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Mr Bates vs. The Post Office (2024)
Anything but boring as licking stamps
Dull-looking?
Not so.
During my years in England I had loved the British Post office...incredibly fast and efficient with a rich history in the service of the UK. I knew nothing about its banking and pension payment services.
But a heart-breaking scandal was brewing thanks to privatization, computerization and an huge government coverup. This series from ITV dramatizes the vicious campaign by the Post Office and the gov't to cover up their own failures.
Hundreds of "subpostmasters" (those people who run postal kiosks in small village shops) were bankrupted, criminalized, jailed and even driven to mental hospitals as they were relentlessly persecuted. All were charged with stealing fortunes and were hounded cruelly, even though they had only done their jobs faithfully and honestly.
Toby Jones delivers the heart of this multi-decade scandal, which ruined the lives of the sweetest and most innocent people imaginable.
Bravo to ITV for broadcasting a beautifully-made series, which highlights the human element of a disaster so complex it requires thousands of words to describe on Wikipedia.
Currently running on PBS's Masterpiece Theatre. Also on Amazon but perhaps you can find a cheaper outlet.
Who knew the Post Office could create such powerful and moving entertainment?
Mai (2024)
Boffo Box office in Saigon...that's about it.
Nicely shot, vigorously edited....scripted with a jackhammer....this is a soap opera on cinematic steroids.
Emotions run the range from high to extremely high. Plot twists runt the gamut from unbelievable to not credible.
I other words it's ALL over the top, surfing on a wave of high comedy and endless unexpected tragedies.
My only Vietnamese friend has had Viet soaps streaming on his shop TV for the 10 years I have known him. Okay, so maybe it's a cultural thing.
Bringing a nation out of ancient traditions and biases, colonialism, communism and war must be traumatic and confusing.
Absorbing western culture is not a cinematic tonic...it's a cheap emotional ride.
One note...the lead actress maintains her strong character and dignity stoically and that's probably the best thing about this potboiler.
The Zone of Interest (2023)
I'm German-born & I'm Impressed
Among the many films made about the holocaust, I thought that Schindler's list was the final word, the ultimate depiction of good and evil. But The Zone of Interest stands in a class by itself. The film does not depict the murderous horrors inside the Auschwitz concentration camp. Instead, it focusses on the commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, as they build an idyllic life for their family in a house next to the camp. The atrocities of Auschwitz barely intrude, except for a background of muted but terrifying sounds on the other side of a gray wall which separates the Höss family garden from the notorious camp.
It is a masterpiece of understatement...a daring expose of the banality of evil.
Perhaps my fascination with this film is partly due to my upbringing in a home where such things were never discussed freely. And so it is with "The Zone." The horror is ever-present and always terrifying but never explicit.
A few reviewers said this depiction by Martin Amis and writer/director Jonathan Glazer had missed the mark by keeping the ugliness of the theme in the background...mostly out of sight. But there's a reason it won the Cannes Palme d'Or, earned five Oscar nominations and countless other awards. It is a work of art.
Priscilla (2023)
Elvis has left the building
Director Sofia Coppola may be the darling of cineastes but she also rates pretty high with insomniacs in "Priscilla."
This latest effort, the story of Priscilla Presley, compresses the story of her romance with Elvis from first meeting to separation into less than two hours. Sounds like it might be an electrifying ride, a coming-of-age story with a teenage girl marrying the biggest rock star in the world. Instead it is all weirdly lifeless. Put aside the fact that there is no Elvis music or performances. Elvis has left the building for the most part.
Cailee Spaeny does a fine job of portraying Priscilla's range of emotions from a teenage crush to a depressed and lonely trophy wife wandering around Graceland while Elvis is mostly ignoring her or touring. The visuals are as somber and subtle as the famously dark scenes fromThe Godfather's underexposed mob headquarters in her father's breakthrough film.
Coppola presents this empty saga as a series of vignettes rather than as a story. I get the feeling that Coppola's many loose-ended vignettes are simply excerpts from a Priscilla Presley autobiography. The highs and lows of Elvis's rise and fall must have been exhilarating and crushing...full of flamboyant characters, clowns and users. You won't see that here. Priscilla is alone, bored, excluded and lost.
She Came to Me (2023)
The Oscar goes to Tomei
Romantic comedies once seemed to be a lost art, at least until "She Came to Me" came to movie screens.
Peter Dinklage is certainly a daring choice for a leading man but he turns out to be the weak link in this delightful film. While Dinklage mails in his usual disgruntled and morose performance, his supporting cast sparkles and delights - especially Marisa Tomei.
She steals the movie, playing a salt-of-the-earth tugboat captain who seduces the anguished DInklage, whose character is a creatively blocked, misanthropic opera composer. Tomei single-handedly makes their odd alchemy into pure gold.
Watch out for an Oscar nomination!
The supporting cast, Anne Hathaway, Katrina Trento, Evan Ellison, Harlow Jane, Joanna Kulig, and Brian d'Arcy James weave together a complicated and funny back story which is yields a rich and coherent reward in the end.
The theater was empty when we saw this but I think word of mouth, especially the performance of Marisa Tomei should lift it out of the shadows. The ending alone is worth the price of admission.
(My wife wanted to walk out halfway through as the plot became a bit tangled, but she thanked me for convincing her to stay.)
Air (2023)
As delightful and light as a good shoe
"AIR" is a fun film. It's about the creation of the Air Jordan shoe, a gamble which saved Nike and all of the characters involved. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck et al do a fine job but the real star is Viola Davis who plays Michael Jordan's mother. With her teenage son emerging as a possible superstar, she plays the various agents, and athletic shoe companies like a chess master. Better actually, because we can see and hear her extraordinary intensity, focus and her rock-solid confidence in her son driving every personality in the film by the end.
What we don't see or hear is young Michael Jordan...nothing but a vague silhouette in a few shots. That makes crazy sense. Jordan's mother ultimately managed to monetize her son's name and image in revolutionary ways. So it makes sense that a depiction of her son on film would have been a tough and expensive negotiation.
If all that sounds tough and cold, it's not thanks to Viola's portrayal of a fiercely dedicated mother.
AIR may not win an Oscar but Viola Davis should.... Jordan himself insisted on her casting.
Chimp Empire (2023)
Game of Thrones, but better
I've never seen anything like this.
Animal documentaries, especially African animal films have become commonplace and frankly rather predictable. But Chimp Empire is something new. This four-episode series is like watching Game of Thrones on a more intimate and intense scale. Much of the credit goes to the cinematographers who have managed a vital technique. Somehow they have brought us so close into this Ugandan chimp tribe the we can see every facial expression, look into every eye and recognize all of the players. Like humans, they play subtle politics, make war, care for children and kill enemies. Narrator Mahershala Ali weaves the power struggles of these personalities so subtly that he manages to amplify the power of jaw-dropping scenes.
I don't know how they did it, but I'll be watching all four episodes.
Retour à Séoul (2022)
A serious visceral film for serious people
A jagged little pill of a movie...not at all what one would expect from the story of a young woman returning to the land of her birth, Korea. (Many Korean babies were given up for adoption to Americans after a brutal war with the North left the South destitute and starving, unable to assure children a decent future.)
When most TV newscasts present a report on someone meeting a parent who gave them up for adoption, the story is usually a heart-warmer - a voyage of discovery and emotional reward. But clichés are not the stuff of this film.
As the trailer suggests, this film is indeed a visceral search for identity. Not a smooth, simple or obvious voyage.
Some reviewers on IMDB hated it, which is understandable because the lead character is a closed book from her arrival in South Korea. The story periodically jumps ahead in multi-year chunks and we appear to be seeing a different person. What we are really seeing is her internal struggle hitting peaks and valleys as she shifts between her Asian and European instincts. These shifts can be difficult and disorienting but there's a reason the film has won so many awards.
"Return to Korea' depicts the terrifying chasm between virtually incompatible identities without shying away from harsh consequences.
The Menu (2022)
That was a shock!
What do you get when you mix haute cuisine, satire and horror? I can't say exactly, but you definitely don't want to stream this movie during dinnertime.
It might all be a bit too much if Ralph Fiennes weren't so convincingly manic, domineering and tragic as the superstar, Chef Slowik.
Also helping to ground this unpalatable satire/thriller is the wonderful Anya Taylor-Joy as Margot (known for Queen's Gambit).
She and this movie will crush anyone's potential obsession with the twee tweezer-food celebrated in high-end gourmet articles.
The supporting actors are more caricatures than full blown characters, and that's why Margot is outstanding; she holds the film together.
Tár (2022)
Skip the first hour
Almost nothing happens to move the plot along for the initial 60 minutes. We do get an Blanchett's wooden portrayal of Tar's character as an icy perfectionist. But don't expect any stretches of great classical music. Mahler's compositions take a back seat to Blanchett's lengthy lesson on the disciplines of conducting. (Not on the spirit of music itself.)
As the first hour ends, and the remaining 1:38 spools out, we find Tar's lack of sympathy for lovers, neighbors and some musicians is further elaborated. It's not pretty.
I wouldn't be spoil anything by saying there is a price to be paid. It's a whopper. It's also not a spoiler to say that Blanchett jumps the shark, going from cold , flat and unemotional to something so dramatic that doesn't justify a detailed description..
The director's concluding shot is also melodramatic in the extreme. If you watch the film, do it with a streaming service that allows you to fast forward...a lot.
The highlight is a vintage Bernstein explanation of the sublime communication power of great music.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
The best film of the year
Beautifully photographed, check.
Well-acted, check.
But simply boring? Only a boring mind could think so.
From his first moment on screen, Benedict Cumberbatch as Phil Burbank inspires a sense of power, mystery and utter dominance and intimidation. Every minute crackles with tension. He grinds The character played by Kirsten Dunst into desperate despair. But will he crush the spirit of her delicate son?
It may seem boring to viewers who demand action, gunfights and bar-room battles...such viewers must be deaf to the unspoken insult, to emotional struggle and to a deep, quiet mystery..
There is not a single flaw in the best, most powerful, but subtle film of the year.
Let it cast its spell over you.
Guest of Honour (2019)
Bravo, Thewlis. Splain' please, Atom
I keep waiting for the day that Canadian films will find their voice. Seeing the wonderful David Thewlis in the lead role of Guest of Honour, I hoped for something terrific. I wasn't disappointed there. Thewlis is note-perfect as a mysterious and tortured man...a food inspector in Hamilton, Ontario of all things.
I could watch Thewlis read the phone book, but when all is said and done, a compelling personality (and genuinely excellent cinematography), don't make for the lack of a coherent narrative. I still don't know exactly who did what to whom and why. The supporting cast is so-so.
I could inhale the atmosphere and personality of this film...I just couldn't find the story.
Echo in the Canyon (2018)
Who Is This About?
Love, Loved, Still Love the breakthrough energy and passion of the Mamas and Papas, Buffalo Springfield, Byrds and the rest of the Laurel Canyon tribe. What we have in "echoes" is a half-hearted tribute to the originals, presented through low-key concerts and studio sessions and wan living room conversations about the original creators. The original music does pop through in brief flashes and there are brief interviews with some surviving performers, but they are unfocussed and don't add up to much. Most of the film is centered on Jakob Dylan and accompanyists like Fiona Apple, Norah Jones, Jade Castrinos and Beck swooning along in relaxed performances through the classics of the period. One writer here says musicians will get it. Maybe. As a fan, here is all I got. The music of the era was a clean break from the ballads of Sinatra and the rat pack. It was a deep dig into the "subconscious" (I would say energy and angst) of the California of the era). I suppose artists like Norah Jones attempt to dig deeper into the California subconscious in a way jazz musicians will get, using the least energetic songs of the period. Fair enough. but it is just an "echo" of a unique musical moment in Laurel Canyon.
Happy Winter (2017)
Wait for it...
The rambling and seemingly unstructured opening of the film can be hard to stick with until you get to know the people and the unfamiliar setting. When you do, you may find yourself deeply drawn into their world...a deeply familial, community of "middle-class" summer people in Sicily. Despite the stresses these people face, as described in the opening blurb here, I felt envious of their closeness and warmth. The intimacy of the film is highlighted by one couple in which an injured and aging man overcomes his fears under the unmistakably loving gaze of his wife. That moment alone is worth the the time invested in this lovely film.
A little background will help clarify the setting...this is from a PBS POV summary and I found it helpful in comprehending this unique place: "Every summer on Palermo's Mondello beach, over 1,000 cabins are built in preparation of the Ferragosto holiday. Centered around a family who goes into debt, three women holding onto the feeling of youth, and a politician seeking votes, Happy Winter portrays a vanity fair of beach goers hiding behind the memory of a social status that the economic crisis of recent years has compromised."
Photograph (2019)
Subtle, Warm and Wonderful
Sure to be a Best Foreign Language Film of the Year nominee. Some call it a "slow burn" romance and the film certainly takes time to evolve - as it should - as does any deep relationship; it is slow, delicate and subtle. The photography is fine enough to be called a breakthrough in digital cinema, I had no idea dim and remote corners of Mumbai could be seen so warmly yet crisply with any camerman's eye or any camera.
Don't worry. This is not the usual tired Indian trope about a boy or girl falling for someone unsuitable in the eyes of their scolding Indian parents. Parents barely play a part in this story, but the character of a seemingly nagging and overbearing grandmother is a script and a performance for the ages.
This film reveals itself slowly and beautifully like a fine Indian book.
It's now in theatres and looks like it will be streamed by Amazon Studios - worth - your time if you're willing to give this relationship the time it needs to grow.
Gotti (2018)
All you need...
All you need to know is that this film's central (if disorganized) theme is polishing the image of Gotti and his son.
There's a ton of material about the organizational struggle among NYC's five mob families, if you care about who the underboss of the underboss of Queens is.
The rest is about making tin heroes of the mobster and his boy.
Sweet Country (2017)
Bravo: Pride and Shame
Kudos to writer/Director Thornton and a cast featuring Australia's finest for a searing drama. It is the kind of film that should make Australians proud. True, the film looks at a shameful chapter of the continent's history...a time of open racism. With spare cinematic techniques, no music, wide open visuals and spaces in the dialogue, Thornton tells a tale that is heartfelt, shocking and contains a grain of hope.
Australians should know that citizens from other countries admire and even envy ground-breaking artworks like this film. I'm Canadian and I can attest that no Canadian film has reached this degree of cultural and artistic significance. Having lived in the US for decades, it should surprise no one that American films rarely cut to the bone as Sweet Country does.
Australia may not be perfect but it is indeed a Sweet Country that confronts its past, achieves artistic originality and gives filmmakers a voice.
Worth seeing, but not by those who are looking for a convential western cowboys and indians fable.
The Daughter (2015)
The Wild Duck Dies
Great cast. Lovely production. Aussie settings. Based on Ibsen's The Wild Duck. What could possibly go wrong? A horrible screenplay. If you haven't figured out where this is going in the first 20 minutes, then maybe you'll enjoy a sense of shock and discovery. Otherwise, The Daughter delivers an operatic buildup to a melodramatic climax. Typical of a bad writer/director, the film ends on a note the leaves the hard work to the audience to imagine for itself. Try watching the best production of The Wild Duck from the 1980's with Stellan Skarsgaard, set appropriately in Scandinavia and much more restrained, holding its secrets close to the vest, unlike this unfortunate effort.