About Dry Grasses is the newest from Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Having seen most of his movies, I knew I was going in for a long, introspective film, but this one is far different from most of his other offerings. For one, it has a ton more dialogue, in fact there are few scenes that aren’t just people talking to each other (though we still get a couple moments of the camera giving us a wide look at the starkly beautiful surroundings too, in true Ceylan style). The movie takes place in remote Anatolia where Samet works as a teacher. From Istanbul, where he returns to in the offseason, Samet hates everything about where he works, and he isn’t shy about telling people so. Honestly he’s a condescending jerk, belittling coworkers, friends, and even students for living in this backwater tiny village where most will be born, live, and die, without ever venturing out. Very egotistical, Samet expects to be the center of attention wherever he goes, which leads to the trouble he gets himself into. First, there is an allegation of misconduct at the school from two students against himself and his friend Kenan, another teacher. Samet is able to deduce that the accusations come from a girl, Sevim, he had befriended (though the viewer definitely sees grooming aspects in his prior dealings with her). Sevim seems to be upset over a love note she had written that the school confiscated and Samet ended up with. He doesn’t give it back when she asks for it, and thus she goes to the school with these accusations of improper conduct. The egotistical Samet obviously thinks the note was about him, but of course it was not. He and Kenan are able to weasel out of the case when the education board finds his and Kenan’s stories more believable than Sevim and her friend’s, but that is not where the film ends. We still get a whole story about a woman in a neighboring village, named Nuray. Nuray and Samet go on a blind date, but he isn’t interested (again, because she’s from a small town with seemingly no aspirations for more), until, that is, Kenan becomes interested in her. Then of course Samet, who always has to be on top, pursues her as well, to a devastating conclusion. Sometimes it is hard to get behind these movies where the main character is so despicable, but it is a gripping film where you find yourself hanging on every word (or subtitle, as the case may be). Merve Dizdar won Best Actress for her role of Nuray at last year’s Cannes, and she is indeed spellbinding. The film’s 3+ hour runtime made up almost entirely of dialogue in another language will turn away some, but it is great stuff. ★★★★½
Irena’s Vow is based on a play, which is itself based on the true story of Irena Gut Opdyke, a Polish woman who hid 12 Jewish people during the second world war. Irena is portrayed by Sophie Nélisse (who successfully forayed into the war before, a decade ago as the eponymous Book Thief as a teenager), a nurse who is horrified early in the war when she witnesses a German officer take a baby from a Jewish mother and throw it to the street headfirst, killing the child and then shooting the mother. At the time, Irena is working as a servant in a household, with a number of Jewish workers who do odd jobs in the basement for the German soldiers. When word comes down that all of the Jews will be shipped out, she can’t let them come to harm, and makes the decision to save them. Irena is able to become the sole housemaid to a powerful German major, and secrets the Jews to the expansive house’s basement. Over the next couple years, Irena and her hidden friends live on a razor’s edge, for fear of being found out, as the major hosts parties, and other hidden Jews in the area are found. You can obviously see how it came from a play, because some stuff doesn’t work as well as a movie but would play very well on a stage, but Nélisse is fantastic in the lead role. While similar stories have been told (and better), it is still extremely moving knowing that this one really happened. ★★★
Monster is the latest from Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda. I’ve enjoyed quite a few of his films, and was ready for a treat. The film is told in three parts, each from the perspective of 3 of its main characters, and begins with Saori Mugino. A single mother to fifth-grader Minato, she is growing increasingly perturbed with her child’s school when he starts being withdrawn, and Saori suspects he is being bullied. The truth is even worse, as it seems that Minato has been the target of one of his teachers, Hori. Hori and the school seem pretty ambivalent to Saori’s appeals, until finally one day Hori pushes Saori down some stairs, which finally leads to the school firing the teacher. The second part is from Hori’s view, and obviously it paints a much different picture. The viewer learns that Hori seems to be the bully, picking on a boy in class, Yori, who is much smaller than the other boys. Hori begins to suspect there’s more to the store though, setting up the final viewpoint in the film, Minato’s. Obviously the truth is more complex than either Saori or Hori guessed, and the film builds to a wonderfully ambiguous (in a good way) ending that will satisfy. The film is great for creating a sufficient mystery to the viewer, as I really had no idea who was really right in all this until the big reveal. The only problem is that reveal comes at about the halfway mark when we start getting Minato’s view. For the next 40-ish minutes, I just wanted to speed ahead to see how it all ended, even though the filmmaker was creating a beautiful scene of Minato’s life during all that. I want to give it more stars because the first hour was exceptional, the last 15 minutes was exceptional, but that middle section just started to drag. ★★★½
Walk Up comes from Korean director Hong Sang-soo, and is the second of his films I’ve seen. Wasn’t a huge fan of the first, and this film seems to suffer from the same issues for my tastes. The film begins on a film director named Byung-soo, whose films are beloved by critics but don’t seem to have made him much money. He and his adult daughter are visiting an old friend named Ms Kim, who owns an apartment building. She gives them a tour of the building, including a restaurant on the second floor and a painter’s apartment on the third, and the trio share a meal and have a fairly mundane conversation. At one point the dad goes off to get more wine, and the daughter begs Ms Kim for a job, as, despite appearances, she is estranged from her dad and wants to create her own life. The next scene jumps ahead a month, and Byung-soo is visiting Ms Kim again. The daughter was hired, but quit and left unexpectedly since then, and the two adults talk about that and other things. This time they eat at the restaurant and talk with its owner, Sunhee. Sunhee and Byung-soo hit it off, much to Ms Kim’s chagrin as she seemed to have eyes on him herself. In the next scene, Byung-soo and Sunhee are living together in the building, but here it starts to get a bit weird. At one point, Byung-soo is talking about how he’s gone vegetarian for health, and in the next scene, he’s wolfing down meat. Later, he is alone in the apartment and goes and lays down on the bed, but in the next room, we hear him talking to Sunhee. I was confused, but the only thing I can guess is there was some kind of alternative universe thing going on. Whatever it was, I couldn’t make much sense of it, and the whole thing didn’t really seem to have an overarching plot or theme. Two strikes, director. ★½
The Iron Claw is based on a true story and tells the tale of the Von Erich family, a troupe of pro wrestlers who continually faced tragedy. Retired wrestler Fritz Von Erich has raised his four sons harshly (a fifth son died young in a freak accident) to carry on his footsteps, even if they didn’t want to. Kevin and David are wrestling and starting to gain a name for themselves, but Kerry only got into wrestling when his dreams of competing in the Olympics was derailed when the USA boycotted the 1980 games in Moscow, and youngest son Mike is more interested in music than wrestling. This leads to his father openly calling out his manhood and telling him he is the least favorite of his sons. In a household where father’s approval is the end-all-be-all, this is like God telling you that you aren’t good enough. [Minor spoiler if you don’t know the story of the family.] The family curse follows them all though, with each son coming to a terrible end by the end of the movie, until only Kevin is left standing, hoping to escape his father’s shadow and live his own life. Remarkable performances by Zac Efron (who really bulked up to be Kevin), Jeremy Allen White, and Mindhunter’s Holt McCallany as Fritz, with a compelling story and a hero to root for. I was pleasantly surprised. ★★★★
- TV series recently watched: Star Trek (season 2)
- Book currently reading: A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan
Jons Movie Takes 