MaXXXine (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Maxine goes to Hollywood…

Posted on September 9, 2024 by kaist455

Ti West’s latest film “MaXXXine”, the third installment of West’s X film series after “X” (2022) and “Pearl” (2022), is willing to go further from what was modestly but impressively achieved in its two predecessors. It surely has a lot of ambition from the very beginning, but, alas, the movie often fails to surprise me despite having some naughty (and bloody) fun, and the result only ends up being another typical horror film about the dark side of Hollywood.

The story is mainly set in Hollywood in 1985. After surviving what happened to her in “X” several years ago, Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) moved to Hollywood and then became a fairly successful porn movie star, but that is not enough for this ambitious girl at all. As a matter of fact, she wants to be a legitimate Hollywood movie star someday, and the opening scene shows her having an audition for getting the lead role of the upcoming sequel of a certain successful horror flick. While never hiding her porn movie career at all, she shows some confidence and talent during the audition, and she eventually succeeds in impressing the director, who decides to take a chance with Maxine despite some reservation.

When she hears that news from her seedy agent, Maxine cannot possibly be more excited, though she still gets haunted by what happened to her in “X”. When she prepares for her role along with one crew member at one point, she suddenly finds herself overwhelmed by her traumatic memories, and her growing anxiety is soon noticed by the director, who generously shows some encouragement and support but also reminds Maxine that she can be replaced at any point.

Meanwhile, the people of California are terrorized by a certain infamous real-life serial killer, but that is not much of a concern for Maxine at all. When she happens to be cornered by a guy ready to rape her, she surely shows him that he messes with a wrong girl, and you may wince a lot for a good reason if you are male like me. 

However, it soon turns out that there is some other dangerous figure lurking around somewhere in Hollywood. Wearing black leather gloves just like many killer figures of those Italian giallo films, this murderous figure seems to be quite obsessed with Maxine, and Maxine is naturally alarmed as several persons around her are brutally murdered, though she cannot tell anything helpful to the two detectives assigned to this serial murder case.

And then she is approached by John Labat (Kevin Bacon), a sleazy private investigator who is clearly representing that mysterious figure in question. Although Maxine surely shows him that she is not someone he can mess with at all, she certainly needs some extra help, and, what do you know, her agent turns out to be more sympathetic and resourceful than expected.

As its heroine tries to get things under control, West’s screenplay sprinkles a number of goodies to be appreciate by many genre fans out there. In the middle of the story, we see that famous set of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960), and the movie even presents a shot which is clearly a homage to the aftermath shot of that notorious killing scene in “Psycho”. As filling the screen with lots of period mood and style, the movie is often reminiscent of several naughty but stylish thriller films of Brian De Palma, and there is an extended sequence which may take you back to a certain amusing moment in “Body Double” (1984).

However, the movie is somehow less bold and bloody compared to its predecessors, and we become more aware of its lack of substance behind its glitzy surface. Mainly because Maxine has already completed her character arc in “X”, there is not much character development for her in this film, and the hidden connection between her and her mysterious stalker is also not particularly interesting. In the end, we only come to observe her plight from the distance without much care, in addition to noticing how the movie frequently repeats a number of genre clichés and conventions without any fresh variation at all. 

Anyway, Mia Goth, who stunned us with a pair of very different performances in “X” and “Pearl”, is fearless as before, and her distinctive star presence steadily carries the film to the end. Although it does not have something quite memorable like the last scene of “Pearl”, the movie does provide its lead actress lots of juicy elements to play, and Goth is always engaging even when the story stumbles a lot during its last act.

In contrast, many of other cast members of the film are wasted compared to Goth. While Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan are stuck in their thankless supporting roles, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Elizabeth Debicki manage to leave some impression at least, and Kevin Bacon has a little nasty fun with his villainous supporting character as he recently did in “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” (2024).

Overall, “MaXXXine” is one or two steps down from its two predecessors in addition to being less wild and enjoyable than many other trashy show business movies such as Russ Meyer’s immortal trash “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls” (1970). Although I am your average nerdy dude, I can also appreciate those trashy stuffs to some degree, but, sadly, the movie does not tickle or entertain me much on the whole, and that is all, folks.

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The Bikeriders (2023) ☆☆(2/4): They simply ride and ride…

Posted on September 9, 2024 by kaist455

Jeff Nichols’ new film “The Bikeriders” could provide a fascinating anthropological presentation of one particular social group in the American society during the 1960-70s. While it attempts a fresh perspective via its sole substantial female character, many of its main characters are too thin and superficial to hold our attention, and we never feel like really getting to know any of them, while merely following the story of their rise and fall.

The story, which is inspired by the nonfiction book of the same name by Danny Lyon, is mainly driven by a series of interviews between Lyon (Mike Faist) and a woman named Kathy (Jodie Comer), who has a lot of things to tell as someone who was quite close to many members of a midwestern motorcycle club named “the Vandals”. As a matter of fact, she actually married one of them, and a flashback scene shows how she happened to draw the attention of Benny (Austin Butler) during one evening, when she simply dropped by their frequent site for doing a little favor for one of her friends.

After his silent but persistent courtship, Kathy eventually allows him into her life, and she is soon introduced to many different figures of the Vandals including Johnny (Tom Hardy), who has been their de facto leader for years without any challenge. While he was a plain family man who worked as a trucker at first, Johnny decided to live more wildly after watching Marlon Brando in “The Wild One” (1953) on one day, and, what do you know, he soon found himself hanging around with many other similar guys as forming their own motorcycle club.

Of course, Johnny and his club members are not welcomed that much by many of local people, and they also find themselves clashing with the members of some other motorcycle clubs. At one point, we see Johnny and his gangs confronting several members of a separate motorcycle club, and you may be a bit amused by how silly and immature they look as clashing with each other over a rather trivial matter. They are more or less than boys who still need to grow up more, and you will not be so surprised when the mood becomes far less aggressive after a brief physical fight among them.

While Johnny tries to avoid any trouble as much as possible, Benny is your average natural troublemaker who always causes a new trouble as driven by his supposedly defiant spirit. In the opening scene, we see him sitting at a local bar alone, and then he soon confronts two big guys who do not approve much of his presence. Although he simply could leave, he adamantly refuses, and that leads to another big trouble, which incidentally results in a serious physical injury which might end his wild lifestyle once for all.

While certainly concerned a lot about Benny, Kathy is reminded again and again that there is nothing she can do about his wild lifestyle – even after she eventually marries him some time later. In fact, she also finds herself getting more associated more with the club just like the wives and girlfriends of its members, and it is really disappointing that Nichols’ screenplay does not delve much into this interesting aspect. There are several other female characters in the movie besides Kathy, but they all simply come and go without leaving much impression, and that is the main reason why its attempt on female perspective is inherently flawed from the beginning.

Meanwhile, things get changed a lot for Johnny and his club members as the American society enters the 1970s. Their club becomes a lot more expanded with many new members, but most of their new members, who are incidentally the Vietnam War veterans, are too volatile to be under their control, and Johnny comes to discern that he is losing the control over the club – especially when he is confronted by a young aggressive punk who may replace him someday.

Around that point, we are supposed to care more about Johnny and his gangs, but they are merely pathetic figures without much interesting human qualities to observe. Both Tom Hardy and Austin Butler are undeniably talented performers, but they are unfortunately limited by one-dimensional characterization, and Butler often looks too detached to be really engaged in whatever is happening around his character. In case of Jody Comer, she feels a bit strained with her midwestern accent, and her scenes with Mike Faist are quite perfunctory without generating enough interest for us.

In case of a number of notable performers playing the fellow motorcycle riders of Johnny and Benny, they look fairly believable as the persons who have hung around with each other for a long time, but the movie simply looks around them instead of going deeper into their characters’ life and personality. While Michael Shannon, who previously collaborated with Nichols in several films including “Take Shelter” (2011), is criminally wasted to say the least, Toby Wallace, Boyd Holbrook, and Emory Cohen are merely required to fill their respective spots, and this is surely another disappointing aspect of the film.

On the whole, “The Bikeriders” is not entirely without interest mainly thanks to its competent technical aspects including the cinematography by Adam Stone, but it is quite dissatisfying compared to a series of stellar achievements by Nichols, who has never disappointed me since his stunning debut film “Shotgun Stories” (2007). Because I am your average nerdy guy who prefers to stay at my little apartment, I might have regarded its main characters with some detached disapproval during my viewing, but, folks, I would be really more interested if they were actually interesting human figures to observe from the start.

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Kinds of Kindness (2024) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): Kinds of Self-indulgence

Posted on September 8, 2024 by kaist455

I sometimes found Yorgos Lanthimos’ early films such as “Dogtooth” (2009) a bit too dry and vicious for me, and his latest film “Kinds of Kindness”, which is currently available on Disney+ in South Korea, shows him back in his good old nasty mode in a rather self-indulgent way. While it surely strikes us hard with sudden moments of absurd violence from time to time, the movie also feels overlong and excessive at times during its 164-minute running time, and it is not even helped that much by its triptych narrative structure.

The movie consists of three different stories vaguely connected to each other by a certain minor figure named “R.M.F”. At the beginning of the first story, “The Death of R.M.F.”, we see this figure coming to a big house where he gets paid for doing something later, and we soon come to see what he is exactly required to do for that.

Around that narrative point, we are introduced to a guy named Robert (Jesse Plemons), who is the actual hero of the first story. At first, he seems to have everything he wants for his life on the surface, but then it is gradually revealed that he is thoroughly controlled by his eccentric boss Raymond (Willem Dafoe) everyday in exchange for his affluent suburban life. Day by day, Robert must follow every instruction from his boss, and he has had no problem with that during last several years, but then, what do you know, there eventually comes a point where he becomes quite conflicted when his boss demands to do something quite unethical to say the least.

What follows next is how Robert struggles to handle the absurd consequence from his refusal to follow that certain demand of his boss. Inevitably coming to realize that he actually prefers to be under constant control to being totally free, Robert desperately tries to regain his former position, but, of course, there is a big price for that, and the movie certainly has some naughty fun with how far he is willing to go.

In case of the second story, “R.M.F. is Flying”, it starts with how things have been gloomy from a young police officer named Daniel (Jesse Plemons). His wife Liz (Emma Stone) was recently gone missing at sea along with several colleagues of hers, and it is quite possible to him that he will have to prepare for the worst scenario. While his colleague/best friend Will (Mamoudou Athie) tries his best for providing some emotional support, Daniel still finds himself brooding over the possibility of his wife’s death, and this certainly affects his work a lot.

And then his wife is eventually found, but Daniel only comes to have a rather morbid delusion instead of being delighted by her miraculous return. He suspects that she is an impostor, and the situation becomes more disturbing when his sudden paranoid gets worse day by day. Jesse Plemons, who received the Best Actor award when the movie was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival early in this year, is quite effective as slowly dialing up his character’s madness along the plot, and Emma Stone, who was absolutely stunning in her Oscar-winning performance in Lanthimos’ previous film “Poor Things” (2023), is also convincing while never overshadowing Plemons’ excellent acting.

Compared to the first two stories, the third story, “R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich” is more glacial and distant in comparison. At first, we are introduced to Emily (Emma Stone) and Andrew (Jesse Plemons), the two young members of an odd religious cult who have been looking for someone very special according to their charismatic leader. After their another failure, Emily and Andrew go back to their headquarters, and we get some glimpses of how strange and absurd their religious belief really is.

Anyway, after getting thrown out the group due to her unfortunate night with her ex-husband, Emily meets Rebecca (Margaret Qualley), a young woman who previously approached to Emily and Andrew and claimed that her twin sister is the one they are looking for. Although she did not believe Rebecca at that time, Emily comes to see that Rebecca’s twin sister may help her get back in the group, and we are served with several extreme moments as Emily finds herself going much further than expected for her desperate goal.

However, the story fails to develop its broad characters more for engaging us, and so are the other two stories, which are a bit more amusing but mostly end up scratching the surface. At least, the screenplay by Lanthimos and his co-writer Efthimis Filippou, who previously collaborated with Lanthimos in “The Lobster” (2015) and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” (2017), provides heaps of stuffs to play for Plemons, Stone, and several other cast members, who surely have some ball with their nasty and absurd materials. Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley, both of whom also incidentally appeared in “Poor Things”, are clearly savoring every moment of theirs, Joe Alwyn, Hong Chau, and Mamoudou Athie also have each own moment to shine.

In conclusion, “Kinds of Kindness” is a letdown considering how much Lanthimos achieved in “Poor Things” and “The Favourite” (2018), but it has some distinctive touches which will remind you again of why he is one of the most interesting filmmakers of our time. As a matter of fact, he is already ready to move onto the next project at present, and I sincerely hope that his next film will be more controlled and interesting compared to this indulgent exercise in style.

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Eileen (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): That unnerving attraction between them

Posted on September 8, 2024 by kaist455

William Oldroyd’s second feature film “Eileen” is a rather uneven mix of noir thriller and coming-of-age drama. The movie is fairly compelling during its first two acts thanks to its good mood and storytelling as well as the two talented actresses at the center, but, alas, it stumbles a lot as taking a left turn during its last act, and the finale feels quite unsatisfied without enough sense of resolution.

Thomasin McKenzie, a promising actress who has steadily advanced during last several years since her breakout turn in Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace” (2018), plays Eileen Dunlop, a young woman who has been hopelessly stuck in her little hometown in Massachusetts for many years. While she does not like much her office job at a nearby correction facility for adolescent boys, she also has to deal with her alcoholic father Jim (Shea Wingham) everyday. Sadly, there is not anyone who can support or comfort her at all, and it seems that she is destined to be imprisoned in her ongoing misery and loneliness for the rest of her life.

And then there comes an unexpected change via Rebecca (Anne Hathaway), a beautiful and confident female psychiatrist who starts to work in the aforementioned correction facility. While watching how Rebecca holds her own place well in front of many male staff members of the correction facility, Eileen cannot help but become more impressed by Rebecca, and Rebecca seems to be aware of that even though she does not interact with Eileen that much at first.

When Rebecca later suggests a little drinking night between them, Eileen cannot possibly be excited more. Although the end of their rather wild drinking night does not end up that well for Eileen, she is glad for finally having someone she may actually lean on, and she finds herself becoming more mesmerized by Rebecca’s beauty and confidence, which certainly reminds her more of how she has looked plain and inconsequential throughout her whole life.

Meanwhile, as keeping making one trouble after another as before, Elieen’s father slowly begins to sense some change in his daughter, and, not so surprisingly, he does not approve of that much. Eileen becomes more concerned about him when it turns out later that he will die sooner or later due to his worsening alcoholism, but her father also feels more like a burden to her than before, and we can easily sense a trouble to come when she is asked to keep a certain old item of her father under her care just for the safety of him as well as anyone around him.

The screenplay by Luke Goebel and Ottesa Moshfegh, which is based on the novel of the same name by Moshfegh (She also participated in the production of the film, by the way), adds more tension to the story and characters when Rebecca comes to pay more attention to a certain young inmate in the correction facility. It looks like there is something hidden behind his horrible murder case, and Rebecca is quite determined to get to the bottom of it even though she cannot get any cooperation from the mother of the inmate.

While unfortunately hampered by several narrative hiccups during its last act, the movie continues to hold our attention at least due to its solid technical aspects. Thanks to cinematographer Ari Wagner, who previously worked with Oldroyd in his debut film “Lady Macbeth” (2016) and then was deservedly Oscar-nominated for Jane Campion’s stellar masterwork “The Power of Dog” (2021), the stark and gloomy atmosphere surrounding its main characters is constantly palpable on the screen, and we come to get more understanding on its titular character’s misery and despair with her life – and how she is irresistibly attracted to her new friend. As they subtly revolve around each other, the movie sometimes feels like a psychological thriller novel Patricia Highsmith could have written if she had had more artistic freedom during that time, and McKenzie and her co-star ably convey to us enough emotional undercurrents around their characters.

Diligently carrying the film to the end, McKenzie did a commendable job of embodying her character’s quietly desperate status, and her low-ley acting is complemented well by Hathaway’s natural star quality. With her character’s striking blonde hairdo and chic attire, Hathway instantly draws our attention right from the beginning, and it is a shame that the movie fails to explore more of her character’s relationship with Eileen when they find themselves in a very tricky situation during the last act. Despite his rather thankless task, Shea Whigham brings some bitter human qualities to his hopelessly damaged character, and the special mention goes to Marin Ireland, a relatively unknown veteran character actress who has appeared here and there in a number of notable films such as “Hell or High Water” (2016) and “The Irishman” (2019). She must be quite believable during one key scene later in the story, and I must tell you that she did much more than holding her own small place well between McKenzie and Hathaway.

On the whole, “Eileen” is another disturbing female drama film from Oldroyd, but it is not as successful as his previous film “Lady Macbeth”, a chilling period drama about one young married woman’s ruthless descent into evil and corruption. Yes, the movie is engaging to some degrees thanks to a number of admirable elements including the commendable performances from its main cast members, so you will not be bored a lot, but it could do its job better in my humble opinion.

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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Still zany and rambunctious

Posted on September 5, 2024 by kaist455

Tim Burton’s new film “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is as quintessential as you can expect from Burton. The story itself is more or less than a mere ground for many odd, quirky, and grotesque stuffs to be presented here and there, but it is clear that Burton and his cast and crew have a spirited fun together for making this movie, and you may overlook its many flaws including those blatantly nostalgic touches if you have some soft heart for its 1988 predecessor.

The story is set in 36 years after what happened in “Beetlejuice” (1988). Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) is now a weary and seasoned adult woman in contrast to that gloomy high school girl in the 1988 movie, and the opening scene shows her shooting her TV show which has promoted her psychic talent, though nobody believes that much even though she can really see dead people like that young kid in “The Sixth Sense” (1999).

The early part of the movie quickly establishes how things have been messy for Lydia during several recent years. While her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) is mostly occupied with her self-absorbed artistic activities, she has also been estranged from her adolescent daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) since her environmentalist husband’s death, and then there comes the shocking news of her father’s death (Her father was played by Jeffrey Jones in the 1988 film, and, probably due to Jones’ current criminal status, the movie chooses a rather amusing way for presenting his character’s gruesomely unfortunate demise and the following afterlife condition of his).

And there is also a sudden supernatural issue involved with, yes, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), a ghoulish demonic entity who is still quite eager to approach to Lydia as before. This amusingly putrid dude is now running a little bio-exorcism agency in the realm of afterlife, but then he finds himself in a big trouble due to when a certain fearsome entity returns to threaten not only him but also the whole realm of afterlife.

While busily juggling a lot of these and other things, the screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, which is developed from the story they wrote with Seth Grahame-Smith, often loses its narrative focus and momentum, but Burton and his crew members including cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos and composer Danny Elfman, who was always dependable as working in almost all of Burton’s films, keep things bouncing from one weirdly funny moment to another. Just like its 1988 predecessor, the film is packed with lots of style and detail to be cherished, and Burton wields more of his own distinctive touches here than he did during last 12 years since his Oscar-nominated animation film “Frankenweenie” (2012). Although the realm of afterlife does not feel that fresh while often looking like being stuck in the 1970s or 1980s, you may chuckle a bit as observing a number of inspired moments such as the one which is clearly influenced by a certain famous American musical variety television show from the 1970s.

Above all, the movie has several engaging characters we can actually care about. While the relationships among Lydia and her surviving family members are problematic to the core, they eventually stick together when Astrid inadvertently gets herself involved with the realm of afterlife later in the story, and her and her mother’s eventual reunion with a certain key figure in the story turns out to be more sincere than expected, even though we cannot help but get tickled by this figure’s current afterlife status.

While the movie comes a bit too late in my humble opinion, it surely comes to Winona Ryder at the right moment at least. Although she had to endure a pretty low point in her career in the early 2000s, Ryder’s career was unexpectedly boosted by her wonderful supporting turn in recent Netflix drama series “Stranger Things”, and she is clearly enjoying herself as imbuing her familiar character with neurotic weariness. On the opposite, Catherine O’Hara and Jenny Ortega, who is no stranger to looking moody thanks to her lead performance in recent Netflix comedy series “Wednesday”, complement Ryder in each own way, and O’Hara delightfully chews every moment of hers as making her narcissistic character somehow quite endearing.

Above all, the movie is always energized by Michael Keaton, who willingly throws himself into his very unpleasant and wacky character with sheer gusto as he did in the 1988 film. Whenever Keaton appears on the screen, Burton does not hesitate to pull out all the stops, and he and Keaton do not disappoint us at all during the climactic sequence, which is quite overstuffed to say the least but also undeniably entertaining for its shamelessly zany and rambunctious qualities.

In case of several other cast members of the film, they are rather under-utilized while leaving an impression to some degree. Although her villain character is not that memorable, Monica Bellucci has a few moments to shine at least. Danny DeVito, Justin Theroux, Burn Gorman, and Willem Dafoe are well-cast in their respective supporting parts, and Dafoe and DeVito certainly feel right at home with Burton’s gothic sensibility.

On the whole, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” does not surpass its predecessor much, but its redundant aspects are compensated by the genuine spirit felt from the good efforts from Burton and its cast and crew members. Although he seems behind his prime from time to time, Burton shows here that he has not lost his artistic energy and creativity yet, and that is certainly a nice thing to watch.

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Mother’s Kingdom (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Their kingdom to collapse

Posted on September 4, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean independent film “Mother’s Kingdom” is a somber but unnerving family drama about those tricky questions of belief and doubt. How much are you willing to go along with what is supposed to be a truth? And what are you going to do if that actually turns out to be a lie? As observing its main characters’ quiet but intense personal struggles along the story, the movie slowly reveals whatever has been lying among them beneath the surface, and you will come to reflect more on its main subjects after it is over.

At first, we are introduced to Kyeong-hee (Nam Gi-ae), a middle-aged beautician who has run an old, small beauty salon in her neighborhood for many years. She has lived with her adult son Ji-wook (Han Ki-jang) in their little residence, and the opening scene shows them going through another day of their plain daily life.

However, we begin to notice a number of odd behaviors and symptoms from Kyeong-hee. While she is frequently forgettable, her mind sometimes seems to be gone to somewhere to the bafflement of others including her son. Naturally, he takes her to a hospital for medical examination, and, what do you know, it soon turns out that her mind has been going through the early onset of dementia. While quite confused and devastated, Ji-wook tries his best for taking care of her more as her devoted son after she eventually shuts down her beauty salon. However, Kyeong-hee’s mind irreversibly becomes more deteriorated as days go by, and this certainly frustrates him a lot.

And then she blurts out something very unexpected, which is associated with her husband’s sudden disappearance in her and her son’s past. Maybe what Kyeong-hee says is merely another symptom of her increasingly confused mind, but Ji-wook cannot help but reflect more on that, and then he comes to question what had been told to him during his childhood years. Was his father just vanished for no apparent reason at that time? Or, was his mother actually responsible for that as she says?

While his mother becomes more distant to him due to her worsening dementia, there comes another crucial figure in the story. This person in question is a pastor named Joong-myeong (Yu Seong-ju), and he is the younger brother of Ji-wook’s father. Although having been quite ill due to his terminal kidney disease, Joong-myeong becomes more determined to find what really happened to his older brother, and he certainly bothers both Kyeong-hee and her son a lot when he later approached to them, respectively.

Now this looks like a familiar setup for melodramatic mystery, but the screenplay by director/writer Lee Sang-hak, who makes a feature film debut here after making several short films, takes its time for building up its three characters more along the story. As Kyeong-hee’s mind often goes astray into her repressed memories from the past, we come to gather how unhappy and frustrating she was during that time, which looks like a strong motive for murdering her husband. We also get some little amusement from how Joong-myeong uses ventriloquism as the main part of his church sermon, because he often looks like ventilating his hidden feelings and thoughts through his hand puppet and its squeaky voice. In case of Ji-wook, who has incidentally been earning his meager living via selling his self-help book, he slowly gets imploded inside his mind as becoming more confused about what he has accepted as a truth for years, and this difficult situation of his ironically resonates with his promotional speech on the difference between truth and fact early in the story.

During its last act, the movie becomes a bit more tense as one thing after another is eventually revealed to Ji-wook. There is a disturbing scene unfolded within a certain abandoned space in his and his mother’s residence, and it will probably take you back to one particular short horror story by Edgar Allen Poe. Although the finale is rather ambiguous without wholly clarifying everything in the story, it still chills us to some degree as conveying to us more about how much Ji-wook and his mother have been bound together by those secrets and lies between them.

As a small chamber character drama, the movie surely depends a lot on the talent and presence of its three main cast members, who all are convincing in their respective roles. While ably sticking to a seemingly neutral mode, Han Ki-jang diligently holds the center for his two co-stars’ relatively more prominent acting. Nam Gi-ae depicts well her character’s gradually elusive state, and she is especially wonderful when Kyeong-hee comes to have a morbid but harrowing moment of some inner peace for her around the end of the movie. Yu Seong-ju is also effective in his nuanced acting, and he and Nam did a good job of subtly suggesting a lot of history between their characters during a certain key scene of theirs.

On the whole, “Mother’s Kingdom” may feel a bit too dry and slow at first, but it eventually comes to us as a darkly intriguing tale about belief and faith, though it never spells out its religious aspects at all. In my inconsequential opinion, this is one of more interesting South Korean films of this year, and it will be interesting to see whatever may come next in its promising director during next several years.

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Fly Me to the Moon (2024) ☆☆(2/4): An uneven hodgepodge of comedy and drama

Posted on September 3, 2024 by kaist455

“Fly Me to the Moon” tries to be a lot of things at once, but it fails to work as any of them on the whole. While it busily swings back and forth between comedy and drama as intended, both of its comedy and drama do not work enough due to a number of glaring weak aspects here and there, and the result is an incoherent hodgepodge which does not leave much impression on the whole.

The fictional story of the movie is set in US during the 1960s, and its comic part mainly revolves around Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson), a young and confident female advertising executive who can be quite sneaky and deceptive for her business goals. The opening scene shows her skillfully persuading several male executives to make a deal with her, and you may be a bit amused by how wily she can be for getting her job done.

Anyway, not long after this successful job of hers, Jones is approached by a shady government agent named Moe Berkus (Woody Harrelson), who offers her what may be the biggest job in her rising professional career. While they are in the middle of the Apollo Program, the folks in NASA really need to improve their public image for getting more fund for beating the competing space program of the Soviet Union, and that certainly requires Jones’ particular set of skills. Mainly because the offer turns out to be something she cannot possibly refuse due a little personal reason, Jones agrees to work for NASA, and she soon goes to the NASA headquarters in Florida along with her female assistant.

Of course, things do not look that promising from the beginning, and the public opinion on NASA keeps going down as the American society is riddled with many other social/political issues such as the Vietnam War, but Jones is not daunted by that at all. She soon does a pretty good job of improving the public image of NASA much more than before, and that makes the public more interested and enthusiastic about NASA and its ongoing space program.

However, one particular person in NASA is not so pleased with what Kelly is doing, and that person in question is Cole Davis (Channing Tatum), the launch director at the Kennedy Space Center of NASA. He and many other technicians under his supervision have been really trying their best for the success of the Apollo 11, and he certainly does not want to get their process interrupted by Kelly’s relentless PR stuffs including the blatant commercials associated with those three astronauts of Apollo 11.

Naturally, Jones and Davis clash a lot with each other right from when their first day in NASA, but, what do you know, they also find themselves attracted to each other as they constantly push and pull each other during next several months. As coming to recognize that they are in the same team after all, they come to open themselves a bit more to each other, and some possibility of romance is accordingly suggested to us.

However, the movie sadly lacks any kind of chemistry between its two lead performers. While he can be effectively serious or funny as shown from “Foxcatcher” (2014) or “The Lost City” (2022), Channing Tatum somehow looks merely stiff and bland here, and he also fails to generate some gravitas in case of his character’s personal story involved with that infamous accident during the early years of the Apollo Program. In case of Scarlett Johansson, who incidentally also participated in the production of the movie, she surely has more stuffs to handle for her more colorful performance, but her good efforts are frequently dulled by Tatum’s rather blunt counteracting, and the possible romance between their characters becomes less believable as a result.

Meanwhile, the screenplay by Rose Gilroy, which is developed from the story by Bill Kirstein and Keenan Flynn, gets more distracted as clumsily changing its direction during its last act, where Berkus makes Jones make the fake video clip of the Moon Landing just in case. There is some suspense as Jones and Davis try to stop this fake video clip getting broadcast all over the world instead of the real one, but everything in this part is so predictable to the core that you will not be so surprised to see how a certain black cat comes to function as something equivalent to Chekhov’s gun.

Besides Johansson and Tatum, the rest of the main cast members do as much as required by their respective roles, though they are mostly under-utilized to our disappointment. While Woody Harrelson provides some comic relief as expected, Ray Romano looks fairly serious as Davis’ close colleague, and Jim Rash has the most fun in the film as a neurotic gay filmmaker hired to shoot that fake video clip of the Moon Landing.

In conclusion, “Fly Me to the Moon”, directed by Greg Berlanti, is dissatisfying as failing to develop enough any of its comic potential, and your mind will probably keep going back to a number of much better films associated with NASA. While “The Right Stuff” (1983) and “Apollo 13” (1995) surely come first, “Hidden Figures” (2016) and “First Man” (2018) are also both compelling and entertaining in each own way, and I must tell you that all of these films are sometimes actually more humorous than whatever I saw from “Fly Me to the Moon”. Believe me, you will have a more productive time with any of these films, and you may thank me for that.

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Moongyeong: More than Roads (2024) ☆☆☆(3/4): Her Journey with a monk

Posted on September 2, 2024 by kaist455

South Korean film “Moongyeong: More than Roads” follows a little journey of healing between two different women who happen to accompany each other by coincidence. Although it will require some patience from you as your average slow movie, it will gradually engage you once you go along with its slow and reflective narrative, and you will be moved by how much they are healed and then changed around the end of the story.

At first, the movie establishes the stressful situation of one of its two main characters. Moon-gyeong (Ryu Abel) is a young woman working in some big company located somewhere in Seoul, and her little department only has two female employees besides her, but we slowly begin to sense the tension among them as they busily work on their latest company project. While it is evident that the eventual success of that project is due to the considerable efforts from one of Moon-gyeong’s two co-workers, this young woman does not receive any appreciation or recognition at all, and she is even about to be let go just because her contract period is soon going to be over.

When this young woman eventually shows her longtime discontent in front of many others in the company, she is callously disregarded by their male boss. Moon-gyeong immediately comes to defend her co-worker, but, alas, she is already too drunk, and then she finds herself hospitalized due to her serious stomach problem, which was probably caused by her ongoing stressful circumstance.

Fortunately, Moon-gyeong returns to her workplace a few days later, but that co-worker of hers is already gone, and that prompts her to do something about that. She decides to take an impromptu 3-day vacation for locating her co-worker, but she really has no idea on how to find her co-worker, because she only knows that her co-worker’s hometown is a rural town which is also named Moongyeong (The movie surely makes a bit fun of that, by the way).

Anyway, Moon-gyeong goes down to Moongyeong, and then we are introduced to a young female monk named Ga-eun (Cho Jae-kyeong), who happens to be ready to go her own way right after finishing her novice period in a big temple near to Moongyeong. She and Moon-kyeong come across each other via a little accident involved with one cute stray dog, and they soon find themselves going around here and there in the town for locating the owner of that injured stray dog. Yes, they can simply take it to a nearby animal shelter after going to a local veterinarian, but the local veterinarian tells them that it will likely get euthanized several days later, and that is certainly the last thing they want. After all, they already named it “Gil-soon”, and the dog already becomes quite friendly to them.

As these two women come to spend more time with each other as taking care of Gil-soon together, the movie slowly immerses us into the soothing rural atmosphere surrounding them, and we are not so surprised when Moon-gyeong and Ga-eun come to open themselves more to each other as two different persons with each own emotional scar to deal with. While Moon-gyeong is still concerned a lot about her co-worker, Ga-eun later confides to Moon-gyeong about how she decided to become a monk after one terrible incident which still haunts her mind, and they come to bond more with each other as becoming more reflective about their current status.

The main subject of the story becomes more evident to us when Moon-gyeong and Ga-eun subsequently come to stay at the house of one generous old lady who happens to mistake Gil-soon for her recently lost dog. This old lady has lived with an adolescent granddaughter of hers, and it is apparent from the beginning that her dear granddaughter has some serious emotional issue. As she and Ga-eun come to spend more time with their kind host, Moon-gyeong becomes more curious about this young troubled girl, and, what do you know, she later gets to know a little more about this young troubled girl mainly thanks to Gil-soon.

Although the mood becomes a bit melodramatic around the finale, the movie sticks to its pensive attitude as showing more care and attention to its main characters, and its two lead actresses diligently carries the movie together. Ryu Abel, who previously appeared in South Korean independent film “Seire” (2021), ably depicts her character’s exhausted mental condition, and that is why it is touching to see how her character gets more brightened and relaxed bit by bit along the story. On the opposite, Cho Jae-kyeong, who incidentally makes a debut here in this film, effectively complements her co-star with her gentle tranquility, and we will probably see more of her considerable talent during next several years. In case of several main cast members of the movie, Choi Soo-min, Chae Seo-an, and Kim Ju-a are also solid in their respective supporting parts, and the special mention must go to that dog in the film, which effortlessly steals the show whenever it is on the screen.

Overall, “Moongyeong: More than Roads” is a typical road movie, but its slow journey is packed with enough mood and details under the competent direction of director/writer Shin Dong-il, who drew my attention for the first time with “Host & Guest” (2005) and “My Friend & His Wife” (2006) but has been less active during last several years since “Come, Together” (2016). Although this is not his best work in my humble opinion, it is still good enough for recommendation, and you certainly should check it out if you want to be soothed a bit for a while.

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Divertimento (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): To become a conductor

Posted on September 2, 2024 by kaist455

French film “Divertimento” is a competent feel-good drama film inspired by one remarkable real-life story. While there are some expected conventional moments, the movie casually flows along with its ambitious young heroine as she struggles to find her own personality and strength as a future orchestra conductor, and the overall result is engaging enough to hold our attention while surely earning its lovely finale.

The story is about the early years of Zahia Ziouali (Oulaya Amamra), who, as shown to us around the end of the film, has been well-known as one of few female orchestra conductors in France (and the world, of course). Even when she was very young, she was quite interested in music, and her Arab immigrant parents gladly encouraged her and her younger twin sister Fettouma (Lina El Arabi) to pursue their growing interest in music.

When they become 17, Zahia and Fettouma are ready to go further as beginning to practice their respective musical skills at some prestigious conservatory in Paris, but, of course, things are not easy for them at all from the very first day. Besides going back and forth between Paris and their little local city outside Paris everyday, they instantly feel the social/economic gap between them and many others at the conservatory, most of whom regard them in rather condescending ways.

Furthermore, Zahia finds herself more disregarded and ridiculed by others due to her ambition for becoming a first-class professional orchestra conductor someday. Many of other students are not so serious about her even when she is allowed to practice in front of others, and she becomes quite frustrated to find herself being pushed aside for her male competitor due to sexism.

And then, what do you know, there comes an unexpected chance for her on one day. She and other students happen to attend a lecture by one legendary conductor, and this famous conductor, Sergiu Celibidache (Niels Arestrup), happens to take a notice of Zahia when she boldly presents her conducting skill in front of Celibidache and others. Although she is not that good enough in his standard, Celibidache instinctively discerns her considerable raw skill and potential, and, to her delight, he promptly decides to teach her.

Of course, Celibidache is alternatively demanding and encouraging right from her first day with him, and that certainly frustrates her a lot at times. Nevertheless, Zahia keeps trying to improve her natural skill with more principle and style under Celibidache’s guidance, and she even comes to decides to assemble a little local orchestra for herself and several other enthusiastic colleagues of hers, which is named, yes, “Divertimento”

Again, Zahia comes upon one obstacle after another along the story, but the screenplay by director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar and her co-writer Clara Bourreau thankfully avoids being too melodramatic about its heroine’s small and big struggles in the story. While her parents and other family members including Fettouma are supportive as usual, her colleagues come to show more comradeship to her, and Celibidache continues to impart his wisdom to his promising pupil even though he can be very strict to her from time to time.

Regardless of how much the movie is actually close to its real-life story, there are a number of individual moments which will touch you in one way or another. While I particularly like a small moment when Zahia finds a way to teach one mentally disabled kid how to play a musical instrument, I assure you that you will be quite touched by an unexpected moment of reconciliation which Zahia arranges for one of her orchestra members and his estranged father, and you will also come to cheer for her a lot when she eventually discovers what is absolutely necessary for moving her talent and career up to the next level.     

The movie is constantly fueled by its heroine’s growing determination about her future professional career, and her spirit and personality are vividly conveyed to us via the earnest performance of Oulaya Amamra. Besides looking quite committed during several key scenes where her character conducts an orchestra, Amamra is also believable in her character’s artistic struggles, and we can actually sense her character’s gradual artistic growth along the story.

Around Amamra, several other main cast members play each own part well without overshadowing her at all. While Lina El Arabi has her few moments to shine as her character goes through her own artistic struggles, Zinedine Soualem and Nadia Kaci bring some warmth to the story as Zahia’s caring parents, and Niels Arestrup, whom I still remember well for his unforgettable supporting turn in Jacques Audiard’s great film “A Prophet” (2009), provides the movie a touch of class as required.

 In conclusion, “Divertimento” handles its conventional elements better than expected, and it also did a splendid job in case of the soundtrack, which is packed with many different classic pieces including a certain famous work by Maurice Ravel. Although it does not exceed my expectation, the movie achieves as much as intended with enough heart and skill, so I will give it a good grade without much complain.

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Love According to Dalva (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): The observation of a troubled young girl

Posted on August 31, 2024 by kaist455

“Love According to Dalva” closely observes the emotional turmoil of a troubled young girl who feels quite hurt and confused for understandable reasons. While it is sometime difficult to watch during a number of emotionally intense scenes, the movie depicts her constant emotional struggles with enough care and sensitivity, and it surely earns a small but significant moment of recovery and empowerment around the end of the story. 

The movie begins with the striking opening scene showing how things are suddenly turned upside down for Dalva (Zelda Samson), a 12-year-old girl who turns out to have been sexually abused by her father for several years. When the police promptly take away her father from her shortly after one of their neighbors reported to the police, she becomes quite upset due to having been emotionally dependent on her abuser for a long time, and she even demands to see him again while still being oblivious to what he has done to her.

After she is examined for any more sign of physical abuse, Dalva is sent to a facility where kids without any legal custodian are temporarily sheltered, and she surely draws much attention right from the first day due to her rather adult appearance. Not realizing yet how she looks odd with her adult attire and makeup, she wants to believe that she is a grownup woman, but we soon observe how naïve and vulnerable she really is – especially when she later has her first experience with menstruation.

At least, there are several people who care about her despite her stubborn refusal to face what happened to her body and mind. Although their first encounter is not exactly agreeable, her roommate, a feisty black girl named Samia (Fatna Guirassy), helps Dalva in one way or another, and many other kids in the facility are also fairly nice to Dalva because, well, they all have each own issue just like her. In case of the employees of the facility, they are all dedicated professionals, and Dalva’s handler comes to show more compassion and understanding than expected, though he knows too well how tough and tricky it is to handle very troubled kids like her.

What follows next for our little heroine is a classic progress of anger, denial, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. At first, she angrily rejects any help or support from others as frequently demanding to see her abuser again. After that, she insists that her and her abuser really loved each other, though it goes without saying that her abuser groomed her a lot for his truly deplorable purpose. When her mother, who incidentally left her husband before he took away their daughter, shows up, Dalva still clings on her misguided notion on her sexually exploited status, and she naturally comes to show more anger and frustration at others around her.

 Of course, there comes a point where she has no choice but to face the truth, when she seems to get what she wants at last after some bargaining. I will not go into details here, but I must tell you is that I was marveled by the dynamic raw performance from Zelda Samson. Despite being a young newcomer who had no previous movie acting experience, she ably swings from one emotional mode to another during this crucial scene without any single false note, and she is particularly harrowing as her character consequently goes down into a very depressed status.

During its second half, the screenplay by director/writer Emmanuelle Nicot, who collaborated with Jacques Akchoti and Bulle Decarpentries for writing her screenplay, shifts to a more reflective mode as its young heroine struggles to recover bit by bit. While she comes to look more brightened than before, Dalva still has remaining emotional issues to deal with, and we come to observe more of her emotional vulnerability. She just wants to be a plain normal girl, but that is sometime not so easy for her as shown from a couple of rather alarming moments, and that inevitably leads to the conflicts between her and her friends and supporters.

However, the movie never loses its compassion toward Dalva as usually sticking close to her limited viewpoint, which is further accentuated by the screen ratio of 1.33:1. As the camera of cinematographer Caroline Guimbal always hovers around her, the movie generates a considerable degree of verisimilitude, and we accordingly become more engaged in Dalva’s frequently troubled state of mind.

While Samson’s fierce natural acting the heart and soul of the film, she is also supported well by several good cast members surrounding her. Alexis Manenti, who has mainly known for his substantial participation in Oscar-nominated French film “Les Misérables” (2019), balances his character well between care and principle, and Fanta Guirassy, who is also a young non-professional performer just like Samson, is excellent in her several key scenes with Samson.

On the whole, “Love According to Dalva” is a modest but undeniably engaging coming-of-age drama, and Nicot, who previously made short film “À l’arraché” (2016), made a commendable feature film debut here. While its realistic mood and storytelling approach are apparently reminiscent of the works of the Dardenne brothers, her movie distinguishes itself with enough substance and sensitivity, and it will be interesting to see what will come next from this talented filmmaker to watch.

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