This is a Romanian critically acclaimed film that opens with an explicit amateur porn scene so it’s definitely not for the faint hearted. Perhaps even more daunting is a montage in the middle that amounts to director Radu Jude offering his thoughts on a series of loaded words. To me this film certainly makes for a strong artistic statement but I can’t say that I like it all that much. I do appreciate it for providing an excellent window into what modern Romanian society is like and I was even stunned by how similar the Romanian language sounds to French!
I’ve already given up on the MCU and I wouldn’t even be watching this if it weren’t because it was directed by Sam Raimi. I was curious about this being an MCU horror movie and I still have enough affection for Raimi’s early work to see what he could do. As it turns out, this is an extremely Raimi film and you can recognize the director’s characteristic style from his earliest days everywhere in this. The bad news is that this is not at all a good thing as he can’t seem to resist indulging in his old bag of tricks even when it’s wildly inappropriate. The result is visually entertaining but also tonally inconsistent and emotionally dead. It’s not among the worst of the MCU films but it’s not great either.
Elia Kazan and Tennessee Williams are of course the creative team who made A Streetcar Named Desire. This one was made five years later and it’s immediately apparent from its opening scenes that it shares the same DNA. Unfortunately while there are strong scenes in it and there’s no way that the characters in it can be said to be psychologically uninteresting, this is a case of the whole being lesser than the sum of its parts. None of the characters in it are remotely likable and the whole film oozes with filth and nastiness, yet somehow it is mockingly framed as a comedy. I don’t understand the rationale behind many of the creative decisions here and I don’t like the film. Nonetheless I can recognize the genius of Kazan and Williams in it.
Céline Sciamma is rapidly becoming my favorite modern French director with her women-focused films. Here is another, about the relationship between a child and her mother told in a manner surely no one will expect. I love how complete and perfect this work is: the excellence of the performances of the two child actresses who carry the film, the accurate yet subtle insight into how children are dismissed by adults and all of it in a package only a little over an hour. It’s a wonderful example of compact, economical filmmaking that I will recommend to everyone I know.
I added this onto my watchlist purely because of Ridley Scott’s name and because the subject matter seemed promising. But I really should have heeded the atrocious reviews because this film is so mediocre I wondered why Scott wanted to take this project on. This isn’t about fashion or even the world of luxury goods at all but rather is about a feud within the Gucci family that would eventually lead to the murder of Maurizio Gucci in 1995. The characters are businesspeople not artists or craftsmen and it’s not even a particularly serious depiction of business. Lady Gaga gives her all to her role as Patrizia Reggiani but everyone just seems to be going through the motions. Since everyone doesn’t seem much bothered, I don’t see why the audience should either.
After years of not watching a single Malaysian film, I suppose I’m picking up the slack now. The Story of Southern Islet is still really not that well known and this is director Chong Keat Aun’s first film. Nonetheless I believe it’s the best Malaysian film I’ve seen in a long time and is able to hold its own against the world’s best. Chong is actually a reasonably well-known figure in our local cultural circles but this is his first foray into directing. The result is an impressive debut that proves that he really does have the technical skills and artistic vision to have a promising career ahead of him.
Pedro Almodóvar’s films can be hit or miss with me and this one is definitely a miss in my book. The main story is perfectly cromulent even if some decisions in it seem a little suspect. On top of that is tacked on a secondary story about excavating the mass graves of victims of the Franco regime. This lends dramatic weight to the film but feels like a cheap trick as it’s so tangential. If it had been made by a lesser director, I think it would be a solid credit in their filmography. But with such renowned names attached to this project, it ends up being underwhelming.
