Been awhile since I saw a Jim Jarmusch film; Father Mother Sister Brother is his newest. In a throwback to earlier Jarmusch films, it is set up as 3 separate vignettes. Father is about two adult children (played by Adam Driver and Mayim Bialik) visiting their father (Tom Waits). No one seems to want to be there, and while the kids are wondering how Dad is doing financially, he is hiding his Rolex and expensive car in the garage. Kids don’t want to be there in Mother either, where sisters (Cate Blanchett and Vicky Krieps) are doing their yearly afternoon tea visit with their mother (Charlotte Rampling). Both girls are trying to measure up to their mom, a successful author. The final act, Sister Brother, has siblings (Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat) going through their parents’ belongings after their sudden death in a plane crash. Not sure what to make of this movie. It has some very touching moments, some very sad ones too, but is short on the deadpan humor you’d expect from a Jarmush film. Almost seems like the director had a couple ideas for the makings of a couple movies, but then said, “Shit, we’ll just make 1 movie with an all-star cast, and just do this.” And of course, if you are an actor and Jim Jarmusch says, “Wanna be in my movie?” you of course say yes. ★★
Rental Family is a fun, family-type, old school comedy drama starring Brendan Fraser, the latest in his comeback to the movie industry. He plays Phillip, an American who came to Tokyo years ago for an acting job, but who stayed and hasn’t exactly been the most successful. Struggling to make ends meet, he takes a job at a “family rental” company. Need an American at your funeral? Check. Need someone to play as your boyfriend so you can tell your family you are moving to America? Check. What he doesn’t plan for is growing to really care for the people who hire him. A single mother is hoping her bright daughter can test into a really good school, but knows a solid home life is part of what the school will look for. The mom hires Phillip to be the little girl’s “dad,” but to keep it authentic, she tells her daughter that Phillip really is her long-lost father, who’s been living in America all these years. The girl believes it, and while obviously hesitant at first, the likable Phillip wins her over and the two grow a close bond over the coming weeks. However, Phillip is wracked with guilt, because he knows he’s going to break this girl’s heart when she learns the truth. Not a complex movie, but does elicit complex emotions. I wish it had ended 5 or 6 minutes earlier than it did, because they couldn’t help but Hollywood the shit out of the ending. Still, a nice film. ★★★
Happyend takes place in the near-future, again in Tokyo. It follows a group of 5 high school friends, and particularly focuses on best friends Yuta and Kou. Yuta is completely carefree and goes with the flow, but Kou always has a small chip on his shoulder, partly from his upbringing. Though his family has lived in Japan for four generations, he’s of Korean descent, which as you know has a complicated historical relationship with Japan. Many of the students at school are middle or upper-middle class, but Kou alone among his friends has to work to help his family. When the group of friends pull a fantastic practical joke on the school’s principal, the man flips out and installs a state-of-the-art surveillance system in the school, which identifies students based on AI and docks them points for transgressions like smoking, flipping the bird, or inappropriate attire. This, against the backdrop of an increasingly nationalist government (like in many nations across the globe these days), with the new head of state of railing against immigrants. Kou’s family starts facing racism, and Kou becomes active in protests, while Yuta continues his laissez faire attitude. It’s a great film, a microcosm of right vs left in today’s society, and would maybe open some eyes (though doubtfully would change minds). ★★★★
Tornado is just the second movie from writer/director John Maclean; his first, Slow West, was a decade ago, and I thought at the time that this was a great up-and-comer. That hasn’t panned out yet, but my thoughts haven’t changed after this movie. It begins with action immediately: a young Japanese woman, whose name we later learn is Tornado, is running from a gang of thugs through 18th century Scotland. We don’t even know why she is being chased, only that the men mean business. When she hides in a large house, the group rough-houses the owners while searching for her. We then get a flashback to what started the chase. The men have just stolen a couple sacs of gold, before coming across Tornado with her father, a former Samurai warrior, performing a puppet show. Somehow Tornado ends up with the gold, and in protecting her, her father is killed. She runs, and thus the chase. Back to the present, she is able to elude them, even as the group performs more atrocities in the area, until she is able to start exacting her revenge. The film is a bit uneven, with some really great, startling moments, but others that feel rushed, and not given enough time to breathe (which is an odd thing to say about a film that moves at a languid pace at times). There are swaths of gentle, slow drama intermittent with quick bursts of extreme violence. However, it’s a good homage to the classic samurai genre, and told in a unique and startling way, even if the film itself isn’t all that unique. ★★★½
Peter Hujar’s Day is a two-actor show, starring Ben Winshaw and Rebecca Hall as Peter Hujar and Linda Rosenkrantz. It’s based on a true event, when in the 1970s, Linda had an idea for a new book in which she’d interview people about what they did the day before. Peter Hujar, a popular photographer at the time, was this day’s subject. Based on the description, I was thinking along the lines of My Dinner With André, which I absolutely adored, but it’s more akin to watching paint dry. They literally just talk about what Peter did that day. If you want to hear every inane event, sure, knock yourself out, but I could not get through this movie. 30-ish minutes in, it came down to turning it off or falling asleep. ½
- TV series recently watched: Tehran (season 3), The Studio (season 1)
- Book currently reading: Paul of Dune by Herbert & Anderson
Jons Movie Takes 