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Reviews
Past Lives (2023)
Beautifully filmed, carefully directed
Past Lives is a thoughtful, moving, and carefully directed character-focused film, anchored by a pitch-perfect performance by Greta Lee. The film involves two Koreans, a boy and a girl, who are close friends when they are children and are then pulled apart when the girl (Nora) emigrates with her family to North America. Lee plays Nora with a lot of positive energy, which is a nice change from our usual angst-ridden central characters. In many ways she embraces her adopted culture and thrives, but her friend Hae Sung, who stays in Korea, remains stuck in his individuation process: he cannot move on from her leaving. In a span of decades he's still living at home and getting drunk with his friends. Place plays a central role in the film as we move from Korea eventually to New York, and the director captures New York in a beautiful, evocative way. Space is another major force here, as silence and time are brought to life on screen: in one of the final scenes a lot of dialogue occurs silently, a moving accomplishment. The part of her she left behind and the part of her that has thrived in her new homeland are ever-present in Nora--she is a positive character of change. A beautiful, thoughtful film.
Kimi ni wa Todokanai. (2023)
Slow burn but worth the watch
It's a slow burn and the pacing is definitely quite "Asian" in Kimi ni wa Todokanai--the title actually translating into I Can't Reach You with Peace--but the two young leads are really fine. The series reminded me of Heartstopper in that it is emotion, not sex, at the heart of what drives the plot: one character struggles to express his hidden feelings and the other must come to grips with the feelings blossoming inside him. There's no mindless sex or inane double-entendre and that saves it from lapsing into rom-com territory: it's simply a story of two classmates who've been childhood friends and then slowly face the reality of what's happening between them. I liked that they're a bit of a visual mismatch, which also placed more emphasis on the emotional side.
There 's a lot of manga-induced "HUH!?" and some fun cultural stuff. Kashiwagu Hari is especially good at the bumbling parts of his role, a natural comic. I think Maeda Kentaro has a tougher job, as his character is supposed to be aloof. I can't say there's much "heat" between the two leads, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2022)
Beautiful adaptation
This is a beuatiful adaptation of Benjamin Alire Sáenz's book. There will be those who quibble with some of the choices, but considering the sheer challenge of transferring such a successful book, especially an emotional one like this one, onto the screen, this is an excellent take on the novel. It's a slow burn for Max Pelayo to truly come into his own as Ari: this is due to the character's own evolution, all repressed feelings and anger that slowly surface, along with the realization of who he is. It's a joy watching the actor rise to the occasion. Reese Gonzales immediately captures Dante, partially because of the insightful casting but also because Dante is well-defined from the start in the book. The two actors play off each other with great ease.
The director, Aitch Alberto, brings a careful hand to everything in this film, and you feel it. One choice that worked well was making Ari's aunt Ophelia more present. In the novel, she's almost like an idea, but here she's a presence onscreen and a reflection of Ari's own repressed self. That was a wise choice, along with keeping Dante's attack "off-stage" to avoid the sensationalism.
This is a film about two young men who are loners, in extremely different ways, and who simply love each other--almost immediately. By the time Ari comes to terms with himself and what he is feeling, the viewer, like the character, can finally exhale.
Good Grief (2023)
Something here but casting ...
In Good Grief, Dan Levy creates a morose take on the rom-com, dealing head-on with the different ways grief affects people. The idea is strong in that it's different, and maybe even innovative, to try to place grief at the center of a film like this--but it would have taken a more deft hand and a little more digging to make this work. I think Levy might have served himself better had he chosen someone else to play the lead. Then he could have given that actor more challenging scenes to work with, maybe even had him struggle with sorrow and loss. Instead, the film comes off as the story of a pampered man who seems to lack depth. There needed to be more of an idea than: three friends go to Paris with what seems like an endless expense account to shake off the blues.
Passion is the yin to grief's yang--and this film lacks passion. We sense no real sparks between Levy and Evans early in the film, and even less when he mets the French Theo in Paris. When we see two actors
kissing passionately, we need to feel the heat, feel that they can barely control themselves in the moment. Levy does not seem up to it and that affects the whole film. His sadness is more like that of a person who didn't get the table he wanted in a tony restaurant.
There was a better film hiding in here.
My Life with the Walter Boys (2023)
Script needed attention--and some wrong casting
I like coning-of-age stories, so i pushed through all ten episodes of this. Still, I have to say that it didn't deliver, and at times felt like a patchwork of different romcoms struggling to from a cohesive whole.
I actually liked Nikki Rodriguez as the lead, but I think she was let down by two factors: the script, which had problems really fleshing out her characters, and the casting. Her character just didn't seem that New York-y; her style of dress was a bit too prepped out for a wealthy Upper West Side teen from a private school. But mostly, her emotional responses felt limited by the often stilted dialog she was given to speak. Her angst and grief needed to be brought forward more, so we would relate better to her and her dilemma.
The Walter family is too large. I don't know how large they are in the book, but I'd have cut out a few children so we could focus more on them. But the real problem here is the casting of the love triangle that supposedly drives the series. I felt Noah LaLonde pulled off the bad boy blond hound, despite the weight of his draggy character, as much as he could, but Ashby Gentry is completely miscast as his rival brother. He was simply too young looking, exuding a virginal aura, and his character too whiny to make us believe Jackie would fall for him. It was like watching one of the Campbell Soup kids trying to have an affair. The rivalry between the two brothers also didn't ring "true." There was no "heat" in the romantic scenes, even on a Heartstopper level. Strangely antiseptic.
I think Sarah Rafferty and Marc Blucas did what they could with the parents (who seemed like visitors from a 1990s CW series). And shoutout to Alisha Newton for making the "mean girl" seem real and three-dimensional. We won't even discuss the vapid romcom that is the oldest brother and his girlfriend's problem--or, even worse, the guidance counselor's desperately contrived romance with the history teacher.
Maybe in the second season soem new writers can rectify some of the series' problems and give Rodriguez's character some depth.
Efterforskningen (2020)
Carefully constructed procedural.
Moving in its focus, the Investigation depicts the processes leading to trying to convict the killer of Swedish journalist Kim Wall. If you've watched the documentary on this gruesome crime, the Investigation will serve as close reading of how Copenhagen's homicide unit went about unravelling the mystery pf what happened to Wall. One of the Danes' best character actors, the understated Søren Malling, plays Jens Møller with such focus and precision that at times his frustration and determination seem almost unbearable. Even Pilou Asbæk is low-key here, as the script call for him to be--and it's always a pleasure to watch Pernille August and Rolf Lassgård, two of Sweden's finest, act. As the dead journalist's parents, they're heartrending without ever overacting.
Still, it's the careful direction (especially those scenes at sea) and the slow movement toward the truth, with all kinds of forensics and science along the way, that truly captivate the viewer in this series. A thinking person's procedural, but filled with angst over the horror of what has happened.
Band of Brothers: Bastogne (2001)
Excellent episode, hauntingly effective
I disagree with those criticizing this episode. First the oneiric nature of many of the scenes seems intentional: it's a nightmare landscape the men are moving in--a mental space--and it was a deft director to make this and not simply battle scenes the focus of this episode. Mostly, though, the episode belongs to Shane Taylor as medic Eugene Roe. Taylor delivers an understated performance that still manages to be incredibly effective, even touching in the silence of it all. There are so many great choices by both him and the director: the way he "fits" into his foxhole, the way he becomes our perspective (especially in motion), the often blankness of his expression still speaking volumes, the glimmers of emotion and realization the actor conveys almost entirely with his face, the elliptical "language" he establishes with characters like the nurse. It's a beautifully crafted performance by Taylor.
In from the Side (2022)
On its way to a great movie
About twenty minutes too long, In From the Side has one major thing going for it: the chemistry between its two leads. The entire film could have lapsed into a rom-com, but it's saved especially by the performance of Alexander King as a seemingly narcissistic playboy. As the story unfolds, King's character, Warren, reveals emotional layers the audience doesn't expect--and King inhabits the character with both joy and angst in equal measure. The excellently filmed rugby elements add a fine sporty frame to this story in which two men in dissatisfying relationships find each other but seem to lack the moral fortitude to do what they need to do: leave their current partners. If there's a place that Matt Carter, who wrote and directed this film with a careful hand, failed his characters, that's it.
The film leaves an empty space where the viewer, drawn into the sensuous relationship between the two men, wants to know why they can't make it work. A romance this strong--in which the emotional elements are as clearly drawn as the physical ones--wouldn't simply bow to team dynamics. The fact that Warren was "saved" by his current partner would pale in the draw of what's happening. Both relationships the men are already in are unfulfilling, one of them (Mark's) spelled out in front of us in all its vacuity. So what's in the way? Mark might be living with a wealthy guy--but he comes from plenty of money. The entire beautifully filmed sequence in Geneva leaves viewers scratching their heads: How could anyone, gay, straight, or otherwise, go through that depth of emotion and then not pursue it? Are we to believe Mark is simply unnerved by his mother's revelation that many men "roam"?
Perhaps Carter was afraid of a happy ending--afraid it might seem too rom-com-y. But I don't think that would have happened here. The two leads didn't need to ride off into the sunset, but they should have been able to leave their partners, whom they blatantly don't love, if only to see what would happen. And that somewhat unconvincing ending--a new glance for Mark from someone else--only makes the viewer uncomfortable.
The Last of Us: Long, Long Time (2023)
Excellence in television
This is a carefully crafted episode of television in which the acting takes center stage but the direction is also impressive. It humanizes the show in a way that transcends the series' zombie characteristics. Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett turn in first-class performances as a couple thrust together by the virus's apocalyptic results. In many ways it's a yin to the previous episode's brutally violent yang.
The weaving of Linda Ronstadt's haunting "Long, Long Time" into the story was masterful and reflects the episode's willingness, like the song's, to focus on longing and impossible hope as essential parts of the human condition.