I originally had no interest in watching this, thinking that the whole 1MDB saga is over and done with. What changed my mind was Najib Razak’s interview in it and his recent request to have the documentary taken down from Netflix. Hooray Streisand Effect! I’m not sure that this is actually a decent film as some of the editing choices are questionable and the interstitial scenes they made are downright cringey. I’m not sure how much sense it would make to non-Malaysian audiences either. I personally was able to follow along because I already mostly everything. Overall I’d say it was a worthwhile use of my time mainly due to the Najib interview and the perspective it offers from the FBI agent attached to the US embassy in Malaysia.

This is such an iconic film that not having watched it would be embarrassing to any serious cinephile. I always suspected that I wouldn’t like it and this is notable mostly because of it was a pioneer in so many filmmaking techniques. This was indeed largely the case as the film reads as being too obviously propaganda to me to have any emotional effect. I suppose it is impressive in being able to muster such large crowds for huge scenes, no CGI crowds back then, and it’s cool to see the Soviet-era battleships up close like this. But even the much vaunted Odessa Steps scene felt like nothing special to me because its lessons have been so thoroughly absorbed by other filmmakers already.

I do so love the films of Kelly Reichardt and though this one is set in Montana instead of Oregon as with most of her work, it’s not any less good. This consists of three individual stories of different women, adapted from short stories by Maile Meloy. As always, there is so much depth and understated emotion in the characters, different as they each are, through the landscape of Montana adds an element of isolation to all of them. Without being able to focus on one specific protagonist here, the emotional impact is more muted than something like Old Joy but every story is strong and enjoyable.

2023 seems to be a pretty good year for Malaysian films with a string of releases that are, if not great, at least interesting. This one was fully crowdfunded and then released for free on YouTube, allowing it ignore government censorship concerns. It’s effectively a dystopian action thriller that pushes racial segregation to its most extreme. It’s clever in how its appropriates the word ‘Pendatang’ and it slyly critiques how racism is manufactured by elites for their personal gain. I was disappointed however in that it’s not that well made and its scenario is really more about life under a totalitarian police state than about racism. It’s a valiant effort but it doesn’t really say much about life in modern day Malaysia.

At over seven hours long, this is by far the longest film we’ve watched. Even staggering it out over the course of a week, experiencing it in its entirety was quite a trial especially as it is an artistic film that isn’t always easy to understand and is entirely in black and white. I added this to my list because Béla Tarr is perhaps Hungary’s greatest director and this title often named among the greatest films ever made. The themes of desolation and hopelessness are obvious but it’s hard for someone unfamiliar with Hungary to place the circumstances under which the story takes place. I will say that this is easily one of the most pessimistic films I’ve ever encountered and it really is unique. Sitting through seven hours is still a big ask though.

Ken Liu is unfortunately better known for his translations of Chinese science-fiction into English but he does write stories of his own. I regret to say that I haven’t read them myself but given his reputation, I was eager to find out what a television series based on his stories would be like. I am pleased to report that the series, casting uploaded human intelligences as gods, is utterly fantastic. The technical details are reasonably plausible, it’s appropriately global in scope and best of all, every character acts rationally in pursuit of their goals according to their individual psychologies. It’s such a perfectly conceived and executed project that I have a hard time understanding how it ever got made.

I was a big fan of the first film and really wanted to catch this in the cinemas but was just too busy at the time. In the end, catching this on Netflix might have been wiser after all as this film is just too long and keeping up with its frenetic pace with so many characters and the dynamic changes of art style is quite exhausting. It does look great but it’s too overwhelming even for me. I was let down too by stale story beats like playing up Miles Morales being too busy as Spider-Man to attend to his real life or being forced to sacrifice the few to save the many. That said, it does have some decent character building moments as well so the verdict is kind of mixed. It definitely isn’t as good as the first film to me but I’ll still be looking out for the last part of what now looks like a trilogy.