to her favorite patient, the screenplay by director/writer Lee Mi-rang, which is based on the novel of the same name by Kim Hye-jin, patiently builds up the story and characters via a series of small episodic moments, which let us get to know more about the mother and several other main characters around her. In case of our heroine’s favorite patient, she is a rather distant figure due to her worsening medical condition, but we also come to understand more of why our heroine’s tries to do a lot more for this helpless old lady than she is supposed to do as a mere employee, and we naturally come to care more about her following efforts along the story.

Although it feels a bit contrived as heading to the eventual resolution of its narrative, the movie is still carried well by another good performance from Oh Min-ae. While looking much more restrained here compared to her flamboyant turn in “Missing Yoon” (2022), Oh did a good job of presenting her character’s complex human sides, and it is poignant to see how her character is changed a bit around the end of the story while readying to move forward for whatever may come next for her life.

The three other main cast members in the film are effective in their respective parts. While Heo Jin brings a bit of life and personality to her increasingly senile character, Lim Se-mi and Ha Yoon-kyung flawlessly embody the strong romantic relationship between their characters right from their first scene in the movie, and you may come to root for them more as watching they struggle along the story in one way or another.

On the whole, “Concerning My Daughter” is an engaging queer drama film to be appreciated for its strong points, Considering how the South Korean society has been quite callous and ignorant about the civil rights of sexual minority people for many years (My city government actually defunded a local film festival just for trying to screen it in public, for example), it surely deserves some more attention in public, and I hope it can actually give a moment of empathy and understanding to many parents of LGBTQ kids out there.

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House of the Seasons (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): An ordinary family story

Posted on September 14, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “House of the Seasons” clicked so well with me right from the beginning, and I was all the more amazed by how it never lost its grip on me after that. At first, it looks like another typical Korean family drama, but then it carefully establishes its main characters with big and small details to be observed during its first act, and I found myself much more engaged than expected during the rest of the movie.

The first act of the film mainly revolves around an ancestral rite of one big family led by an old man named Seung-pil (Woo Sang-jeon) and his wife Mal-nyeo (Son Sook). For many years, they and their family have run a modest but fairly successful tofu factory in a little country town outside Daegu, and the opening scene shows how several family members of theirs including Seung-pil and Mal-nyeo’s daughter-in-law Hye-sook (Cha Mi-kyung) work along with their employees at the factory.

We subsequently see Mal-nyeo and several other female family members preparing the dishes to be presented during the ancestral rite, and this certainly made me a bit nostalgic. Yes, I still remember well how my mother often did the same thing along with her family members including my grandmother, and I also have some regret on not being that helpful to them except setting up tables and wiping out a heap of tableware as clean as possible.

And then we see the arrival of some other family members including Hye-sook’s eldest son Seong-jin (Kang Seung-ho), who has incidentally been struggling in his acting career for a while. Although his grandparents have expected him to join the family business someday just like his parents did around the time of their wedding, Seong-jin still wants to pursue his acting career as much as possible, and that certainly causes some personal friction between him and her mother later, who still often regards him as a little boy who needs to grow up more.

Nevertheless, the mood among the family members feels mostly pleasant as they ready themselves for the ancestral rite. Under Seung-pil’s solemn supervision, everyone in the house gathers to honor and remember Seung-pil’s dead parents who incidentally passed away around the beginning of the Korean War in 1950, but there comes a brief humorous moment among Hye-sook and several other female family members, and the mood gets more lightened up when the family later has a big dinner together.

However, we gradually come to sense old bitter feelings among the family members, especially when Hye-sook’s husband Tae-geun (Oh Man-seok), the eldest son of Seung-pil and Mal-nyeo, becomes quite petty and pathetic as he drinks more or more. He eventually clashes with his father, so the mood naturally becomes quite nervous around everyone, and then Seong-jin tells everyone that he does not want to join the family business at all.

Now this looks like your average dysfunctional family story, but the screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Oh Jung-min, who made a feature film debut here after making several short films, surprises us as regarding its main characters with more insight and empathy along the story. For example, we later get to know a bit about the past of Seung-pil and Tae-guen, who respectively turn out to be the victims of the darkest times of the South Korean history during the 20th century. We also come to see more of how Mal-nyeo has been the one holding the family together, and there is a brief but quietly touching moment between her and her grandson, who still cares about his grandmother despite being much less close to her than before.

After fully establishing its main characters, the movie simply observes what happens among them as time goes by along with seasonal changes, and Oh and his crew members did a splendid job of filling the screen with a calm and reflective mood coupled with some lovely landscape shots. Although the camera usually observes the main characters from the distance, several key scenes of theirs in the film are presented with palpable emotional intensity, and we are often saddened as they become more distant to each other for understandable human reasons despite being quite devastated by their common personal loss in the middle of the story.

Oh also draws the solid ensemble performance from its main cast members, who are all believable in their respective roles in addition to ably conveying to us the old history among their characters. While Kang Seung-ho dutifully occupies the center, the other cast members in the film including Woo Sang-jeon, Cha Mi-kyung, and Oh Man-seok have each own moment to shine one by one along the story, and the special mention must go to Son Sook, who constantly hovers around the story even during her absence.

Overall, “House of the Seasons”, which is incidentally released in South Korea as “Jang-son” on this Wednesday (It means the eldest grandson by the first-born son in Korean, by the way), is a small but sublime family drama to be cherished for many good reasons including its effortlessly engaging mood and narrative, and I particularly appreciate how it subtly pulls out an almost perfect poetic moment around the end of the story. Yes, many things remain unresolved for its main characters, but life will still go on for them anyway, before their respective closing times eventually come, of course.

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