It seems that despite having only two feature films under his belt, Zach Cregger is the current hot director of horror. This one won critical claim, has an A-list cast, and most importantly made a lot of money. It admittedly gets all of the basics: good filmmaking techniques, multiple perspectives to hint at a larger mystery and shows restraint in its use of supernatural elements. Unfortunately you strip away the layers, the core is revealed to be empty and utterly uninteresting. Once you understand what is happening, none of it is remotely plausible and the whole thing falls flat for me.
It was in this film that Jacques Tati first introduced to the world the character of Monsieur Hulot, whom we’ve seen in Playtime. This is a simpler and less ambitious film, which unfortunately also means that it’s less interesting. The gags and hijinks are mildly amusing at best and not that inventive compared to what we’ve seen from the likes of Rowan Atkinson. Nonetheless there’s a certain charm in the seaside resort town of Saint-Marc-sur-Mer where this was shot and this film portrays a specific style of going on holiday which now feels quaint, so it might still be worth watching for those with some affection for all things French.
Celine Song earned enough goodwill from her debut feature Past Lives that her second film deserves a look even if its reviews are less impressive. It assembles a strong cast to explore a bold premise about how important material wealth is to a relationship. Unfortunately it’s a bust. Song raises the question only to offer the usual, familiar answer that love conquers all. Worse, she flubs her cultural references and fails to get strong performances out of the actors, making this only a middling rom-com.
We’ve watched quite a few films by Lee Chan-dong so far but here we go all the way back to his very first one. It’s relatively simple but it may just be my favorite of his works. It’s very similar in tone to the Hong Kong gangster films of the late 1980s and early 1990s but unlike those, this has real pathos and depth. As with Pigs and Battleships, we get the life of a low-level gangster shorn of any glory or dignity and there is no happy ending to be had with the femme fatale of this story.
This is the first time I’ve watched a film written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg and he even stars here as one of two cousins on a trip to Poland. It’s effectively travelogue which is always nice to watch as you feel like you’re part of the group tour with them, seeing what they see. More importantly, it’s a deep dive into the relationship between the two. It’s quietly understated, restrained in its ambitions and painfully authentic, all excellent reasons for me to love it.
Amidst all the much more well-known animated shows, this one seems to have fallen under the radar and ultimately failed. I was drawn to it both by its sci-fi setting of survivors trapped on an alien planet and its art design. Its visuals are reminiscent of Western graphic novels and indeed the immediate inspiration is the work of French artist Jean Giraud. I’m always keen on animated speculative fiction shows that are made for adults and this certainly counts. Unfortunately this is a show about vibes, not cerebral ideas, and once it became obvious that it has no interest in offering grounded explanations for anything, my opinion of it dropped by a few notches.
Continuing the string of films that show the darker side of Japan, especially under US occupation, here’s one by ShÅhei Imamura. The title sounds ridiculous but makes complete sense given the context and even earns its comedic tone. At its heart is a rather old-fashioned love story between a girl and a bad boy but the incisive message about cultural imperialism elevates it above the usual fare. It’s rather cleverer and more multifaceted than it initially appears even if the moralizing is a tad obvious.
