Hopefully this marks the start of a return to my usual posting schedule. Behind the Sun is another film by director Walter Salles, whose Central Station we watched only recently. They must have been part of a crop of South American works that my wife added to our list all at once. Interestingly, this one is based on a novel by an Albanian writer who set it in Albania. I guess Salles must have decided to adapt it for his native Brazil instead.
As I’ve previously mentioned, there seems to be a string of good films coming out of New Zealand recently though their industry is still small enough that you quickly recognize the same familiar faces and names. Due to its title and it being directed by Taika Waititi, I honestly thought that this was another horror film. It turns out to be an adventure film with a heavy dose of humor.
Director Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation and About Elly are two of the best dramas I’ve watched in recent years. As such it was with some anticipation that I watched this, though it isn’t as notable as the previous two films. It’s also different in that it’s set in France and has a cast with a broad range of nationalities.
We haven’t seen much of Dustin Hoffman in recent years but he was once considered one of the greatest actors in the world. This one was made even in his career shortly after the success of The Graduate and there’s even a scene here that obvious references in. Little Big Man counts as a Western but it’s not like any other Western I’ve ever watched and I believe it’s one of the earliest instances of revisionist films that are critical of the US government’s treatment of Native Americans.
This is probably the hottest film on the awards circuit right down due to its sweeping of the Golden Globe awards but it has been on my list ever since it made waves at the usual film festivals. My wife has been especially enthusiastic about it as it is both a romantic film and a musical.
Due to some disturbances in our usual schedule, I had to skip a day of posting recently. I thought we’d get back into the groove with an easy to watch film. This is a Brazilian animated film that’s only about 80 minutes long. It turned out to be fairly heavy and depressing watch with no dialogue at all. The film does list voice actors but the only sounds they make are indecipherable mumbles and exclamations.
Like pretty much everyone who has read Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life, I greeted the news of it being adapted into a film with incredulity. I loved the story and I’ve considered Chiang to be one of favorite science-fiction authors ever since I read Understand, but it seemed unfilmable to me. Having Denis Villeneuve as the director didn’t fill me with confidence either. He’s clearly talented and is very cerebral and my reaction to his films has always been mixed. Still, this was one film I absolutely must watch and was duly frustrated that while it was released in November in the US I needed to wait until January this year for it to come to Malaysia. Note that this post will be full of spoilers, so consider yourself warned.