How My Mother Imparted Feminism To Me Indirectly

She kept her maiden name.
She taught me how to clean

and required me to do it.

She taught me how to cook

and required me to do it.

I have yet to meet a man

who could relate

to even one of those things.

Thanks Ma.

'No Other Choice' A Review

No Other Choice is a black comedy/thriller about Man-su(Lee Byung-hun) a papermaking expert who is laid off, struggles to find employment, then hatches a plan to murder various other candidates in order to secure a coveted position.

Lee is a solid lead, balancing absurdity and slapstick with sincere emotional vulnerability. Son Ye-jin as Lee Mi-ri, Man-su's wife though really steals the show and brings some much needed sympathy and reality to the narrative. The support cast are all solid and maintain the kind of unreal tone. Does that tone work though? It's consistent but feels, at least from a US perspective, dated. It's the same kind of corporate satire of the excellent American Psycho or the much less successful Wolf Of Wall Street. It feels somewhat irrelevant and the purpose of it all is unclear.

Visually the film is compelling with some cool artistic flourishes and short abstract sequences, but again, to what end? Corporations are bad? Capitalism destroys people? No shit. On top of the overall theme being pretty 80's 101 Man-su as written is a selfish, inarticulate, buffoon. We have absolutely no reason to care about this idiot so whether he succeeds in killing other selfish idiots or his life is dismantled as a result of his own pride and ineffectuality doesn't really matter. All in, the film feels like there are materially no stakes other than like, how much will Mi-ri put up with?

A big theme of recent years seems to be movies about selfish men being selfish but most(if not all) of them are uninteresting and given the current state of the world men like these are getting more than enough air time in the news and positions of power. 

Not a bad movie but seemingly has nothing to tell us about our current time that we don't already thoroughly know. Seems only interested in highlighting the absurdity of the current human condition but stops there.

Currently in theaters.

Stream It.

Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast

With the hustle and bustle
of the season

it is important

to be deliberate

with an elongating to-do list

it is best

to take it

a task at a time

to be present

and enjoy

the obligations

as well as the celebrations

a reminder I needed

cutting my fingers

in the rush

to prune the tree

'Hamnet' A Review

Hamnet is a period drama, an adaptation of the 2020 novel, about the courtship and marriage of Agnes(Jessie Buckley) and Shakespeare(Paul Mescal) and how the two deal with the untimely death of their 11 year old son, the titular Hamnet(Jacobi Jupe).

Buckley gives an incredible, almost elemental performance. Raw and open and unadorned. Mescal struggles a bit to get to her level, he's still good and they have good chemistry, but she clearly outshines him which all-in-all is mostly appropriate given it is really Agnes's story. The supporting characters are well cast and effective although Emily Watson is somewhat underused and the child actors are surprisingly natural and give full-bodied performances particularly Olivia Lynes as Judith. The issue isn't with the actors or what they do and Buckely will, justly, get some awards attention this year.

There are two big issues with the film. The first is the camera work. It deploys an absolutely relentless shaky hand-held close-up focused approach that feels claustrophobic and bludgeoning displaying a distrust of the actors, Buckley in particular, and a coldly mercenary view as to eliciting an emotional reaction from the audience.

Two, on that same track, the emotional beats are profoundly unsubtle and the script exploits the child-death at the center of the story enormously to the point where the clear manipulation of the audience is recognizable and offensive ie the fifteen minute long scene of 11-year-old Jupe wailing and thrashing as he dies along with Buckley's primordial screams all shot in 6 inch close ups is all just too much. We get it. The situation and the performances are effective, the audience does not need to be dragged along by the ear and beaten over the head with the idea that a child's death is tragic. The film clearly relishes this moment and that's simply wrong.

This juxtaposed with the final scene of the film during a staging of Hamlet where both Agnes and Shakespeare finally gain understanding and catharsis is nothing short of transcendent. The inconsistency is frustrating. The film looks beautiful, the cast is great, the story is compelling, but it gets in its own way.

A career best from Buckley mostly weathers co-writer/director Chloé Zhao's periodic lack of confidence in her material and audience.

Currently in theaters.

Rent It.

'Spinal Tap II: The End Continues' A Review

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is a mocumentary, a sequel to the 1984 cult classic This Is Spinal Tap. 40 years after the first film Marty DiBergi(Rob Reiner) is making a documentary about an official Spinal Tap reunion. 

As far as story it's pretty straight-forward and uncomplicated but it's a joy to see Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer back in character and although much older they don't really miss a step. Their characters are just as alive as ever and jokes are jam packed into the dialogue and they bounce off both returning characters, new characters notably drummer Didi(Valerie Franco), and a series of high-profile and playful cameos.

The cinematography is uncomplicated and effective, in keeping with the mocumentary style, a genre that kind of took off in wake of the first film but has in the past ten years mostly disappeared(the last notable entrant being 2015's What We Do In The Shadows). The music is great(no surprise) and there's quite a bit of it, the costumes are inspired. In short, the gang still rocks!

Fun, funny, surprising, and a well deserved(and successful) victory lap for the Tap.

Currently streaming on HBO Max.

See It.

Air Thick With Frost

The cold
at night

the bite
the darkness

the silence

time cracking

underneath the ice

the world

breath held

in anticipation

'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' A Review

Wake Up Dead Man is a murder mystery, the third in the Knives Out series. Father Jud(Josh O'Connor) a former boxer turned priest is reassigned to a rural parish after punching a rude deacon. He is under the thumb of megalomaniacal Monsignor Wicks(Josh Brolin) who unexpectedly and mysteriously dies. When all fingers point to Jud the gentlemen detective Benoit Blanc(Daniel Craig) is called in to solve the case.

O'Connor gives a good, if inconsistent, lead performance here. The problem with O'Connor is that we're simply seeing too much of him, this is the third(of four) major releases this year for him. Kind of getting into Glen Powell territory, any actor, no matter how talented, cannot saturate the market, be forced upon the collective cultural consciousness. Back to the movie, he provides heart and sincerity and provides a believable(and necessary) portrayal of a truly devote Christian calling out and acting against the corruptions of religion both in the abstract and the specific. But overall its just kind of flat, plateaus and doesn't change. Brolin is delicious as the heavy, with total commitment and total presence. Craig seems to be losing a bit of umph with Blanc and his ill-advised hair piece doesn't do him any favors. He's still compelling but at this juncture the character and the series is falling into diminishing returns. The supporting cast is all stacked with great actors and cool cameos, most notably Glenn Close who absolutely dominates, but a bit too much time is spent on plotting and a bit too little is spent on character so as great as the cast is, it doesn't particularly matter.

Visually the film is a huge improvement on the over-saturated, pastel repugnance of Glass Onion. The color pallet is more subdued, there's a sense of place and history, more-in-line with the original even though it is clearly shot in the UK and on soundstages. The score works, the costuming is great, the twists-and-turns of the plot entertain but it doesn't have that singular electricity of the original, doesn't have the emotional depth needed to make it work both as a great mystery and a great film. Writer/director Rian Johnson is inching closer and closer to Kenneth Branagh Poirot territory. Not bad, just pure entertainment.

Funny, engaging, with attempts at commentary which are admirable if not altogether successful, a little thin.

Currently in theaters and streaming on Netflix.

Rent It.