Get this. Get this!!! Directors who are known for being good… make good films.
Haven’t yet had a 5 film day, which is probably for the best in terms of focus and energy. I had debated going to Sirât – of which I’ve heard many a good thing – but ultimately decided to wait until its official release. It’s one of the 6+ movies NEON acquired this year at Cannes in their quest to snag the Palme again (successfully, as you’ll see in a bit), a move I still consider rather gauche. They also released one of the ones below, which I totally forgot about until the bumper rolled. Not that it particularly means much of anything, but it is helpful in planning to know if something has any chance of actually coming out in the near future versus imminently, so I’ll probably know in a couple weeks whether I should’ve kicked myself for missing it an Hamnet. Anyways, a pretty good day yesterday!
Arco: A-
Clearly inspired by Ghibli – specifically, Miyazaki – in ways that got my hackles up within the opening minutes; not helpful was the dub NEON insisted on sending us, since this is a French production, and while it’s not bad it still has some of the stiffness I associate with Netflix dubs (this is also a Netflix France co-production). As you can guess by the score, it won me over gradually, first off by the quality of the animation itself – there’s some Hosada and Yuuasa in there, as well as a melange of numerous other works that still feels coherent as a whole – which captures the typical framerate anime tends to use, along with the propensity to have static backgrounds or shots with no motion. The plot’s a little extended by the end but its simplicity helps it enormously. I won’t lie and say I got a little teary eyed at the end; whether it earns it fairly or not is another question, especially with one late minute twist very similar to a movie from 10 years ago. Even if it doesn’t have much deep to say, I still appreciated it on a visual level; there’s some truly beautiful scenes, and it works to make you really care about the characters. Still feel a little robbed not getting Swann Arulaud but the cast does a good enough job, and I hope this sort of Franco-Japanese blending becomes more common.
Urchin: B
I don’t want to start every review off making comparisons to other films or remarking on familiarity but sometimes that’s the only thing that’ll do. Which is to say, Harris Dickinson’s debut feels very similar to Mike Leigh (eg Naked) and the Safdies’ with its portrait of a fuckup out of prison trying to keep himself off the streets. Frank Dillane – most famous for being in Harry Potter after I stopped watching those – generates sympathy for his homeless addict character, coming off as somewhat pleasant and funny when he’s not trapped in a downward spiral. He doesn’t quite have the depth of character and neither does the film really; Dickinson (who also appears in a minor role as a fellow straggler) does show promise behind the camera, with a number of abstract and surreal sequences, and a pretty good visual eye. Promising, wouldn’t say he should quit his day job quite yet.
It Was Just An Accident: A
The film Panahi has been working towards for more than a decade, not that he really had much of a choice. I didn’t get a chance to catch the features he made on house arrest (saw part of This Is Not A Film, have a library copy of No Bears waiting for me) and my only other reference is Offside so I couldn’t say whether the mostly static camera is due to this one also being shot mostly in secret. What I can say is that it’s a deserving Palme winner, a knotty moral dilemma about the Regime as Iranian film tends towards without making any of its characters explicit mouthpieces for one side as they try to determine if they’ve found their prison torturer, who’s voice they’ve only heard. All of them have been through hell – some more traumatized than others – but none of them seem to know what kind of justice they want. Lest you think its a grim drudge, Panahi laces in frequent comedic moments revolving around how hard it is to enact revenge, as well as how transactional relationships have become; one of the funniest moments there involves a security guard pulling out a credit card terminal for a bribe. It leads to a stomach-churning climax, followed by what might be the best ending of the year. France has submitted it for Best International Feature, due to being a coproduction and because it’s most certainly banned in Iran. Even if he doesn’t win, it’s a triumph for a director who’s fought to make the films he wants under the most oppressing circumstances.
Bugonia: A-
Lanthimos continues to expand the possibilities of scaring the hoes, albeit in a way that still feels like it takes place in our world. Knew it was an adaptation of the Korean film Save The Green Planet! (original director Jang Joon-hwan was supposed to direct this one but had to drop out, staying on as exec producer) but hadn’t seen that, and judging from at least one of my friends as well as the introduction, it’s probably best that I went in knowing only it’s about a guy who kidnaps a CEO, believing her to be an alien destroying the world. I can imagine the 2003 version being much lighter even with the standard tonal shifts; as scripted by Will Tracy, it’s an angrier film than you might expect. Of course, being a Lanthimos joint it’s frequently hilarious in rather fucked up ways, particularly Emma Stone’s initially calm reactions to her predicaments. Jesse Plemmons continues to prove a perfect addition to the stable, deadpan and almost rational sounding before the cracks start appearing. Bugonia nods to the confused ideological soup a lot of Americans have fallen into both with Internet radicalization and the general feeling of a chaotic world; one could explain why Plemmons’ Teddy Gatz is Like This, but they inevitably feel like mere justifications or excuses. Newcomer Aidan Delbis plays off the two well as Teddy’s cousin, and as CEO Michelle Fuller, Stone gives one of her best performances. I don’t know if it was the sound mixing or just the Film Center theater but one of my biggest reservations is the score, too often blaring and bombastic, doing too much. The ending also gives me a bit of pause; while admirable in its audacity it sort of throws a wrench into ultimate thematic meaning. Despite that, it’s extremely gripping and entertaining, the kind of button-pushing that feels resonant while also pondering where exactly things failed.
Tomorrow: A straight block of heavy hitters featuring highlights from the Big Three Fests, and I see about getting into Frankenstein
Life of the Mind 