Janus Films
MOVIE REVIEW
Drive My Car (2021)
“Performing allowed me to be someone other than myself. And I could revert back when the performance ended,” Haruki Murakami wrote in the short story “Drive My Car,” anthologized in “Men Without Women.” “But the self that one returned to was never exactly the same as the self that one had left behind.” These words are left unspoken by actor-director Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) to his chauffer, Misaki Watari (Tôko Miura), in the film adaptation directed and cowritten by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Rather, they are faithfully enacted.
Continue reading “Broken Vessels” »
TIFF
MOVIE REVIEW
The Good House (2021)
An adaptation of the Ann Leary novel, “The Good House” centers on Hildy Good (Sigourney Weaver), an alcoholic real-estate agent with witchy powers and in a bit of a midlife crisis. Her ex-husband, Scott (David Rasche), left her for a man after 22 years; former assistant Wendy Heatherton (Kathryn Erbe) took her clients; and rent just went up in Brooklyn for her yet-dependent aspiring-artist daughter, Emily (Molly Brown). Hildy is working her deep knowledge of the fictional Wendover, Mass., (apparently stand-in for Ipswich) and personal relationships with its denizens to capacity in hopes of drumming up business. Though she has her finger on the pulse of this affluent coastal Boston suburb, she’s oblivious to the seriousness of her dipsomania to the point that an intervention needs to be staged.
Continue reading “Daze on the Market” »
Josh Barrett/A24
MOVIE REVIEW
The Souvenir Part II (2021)
“The Souvenir Part II” is, in essence, the making of “The Souvenir,” Joanna Hogg’s maybe autography about Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne), the Sloane Ranger-y student enrolled at the Raynham Film School (stand-in for Ms. Hogg’s alma mater, the National Film and Television School) and living in Knightsbridge, who perpetually feigns a smile as her forehead tightens. The school seemingly expects her well-to-do folks (Tilda Swinton, Ms. Swinton Byrne’s real-life mum, and James Spencer Ashworth) to bankroll her student projects. They do, and in turn she takes some of the hard-begged handouts to support the drug habit and wastrel lifestyle of The Worst Fuckboi Ever, Anthony (Tom Burke).
Continue reading “Putting It Together” »
Adolpho Veloso/Sony Pictures Classics
MOVIE REVIEW
Jockey (2021)
“The Rider,” about an injured rodeo star living on a South Dakota reservation, was a much-admired little gem that catapulted the career of an auspicious filmmaker. It made such an impression that her follow-up would warrant a full-fledged Oscar campaign. That filmmaker was of course Chloé Zhao; and her follow-up was “Nomadland.” To try to bottle that lightning twice would be a fool’s errand. But the distributor of “The Rider,” Sony Classics, seems to have another one just like it in the hopper three years later.
Continue reading “Stumbling Out of the Gate” »
TIFF
MOVIE REVIEW
True Things (2021)
Some people lead messy lives. They can’t get out of bed in the morning. They can’t get to work on time. You don’t have to relate to them. You don’t even have to like them. You must, however, recognize their existence. There really haven’t been many movies about these folks. “Four Weddings and a Funeral” seems to be the last to leave a lasting impression, and that’s almost three decades ago. “True Things” is one such movie though, about an individual who can’t get her act together and doesn’t bother trying.
Continue reading “Chaos Reigns” »
Amazon Studios
MOVIE REVIEW
Encounter (2021)
Not sure what it is with these recent British bait-and-switchers, but “Encounter” unfolds very much like “Here Before”: It begins in one genre and then swerves into something else entirely. “Encounter” commences as science fiction, with Riz Ahmed as a former marine Malik Kahn, who, after years of absence, hurriedly snatches his two kids, Jay (Lucian-River Chauhan) and Bobby (Aditya Geddada), from his estranged ex, Piya (Janina Gavankar). They embark on a secret mission to take cover at a military base amid an alien invasion. Through elaborate special effects, the film depicts people altering their behaviors after insect bites, and their eyes give them away. If you are a sci-fi fan, just know looks here are deceiving. If that doesn’t deter you, beware of spoilers ahead.
Continue reading “Body Snatcher” »
Samuel Goldwyn Films
MOVIE REVIEW
Snakehead (2021)
Among the recent films on immigrants – “Limbo,” “I Carry You With Me,” “El cuartito,” “Chal Mera Putt,” “Flee” etc. – “Snakehead” is the only one that actually hammers home the point that lives are at stake. Perhaps that’s because it is also a gangster flick. In the others, border crossing is merely a process: If you get caught, you get deported; it’s no biggie – the movies don’t even remind you of the dangers awaiting the immigrants back home. “Snakehead,” on the other hand, shows that the peril doesn’t end on arrival. The smugglers, to whom the undocumented are indebted, are far more dreadful than the Border Patrol.
Continue reading “Made in U.S.A.” »
Sami Kuokkanen/Sony Pictures Classics
MOVIE REVIEW
Compartment No. 6 (2022)
Finland’s entry in the Academy Awards’ International Feature Film category, “Compartment No. 6” tells a deliberately heart-warming story, of an extremely unlikely friendship, that’s patronizing and inadvertently offensive.
Continue reading “Fellow Travelers” »
Courtesy photo
MOVIE REVIEW
Chal Mera Putt 3 (2021)
“Chal Mera Putt 3” bears more resemblance to an entry in a blockbuster franchise than to the 2019 Punjabi sleeper hit that spawned it. The latest sequel is a blast, but it feels for the most part like a feature-length epilogue to the previous two films. Every plot in it is tangential.
Continue reading “Future Perfect” »
Robert Viglasky/Sony Pictures Classics
MOVIE REVIEW
Mothering Sunday (2021)
Based on Graham Swift’s 2016 novel, “Mothering Sunday” is another absolutely pointless reminiscence about a bygone era of wars, manners and servitude, when well-bred society people (Olivia Colman! Colin Firth!) indeed suffered real loss and tragedy – and not the elective and entirely preventable kind such as Lehman Brothers or Covid-19 – yet remained undeterred to meet for picnics and dinners just to trade barbs, throw hissy fits and be awful.
Continue reading “Emotional Laborer” »