The Persian Version (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Her Persian family

Posted on January 17, 2024 by kaist455

“The Persian Version”, which won the Audience Award when it was premiered at the US Dramatic Competition of the Sundance Film Festival early in last year (It also received the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, by the way), is funny, charming, and touching as cheerfully bouncing around its young Iranian American heroine and her immigrant family story. Mainly driven by the mother and daughter relationship at its center, the movie presents the story and characters with an ample amount of humor and care, and the result will alternatively amuse and move you a lot.

At first, we get to know about how it was often difficult for Leila (Layla Mohammadi) to grow up in her Iranian immigrant family during the 1980s. Around the time her parents moved to US from their country in the 1970s, things were mostly okay between US and Iran, but then these two countries became quite hostile to each other due to the revolution in Iran several years later, so young Leila often struggled between her two cultural identities as shown from one amusing moment early in the film.

In the early 2000s, Leila has lived independently now as your average young New Yorker, but things are still difficult for her. As a young aspiring filmmaker, she is not going anywhere as struggling to finish her new screenplay, which is incidentally based on her family story. In addition, her mother Shireen (Niousha Noor) remains not so pleased about Leila’s homosexuality – even after Leila married and then divorced some woman. When Shireen’s ailing husband finally receives a heart transplant surgery, nearly all of their children come together for support, but Shireen prefers not to be around Leila, so Lelia goes to their family home instead for taking care of her grandmother, who has no problem at all with her granddaughter being a lesbian.

Meanwhile, we also get to know about an unexpected happening in Lelia’s private life. During one Halloween party, she comes across a guy in a drag costume, and she comes to have a little hot night along with this dude, who happens to be the lead performer of the latest Broadway revival of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”. It seemed to both of them that this is just a quick and simple moment of desire which will be forgotten sooner or later, but, what do you know, Leila is caught off guard when she is notified a few months later that she is actually pregnant.

 While eventually deciding that she will have a baby without marrying that dude, Leila comes to learn from her grandmother that there is a little secret behind her mother, and she soon became quite curious about what happened to her mother before she came to US along with her husband. As shown from a series of flashback scenes, she and her mother were not particularly close to each other, but she really wants to know more about her mother’s secret because it may anchor her screenplay as the emotional core of the story.

As Shireen’s hidden past is gradually unfolded along Lelia’s ongoing narrative, the screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Maryam Keshavarz freely swings back and forth between comedy and drama along with more character development. We come to admire and respect Shireen more as observing more of her sheer determination which has steadily carried her family during all those years. We also come to see that, as Leila’s grandmother points out early in the story, Leila is actually not so different from Shireen in many aspects. A number of scenes between Leila and her grandmother are constantly warm and sweet, and the movie also pays some attention to Leila’s sick father, who was not a very good husband to his wife but tried his best for his family anyway before getting too ill to work.  

In case of Leila’s eight older brothers, they are depicted with each own personality instead of becoming mere background details. Even though you cannot remember all of their respective names, they are often distinguishable from each other even when they are together on the screen, and it is certainly nice to see how all of them show unconditional care and support to their younger sister just like their grandmother.  

Keshavarz draws good performance from her main cast members. While Layla Mohammadi and Niousha Noor are believable in the long and complicated personal history between their characters, and their solid performances are flawlessly connected with Chiara Stella and Kamand Shafieisabet, who respectively played young Leila and young Shireen. Bijan Daneshmand, Bella Warda, and Tom Byrne are also well-cast in their supporting parts, and Byrne is hilariously awkward when his character is invited to join a family dinner as the biological father of Lelia’s baby.

In conclusion, “The Persian Version” is an endearing mix of coming-of-age comedy and immigrant family drama, and its vibrant charm and spirit still linger on my mind. Although I have not watched her two previous feature films “Circumstance” (2011) and “Viper Club” (2018), I can clearly discern here that Keshavarz is another talented filmmaker to watch, and it will be interesting to what she will do next after this little wonderful film which deserves to be cherished more in my inconsequential opinion. In short, this is one of more notable works of last year, and I sincerely recommend you to check it out as soon as possible.

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Albert Brooks: Defending My Life (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Brooks on Albert

Posted on January 15, 2024 by kaist455

I must confess that it took some time for me to appreciate more of that immense talent of Albert Brooks. When I was just a young South Korean moviegoer a long time ago, he seemed to me like a merely good American comedian who had sometimes drawn my attention via a series of solid movie performances including his stellar (and sweaty) Oscar-nominated turn in James L. Brooks’ “Broadcast News” (1987), but I gradually came to admire his long and illustrious career as getting to know more about his old and new achievements during next several years.

In HBO documentary film “Albert Brooks: Defending My life”, Brooks surely has lots of things to tell as casually talking with his longtime friend Rob Reiner, who also serves as the director/co-producer of the documentary. As a matter of fact, Brooks and Reiner were already close to each other when they were studying at the same high school in Beverly Hills, California along with the kids of many different Hollywood celebrities ranging from Groucho Mark to Lee J. Cobb, and they were no exception at all in case of their family background. As many of you know, Reiner is the son of legendary comedy writer Carl Reiner, and Brooks is the son of Harry Parke, a radio comedian star who was also known as “Parkyakarkus”.

Probably because of his real surname which I will not reveal here for not spoiling a good laugh for you, Brooks was always ready to go for laughs even when he was just a teenager, and his comic talent even impressed Reiner’s father a lot as both he and Reiner fondly remember. Eventually, he went all the way for comedy just like his father when he subsequently entered adulthood, and a number of archival footage clips from his early career show us how much he was willing to go for more laughs in his own distinctive comic methods. While often quite silly and outrageous, his comic tactics were always accompanied with wit and intelligence behind all those absurdities of his, and that surely makes many of his comedy sketches not only richer but also timeless.

As he drew more attention as a young promising comedian to watch, Brooks started to appear in a number of major TV shows including NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, where he never disappointed his audiences at all whenever he appeared as a special guest. Believe or not, he seldom tested or practiced most of those comic sketches of his in advance, and that certainly tells us a lot about how unhesitant he was for taking risks for spontaneously comic moments to tickle his audiences. 

Just like many other comedians, Brooks certainly had his own anxiety and security behind his comic persona. As the son of a famous comedian whose death was absurdly legendary to say the least, he definitely had to try a lot for proving his own talent to others, and he also had a rather strained relationship with her mother, which is incidentally incorporated into his little comedy film “Mother” (1996). While quite frank about the emotional distance between him and his mother, Brooks knows how to tell his personal story with some sharp sense of humor, and I was particularly tickled by an anecdote involved with his mother’s simple wish about her funeral.   

The second half of the documentary mainly revolves around Brooks’ movie career, and that is where it will become more interesting for anyone familiar with his movies. After making his first feature film “Real Life” (1979), Brooks impressed critics and audiences more with “Lost in America” (1985) and “Defending Your Life” (1991). In case of the latter, Brooks plays a guy who comes to reflect a lot on his whole life after he suddenly dies and then is transferred to a state of afterlife, and I strongly suggest you that you should check out this little gem which is also one of the most hilarious and intelligent movies about life and humanity.

After “Mother”, “The Muse” (1999), and “Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World” (2005), Brooks became less prominent as a filmmaker, but he steadily worked as a versatile character actor to be appreciated. While he continued to show his usual comic talent here and there as shown from his funny guest performance in HBO comedy series “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, he also demonstrated a more serious side of his acting talent in Nicholas Winding Refn’s “Drive” (2011), and it is really a shame that he was not Oscar-nominated again for his chillingly against-the-type villain performance despite receiving the enthusiastic recognition from several major film critics associations including the National Society of Film Critics.

While it is constantly fun and amusing to see the frequently comic interactions between Brooks and Reiner, Reiner also assembles a bunch of various interviewees ranging from David Letterman and Conan O’Brien to James L. Brooks and, surprise, Steven Spielberg, who actually often hanged around with Brooks when they were starting their respective careers during the early 1970s. All of these interviewees in the documentary have each own interesting story to tell about Brooks, and that surely makes the documentary all the more engaging.       

On the whole, “Albert Brooks: Defending My Life” is a splendid documentary which will show a lot about Brooks’s life and career, and you will come to admire his undeniable talent more like I did after watching this entertaining documentary. He is indeed one of the best comedians of our time, and we should cherish his singular talent as long as we can.

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Little Richard: I Am Everything (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): Beyond his legendary flamboyance

Posted on January 14, 2024 by kaist455

Documentary film “Little Richard: I Am Everything” looks around the life and career of Little Richard, who has been regarded as the ground-breaking pioneer of American Rock and Roll music. As looking beyond his legendary flamboyance, the documentary illuminates an energetic but conflicted man who had a fair share of ups and downs as struggling with his sexual identity in addition to being often underappreciated throughout his lifetime, and you will surely come to appreciate more of his significant artistic contribution to the American pop music of the 20th century.

Little Richard was born to a poor African American family in Georgia, 1932. Even when he was very young, Richard, who was Richard Wane Penniman during that period, often demonstrated his considerable musical talent, and he surely helped his minister father a lot at not only his church but also his little illegal business spot, though his father sternly disapproved of how he often looked feminine and flamboyant.

In the end, Richard eventually left his family home for working along with a various number of traveling black musician groups, and he became more comfortable with his sexual identity as he and many other black queer musicians were accepted more inside their free-wheeling artistic community. As a matter of fact, Richard even willingly performed as a drag queen at times, and that was certainly an interesting part of his early career period.

Meanwhile, Richard came to draw more attention as a young and talented musician to watch, and then there came an accidental breakthrough which boosted his career much more than he and others ever imagined. In 1955, he recorded “Tutti Frutti” with his own free style, and, what do you know, this became an immense hit not only inside but also outside black community. As a result, his name and music were widely spread around the whole country, and he soon found himself receiving the feverish adoration of thousands of black girls as well as white girls.

Ironically, Richard was allowed to be pretty and flamboyant on the stage during that time mainly because of his race and sexual identity. While intensely exuding sexuality in front of his audiences all the time, he was mostly regarded as a non-threatening oddball to white people, and that was how he could freely ride on his big success during the 1950s. When he eventually found his music and style being appropriated by major white musicians such as Pat Boone or, yes, Elvis Presley, he intentionally dialed up his performance for more intensity, and the result was pretty astounding to say the least.

However, behind all the exaggerating flamboyance of his, Richard was frequently conflicted about his sexual identity. He subsequently presented himself as a born-again Christian, and he also tried on married life as marrying Ernestine Harvin in 1959. Nevertheless, his sexual confusion, mainly fueled by his Christian upbringing, always followed him throughout his life, and the documentary details on how he often swung back and forth between his Christian background and sexual identity during next several decades. As one interviewee in the documentary points out, it is really ironic that he could not liberate himself that much even though his music has liberated so many LGBTQ+ people out there.

Anyway, Richard’s music continued to influence numerous different musicians ranging from the Beatles to David Bowie, whose flamboyantly androgynous appearance certainly owes a lot to Richard’s. When he made a comeback in London in the early 1960s, Richard actually met the Beatles when they were just newcomers who still had to prove themselves more, and he surely impressed and inspired these British lads a lot as showing the way toward their eventual success.

During the 1980s, Richard became less prominent than before, but he often reminded others that he would not just go away at all. Due to a very unfortunate accident, he missed the opportunity to attend a very special ceremony for him and several other giants of American Rock and Roll music, and he surely felt hurt about that, but he kept going like a trouper. In the end, he came to receive some overdue recognition in the 1990s, and there came a touching moment when he eventually received the American Music Award of Merit in 1997.

Around the time before his death in 2020, Richard got swung back to his Christian background as being aware of his imminent mortality, but several interviewees in the documentary including Billy Porter and John Waters still appreciate Richard’s considerable contribution to their LGBTQ+ community. He might never be totally comfortable with being himself, but he inspired and motivated other queer people a lot instead, and that deserves to be regarded as one of his significant legacies.

Overall, “Little Richard: I Am Everything”, directed by Lisa Cortés, presents its human subject with enough care and respect, and I enjoyed some nice visual touches for vividly conveying to us how Richard often electrified stages and audiences during his prime period. While it could show more, the documentary is still fairly engaging in addition to giving us a good overview on Richard’s life and career, and it is certainly worthwhile to watch if you are not so familiar with his music.

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No Bears (2022) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Another interesting work from Jafar Panahi

Posted on January 14, 2024 by kaist455

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s latest film “No Bears”, which won the Special Jury Prize when it was premiered at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, is fascinating for how the director willingly pushes his artistic vision further despite lots of obstacles and challenges around him and his work. While deliberately blurring the line between reality and fiction, the movie freely explores and examines its several main subjects including the ethics of filmmaking, and the result is surely another highlight in Panahi’s admirable filmmaking career.

The movie opens with the introduction of a couple who has been political exiles from Iran. Stuck in a Turkish city near the border between Turkey and Iran, they have been waiting for any chance to leave for Europe together, but only one of them can leave now, and that causes a serious conflict between them. While Bakhtiar (Bakhtiar Panjeei) sincerely wants his spouse Zara (Mina Kavani) to go first, she adamantly refuses to be separated from him because of her considerable emotional dependence on him during all those hard years of them.

This dramatic moment of theirs soon turns out to be a part of the filmmaking process directed by Panahi himself, who has been trying to make a docudrama film based on that couple’s personal story. Incidentally, he has to handle the shooting from a little rural village on the Iranian side of the border because he is not allowed to leave Iran due to his longtime conflict with the Iranian government, and we get a little amusing moment when he later attempts to reconnect with his crew and cast members after their communication line happens to be cut off.

Meanwhile, a big engagement ceremony is being held outside the village. When Panahi asks him to shoot this ceremony, Ghanbar (Vahid Mobasheri), a villager who let Panahi stay in his residence, agrees to do that job for Panahi, though, to our little amusement. he is quite clumsy in handling Panahi’s digital camera as shown from the following result. As almost everyone gathers at the ceremony, the village becomes a little quieter, and Panahi casually takes some photographs outside his current staying place.

However, this casual act of Panahi later gets himself involved with an unexpected trouble in the village. Many of villagers including the village chief somehow come to believe that one of his photographs contains the sight of a lad and a young woman who has actually been engaged to some other guy in the village, so they demand Panahi to give them that particular photograph. Panahi insists that he did not shoot anything involved with those two young people, but the village chief and many other elders in the village keep pressuring on him, and this certainly makes him less welcomed in the village than before.

This situation eventually culminates to where Panahi is requested to make an oath in front of the village chief and many other villagers. While he is allowed to record his oath on his video camera, Panahi comes to express his personal opinion on the absurdity of the old traditions of the village, and this certainly leads to another unpleasant moment between him and the villagers.

In the meantime, things get more complicated for Panahi’s ongoing filmmaking process. When he has a brief meeting with one of his crew members near the border, he learns more about how the shooting becomes more difficult for his crew and cast members due to his absence. He actually considers crossing the border for directly handling the shooting, but then he comes to change his mind for understandable reasons.

Deftly alternating between these two narratives, the movie gradually engages us as Panahi tries to handle some ethically tricky matters along the story. For example, we are not entirely sure about whether Panahi’s camera actually captured the sight of those two young people, so we cannot help but observe his following actions with some reservation. He certainly does not want to cause any more trouble, but he inadvertently comes to cause to more troubles in the village, and it seems there is nothing he can do except observing and recording. In contrast, he attempts some manipulation on the two leading performers of his film, and this consequently leads to an emotionally painful scene where one of his leading performers finally decides that enough is enough.

As many of you know, Panahi was limited a lot by the Iranian government in one way or another during the production of “No Bears” in 2022, but the overall result feels more fluid and effortless than his previous film “Taxi” (2015), whose entirely narrative is unfolded inside a taxi driven by Panahi. While I admired Panahi’s defiant spirit behind “Taxi”, I also frequently noticed the inherent limits inside and outside that little film, and that was the main reason why I was less enthusiastic about it than others. In case of “No Bears”, Panahi demonstrates more artistic freedom and dexterity than before in addition to drawing good natural performances from himself and many other main cast members of his film, and the movie surely reminds us of how talented artists can sublimate their artistic challenges into golden opportunities for pushing themselves more.

While he was arrested right before the premiere of “No Bears” at the Venice International Films Festival, Parani was eventually released early in last year, and he is probably planning on making another work behind his back now. He is certainly one of the most important Iranian filmmakers at present, and I sincerely hope that he will keep going as before.

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Wish (2023) ☆☆(2/4): You will wish for a better one

Posted on January 12, 2024 by kaist455

The most surprising thing about new Disney animation film “Wish” is how dull and uninspired it is. Often lacking in spirit and personality, the film merely serves a run-of-the-mill fantasy tale which does not engage us much due to its flat storytelling and thin characterization, and the result is one of the most forgettable products from Disney during last several years. Seriously, I came to wish for a better one as coming out of the screening room with lots of grumpy disappointment, and so will you, probably.

The most disappointing thing about “Wish” is that it is not even effective during its several key musical scenes. The original songs by Julia Michaels and Benjamin Rice are not that awful compared to that deliberately horrible torch song in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (2023), but you will not find yourself humming any of these songs after watching the film. Sure, many of the main voice members of the film do try as much as possible with these rather unremarkable songs, but most of the musical scenes in the film still feel artificial and forced, instead of functioning as the organic part of the story itself.

In addition, as watching the film in the Dolby screening room of a big local theater, I could not help but notice how “Wish” looks bland and lifeless in terms of visual aspects. Yes, the end credits of the film surely show that there are indeed lots of efforts of numerous animators and technicians behind it, but their overall result is somehow unconvincing while also lacking something to engage and enliven us. For example, its computer animation figures often look awkward in the curiously static backgrounds shown on the screen, and they do not even feel like really living inside their little fantasy world.

And the film also seems weirdly disinterested in building up its little main background with mood and details to distinguish itself from many other similar products out there. It simply establishes a magic island kingdom where personal wish can be granted by its powerful wizard king, but it does not develop this potentially interesting story promise much on the whole, and we are merely served with another your average tale about good and evil. Sure, the wizard king turns out to be a bad dude, and it is not much of a spoiler to tell you that the fate of the kingdom and its people now depends on our plucky young heroine who can occasionally sing for winning our heart.

Her name is Asha (voiced by Ariana DeBose), and her big wish is making her dear old grandfather’s wish come true via the routine ceremony held by the wizard king. Having gathered a lot of true wishes from his people for years, the wizard king has them under control as granting some of those wishes from time to time, and Asha is certainly willing to do anything for persuading him to grant what she has wished so much.

After coming to realize how mean the wizard king really is behind his supposedly likable appearance, Asha becomes quite depressed, and then there comes something quite unbelievable when she simply wishes upon those stars on the night sky. A little but bright star falls on the ground, and, what do you know, this star turns out to be have some awesome magical abilities. For instant, it can make animals and plants talk, and that is how Asha’s pet goat becomes your typical wise-cracking sidekick.

Of course, once he senses how much his dominion will be threatened by the magical power of the star, the wizard king becomes quite determined to catch the star and then extract its power for becoming all the more powerful than ever. As the main villain of the story, Chris Pine is certainly willing to go over the top when his character becomes nastier and meaner along the story, and he manages to succeed to some degree, though his own musical moment in the film cannot possibly top Melissa McCarthy’s deliciously diabolical delivery of “Poor Unfortunate Souls” in “The Little Mermaid” (2023).

As the story trudges toward its expected ending, we get a number of references involved with several classic Disney films, but they mostly feel redundant without contributing much to the story itself. Sure, we cannot help but think of “Snow White and Seven Dwarfs” (1937) as observing Asha’s seven different friends, but any of them does not have much life and personality to distinguish themselves. To be frank with you, I personally think Hayao Miyazaki’s recent animation film “The Boy and the Heron” (2023) did a much better job of variation via those seven colorful old ladies around its young hero.

In case of Ariana DeBose, who has been more prominent thanks to her feisty Oscar-winning supporting turn in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 remake of “West Side Story” (1961), she certainly sings well in addition to bringing some pluck to her character, but she is limited by her weak role from the very beginning. Several other notable voice cast members of the film such as Alan Tudyk, Victor Garber, Harvey Guillén, Evan Peters, and Ramy Youssef are mostly under-utilized, and Tudyk, who has been one of the dependable voice actors for many notable animation films such as “Wreck-It Ralph” (2012), sadly has to handle many lame one-liners throughout the film.

In conclusion, “Wish”, directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn, is quite dissatisfying for its sheer lack of originality and energy, and I am still wondering how this dud can happen despite the steady quality control on Disney animation films during last several decades. Nonetheless, I will not hastily declare that the end of an era is coming, and I sincerely hope that we will be more charmed and entertained in the next time.

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Migration (2023) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): A Mallard Tale

Posted on January 12, 2024 by kaist455

Animation feature film “Migration” is not as bad as I feared, but it is also not as good as I wished. As many of reviewers have pointed out, last year was a curiously weak year for animation films without much to remember, and “Migration” only reminded me of that again although occasionally amusing me at times. Happening to sit alone in the middle of the big Dolby screening room, I did chuckle several times for its silly gags and jokes, but I also noticed how shallow and predictable it is in terms of story and character.

As your typical entertainment for family audiences, the movie is about a mallard family who has resided near some rural pond for years. Quite anxiously protective about his kids, Mack (voiced by Kumail Nanjiani) often warns them about any possible danger outside their little world, but his kids are eager to explore the outside world someday, and the same thing can be said about Mack’s loving wife Pam (voiced by Elizabeth Banks).

On one day, a bunch of migrating birds happen to drop by Mack and his family’s pond. After meeting a young member of the bunch, Mack’s son becomes interested in going to a certain tropical place where these migrating birds are heading, and, of course, Mack objects to his son’s wish, but, not so surprisingly, he eventually comes to change his mind because, well, he also does not like to be stuck in their place for the rest of his life.

As Mack and his family members fly high toward the sky, the mood becomes a bit more exciting than before, and the film surely provides some entertaining moments to enjoy. The score by John Powell, who is no stranger to the excitement of flying as shown from his great scores for “How to Train Your Dragon” (2010) and the following two sequels, naturally soars along with the avian main characters of the film, and that makes us ready for more adventures to come for Mack and his family.

However, alas, what we get is a series of broad comic episodic moments which do not bring much substance to the main narrative. At one point early in the film, Mack and his family happen to stay at a swampy residence belonging to an aging heron couple who may have an insidious motive behind their back, and this will only take you back to the memories of that weird heron figure in Hayao Miyazaki’s recent animation film “The Boy and the Heron” (2023). Although I am not so enthusiastic about “The Boy and the Heron” unlike many others, I must point out that the heron figure and a bunch of big parakeets in “The Boy and the Heron” are much more interesting and memorable compared to any avian character in “Migration”, and, to be frank with you, now I am more willing to recommend it more than before.

Around the middle of the story, Mack and his family fly into a huge city which is apparently New York City. Feeling quite lost in the middle of this big city, they certainly need somebody who can help them going to their final destination, and this avian figure turns out to be a tropical bird which has been caged by some nasty local chef. As Mack and his family attempt to help this tropical bird’s escape, we get a busy action sequence where Mack and his wife must evade many dangers in front of them, but you will not be amused or surprised that much as observing how flat and predictable this sequence is in one way or another. While the main villain of the story surely looks mean, this evil dude, who incidentally does not speak at all, is not as funny or vicious as that wordlessly despicable villain of “Shaun the Sheep Movie” (2015), and he is no more than a mere plot device just like the little conflict between Mack and his son along the story.

Anyway, the main cast members of the film try their best with their respective parts, although their considerable talents are not utilized well on the whole. Kumail Nanjiani and Elizabeth Banks are good comic performers who can bring some humor and personality to their characters, but there is not much chemistry between their voice performances mainly due to their rather colorless characters. In case of several notable voice cast members including Keegan-Michael Key, Awkwafina, Carol Kane, and Danny DeVito, they have some little fun with their more colorful roles, but they are also often limited by thin characterization, and DeVito is particularly wasted as only demanded to sound grumpy or goofy throughout the film.

In conclusion, “Migration”, directed by Benjamin Renner, is not a total waste of time at all, but its short running time (83 minutes) merely passed by during my viewing without much impression left in the end. At least, its technical aspects are not bad at all, and I enjoyed its bright color scheme which was vividly shown to me in the Dolby screening room, but good animation films need much more than that in my humble opinion.

Will young audiences enjoy “Migration”? They will probably enjoy it to some degree, but their young curious minds will eventually go for something really fresh and interesting. A few months ago, one of my colleagues told me that he and his young son watched “The Boy and the Heron” together, and, though they did not wholly get what exactly it is about, they had a pretty enthusiastic conversation about its themes and messages after watching it. That is what a good and interesting animation film can usually do, and I think you should watch “The Boy and the Heron” if you have to choose between it and “Migration”.

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Society of the Snow (2023) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Under that unimaginably extreme condition

Posted on January 8, 2024 by kaist455

What would you do under a situation as grim and extreme as whatever the survivors of the Andes Flight Disaster experienced in 1972? This is surely a hard and difficult question, and Netflix film “Society of the Snow”, which was released on last Friday, throws its thought-provoking main question with full respect and no compromise. While never overlooking a certain disturbing choice made by these survivors during that gloomy period of survival, the movie goes for something nearly impossible, and it accomplishes its daunting goal mostly well with enough mood and intensity to hold our attention during its rather long running time (144 minutes).

The opening part of the film shows how everything seemed fine and well to the passengers of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 on October 13th, 1972. Along with a bunch of families members, friends, and supporters of theirs, the team members of an Uruguayan rugby team were supposed to have a good time once they arrived in Santiago, Chile, and the passengers were not concerned that much when their airplane was about to pass the Andes, because they were already told about how risky their flight could be due to the frequent turbulence over those high mountains of the Andes.

Unfortunately, mainly because of the inexperienced its co-pilot, the airplane crashed onto a wide and remote field in the middle of the Andes, and the movie jolts us with a terrifying sequence which vividly presents the crash course of the airplane on the screen. It is quite evident that the movie uses lots of special effects here, but the overall result is pretty intense and scary to say the least, and we come to brace ourselves more because we are already well aware of what will happen next to the survivors, who gradually come to face how hopeless and despairing their situation is in many aspects.

The screenplay by director/co-producer J.A. Bayona, who is mainly known for his Oscar-nominated film “The Impossible” (2012), and his co-writers Bernat Vilaplana, Jaime Marques, and Nicolás Casariego, which is based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Pablo Vierci, slowly and steadily rolls its characters’ increasingly desperate circumstance. Although some of the initial survivors died due to injury and extreme cold weather, the survivors kept hoping for the best while trying to survive day by day in addition to searching for any chance for getting rescued. As they stuck together under a guy who became their de factor leader, there seemed to be some possibility for rescue, and they managed to acquire a radio which would tell them what was going on outside, but, alas, they later became quite despaired when a radio news told them that the following search would be suspended for a while.

In the meantime, they kept getting hungrier in addition feeling colder, and something quite unthinkable inevitably came to their mind. The movie handles the characters’ ghastly inner conflict over their impossible situation with enough thoughtfulness and restraint, and it thankfully does not delve too deep into their following act of cannibalism on those dead people while never looking away from their horror and shame about that. They surely felt disgusted and conflicted at first, but, once they set their own moral lines for their exceptional circumstance, they soon got more accustomed to that in the name of surviving a few more days at least.

Nevertheless, the situation remained as grim as before, and Bayona and his crew members including cinematographer Pedro Luque did a commendable job of filling the screen with the overwhelming sense of isolation and despair. Although the film was mostly shot in Spain, its background details look pretty convincing enough on the whole, and the main cast members of the films, most of whom are newcomers from Argentine and Uruguay, really look like living through the extreme conditions surrounding their characters – especially when their characters are suddenly attacked by a couple of avalanches in the middle of the story.

In the end, the remaining survivors decided to try more when the weather on the Andes got milder a few months later, and two of them eventually succeeded to rescue not only themselves but also other survivors after enduring an arduous journey across the Andes. Even at that narrative point, the movie restrains itself from any cheap sentimentalism, and the score by Michael Giacchino sticks to its low-key attitude as before. They survived, and they were certainly glad and relieved for that, but, as reflected by the bittersweet reflective tone of the last scene of the film, they had to live with the cost for their survival while sharing the real understanding on their extreme experience only with each other.

As many of you know, the story of the survivors of the Andes Flight Disaster has been the main subject of a bunch of movies and documentaries before “Society of the Snow”. The most famous one is Frank Marshall’s 1993 film “Alive”, and there was also René Cardona, Jr.’s Mexican exploitation flick “Survive!” (1976) before that. I still remember Gonzalo Arijón’s excellent documentary film “Stranded” (2007), and it reminded me that the Andes Flight Disaster is more suitable for documentary than movie for several good reasons.

While it may not be better than “Stranded”, “Society of the Snow”, which was selected as the Spanish submission to Best International Film Oscar in last year (it was recently included in the shortlist, by the way), is more compelling than “Alive” at least for its vivid and effective docudrama approach. Yes, it is indeed a tough stuff to watch, but the movie surely tries its best for handling its tricky story materials, and I admire its considerable achievement even though I cannot possibly say that I was, well, entertained.

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Crescendo (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): As they try their best to the end

Posted on January 7, 2024 by kaist455

Documentary film “Crescendo”, which was released in South Korean theaters a few weeks ago, works best whenever it does not pay attention to the main attraction for South Korean audiences. As far as I can see from the documentary, Yunchan Lim, a South Korean pianist who has been building his burgeoning artistic career since his exceptional achievement in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition of 2022, is the least interesting figure in the documentary despite his immense skill and talent, and this promising wunderkind is unfortunately eclipsed at times by his more colorful competitors who willingly and casually show more of themselves in front of not only the piano but also the camera.

For anyone not particularly familiar with the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (Full Disclosure: I am one of such persons), the early part of the documentary gives some brief background information on this prestigious competition. After achieving a historical victory in one famous international piano competition in Moscow in 1958, a young but prodigious American pianist named Van Cliburn quickly rose as one of the greatest classic pianists of the 20th century. He also contributed a lot to promoting and supporting young and talented pianists, and that was how the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was started in 1962. During next six decades, this prestigious competition has steadily gained more and more reputation, and it has been the equivalent to Mount Everest for any young ambitious pianist around the world.

Of course, the selection process by the jury of the competition is pretty tough to say the least. First, they receive more than 300 applicants, and then they must select 30 candidates after carefully evaluating each of these applicants. Once these 30 candidates are gathered at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, they will go through the orientation before a series of rounds to be held at the Van Cliburn Concert Hall, and they all will have to do their best to the end, regardless of the eventual outcome for each of them.

Because everything must be as ideal flawless as possible, the staff members of the competition are ready to help and support the candidates in one way or another. For example, the candidates are allowed to choose between two grand pianos prepared for them, and they are also permitted to check and adjust a number of minor things for their individual performances. We see one of them trying several different chairs before eventually choosing the most ideal one for him, and you may be a bit amused to observe some other candidate thoroughly checking on the acoustic conditions of the concert hall.

Right from the first round which will eliminate 12 candidates, the mood becomes quite tense to say the least. Each of them has each own challenge to face, and the jury members, who are incidentally led by Marin Alsop (She is a prominent conductor who is regarded as the main source of inspiration for Todd Field’s Oscar-nominated film “Tár” (2022), by the way), must be careful and discreet on their eventual decision on who is more interesting or talented to them.

Nevertheless, the candidates have a fair share of joy and excitement even though being pressured a lot from time to time. As shown from a brief scene in the middle of the documentary, they can have each own free time whenever they are not practicing, and there is a little humorous moment when a young Ukrainian candidate attempts to drive a car under the guidance of his American host.

Due to the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, there was actually a serious discussion on whether the competition should deny several Russian candidates in the shortlist, but the Russian candidates were eventually accepted because it was eventually concluded that art comes first before politics as an important tool for communication and empathy. As a matter of fact, one Russian candidate, who is incidentally a 31-year-old pregnant mother, expresses her indirect objection to what is going on in Ukraine during her interview, and we later see her casually and comfortably interacting with a couple of Ukrainian candidates selected along with her for the final round.

Because the documentary already showed the eventual winner of the competition at the beginning, there is not much suspense for us, but we come to sense more of how most of the candidates become quite agitated whenever the jury announce the decision on who will be selected for the next round to come. Many of those unselected candidates surely feel quite disappointed, but they are now more relaxed at least, while also readying themselves for whatever will come next for their life and career.

Compared to many of his fellow competitors to beat, Lim somehow looks relatively flat and plain as responding to a number of questions with humble platitudes. To be frank with you, this gently introverted lad often feels to me as awkward as Dustin Hoffman’s character in “The Graduate” (1967), and, considering that he is only 19 at present, I guess he needs to grow up a bit more for having more character to distinguish himself and his artistic talent further.

Anyway, “Crescendo”, which is directed and produced by Heather Wilk, is still worthwhile to watch for the fairly entertaining presentation of its main subject, and I surely appreciated the considerable talent and skill of those candidates in the competition. They all surely did their best, and I can only hope that all of them keep going in one way or another.

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Àma Gloria (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): The last summer with her nanny

Posted on January 7, 2024 by kaist455

“Àma Gloria”, which was released in South Korea on the first Wednesday of 2024 as “The World of Cléo”, is a little but intimate coming-of-age drama revolving around the close relationship between a six-year-old French girl and her dear nanny. As they are spending what will be the last summer between them, we observe more of how much our little heroine is emotionally attached to her nanny, and the movie delivers some bittersweet moments while she comes to face the inevitable end of her good time with the nanny.

The early part of the film succinctly establishes the strong emotional bond between its little heroine and her nanny. Since her mother died when she was very young, Cléo (Louise Mauroy-Panzani) has been raised by a foreign nanny named Gloria (Ilça Moreno Zego) for next several years, and Gloria has been pretty much like a mother to Cléo. Although he is often busy and absent due to his work, Cléo’s single father sincerely appreciates what Gloria has done for him and his daughter, and it is apparent to us that she has been accepted as a crucial part of their daily life.

However, there comes an unexpected change via a phone call from Gloria’s hometown in Cape Verde. Gloria’s mother, who has taken care of Gloria’s two children during her absence, died suddenly, and Gloria must return to her hometown for her two children. When she hears about this change from her nanny, Cléo is not pleased to say the least, but at least she tries to be casual about Gloria’s imminent departure on the surface.

Before Gloria leaves for Cape Verde, Cléo is promised that she will be able to visit Gloria’s hometown during the upcoming summer vacation, and, mainly thanks to her stubborn insistence, she is eventually sent to Cape Verde under her father’s agreement. Right from her arrival in Cape Verde, she is warmly greeted by Gloria, and then she is also introduced to Gloria’s two children, who are rather distant to both Gloria and Cléo for understandable reasons.

While quite happy to be with Gloria again, Cléo gradually comes to sense the growing distance between her and Gloria, who now has several matters to deal with as trying to settle down in her hometown. Her older daughter is going to have a baby sooner or later, and her young son is quite resentful about her long absence, though he does not mind Cléo hanging around him from time to time. Gloria has been planning to run a little hotel for tourists, but its construction has been seriously delayed due to some financial problem, and she is relieved to get some help from an old friend of hers, who clearly wants to get closer to her if she allows that.

Naturally, Cléo becomes more and more agitated as her time with Gloria is about to be over. When her grandson is eventually born, Gloria comes to pay more attention to him because he is the one who matters to her most now, and Cléo cannot help but feel angry and jealous as facing this ongoing change of her dear nanny. We are not so surprised when she comes to have a little nasty wish after observing a local spiritual ceremony on Gloria’s grandson, and then things get a bit more intense when she lets herself driven more by her anger and jealousy later in the story.

Mostly sticking to its young heroine’s limited viewpoint, the movie closely and sensitively captures the emotional undercurrents swirling inside her innocent mind, and this is accentuated further by the broad but strikingly colorful animation interludes. Besides giving us some background information on Cléo’s relationship with Gloria, these animation interludes illuminate more of Cléo’s confused state of mind along the narrative, and everything in the story eventually culminates to a dramatic scene where Cléo comes to accept what will inevitably happen between her and Gloria in the end.

As the little but indelible emotional center of the film, young performer Louise Mauroy-Panzani is fabulous as effortlessly embodying her character’s small but dynamic emotional drama, and she is also supported well by the warm and understanding presence of Ilça Moreno Zego. Whenever they are together on the screen, we can sense the considerable affection and intimacy between their characters, and that is the main reason why the expected finale works with considerable emotional power. In case of several other main cast members in the movie, Fredy Gomes Tavares, Abnara Gomes Varela, and Arnaud Rebotini are also effective in their substantial supporting parts, and Tavares, who is a non-professional performer with no previous acting previous just like many of the main cast members of the film, is especially good as a boy who turns out to have his own emotional issues just like Cléo.

“Àma Gloria” is the second feature film of director/writer Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, who previously won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival for her first feature film “Party Girl” (2014). I have not watched “Party Girl” yet, but “Àma Gloria” shows that she is another talented filmmaker to watch, and it will be interesting to see what may come next from her after this solid coming-of-age drama movie. While its story and characters may feel quite familiar, they are presented with enough mood, detail, and personality to engage us, and you may come to hope that its little heroine will still remember her dear nanny even after growing up a lot during next several years.

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Good Grief (2023) ☆☆☆(3/4): After his husband’s death

Posted on January 7, 2024 by kaist455

Netflix film “Good Grief”, which was released a few days ago, attempts to present a sincere and humorous drama about personal grief, and it mostly succeeds in my trivial opinion. While it has some notable flaws including its predictable narrative and a number of underdeveloped supporting characters, the movie is fairly engaging mainly thanks to the good efforts from its main cast members, who often hold the film together even when it lags or stumbles from time to time.

At the beginning, we see how things have been going well for Marc (Daniel Levy) and his husband Oliver (Luke Evans) during the annual Christmas party being held at their apartment in London. While Oliver is a writer currently enjoying the big success of some popular young adult novel series, Marc has collaborated with his husband as the illustrator of his husband’s books, and they look like a pretty happy couple to not only themselves but also many others at their party.

However, Oliver soon has to leave for Paris due to a little job to do there, and then an unexpected incident occurs not long after his departure. He dies due to a very unfortunate car accident, and Marc naturally becomes quite devastated to say the least. During next several months, he silently copes with his immense grief while not knowing what to do next, and his two best friends, Thomas (Himesh Patel) and Sophie (Ruth Negga), are willing to provide comfort and support to him as much as possible.

In the end, Marc decides to accept Oliver’s death more as opening a little letter left by Oliver right before his death, but he only feels more hurt because of what Oliver wrote in his letter. It turns out that Oliver had been having an affair behind his back, and he was seriously considering leaving Marc for some guy at that time. In addition, Marc finds out that Oliver bought an apartment in Paris, which was apparently for him and his new lover.

Without telling anything to Thomas and Sophie, Marc subsequently goes to Paris along with them for getting to know more about what Oliver was doing behind his back. As reminded more that Oliver was really ready to leave him at that time, he comes to feel more anger and sadness, and he is not cheered much even when his two friends try to have a little fun evening along with him.

Marc later decides to have an impromptu date with some handsome French guy he met some time ago, and that is where the mood becomes a little more serious than before. Although they do not know that much about each other, Theo (Arnaud Valois) shows some care and interest to Marc as opening himself more to him, and he even generously lets Marc express more grief as giving him a brief but precious private moment involved with several famous paintings by a certain French painter.

I think the movie could be better if it simply strolled along with Marc and his unexpected friend during the rest of its running time, but the screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Daniel Levy, who incidentally made a feature film debut here in this film, tries to handle some other things in the story, and that is when the movie gets less interesting as only ending up scratching the surface. For example, we never get to know much about the personal issues behind Sophie’s frequently exuberant attitude, and the movie also seems to hesitate to delve more into the past relationship between Marc and Thomas, who was once his lover before Marc met Oliver.

At least, the movie keeps its heart intact as anchored well by Levy’s earnest low-key acting, which feels a bit more serious than his flamboyant Emmy-winning turn in his acclaimed TV comedy series “Schitt’s Creek”. While generating a convincing sense of intimacy with Luke Evans in a few scenes between them early in the film, Levy is also believable as Marc struggles with his mixed feelings about his dead husband along the story, and we come to care more about his emotional struggle even though he is often pathetically self-absorbed as pointed out later in the movie.

In case of several other main cast members of the film, they dutifully fill their respective supporting parts, and they manage to leave some impression even though their supporting characters feel rather perfunctory at times. While Ruth Negga demonstrates a more lightweight side of her considerable talent compared to “Loving” (2016) and “Passing” (2021), Himesh Patel, who has steadily advanced since I noticed him via “Yesterday” (2019) and “Tenet” (2020), is solid in his understated comic role, and Arnaud Valois, who was memorable in “120 BPM (Beats per Minute)” (2017), clicks well with Levy during several key moments between them. Emma Corrin, Kaitlan Dever, and David Bradley simply come and then go to my disappointment, but Bradley, a dependable British character actor who is still working despite being 81 at present (Remember that cantankerous caretaker in Harry Potter movies?), makes the best of his brief appearance as Oliver’s father at least.

In conclusion, “Good Grief” is the modestly enjoyable first feature film from Levy, who may move onto better things considering his competent handling of mood and performance. I still think it could be improved in one way or another, but I and a friend of mine had a mostly good time with it yesterday, so I will not grumble for now.

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