After being so disappointed by No Time to Die, it’s reasonable to ask if it’s even possible to make decent action movies set in the modern era. This film from the Philippines makes for a great counterexample as it limits the scope of its action to reasonable levels. Despite its limited budget, its cinematography is fantastic and it doesn’t compromise on its plot and character development either. This is admittedly a very dark film but that this what it means to treat the subject of violence and killings seriously. It seems that I was way late in hearing about this and this was successful enough that an American remake is in the planning.

This film wowed critics as a real-time look into how an upmarket restaurant in London works behind the scenes in one long, continuous shot. Despite its modest scope, the film impressed enough people that it’s already been made into a full series. I loved all of the details and how each character, including the customers of the restaurants, all have their own little stories. But I do note that the way it ramps all of the restaurant’s myriad problems into an explosive climax kind of makes it feel like a reality show. It’s just so dense with drama and it makes a lot of sense why this might better be expanded into a television series.

This film was compiled from old Soviet footage of the funeral of Joseph Stalin in 1953 by Sergey Loznitsa, a Ukrainian director of Belarusian origin and predates the ongoing invasion. With no added commentary except for an afterword, its surreal quality naturally lends it added resonance this year as it makes for a powerful indictment of the cult of personality built around the supreme leader of the USSR. At a little over two hours long, it’s a bit of a chore to get through as it consists only of the expected pageantry and ceremonies of a huge funeral repeated again and again. Yet I would argue that it’s worth it for the look into the USSR of the period and what such a national cult is like from the inside.

I have not watched all of the Daniel Craig Bond films and I have little idea of the story so far. Still strong reviews and the sense of this being the end of an era persuaded me that it might worth watching this last one, especially as we so rarely watch conventional action movies these days. As expected this looks slick and beautifully shot and there is some real emotion in Bond’s relationships. However the plot that serves as its connective tissue is almost perfunctory in how thin it is and it’s hard to feel any sort of real peril in the action scenes. In short, it’s standard, formulaic Bond.

From time to time, I’m still working through the Hollywood classics and I keep being amazed by how enjoyable they are. I see this John Huston film being described as a noir but I don’t think it counts as one. I’m not sure what the genre is called but it’s one of those where the characters are all trapped by circumstances in a confined space and have to put up with each other. As usual, this provides the opportunity to go into what makes each of them tick and it’s a real pleasure to see even the supporting characters being put under the microscope. Great performances all around and it even ends with a relatively realistic yet thrilling gunfight!

So this is a case where I absolutely agree that director Mike Mills has made an incredible film and yet this is the kind of film that doesn’t accord well with my own tastes. The theme here is communication, specifically of the verbal kind to express one’s thoughts and emotions, and so this film really is all about talking. To facilitate this, the film actually deemphasizes its visuals so as to be as unobtrusive as possible and I believe it was shot in black-in-white for that reason. The result is a work that perfectly delivers on what the director set out to accomplish but is also about listening to people talk to such an extent that it’s off-putting to me personally.

Here’s another Czech film and coincidentally it’s centered around the railways as well. As is so often the case, the shadow of the Second World War hangs heavily in this film and yet the specific event it is about, the expulsion of Germans just after the war in the face of the advancing Russians, is completely unknown to me. This made it difficult for me to understand what was going on and who all of the characters are. Nonetheless I can still appreciate enough of the personal story of the titular character to realize that this is a great film and the rotoscoped animation makes it uniquely beautiful as well.