Andrea Walter
MOVIE REVIEW
The Fabulous Filipino Brothers (2021)
Director Dante Basco and three of his siblings co-wrote “The Fabulous Filipino Brothers,” a boisterous comedy set in Pittsburg, Calif. They, along with another brother, also co-star in the film, which centers on events leading up to wedding festivities and presents four distinctive Asian male archetypes that challenge the omnipresent stereotypes in American cinema – they don’t even speak Tagalog, they’ll have you know – but the filmmakers also make it abundantly clear, on at least one occasion, that the film is mostly for the edification of white people.
Continue reading “Sibling Revelry” »
SXSW
MOVIE REVIEW
Here Before (2021)
In “Here Before,” Andrea Riseborough plays Laura, grieving the loss of her daughter, Josie (Grace O’Dwyer), who died in a car accident. Laura is inexplicably drawn to Megan (Niamh Dornan), the young girl who has just moved in next door along with her family. In their few interactions, Megan shares some anecdotes suggesting that she is possibly possessed by Josie’s ghost, or so Laura thinks.
Continue reading “Dead Ringer” »
Faraz Fesharaki/DFFB
MOVIE REVIEW
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (2021)
“What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?” is a modern fable set in the nation of Georgia. There’s allegedly magic in the air per the voiceover narrator, though it’s his narration that does the heavy lifting. We don’t get to witness much of the miraculous the way we do, say, in a Jacques Tati film.
Continue reading “Spin a Yawn” »
Eigakobo Harugumi
MOVIE REVIEW
A Balance (2021)
“A Balance” centers on Yuko Kinoshita (Kumi Takiuchi), a sensationalist TV journalist investigating the deaths of teacher Mr. Yano and his 16-year-old student Hiromi. The two allegedly engaged in lascivious behavior on school grounds, which apparently led to their dismissals and suicides. Meanwhile, at the cram school operated by Yuko’s father, Masashi (Ken Mitsuishi), she catches a pupil named Mei (Yuumi Kawai) cheating.
Continue reading “Covering a Multitude of Sins” »
Burn the Film
MOVIE REVIEW
A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces (2021)
There have been film festivals and reviewers characterizing “A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces” as a documentary. We are not going to do that, as such would be factually inaccurate. The film was shown in the Forum section of Berlinale, which “focuses on contemporary international cinema productions and eschews conventional distinctions, such as that between fiction film and documentary” – a category truly befitting it.
Continue reading “Go With the Flow” »
Courtesy photo
MOVIE REVIEW
Tunka Tunka (2021)
The inspirational sports movie “Tunka Tunka” revolves around the wholly fictional competitive cyclist Fateh Singh Sidhu, as an adult played by the singer Hardeep Grewal in his big-screen debut – who also serves as the screenwriter. Despite the dearth of song and dance numbers, the film is not entirely devoid of conventions and clichés. Nevertheless, Mr. Grewal leaves no doubt that he understands the assignment and has done his homework.
Continue reading “Pedal to the Mettle” »
Courtesy photo
MOVIE REVIEW
Chinese Doctors (2021)
From Andrew Lau, co-director and co-cinematographer of “Infernal Affairs,” “Chinese Doctors” is perhaps a prime example of a respected filmmaker directing with one hand tied behind his back.
The story opens on Dec. 30, 2019, with deadly cases of pneumonia reported around Wuhan, China. Right off the bat, Mr. Lau is employing rapid successions of film speed changes often seen in the introductory segments of reality TV shows. We’re quickly introduced to Director Zhang (Zhang Hanyu), head of a local hospital, as some of his staff quit en masse amid traffic closures and emptied store shelves. It’s the perfect overture for a “Contagion,” “Outbreak” or zombie movie, but that is not what follows.
Continue reading “Masked and Anonymous” »
Courtesy photo
MOVIE REVIEW
Puaada (2021)
An intoxicating mix of rom-com and thriller, “Puaada” gets more hilarious the more dire the situation its characters face. It starts out pretty ordinary – Jaggi (Ammy Virk), a humble milkman from the countryside, only has eyes for Raunak (Sonam Bajwa), an educated daughter of snobbish Air Force officer Mr. Dhillon (Hardeep Gill). Despite her façade of playing hard to get, they’ve been an item for two years. He unexpectedly shows up and sabotages her first meeting with a suitor arranged by her parents, yet his own haphazard efforts to impress them have been laughable, to say the least.
Continue reading “A Very Long Entanglement” »
Wiesner Distribution
MOVIE REVIEW
El cuartito (2021)
Set in a San Juan, Puerto Rico, airport (presumably, Luis Muñoz Marín International) during the Trump presidency, “El cuartito” revolves around travelers flagged by customs officers for “additional processing.” Among them: Toti (Mario de la Rosa), a washed-up Spaniard rocker scheduled to perform a Thanksgiving concert without a work visa; Lina (Claribel Medina), a melodramatic former actress lugging an entire medicine cabinet worth of pills en route to meet her sister on a cruise ship; Mariel (Isel Rodriguez), traveling with an expired U.S. passport after falling for an Argentinian and leaving the U.S. in her teens; Jesús (Ianis Guerrero), attempting to reunite with his family after their botched border-crossing attempt; and Santo (Fausto Mata), a delusional preacher with a forged missionary visa.
Continue reading “Dread on Arrival” »
Adam Jandrup/Sony Pictures Classics
MOVIE REVIEW
The Lost Leonardo (2021)
The documentary “The Lost Leonardo” tracks a Salvator Mundi painting billed as “After Leonardo” by a New Orleans auction house and bought in 2005 for a song ($10,000, so relatively speaking). The purchasers were a group of art dealers that included Alexander Parish, a professional “sleeper hunter” in the business of finding works of art that are more valuable than auctioneers perceive, and Robert Simon. In 2017, Christie’s auctioned the painting, now dubbed “the male Mona Lisa,” for a record $450.3 million.
Continue reading “The Da Vinci Code” »