By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week I crack open the streaming options again and take down another bevy of 2020 releases worth a look. There are some good ones out there.
169. The Platform
This Spain-produced Netflix horror film is all high concept, but what a concept it is… a platform descends through a prison/rehab center full of a sumptuous feast. Those at the top level gorge on whatever they like, while those on lower levels are left with their scraps, or, worse, nothing. Every month you’re assigned to a new level with a cellmate of sorts, which just juices the desperation and destroys any concept of the sort of teamwork that it would take to survive. One man has other ideas, though… altogether a terribly depressing, but hard to tear your eyes away from flick. Two Beers.
170. The Photograph
This romantic flick has a truly excellent cast (I will follow Lakeith Stanfield wherever his career takes him, dammit), but its time-cutting structure and perhaps laudable intent to not delve too deep into the drama makes for a dramatically inert film that feels about twice as long as it’s standard 105 minutes or so. I can’t say it’s bad, but it would have been torture in a theater. Four Beers.
171. The Assistant
Julia Garner plays the first in, last out of the office assistant to a very clearly portrayed but never seen Harvey Weinstein figure. We follow her over the course of a single day where she performs duties a little beyond the pale, like cleaning his couch in the morning, or taking the new assistant who just flew in from Idaho to a Park Avenue hotel where he put her up. She’s far from ignorant or soulless, though, at one point going to a company lawyer played by Matthew McFadyen who clearly has his gaslighting “advice” schtick down pat after plenty of practice. Garner barely says a word, but communicates leagues as she fades back into his enabling apparatus, like the many, many probably not bad people that played accessory to Weinstein’s reign of abuse. Two Beers.
172. Bad Education
Hugh Jackman is a force playing Frank Tassone, the district superintendent for one of the most successful school districts in the country, who, alongside his longtime administrator (played by Allison Janney), finds everything he built crumbling around him when an intrepid high school report starts to unravel a years-long embezzlement scheme run under the radar of accountants and auditors. He summons utter trustworthiness and charisma, precarious vanity, and cold calculation, sometimes in the same scene. Here’s hoping the Oscars’ one-year-only streaming allowance allows this one to sneak into the race (and all hail Cory Finley, who’s now 2 for 2). Two Beers.
173. 1BR
This LA-set horror, in which a Hollywood-hopeful young woman finds what appears to be the perfect apartment, full of perhaps too attentive and friendly neighbors, gets to the point quickly and devastatingly. I won’t spoil where it goes, but take my word that the psychological and social depths it plumbs are surprisingly brutal. Shades of Get Out here. Two Beers.
174. A White, White Day
This Icelandic submission for Best International Film could have very easily made the overall list. It features a spectacular performance in Ingvar Eggert Sigurosson’s portrayal of a recent widower who suspects his wife was cheating on him. He represses his grief and emotion to the point that an explosion is all but inevitable- but can he draw back at the precipice, or will he tumble over like the stone we watch for a solid three minute shot in it’s path down a mountain to the sea? 35-year-old Director Hlynur Palmason establishes himself as a massive voice on the world cinema stage, and if he’s just establishing his voice now… watch out. A Toast.
175. Office
This Korean thriller opens with a career office worker coming home to his family and… killing them all with a hammer. Things don’t really let up from there, as we join his officemates as they find out what he did, and start to be questioned by the police about their clearly less than supportive and salutary office environment. Mousy Lee Mi-rae (Snowpiercer‘s Ko Ah-sung) is the lowest on the office totem pole as an intern, and harbors the secret of her relationship with the still on-the-loose killer. Three Beers.
