Category: Film Reviews

“Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus,” May 23, 2024, in Japanese (subtitled), black-and-white, Regent Theater, Arlington, MA.   Several months before the Japanese composer, actor, activist Ryuichi Sakamoto died of cancer in 2023, he played one last concert of his compositions.  I use the word concert advisedly.  There is no studio audience.  We are the audience for this concert. …

“Wildcat,” May 19, 2024, The Lexington Venue theater.  Ethan Hawke co-wrote, co-produced, and directed his daughter, Maya Hawke, in this interpolation of Flannery O’Connor’s biography and a dramatic exploration of her fiction and her struggles to write and publish.  Characters in O’Connor’s life (including Hawke herself, Laura Linney as her mother, and Phillip Ettinger) fill…

“Le Samourai,” May 15, 2024 (1967), French/subtitled, Remastered, The Lexington Venue theater, 12:15 p.m. showing.  This beautifully remastered neo-noir classic written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville should be seen in a quiet, dark theater  Jef Costello (Alain Delon) is an accomplished hit man.  He is ice-cold. His armor is a Boggie-like trench coat and fedora. …

“Sweet Bean,” May 15, 2024 (2015), Japanese/subtitled, DVD.  This small film offers far more than just a sweet confection.  Sentoro (Masatoshi Nagase) is the rather beaten down proprietor of a dorayaki stand selling pancake red bean paste confections.  His pancakes are fine, but his red bean paste is subpar.  His whole life is subpar, as…

“Sweet Bean,” May 15, 2024 (2015), Japanese/subtitled, DVD.  This small, film offers far more than just a sweet confection.  Sentoro (Masatoshi Nagase) is the rather beaten down proprietor of a dorayaki stand selling pancake red bean paste confections.  His pancakes are fine, but his red bean paste is subpar.  His whole life is subpar, as…

“The Old Oak,” May 11, 2024 (2023), The Lexington Venue theater. Director Ken Loach’s latest and last film is one filled with struggle, resistance, international solidarity, and hope. A busload of Syrian refugees fleeing Asad’s barbarism and their country’s destruction arrive in a down-and-out, English mining town. They are met by locals beaten down by…

“Unfrosted,” May 10, 2024, Netflix.  Jerry Seinfeld, Melissa McCarthy, Amy Schumer, and some other funny people.  Unbearably awful.  A few funny lines, e.g., “huh, Vietnam, that sounds like a good idea!”  My family was a pop tart test family.  We had a wall o’pop tart cases in the basement.   We gave cases away for years. …

“Anatomy of a Fall,” April 28, 2024 (2023), Hulu (with commercials).  We both really liked Justine Triet’s much nominated/awarded (Oscar for Best Original Screenplay), disturbing, “did he jump or was he pushed” tale set in the French Alps. Sandra (Sandra Huller) is a successful author who frames her novels based on the lives and experiences…

“Poor Things,” April 21, 2024 (2023), Hulu (with commercials).  We really appreciated this film.  It feels like a philosophical combination and discussion of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, H.G. Welle’s Island of Dr. Moreau and its original film version as Island of Lost Souls, Voltaire’s Candide, Sade’s Story of O,  and even Terry Southern’s Candy.  Searching…

“EO,” April 1, 2024 (2022), DVD.  Nominated for Best International Film at the Oscars, director Jerzy Skolimowski’s tale of EO the donkey’s journey across modern Europe, from Poland to Italy, shows us human kindness and cruelty in his experiences.  It is very much from the donkey’s point of view (there were actually six donkeys used),…

“Return to Seoul,” March 23, 2024 (2022), DVD.  Frederique “Freddie” Benoit, is French of Korean ancestry.  Played by Park Ji-min, a Korean-born artist raised in France, she’s a soul in search of herself.  Unlike Park, who was raised by her birth-parents in France, 23-year old Freddie was adopted as an infant.  Loved, she is nonetheless…

“The Taste of Things,” March 9, 2024, Lexington Venue Theater.  Eugenie (Juliette Benoche) and Dodin Bouffont (Benoit Magimel) share a mansion, a garden, sometimes a bed, and always a love for the most amazing food.  Set in late 19th century France or perhaps early 20th century (pre-electric lighting), she is his cook, he is France’s…

“Perfect Days,” February 23, 2024, Lexington Venue Theater.  “Next time is next time.  Now is now.”  Wim Wenders excellent slice-of-life film is wonderfully acted, beautifully shot, and deeply moving.  Hirayama (the amazing Koji Yakusho) cleans public toilets.  His days follow a precise pattern of rising, grooming, driving to work, listening to 1960s/70s cassettes (an amazing…

“American Fiction,” February 10, 2024, Lexington Venue theater.  I went into this knowing what I’d heard in a couple of reviews.  I came out of it working hard to piece this excellent film written and directed by Cord Jefferson together.  Not that I couldn’t understand what was going on. Rather, I was working to get…

“Minari,” January 4, 2024 (2020), Blue Ray.  We both liked and recommend this excellent Korean-American film from writer-director Lee Issac Cheung about his family’s struggle to start life over again on their own farm in rural Arkansas in the 1980s.  But this is no tale of racism or discrimination.  Rather it’s a story that places…

“The Holdovers,” December 31, 2023, theater.  We were hoping to go down to Long Island to spend New Years Eve with friends and then visit with others.  Instead, I got a cold and our friends, with apt caution, suggested we should not come down and infect others.  They were right, of course.   Half the guests…

“Aftersun,” November 30, 2023 (2022), DVD.  This well-written and directed film, the first feature from Charlotte Welles. Rightly earned many nominations and awards. It takes some work on your part as a viewer.  It’s not always clear what or when things are happening.  But it’s really worth the effort.  I found the special feature/comments that…

“Rustin,” November 21, 2023, Netflix. Whenever I taught classes on movements, marches, the 60s, etc., I asked students what they knew about the great 1963 March on Washington.  All know MLK and his speech.  Unless they’re deep into the subject, almost none know it was a march for jobs and justice, called by A. Philip…

“The Duke,” and “Phantom of the Open,” November 14/29, 2023 (2020/2021), DVD.   The wonderful Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirrin star in this cheeky little English comic ‘based-on-a-true-story’ tale of theft and kindness.  I can use much more of the latter, given what’s going on these days.  Broadbent plays Kempton Bunton, a 60-yo cabbie crusader against…

“It Ain’t Over,” November 7, 2023 (2022), documentary, Netflix.  There are plenty of reasons why “It Ain’t Over” has been rated as highly as it has on IMDB.  The film is by turns informative, emotional, inspiring, and very funny.  Not bad for a movie about a ballplayer who didn’t look like a ballplayer.  Yogi Berra…

“The Quiet Girl,” October 19, 2023 (2022), airplane, in Gaelic with subtitles.  Watched a second time on November 24, 2023. I rarely watch films a second time shortly after a first viewing.  This one was very much worth it.  The emotional development hit home.  The slow pacing felt so very right.  It’s very beautiful.   I…

“You Hurt My Feelings,” October 15, 2023, DVD.  It’s been a while since I’ve reported on films viewed, in part due to continuing medical issues.  That’s left me to try to catch up here.  I liked but was not overwhelmed by this family dramedy about honesty in important relationships, especially family, from Nicole Holofcener.  She…

“Avatar: The Way of Water,” September 18, 2023 (2022), DVD.  Sadly, we’re back on Pandora to plunder everything of value at the expense of the indigenous occupants.  Sully (Sam Worthington), of course, went full on Na’vi, and he, his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) must flee their forest home to escape the evil, reconstituted Col. Quaritch…

“John Wick: Chapter 4,” September 16, 2023 (2022), DVD.   Keanu Reeves stars and Chad Steleshki directs this Wick slaughterfest.  Lance Reddicks last film.  Ian McShane and Laurence Fishburne return to support Wick’s efforts.  Great action fighting, minimal script and plot as Wick again tries to free himself from the control of The Table.  Donnie Yee…

“Zappa,” (Documentary), September 9, 2023 (2020), Hulu. This excellent, thoughtful, non-narrative documentary looks at the life and work of Frank Zappa.   Interviews with amazing musicians abound.  Zappa left an remarkable archive of his life and, seemingly, everything he ever did with film, music, and politics.  His son Ahmet produced the film, and it utilizes much…