Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Another barbed satire from Radu Jude

Posted on December 8, 2024 by kaist455

Radu Jude’s new movie “Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World” is a dry but undeniably sharp black comedy which patiently takes its time for building up its comic momentum. Although you may be daunted by its rather long running time (165 minutes) at first, the movie keeps holding our attention as steadily doling out one humorous moment after another for more than 2 hours, and it becomes all the more painfully funny when the story eventually reaches a comic climax you have to see for yourself.

The story is mainly about one long and difficult day of Angela (Ilinca Manolache), a weary female assistant working in the production of a little education film produced by some big company in Austria. Her current task is recording the audition video clips of a number of various people who were seriously injured while working for the company, and that means she has to driver her car here and there in Bucharest, Romania during next several hours for visiting those unfortunate people one by one.

Mainly because she does not get paid enough for her rather thankless main job, Angela also often works as an anonymous online media creator hiding behind the image of a certain real-life male figure which will definitely disgust most of you for good reasons. While keeping her real identity secret as much as possible, she frequently throws a lot of vile and hateful words in front of her smartphone, and we gradually gather that she has actually been pretty popular for that on the Internet.

Closely observing how Angela struggles to get her jobs done within one day, the movie lets us understand that this virulently superficial online activity of hers is one of her own ways of dealing with the constant stress and frustration from her main job. She surely feels like having some power and control whenever wielding her toxic online persona on the Internet, and she is not even ashamed of that at all as shown to us later in the film (“I’m like Charlie Hebdo, sucker!”).

In case of some other people working with Angela, they are no better than her with their cynically callous attitude toward whatever they are going to make in the end. All they really care about is doing the job and then getting paid enough, and that is evident when Angela and they subsequently have a video conference meeting with a company executive who will soon come to Bucharest for the supervision of the production (Nina Hoss, who has mostly known for her notable collaborations with Christian Petzold, demonstrates the unexpected side of her considerable talent here in this film). Casually looking over their candidates, they eliminate one candidate after another without much thought, and we get some little laugh when Angela later commits a little act of contempt behind her back.

This absurd sequence feels quite painful to us at times because we observed the misery and desperation of those candidates before that. Unable to get re-employed after getting injured and then fired without much compensation, these unfortunate people are all quite desperate for any chance for the money to support themselves and their families, and we naturally feel uncomfortable about how Angela handles these people without much care or attention, even while tickled by some unexpected moments of absurdity observed from their individual scenes with Angela.

Meanwhile, the movie sometimes inserts the excerpts from the 1981 Romania film “Angela Moves On” (1981), which is about the daily life of one female taxi driver. The Romania society glimpsed from in that old movie certainly makes an interesting contrast with how the current Romania society is starkly presented in black and white film in the movie. Yes, the Romania society during the 1980s was inarguably bleak and terrible under the communist dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu, but the current Romania society does not look exactly better although its people surely have much more freedom and right than before, and the movie eventually comes to reveal more of its indirect contempt toward the inherent amorality and heartlessness of capitalism along the story.

Around a certain point where it switches from black and white film to color film, the movie goes for more satire and amusement, and the resulting extended sequence is quite compelling to watch. While the camera simply observed from its static position, one absurd moment after another happens across the screen, and we are alternatively amused and repulsed as Angela and several figures insensitively push the chosen candidate and his family toward more and more compromise. Ilinca Manolache, who certainly leaves a strong comic impression here in this film, and several other main cast members during this sequence are flawless in their natural comic timing, and everything on the screen eventually culminates to what can be regarded as a bitter punchline for us.

In conclusion, “Do No Expect Too Much from the End of the World” is another interesting work from Jude, who previously drew my attention for his previous film “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” (2021). Like “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”, the movie is willing to go as far as possible for dark laughs, and I particularly like the brief appearance of a certain notorious German filmmaker in the middle of the movie. Yes, both of these two comedy films remain a rather acquired taste to me, but they surely solidify Jude’s status as another interesting Romanian filmmaker to watch, and he will probably impress me more with whatever will come next from him.

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The Beast (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her anxiety across the time

Posted on December 8, 2024 by kaist455

Bertrand Bonello’s latest film “The Beast” is an odd but intriguing work mainly driven by a growing sense of anxiety surrounding its multiple narratives. In each narrative, the heroine cannot help but become more nervous over whether something terrible may happen as she gets attracted to a certain figure, and, boy, the movie does not disappoint us at all after deftly juggling its multiple plot lines for our interest and entertainment.

The main frame of the story is set in Paris in the middle of the 21st century. In this near-future world, every human being has been under the strict management of some powerful artificial intelligence, and a young woman named Gabrielle (Léa Seydoux) is going to have a “DNA purification” surgery, which will purge any emotional memories from her past lives for making her less emotional than before. Although she is rather reluctant to say the least, she is still willing to subject herself for better job opportunities, and a series of the following surgeries are supposed to have her face and then get over whatever has been remembered on her unconsciousness.

One of Gabrielle’s past lives to face happened in Paris, 1910. In this past live of hers, she is a well-known musician incidentally married to a successful dollmaker, and her supposedly satisfying life gets unsettled by an accidental encounter with Louis (George MacKay), a young British gentleman who happens to be at an evening party attended by her and her husband. As they talk more with each other in private, something seems to click between them, but Gabrielle hesitates to get closer to this handsome dude because, well, she has been quite afraid that something really bad is going to occur while they continue their little affair. She does not even know what, when, how, and why that will happen, but she has somehow felt that somewhere in her mind, and that makes her all the more nervous.

Nevertheless, Gabrielle only finds herself getting more attracted to Louis – even after she receives what may be the last warning on whatever will happen in the end. She comes to spend more time with Louis, and we are not so surprised when she later shows him around her husband’s big factory filled with lots of materials for dolls to be produced.

Meanwhile, the movie also observes what is happening around Gabrielle in her 21st century life. She comes across Louis again, and they soon get interested in each other, but, again, she does not feel that right about what is going on between them. She continues her surgery process, and this leads her mind to the memories of another past life of hers besides the previous one.

This past life of hers, which is incidentally set in LA, 2014, is not romantic at all compared to the previous one. Louis in this case is now your average incel lad who has been very, very, very angry about failing to have any romantic or sexual relationship, and the mood becomes more disturbing as he becomes increasingly fixated on Gabrielle, who is an aspiring young actress currently staying alone in a big modern house as its temporary tenant/caretaker.

Gabrielle has already had that disturbing feeling she cannot articulate well, and the movie goes for more disturbance as her mind is somehow thrown into more anxiety and confusion. At one point in the middle of the film, the image gets distorted a bit for accentuating a sense of shock and disorientation upon the heroine, and then we get an unnerving scene where Gabrielle receives the identical warning via the Internet by some unlikely coincidence.

Before eventually reaching to a certain narrative point, the screenplay by Bonello, which is loosely based on Henry James’ short story “The Beast in the Jungle”, is rather vague about whatever may happen in the end of each narrative in the story. This can be rather frustrating for some of you, but the movie keeps us interested while never losing its way among the multiple narratives, and the following moments of payoff are unexpectedly striking in each own way thanks to the skillful handling by Bonello and his crew members including cinematographer Josée Deshaies and editor Anita Roth.

Above all, the movie is constantly held well together by the good performances from its two lead performers, who effortlessly move among several different versions of their respective roles. Léa Seydoux, who has been one of the most interesting actresses to watch for more than 10 years, is simply masterful in the subtle presentation of the accumulating dread and worry behind her character’s detached appearance, and she and George MacKay, who has been steadily advanced since his breakout performance in Sam Mendes’ Oscar-winning film “1917” (2019), complement well each other as their characters tentatively and nervously revolve around each other along the story.

On the whole, “The Beast” is another engaging work from Bonello, who drew my attention for the first time with “House of Tolerance” (2011). While I did not watch his several subsequent films including “Saint Laurent” (2014) and “Nocturama” (2016), “The Beast” impressed and intrigued me as much as “House of Tolerance” even though I needed to be a bit more patience at first, so I recommend you to take a chance with this rather baffling but undeniably interesting arthouse film.

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Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Scorsese on Powell and Pressburger

Posted on December 7, 2024 by kaist455

In my trivial opinion, you must stop and then listen if you ever encounter Martin Scorsese lecturing on movies. While he is surely one of the greatest filmmakers of our time, he is also one of the most knowledgeable movie scholars, and that is why you should check out documentary film “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger”, where he gives a 2-hour lecture on the exceptional career of two prominent figures of the British Cinema during the 1940-1950s.

They are Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and it is still amazing to see how much their movies have inspired Scorsese’s works, most of which surely feel quite different from the works of Powell and Pressburger on the surface. While many of Powell and Pressburger’s works are refined studio films, most of Scorsese’s works are quite gritty and realistic in contrast, but Powell and Pressburger’s works have actually exerted a steady influence over Scorsese’s artistic style and sensibility for many years, and Scorsese is glad to show more of his longtime fascination and admiration toward many of their masterpieces.

 When Powell and Pressburger came across each other around the late 1930s via legendary movie producer/director Alexander Korda, they could not be possibly more different from each other. While Powell was your average British dude who had established his directing career during last several years at that time, Pressburger was a Hungarian Jewish screenplay writer who had to move to UK due to the rise of Nazi Germany, but they instantly clicked well with each other in their first collaboration, and that was the beginning of many productive years between them.

When the country went into the war with Nazi Germany in 1939, Powell and Pressburger were driven to make propaganda films including “49th Parallel” (1941), which incidentally won a Best Story Oscar for Pressburger. Thanks to the critical and commercial success of that classic film, they could form their own production company together, and that allowed them to have the total artistic freedom over their next several films including “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (1943), which incidentally give me my first exposure to the artistry of Powell and Pressburger. When I watched it in 2003, I was only 20, but the movie reminded me that I should have some more understanding and compassion on those stiff old people who were once as youthful as I was at that time. As watching the excerpts from that great film shown in the documentary, I felt more need to revisit it sooner or later, because, after all, I am now as old as its hopelessly romantic but ultimately reserved hero in the middle of the story.

As a guy who has known and lived with movies much more than many of us, Scorsese enthusiastically explains to us the greatness of Powell and Pressburger’s works – and why they have been so special to him for many years. Even when he watched their works via a small black and white TV during his childhood period, the sheer artistry of their works impressed and enthralled young Scorsese, and he kept watching their works even while becoming one of the most promising young American filmmakers in the early 1970s.

Around that time, Powell was nearly forgotten along with his collaborator after he got unjustly lambasted for his exceptionally disturbing thriller film “Peeping Tom” (1960), but Scorsese eventually met him for asking many questions about what he made along with Pressburger, and Powell subsequently became a lifelong mentor to Scorsese in addition to going through the belated period of re-discovery and re-appreciation. Besides, Scorsese also introduced Powell to his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who eventually became Powell’s last wife before his death in 1990.

While introducing Powell and Pressburger’s works one by one, Scorsese sometimes acknowledges how their works actually influenced some of his notable works. So impressed by how Powell and Pressburger used red color in many of their works such as, yes, “The Red Shoes” (1948), Scorsese used a lot of red lighting in “Mean Streets” (1973), though Powell found it rather excessive. In case of the boxing sequences in “Raging Bull” (1980), Scorsese was actually inspired a lot by how Powell and Pressburger went for more style and emotion during that famous ballet sequence in “The Red Shoes”, and that aspect is quite evident to us when the documentary makes a comparison between these totally different works.

“The Red Shoes” was surely one of the highest points of Powell and Pressburger’s joint career, but, sadly, the following later years were a downhill for both of them as frankly pointed out by Scorsese in the documentary. While there were some high points like “The Tales of Hoffmann” (1951), Powell and Pressburger eventually reached to the point where they could not work with each other anymore, and that was the sad ending of their prime period, though, as shown from their archival interview footage clips, they remained friendly to each other for the rest of their life despite that.     

In conclusion, “Made In England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger”, directed by David Hinton, is highly recommendable for anyone interested in movies, and it is still an entertaining guide even if you are quite familiar with the works of Powell and Pressburger like me. Seriously, you can never go wrong with Scorsese or Powell and Pressburger, and I assure you that the documentary will not disappoint you at all.

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The Tenants (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): His problematic tenants

Posted on December 7, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “The Tenants” tries to be a quirky mix of SF, comedy, and a bit of horror. The overall result is amusing as sort of a satiric allegory on the current economic struggle of many people out there in the South Korean society, but it is unfortunately hampered at times by its thin plot and broad characterization, and I wonder whether it would be more effective if it were a short film instead.

 Mostly set in some neighborhood area of a dystopian version of Seoul, the story mainly revolves around Sin-dong (Kim Dae-gun), a young man who works in some big company known for a certain groundbreaking food technology. Because the condition of life in the city has not been that good to say the least because of the severe environmental pollution, Sin-dong has hoped to move to a cleaner place somewhere out there just like many others in the city, but that possibility seems beyond his reach – even when the company later announces that it is going to select a few employees to be transferred to that good place. 

Meanwhile, Sin-dong has been struggling to pay the rent for his little residence, and then there comes an unexpected problem due to his very young landlord, who wants him to leave his current residence within a few weeks just because of some renovation. Fortunately, one of his online friends informs Sing-dong about a rather preposterous scheme which may stop the landlord. All he will have to do is subletting his toilet to somebody else, and, according to his online friend, there are actually many people out there who are willing to live in toilet just because, well, that is far cheaper.

Despite some skepticism, Sin-dong eventually decides to sublet the toilet, and what do you know, he is soon visited by a rather odd couple quite ready to live in the toilet. Once this couple start to live in the toilet, Sin-dong succeeds in preventing himself from getting evicted by his landlord, and it looks like everything will go fairly well for him at least for a while, but, not so surprisingly, it does not take much time for Sin-dong to realize how strange his tenants are in many aspects. Whenever they cause disturbance in his residence in one way or another, the tenants always apologize for that, but Sin-dong cannot help but get disturbed more and more by their unnerving presence as experiencing a number of bizarre moments at night.         

Meanwhile, there comes a bit of hope for him as it seems that he may actually be selected as one of the employees to be sent to that good place – if he works harder than before. Although many of his co-workers are rather skeptical, he becomes more determined about attaining his goal, and he does not even hesitate to do some unfair things just for going ahead of others.

However, he keeps getting disturbed by his tenants as usual, so he decides to evict them as soon as possible, but then, to our little amusement, he comes to learn that his tenants actually sublet a certain part of their residence to some other person. As his online friend told him early in the film, that has been actually promoted and supported by the government for solving housing problems, and Sin-dong’s situation becomes all the more absurd when he really needs to meet that mysterious “sub-tenant” in question as soon as possible later in the story.

Even when the story becomes weirder than before, the movie steadily maintains its deadpan attitude under the gloomy surreal atmosphere generated by its black and white cinematography, and you may come to accept that anything can happen around its unfortunate hero. No matter how much he tries, Sin-dong finds himself stuck more inside his residence along with his strange tenants, and you may not be surprised much when the movie takes a sudden left turn before its eventual finale.

However, the screenplay by director/writer Yoon Eun-kyung, who previously made a feature film debut with “Hotel Lake” (2018) and will soon give us “Sisterhood” (2024) around the next year, stumbles more than once in terms of narrative and characterization. While its one-joke plot comes to lose its comic momentum later in the film, its main characters are more or less than caricature figures, so we come to observe the story and characters from the distance without much care in the end.

At least, the principal cast members of the movie try their best in filling their broad caricature parts, and they did a good job of playing their respective roles as straight as possible. While Kim Dae-geon dutifully holds the center as required with his earnest performance, Heo Dong-won and Park So-hyun have some juicy fun with their more colorful characters, and their deliberately mannered performances always keep us on alert whenever either of them appears on the screen.

On the whole, “The Tenants” is not recommendable enough mainly due to its narrative deficiency and superficial characterization, but its absurd satire works to some degree as morbidly reflecting what many South Korean people struggle with day by day, and Yoon demonstrates some potential here in this film. I have not seen “Hotel Lake” yet, but, as far as I can see from this film, she is a good filmmaker who knows one or two things about how to engage the audiences via mood and details, and I sincerely hope that her upcoming next film will be more entertaining for me.

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Sister Yoojung (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): The truth about her younger sister

Posted on December 7, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “Sister Yoojung” is about a young woman who comes to realize that she has not been that close to a family member she should have supported and comforted more. While its story begins with a rather alarming incident, the movie calmly and sensitively observes its heroine’s emotional struggles along the story, and it surely earns the quiet tear and poignancy of its finale.

At first, we observe how things have been busy for Yoo-jung (Park Ye-young), who works as a night shift nurse at the cardiology department of some big general hospital. Mainly due to the demanding aspects of her occupation, she is always quite tired whenever she returns to an apartment where she lives along with her younger sister Gi-jung (Lee Ha-eun) and their aunt, and she is already asleep when her younger sister is about to go to her high school as usual early in the morning.

On one day, Yoo-jung receives an unexpected call from the local police, who notify to her that Gi-jung is arrested as the prime suspect of one disturbing incident at her school. After a dead infant, who was apparently abandoned not long after the birth, was found in one of the bathrooms in the school, the local police quickly embark on questioning a number of female students, and then Gi-jung confesses that she is the one responsible for the incident, though she is not even on the suspect list from the beginning.

Because both she and her aunt have not suspected anything from Gi-jung, Yoo-jung is shocked as much as her aunt, and that reminds her more of how she has not given much attention to her younger sister due to her busy work. Because their mother died not long after Gi-jung was born, Yoo-jung is supposed to be the one who should stand close to Gi-jung, but, as her aunt points out early in the story, nothing much has been exchanged between her and Gi-jung during last several months, so Yoo-jung feels more guilty about what happened to her younger sister.

However, to Yoo-jung’s frustration, Gi-jung remains silent and distant even when she is allowed to meet her older sister under the supervision of a detective assigned to her case. For being less punished for what she is accused of, she must tell more about how she became pregnant or what really happened on that horrible day, but she does not say anything except admitting her guilt, and Yoo-jung is surely at a loss about what to do for her younger sister. In the worst case, Gi-jung can be severely sentenced for infanticide, and the impending possibility of getting expelled from her school looks nothing compared to that.

Yoo-jung eventually searches for anyone who can tell anything to help her younger sister, and that person in question is Hee-jin (Kim Yi-kyeong), who has been Gi-jung’s best friend as shown from the occasional flashback scenes. It looks like Hee-jin knows something about what happened on that day, but she is also reluctant to tell anything to Yoo-jung, and that only makes Yoo-jung all the more frustrated.

Now this sounds like a typical mystery drama, but the movie takes its time as focusing more on the emotional conflicts among its three main characters, and it also pays some attention to a subplot involved with one of the patients handled by Yoo-jung at her workplace. This patient has been under a very risky circumstance due to her pregnancy, and her fragile emotional/physical condition leads to Yoo-jung realizing more of how emotionally vulnerable her younger sister has been due to her unwanted pregnancy and its devastating aftermath.

Although it eventually goes for some melodrama during its last act, the movie steadily sticks to its restrained storytelling approach as letting us have more understanding and empathy on both Yoo-jung and Gi-jung. At one point later in the story, Yoo-jung comes to learn that she must open her heart more to her younger sister as well as Hee-jin with some patience and consideration, and there is a touching moment when Yoo-jung becomes more honest to her younger sister on how much she has cared about her younger sister since they became orphaned since their mother’s death.

The movie certainly depends a lot on the good performances from its three main cast members, who are all believable in their respective characters’ inner struggles along the story. Park Ye-young did a subtle job of conveying to us the accumulating frustration and exasperation behind her character’s weary appearance, and that makes a dramatic contrast with when Yoo-jung comes to show more of herself to not only Gi-jung but also a few other characters around her. Lee Ha-eun ably suggests whatever is churning behind her character’s frustratingly elusive attitude, and Kim Yi-kyeong also holds her own place well between her two fellow cast members.

Overall, “Sister Yoojung” is a modest but engaging character drama which handles its sensitive main subject with enough care and consideration, and director/writer Chung Hae-il made a solid feature film debut here in this film. Even when the movie eventually arrives at its very last shot, there is still a lot of uncertainty around its main characters, but we get to know and understand them more besides observing a glimmer of hope and healing in the end, and that is more than enough in my inconsequential opinion.

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The Substance (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The wildest movie of this year

Posted on December 6, 2024 by kaist455

Coralie Fargeat’s second feature film “The Substance” is probably the wildest movie of this year in my trivial opinion. Deliberately shocking and excessive in many aspects, the movie pushes its weird and grotesque promise all the way for its dark horror and amusement, and you may gladly go along with that if you are really ready for wincing more than once during its rather long running time (141 minutes).

The early part of the film establishes how things have been quite desperate for an aging Hollywood actress named Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore). As cynically reflected by the extended opening sequence, there was a time when she was on the top of the Hollywood movie industry with many glories including her star on that famous spot in Hollywood, but, alas, her stardom has been going down into the past since that prime period of hers, and now she is desperately holding onto an aerobic TV show where she has worked as its host during last several years.

However, by coincidence, Elizabeth comes to learn that the producer of the show thinks she is too old for the show and is already considering replacing her with someone younger and prettier. She tries to persuade this sleazy bastard as much as possible (Dennis Quaid did a good job of chewing every scene of his in the film besides those shrimps, by the way), but it only becomes more apparent that there is no way for her to maintain her position, and she accordingly becomes all the more devastated.

And then there comes an unexpected opportunity. Not long after an unfortunate incident, she is approached by some young guy who gives her a sort of commercial video clip file for something called “the Substance”. At first, Elizabeth does not believe much what is promised to her, but then, as reminded again of how she will irreversibly get aged day by day, she eventually attempts to contact with whoever will provide her this mysterious drug.     

What follows next is the graphic depiction of how that drug works on Elizabeth. Once she injects it into her body in her bathroom, we get an intensely gross moment of body horror to be appreciated by any fan of David Cronenberg movies, and I must tell you that this is just the beginning of what the movie will show us along its increasingly disturbing story.

In the end, there eventually comes a new younger self out of Elizabeth’s old body, but, not so surprisingly, there is a big catch as warned to Elizabeth in advance. She and her younger self, who calls herself “Sue” (Margaret Qualley), must switch consciousness every 7 days, and one will also have to make sure that the other’s unconscious body is sustained by some special nutrient pack. In addition, Sue must be supplied with the “Stabilizer” day by day, which can incidentally be obtained from Elizabeth’s unconscious but living body.

For a while, everything goes pretty well for both Elizabeth and Sue. Sue is selected as the new host of Elizabeth’s TV show right from when she does the audition, and the producer cannot possibly be happier as the rating of the show goes up and up thanks to the youthful beauty of his new star. Although switching consciousness remains difficult for both Sue and Elizabeth, Sue later comes upon a rather clever idea, and we get a cheerfully preposterous moment as she embarks on her little project for both her and Elizabeth’s body.

Of course, as Sue becomes more and more prominent inside and outside her life, Elizabeth becomes more and more miserable while mostly being stuck in the apartment, but she cannot possibly give up her younger self, even when her younger self begins to cross the line more and more despite the warning from the supplier of that drug. The result of this continuing transgression turns out to be much more than Elizabeth ever imagined, and this consequently drives her into more despair and madness.

Although it spins its wheels to some degree as getting mired in more fleshy grotesque during the last act, the movie keeps pushing its outrageous story idea as before, and the result is one of the most insane moments I have ever watched during last several months. Somewhere between “Carrie” (1976), “The Fly” (1986), and “Dead Alive” (1992) with some possible influence from that hilariously bloody scene from “The Addams Family” (1991), this feels quite excessive to say the least, but it actually works in the context of story and character thanks to the skillful direction of Fargeat, who also served as the co-editor besides writing and co-producing the film.        

 As Fargeat and her cinematographer Benjamin Kračun fill the screen with a striking sense of warped reality from the beginning to the end, the movie is anchored well by the strong presence of its two lead actresses. Demi Moore, who was once one of the most prominent Hollywood star actresses many years ago, willingly throws herself into her character’s gradually deteriorating condition along the story, and her committed performance here in this film is certainly one of the highlights of this year. On the opposite, Margaret Qualley, who has been gradually advanced during last several years since her supporting turn in “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” (2019), is equally effective as doing more than being the counterpart to her co-star, and she also has a fair share of intense moments as her character goes to the extreme just like Demi’s character. 

On the whole, “The Substance”, which won the Best Screenplay award when it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival early in this year, is another impressive work after Fargeat’s first feature film “Revenge” (2017). With these two unforgettable movies under her belt, she establishes herself as a major talent to watch, and I will certainly look forward to watching how she can provoke and then impress us more in the next time.

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Good One (2024) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Camping with her dad and his friend

Posted on December 5, 2024 by kaist455

“Good One” is one of those subtle character drama films where you need to focus more on mood and nuance with some patience. On the surface, nothing particularly dramatic happens among its three main characters, but the movie slowly and sensitively lets us discern the relationship dynamics among them. Around the point where it eventually arrives at the ending along with them, we come to reflect more on what has actually happened during their journey, and we also wonder how much things will be changed for them. 

At the beginning, we are introduced to an adolescent girl named Sam (Lily Collias). Along with her father Chris (James Le Gros), she will go on a weekend-long camping trip in the Catskills, and they are supposed to be accompanied with Chris’ best friend Matt (Danny McCarthy) and his adolescent son, but there comes a setback when Chris and Sam come to pick up Matt and Matt’s son. Probably due to some bad feelings between him and his father, Matt’s son refuses to go along with them at the last minute, and Sam is not so pleased to find herself stuck alone between her father and his best friend.

After staying at a local hotel for one night, these three people embark on the camping trip in the next morning, and we are amused a bit as observing how inexperienced Matt is compared to Chris and Sam. While his attire is not so suitable for the camping trip, his backpack is filled with rather unnecessary stuffs which will surely be quite burdensome for him to say the least, and, above all, we cannot help but notice how his physical condition does not look that good in contrast to his two companions.

Anyway, their camping trip mostly goes well as they walk across some forest area of the Catskills during next several hours. While he shows more clumsiness when they are about to set up their respective tents, Matt soon gets more accustomed to their camping trip, and the mood becomes more relaxed when Sam prepares an evening meal she is going to have along with her father and Matt. As watching her preparing three bowls of ramen, I could not help but become a bit nostalgic about the occasional weekend-long mountain-climbing trips I took along with my father many years ago, though our hiking trips did not require that much in comparison.

In the meantime, we get to know Sam and her two adult companions bit by bit. While Chris is usually quite fastidious as your average perfectionist, Matt is often casual in his laid-back attitude, and we come to gather that their longtime friendship is based on how they have complemented each other in one way or another. Both of them divorced once, and, as shown during the opening part of the film, Chris has been currently married to some younger woman who recently gave birth to their baby. 

Sam tries to enjoy the camping trip as much as she can, but we gradually sense some discontent behind her mostly phlegmatic appearance. Sandwiched between her two adult companions, she is sometimes expected to nurse their fragile male egos, and that is how she starts to observe more of the human flaws of her father and his best friend – especially when she and they go through the last night of their camping trip. As Chris and Matt come to show more of their personal feelings and thoughts while incidentally becoming quite drunk, Sam becomes more observant while occasionally giving some emotional support to either of them, and then there comes a little uncomfortable moment when Matt blurts out something rather inappropriate when they have some talk during Chris’ absence.

Firmly sticking to its restrained storytelling approach even at that narrative point, the movie continues to build up a subtle sense of discomfort and conflict without spelling out anything too much to us. When Sam makes a sudden spiteful decision later in the story, we are not that surprised because we have already sensed what has been accumulated behind her reserved attitude, and the following finale is accompanied with some tension even though nothing much seems to be happening on the screen.

Like any good character drama films, the movie depends a lot on the efforts from its main performers, who did a splendid job of filling their respective roles with details and nuances to be observed. Although she only appeared in a few films including “Palm Trees and Power Lines” (2022) before this film, Lily Collias ably holds the center as vividly illustrating her character’s emotional journey along the story, and we may see more of her considerable talent during next several years. In case of James Le Gros and Danny McCarthy, they are equally engaging in their respective parts while never overshadowing their co-star at all, and we come to regard their characters as flawed human beings who often fail to recognize the thoughts and feelings of the girl they have known for years.       

As a quiet but haunting coming-of-age tale which, “The Good One” distinguishes itself a lot with not only its crisp ambiance and images of nature courtesy of cinematographer Wilson Cameron but also a number of subtle emotional moments to be appreciated. This is surely one of more interesting films of this year, and director/writer/co-producer India Donaldson makes a solid feature film debut here in this film. As far as I can see, she is a talented filmmaker to watch, and I will certainly have some expectation on her next film to come.

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How to Have Sex (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): A female coming-of-age tale about sex

Posted on December 4, 2024 by kaist455

British film “How to Have Sex” will strike you hard at first while its adolescent heroine and her two female friends go wild for some fun and excitement. As clearly reflected by the very title of the film, they are willing to go all the way for sex, and the movie frankly depicts what drives them toward more fun and excitement as slowly focusing on the inner turmoil of its heroine, who turns out to be a lot less confident and vulnerable than she looks at first.

The main background of the film is a party resort of Malia on the Greek island of Crete, where a girl named Tara (Mia McKenna-Bruce) and her two friends Skye (Lara Peake) and Em (Enva Lewis) come for enjoying a rites-of-passage holiday just like many other girls and boys around her age. Once they arrive in Malia, they have a little fun time together on the beach near to the resort, and that is just the beginning to be followed by lots of excitement during next several days and nights.

As they freely throw themselves into one wild moment and another along with many others around them, we get to know a bit more about each other of them. While Em is almost certain about going to college after her high school graduation, Tara and Skye are not so sure about what to do next, because their grades will not be enough for going to college. In addition, Tara also feels rather insecure just because she has never had sex unlike her two friends, so she lets herself driven more by not only her growing curiosity but also the peer pressure from them.

And then it looks like there is a good chance for her first sex. Tara and her friends happen to draw the attention from a boy staying next to their room along with his two friends, and this lad, who is called Badger (Shaun Thomas), gladly invites them to join him and his two friends Paddy (Samuel Bottomley) and Paige (Laura Ambler). Spending more time with Badger and his two friends, Tara becomes more interested in getting closer to Badger, and it seems that Badger is also attracted to her.

While its main characters continue to throw themselves into more fun and excitement, the movie gradually immerses us into the heated atmosphere surrounding them and many others, and director/writer Molly Manning Walker, who incidentally made a feature film debut here in this film after making several short films (She also recently served as the cinematographer of Charlotte Regan’s debut feature film “Scrapper” (2023), by the way), and her crew members including cinematographer Nicolas Canniccioni did a commendable job of imbuing the screen with a considerable degree of realism and verisimilitude. Never feeling obtrusive at all, the camera fluidly moves here and there around the characters during several key sequences in the film, and we come to feel more like an invisible bystander around the main characters.

It is not much of a spoiler to tell you that our young heroine comes to have sort of a rude awakening around the middle of the story, and that is where the story accordingly becomes more uncomfortable than before. Letting herself become more confused and intoxicated after that point, she eventually gets what she wants, but, not so surprisingly, it is not exactly what she hoped for, and that consequently causes a lot of anxiety and shame in her mind.

Now this sounds like your average cautionary tale, but the movie firmly sticks to its non-judgmental position while conveying to us more of its young heroine’s devastation and disillusionment during the aftermath. At one point, we see her walking alone in the middle of an empty street which looks quite different to her now, and this brief but strikingly stark image conveys to us everything we need to know about her current state of mind.

Nevertheless, the movie also does not resort to any cheap melodramatic moment, even when Tara gets more confused and devastated during its last act. There is a little moment of emotional ventilation between her and one of her friends around the end of the story, but the movie wisely does not overplay this moment at all, and we are touched as sensing a bit of hope for its young heroine during the very last shot.

Walker draws good natural performances from her young main cast members, who are all believable as filling their respective parts with enough youthful energy. Gradually holding the center, Mia McKenna-Bruce ably illustrates her character’s tricky emotional journey along the story, and she is especially heartbreaking when her character goes through more pain and humiliation later in the story. While effortless in their casual interactions with McKenna-Bruce on the screen, Lara Peake and Enva Lewis hold their own place well around their co-star, and Shaun Thomas, Samuel Bottomley, and Laura Ambler are also solid in their substantial supporting roles.

On the whole, “How to Have Sex”, which won the top prize of the Un Certain Regard section when it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival early in last year, is engaging for its frank and sensitive depiction of adolescent sexuality, and Walker demonstrates here that she is another new interesting filmmaker to watch. I am certainly impressed by her deft handling of story, mood, and character, and it will be interesting to see what may come next from her.

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Sandstorm (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A sandy league of their own

Posted on December 1, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean documentary film “Sandstorm” reminds me that there are still many things I don’t know much about. Looking around several female athletes quite passionate about their respective professional athletic careers, the documentary attempts to illuminate its rather obscure main subject for more enlightenment for the audiences, and it works to some degree even though it is occasionally hampered by its rather scattershot narrative flow.

At the beginning, the documentary provides some background information. Traditional Korean wrestling, which is called “Ssireum”, was only for male players for many centuries, but female players were eventually allowed into the national league around 1999, and there have actually been a number of notable local competitions for female players in South Korea during last 25 years.

During the first half of the documentary, we are introduced to three young female players one by one: Choi Hee-hwa, Kim Da-hye, and Yang Yoon-seo. Although they respectively belong to different categories (There are four separate categories in their league, by the way), they all want to be the best one in their respective categories, and they all look up to Im Soo-jeong, who has been quite legendary for being an almost invincible national league champion for more than 10 years.

Needless to say, all of these three young female players want to surpass their idol and then become a champion just like many other female players out there. As a matter of fact, they all trained along with Im in the same group, and we get the glimpses of the genuine camaraderie among them and Im, who is certainly proud of having juniors to follow her footsteps even though also being quite determined to hold her champion title as long as she can.

The documentary surely serves us a series of archival footage clips showing the annual local competitions attended by many female players. Although I must point out that these competitions look less popular and crowded compared to the male counterparts, those female players all look quite enthusiastic nonetheless, and they are certainly ready to do their best whenever they come upon the ring for their latest game.

The most interesting part of the documentary comes from the other seasoned female professional player besides Im. Her name is Song Song-hwa, and she gladly talks about how she got interested in Ssireum. She was just a plain housewife at first, but then she became quite passionate about Ssireum even though she was already a bit too old compared to many other female players, and, what do you know, she eventually became one of the most prominent players in the league.

Of course, there inevitably comes a point where Song did not feel strong enough to play against many of her juniors. After having another painful moment of defeat, she came to have a little bittersweet ceremony for her official retirement, and she subsequently moved onto the second chapter of her athletic career. Besides becoming a mentor to her many juniors, she often works as a referee, and she has also been a board member of the national league during last several years.

In case of Im, she thinks she can still go on even after failing to defend her champion title, and the documentary pays more attention to her as she faces a number of serious setbacks. While she surely tries to feel young at heart as playing against many of her juniors, her physical condition is sometimes less ideal than she wishes, and that is quite evident when she has an interview with her doctor at one point later in the documentary.

Needless to say, Im becomes concerned about what will be next for her career and life, and she is also often worried about what she and many other female players have struggled to maintain for so many years. Mainly because their competitions usually do not get much public attention compared to their male counterparts, there have not been enough financial supports for them, and their considerable achievement can be faded into the past someday if that troubling trend is not rectified in one way or another.

I wish the documentary would delve more into this serious issue, but it is unfortunately too busy with juggling its several main figures within its rather short running time (79 minutes). I certainly understand that it wants to present all of them as equally as possible, but it only ends up scratching the surface instead of simply letting us get to know any of these interesting ladies more. Furthermore, I also think it could go into more detail on their games, and that could lead to more understanding and appreciation on their efforts and skills.

Director Park Jae-min did a fairly competent job on the whole with care and respect, but “Sandstorm” could be improved more for being a better presentation of its intriguing main subject. Although it is not satisfying enough for recommendation, you may get interested in watching it if you do not know anything about its main subject, and you will probably also want more information in addition to being reminded again that, as many people often say these days, girls can indeed do anything.

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The Berefts (2023) ☆☆(2/4): A fake marriage for better life

Posted on December 1, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “The Berefts” is another grim social drama about several economically disadvantaged people around the bottom of the South Korean society. As dryly following its main characters’ struggle for better life, the movie attempts to make some points via their misery and despair along the story, but the overall result is not exactly interesting enough to hold our attention due to its weak story and bland characterization, and it only gave me hollow dissatisfaction in the end.

At the beginning, we are introduced to a middle-aged guy named Moon-ho (Lim Hoo-sung) and his mentally disabled adult daughter Go-eun (Lee Soon-jung), and the early part of the movie depicts how they go through their shabby daily life day by day. Without any place where they can stably stay, they move from one spot to another as depending on whatever Moon-ho can earn or get day by day, and he does not even hesitate to use his daughter’s mental disability just for getting what she wants.

On one day, there comes a small but tempting opportunity for better life. Along with a young single father named Do-kyeong (Lee Do-in), they get themselves involved with a seemingly lucrative real estate scam via a local broker, and all Moon-ho will have to do is having his daughter marry Do-kyeong before Do-kyeong applies for a special supply apartment for newlyweds. Once his application is accepted, that broker is going to handle the rest, and Do-kyeong and Moon-ho are promised that they will be regarded enough for their participation in this real estate scheme.   

However, of course, there is a catch from the very beginning. After they get married officially as planned, Do-kyeong and Go-eun should live together for a while for avoiding any possible suspicion, but both Go-eun and her father do not mind this inconvenience much. After all, they still need a place to stay right now, and Do-kyeong is willing to accommodate his “wife” and her father in a little residence recently rented by him.

What follows next is how these three people try to live together as a “family”. As getting accustomed to their new place, Moon-ho and his daughter help Do-kyeong whenever Do-kyeong does some part-time jobs outside for earning the living for his “family” and his little daughter, and Do-kyeong also receives some extra help from his sister, who has no problem at all with taking care of both his little daughter and Moon-ho’s daughter.

Needless to say, things soon begin to go wrong no matter how much Moon-ho and Do-kyeong try. Moon-ho comes to realize that it is really impossible for him to buy any suitable apartment for him and his daughter regardless of how much the real estate scam will eventually benefit him, and Do-kyeong also gets a dose of harsh reality after applying for that special supply apartment for newlyweds later. As a result, he and Moon-ho come to clash more with each other, while Go-eun remains helpless as before.

What eventually occurs during the last act is supposedly devastating, but the screenplay by directors/writers Hur Jang and Keong Beom, who incidentally made a feature film debut here in this movie, is too hesitant and clumsy in terms of story and character development. While we never get to know that much about any of its main characters, the movie also constantly remains distant because it apparently wants to avoid any possibility of becoming your average misery porn. Accordingly, we come to observe its story and characters from the distance without much care or attention.

Moreover, I was sometimes distracted by how it handles Go-eun in a rather mediocre way. Because of her mental disability, we certainly become concerned about whatever may happen to her, and the movie thankfully avoids any cheap attempt on exploitative melodrama, but it also seems to have no idea on how to give more detail and personality to this character. Although Lee Soo-jung’s solid acting manages to fill her seriously blank role to some degree, Go-eun is still more or less than a mere plot element to roll along the plot, and that looks quite problematic to me.

In case of several other main cast members in the film, they also try their best in filling their respective spots as much as required. Lim Hoo-sung, a veteran actor who has been mostly known for his stage performance, brings some gritty human qualities to his character, and he is especially effective when his character later tries to get hired at a little vineyard run by an estranged family member of his. Nothing much is said between Moon-ho and that family member of his on the surface, but we can clearly sense many years of estrangement between them. Despite being stuck in a thankless role, Lee Do-jin has a few good moments for himself, and Ji Sung-eun brings a bit of warmth to the movie as Do-kyeong’s caring sister.

In conclusion, “The Berefts” does not distinguish itself enough from many other moody South Korean social drama films out there as often hesitating to delve further into its characters’ growing desperation. It is certainly well-intentioned, but the overall result sadly failed to engage me, and I can only hope that its directors will soon move onto better works after this underachieving debut of theirs.

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