The Rip is one of those straight-to-“video” action films that have thrived in the streaming era. It stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as members of a narcotics team who bust up drug houses. Sometimes they find drugs or guns, but usually they find money, so it is a team that is always under suspicion from internal affairs, on the lookout for dirty cops pocketing money. The suspicion is heightened lately too, after one of the team’s own is murdered in what may be an inside job, and the feds have no suspects The day after, the team gets a tip about a drug house where there is $300k on hand, a big haul. When they arrive, they instead find $20 million. Matt and Ben’s characters, the two leads, know they are in serious trouble, from inside and out, because that kind of money will tempt anyone, and the criminals won’t let that kind of money walk out the door without trying to get it back. It leads to these two best friends to start second-guessing each other and everyone in their team. It’s a gritty action film that keeps you on your toes, even if there are a couple too many plot twists; it keeps going “Clue-style” in getting the viewer to suspect one person, and then flipping it on you to suspect someone else. Still, not a bad way to spend a couple hours in mindless gunfights and tension. ★★★

To a Land Unknown is another immigrant movie (lot of those lately) and a rather straight-forward one at that, though it is presented well. Chatila and Reda are two Palestinians who’ve been trying to raise enough money to buy fake passports to Germany; thus far they’ve been stuck in Greece, living in an abandoned warehouse with a bunch of other homeless immigrants. They just about have enough money when Reda relapses to his heroine addiction and blows it all. Chatila wants to say “enough is enough” and go it alone, but he cannot abandon his lifelong friend Reda, who was raised as his brother. Thus, Chatila will do whatever it takes to get them out of Greece together. His first scheme involves helping a solo teen traveler make the trip to Italy, hoping for a payment from the boy’s aunt awaiting him there, but after the trip, Chatila never hears back from them. He then settles on conning other Palestinians out of their voyage money, but this is a much more dangerous proposition, with some violent, powerful men who may not look kindly on Chatila’s machinations. It’s a tense movie, especially in the final act as everything goes wrong and Chatila tries to keep his head above water. Not a complex movie, and the acting is hit-or-miss from a bunch of unknowns, but it is a powerful and timely story. ★★★½

Die My Love is the latest from director Lynne Ramsay, who had a big hit in her first film Ratcatcher (been a long time since I saw it, but I remember it’s powerful story), but who’s failed to match it since. In this one, Jackson (Robert Pattinson) and his pregnant girlfriend Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) move in together to an abandoned old house left to Jackson by his recently deceased uncle. After the baby’s birth, Grace’s behavior grows increasingly erratic, and sometimes violent; she’s definitely high on the Hot-Crazy Matrix. She’ll destroy the bathroom in a fit of rage, or shoot the family dog with a shotgun. Jackson’s mom Pam (Sissy Spacek) tries to comfort Grace by sharing stories of the difficulties new mothers face, with all the stresses and anxieties that come with it, but it doesn’t seem to get through to Grace. Sometimes she’ll have “good days” when things go well and everyone is happy, but most days are a chaotic mess. Jackson tries to save their relationship by marriage, but on their wedding night, Grace makes an advance to a worker at the hotel, crashes her head into a mirror in the bathroom, and then walks home barefoot. Jackson has her committed to a hospital, but that is a short-term fix, and she snaps at a welcome-home party shortly after. This film was a lot like Ramsay’s last, You Were Never Really Here, in that the acting by the lead (Jennifer Lawrence here, Joaquin Phoenix in the other) is absolutely phenomenal and award-worthy, but the movie by itself is just so-so. It is definitely worth watching for Lawrence’s performance, but you probably don’t need to watch it more than once. ★★★

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You is the story of a woman who has no power over where her life is going, despite her best efforts. Linda (Rose Byrne, in a career-defining role) is caring for her young daughter alone, as her husband, a commercial pilot, is off for work for an extended stretch. He picked a bad time to be away, as calamity after calamity keeps hitting Linda right between the eyes. Their daughter has a feeding tube because she’s been refusing to eat, and Linda has been told in no uncertain terms that the girl needs get up to 50 pounds within a couple weeks or the hospital will look at new (very ominous-sounding) measures. Then, the roof of their apartment caves in after a water leak in the apartment above, so Linda and the little girl have to move into a shabby motel while repairs are made. Of course, the hired contractor disappears after a couple days, leaving them in a lurch. At work, where Linda is a therapist, she is bombarded by patient after patient, each with a worse story than the one before, until one even abandons a baby with Linda after a particularly rough therapy session. To top things off, everyone Linda comes in contact with seems to have it out for her, giving her shit left and right. As the movie progresses, she is looking progressively haggard and run-down, as each day brings new challenges that never let up. The movie paints a great portrait of a woman who is expected to balance everything in life but who gets absolutely no help from anyone, but the film also does a good job of not always giving Linda a free pass for her behaviors; sometimes she deserves the ills that come her way (like when she continually leaves her daughter alone in the motel room). Excellent performance by Byrne too. ★★★★

The Mastermind is the latest from critics’ darling indie director Kelly Reichardt, and is “the other” film (with a much smaller budget) that Josh O’Connor did last year, the other being his Rian Johnson smash in the Knives Out series. Taking place in 1970, he plays JB, an unemployed carpenter struggling to find a job. He has an appreciation for art, having studied it a bit in college, and he and his wife and kids frequent the local art museum. One day, he steals a small trinket on display there, and his wife looks the other way as they enjoy their little thrill of “being bad,” but it gives JB the nugget of an idea. He brings in two buddies to his plan to rob the museum of 4 high profile and valuable paintings, but the job goes sideways from the very beginning. One of the friends bails out at the last minute, forcing JB to bring in a newcomer, a two-bit criminal who shows up with a gun. While the heist does go off without (much of a) hitch, the criminal newcomer is nabbed shortly after while trying to rob a bank, and fingers JB as “the mastermind” behind the art heist. Police knock on his door to question him, and it is only his ties to his father, a prominent local judge, that keep them from arresting him on the spot. JB flees immediately, first to some friends out of town, and then on to whatever comes next. The movie has a great jazzy soundtrack that feels like it is moving the plot along even in slower moments of the film, and adds tension to JB’s plight. And despite being a crook, you really root for him, a seemingly good guy just trying to get ahead. Taking place in 1970 against the backdrop of the anti-war efforts and a down economy, there’s a lot of parallels events of the last few years too. ★★★½

Every now and then, you just got to get down and dirty, and it doesn’t get much dirtier than the films of John Waters. Especially in his earlier films, no one raced to the bottom of the barrel faster (or more completely), with nothing sacred or off limits. His second film, 1970’s Multiple Maniacs, starred his muse Divine as Lady Divine, the owner of a traveling freak show called The Cavalcade of Perversion. And perverse it is, featuring acts like “the puke eater,” someone licking a bicycle seat, a heroine addict thrashing around in the in throes of withdrawal, etc. The fiendish acts get people in the door, after which Divine goes on stage to rob them, but this time, she’s tired of robbing and shoots and kills one in the crowd. Divine and her troupe run for it, but not before a fan grabs Divine’s lover, Mr David, and begs to be in the show. Those two start an affair, which eventually leads Divine to a jealous rage. But not before she is raped by two glue-sniffers in an alley, and later has lesbian sex in a church. It’s crazy, off-the-wall, completely absurd, vile, and in that last scene, crudely blasphemous, but at the end of the day, it is engaging and grossly funny. I don’t know if entertaining is the right word, but it is certainly memorable. There’s a lot of trashy films out there, but I’m not sure anyone purposefully made trash like John Waters. ★★★

Divine and the rest of Waters’ acting troupe, known as the Dreamlanders, returned for 1972’s Pink Flamingos. With more than double the budget of the last film (up to a whopping $12,000!) it does have a more polished look. At least, it didn’t look like it was shot in a day, but still. Divine is a career criminal living in a trailer outside Baltimore, there with her son and simple-minded mother, who has a fetish for eggs. Divine loves the tabloid press which calls her “the filthiest person alive.” However, married couple Connie and Raymond Marble are hoping to usurp that title. The Marbles kidnap young women, chain them in the basement (very Silent of the Lambs-esque, I can see the obvious inspiration there), and have their servant impregnate them. When babies are born, the couple sells them to lesbian couples, and when a mother dies in childbirth, the body is discarded and she is replaced with another. To dig up dirt on Divine, the Marbles send a spy to have sex with her son Crackers, who only gets off when live chickens are involved. When Divine gets wind of the Marbles and their scheme, she goes there to kill them, but when they aren’t home, she settles for freeing the girls in the basement and leaves, though not before having incest sex with her son on the couch. Finally Divine does catch the Marbles, calling the tabloid press out to witness their mock trial, charging them with first-degree stupidity and being assholes. Capital punishment, of course, ensues. It’s gross, it’s perverted, and unlike the first film, isn’t nearly as funny. I’ll watch anything once, but not going to this one again in the future. That being said, it did launch Waters’ career and became a hit at midnight movie screenings. In 2021 it was even selected for inclusion to the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry for its “cultural, historical, and aesthetic contribution.” Will wonders never cease. ★★

The vileness is turned down (just a little) and the comedy is dialed up for 1974’s Female Trouble. Divine plays Dawn Davenport, and the movie follows her life from a teen in 1960 to an adult in the mid-70s. Running away from home because her parents didn’t get her the cha-cha heels she wanted for Christmas, Dawn is raped outside of town, gives birth to a girl she names Taffy, and ends up a waitress by day and a prostitute by night. Later, as an adult, she falls in love with a young man named Gater, who lives nearby with his Aunt Ida (Aunt Ida is pretty hilarious; she is distraught that her nephew is straight and bemoans that he’ll have a boring life unless he “turns queer.” She keeps trying to set him up with guys throughout the film). Dawn gets in good with the owners of a local beauty salon who extol her looks, but after an irate Aunt Ida throws acid on her face, Dawn is left disfigured. Amazingly, the beauty salon owners say she looks even better know, and shower her with money and gifts as long as she continues to pose for their fetish photography. Eventually Dawn is brought down after murdering some people in a crowd, and the salon owners turn against her during testimony. There’s a ton of laugh-out-loud one-liners in this film, even if I can’t repeat most of them in polite society! It’s toned down quite a bit from the above 2 films, though still plenty crass in spots. Jokes about child abuse and abortion? Nothing is off the table. ★★★½

John Waters continued moving (ever-so-slightly) mainstream with 1981’s Polyester, though not as mainstream as the opening shots of suburban America would have you think. Divine plays Francine Fishpaw, a devout, pious homemaker, who hates her husband’s, Elmer’s, career of running an X-rated theater in town. Their two kids are kind of a mess too. Daughter Lu-Lu is sleeping around (announcing one day that she is pregnant, much to the ire of the God-fearing Francine), and son Dexter is secretly the area’s notorious “foot stomper,” a delinquent who’s been going around stomping on women’s feet due to his foot fetish, and gaining lots of news coverage because of it. Francine’s mom is also a cocaine addict who’s been stealing from her. It’s a funny little picture of a seemingly happy suburban family but with obvious problems under the surface. It comes to a head when Elmer leaves Francine for his secretary, sending Francine on an alcoholic drinking binge, and confronting those problems in her life. Sometimes those problems will be confronted with guns. Gonzo film, with plenty of bizarre funny moments but unfortunately lots of down time too. ★★½

Waters most famous film is 1988’s Hairspray, the inspiration for the popular musical that came later. It stars a young Ricki Lake as Tracy Turnblad, a dance-obsessed “pleasantly plump” teen with marvelously big hair in Baltimore. She’s a huge fan of The Corny Collins Show, a local teen dance show, the kind of which was so popular in the 1960s. When she and her friend Penny Pingleton sneak out to a record hop one night, they get noticed by Corny Collins who invites Tracy out to audition for his show. Tracy’s high energy dance style is a hit with the fans, but she becomes a target for Amber Von Tussle, who until now has been the center of attention on the dance show. Amber brings out the fat jokes, but they fall on deaf ears as Tracy’s popularity continues to bloom. With her popularity up, Tracy uses the opportunity to speak out for ending the segregated dance shows, and to integrate them so she and all her friends can dance together. The movie is funny in spots, but without any of the outlandish crude humor of Waters’ earlier films. Unfortunately I’m starting to think that the gross jokes, no matter how vulgar, is what Waters excelled at. Neither of the last 2 movies were as entertaining as the earlier, more raw stuff. Good cast in this one though, with Jerry Stiller as Tracy’s dad and Sonny Bono as Amber’s dad; it was also Divine’s (Tracy’s mom) last picture, as he died weeks after its release. ★★½

• TV series recently watched: Iron Fist (season 2), His & Hers (series), Wonder Man (series), Stargate SG1 (season 2)
• Book currently reading: New Spring by Robert Jordan

I’m an old guy. I don’t follow streamers, I don’t keep up with social media influencers, and I don’t play many video games anymore. I’d never played the video game Iron Lung, and have never heard of YouTuber Markiplier. But my Gen Z son is a fan, and invited me to see the movie adaptation. I’m pretty sure I was the oldest guy in a (fairly packed 10pm showing) room full of 20-somethings, but I had a good time.

It’s a post-apocalyptic futuristic film taking place after a mysterious calamity has caused half the stars in the sky and a good number of space stations to go dark, to the point that humanity is on the brink of extinction. On an unnamed moon, scientists are looking for answers deep in a blood-red ocean. To further that effort, they’ve built a janky submarine and stuck a convict in it to go down and explore. His only view outside of the sub is a relic camera that captures still images and displays them on a view screen, and his only communication with the people sending him down is an unreliable radio. As the film goes along, we learn more about the convict, what sent him there, and what the scientists hope to discover. We also learn that he isn’t alone deep in the dark ocean, with some kind of large alien monsters lurking in its depths. Over time, the combination of low oxygen, high carbon dioxide, and the stress of the environment lead our main character to having a nervous breakdown, as it starts having increasingly bizarre and disturbing hallucinations.

The movie was alright. The lead actor is obviously not a “real” actor but he gives it his all (Markiplier was also the writer, director, handled production, and encouraged his online followers to request it at their local theaters in a true grassroots fashion; it paid off, with the $3 million dollar movie making $17 million+ in its opening weekend). The movie has lots of slow moments which don’t always help build the tension it is trying to build, but it is one of the better video game adaptions I’ve seen. I’m probably a little too old for it’s true market; when the movie ended the teen boy sitting in front of me turned to his friend and said, “That’s the best movie I’ve seen in a long time!” And it was a good night out with my son, always a plus! ★★★

Most Americans are familiar with the 90s Nic Cage/Meg Ryan film City of Angels, but did you know it was based on Wender’s 1987 movie Wings of Desire? It follows two angels, Damiel and Cassiel, who oversee the people of Berlin. The angels can be seen by children but not by adults, and while they can comfort and influence, they can’t directly interact with the people or environment. We later learn that they’ve been in the area for thousands of years, predating humans coming to the region, and have been silent observers all of that time. Damiel begins to fall in love with a circus trapeze artist named Marion, who is depressed at the news that her troupe will be closing down. He sees her zest for live but can’t experience that himself, in fact, he and his fellow angels can’t feel anything, seeing the world in black and white and unable to feel the wind in their hair or the sunshine on their faces. Cassiel seems fine with this, knowing his place in the world, but Damiel seeks a way out. Actor Peter Falk (playing himself) is in the area to film a movie, and amazingly, he feels Damiel’s presence and speaks out to him. Peter tells Damiel that he used to be an angel too, but fell in love with humanity and became mortal. Damiel wants that too, more than anything. It’s a heartfelt movie full of emotion and magic, and defining what it is to be human. I see why it is widely regarded as Wender’s best. ★★★★★

Wim Wenders may be the king of the road movie, but it is true that there can be too much of a good thing. Until the End of the World had Wender’s biggest budget (more than all of his previous films combined), and was filmed over 5 months, visiting 11 countries on 4 continents. After all that filming, he wanted to release a picture about 5 hours long, but was contractually obligated to deliver a movie of around 2 1/2 hours. He sent the studio a “reader’s digest” version of his film, which was released, and bombed. Years later, he was given a chance to release the version he wanted to, and it received acclaim. It was this 5-ish hour version I sat through, and I might as well have watched the smaller one. There’s a lot going on here. Taking place in the near future (and oddly prescient too, for the year it was made), it follows a woman named Claire. The news is reporting a rogue Indian satellite that is going to crash to Earth, most likely in southern France where Claire is, so the area is in chaos. That becomes a backdrop though, as the meandering story mostly revolves around Claire getting involved with some bank robbers, and then falling in love with chasing a man (Trevor, played by William Hurt) around the globe, who is also pursued by a private detective and the CIA, while Claire is also chased by her ex-boyfriend (Eugene, played by Sam Neill), all because Trevor has some tech that could be worth a lot of money. It’s a big mess, though at times, an entertaining mess. There’s some laughs, like when they run through a hotel in Japan, fleeing from bounty hunters, and some tears, like when it is revealed that Trevor’s tech involves “taping” film with a virtual-reality-like device in order to “implant” scenes into blind people’s eyes, all in hopes of letting Trevor’s blind mother “see” again, and even some tense moments, like when Trevor and Claire are stranded in the outback in Australia and set off on foot through the dead land, but overall, there’s a lot of dead space in those 5 hours. And the film really changes focus several times. If it were some other director without a proven track record, I’d wonder if they even had a plan going in as to how it was going to end, because there’s several hard left turns going on here. I appreciate the scope and ambition of the project, and it does have some great scenes and moments (and the soundtrack is truly awesome with Talking Heads, Lou Reed, REM, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, Depeche Mood, and others) but as a whole, it’s not my cup of tea. ★★

In addition to all of his feature films, Wenders was prolific in making documentaries too, and while I don’t watch many docs, I decided to get in some of them here to “fill out” his oeuvre. While at Cannes in 1982, when a lot of talk in the film industry was about the future of cinema with the growth of television and VCR’s (watching movies at home instead of in the theater), Wenders set up camera in his hotel room (Room 666) and asked a series of directors if cinema is an art that is about to die. The answers ranged from “yes for sure,” to “no, it will evolve,” to “I’m old, I don’t care.” The directors included some big names too, like Jean-Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder (just weeks before his sudden death), Paul Morrissey, Werner Herzog, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Steven Spielberg, who gave the optimist answer that everything was fine with cinema. Easy for him to say; in 1982, his film E.T. set the record for highest grossing film for the next 11 years. 40 years later, in 2022, with streaming being what it is today, filmmaker Lubna Playoust asked the same question to today’s directors in the film Room 999. Wenders is there to answer the question this time, along with 30 others including Joachim Trier, David Cronenberg, James Gray, Asghar Farhadi, Olivier Assayas, Baz Luhrmann, Paolo Sorrentino, and Ruben Östlund. Like in the first film, the answers vary across the spectrum, but it does provide insight into how these acclaimed directors see the world and the future of their craft. Not really groundbreaking or anything, but I always enjoy a view into how filmmakers think. ★★★

Buena Vista Social Club was released in 1999 and is about the musicians involved with the same-named album released a couple years prior. Wenders strolls the neighborhoods of Cuba while interviewing the musicians about growing up there, their influences and history with music, and what they are up to now. Interspersed throughout are the songs they perform, some recorded while they were in Amsterdam in 1998, some at Carnegie Hall later that same year, and some recorded spontaneously there in Cuba during the doc’s filming. Like most musicians, there’s a lot of characters there, and they all have interesting stories to tell. The music is great, but my favorite parts were the scenes in and around Cuba, in all of its vibrancy. Fun movie. I also watched his docs Pina, about the dancer/choreographer Pina Bausch, and his newest film Anselm, about German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer. They were OK, not really my cup of tea, and reinforced that I’m just not much of a documentary guy. ★★★

The Running Man is based on a Stephen King book, and the second film to be based on the material; the original 1987 Schwarzenegger film was a childhood favorite of mine. It follows recent Hollywood star Glen Powell as Ben Richards. Richards and his wife and baby are struggling to get by, as Richards’ quick-to-anger temper keeps getting him fired from job after job. The movie takes place in a near-future where society has broken down. Inflation has killed the dollar so the new currency is the “new dollar” which seems to be printed just for the wealthy. The poor live outside the urban centers and away from public eye, and many resort to deadly games, broadcast on television (with the network execs seeming to hold the most power in the country), in order to earn new dollars for their family. Running Man is the most popular of these shows. Contestants are tasked to survive 30 days without being caught and killed; every day they survive, their family gets money. They are hunted by cops, security, and “hunters,” with citizens being rewarded for reporting sightings of them too. So basically, everyone is out to get you, but if you can make it to 30 days, you get $1 billion. With a sick kid at home (only the flu, but only the rich can afford even simple meds), Richards signs up for Running Man. So begins his adventure, broadcast live on TV, as he tries to hide, run, fight back, or do anything he can to survive. If you are expecting a deep film, there’s little of that (though it is a pretty biting look at unchecked power by those with money and influence, and could be prescient enough if our society keeps caring more for reality stars than their fellow man), but it’s still a hell of a ride. Crazy, off-the-wall action, and completely unbelievable, but it’s a great time. Not as many memorable one-lines as the original film, but no less entertaining. ★★★½

The documentary Secret Mall Apartment has been on my radar for over a year, since my wife told me about it. I’m not often into docs, but the premise of this one, following a group of friends who lived in a hidden space in a mall in Rhode Island for four years, intrigued me. As a child of the 90s, I’ve always loved malls. Though quickly disappearing, for my generation it was the place to hang out. Whether it was to hang with friends, catch a movie, shop with a girlfriend, or just to blow your whole paycheck, it was the social place to be. I worked at a mall store (Waldenbooks) throughout college, and met my wife there. So this documentary grabbed my attention. Unfortunately the title and marketing is a bit misleading, as it is mostly about Michael Townsend, the young twenty-something artist whose idea it was to “retake” unused space in the mall, and that mall project isn’t the only story shown in the movie. The rest delves into Townsend’s other art projects, and while interesting, I was mostly wanting more of the mall story. What’s there though, is very good. Michael and a couple of his friends live in the area when the mall was being built in the late 90s, and immediately saw a space up in the second floor that was being walled off, sort of a tucked-away corner that wasn’t going to be retail space, storage, or anything else. Wandering around in 2003 after the mall has opened, they find the space, and sure enough, nothing is there. Over a few months, they would park a car at a stairwell exit, push the door open (sounding the alarm, which shut off after 2 minutes and which the mall security always seem to ignore), and move in furniture. In total, the space is about 800 square feet (bigger than my first apartment!) and 4 other friends are brought into the project as well. It becomes a place for the artists to hang out and talk. It’s a bit misleading that they all “lived” there, because while they did sleep from time to time, some for a few nights in a row, they always had homes somewhere else. Ultimately, 4 years later, they are found and charged with trespassing, with Townsend being banned from the mall for life. Those parts about the mall are the highlights for sure, and filled me with nostalgia. Kids these days will never get it, that era before cell phones when you would go to the mall just in hopes of running into friends, and you usually did. ★★½

Brides is a fantastic film out of of the UK. While not based on a specific person, it is inspired by true events, like the life of Shamima Begum, who was a teen who fled Britain to join ISIS. In this movie, two 15-year-olds, Doe and Muna, have made the decision to run away from home and flee to Syria. Best friends, they each have very different reasons for running away, but both are motivated. Doe was born in Somalia but came to England with her mother as a young child. Her mother adopted Western ideas and culture while Doe has stuck to her Islamic religion faithfully. Her mom’s new boyfriend has been eyeing Doe, making her very uncomfortable. Muna’s family is from Pakistan and while Muna is no longer a practicing Muslim, she has faced increasing violent racism in the predominantly white area they live, and her home life is rough too. Girls like this are prime targets for ISIS recruiters. The two girls grab a flight to Turkey, where they are supposed to meet a man who will guide them across the Syrian border to their new lives, except he never shows up. Abandoned in a country where they don’t speak the language, they decide to try to get to Syria by themselves, a harrowing adventure. There are moments where the two young women are still just kids being kids, but there’s always that feeling of being on the edge of a knife, and you know that if they do make it to Syria, it’s not peace, love, and harmony waiting for them. Two naive girls who are in way over their heads, and I always felt like disaster was just around the corner. ★★★★

The Smashing Machine, written and directed by Benny Safdie (half of the Safdie brothers), is a biopic of Mark Kerr, with Dwayne Johnson starring as Kerr. Kerr was a former wrestler who became a pioneer in mixed martial arts, and the movie follows his career from 1997-2000. In 97, he is a blooming star with championship bouts traveling the world, but his personal life is on the skids. His longtime girlfriend Dawn (Emily Blunt) knows how to twist Mark into getting what she wants and is manipulative enough to make him feel guilty for not giving her everything she asks. Before the biggest fight of his career, when Mark should be focused solely on his training, he is fighting with Dawn. The subsequent distractions cause him to lose the fight, for the first lose in his career. To deal with the pain, both physically and emotionally, Mark turns to opiates. It will be another year until Mark hits rock bottom and starts to try to make a comeback, but he’ll still need to deal with Dawn before he can really devote himself to his career. I think The Rock thought this was going to be his coming out party, showing the world that he could tackle a dramatic role, but honestly he (and the movie) are pretty average. Blunt steals every scene she’s in, but I wasn’t really emotionally invested in either of them. Despite all the hype the movie got before its release, it’s just OK. ★★½

Following with another biopic, and this one I enjoyed a lot more, mostly because it feels like a more personal story. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is about, of course, The Boss, but in particular it is the story of a small but important moment in his life. It takes place in 1981, when Bruce has just wrapped a long tour promoting his album The River, which has made him a star. He’s now recognizable wherever he goes, and is having a hard time with the success. Bruce rents a home near where he grew up in New Jersey, which dredges up memories of growing up in an abusive household. He begins playing with local bands at a venue where he once played, and meets a girl whom he starts to date. Restless and aimless, Bruce starts writing new songs, and gets the itch to record there in the rented house, just him and an acoustic guitar. His manager supports him, but the record company pushes back, especially when they hear the recordings, which are stripped down folk songs. With Springsteen on the cusp of global superstardom, they want another rock album to appeal to the masses, and this album isn’t that, but it is a personal album that Bruce needed to make at that moment in his life, helping him to move past emotional blocks. It, and the urging of his manager, help him with the depression he’s been facing. And of course, the next rock album would eventually follow, and it’s single Born in the USA would indeed make Bruce a worldwide icon. Great movie with strong performances from Jeremy Allen White in the lead and especially Jeremy Strong as his manager; it’s awesome seeing him make the most with this opportunity after his breakout in Succession. ★★★½

• TV series recently watched: Blossoms Shanghai (series), ST Voyager (season 4)
• Book currently reading: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks up right where last year’s film ended. Spike has been waylaid by Jimmy Crystal and his (completely psychopathic) gang, each of whom is also named Jimmy (or Jimmima, as one of girls goes by). The end of the last movie was a bit controversial, as it was a very dark film until Jimmy showed up at the very end with a zany, off-the-wall intro, but it makes sense when put in the overall context with this follow-up. Jimmy and his group are batshit crazy, and it shows right away when Jimmy offers Spike a choice of fighting one of his fellow Jimmy’s to the death, or to be given “charity,” meaning killed as a sacrifice to Old Nick, their deity. Of course Spike chooses to fight, and though outsized and out-muscled, he miraculously survives and kills the bigger fighter by dumb luck. Spike is given a blonde wig to match everyone else, and becomes a new Jimmy.

Meanwhile, we catch up Dr Ian Kelson, the eccentric doctor Spike befriended in the last movie. Ian lives in his bone graveyard and has been experimenting with the Alpha in the area, the leader of those infected with the rage virus. Ian is convinced that it is indeed a virus and that, unlike mythical zombies, the infected can be healed. Because the Alpha is huge with long flowing hair, Ian has grown accustomed to calling him Samson. At first, Ian shot Samson with a blowdart of morphine, in order to pacify Samson before he could reach Ian to kill him. However, when they cross paths again, Samson does not immediately charge Ian, and Ian realizes Samson wants the morphine again. They form an uneasy relationship, with Ian eventually feeling comfortable enough to leave himself vulnerable around Samson even when Samson isn’t high as a kite, and sure enough, Samson still does not kill him. Ian makes it a goal to find the human that is still inside Samson and somehow bring that back to life.

In the countryside, Jimmy and his cult attack a family and skin them alive in the barn, more sacrifices to Old Nick. We learn that Old Nick is Jimmy’s version of Satan, and Jimmy claims himself as Satan’s son on Earth. Spike is revolted, and gets a little sympathy from one of the female Jimmy’s, who seems to only be going along with the group for self survival, and doesn’t agree with everything Jimmy Crystal does. When the group spots Ian from afar one day, covered in red dye (the iodine Ian uses to repel the virus from himself) and converting with demons (Samson), they think that it is Old Nick come to Earth in the flesh. Jimmy Crystal obviously knows it is not, but he must play along to keep his flock, leading to a grotesquely sublime climax in the shadow of the bone temple.

This isn’t a deep movie, and while engrossing (and wonderfully gross!), it lacks a bit of the depth and overall “creepy” feeling of 28 Years Later. It has a different director (Nia DaCosta) but Alex Garland is still handling writing duties, and while I still really enjoyed it, just as much as the previous entry, it is a more of a straight-forward thriller. It does set up a third film, and while Boyle and Garland have said from the beginning that they saw this as a trilogy, another sequel isn’t guaranteed yet. Depends on how this one does in theaters. As much as I’ve liked both entries, I hope it happens. ★★★★

Trying out director Claire Denis again, for a couple films, starting with 2009’s White Material. The great Isabelle Huppert stars as Maria, co-owner, with her ex-husband Andre, of a coffee plantation in an unnamed country in Africa, a country that is seeing political upheaval as is so often the case. A radio DJ blasts the “white material” in the area, meaning the leftover colonialists who haven’t yet left, and calling for open rebellion. The “rebels” are mostly child solders, carrying machetes and rifles, without the sense to know the ramifications of the evil they bring. Maria’s plantation is facing bankruptcy, and unbeknownst to her, Andre is heavy in debt to the area’s mayor too. Maria’s just trying to bribe, cajole, or threaten any locals to come work her fields for one last harvest, downplaying the rebel threat to anyone who will listen. Unfortunately for her, the threat is very real, and when they finally descend on her home, aided in part by her mentally unstable and sloth son Manuel, it will tear apart her way of life. I was not a fan of how the film is edited, as it is very choppy and goes in fits and starts, making it hard to follow (especially when there is a flashback or dream, and you don’t immediately see it for what it is), but the story is great, and Huppert is fantastic as always. ★★★

There’s the Claire Denis I know. Let the Sunshine In reminded me that, while the critics love her, her films (usually, the above film notwithstanding) just aren’t for me. This one stars Juliette Binoche as Isabelle, a 50-something divorcee looking for love. The problem is she keeps landing with terrible men, or if she does find a decent one, she doubts him (or herself) and can’t go all in. She seems to have no problem going all in with the bad ones though, like the married man she is with when the movie starts, or the actor that she sleeps with on a first date, only to see him go back and reconcile with his wife afterwards too. As an outsider watching the film, it’s easy to see that she’s just trying too hard, throwing herself at people in an effort to race to the finish without putting in the work that actually builds a relationship, but I can (sorta) see how, at 50, Isabelle may feel like she doesn’t want to do the extra work anymore. Whatever the reason, I didn’t much feel sorry for her constant self-pity. ★½

Though controversy has dogged director Abdellatif Kechiche for a long time now, he was on top of the world in 2007 with The Secret of the Grain, which took home best film and best director at the César Awards (the French Oscars). With a cast nearly entirely of non-professionals who were never in another movie, it follows a man named Silmane who lives in southern France. He lives in a poor apartment and has had a long relationship with its owner, raising her daughter Rym as his own. His ex-wife Souad lives across town, and the two maintain a polite relationship, at least as far as it comes to their adult children and new grandkids. Souad is known for her cooking skills and in particular her couscous, so when Silmane loses his job, mostly from age discrimination, he lands on the idea of converting a derelict boat into a restaurant. Rym steps in to help him navigate the bureaucracy of permits and licenses. Of course, his girlfriend isn’t too happy about him going to the ex-wife to help launch the restaurant, but most of the drama in the film is supplied by their kids, specifically their son Majid, who has been stepping out on his wife. The movie moves along at a leisurely pace, letting you get to know the inner workings of all of its characters. We see that Silmane isn’t doing this new venture to get rich; as he gets older, he just wants to leave something for his kids when he is gone. The movie touches on a lot of subjects, including the racism the extended Arabic-French family faces from time to time. With its close-up shots of whoever is speaking, the movie often looks like a documentary, which lends well to the feeling of impending doom when things do not go well for Slimane’s enterprise in the final act. Its pace may test the patience of some viewers, but I was intrigued throughout it all. ★★★½

Kechiche followed The Secret of the Grain with Black Venus. This is a brutally hard film about exploiting a fellow human being, and it is tough to watch. It opens in Paris in 1815, where a doctor is displaying a molded cast of an African woman. He is speaking to his fellows about the measurements of her skull, size of her brain, and comparing it to an ape. They are most intrigued by her hottentot apron. Rewind five years to 1810, and the woman, Sarah Baartman, is part of a freak show in London in 1810. She came from South Africa with Hendrick Caezer, who runs the show and markets Sarah as a wild tribeswoman. Calling her the “hottentot Venus,” he displays her large frame (focusing on her large butt) and encourages paying customers to touch her. Sarah lives in shame, but her complaints to Hendrick fall on deaf ears, who manipulates her to keep going along with the show. As bad as it is, her life will only get worse. Eventually Hendrick hands her off to another man, an animal trainer named Réaux, who builds an even more vulgar show around Sarah, bringing her out naked and eventually calling for spectators to touch her sexual organs. When she breaks down in tears in front of one crowd, Réaux dumps her, and with no prospects in a foreign land, she resorts to prostitution. After awhile, she contacts venereal disease which kills her. Even in death she won’t have peace, as her body gets sold to the doctor from the beginning of the film, and he proceeds to carve her up to measure every inch of her, inside and out. Really tough film, it does not shy away from the evils of human nature when we lose our compassion and how easy it is to dehumanize others not like us. And the absolutely most frightening and disgusting aspect of this movie? It is based on fact. Baartman’s remains were on display in the Paris Natural History Museum until they were finally removed in 1974. They were eventually returned to her home country of South Africa where would finally be buried in 2002. ★★★★

Director Jacques Audiard won acclaim just a couple years ago with his Spanish musical Emilia Pérez, but he’s been making critically loved films for decades, including 2015’s Dheepan, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. It opens after a battle in Sri Lanka during their civil war, where soldier Sivadhasan is seeing to the funeral pyre of his group, of which he was the sole survivor. A member of the Tamil Tigers, a militant group on the losing side of a civil war where he fought for independence from the Sinhalese controlled government, Sivadhasan now needs a way out of the country to escape persecution. Loyalists give him a new identity, as Dheepan, but to complete the disguise he needs a wife and child. They found a willing woman fleeing the country, and then finding a nine year old without parents is easy too, with the war leaving so many orphans around. Posing as a family, they make their way to France and apply for asylum. All they’ve done though is leave one war for another. They are housed in the worst kind of projects, with “Dheepan” given a job as caretaker over four buildings. The complex houses a gang of drug dealers, with lookouts patrolling the rooftops, the kinds of which any sane person would see and turn right around. Dheepan is unfazed though, and when his “wife” Yalini asks if they are thugs, he replies, “Yes, but not nearly as dangerous as back home.” Nine-year-old Illayaal is scared of her new school and surroundings at first, but as adaptable as kids are, she starts learning French the fastest. However, tension remains between Dheepan and Yalini, as she wants to escape violence all together and run away to England where she has family. When a power struggle within the gang puts his new family at risk, Dheepan relies on his roots to show them what real violence is. Tremendous movie, sort of like if Jason Statham did an art film. There’s often danger lurking just beneath the surface, even as Dheepan tries to carve out a new life, and we see this new family come together. ★★★★★

• TV series recently watched: Death by Lightning (series), Landman (season 2)
• Book currently reading: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Texasville is the sequel to 1971’s smash hit The Last Picture Show, which launched the careers of all of its stars. They’re all back for this followup, also from director Peter Bogdanovich, a film that many stated (at the time) was unnecessary. Part of The Last Picture Show’s appeal was it was about a tiny Texas town that was dying, so the tale loses a bit of its magic when we learn that Anarene, TX, is still around 33 years later. Duane (Jeff Bridges) became a wealthy oil tycoon, though with falling oil prices, he’s facing bankruptcy. Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) also stayed in town, but did not find success. He’s followed the path that many of the down-on-their-luck residents trekked in the first film. Jacy (Cybill Shepherd) got out of dodge and went to college, and then on to Europe, but is recently back to town to regroup, looking for something to reconnect to after the recent death of her son. Duane is married but sleeps around with everything with legs, and his son his following in his footsteps. This creates a lot of humor in the first 30 minutes of the film, which honestly I could have done without. It comes off as silly with way too much zany comedy that becomes off-putting. When Jacy finally shows up, the film starts to settle in. Once it gets there, it is (I think) very good. The best moments are those lines of dialogue here and there that are (probably) ripped straight from the Larry McMurtry book upon which the movie is based. Duane is grappling with his life in shambles, and Jacy is trying to find some kind of solid footing. You’d think this would lead these two former lovers back to each other, but thankfully the movie goes for a more realistic, grounded ending. Get past the first 30 minutes, and you’ll be fine. Of note, I did watch the extended “director’s cut” in black and white, which echoes the feel of the original film, probably for the better. ★★★½

To Sleep With Anger follows a family in south Los Angeles. Gideon and wife Suzie have raised two adult sons: eldest Junior (who can do no wrong) and younger Sunny (the black sheep of the family). Gideon regularly babysits Sunny’s son until late in the day since the parents both work, and Gideon gives him a hard time for not putting more effort into his family. Into this stressed environment comes a friend from long ago, Harry. Harry is welcomed with open arms and told to stay as long as he likes, and on the surface, he seems like a God-fearing, polite individual, but little comments and actions here and there paint a different picture. He starts manipulating Sunny into scheming and gambling with him, and when Gideon has a stroke and becomes bedridden and mostly unresponsive, Harry drops the pretenses and invites more ne’er-do-wells over. Leads to an explosive ending. Danny Glover shines as the conniving Harry, but outside of his acting chops, the movie didn’t offer much else for me. It’s a tried-and-true story of the prodigal son, and it’s been done before (and better). A couple stars for the always-great Danny Glover though! ★★½

Miller’s Crossing is an early film from the Coen brothers, and a great one. A neo-noir that takes place during the prohibition era, it stars Gabriel Byrne as Tom, the right-hand-man for mob boss Leo O’Bannon (Albert Finney). Tom has never steered Leo wrong, but they are odds now. Leo is approached by underling Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito), who has a beef with no-gooder Bernie (longtime Coen brothers alum John Turturro). Bernie’s been skimming from Johnny’s gambling ring, and Johnny wants him dead. However, Leo is dating Bernie’s sister Verna (Marcia Gay Harden), so he can’t see Bernie killed. Knowing Bernie is no good, Tom pushes Leo to just let Leo have Bernie, and this despite the fact that Tom too is sleeping with Verna (obviously unbeknownst to Leo). It’s a tricky situation, with lots of moving parts including other gangsters, underlings, double-crosses, and a scheme that Tom has put together to (hopefully) stay one step ahead of everyone else. Tense but also with lots of funny moments (like the anxious Mink, played by Steve Buscemi, or how the cops always break up the speakeasies depending on which mob boss is currently holding power in the city). Everyone from the mayor to the chief of police is “in the know” and thus knows how to look the other way when needed, leading to some big laughs here and there. I loved this film, with its high re-watchable factor. ★★★★½

So many good comedies from this era that I had to find one to include. I went with Albert Brooks’ Defending Your Life, starring himself and Meryl Streep, from 1991. Brooks plays Daniel, an exec who likes the nice things in life, but gets into a car accident in his brand new BMW, killing him instantly. There’s no heaven waiting for him (and thankfully no hell), but instead he finds himself in Judgement City, a stopover where souls are judged. The judges aren’t looking for good or evil, they are determining if the person lives in fear or not, with the reasoning being that if someone lives without fear, then they are living life to the fullest and using more of their potential. Those that have done so get to move on to the next level of existence (heaven is implied), but those that are found to still live in fear get sent back to earth for reincarnation to try it all again. Daniel definitely has had fear in his life, whether it was afraid to take a risk on a new stock, afraid to stand up to a bully in school, or just afraid to put himself out there with women. Though he has a solid public defender to plead his case, it’s not looking so good for him. While going through his trial, Daniel meets Julia (Streep), and she most definitely lived her life to the fullest. She isn’t afraid to take chances and is always helping those who need it. The two hit it off, which leads Daniel to take some risks, maybe for the first time in his life. Is it too late? Full of Brooks’ typical observational comedy, looking at society (and himself) with no topics off limits, it’s a great comedy for fans of Seinfeld or the like, with some heart thrown in too. ★★★½

Rounding out with an action flick with 1992’s Deep Cover, starring Laurence Fishburne and Jeff Goldblum. Fishburne plays Stevens, a young man who, as a child, witnessed his father do drugs and then get shot and killed after robbing a liquor store. He vowed to never follow in his father’s footsteps, and became a cop. However, a rebellious streak keeps landing him in hot water, but rather than continue to reprimand him, he is recruited to go undercover as a drug dealer, with hopes of working up the food chain to build a case against the drug importers at the top. In the course of his work, he runs into Jason (Goldblum), who is a lawyer by day and drug dealer by night. The two become friends and look out for each other in this dangerous world, and both start making serious money as they are given increasingly more drugs to sell and continue to meet higher-ups in the business. Along the way, Stevens finds himself engaging in more and more criminal activity, until he starts to wonder if he can return to the right side of the law when this is all done. Excellent vibes and a dark, undercity feel, but there’s a lot of sophomoric dialogue, and often the characters behave like children, undercutting the tension. Just goofy stuff that is out of character for the feel of the film. But overall I liked it enough, just wish it could have been better. ★★★

• TV series recently watched: Stranger Things (season 5), Deep Space 9 (season 6)
• Book currently reading: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Up today I’ve got the original Universal Dracula films, which (somehow) I’ve never seen. We’ve all seen snippets of the original Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, it was this portrayal that pretty much set in stone what we all think Count Dracula looks and acts like. Directed by Tod Browning, it opens on a man, Renfield, traveling in Transylvania to visit Dracula on a business matter. Renfield is unaware of the local superstitions about Dracula and laughs it off when some locals try to warn him away. He gets to the castle by a bat-driven coach and meets the sinister vampire. Dracula wants Renfield to secure a rented castle in England, where he intents to move for awhile. Dracula ends up feeding on Renfield which turns him into a sycophant, and then heads off to England. There, he enters society and begins feeding, as whispers and rumors start to fly, drawing the attention of a vampire hunter named Van Helsing. It’s a great film, and it’s so funny watching it today for the first time. So much that was introduced in the film has (for almost a hundred years now) been the standard for what we envision when we think of Dracula. The newer Nosferatu film is more of an interpretation from the original 1922 film (and original book), showing the vampire as more of an undead monster, whereas in Dracula, Legosi has the pale skin, mesmerizing eyes, black cape, etc, that we all know. It holds up great and is still a must-watch for film lovers. ★★★★

A sequel, Dracula’s Daughter, came 5 years alter, in 1936, and picks up where Dracula ends. The vampire is dead, his body discovered with a stake in his heart, by two police officers, with Dracula’s dead assistant Renfield nearby. The only survivor of the fiasco is Van Helsing, but his story about vampires is laughed off by Scotland Yard, and they treat him as a suspect in murder. Dracula’s legacy lives on though, in his “daughter” Countess Marya Zaleska, a former victim of Dracula that he turned into a vampire a century ago. She wants to escape the vampire curse and believes she can if she can destroy Dracula’s body, but when she steals it from the morgue and sets it ablaze, her desire for blood remains. She begins to take new victims, which gets the police snooping around, as well as a psychiatrist and friend to Van Helsing, Jeffrey Garth. Van Helsing has asked Garth to help in his defense, and while hesitant to believe the vampire stories for much of the film, he becomes a convert in the end after his secretary, Janet, goes missing. Jeffrey flees to Transylvania to save her and put a stop to the Countess. The film was pretty infamous at the time for a couple not-so-subtle lesbian-esque scenes, though the film is careful to not say or show anything overt, so as to get by the Hayes Code. Besides Janet, the Countess lures another woman to her studio to “pose” and the woman half undresses, with the rest left to imagination. The minor titillating scene was leaned on heavily in promotion. The movie is a poor followup to such a great original film, with a half baked plot and nothing really spooky or chilling ever. ★★

Son of Dracula followed in 1943, and was directed by Robert Siodmak, before he had made a name for himself. A good man behind the chair and in front of the camera (Lon Chaney Jr took on the role of Dracula) couldn’t save this movie though, and it’s pretty ho-hum. A high society girl, Katherine, is secretly engaged to the secretive Count Alucard (“Dracula” spelled backwards, which the film takes great lengths to point out again and again) and it isn’t long before dead bodies showing up, including Katherine’s father and, before long, Katherine herself, though she is resurrected shortly after. Katherine approaches her former beau Frank with a plan to kill Alucard and free her from his spell, but the plot goes haywire before the end. There’s a ton of plot twists and dead ends, and it seemed they were throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the viewer to see what stuck. Little did. ★½

I jumped ahead to House of Frankenstein, despite it being a sequel to a movie I haven’t seen yet (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man), because it is a 1940s “Avengers” film, in that it is marketed as a team-up by all of Universal’s monsters. What I didn’t know is, while Dracula is in it, he dies before 30 minutes in, so I should have included it with my upcoming Frankenstein movie set. C’est la vie. In this movie, Dr Niemann is in prison for trying to continue Dr Frankenstein’s work, but he escapes with Daniel (a hunchback) and shortly after, kills a man named Professor Lampini, who owned a traveling horror show. Niemann takes Lampini’s identity and continues the show, which carries Dracula’s coffin with the stake still in the vampire’s heart. Eventually, Niemann removes the stake and revives Dracula, tasking him with seeking revenge on the person who put Niemann in jail. Once that ugly business is done, Niemann gets down to brass tacks to continue his research. He comes across the Frankenstein monster and the Wolf Man (Larry, when the full moon isn’t turning him into a werewolf) encased in ice, and starts to thaw them out. Larry comes around first, and Niemann promises to use Dr Frankenstein’s notes to undue the werewolf curse. Daniel meanwhile has fallen in love with a gypsy girl, but unfortunately for him, she only has eyes for the dashing Larry. Daniel tries to warn her that Larry will kill anyone, her included, when the moon is full, but she scoffs. It all comes to a head one fateful night, when Frankenstein’s monster comes alive again and a full moon comes out. This movie was destroyed by the critics when it came out in 1944, but honestly I liked it a whole lot more than the last two Dracula films. There’s nothing deep here, but the cast list reads like a who’s who from this era (Boris Karloff is Niemann, Lon Chaney Jr is the Wolf Man, John Carradine is Dracula, etc) and they are each game to give it their all. Fluff, but entertaining fluff. ★★★

The final Dracula film from this era is 1945’s House of Dracula, which is another monster mash-up similar to the above film. So much for righting the ship, this one is rough from the get-go. Much of the same cast returns, but the story is outlandish, meandering, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone flying the plane. Dracula (alive again?) comes to the home of Dr Franz Edelmann to plead for the doctor to find a cure for his vampirism (why does Dracula finally want to end his curse?). Shortly after, Larry the wolf man comes along, also seeking a cure. Not too long until they find Frankenstein’s monster in a cave (at least he doesn’t want a cure too). In a search for his own immortality, the good doctor takes a blood transfusion from Dracula, which had adverse affects, turning him into a monster himself. He goes on to terrorize the town. It’s a jumbled mess that never gets anywhere. ★½

Only four movies in today’s blog, but the first, A Brighter Summer Day, is 4 hours long (and the fourth is 3 hours) so that balances out. The breakout from Taiwanese director Edward Yang and widely called his masterpiece (and one of the best films of the 90s), it follows a teenager named Si’r who’s just been demoted to night school for poor grades. His father begs to allow Si’r to stay in day school, knowing that night school is rife with gangs and ne’er-do-wells, but the administration is adamant. In the beginning, Si’r is able to skate the boundary between the 217s and the Little Park Boys, but his good friend is a member of the latter group, even while Si’r gains the ire of Sly, who is currently leading the gang. Si’r is also attracted to Ming, whose boyfriend is the “true’ leader of the Little Park Boys, but he’s been away and hiding, with a rumor that he’s running from the police for killing a member of the 217s. A new rough-and-tumble kid in the area, Ma, is also out to stake a claim in the hierarchy. This film has a ton of characters and a lot of moving parts, so much so that it can make your head spin for awhile (doesn’t help obviously that it isn’t in my native language), but I did eventually catch up. The struggle is well worth the payoff in the end. It takes place around 1960, a tumultuous time in Taiwan. Si’r and others his age are too young to remember living in mainland China, but their parents have gone through much in the last decade or so, going from living under Japanese rule before WW2, to independence, to fleeing China when communists came out on top during the civil war. They still think they’ll eventually return to China once “the commies fall.” All of this is shown in the movie as a backdrop, and it later comes to the fore, when Si’r’s father is questioned by authorities over his former friends and colleagues, now communists. Si’r is trying to navigate all of this, and while he wants to do good, his slow path towards a calamitous event that shook the nation (which really happened, this is actually based on a true story) is enthralling. ★★★★½

Yang’s next film, A Confucian Confusion, is much different in feel. Taking place in modern day and a comedy to boot, it also has a large cast. Molly runs a media production company. Her fiance Akeem suspects she is having an affair, but with whom is the big question. Birdy produces plays and is Molly’s old friend, and he likes to womanize with interns and whatnot. Qiqi is Molly’s assistant, and her boyfriend Ming has his sights on Molly too. Feng is the new girl at the office, and the accountant Larry has problems of his own. All of these characters flit in and out of each other’s paths in a round-about story. Not nearly as engaging as A Brighter Summer Day, these characters are all one-dimensional, and they don’t talk or react like adults, more like children. I had a hard time connecting, or frankly liking, any of these people. There are some funny moments in the last 40 minutes when all hell breaks loose, which re-arrested my attention, but there’s no emotional depth here. ★★½

Mahjong is another comedy, but I enjoyed this one a lot more. The characters were certainly easier to follow, even though there’s a lot of them and all are constantly in motion. The main core is a group of 4 roommates, “Red Fish,” “Hong Kong,” Luen-Luen, and “Little Buddha.” They share everything, even girlfriends, but each is on a different path. Red Fish holds a lot of animosity towards his absent father, who he thinks ran off with a woman, but in reality the father is dodging debts. When Red Fish sees the woman who began the affair a decade ago, he convinces Hong Kong to sleep with her and Little Buddha to hustle her. Luen-Luen seems to be along for the ride for the most of the film, but he has an important role to play with Marthe, a French woman who came to Taipei for an ex-lover but who is left stranded with no money. The only one in the group who speaks English, Luen-Luen acts as translator and takes Marthe under his wing to protect her from hustlers, even those who are his friends. Lots of side plots involving Angela, Jay (a flamboyant hair stylist), and Red Fish’s dad. It’s a very funny movie, but also lots of emotion here and there, especially with Luen-Luen and Marthe. ★★★½

Yi Yi is film perfection. A quiet, understated film but with huge emotional heft, it follows a family of four in Taipei: father NJ, mother Min-Min, teenage daughter Ting-Ting, and 8-year-old son Yang-Yang. One day, Min-Min’s elderly mother falls and hits her head, landing in a coma. Ting-Ting is wracked with guilt, because grandma fell while taking out the trash, which was supposed to be Ting-Ting’s chore. The comatose grandma is moved into an extra room in the apartment, and the doctor encourages the family members to each talk to her, saying she may hear them even if she isn’t responding. For Min-Min, the pressure is too great, and she leaves to go to a retreat. Ting-Ting finds solace in a new boyfriend, who is the ex of her neighbor. Lots of drama incoming from that triangle. NJ runs into an old flame, Sherry, whom he almost married 30 years ago before disappearing the night before the two were to elope, and the two reconnect and talk old times. Yang-Yang is often bullied at school, by other children and a terrible teacher, and he takes comfort in a new hobby of photography. He is often the forgotten member of the family, with everyone else dealing with their own stuff. This is poignantly shown when the camera he’s been shooting with is developed, and it’s just the back of peoples’ heads, though he says its because he’s trying to show people things they can’t see themselves. Ignoring him leads to a frightening moment late in the film. Absolutely incredible movie. I love this quote from Kenneth Turan in his review upon the film’s release in 2000, “It’s a delicate film but a strong one, graced with the ability to see life whole, the grief hidden in happiness as well as the humor inherent in sadness.” Tragically Edward Yang never gave us any more masterpieces. He died at the young age of 59 in 2007 after a 7 year battle with colon cancer. ★★★★★

• TV series recently watched: Mayor of Kingstown (season 4), Pluribus (season 1), Tulsa King (season 3)
• Book currently reading: Amber and Blood by Margaret Weis