This film was made by Zhang Lü, a Chinese director of Korean ethnicity. Its title refers to the White Pagoda that is a landmark in Beijing, said to be shadowless as due to a combination of its white color and sheer size, its shadow is difficult to perceive. It’s definitely one of those arthouse films with depths that are difficult to perceive as said tower’s shadow. In this case, it’s both subtler than I’d prefer and even when I can work out what it’s trying to say, the stakes seem too small to support the weight of its presentation.
I held off on watching this because I feel that zombies are way overused in media and it didn’t even seem like this adds anything new to the genre. I was persuaded my mind due to a friend’s recommendation and because I have a newfound appreciation for the work of Alex Garland. In the event, this turned out to be a perfectly cromulent action movie and a decent coming-of-age film. Thematically, it’s not that interesting despite an attempt to suggest a mythic link to England’s past. But it is entertaining and even does a bit of worldbuilding.
The slew of awards and international recognition this film won more than qualifies it a must-watch. I was hesitant to approach it however, being cognizant of its contentious and depressing nature. Indeed as the end of this documentary itself shows, the crisis at Masafer Yatta that is its focus, has since been overshadowed by the October 7 attacks. The Palestinian perspective it offers is both interesting and invaluable. Its images show exactly how a people is smothered to death slowly over the course of decades. Yet it probably doesn’t offer much that is new to those who are already reasonably well-read on the subject and is too roughly put together to be a great documentary.
This is lighter fare that my wife noticed while we were browsing through Netflix. One would have expected this to be another manga adaptation but in this instance, the reverse is true. It’s an original story written for animation and then later adapted as a manga. The core idea is cutesy yet sound enough: a teenage girl feels depressed by her familial situation and prefers to escape by turning into a cat. Unfortunately this is also inextricably tied to her infatuation for a boy in her class and this is just juvenile. This is a film that was made for the young adult market and it’s fine in that regard, but it’s not for us.
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.
