Obviously I’ve heard of the novel by Milan Kundera but not being the type to read serious literature, I’ve never read it. Nevertheless this is a very highly regarded adaptation and I’ve loved both of the films directed by Philip Kaufman that I’ve watched so far so I added it to our watch list. It’s worth noting that while Kundera himself served as a consultant for this project, he did not consider it to be a faithful adaptation of his novel so it’s probably best to see it as its own thing.
The so-called DC Extended Universe films have been so badly reviewed that I haven’t any of them since the mediocre Man of Steel. What I’ve seen from the promotional campaign for upcoming Justice League film doesn’t fill me with much confidence either. I wasn’t going to watch this one as well but the excellent word-of-mouth and reviews changed my mind. I have to say that there’s also some meaning in supporting the first solo female superhero movie in a good long while.
After watching a Taiwanese coming-of-age film, it feels oddly appropriate to next watch an American one, though this one is about a 17-year old high school girl set in modern times. As usual this one got my attention by making onto various critics’ lists of their best films of the year but within about a half hour of it, I was puzzled by its inclusion as it seemed like a fairly generic movie about teenagers. Thankfully, my initial impressions were incorrect as this film is indeed smarter than it first appears to be.
It looks like we’re in for a busy week for I’m sticking to more easily digestible fare. This is another film by Hou Hsiao-hsien whose more recent works tend towards the obscure. My wife has watched this one before however and she reports that it’s an example of the director’s earlier works which uses simpler storytelling. Indeed this turned out to be straightforward to understand yet is laden with emotion and nuance.
This confusingly named film is neither set in nor is connected in any manner with the city of Manchester in England. Rather it is set in a tiny town in the US whose full name is indeed Manchester-by-the-Sea. Along with La La Land, it gained prominence from its multiple Oscar nominations earlier this year but only ended up winning two of them, for Best Original Screenplay and for Best Actor for Casey Affleck’s performance.
As a title card within the film itself states, this is not in fact an adaptation of One Thousand and One Nights. Instead it’s a film about contemporary events in Portugal, focusing on how the country is suffering under austerity but it does use the structure of Scheherazade telling stories. It’s also part one of a three volume series but I doubt I’ll ever get around to watching the remaining entries.
I had no idea what Maggie’s Plan was about except that it showed up in the usual lists of the best films of the year. So I was surprised and somewhat pleased when I realized that this is something like an updated version of the romantic comedy genre. I’ve never watched anything by director Rebecca Miller before but it has a cast of serious performers including Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore and even a cameo role by Wallace Shawn.