After reviewing Criterion’s World Cinema Project sets one and two, today I’m back to look at their most recent release. Lucía, released in Cuba in 1968, tells the stories of three women who share the name, at 3 moments of political unrest in the country. It starts in 1895 during Cuba’s war of independence from Spain. Lucía meets Rafael, a man who purports to not be interested in the politics or the war, but he seems a bit too interested in Lucía’s family’s coffee plantation in the mountains, where freedom fighters, including Lucía’s brother, are based. The second segment takes place in the early 1930s, and Lucía and her mom are in the Florida Keys while the country is facing new unrest. There are uprisings in Havana against President Machado. In the keys, Lucía meets Aldo, a fighter recovering in a boathouse on her family’s land. He goes back to Cuba when he is well, and Lucía follows him there. When Machado is removed from power, Aldo is left wondering what they were fighting for. The final act takes us up the 1960s and the reformations under Castro’s communist government. This version of Lucía is newly married to Tomás, but finds that marriage is not what she expected. The conservative Tomás doesn’t want her to work, and is jealous if any men come around, so he forbids her to leave their house. As part Casto’s plans, all residents must learn to read and write, so a literacy teacher is sent to live with the newlyweds, which sends Tomás up the wall. All of the segments are united in the idea that the country comes first, above personal relationships, but it doesn’t come off as pure propaganda. I enjoyed the first part the most; the second segment felt a bit rushed, almost as if it could have been stretched out and made a whole movie on its own; the third was just OK. ★★★

After the Curfew, from 1958 in Indonesia, shows a man picking up the pieces of his life after his country has just gained their independence from the Dutch in 1949. Iskandar was a freedom fighter during the conflict and has been away for five years, just now returning to his fiancee Norma, and trying to pick up where he left off. He’s having a hard time doing so. After Norma has already waited five years, Iskandar is anxious to get a job so he has money to marry and support her, but he doesn’t seem suited to anything after the life of a soldier. First his soon-to-be father-in-law hires him, but Iskandar flames out on his first day. He then tries approaching his friends from combat, but they either don’t have anything for him right away, or are facing their own demons. Ultimately, after so many years of a soldier’s life, can Iskandar go back to a quiet existence? A good film, even if I think it borrows a little too hard from Hollywood noir, rather than try to find its own footing. ★★½

Pixote (out of Brazil) follows a young boy led down a life of crime. Pixote seems like a good kid hanging around the wrong crowd, and in the beginning of the film, he is rounded up with a bunch of street kids and sent to a juvenile hall. Inside, he starts his true descent, from the influence of both the older boys, and from the sadistic guards. The guards use the boys for sport, obviously on the down low, keeping it from the state inspectors when they come around. After a boy is killed and his gay boyfriend framed for the murder, Pixote and a couple of the others decide they’ve had enough, and escape. Life on the outside isn’t any better. They begin stealing, but are just scraping by. They try to run drugs, and are double crossed. In the end, Pixote ends up alone, having committed heinous crimes from which he will not be able to escape. The movie unfolds without a clear story; it proceeds in an almost documentary-like way and events just sort of happen along the way. Honestly for awhile I was wondering where all this was going, but the end did give us insight into Pixote’s soul, and it made it all the better. ★★★½

Dos monjes (Two Monks) is from the early sound film era, released in Mexico in 1934. The setting is a monastery, where Javier is sick and been lashing out verbally in his illness. The prior asks a new monk, Juan, to go and check on Javier, and when they see each other, Javier attacks him and beats him with a cross. The other monks are aghast at the sacrilege. Afterwards, Javier begs the prior to hear his story. He tells a tale of his younger days, when he fell in love with a woman, only to see her in a stolen moment with Juan, Javier’s supposed best friend. After he heals, Juan tells the prior his side of the story. He doesn’t deny his actions all those years ago, but definitely puts it in a different context. The movie was OK, but honestly the acting was terrible. It suffered from the same problem that a lot of early talkies did, in that the actors were carryovers from the silent era and were not well adapted to the new format. I couldn’t get past the acting either, even though the story was pretty good. ★★

Soleil Ô (Oh, Sun) was the first of these films today that I really enjoyed. The overarching plot is about an African immigrant from Mauritania who goes to Paris for better opportunities. However, all he is faced with is discrimination and hardship. An educated man, he tries to land several jobs in accounting, but often doesn’t make it past the front desk to an actual interviewer. After a couple days of rejections, he starts paying more attention to those around him, and starts noticing how other immigrants are facing problems too. Even what white friends he does make treat him in a condescending manner. Interspersed throughout are documentary-like interviews, and you can tell the director was heavily influenced by the French New Wave. Like a lot of films of the New Wave, the movie is a bit light on narrative, but gosh it goes along great, with a quick pace, biting commentary, and moments of sad humor (if that makes sense) as you can’t help but chuckle at the complete ignorance of the Parisians depicted in the movie. There’s a scene where a white woman is flirting with our main character (only because she’s heard about black men’s prowess in bed), and the stares the couple is receiving from passersby are ridiculous. And I had to think, were the streetwalkers actors or real citizens? With the film’s low budget and time, I almost have to think the latter. ★★★★

Downpour is another good one. It’s about a new teacher, Mr Hekmati, newly hired to a school in a poorer area. The film starts off on shaky ground (for my taste), with Mr Hekmati moving into his new place with all his worldly belongings on a cart, and the slapstick-ish humor that ensues on the busy street. I thought, “This is supposed to be great international cinema?” But 30 minutes in, once Mr Hekmati meets the beautiful older sister of one of his students, the movie takes off. Atefeh is the only working member of the family, trying to care for her younger brother. She’s supposed to marry the town butcher, one of the few wealthy members of the village, but he (Rahim) is a brute. When Rahim catches Mr Hekmati making eyes at Atefeh, he beats the teacher up. Mr Hekmati decides to toughen himself up and starts working out. Once he feels ready, he challenges Rahim, only to get his rear handed to him again. Afterwards, he tries his best to stay away from Atefeh, but the heart wants what it wants. The film is fun and endearing at the same time, but there’s also a lot of political innuendo, which I’m sure got the director in trouble in 1970s Iran. Atefeh is a working woman, and often goes around unveiled. There’s also a constant stream of spying: children and adults are always peaking in windows at our main characters as they go about their business, which I’m sure alludes to the government’s leaders watching their populace. Great movie, with an ending that some may find unsatisfying, but which I found perfectly fitting. ★★★★

• TV series currently watching: Star Trek Lower Decks (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Timeless by RA Salvatore

Here Today, written and directed by Billy Crystal, stars himself as Charlie Burns, an aging, legend comedic writer, who is starting to struggle with dementia. He lives alone after his wife died long ago, and he has a strained relationship with his two adult kids. Charlie finds an unlikely friend in Emma (Tiffany Haddish) when they randomly meet one day. Though of different generations and with different tastes in life, they hit it off and an improbable friendship ensues. Though Charlie hasn’t told anyone about his condition, Emma is the first to see it for what it is, and takes it upon herself to be there for him, as he has to step away from work and is approaching needing a caregiver. The movie tends towards the cliche, and while few would ever say Crystal is an amazing actor, he is (in my eyes) a comedy star, and his delivery is still as good today as it ever was. The comedy is the best part of this film, with Crystal and Haddish two stars that know how tell a joke. The drama of the film is what it is: not stellar, but jut enough to pass the time. ★★½

Dream Horse is exactly what I expected, and that’s not a good thing. It is the based-on-a-true story about a small town which pools its finances to breed and train a race horse. Led by a former pigeon breeder and a man who had some experience in horse ownership syndicates, the group of men and women, from a down-and-out town where people have been struggling just to make ends meet, are able to achieve glory and raise everyone’s spirits when Dream Alliance goes on to beat all expectations. Despite a couple well-known names (Toni Collette and Damian Lewis) and a few other recognizable faces, the film is overly sappy and entirely predictable. Not nearly as good as some other horse films like Hidalgo or Seabiscuit. ★½

Ed Helms and Patti Harrison play Matt and Anna, two people at two different points in their life. Matt is in his mid-40s, successful in business but single in his personal life, after a previous long relationship fizzled. But he wants to have a baby before he gets too old, so he has interviewed women to become a surrogate for him, and has chosen Anna. Anna is in her mid-20s, also single, after having been dumped by her latest boyfriend. She’s smart, but got pregnant in high school, which prevented her from going on to college. She gave that baby up for adoption, and is now hoping to use Matt’s surrogate money to get her life back on track. This unlikely duo form a strong friendship over the 9 months of the pregnancy, and while not a traditional couple, they are in it together, just not “together together.” Quirky funny movie with heart, and a heartwarming story that I thoroughly liked. Ed Helms is able to tone down his goofiness just enough to pull it off, and Patti Harrison, whom I was previously unfamiliar with, is charming as Anna. ★★★★

Slalom is a French film about a 15-year-old girl, Lyz, with dreams of skiing in the Olympics. She’s convinced her single mother to send her to a private school with a celebrated skiing coach on staff. Fred has a reputation for being extremely hard on his athletes, but he’s supposed to be one of the best. Perhaps seeing something in her, Fred does push Lyz hard. She is berated for being out of shape, not fast enough, not dedicated enough, etc. But she also gets better. Things are going well until one night, when the two are alone, Fred makes a sexual advance. The young and impressional Lyz, who has little sexual experience, becomes infatuated with her teacher. As their relationship progresses, she continues to win competitions. The clandestine relationship doesn’t even stop when other students begin to notice. Noée Abita is incredible as the teenage Lyz (she’s in her early 20’s), but it goes without saying: this film is extremely hard to watch. And I can’t shake the feeling that, while it purports to empower Lyz’s voice, the movie feels exploitive, latching onto the Me Too movement to grab critics’ attention. ★★

Cousins is a beautiful, remarkable film out of New Zealand, taking a rare look at the indigenous Maori people. It begins with a look at Mata, a homeless woman suffering from mental illness. We don’t know who she is yet, but as the movie progresses, we learn about how she got to where she is, and the family who is still searching for her. Her cousins are Missy and Makareta. Missy stayed on their ancestral lands and raised a sprawling family of her own, while Makareta is a lawyer in the present, fighting the New Zealand government for the rights to said lands. The movie is told over several timelines: the present, described above; as well as when the cousins were close as kids; and also when they were teenagers, and how Mata became separated from the other two. The story unfolds as a bit of a mystery, as we know from the beginning that Mata is struggling on her own in the present and want to know why, but what makes this such a memorable film is how it is told. It takes its time, and develops in a lyrical, almost poetic way. It leans heavily on the Maori culture and its familial ties, as well as their love of the land their ancestors have always lived on. One of the best movies I’ve seen in quite some time. ★★★★★

• TV series currently watching: Raised by Wolves (season 1)
• Book currently reading: Timeless by RA Salvatore

A Quiet Place Part II follows up from the wildly successful film from a couple years ago. It begins with a flashback, to “Day 1,” that is, the day the aliens came to Earth and started killing everyone. That first 15 minutes left my heart pounding, and thankfully it settles down just a bit for a little while afterwards; I’m not sure the old ticker could have taken it otherwise. With her husband dead and the farm in tatters at the end of the first movie, Evelyn and her three children (two kids and a baby) head off to find a new place to live. They are armed with the secret of how to kill the monsters, but they are still very much alone. They are able to stumble upon an old friend of Evelyn’s husband, Emmett, who is himself alone now after his kid and wife have died. The group of them end up separated through various means, and the rest of the film is the heart-stopping adventures they have before the end. It is all very exciting, but I couldn’t help but think it has the feel of “been there, done that.” The first movie was so fresh and different, and while this one is certainly good (I know, I’m making it sound like it isn’t), it isn’t *as* good. I looked up my rating on the first, 4 1/2 according to my letterboxd, so I’m going with 4 here. ★★★★

Recently read the book (and the first sequel, with more to follow), and with a new film version on the horizon, I thought I should revisit the heavily reviled Dune from 1984, directed by David Lynch. I saw this movie as a kid in the late 80s, at a time when I thought nothing was better than Star Wars and was big into anything sci-fi, and while I didn’t remember much, I remember hating it. But I really liked the book when I read it back in February, and wanted to give the movie another chance. I’m glad I did. The story of Paul Atreides and his prophesied rise to God-like status over the desert world of Arrakis, this movie has Lynch’s strange, otherworldly fingerprints all over it. I can see why die-hard fans of the novel might not like it, as there are plenty of changes. To give Lynch a pass, you have to admit that the book is nearly impossible to show on screen the way it is written, with so much internal dialogue driving the story (Lynch chooses to give us the thoughts through whispered narration, which is weird at first but I got used to it). While I’ll wait to see how the new movie handles it, I can’t say this wasn’t done horribly. While I did like the book, I’m not a super fan, and the changes made didn’t bother me all that much. How else do you fit a long, complex book into a 2 hour movie? A cast chuck full of recognizable names from the 80s and today helps for sure. And the look and feel of the picture is definitely alien. I really liked it. Not cinematic perfection by any measure, but it is enjoyable and definitely better than all the hate it received when it came out. ★★★½

The opening scene of The Killing of Two Lovers has a man, with a gun, standing over a bed with two sleeping adults, and the viewer thinks, “Oh man! The title is going down right now!” It doesn’t, as the man puts the gun away and flees the house, running a couple blocks down to his own house, where he is living with his aging father. The man is David, and his story unfolds as the movie goes along. We learn that the couple in bed was David’s wife, Nikki, and her new boyfriend, a man she has not told David about. David and Nikki are on a trial separation, and while David has been led to believe that they can work things out and get back together, both for their previous love and for the well being of their 4 kids (which David obviously cherishes, and is a good father), you get the feeling that Nikki isn’t as willing as David to make things work. The film is a quiet portrayal of a marriage on the rocks, with many of their spats going down in public in their tiny rural town, where everyone knows everyone’s business. The suspenseful scenes, like the one that kicked off the film, happen here and there, and when they come, they hit the viewer just as hard as any action film could. Really nicely done indie film with wonderfully subtle camerawork. New writer/director Robert Machoian has a good eye for setting up long steady shots and letting the actors flow in and around the scenes, with the camera being merely a spectator. I liked this one a lot. ★★★★

The Green Knight is a new take on the old (14th century) tale, with actor Dev Patel in the role of Sir Gawain. I have some knowledge of this story, having read Tolkien’s version many years ago, and I was excited to see it on screen. Gawain is the son of King Arthur’s sister Morgan le Fay, and has dreams of joining the round table with the other knights of Arthur’s court. When a mysterious Green Knight comes to the hall and asks for anyone to challenge him, Gawain jumps at the chance to prove himself. The Green Knight promises to give Gawain the opportunity to hit him without retaliation, but that in a year, Gawain must meet him at the Green Chapel for the Green Knight to return the hit in kind. Thinking he has a clear victory, Gawain beheads the Green Knight. To his chagrin, the Green Knight rises, picks up his own head, and reminds Gawain to meet him in a year. The film of course jumps over that year, and the rest of the movie is about the journey Gawain takes to his supposed death. His travels are the stuff of myth and legend, full of dreamlike encounters and fantastical adventures. As such, the movie is a bit out there. There are moments that I found spell-binding, and others that dragged on a little too long for my taste. Overall, I did enjoy it, but I suspect the average moviegoer would be bored out of their mind. It’s a very esoteric, thoughtful picture. ★★★

The Suicide Squad is the latest DC film in their (continued? Seems like they don’t even know anymore) universe. It is a standalone film, semi-related to the first Suicide Squad film, in that it has a few of the same characters/actors, but has a new director at the helm in James Gunn. The move was the right one, as he righted this ship. After very quickly rehashing the concept of a super team of villains and crooks brought together to do good, or else the government explodes a micro-bomb implanted in their brains, the bad guys head out. Their mission is to infiltrate the South American nation of Corto Maltese in order to destroy the site of some top-secret experiments, now under some bad control after a military coup in the country. The team is made up of one military hero, Colonel Rick Flag, who is there to keep an eye on the baddies: Harley Quinn, Blackguard, TDK, Javelin, Cpt Boomerang, Weasel, Savant, and Mongal. They get to the beach and are immediately attacked by an awaiting force. Lots of blood and death later, where it doesn’t go good for our anti-heroes, we see that there is a second team who arrive to a different beach down the coast. The first being just a distraction, this second team is made up of Bloodsport, Peacemaker, King Shark, Polka-dot man, and Ratcatcher 2. With the first team taking all of the attention, the second group is able to infiltrate the nation and continue the mission. This movie is a riot. Heavy on the not-for-family laughs, with the gore way over the top, I laughed throughout and enjoyed the story too, even if it is a bit expected. After almost being cancelled, Gunn is back on track, and this film is fun even if you don’t know anything about superheroes/supervillains or any of the other previous DC films. ★★★★½

• TV series currently watching: Star Wars The Clone Wars (season 5)
• Book currently reading: One Rainy Day in May by Mark Z Danielewski

Percy (aka Percy vs Goliath) is about as dry of a film as they come. Based on a true story, it is about a farmer named Percy Schmeiser who is targeted by Monsanto for growing genetically enhanced canola on his farm. A third generation farmer, Percy saved his seed every year for the next season. In 1997, some seed blew onto his farm, either from wind or a mistake by a neighbor, and the canola that grew from it was resistant to Monsantos Roundup weedkiller. Percy was unaware of the enhanced nature of the crop, and just counted his blessings that it was growing so well, and used the proceeds again the next year. Monsanto however did catch wind of it, and sued him for patent infringement, though it seemed that Percy didn’t purposefully circumvent them. Percy hired a small-town lawyer to represent him, and he gets backing from groups fighting Monsanto and its genetically enhanced (GMO) crops. Doesn’t do much good, as Percy keeps losing, but he continues battling all the way to the Supreme Court. This film suffers from the same fate that too many factual movies do: heavy on facts, light on drama, and the acting is very wooden. Christopher Walken plays Percy, the lawyer is Zach Braff, and Christina Ricci is the environmental advocate, and none of them are any good in this picture. They all deliver dialogue like they are reading a section in high school lit class. ★½

Undergods is a very interesting film, and one where style maybe exceeds the other aspects of the movie. A not-quite-anthology film, as the various stories inside it are, for the most part, peripherally related. The film starts with a couple goofy characters driving a dilapidated truck through a bleak, dystopian city landscape, picking up the occasional dead body off the road, while other dead-eyed pedestrians mope around. As we see later, these two are much alike the “bring out your dead” duo from Monty Python fame, as they aren’t too concerned with how dead their passengers are. We get a bit of the story of these two, as well as other tales told by them: a married couple living in a high-rise all by themselves, until a visiter wrestles himself into the wife’s bed; a double cross by an inventor to a greedy businessman; and a new couple who find that the wife’s first husband, missing for many years, has suddenly reappeared in the house, but yet won’t say a word, just staring off into space, while the house goes nuts around him. The storytelling is a bit uneven, but through it all is a sense of the modern world going to shit, almost as if the buildings themselves are crumbling as fast as the minds of the people that live in them. It is a dreamy, nightmarish movie with an almost Twilight Zone kind of feel, and if you are into dystopian films (like me), you’ll probably find enough to enjoy. ★★★½

There Is No Evil is also an anthology film, this one out of Iran. There are four different tales dealing with the current death penalty there. In the first, we are introduced to a good man, who is a loving husband and wife. He works hard at a long unknown job, picks up the family, and then goes to his aging mom’s apartment to care for her. Arriving home late at night, he squeezes in a few hours of sleep before getting up early to do it all again. This time, we see his job, and it is built for anything but a nice guy. The second story follows a young man completing his 2 year compulsory military service. He’s been assigned to execution detail, but is looking for a way out, as he can’t bring himself to kill a man. The third tale is also about a man finishing his required military duty. He’s on a 3 day leave, and plans to use it to propose to his long-time girlfriend. He finds her family in mourning, for a family friend who’s been killed by the police as a political dissenter. Unfortunately for our young man, he has ties with the recently deceased. The final episode is about a college girl returning to Iran from either Europe or USA, where her father has been raising her and she’s getting ready to follow his steps to med school. She’s in Iran to visit her uncle, but he has a secret that he’s kept from her all these years, and it may change her life. Though not a thriller, there’s a lot of suspense in all four stories, with tight moods set by the music and pace of the camera, and the for the most part, the film is solid (though the last segment was definitely the weakest). Director Mohammad Rasoulof has faced plenty of criticism in his home country. He’s been arrested several times for his movies, for their stances against the government. This particular movie was filmed in secret and has been banned in Iran, landing Rasoulof in yet more trouble. ★★★

True Mothers, out of Japan, is about a couple and their adoption of a young boy. The movie begins with the boy, Asato, in Kindergarten, getting in trouble for supposedly pushing another kid on the playground. We then get a flashback to when his parents, Satoko and Kiyokazu, were struggling to have a child. They turn to adoption, and a program called Baby Baton, which unites young women who cannot care for a child, with established couples who have the means to do so. Back to the present, the married couple are visited by a young woman claiming to be Asato’s birth mother, Hikari, and while it has been 5 years, the couple doesn’t recognize her and refuses to believe her. The next flashback tells us Hikari’s story. Pregnant at 14, she wanted to keep her baby, but her parents refused and sent her to Baby Baton, a secluded resort-like house with other teens like herself, where girls can have babies in secret before resuming their lives. After a quick scene in the present again, we continue Hikari’s life after the adoption, where she finally runs away from home and returns to Baby Baton in hopes of helping girls like herself. Later, she gets a job, trying to put together a life without the baby she misses. The movie is thoughtful and heartfelt, but a bit too slow, even for my patient senses, and isn’t as deep as I think the filmmakers hoped it’d be. ★★

You Will Die at Twenty, out of the country of Sudan, presents a very interesting premise. Muzamil has just been born, and his parents take him to the local sheik for a blessing. Unfortunately at the ceremony, the sheik interprets the death of a performer as an omen that Muzamil will die at the age of 20. Unable to cope with the fear of death in the house, Muzamil’s father, Alnour, abandons the family and goes to work in other lands, promising to send money back home (which he does). Muzamil is thus raised by his mother, Sakina, alone. Fear of losing her son leads her to be extremely protective of him; Muzamil does not get to go and play with others his age, and grows up in secluded house. Finally as a teen, he is at last sent to school after the teacher/village religious leader implores Sakina to let him learn the Quran (“school” isn’t what we traditionally think of, it is mostly memorizing the Quran and doesn’t teach math or geography or other “worldly” things). In this sheltered life, Muzamil finally gets glimpses of the world outside his village when he meets Sulaiman. Sulaiman comes from the area, but spent his life traveling the world around. He drinks, sleeps with a woman not his wife, and leads what the others in the village consider an evil, immoral life. But he is the only person to encourage Muzamil to live his life, rather than only focus on his death, as the others in his life do. ★★★½

• TV series currently watching: Loki (season 1)
• Book currently reading: One Rainy Day in May by Mark Z Danielewski

The heralded Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai has been on my radar for awhile, and I’m excited to finally check off most of his films thanks to the excellent, recently released Criterion set. His first picture was As Tears Go By, released in 1988. It follows a small-time mob enforcer named Wah, who exudes cool in his every mannerism. In the hierarchal system, Wah is a mid-level “big brother” to Fly, who has none of Wah’s skills or charisma, but he dreams of being a big shot. However, Fly can’t help but always get into trouble with other members in the gang, and while higher ups would frown on Fly being killed, that doesn’t stop him from getting beat up a lot. Wah is always there to rescue him though, that is, until Wah falls for a woman. Ngor is a distant relative who comes to stay with Wah for a short time so she can see a local doctor, and Wah is smitten right away. When she returns home, Wah tries to go back to his life on the streets, but misses her too much. He finally goes to Ngor to resume their relationship, but is called back when Fly gets in over his head once again. Who he ends up with is the big climax in the film. This movie has some great scenes and some beautiful, colorful camerawork, so there are, I think, glimpses of what is to come, but it comes off as a rather forgettable 80s Hong Kong action film. But everyone starts somewhere! ★★½

Days of Being Wild followed in 1990. Taking place in the 60s, there are a few main characters, but they all revolve around Yuddy, an aimless 20-something with serious attachment issues. He woos women, sleeps with them for a time, and then discards them. The first of these in the film is Li-zhen. She sees through Yuddy’s nature from the start but can’t resist him when he turns on the charm. When his appeal fades, Li-zhen leaves him, but misses him terribly afterwards. While she is moping around, Yuddy is already onto the next girl, a dancer named Mimi. She falls for him hard too, but unlike Li-zhen, Mimi is unable to walk away on her own when Yuddy drops the flirtatious act, and demeans herself to keep him in her life. You think through all of this that Yuddy is just a bad dude, but we learn later that his attachment issues stem from being abandoned by his birth mother, and being raised by a fairly careless adoptive mother, a former prostitute. Lots of good stuff to unwrap here, and all of it is shot amazingly well. The colors pop, the smoke seems to waft through the screen, and the sweat pouring from the actors, with fans blowing in a failed attempt to stave off the humidity, all create vivid moments that permeate every scene. ★★★½

The flashes of brilliance in the first two films come to the fore in Chungking Express. A movie of two parts, the first half follows a police officer who’s just been dumped by his longtime girlfriend. He mopes around, missing her, but is drawn to a woman wearing a bright blonde wig and sunglasses, even inside (because it’s always sunny in the land of cool?). Little does the cop know that she’s been putting together a drug smuggling operation, but her mules escaped out on her with the goods, leaving her in tons of trouble with her higher-ups. The second part of the film focuses on another cop, and he’s been dumped too. He’s also taking it rough, wallowing in his dreary, dirty apartment when he isn’t working. While on his beat, he visits a food stand every day, and has caught the eye of a young worker there, Faye. One day the food stand is given a letter for the cop from his ex-girlfriend, returning the keys to his apartment. Faye holds on to them, and starts visiting his apartment while he’s working. She cleans it up, replacing tattered towels and sheets with new ones. In his depressed haze, the cop doesn’t immediately see the changes that come, but his mood does improve. A dazzling film with beautiful characters, gorgeously shot scenes, and a fun soundtrack of pop hits from several eras. There’s deeper meaning here too, like the first cop’s obsession with buying canned pineapple that expires on May 1. Ostensibly because his ex liked pineapple, it is hard not to see the correlation with the impending handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, and the sense of foreboding that is coming with it. Just about the perfect movie, it’s fun, funny, romantic, suspenseful, and engaging from beginning to end. ★★★★★

There are many films where you are having a great viewing experience until a letdown in the end (cough, Come True), but rarely does it happen the other way around. I was not into Fallen Angels for a good portion of the movie, in fact, until nearly the final minutes. It’s not that it’s a bad movie by any stretch. I liken it a bit to Chungking Express on LSD. Again, two seemingly unrelated stories (though a bit more tied together than the previous film), but this time, we are heavier on art (big time visual splendor from start to finish) and lighter on plot. In the first half, a hitman and his partner plan and execute (see what I did there?) attacks on underground gambling rings. The girl partner wants more than a professional relationship, but the man is all business with her. In the second half, a seemingly crazy, mute man, on the run from the police, tries different trades as a form of business, but has a hard time taking “no” for an answer. He forces a family to eat ice cream all night in his ice cream van, forcibly cuts the hair and shaves a man who only wanted a little off the top, etc. The man has an on-again, off-again relationship with a bizarre woman, who he enjoys consoling when she needs a good cry. This film is a crazy, chaotic blur, with a lot of funny moments, but for much of the picture, I felt there was too much going on for me to keep track of everything. But then the denouement came, and it tied it all together beautifully. I was in the 2 star range until the last minutes, and then suddenly I wanted to start back at the beginning and watch it all again! ★★★★

Some criticisms of Wong’s films were that they were “too pretty” and viewers forgave some things due to visual spectacularity of it all. Maybe to thumb his nose at those detractors, Happy Together starts in black and white, and even then, it is still beautiful. It is about a gay couple who are in a perpetual circle of breaking up and getting back together (haven’t we all had one of those?). Ho Po-Wing is all emotion and definitely the more unstable of the couple, while Lai Yiu-Fai is more composed and analytical. In their most recent attempt to “start over,” they’ve tried for a new locale; they’ve moved from Hong Kong to Argentina. They’ve barely arrived there when they break up again, and some time later, they are each stuck in Buenos Aires with no money to return home. Yiu-Fai is working at a crappy job, and Po-Wing has become a prostitute of sorts, hanging with older men in exchange for money and favors. One of these men beats him up pretty badly one night, and Yiu-Fai feels sorry for him, allowing him back into his life while he recovers. But once Wo-Ping is better, he goes back to his violent behaviors. Yiu-Fai has to make his own decision on where his life will take him, and if he has the courage to finally leave Wo-Ping for good. On its own merits, I think the movie is just ok. Certainly not bad, but I don’t think it left a lasting impression on me. However, as a commentary on the upcoming reunion of China and Hong Kong (the movie was released in May 1997, just weeks before the June handover), it is much more important. Are we talking about a couple being happy together, or “one country, two systems”? My rating is based on the film itself, but you can spend a lot of time analyzing various aspects of it and thinking about the bigger picture going on politically. ★★★

In the Mood for Love is a love story, or at least, Wong’s version of a love story, and a semi-sequel to Days of Being Wild. Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen (Yuddy’s first girlfriend in the above film) separately move into adjoining apartments on the same day. Their respective spouses are rarely home: Mrs Chow works late hours at her job, and Mr Su is often out of town on business. As such, each is often alone in their apartments at night, and pass each other on the way to the local noodle stand for dinner. After a time, Mo-wan invites Li-zhen to dinner. You would think this is the start of an affair, and in a way it is, but it comes out of an unlikely event. At dinner, the duo share with each other that they, each, have come to the realization that their spouses are having an affair with each other. Mo-wan and Li-zhen then begin spending more time with each, at first as a support system over this shared hurt, and later, as something more, as they develop feelings for each other as well. However, in typical Wong fashion, much of their relationship remains enigmatic to the viewer. We don’t know how far they go physically, and the ending doesn’t provide much satisfaction, at least, not one if you are looking for a happy life for all involved. In ends as real life often does, without tidy conclusions. I love this picture. It is true heartfelt love story, achingly so, and mesmerizing from the opening moments. For a long while, the film has a bit of a chaotic feeling with very quick scenes and lots of dialogue, and before you know it, half the movie is over. But I think all those little moments give the viewer an in-depth look at our two main characters. Also really enjoyed how we never see their spouses. When they are in the scene, we only see the backs of their heads, or they are talking from off camera. The focus is always on Mo-wan and Li-zhen and that’s always the centerpiece for the viewer. ★★★★½

2046 is more of a direct sequel to In the Mood for Love, so there will be some spoilers here for the previous film. At first, you don’t realize it is a sequel, because it starts in the year 2046. A voiceover tells you that people go to 2046 to find lost loved ones, and no one ever returns. No one except the person speaking. We soon learn that the whole concept of 2046 is actually a science fiction novel written by Mo-wan. After being unable to hook up with Li-zhen at the end of the previous film, he’s pretty much given up on love, and lives life as a playboy, bouncing from girl to girl. One girl he takes home one night is Lulu, who happens to be one and the same as Mimi from Days of Being Wild. When she’s sleeping, Mo-wan finds her apartment key, apartment # 2046, which is the same one he and Li-zhen had rented during their affair. He goes to the building and ends up moving in next door, to # 2047. As the movie progresses, he spies in on the various people who live in # 2046, the latest being a prostitute named Bai Ling. Mo-wan woos her to start a regular affair, but when Ling starts to really fall in love with him, he dumps her. In various spots in the film, we see the shape of 2046 in Mo-wan’s head, including his alter-ego as he searches for someone to love him and leave 2046 with him. All of the references to the coldness of 2046, a place that people can’t escape, reference again the relations between Hong Kong and China. As 1997 approached, Wong made movies about the impending sense of trepidation. 2046 is the final year of the current 50 year “experiment” of one country, two systems. Once again, the citizens will, rightly, have some apprehension as that year approaches. Without the context of the previous films in this trilogy, 2046 is still a solid movie on its own merits. Factoring in those movies, this becomes pure perfection. ★★★★★

• TV series currently watching: The Handmaid’s Tale (season 4)
• Book currently reading: The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks

I’ve been watching the Marvel movies in this series since the beginning, a big die-hard fan, and this is the first time in awhile that I’ve felt a bit let down. Black Widow takes place before after Captain America: Civil War, when Natasha Romanov is in hiding due the Sokovia Accords. She receives a package from her long-lost “sister” (fellow spy, long story), Yelena Belova, with a serum which negates the mind controlling effects of the program that trained both Natasha and Yelena as children. Natasha thought the kingpin of the program, Dreykov, has been long dead, but learns that he survived her attack on him many years ago. With help from former Soviet spies Alexei Shostakov (Russia’s super soldier to counter the USA’s Captain America) and Melina Vostokoff, who raised Natasha and Yelena when they were a fake family in America in the 90s, the team goes after Dreykov to stop his awful experiments on girls and finally end his program. Lots of action, which doesn’t disappoint, but there are some gaping holes in the plot, and I couldn’t get away from some really terrible deus ex machina events. Still, it’s good that Scarlett Johansson finally got her movie (all the other boys did long ago), and with her character dead in the current timeline, I think the Black Widow character is in good hands should Marvel have Yelena (the fantastic Florence Pugh, from Fighting with My Family and Midsommar) carry it forward. ★★★½

Moffie is about a young man, Nicholas, who has to join the army in compulsory service in the early 1980s in South Africa. The nation, under apartheid segregation and going into a war with the neighboring communist country of Angola, is having all men 16 and older serve 2 years in the military. Nicholas is of English descent, but that doesn’t make him exempt. As an added complication, Nicholas is gay, a fact he guards from even his family, as homosexually is illegal in South Africa. Most of the movie is about Nicholas’s experiences in boot camp, training for battle. The new recruits are demeaned and treated horribly by their superiors, in acts I consider far over the line of “toughening them up.” Hard to watch, but that’s really all this film brings to the table. Outside of a secret kiss Nicholas shares with a fellow soldier one night, and a flashback to when he was caught peaking at other boys in the showers of a public pool when he was a teen, the movie doesn’t delve at all into the inner turmoil Nicholas is going through. As such, the movie is more a war of attrition for the viewer to get through, than any kind of enjoyable experience. ★★

I used to make jokes about comedic films geared towards grandparents, but having recently become a grandpa myself, I guess I need to think of a new analogy. Whatever it will be, The Paper Tigers is one of those movies. Full of lame humor that only my grandma would laugh at, it is about 3 friends who studied kung fu as kids and teens, under the tutelage of a master who was strict yet loving with them. The trio were the shit in their neighborhood as kids, but gave up kung fu years ago and now, 30 years later, both their bodies and their minds have gotten soft. However, they come together again to investigate the murder of their former master. There’s a few chuckles to be had as they pull muscles and try to hold onto their toupees against younger, fitter opponents, but on a whole, the movie is only mildly entertaining. I watched it through just to see how it ended. ★★

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit is a wonderful family movie based on the book of the same name, a semi-autobiographical children’s book, by Judith Kerr. In the movie, the Kempers are a non-practicing Jewish family living in Berlin in the early 1930s. The father, Arthur, is a journalist and theater critic, and he’s been very outspoken against Hitler and his rise to power. With elections approaching where it is looking increasingly like Hitler’s party will gain control of the government, Arthur and wis wife Dorothea decide it is time to leave Germany. They take their kids, Anna and Max, and flee to Switzerland. Unfortunately once there, Arthur is unable to get work, as the country is hesitant to support a man who has been so vocal against Hitler, since they wish to remain neutral. After a short time there, the Kemper family settles in Paris. Anna and Max do not speak the language, and money continues to get more and more tight. Through all of their struggles though, Arthur and Dorothea try to keep the kids’ spirits high. They know they are poor now, but Anna tries to treat the whole thing as an adventure. The book was groundbreaking in its depiction of emigrants/refugees fleeing Germany before World War II, all from a child’s (Anna’s) viewpoint, and has been a huge success since first published in 1971. The movie is moving in its childlike view of the wide world during a harsh period, and you can’t help but root for the delightful Anna and her family. Very lovely family film (if your kids can handle reading the German subtitles). ★★★½

Sublet is about an American journalist, Michael, who is visiting Tel Aviv to write a story for the New York Times. He sublets an apartment there for his 5 day trip, and meets Tomer, a student who is renting out the apartment because he needs the money. Michael is an older gay man, in a longterm relationship back home, but you get the impression that his relationship is on the rocks (the cause of which is explained later). Tomer is also gay, but much younger, and the gap in years leads to a much different outlook on life. For example, when Tomer’s friend talks about moving to Berlin, Michael scoffs, wondering how they could live in country where so many atrocities happened to their people (Jews). Tomer laughs that off as ancient history, and says Berlin is the happening place for the young generation. Tomer also teases Michael for being in a committed relationship when there are so many other partners and experiences out there to enjoy. The movie isn’t just a big condescension on older people though; by the end Tomer can learn a two or thing from a man who’s already lived through the ups and downs of life. Nice enough movie, even if it’s been done before. This movie doesn’t break any new ground, but it’s a good reminder to enjoy life as it comes. ★★★

Charulata (aka The Lonely Wife) brings back Madhabi Mukherjee, who I loved in Ray’s The Big City and Coward. She plays Charu, the wife of a wealthy newspaper publisher named Bhupati. Bhupati’s biggest love is his paper, leaving Charu to languish at home, bored out of her mind. Knowing he has neglected her, Bhupati invites family to come stay with them, in hopes of cheering Charu up. His brother, with his vapid wife, do nothing to liven the intelligent and thoughtful Charu, but she does take an instant liking to Bhupati’s younger cousin Amal. Amal is much closer in age to the young and beautiful Charu than her older husband, and he’s also into the arts, wanting to become a writer, especially of poetry. Charu also enjoys writing, and a bond develops between these two. The big twist in this film, and there is one, doesn’t come from the leads, but out of left field. The ending is not what you’d expect, but in a good way. Wonderful film, with a shining Mukherjee again in the lead. ★★★★½

Nayak (The Hero) is about a famous actor, Arindam, who must take a passenger train overnight to Delhi. Instantly recognizable, the people on the train treat him with everything from reverence (his fans) to contempt (an older man, due to Arindam’s drinking and loose lifestyle). Arindam takes it all with an air of confidence, and while pleasant to others, he does come off a bit egotistic. He meets his match in a young woman named Aditi, an editor for a modern women’s magazine. Aditi isn’t star-crossed, in fact, she seems to have a very slight opinion of Arindam’s career and lifestyle, but she does see an opportunity for an interview to help boost her magazine’s readership. At first, Arindam tries to give the stock responses to her questions, but Aditi digs for more, wanting more than just the kind of fluff interview Arindam has already given a million times. Through the course of the film, told in flashbacks and even a couple dreams, we learn about Arindam’s upbringing and what makes him tick, and that Arindam’s cockiness is really just a front. He fears failure as much as the next guy, maybe even more so, knowing that 3 film flops in a row would kill his career for good. Arindam survives intense anxiety by drinking, and puts on a facade whenever he’s in the public eye, which is nearly always. Though it doesn’t start out as such, by the end, it comes together as a heartfelt film, exactly what you’d expect from Ray, who seems so good and looking at the inner workings of humanity. ★★★★

Ghare Baire (The Home and the World) takes a look at the chaotic times in India in the early 20th century. The main focus of the film is Bimala, the beautiful bride of a local maharaja, Nickilesh. There’s been a brewing animosity between Hindu and Muslim Indians, and Nickilesh has been resistant to calls for boycotting foreign imports in favor of buying goods made in India. He does this in order to look out for the poor people who live on this land, mostly Muslims and the targets of racism by the Hindu Indians; Nickilesh knows that the imports from neighboring countries are cheaper than the homegrown equivalents, and the poor cannot afford to make that change. Nickilesh is being persuaded to change his views by an old friend, Sandip. Sandip is a vocal leader of the boycotters, called the Swadeshi movement. Against this backdrop comes Bimala. Bimala is a traditional woman, and in fact, since her marriage to Nickilesh, she has not left the inner apartments of their compound. She was married to him as a girl, and except for some servants, she has never even seen another man. Nickilesh is forward thinking, and pays to have Bimala taught by an English tutor, learning piano and western singing, etc. He coaxes her out into the world, and introduces her to Sandip. Big mistake. Bimala is swept off her feet by the charismatic Sandip, to potentially devastating effect before the end. As far as I can recall, this was the first color film of Ray’s that I’d seen, and I think his black and white pictures show better. The coloring is nice, but Ray’s stark black and white films really pop in my experience. That aside, the story is nice, though not unexpected, and I did enjoy the knot Nickilesh puts himself in. He wants to keep Bimala to himself, but knows that she must come to him on her own terms for her to truly choose him over Sandip. ★★★½

Ganashatru (An Enemy of the People) is the first real dud that I’ve seen from this director. It is about a doctor, Ashok Gupta, who finds that water being drawn in a populated area of the town of Chandipur is contaminated, leading to a rise in cases of jaundice among its inhabitants. He is able to narrow it down to water being drunk at the holy temple in town, which happens to be the town’s biggest attraction. The solution is to dig up the pipes under the temple and replace them, but the temple is not too old, and Gupta faces opposition from the local politicians, lead by none other that Gupta’s younger brother, who was a driving force in getting the temple built. The brother and others start a crusade to paint Gupta as anti-religious, and start to turn the townspeople against him. The whole thing is really nothing more than a bad tv movie. It’s a very simple plot, full of soap-opera like long takes and overly dramatic behaviors and exclamations. It’s hard to see any of Ray’s touch in this movie. Everyone has a bad day here and there. ★½

Agantuk (The Stranger) was Ray’s last film, released in 1991, a year before his death, and a more fitting final film there couldn’t be. A well-off family in Calcutta receives a letter from a man claiming to be Anila’s long-lost uncle. The uncle, Manomohan, left the family 35 years ago when Anila was just a small girl, and he never returned. The letter states that he is coming back, and Anila and her husband, Sudhindra, have to wonder why, after all this time. When Manomohan arrives, he regales the family with tales of his adventures, traveling the world and seeing sites and cultures all over. Sudhindra and Anila’s son, Satyaki, is particularly enamored with stories of the tribes of Africa and South America. Anila wants to believe that Manomohan is who he says he is, but Sudhindra is dubious. The family invites friends over to grill Manomohan over his stories, but the man is extremely intelligent and passes with flying colors. The “why” of his sudden arrival becomes clear when Anila realizes that her grandfather may have left him a large inheritance when he died 20 years ago, and perhaps Manomohan is now here to claim it. This revelation spurs Sudhindra’s suspicions. Is Manomohan really who he says he is, but more important maybe, does it really matter? A wonderful film about family love, and hidden within its conversations, the question of what makes a civilization, and are “cultured” people any better than “barbaric” tribes. As mentioned, this was Ray’s final film. He died in 1992, a month after accepting a lifetime achievement honorary Oscar award. ★★★★

• TV series currently watching: The Night Of
• Book currently reading: The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks

Cruella is an origin story for the delightfully evil villain of the old 101 Dalmatians film. Even as a child, Cruella is always an outcast, and the film instantly gets the viewer to be on her side, which is much different than how she was portrayed in the old cartoon! When her mother dies, Cruella is left an orphan in London, and her only way to survive is to team up with a couple thieves. The film really picks up 10 years later, when she and the other child grifters are now young adults. Cruella has always wanted to be a fashion designer, and she finally gets a chance, only to end up working for an egotistical and demeaning fashion boss, the Baroness. When Cruella learns her family had a dark history with the Baroness, Cruella decides to give in to her darker side in order to bring the Baroness down. The movie itself is fairly average, with underwhelming direction (from normally reliable Craig Gillespie), but Emma Stone (Cruella) and Emma Thompson (the Baroness) are wonderful, and well worth the price of admission. Their performances alone bring a 2 1/2 star up to a solid 3 1/2. There are moments that may be a bit scary for younger kids (the movie deserves its PG-13 rating), but “young-at-heart” moviegoers will find plenty to like, especially if you grew up on the classic Disney cartoons. ★★★½

I’m breaking my movie-only rule, but again, only for a short miniseries. And I’ll just give you the setup from the first episode or so, and let you watch from there if you are interested (it’s only 7 episodes in length). Mare of Easttown stars the superb Kate Winslet as Mare, a detective living in a tiny town outside Philadelphia, the kind of town where everyone knows everyone. Mare has lived there all of her life, and is a bit of a local legend after sinking the winning basket to win the high school basketball state championship 25 years ago, the only thing of import that ever happened to Easttown. Though a detective and not a beat cop, the inhabitants all call Mare’s cell when something goes down, since they know her and she knows them. She’s mostly liked by everyone, even the criminals, except for one person: Dawn. Dawn was a member of that basketball team too, but the animosity comes because her daughter, Katie, has been missing for a year, and Dawn blames Mare for not finding her. Mare did (and continues to) try to find some clue, but Katie was involved in bad stuff and Mare fears her body is out rotting in some field and will never be found, obviously not what Dawn wants to hear. Into this scenario, another young girl is found murdered one morning. Erin was a teen mom and had some enemies, like her baby daddy’s new girl. Mare has to navigate this as well as personal issues, such as her ex-husband remarrying, her ex-daughter-in-law (from her son’s suicide) trying to get custody of her son (Mare’s grandson), and other things, all while trying to solve Erin’s murder. You’d be surprised at how many secrets can survive in a little town, although, if you’ve ever lived in one, maybe you won’t be. The series becomes a whole lot more than solving a single murder, and Kate Winslett is great as always. However, by the end, it had a few too many twists for my tastes. Seems like every episode brought a new suspect, and it got too gimmicky by the end. But strong acting and a solid first half of the series didn’t ruin it for me. ★★★

The Tomorrow War is a futuristic action film, starring Chris Pratt as a former soldier turned teacher, who’s been raising a family with a crisis hits the Earth. A military unit warps in from 30 years in the future, announcing that they are at war with an alien species, and are losing. They need soldiers from the present to zap to the future to keep the fight going. The limited time traveling technology hasn’t been perfected, so they can’t just go to a point before the invasion and stop it before it gets bad, they can only get to a certain moment in 2051, where their drafted soldiers fight for 7 days, and then, if they survive, they are sent back to the present. Pratt’s character, Dan, is drafted after a year or so, and sent off to the future to fight. Once there, he learns that they aren’t fighting to win, they are fighting to bide time until a virus can be found to kill the aliens when the invasion starts. Sounds great right?! For the most part, it’s not. It is a low budget hokey film hiding behind big budget special effects. Really bad dialogue, completely unbelievable (even for a sci fi film!), and it features every cliche in the genre. And even when they supposedly get what they needed, it drags on for another 30 minutes! 1 star for the movie itself, but another 1 1/2 for the action sequences (which are really the only reason to watch). ★★½

Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk) is nobody: an average man with a boring job, a wife and two kids, who lives in a cookie cutter house on a cul-de-sac. That is, until his house is robbed one night by a couple amateurs. While he doesn’t stand up for his family that night, the event does awaken feelings that Hutch had buried deep down. Afterwards, on a city bus, Hutch stands in to protect a young woman being harassed by some thugs. He beats them all to within an inch of their lives. Unfortunately for Hutch, one of them was the younger brother of a Russian gangster, Yulian. Yulian sets out to get revenge, sending a whole slew of killers to Hutch’s house. Thankfully Hutch is much more than meets the eye, and he’s got some serious training in his past. As we learn more about who Hutch was before he settled down, we start to wonder if it isn’t the Russians who should be worried. If it sounds a lot like John Wick, it shouldn’t surprise you that Nobody has the same writer and producer. No offense to Keanu Reeves, because he’s got his schtick down cold and he’s good at it, but Bob Odenkirk has a lot more range as an actor, even if he doesn’t get to show it all here. It’s an outrageous over-the-top film, and like the John Wick films, the actions sequences are superb. There are a whole lot worse ways to kill 90 minutes, and any movie where Christopher Lloyd gets to be a badass on screen is worth checking out. ★★★½

Shiva Baby is a great little comedy, about a Jewish college student named Danielle, who’s life is anything but on track. The film begins with her having sex with a man named Max in his apartment. She leaves afterward (but not before getting some money out of him, which she claims she needs for school), attesting she has to meet a client. Really, she’s going to a shiva with her parents, who still pay for everything for her. At the shiva, Danielle runs into her ex-girlfriend Maya, who does have a career path lined out and is entering law school. Maya and Danielle were childhood friends before becoming romantic in high school, but have recently split, much to the relief of their parents, who believe the girls were just experimenting and now ready to find good Jewish men to marry. Guess who else shows up to the shiva? Good old Max, who is a former colleague of Danielle’s dad. The embarrassment doesn’t stop there, because it turns out Max is married to a beautiful woman (non-Jewish, oh the shame!) and has a baby in tow as well. All of this is a shock to Danielle of course, and the interplay between her and Max, and Danielle and Maya, is only half the fun. A very funny movie, which nails the modern Jewish family without resorting to stereotypes, Shiva Baby is an excellent comedy/drama, with even some suspense rolled in. ★★★★

• TV series currently watching: Calls (season 1)
• Book currently reading: The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks

I’m still digging my way through celebrated Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu. Late last year I watched some of his earlier films, now I’m watching some of his last. (I’m still saving some of biggest hits; I always was one to save the best for last.) Early Spring came out in 1956, and is a quiet film about a white color worker named Sugiyama, or Sugi to his friends. He’s married to Masako, but they’ve been on the outs for awhile, though the viewer doesn’t know what caused the riff for quite a bit. Sugi doesn’t treat her great, taking her cooking and cleaning for granted, while he goes out at night after work to drink with his coworkers or friends from the war. In these late night haunts, he starts hanging around a girl from work, nicknamed Goldfish by the boys, because of her big eyes. Goldfish and Sugi begin an affair, and Masako, who knows her husband, suspects something immediately. There’s no big fireworks in this film, only a few little sparklers. The movie is mostly about the relationship between the married couple, and whether they can (or want to) survive the affair. Really intimate film, but honestly I couldn’t grab onto it as much as I should have. It’s a long movie at nearly 2 1/2 hours, and it felt like it. ★★

Ozu followed up with Tokyo Twilight the next year. This film mostly centers around a small family in busy Tokyo. Takako is the eldest daughter. She’s been unhappy in her marriage and has returned to her father’s, Shukichi, house with child in tow. Takako’s younger sister, Akiko, is still living at home while she attends college, and has been following a rebellious streak. Akiko has been hanging out in mahjong parlors and bars, following after her boyfriend Kenji. Shukichi’s wife, and the girls’ mother, is not in the picture, but she isn’t dead, and that is part of the mystery solved before the end. Akiko has been trying to hunt down Kenji, who has disappeared in the beginning of the film, and is avoiding her. We learn that Akiko has become pregnant, and is trying to find Kenji to see what she should do. This movie is definitely lacking the wholesome feel that often pervades Ozu’s pictures. Though still centered around the family, it is a much darker film, and I loved it. It pulls you into Akiko’s plight and all of the characters are intriguing in their own way. When the mother is revealed, and the part she plays in the finale, it is such a heart stopping moment (and not in a way you’d expect from Ozu!) that I was dumbstruck. ★★★½

Equinox Flower was Ozu’s first color film, released in 1958, and is much lighter in tone than Tokyo Twilight. It follows the Hirayama family, and particularly its patriarch, Wataru. Wataru is a successful businessman with a wife and two daughters. While his wife is getting anxious about seeing their eldest daughter, Setsuko, married off, Wataru seems to be in no rush. Setsuko is a modern woman, dressing in western clothes and working on her career. One of Wataru’s old classmates approaches him to act as an intermediary with his own daughter, Fumiko, who has left the household and is planning on marrying a man of her own choosing, against her father’s wishes. Wataru meets with Fumiko and sees that she is happy, and sides with her against his old friend. But when the same situation comes to his own family, with Setsuko deciding she wants to marry a man from her work, Wataru isn’t as accepting. It’s a cute little movie, with lots of comedy, in stark juxtaposition to the previous film. It shines a light on the changing traditions in Japan in the 1950s, as it continued to be influenced by western ideas and the abandoning of local customs. ★★★

Late Autumn is about three older men, former classmates who’ve stayed friends over the years, who take it upon themselves to meddle in a woman and her daughter’s affairs. The woman, Akiko, is the widow of a fourth classmate of the men, who passed away a couple years ago. The trio want to see Akiko’s daughter Ayako, a very beautiful young woman, married to a nice man who will take care of her, but Ayako seems reluctant to leave her mother alone in the house if she were to marry and move away. So the men decide to get Akiko married first, which would open up Ayako to then marry as well. It’s a funny concept, and there are some nice moments, but this movie is awfully repetitive. Conversations go round and round about the same subject, really drawing it out and seemingly going on forever. It has a lovely, poignant ending, very Ozu, but that only makes up so much headway against an otherwise soft offering. ★★

The End of Summer is also more light-hearted fare. The aging patriarch of a large family, Manbei, has been sneaking away for awhile to see his former mistress (his wife is long dead), and the adult children do not approve when they find out. Much like Late Autumn, there’s also a plot to get the elder women in the family married off. If I had seen this film on its own, I may have enjoyed it more, but there are a few too many similarities shared with Late Autumn (including many of the same actors!) and it started to feel like a rehash. And this might be sacrilegious, but I couldn’t stand Setsuko Hara, who played the eldest widowed daughter in this film, and Akiko in Late Autumn (as well as Takako in the above Tokyo Twilight). She smiles through every scene, with no range of emotion, and delivers dialogue with that constant grin. It was off-putting and strange. She’s the star in one of Ozu’s most heralded pictures, Tokyo Story, which I have not seen yet, and I hope she’s better in that movie than in this one. ★★½

• TV series currently watching: Mare of Easttown
• Book currently reading: The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks

For this group of films, I’m looking at movies from the Soviet Union. The Color of Pomegranates came out of the Soviet state of Armenia in 1969, directed by Sergei Parajanov. While this is a biographical film about the Armenian bard and poet Sayat-Nova, who lived in the 18th century, it’s not a movie with a story per se. Instead, it is a very lyrical art film. It takes moments of Sayat-Nova’s life and depicts them artistically, with very little dialogue, and only a few cue cards to tell the viewer where we are. It takes us from his childhood up to (through?) his death, with many scenes being nothing but shots of people doing repeated actions for a couple seconds in front of a still camera. Hard to make anything out of it, but I have to admit, it is a very emotional film. The color and scale of it wraps around the viewer, and while I often do not like experimental films, this one kept me enraptured. I really can’t put my finger on why either. The film was heavily edited by Soviet censors before release, who expected Parajanov to give them a more “standard” biographical movie. It was later restored by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, to get it as close as possible to the director’s original intent. ★★★

Dersu Uzala is a 1975 co-production of the Soviet Union and Japan, directed by celebrated Japanese director Akira Kurosawa (his only non-Japanese language film). Based on a memoir by Russian explorer Vladimir Arsenyev, the movie tells of the lasting friendship between Vladimir and Dersu, a nomadic hunter of the Goldi people (native to the Russian far east). In 1902, Vladimir is leading a small contingent of Russians in a survey expedition through the harsh taiga when they meet Dersu. Dersu is a hunter and a good one, and while his Russian is choppy and stilted, they are able to communicate well enough to hire him as their guide. Dersu’s knowledge of the land gets the group as a whole, and Vladimir in particular, through some rough spots, and Dersu saves Vladimir’s life on more than one occasion. When the expedition is done and Vladimir is ready to return home, he hopes Dersu will join him, but the city is no place for Dersu and he declines. Five years later, Vladimir is out in the wilderness again on a new exploration, constantly keeping his eye out for his friend. When they meet again, it is just like old times, and their bond is strengthened. As Dersu gets older though and starts to lose his edge, he has to face the facts that he cannot be the hunter that he once was. Shot on location in the Russian far east, the film encompasses the viewer in its harsh, barren reality, so while it has the look and feel of a grand epic movie, there’s still the tightness of a brotherly bond between our two characters. And it definitely has the feel of a Kurosawa picture. ★★★★

Come and See, from 1985 and directed by Elem Klimov, is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. It is certainly an extremely powerful anti-war movie. It follows a young teenager named Flyora, and starts with him and a friend on a beach. You think they are just being boys and having fun, but it becomes apparent that they are digging up discarded weapons left behind by soldiers. We are in the midst of World War II, and Flyora is hoping that, if he finds a gun, it’ll be easier to join up with the partisan soldiers against the Germans. He does find a rifle, and soon after, leaves his family behind in their tiny village, and joins up with a contingent of fighters. He probably left for war the same way many young people did (and continue to do): hoping to fight for their friends and family, yes, but also seeking glory in battle. He finds that his views of war are not the reality. As the movie progresses, the atrocities of war get worse and worse, until a climactic ending where a neighboring village is massacred by Germans and their collaborators. Flyora and only a handful of others survive to witness the massive death and destruction. This movie hits you like a ton of bricks. As it moves from a frolicking young boy to a terror-stricken shell of a person, the viewer is hit with as many scars as Flyora. By the end, it doesn’t even look like the same actor. Over the course of the film, which can’t be more than a couple weeks, Flyora looks to have aged decades, until there’s nothing left. I felt as shaken as him. It’s a lasting, impactful movie. ★★★★½

Awhile back I watched Andrei Tarkovsky’s first five films, but that left his final two. Nostalghia was a co-production between the USSR and Italy, shot in the latter, and released in 1983. It’s about a Russian writer who travels to Italy while researching the life of a famous Russian composer. The composer had lived there for a time, and then after returning to Russia, committed suicide. Andrei has been following his footsteps, trying to get in his head, and his latest location is some ancient bath houses built around a mineral pool. After butting heads with Eugenia, his beautiful traveling companion and interpreter, Andrei becomes fascinated with a man named Domenico, whom the locals shrug off as crazy. Domenico has been trying for years to cross the mineral baths from end to end without letting his candle go out. He’s never succeeded. I know Tarkovsky. I know his movies can be challenging (frustratingly so at times). I have to admit I carefully watched this whole movie, and have absolutely no idea what it is really about. Hauntingly beautiful? Without a doubt. Accessible to most viewers? Not a chance. ★★

I’m cheating on the last film. It’s not a Soviet film, but it is from Tarkovsky, so, close enough? Released in 1986 after Tarkovsky had defected, The Sacrifice was filmed in Sweden. If you’re a filmmaker in Sweden in the 80s, lean on the best, and Tarkovsky did, casting Ingmar Bergman regular Erland Josephson (who also played Domenico in Nostalgia) in the lead, and hiring longtime Bergman cinematographer Sven Nykvist. The movie follows a family living in a large, beautiful house on a remote stretch of coast. Alexander dotes over his son, whom he calls his “Little Man,” but is indifferent to his wife and teenaged step-daughter. Alexander talks to his son in length on many topics, including Alexander’s lack of faith in God. One afternoon, with guests visiting, the house is rattled by jets flying overhead. They flick on the TV in time to hear that a catastrophic world war has broken out, and it is implied nukes have been launched and humanity is facing its end. Each person takes the news differently, from loss of hope, to shrugs, to nervous breakdowns. Once the initial reactions have cooled and Alexander is alone, he prays to God, awkwardly as it has obviously been a long time since he has, begging for something to save his family and everyone else. He promises that if God can save them, Alexander would be willing to give his family up, even his son, and leave everything behind. But if he magically is given that chance, and undo the tragedy, can he follow through? This film is magnificent. Deep and thought-provoking, with incredible camerawork from Nykvist’s steady hand. There are some super-long takes here: the opening sequence is like 9 minutes, and there’s a 6 minute take near the end. And they aren’t simple stay-in-one-place shots, they are moving, and characters are moving, and lots of things are going on on-screen. Incredible stuff technically, and a tremendous movie all around. ★★★★★

• TV series currently watching: Dickinson (season 1)
• Book currently reading: The Dark Tower by Stephen King