The Color Purple is a movie based on a musical which is itself based on a book, which I read just a few years ago. If you’d like to get the gist of the story, you can read my blurb on the book here. This film is fantastic, and a fairly faithful adaptation, though events are a bit out of order here and there (at least, from the book; I have not seen the musical). But the important message is the same: Celie is born into a hopeless situation and finds nothing but adversity throughout much of her life, but is able to persevere and find happiness in the end. The movie is dark at times but not nearly as dark as the book, leaving out much of the constant beating Celie received from her husband for all those years, and only touching on other dark moments in her life; I think they would have been hit with a hard R rating if they’d kept some of those elements. It also plays a bit better in book form, where it reads as letters written instead of a narrative story, but still, this is a very good interpretation and is as moving a story as you will find. ★★★★

Eileen is a story of two halves. The first is in getting to know Eileen, a young woman in the 1960s who works at the local teenage prison/correction facility. Everyone knows who Eileen is because her father is Jim, former chief of police in the small town, who lost his edge on life when his wife died. Jim is now an alcoholic and is emotionally abusive towards Eileen, something that grants her the sympathy of the townspeople. At work, Eileen daydreams about sleeping with the handsome guards, and at home, daydreams about killing herself or her father (or both). It’s a dreary existence, but excitement comes in the person of Rebecca, a newly arrived psychologist brought in to talk to new inmate Lee Polk, a teen charged with brutally killing his police officer father. Rebecca is everything that Eileen is not: outgoing, sexy, self-assured, and the eye-catcher for every man she walks by. When the hint of a love affair sparks between Eileen and Rebecca, I thought this film was really going somewhere. And then the shoe fell off. The movie takes a very strange, out-of-character turn, and it never finds its way back to the path (Spoiler ahead). Rebecca invites Eileen over to her house, but when Eileen gets there, Rebecca is a nervous wreck, and eventually admits it isn’t her house. It is Lee’s parent’s home, and in the basement, Rebecca has tied up Lee’s mom in order to extract a confession that Lee’s dad was abusing him, to help in Lee’s defense. It’s so out of left field that I couldn’t settle in after this, even though ultimately the film tries to show more of Eileen’s character than Rebecca’s. Anne Hathaway is Rebecca, and she was OK if a bit stereotypical, but Thomas McKenzie is spectacular as Eileen. Since I saw her first as a teen in Leave No Trace, she’s continued to surprise me. ★★½

If Tilda Swinton is in it, more times than not I’m going to like the film; she just seems to have a good eye for scripts. In The Eternal Daughter, she reunites with director Joanna Hogg (I loved her film The Souvenir, its sequel… not so much). In this film, Swinton has two roles: a middle-aged woman named Julie and her mother, Rosalind. The two are checking into a large house that has been converted into a hotel, and get flack immediately from the front desk clerk. She doesn’t want to meet their requests for a certain room or accommodations, despite the hotel seeming empty with no other guests (in her defense, Julie is pretty overbearing and exacting). The movie gets into the “action” pretty quick, which is the eeriness of the hotel. Julie will take a long look at a window, like you would do if you think you see something, but we the viewers never see what she is seeing, so we don’t know if there’s something there or if Julie’s just seeing things. And there’s strange noises at night, which gives the viewer the creeps for sure, but they could easily be explained by Julie’s sleep deprivation and the fact that it is an old house (I live in a 100 year old house, and all kinds of things “go bump in the night”). The reason for Julie’s and Rosalind’s choice of this location eventually becomes clear: it was once owned by Rosalind’s family and she had some happy (and some very sad) memories of the place. Julie is a filmmaker, and she’s trying to write a story about her mom’s life while she is still alive, but severe writer’s block is keeping her from even getting started. The tension builds to a big surprise (which wasn’t really a surprise to this tired old critic who has seen it all) but the climax isn’t really what this movie is all about. It’s about Julie coming to terms with her mom and how she has put much of her life on hold to care for her. Fantastic acting by Swinton and a sure hand by Hogg, but the slow pace will test some people’s patience. Not mine. ★★★★

Fitting In is an outstanding coming-of-age indie film out of Canada. Lindy is 16 years old, new at school with just a single friend, and her life is about to come crashing down. She likes a boy at school and her friend urges her to get on birth control before Lindy starts having sex, so she goes to a doctor for an exam to get on the pill. Despite being 16, Lindy has not had her period, something that she never really thought too much of, since her mom too was nearly 17 before she started menstruating, and Lindy and her mom just figured late blooming ran in the family. However, when Lindy tells this to the doctor, he takes one look at her well developed body and knows something is up. A vaginal exam confirms it: Lindy has a rare disorder called MRKH syndrome. She was born with ovaries but no uterus and only an inch of underdeveloped vagina, something not discovered previously since she looks completely normal on the outside. Not only can she not sleep with her boyfriend, but she can never birth children. The doctor sends her home with various sized dildos in order to stretch out her vagina over the next “3 to 18 months, however long it takes” so that she can have sexual intercourse one day, but that’s not the kind of thing a 16-year-old wants to hear. If we can all remember what life was like trying to survive high school without something hanging over your head, try to imagine what Lindy starts thinking about. Maddie Ziegler’s performance as Lindy is a revelation, and while the film delves down into too many clichés, it lands on its feet by the end, and is able to visit several modern-day issues teens face (whether parents want to hear about it or not). ★★★½

I.S.S. brings together a decent cast of recognizable faces for some space adventure, but unfortunately it doesn’t all come together. Aboard the International Space Station, Americans and Russians have always been able to work together, no matter what political turmoils are going on down on Earth. However, one morning, the astronauts glance out the window and see flashes of light from the surface of the planet, which immediately seem to be the detonations of large, possibly nuclear, bombs. Communications are down for awhile, but when they come back up, the Americans receive a message that they are to take command of the I.S.S., by any means necessary. Guessing that the Russian cosmonauts have received the same message from their country, tension on the station ratchets up, with everyone playing dumb and saying they’ve received no new messages from the planet. It isn’t long before someone makes a move though, and out in the space, there’s really no where to hide. That could have been a good tagline. Anyway, the whole thing isn’t as suspenseful as the filmmakers would have hoped, and the talented cast is wasted on this gussied-up B movie with some neat effects. ★★

I had originally intended to do a whole series of Japanese films (been awhile since I last did), but the first film on my list was Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition. When I saw it clocked in at nearly 10 hours, I decided to split this one up! Originally released in 3 parts over 3 years between 1959-61, it is based on a 6 part epic novel. Because it is a 3 part, there will be spoilers obviously in the first two synopses.

The first part, subtitled No Greater Love, begins during World War II and introduces us to main character Kaji. An idealist and socialist, he is at odds with the powers-at-be during Imperial Japan. He’s in love with Michiko, but refuses to marry her and make her a widow if he gets drafted to fight in the war. He finds a way out though when he hears of a job at a in Manchuria, China, where Japan has annexed the area and is using it as POW forced labor camp. Helping the government in this way, he won’t be drafted (thus, marrying Michiko), and he hopes to make the lives better for the Chinese prisoners. Kaji quickly finds out that his ideals are at odds with how the camp is run. The overseers at the mines are brutal with the Chinese detainees, whipping them and withholding food as punishment, however, Kaji does have the backing of the camp administrator, who is open to any ideas to increase productivity. Kaji is able to win over a handful of Japanese coworkers at the camp, but most stay vehemently opposed, and the prisoners don’t help. They see Kaji as nothing more as the latest puppet of Japan’s government, a government which hates the Chinese people. To make matters worse, a few Chinese men are able to escape, and when Kaji leans of how they are doing it, he doesn’t tell his supervisors. This will come back to haunt him, when an overseer who has been skimming off the top targets Kaji to get him out of the way. When a group of prisoners are wrongfully accused of an escape attempt and the military comes down hard with a verdict of execution by beheading, Kaji attempts to stick up for the Chinese and sets himself right in the military’s crosshairs. They revoke his special status, and the first part ends as Kaji is drafted and being sent to war.

Part 2 (Road to Eternity) picks up there. Kaji is at basic training and is excelling at soldier duties, earning high marks for marksmanship and duty work, but the rumors that he is “a red” are keeping him from advancing. He also has a propensity for helping those who need it, aiding one recruit in particular, Obara, who is always targeted by superiors for his physical weakness and poor “soldier skills.” When the hazing gets too rough, Obara takes his own life. The brass are going to look the other way, blaming Obara for his own deficiencies, so Kaji takes it upon himself to right those wrongs. He keeps needling the officer who led the poor treatment of Obara, even after the two of them are transferred to the front. There, Kaji fights to be given his own platoon to train, with respect rather than brute force, and his men love him for it. But when the war finally comes to their doorstep, with Russian tanks and soldiers indiscriminately killing, Kaji will have to see if his ideals hold up to the brutality of war. I found this section wasn’t as great as the first, with some slow sections that honestly felt repetitive and even a bit like filler, but am hoping for a rebound in the upcoming final film.

The last film, A Soldier’s Prayer, starts immediately where the previous ends. Kaji and two other soldiers are in a land overrun by Russian soldiers, their unit having just been slaughtered in the previous battle. Kaji is facing an existential crisis, trying to reconcile his beliefs in the good of humanity while now considering himself a murderer. Kaji is filled with self loathing, to the point that he stops caring for anything or anyone. He and his fellow soldiers set out across the countryside, picking up a group of ragtag displaced citizens and other lost soldiers along the way, in search of food and shelter. The journey is hard, and people fall dead along the way from starvation, exhaustion, or suicide when they’ve lost hope, and that is before the group starts facing off with Chinese farmers who’ve been armed by the Soviets. When they get in a skirmish and the Chinese kill a woman who was traveling with Kaji’s group, he decides to stop running and start fighting. The very Chinese people that Kaji defended in the first film become his target. On his journey south, Kaji will see all of the ravages of war: Chinese villages plundered by Japanese, Japanese settlements living in fear as the countryside has turned against them, and women and wives who have turned to prostitution to survive. There’s also the growing fear of civil war in the area, with Russian-backed Communists forming up against the current government, backed by the Americans. Though the nation of Japan has long since surrendered, the war for Kaji is far from over. Eventually they are captured and put to work in a Soviet work camp. Until now, Kaji has praised the Soviets, even when they were enemies, for their socialist platform as being good for the common man, but he finds that working in their camps is no different than how the Chinese were treated in Japanese camps in the beginning of the film. Through all of this, Kaji’s thoughts often turn to his wife Michiko, wondering if he will see her again, and if he does, if he is still worthy of her for the things he has done. As a harsh winter sets in, you start to realize that Kaji is never making it home. All in all, a very moving film,  though definitely feels long and paced at times. It’s a bleak look at humanity at its worst, and makes you consider a lot of things. ★★★★

• TV series recently watched: Masters of the Air (series)
• Book currently reading: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

I’ve liked a lot of films from director Yorgos Lanthimos (links to all of his stuff here), and was intrigued by his newest, Poor Things, especially after it recently won a few awards. It follows a young woman named Bella (Emma Stone, who just won the Oscar for this role) in 19th century London. Bella is under the care of a doctor and scientist named Godwin, who has recently hired a student named Max to study Bella and record all of her deeds and doings. Bella is Godwin’s experiment, the result of taking the brain out of an unborn child and implanting it in her mother’s recently deceased body. So while Bella has the body of an adult, she is mentally no more than a child, and Godwin intends to record her progress. Finding her childlike innocence endearing, Max falls in love with Bella and proposes (once she can put more than a couple words together), but Bella is still very young mentally, and wants to see the world. When an older worldly man, Duncan (Mark Ruffalo), asks Bella to run away with him, she does, and finds a sexual awakening with him. However, of course it isn’t all peaches and rainbows, and Bella will have to do some serious growing up before the end. The acting is great, and the movie has Lanthimos’s trademark weirdness, but honestly I wasn’t enamored. For a long time, Bella is all about sex; it is the driving force in her life for a big portion of the movie. Very Freudian for sure, but it got old after awhile. And while I’m sure the main point of the film was letting Bella become an individual without a man controlling her (because everyone does, from Godwin, whom she not-so-subtlety calls God, to Max, who wants to put her in a box and keep her the same forever, to even society, which wants to make her a prostitute when she runs out of options), that moral becomes muddy when Lanthimos gives the audience a cheap laugh in the final minutes of the film. This is two of his films in a row that didn’t wow me, despite them getting more national attention than any of his older stuff. I definitely liked his older, smaller films better. ★★★ 

To do a play on the famous line from Stephen King’s The Stand: this is how a franchise ends; not with a bang, but a whimper. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the finale to the DC Extended Universe, a franchise that started over a decade ago to go up against Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. There were some good moments in the franchise, but its bad movies were very bad, and DC is starting over with a reboot in 2025. Aquaman 2 picks up after the first film. Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is king of Atlantis and rules the sea, but he is still the target of David Kane, who survived the last film. Kane finds a magic item, a trident, which houses the spirit of an ancient evil that wants to destroy everything and everyone in the world. The spirit possesses Kane, and with its power, he builds an army to fight Curry, while also using the sea’s power to increase climate change to threaten humans on land. The film throws everything at the wall to see what sticks, and I mean everything. We’ve got a Star Wars bar scene, some Land Before Time, a little buddy cop feel (Curry and his brother Orm, who was a bad guy in the first film but now has to be good for the betterment of all), and a host of other film clichés and tropes. If the action were better, it could hide some faults, but like the first film, because it mostly takes place under water, it all looks a little fake. DC, c’est la vie. ★½

Hands That Bind is a tale of two movies. The bulk of the story is fantastic. It follows a man named Andy who is living on a farm in western Canada in the early 1980s, with his wife and kids. They don’t own the land, but have been working for owner Mac for a long time. Mac is estranged from his adult kids, so Andy has dreams of taking over the farm when Mac is ready to hang it up. But one day, one of Mac’s kids shows up. Dirk is a complete jerk, bossing his wife around in public and putting Andy down any chance he can get, making sure Andy knows his place as a hired hand. With Dirk back, Mac makes it clear that he’ll be getting the farm, and since Dirk is young and can do the farm chores (despite no real desire to), they give Andy a timeline of a month or two to find a different job and move on. The problem is there is no real work to find in the area, and Andy has been reluctant to contact his own father for help over some fight decades ago. All of that story is great, with a slow-burning tension that pervades throughout, and you watch patiently hoping Dirk gets what’s coming and Andy comes out on top. However, there’s these weird subplots that don’t make any sense. Andy dreams about his wife eating bloody meat. There are dead cows found strung up in trees, cows which have been surgically sliced up. And then there’s weird noises and strange lights in the sky. Are they being visited by aliens? If so, it is never explained, and left for interpretation by the viewer. I wasn’t buying it, and would have preferred a more straight-forward story. Still, solid acting from Paul Sparks as Andy and the always-scene-stealing Bruce Dern as a neighboring farmer. ★★½

All of Us Strangers is the latest from English director Andrew Haigh. Not super familiar with his work, but I did like his film 45 Years a few years ago. This movie follows a gay man living in London, a man who is carrying around a lot of baggage. Adam has no friends and only ventures out of his high-rise apartment for work or food. One out-of-the-norm visit happens though when he gets on a train and heads out to the suburbs, where he goes to his childhood home. His parents are there, though they look awfully young to be his parents, and admonish him for not visiting for years. They seem loving though, and they have a nice evening catching up. Back in his apartment building, Adam meets Harry, and they begin a timid relationship. In a very poignant moment, Adam tells Harry that his parents died in a car wreck when he was 12; turns out when he is visiting them at home, he is really just seeing visions of them, of how they were last he saw them (thus, why they appear so young). Because Adam lost them so young, and never got to come out to them, he’s lived his life finding it very difficult to make attachments. His visions with his parents are now a way to work through those conversations that he never had a chance to have. His parents tell him the kinds of things he would have in his own subconscious, putting words to thoughts that he himself may not be aware of, all in the process of finally healing. At the same time, Adam is starting this relationship with Harry, which brings a whole new set of feelings. Harry is a lot younger, about 10-15 years, which doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but there’s a generational difference between them. Adam grew up in a time when he was bullied for being gay, whereas Harry came out to his parents and the world without much blowback. The ending has a bit of a surprise that I did not see coming, and not sure how I felt about it, but there are some truly heartwarming and heart wrenching moments in this movie that will move you. I think everyone who loses a loved one, especially a parent, would love to have one more day with them. ★★★½

I always try to catch the handful of sci-fi films that come of Korea, because I’ve had good luck with them in the past. Not so much for The Moon. In 2029, South Korea is trying to become the first country since the USA to put a man on the moon. NASA and an international alliance have built a lunar space station, but Korea has struck out on its own, and its program is under pressure for results. 5 years ago, a deadly disaster killed 3 of their astronauts, so there’s a lot of urgency to make this mission go off without a hitch. Unfortunately it does not. The trio gets up into space OK, but a solar flare wipes out major systems on board. The 2 most experienced astronauts do a spacewalk to repair the systems, but a sudden explosion of leaking fuel kills them, leaving just one man in the hobbled ship. And that man isn’t really an astronaut, he’s a former military soldier picked for this mission because his dad (now dead) was a pioneer in Korea’s new space program. Alone up in space, the soldier-turned-astronaut has to navigate meteor showers (three of them!) and so much contrived drama that your head will spin. I lost track of how many “countdowns” I had to endure, and the numerous “Abort! Abort!” instructions when something went wrong. Horrendous acting, completely unbelievable disaster after disaster, and some graphics straight of Babylon 5, decades ago. ½

• TV series recently watched: Percy Jackson and the Olympians (season 1), The New Batman Adventures (series), The Witcher (season 3)
• Book currently reading: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

I’ve seen some earlier Aki Kaurismäki films, and his newest, but was missing a chunk in the middle. First up is 1992’s La Vie de Bohème, based on the original mid-19th century novel and most famously adapted into Puccini’s opera and, for me personally, the Broadway show Rent. This film follows a trio of men living the Bohemian life in Paris (Kaurismäki’s first film in French). Marcel is a writer who is evicted from his apartment for failure to pay rent, but refuses to move his goods, which a law allows for up to one year. It doesn’t stop the owner from renting the place to a new person, Schaunard, a composer, but it isn’t long before Marcel and Schaunard strike up a friendship. Joining them is another bohemian, Rodolfo, a painter and immigrant from Albania. The three support each other financially whenever one is short on dough, and form a bond, cheering each other on in their endeavors and relationships, including the women that come into their lives, like Rodolfo’s girlfriend Mimi. However, Rodolfo is picked up by the police one evening when he can’t pay for a meal, and when they check his papers, they realize he is in France illegally. They deport him, with instructions not to return for 6 months. When he comes back, Mimi has found a new man, but she obviously still has feelings for Rodolfo. This film starts off with a lot of the offbeat humor I found in Kaurismäki’s earlier films, but becomes more of a tragedy by the end (do not expect a happy ending). The whole thing is very endearing though, with a real sense of comradeship between our friends, who will do anything for each other. ★★★½

Kaurismäki returned to one of these characters 19 years later, in 2011’s Le Havre. Marcel has left his bohemian life behind in order to support his loving wife Arletty, but they struggle financially. He never made it as a writer, and works on the street as a shoe shiner, whenever he isn’t being chased off by business owners, that is. Arletty keeps the house and makes the meals, so when she ends up in the hospital with a mysterious illness, she doesn’t know how Marcel will survive on his own. To compound problems, Marcel becomes the caretaker of a runaway, a teenage illegal immigrant from Africa named Idrissa. Idrissa’s family was picked up by the police but he fled, and is now in hiding. Marcel and his neighbors, all lower-middle class workers, pitch in together to keep Idrissa hidden and fed, while Marcel seeks out the boy’s family and how to reunite them. It will take money, in order to hire a smuggler to get Idrissa back home to Africa, but Marcel is willing to do anything to help the boy, hopefully before the police inspector, who is always nearby, finds him. A heartwarming tale about the kindness of humanity, it’s just one of those movies that makes you feel good. ★★★★

The Other Side of Hope drops a lot of the comedy (though there are still funny moments) and is more of a straight-ahead drama, though still in Kaurismäki’s deadpan, quirky style. Like the previous film, it again tackles the immigration problem. Khaled fled the war in Syria and took a circuitous route to Helsinki, Finland, becoming separated from his sister somewhere in Europe. He feels in his heart that she is still alive, but has no way of finding her. His application for asylum in Finland is denied on the basis that the fighting in Aleppo “isn’t bad enough,” despite Khaled burying his parents and rest of his family after their house was struck by a missile. Before being deported, Khaled runs away and luckily finds succor with Waldemar, a man also at a crossroads. Waldemar recently left his wife (for an unknown reason) and has sunk his life savings into a restaurant, the running of which provides most of the laughs in the film. Waldemar exudes a gruff persona but has a soft spot for those at the bottom of the societal ladder, and gives Khaled a place to sleep (in his storage unit), some cash, and a cleaning job at the restaurant. As the film goes along, Khaled tries to find his sister, while navigating the immigration system, smugglers, and anti-immigrant assholes in the area. The film tries to tug at the heartstrings but I never really got caught up in it. Kaurismäki’s style is more suited to eccentric films and when tries to go too political, it doesn’t hit. Good acting though, and the funny spots were decent. ★★½

• TV series recently watched: Mindhunter (season 1), The Fall of the House of Usher (series), All the Light We Cannot See (series)
• Book currently reading: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden

Like a whole lot of people last weekend ($82 million worth of people), I saw Dune: Part Two. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited to see a movie; I’ve been looking forward to this one since the first film hit 2 1/2 years ago. I’m a big fan of the franchise, having read 10 books so far, and counting. Did this one meet my expectations?

The sequel picks up right where the first left off. Paul and his mother Jessica are on the run from the Harkonnens, who had hoped to kill the entire family (with the backing of the Emperor) and take control of the planet Arrakis (Dune) and its valuable spice harvesting operations. The Bene Gesserit, a secretive society of women that Jessica herself belongs to, have spent generations spreading rumors on Arrakis of a coming messiah-like character, the Lisan al Gaib, and the locals (the Fremen) believe that Paul is that savior, meant to free them from the “interlopers” from other worlds. The problem is, the more that Paul does to fight back against the Harkonnens, the more the Fremen see as signs that Paul truly is the one to fulfill the prophecy. Jessica, who has risen in prominence herself among the Fremen to become a Reverend Mother, is doing her part to spread the legend of Paul, against Paul’s own wishes, in hopes that Paul will get enough power to fight back against the Emperor himself in vengeance for killing her husband, Paul’s father Duke Leto.

Jessica heads to the southern hemisphere, where many of the religious fanatics among the Fremen live, She urges Paul to come with her, but he hesitates. In consuming more spice in his food with the Fremen, Paul begins to have more visions of the future, and one of them fills him with fear. He knows that if he goes south and declares himself the Lisan al Gaib, he will start a holy war with the Empire that will lead to the deaths of billions of people across the galaxy. But Paul may not have a choice, with the deadly and determined Harkonnens hunting him and all of the Fremen people on the planet.

Honestly, about 2/3rds of the way through this movie, I was liking it a lot, but started to think that the first film was better. Sometimes the anticipation of what is to come (the setup from the first movie) can be greater than the ultimate payoff (the second movie). But that final third…. Wow. An epic battle that gives you everything you could have hoped for. The two movies together have done original Dune author Frank Herbert proud, with a sweeping, true-to-tale experience that awes and inspires. Honestly one of the most epic films you will ever see, even if you aren’t a big sci-fi moviegoer. There’s some talk of a third movie if this one does well (and it looks like it will), and you can sign me up for more right now. ★★★★★

I didn’t rush to see The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes when it hit theaters last year. It was getting middling reviews, and when I read the book, I wasn’t blown away. However, I ended up enjoying this movie quite a bit. It’s a prequel to the original Hunger Games films, and tells the story of how Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland’s character in the original tetralogy) came to power. Despite being terrible in those movies, in the beginning of this one, you actually kind of like Snow. His family was once powerful but has fallen on hard times, and he is counting on winning a scholarship in school in order to fund his future education and put his family back on the map. Unfortunately, it is announced that the scholarship will be given to the student who can make the most impact in turning around the flagging Hunger Games. Now in its 10th year, the people of the capital are no longer tuning in to watch the gruesome bloodbath between the tributes from the outer districts. The powers-at-be in the capital need the games to do well, so Snow sets out to do his part. His tribute is Lucy Gray, a singer from District 12, and Snow will do whatever it takes to make her a star. As the movie goes along, and especially after the conclusion of the games when Snow follows Lucy Gray back to 12, we see the determination by Snow to do whatever it takes to make sure he ends up on top, a quality that will lead him to be such a villain in the future. The movie does lull here and there, but the highs are very high and more than make up for the slower moments. Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray lacks the nuance of Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss, but the acting is still very good. ★★★½

Junction follows a trio of main characters over the course of 1 day, each tied to each other and the ongoing opioid crisis. Michael is a successful restauranteur but his personal life is in shambles, the result of an addition to oxycontin after a surgery awhile back. His doctor, Mary, is struggling too, because the clinic where she works has been under scrutiny for prescribing too many pain meds, so she’s being more choosy how she gives them out. This has led to her cutting Michael off, and he is in severe withdrawal from abusing them for too long. A side story involves the CEO of a major pharmaceutical company, under fire for his part in worsening the current situation. He too is tied to the other 2 characters, though we don’t learn how until the end. The movie has a good message, but it is far too heavy handed, and all of the “surprises” are foretold long before they happen. It also has the feel of a super low budget film (despite plenty of actors with a list of credits to their name); I don’t mind a low budget movie, but I also don’t like to feel like I could have shot a better film with my iPhone. There are better movies out there dealing with this subject material. ★★

Dream Scenario is marketed as a black comedy, but it has a lot of dark elements to it too (it was produced by current horror film guru Ari Aster). Nicolas Cage plays mild mannered college professor Paul, who is one of those people is completely forgettable, even by people in his professional circle. He never takes a stand on anything, but he’ll be forced to when he becomes a viral sensation. Turns out Paul is randomly popping up in people’s dreams, many of whom he’s never met. The dreams all share a common thread, which we as the viewer notice long before the characters in the film do: they are all nightmares. The people laugh about them at the time, because here’s this strange guy who does nothing but walk through during a traumatic event, but some of the dreams are pretty horrific. The movie takes a turn halfway through. Paul’s role in the dreams was pretty benign when he was a mild mannered, soft spoken man, but when something in Paul’s real life gets him riled up, his role in people’s dreams takes a more sinister turn as well. Suddenly the dream-Paul is murdering, raping, and doing all kinds of terrible things, and in the real world, Paul becomes a pariah. He’s facing cancel culture and doesn’t know what to do about it. There’s some dark laughs early, and some uncomfortable moments later, and Cage is superb through all of it. He always seems to shine in these more intimate roles. A good movie if you don’t mind feeling a bit uneasy here and there. ★★★½

The Harvest isn’t a newer film, but it went into the rotation based on a recommendation. It has Michael Shannon, and who doesn’t say yes to a Michael Shannon flick? It revolves around a sick boy named Andy, who is being home schooled by his mother (a doctor named Katherine, played by Samantha Morton). Andy’s whole life is in his bedroom, but he makes a friend in Maryann. Maryann’s parents recently died and she is now living with her grandparents in a house in the area. She stumbled upon Andy’s house one day and befriended him, much to Katherine’s chagrin. Katherine doesn’t seem to want anyone around Andy other than herself and her husband Richard (Shannon). As the movie goes along, we find that Katherine is more than just protective of Andy, she’s possessive and mentally abusing, in a Misery sort of way. But Katherine keeps sneaking around, giving Andy a hope of a world outside of his illness. Things take a dark turn when Maryann has to hide in the basement when Katherine comes home early, and there, Maryann finds another sick child, a boy in hospital bed, in a coma, and on life support. Maryann doesn’t know what to do with this revelation, and what it means for Andy. The end is a dark and twisted affair. The movie is decent, with strong turns by Shannon and especially Morton (somehow she stayed off my radar until her appearance in The Walking Dead, and now I can’t get enough), who steals the show, even if I did see the ending coming a mile away. ★★★

Spaceman is the latest Adam Sandler/Netflix film, and while I generally avoid these movies (pretty awful, from what I hear), this one is not a comedy. In my opinion, Sandler’s at his best when he leaves his comedic schtick behind and takes a more dramatic role (Punch-drunk Love, Reign Over Me, Uncut Gems, etc). In this film, he plays Jakub, a man on a year-long space mission to Jupiter and back. He’s been sent to explore a space cloud that appeared out there. When the film starts, he’s been alone in space for 6 months and is within days of approaching his destination. Jakub is carrying around a lot of baggage from a rough childhood, and while he has a pregnant wife at home, his past has kept him from connecting with people, even her. Thus, he’s a very lonely guy, but he finds a new friend in deep space. He is visited by an alien intelligence, who Jakub names Hanuš, who takes the form of a giant spider in Jakub’s space craft. Hanuš can explore Jakub’s mind and memories, and together, they investigate what made Jakub the man he is, and what he needs to do to overcome his deficiencies with his wife. The movie isn’t devoid of comedy (wouldn’t be a Sandler film if so), such as the awkward interactions between Jakub and a giant effing spider, and, because it is a commercial space flight (the only way to pay for such a thing), Jakub has to keep thanking his sponsors back on Earth whenever they communicate. I liked the movie just enough, but not as much as I had hoped, based on Sandler’s previous more serious films. It tries to be a whole lot deeper than it is, but I still liked it better than average. ★★★

Today I’ve got a quartet of films that are approaching 100 years old, which is mind-boggling if you think about it. Starting with 3 films from early American film director Tod Browning, who was known for his horror films (called “the Edgar Allan Poe of cinema”), including 2 silent films and then a “talkie.” The Mystic (1925) isn’t really a horror picture, at least not by today’s standards, but does have a supernatural element to it. Zara and Zazarack are swindling little towns in Hungary with a fake psychic act when they are spotted by American Michael Nash. Nash thinks they can take their act to America and, with a bit more production value, increase their take. But once they are there, a determined police investigator and a lonely socialite may take down their act. Outstanding tension throughout the film, helped by a suspenseful soundtrack which often disappears during high-leverage scenes, this is a fun, intense drama. ★★★½

The Unknown (1927) features horror film superstar Lon Chaney (Sr) teamed with then-unknown Joan Crawford (I didn’t even know she got her start in the silent film era!). Chaney plays Alonzo the Armless, a circus freak who can toss daggers with his feet, to pinpoint accuracy. Like every man in the traveling carnival, Alonzo has eyes for Nanon (Crawford), the beauty in the show, but Nanon likes strongman Malabar. However, due to trauma from a man in her past, Nanon has a phobia for mens’ hands, and she shrinks from fear whenever Malabar tries to woo her. Nanon feels safe around the armless Alonzo, but he has a secret: he does have arms, but keeps them wrapped close to his body. If exposed, people would see that his left hand sports two thumbs, which would tie him to him to previous crimes, from which is on the run. In order to gain Nanon’s love forever, Alonzo makes the horrifying decision to have his arms removed, but will her fear of Malabar’s hands keep her Nanon from him forever? I had to laugh at some spots, like Alonzo using his feet to light a match and smoke a cigarette, or play the guitar, or twiddle his “thumbs,” but the ending is pure horror and completely absorbing. As Chaney showed in his horror classics The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, he was a master at arresting the viewer with his eyes; I could not turn away, he just grabs you and does not let go. ★★★★

I’m not sure any one film ruined a career more thank Freaks did for Browning in 1932. It follows a traveling carnival and focuses on its sideshow performers. Hans, a little person, has eyes for trapeze artist Cleopatra, but she finds him and the other “freaks” revolting. That is, until she learns that Hans has a vast inheritance coming his way. She and carnival strongman Hercules hatch a plan to get Hans to marry her and then murder him for his money, but can she keep up the act when Hans and his fellow performers try to initiate her into their ranks? And when her scheme is unveiled, she must face the retribution from Hans’ friends, who will do anything for each other. This was a personal film for Browning, who ran away from home as a teenager to join a traveling circus, and had a soft spot for the society’s downtrodden. The sideshow performers in the movie were not “normies” under a bucket of makeup, they were real people with disabilities. There’s conjoined twins, little people, a bearded lady, a “half woman-half man,” armless people, “bird girls,” people with microcephaly, and more. During filming, MGM segregated the cast so that “people could get to eat in the commissary without throwing up.” Upon its release, the public cried that it was a gross and disgusting film, with moviegoers walking out from revulsion, or critics claiming it was exploitive. But I found it to be neither of those things, in fact, I think Browning treats his actors with compassion and understanding, trying to tell their story as human beings who stick together against tyranny. But in 1932, the damage was done, and Browning only made a handful of films again for the rest of his life. These days, the film is finally appreciated for what it is. ★★★★★

Imitation of Life is an entirely different kind of film, from director John M Stahl, and not just because, in 1934, it was now under the watchful eye of the Hays Code, so nothing too scandalous anymore. However, it does skirt the line, especially for the era it was made. Bea Pullman is a widow trying to pick up the pieces of her husband’s maple syrup business while raising her 2-year-old daughter on her own. A blessing comes in the body of Delilah Johnson, a black woman struggling to find a job where she can also watch after her young daughter Peola. Bea hires Delilah as a housekeeper, and with her help, sets out to build a life. Using Delilah’s secret pancake recipe, they open a flapjack restaurant where they can sell syrup by the bottle too, and it booms. Years later, they are living comfortably, and all seems well, except for Peola. Peola is very light skinned (in the original book the film was based on, her father was white; this was changed in the movie to satisfy Hays, and her dad was just a very light skinned black man too), and throughout her life, she’s tried to pass for white at school or in social situations, but her mom Delilah always seems to come in and ruin it for her. Now as a young woman, Peola doesn’t want to go to an all-black college, even a fine one that the now-wealthy family can afford. She ends up shunning her mother and heritage, but will only learn the error of her ways when it is too late. There’s also a subplot with Bea falling in love again, but then her daughter falls in love with the same man. There’s some great moments dealing with Peola’s passing, a stark look at racial divides that persisted from the 30s for decades after, but a lot of the rest of the movie seems like fluff. Maybe Stahl could have done more without the newly enacted Code breathing down his neck, but it felt very average on the whole. ★★½

• TV series recently watched: Nada (series), Mr Robot (season 3)
• Book currently reading: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden

Been awhile since I visited Rainer Werner Fassbinder, one of Germany’s best all-time directors. First I loved him, then I didn’t (granted, these were his earlier films), and then I did again. First up today is 3 films that make up his BRD trilogy, starting with The Marriage of Maria Braun from 1978, which stars longtime Fassbinder collaborator Hanna Schygulla in the title role. The film opens with Maria’s marriage to Nazi German officer Hermann, even as bombs rain down from the approaching US military. When we see Maria again, Hermann is missing and presumed dead. Maria holds out hope for his return for a long time, but as the only breadwinner in a house with her mom and grandpa, Maria finally turns to prostitution to make ends meet. She takes up with American soldier Bill, but when Hermann arrives home alive one day, Maria kills her lover. Hermann doesn’t want to see his wife in jail, so he takes the rap for the murder and is sentenced to prison. Maria makes the decision to never be on the losing side of life again, and she spends the rest of the movie manipulating people to improve her situation. This includes seducing her boss Oswald, before he can do the same to her, so that she is in the power position. What’s worse, she brazenly tells her jailed husband about her exploits, all in the guise that she is doing it for him, in order to save up money for when he gets out. A powerful film about greed and cruelty and the lengths someone will go to for a comfortable life. ★★★½

Lola is a fantastic film and similar to Sternberg’s German film The Blue Angel (both films were based on the same book). In a town in West Germany, all of the men frequent the local brothel, whose star is Lola. The newcomer in town is von Bohm, the new building commissioner. Cultured and refined, he doesn’t drink to excess and seems to be a fine, upstanding man; everyone becomes enamored with him. He has only good thoughts for the men around town, not knowing about their activities in the evenings. Lola’s patron, brothel owner (and property developer) Schuckert, bets Lola that von Bohm wouldn’t even kiss her hand, so she sets out to prove everyone wrong. Not letting on to her real life, she goes to von Bohm disguised as a refined woman; she and he start to date. A musician at the brothel who has a thing for Lola, Esslin, wants to crush von Bohm’s lofty ideals and brings him to the club one night. When von Bohm sees his fellows carousing and, worse, Lola up on stage strutting, his romanticism is smashed. On the surface, seems like a pretty simple film, but there’s a lot going on here. Barbara Sukowa is fantastic as Lola, a woman who I first thought hated herself and her life, but later realized that all she craves is to be a member of the “boys club” which keeps people like her in their place. ★★★★

Veronika Voss is a pretty straight forward film, but for a guy like me who likes a good story, it doesn’t get any better. The eponymous Veronika was once a film star, but that was 15+ years ago, and now she is only recognized by the older crowd, who still clamor for an autograph even when most people don’t even recognize her. In her head though, Veronika is still a star, one film away from taking back her spotlight. But she’s got demons. A chance meeting with a reporter, Robert Krohn, gets him digging in to what happened to Veronika. Her house is mostly empty, her estranged husband is not to be found, and Veronika seems to live at her psychiatrist’s office, in beds the doc keeps for mental patients. The doctor, Marianne Katz, tells Krohn that Veronika is a disturbed woman who can’t let go of the past, and that seems to be the case, but Krohn suspects there is more to the story. Veronika is charming and beautiful most of the time, but is prone to neurotic episodes. Even so, Krohn falls in love with her, and his girlfriend Henriette is helpless to only watch it happen. Krohn finally learns that Veronika’s doctor has her hooked on morphine, and has been draining her wealth for years. It all leads to an explosive and emotional ending. For a director most widely labeled as part of the New German Cinema movement, this may be the most traditional, straight-ahead, story-driven Fassbinder film I’ve seen. And I loved it all. ★★★★★

Three Fassbinder films, and now three films from director G.W. Pabst, from an entirely different era. Pabst’s career straddled the silent era (I’ve seen his Pandora’s Box, one of his most famous pictures) and then talkies, but today I’ve watched 3 early sound films, starting with 1930’s Westfront 1918. At first I thought this was going to be one of those faceless (no strong character building) war films that is heavy on technical aspects but light on heart, but I was proven wrong. It takes place on the German front during World War I. It features 2 main characters, Karl and “the student,” who is never named. After a very unsettling beginning (I doubt the French farm women were so enamored with their German captors as this film depicts), the movie settles in. This particular regiment is right on the front and is constantly under fire, if not from the French then from their own artillery as friendly fire. People are dying constantly, and when reinforcements arrive, you can’t believe that these bright-eyed boys will be fighting on the front soon. Home life is not much better; when on leave, Karl goes home to find his mother waiting in long lines for basic goods and his wife in bed with another man. The movie looks and sounds great, so much so that I can’t believe it was made in 1930, and the final scenes are powerful, but the film as a whole felt pretty average. In its time, it was probably spectacular. ★★★

Kameradschaft (Comradeship) is another anti-war film, but with an entirely different setting. Taking place shortly after The Great War in a German border town, the main industry is mining, same as it is on the French town just on the other side of the gate (there’s even a barred gate inside the mine, right at the border, to keep the “2 mines” separate). The people from both towns intermingle at bars and their children play together, but there is always a tension, as the people still remember the recent war when they were at each other’s throats. When a fire breaks out in the French mine and there is a partial collapse, trapping miners underground, the Germans don’t hesitate to go help their mining brothers. As one of them calls out in a rallying cry, the Frenchman have wives and children at home too, and they are all miners first and foremost. The rest of the film plays out in the mines, on a spectacularly built set that certainly looks and feels like a real mine. As in the above film, Pabst’s use of sound is exemplary; you’d never guess he came out of the silent era. At the end of the film, the Germans are able to save most of their French fellow workers, but even as they give speeches about setting aside differences for the good of common man, their governments are rebuilding the gates down in the mine to keep them apart. Lots of tension in this movie, edge-of-your-seat thrills, and I couldn’t help but get swept up in the good feelings of helping someone you may have faced off against in war just a couple years prior. Would people be able to do that today, when even in our own country people can’t even converse with others of different political views? ★★★★

The Threepenny Opera is a decent film, but has a more exciting story behind its production (more on that at the end). Based on a German play which is itself based on an English ballad opera (“The Beggar’s Opera”), it follows a ne’er-do-well villainous kingpin named Mackie, known in the underworld as Mack the Knife (and yes, the popular song originated in the German play). Mackie clawed his way up the ranks until he now leads the underworld, so Jenny the prostitute is no longer good enough to hang on his arm. Instead, he sets his eyes on Polly Peachum, who is the daughter of the “king of beggars,” the only other person with the same amount of clout as Mackie on Berlin’s seedy streets. The two marry, infuriating Peachum, and making him set his eyes on taking Mackie down. Keeping Mackie safe from the law has been Jackie “Tiger” Brown, chief of police and Mackie’s old war buddy, so Peachum will have to target Brown as well. Mackie’s luck does run out finally though, and he is arrested, jailed, and prepared for the gallows. To his rescue comes good ol’ Jenny, who distracts the guard long enough for Mackie to make his escape. Peachum has an ace up his sleeve though, a final act to try to win the day. The film starts out great with lots of intrigue, some laughs, and great jazz-influenced tunes, but peters out in the last 20-30 minutes. Better is the story of the film’s production, which involves lawsuits, double crosses, bankruptcies, and being banned by the Nazi party shortly after its release. I’d urge you to look it up online if you are interested, because it’s great stuff, but the best tidbit comes from original playwright Bertolt Brecht. After his success with the play, he only agreed to sell the rights to the film if he could screenwrite it. A notorious procrastinator, he took so long in getting it done that Pabst went ahead without him. Brecht later sued (and lost) because the film ended up quite different from the original play (even though some of the changes were ones that Brecht himself was going to implement, due to his evolving Marxist ideals) and charged Pabst and his crew with plagiarism. Again, hilarious, because Brecht himself was often accused of the same practice! ★★½

• TV series recently watched: Monsieur Spade (series), Batman: The Animated Series (season 2), Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (season 1)
• Book currently reading: The Butlerian Jihad by Herbert & Anderson

Ridley Scott puts out some great action films, but even his fans have to admit he delivers more duds than hits. Unfortunately Napoleon is in the former category. Despite one of the best actors around (Joaquin Phoenix) this movie feels like a hodgepodge of events rather than a coherent story. It follows Napoleon Bonaparte’s life, from early soldier to emperor (twice!) to his fall from grace and subsequent death. I won’t get into the story, as you are either a history fan and know parts of it already, or you don’t care, but I will say that, knowing the Russian view of Napoleon’s wars (from reading and watching Tolstoy’s War and Peace), I don’t think I really learned much myself, and critics are swift to point out that this movie is full of inaccuracies anyway. Phoenix was good, as expected, and the battles were pretty epic, but the film is full of lurches forward followed by grinding halts; there’s no flow, and all of the characters (Napoleon included) are paper thin. Very average, when it should have been a lot more. ★★½

Another historical film (though a fictional one), but this one done so much better! The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan is the first in a two-part film series, a project that was one of the most expensive film productions out of France in 2023. The film begins with D’Artagnan, on his way to Paris in 1627 with dreams of joining the Musketeers, the highly skilled personal guard to King Louis XIII. Along the way he comes across a woman’s carriage being attacked and tries to save her, but he is shot at and left for dead. When D’Artagnan does get to Paris, he arrives to a city in the middle of a political storm. The King’s brother, as well as his military and religious advisors (Catholics all), are urging him to declare war on the protestants in France and, by proxy, England, but Louis is hesitant to do so after France’s long history of prior religious wars. At the same time, Louis XIII’s wife, Queen Anne, is having an affair with the English Duke of Buckingham, which will lead to an adventure by D’Artagnan at one point in the film, but I digress. In Paris, D’Artagnan falls in league with the famous Three Musketeers, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos, who live to fight for France, King, and each other. Amazing swordsmen, they are targeted by a Catholic Cardinal who hopes to weaken the King and stir up a war with the protestants. Athos ends up in jail over a crime he didn’t commit, setting off a chain of events with his comrades trying to prove his innocence, giving D’Artagnan a crash course in training along the way. The movie is gorgeously filmed and wonderfully told, with a real old-school kind of feel that hearkens back to classic swashbuckling movies of decades ago. Excellent cast too, with recognizable faces even if you don’t watch a lot of foreign films, such as Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, and Vicky Krieps. I can’t wait to hunt down part 2, which will explore the devilish Milady, D’Artagnan’s nemesis. ★★★★½

Suncoast is one of those unassuming yet highly charged films that can surprise you. A semi-autobiographical film from writer/director Laura Chinn, it recounts her life over a few months in high school. Doris (Nico Parker, who looks very much like her mother Thandiwe Newton) is living with her single mother Kristine (Laura Linney) as they prepare for the upcoming death of Doris’s brother Nate. Nate has been suffering from brain cancer and is now in a vegetative state; the end is near, so the family is moving him to a local hospice care facility. For Kristine, her life has revolved around Nate for years, and she has ignored Doris for the most part. Doris is a quiet girl in school, to the point that even her classmates don’t know her, but with her mother sleeping in Nate’s hospital room at night and Doris having the house to herself, she starts hosting parties for her classmates, making her quickly very popular. The hospice facility should be a quiet, peaceful place, but outside the place is crawling with protestors, as the facility is also housing Terry Schiavo in her final days, a story which, if you remember, made headlines back in the early 2000’s as her husband battled Terry’s parents in years-long court battles over the right to remove her from life support. One of the activists out front is Paul (Woody Harrelson), a quietly religious man who offers Doris his perspective on life and death, after losing his wife several years ago. Doris has a lot of pent-up anger at her mother and even her brother, through no fault of his own obviously, for dominating her life for so long, and Kristine needs to learn how to advance her own life once Nate is gone. It’s a complex situation, with no easy answers, and the film doesn’t try to provide them. It’s a tearjerker, but surprisingly not too heavy-handed. Lovely film. ★★★★

Will is an absolutely ridiculous film (and it’s not even a comedy!) about a Dutch policeman trying to do his job (?) during German occupation in World War II. Will is part of a new police force whose only real job is to accompany German soldiers to provide some legitimacy to their actions. Will and his fellow policemen are told to watch but do nothing. Will cannot do that, not when a German soldier is getting ready to shoot a Jewish mother and her daughter in the street. Will fights back the German, killing him. Will and his parter Lode stuff the body under a manhole cover and try to pretend it never happened, but of course the German S.S. will have their investigation. Sound good so far? It quickly deteriorates from there, with over-the-top villains and a head-spinning about of intrigue between the Jewish people and their protectors, and the Germans and German sympathizers among the Dutch citizens. After awhile I lost track of what Will was even trying to do. To make matters worse, the film never can decide what it wants to be. Is it a historical action film? An art film? I don’t know, and neither does it. ★

I was thinking Next Goal Wins might be a less PG version of a Disney family sports film (a la Million Dollar Arm, Miracle, McFarland USA, etc). Notion quickly dispelled when it started and the first actor on screen was Taika Waititi, who, as it turns out, wrote and directed. So I shifted my expectations to a zany comedy with a sports background, and that’s just about what it turned out to be. Based on a true story, it stars the great Michael Fassbender as Thomas Rongen, a down-and-out American soccer coach who takes the last job on the planet in order to keep coaching: turning around the American Samoa national soccer team. After having recently lost to Australia 31-0, the worst loss in international history, the team has practically given up hope of ever winning a match. Rongen comes in and starts working magic, getting them to learn defense and offense, and, of course, it only really starts to work when they are able to blend his ideas with traditional American Samoan values. For my tastes, the comedy distracted from what could have been a really great story. The better Waititi films are the ones that are funny, but where the laughs enhance rather than take away from the film (Jojo Rabbit, Thor Ragnarok). I had plenty of chuckles watching this film, but was left wanting more heart from it. ★★½

• TV series recently watched: Class Act (series), For All Mankind (season 4)
• Book currently reading: The Butlerian Jihad by Herbert & Anderson

Up today is a quartet of Portuguese-language films, starting with Black Orpheus (technically a French-produced film with Marcel Camus in the director’s chair, but it was filmed in Brazil). A modern take on the classic legend Orpheus and Eurydice, it moves the setting from Greece to Rio de Janeiro, taking place during the hustle and bustle of Carnival. Eurydice is a beautiful young woman newly come to the area when she is smitten by trolly driver Orfeu. Orfeu is engaged to Mira, but does’t seem as pleased to be as he should. Eurydice and Orfeu begin to flirt, even as she keeps an eye out for a shadowy character (Death) who has followed her from her from her village, and Death says he will have her before long. When he finally catches her, by Orfeu’s unknowing hand no less, Orfeu is wracked with guilt and does not accept her demise. He follows her body to the hospital and goes through his own version of Hades, to find her soul and bring it back. People who know the legend know this will not end happily. The story is a classic for a reason and it is told well here, with gorgeous colors and the constant rhythm and dance of Carnival going on throughout. It does drag at times, where we see whole sections of the film devoted to the partiers and not the plot, but the story is worth it. ★★★

The final three films take place in Portugal, in Lisbon’s poor Fontainhas district (which has since been demolished). Directed by Pedro Costa, these films shine a line on the rundown area and the people who struggle to live there. First is Ossos, which has 4 main characters. Tina is a young mother (she looks not much more than a teenager) who has just given birth to a baby nobody wants. Tina is depressed and suicidal, and tries to kill herself and the baby in an early scene. Keeping Tina alive is her best friend Clotilde, a woman not much older herself, but who already has a toddler of her own. Tina’s baby daddy is never given a name (almost as if his poor excuse for an existence does’t deserve a name); he is a listless, uncaring, waste of a breath young man who continually tries to find someone who will buy his baby and get it off his hands. Thankfully one person he asks for money on the street is a nurse named Eduarda, who gets to know the trio of people and does her best to keep everyone going. The film does a great job of preventing Eduarda from becoming the savior role; the baby’s father will take any handout offered, but Tina and Clotilde will only accept the bare minimum needed to stay alive. This movie will test your patience, as there is little dialogue for most of its run. It seems like there’s nothing more than a few words spoken for the first hour or so, and the camera spends equal time on the characters as with the slums where they are living, but it all comes together in the end. I’m hoping there’s a little more movement in the next two films. ★★½

Hopes dashed. In Vanda’s Room is (I think) more of a documentary than a film, because there isn’t really a plot, it is just setting up a camera in the corner of the room and watching what happens. And you know what happens in the slums? People do lots of drugs, the predominant one being heroine. The eponymous Vanda is Vanda Duarte (the actress portraying Clotilde in the previous film, here as herself this time). She doesn’t do shit, other than lay around and do smack with her sister or anyone else that happens by their hovel – with no locked doors, that could be any homeless wanderer. The film also follows a trio of friends who live nearby, and whereas Vanda is still in the smoking stage, these guys have advanced to needles, and they discuss the pitfalls such a life has. While all this is going on, we also see scenes of the government coming in and evicting people and starting to tear down the neighborhood. In fact, the final scene in the film, a powerful one, shows Vanda lying nearly comatose as we hear a bulldozer, very near by, tearing down something. I’m surprised she made it that far though; with an hour left in the film, she had already wasted away to skin and bones and was coughing horribly, and I didn’t think Vanda would make it to the end. If the director is trying to get me to feel some sympathy for these “poor people,” he’s wasting his efforts on me. I can’t feel sorry for someone who can’t even do a household chore because they “need to shoot up first.” All everyone did in the movie was bitch about stuff they had to do when all they wanted to do was get high. ★½

Colossal Youth finally delivers the kind of film I’ve been hoping for. Ventura is an old man who will talk to just about anyone he comes across, calling many of them his “children” (and some return with a “Papa”). Some people engage with him, some ignore him entirely. Formerly living in the Fontainhas district, where nearly everyone has been relocated to a staid government-subsidized apartment building before they finish tearing down those slums, Ventura is having a hard time finding a new place of his own. He finds fault with every apartment he is shown, for either being too small for all his “children” or because it has an imaginary spider infestation. Vanda is still around, now married and with a toddler. She looks healthier than she did in the last movie, having put on some weight and claiming to be drug free for 2 years, but those years of drug abuse have taken their toll. She looks decades older than she did in the first film made just 9 years earlier, and she is always sick. As for Ventura, he has lucid moments where he’ll remember a long-dead son, but he often looks lost, wandering between the apartment buildings and his old stomping grounds in Fontainhas, visiting those few who still live there. But are there really any people still there? Took me awhile to figure it out, but it seems Ventura converses with ghosts more than he does with the living. Outstanding, poignant film that continually surprised me. ★★★★

• TV series recently watched: The Terminal List (season 1), Mr Robot (season 2), The Peripheral (series)
• Book currently reading: The Butlerian Jihad by Herbert & Anderson