By: Henry J. Fromage –
The randomizer brought me two Korean films this week, not that I’m complaining, as well as several stand-outs from around the globe.
197. Extreme Job
It’s not terribly hard to see why this is the all-time box office champ in Korea. The story of an undercover taskforce who open a fried chicken joint to aid them in their pursuit of a drug kingpin, only for it to surprisingly become a smash hit, is nothing less than entirely entertaining for the duration of its runtime. An action comedy that doesn’t skimp on either half of the equation, I’m confident this will entertain just about anyone. Two Beers.
198. My Way
This Korean blockbuster (made for a huge 24 million in Korean flick terms, but looking like it cost easily four times as much), is about the the quite possibly true story of a Korean man conscripted into the Japanese, then Soviet, then Nazi armies before being captured at Normandy on D-Day. There’s plenty conventional about the framing here, in which two runners who have been in competition since young boys, one Korean and one Japanese, travel similar paths across the breadth of WWII. However, it’s a trip worth taking- with some spectacular setpieces along the way. Three Beers.
199. Terribly Happy
This Danish film plays a bit like Coen Bros-lite with an even nastier streak. A cop who had some sort of hush-hush whoopsy is banished to the town sheriff’s post in a backwater where nothing ever happens… ostensibly. When he gets in between a battered wife and the uncouth husband she keeps going back to, things rapidly spin out of control, especially when he learns exactly what the townies mean when they say they “take care of things themselves.” Three Beers.
200. Frontiers
This New French Extremity film has a reputation for being one of the gnarliest horror flicks around, but honestly it’s no more extreme than one of the middle Saws. It’s also cut like a Mudvayne video for no apparent reason, and the soundtrack is 93% screams. Xavier Gens has some visual ideas that aren’t horrible, and the gore effects are certainly gory, and that’s about all I have to recommend on this one. Five Beers.
201. Better Days
Another exceptional film coming out of China this year- this one focuses on the scourge high school bullying and the pressure cooker that is the national college entrance exam- one day in which the entirety of your future job prospects rests on your test-taking abilities. Actor-turned-director Derek Tsang and his two leads Zhou Dongyou and Jackson Yee deliver a riveting melodrama as their two teen characters find a halting but beautiful understanding amidst a maelstrom of external pressures threatening to tear them down. Tsang directs with an admirable control- the first 15 minutes of this are a stunner. Boasting a straight 100% on RottenTomatoes and having grossed $227 million worldwide, it’s very likely this is the biggest and best film of the year you haven’t heard of (I certainly hadn’t). Two Beers.
202. The Lodge
Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, who debuted with the chilling Goodnight Mommy, take a creative step forward in this story of a young woman with a dark past holed up with her fiance’s sullen children in a wintry lodge. The beginning is like Hereditary shot by Emmanuel Lubezki, and while the middle doesn’t keep that energy up, the ending is as deliciously twisted as you could hope for. Top shelf horror by my book, if not quite Ari Aster territory. Two Beers.
203. Blood Quantum
This indie Canadian zombie film has a killer hook- it takes place in the indigenous Mi’qmaq community of Red Crow, who appear to be the only people on Earth immune to the bites of the encircling zombie horde. However, the insidious outside influences that have historically threatened indigenous communities manifest in bad influences that spell their end if they can’t defeat them. Social commentary and hardcore gore- Romero would approve. Three Beers.
204. The Half Of It
This is a Netflix YA romance riffing on Cyrano de Bergerac with a love triangle between, well, the three high schoolers pictured above (the young lady on the right is writing the one in the middle on the behalf of the not as bright young man on the left). It also happens to be the (yes, truncated) 2020 SXSW narrative competition winner. Goes to show you can’t judge a book by its cover- the depth of these characters and the strength of the platonic bonds between the two romantic strivers in particular makes this story irresistible no matter what preconceptions of Netflix YA romances you may have coming in. Just lovely and affirming. Two Beers.
205. Z
This Shudder horror original about a kid with a creepy imaginary friend is slight in both length and content, but does land some good scares with its genuinely creepy creature design (when it doesn’t show too much of it, that is) and some laughs with practically every scene the kid is in. Eighty-odd minutes was just about right. Three Beers.
206. Capone
Josh Trank’s return to feature film-making is not, well, good exactly. But it’s certainly goddamn gonzo, not the least because Trank has either wisely or foolishly clearly let Tom Hardy do whatever he damn well pleases, and if it’s not the finest acting of the year, it’s certainly the most acting. The concept and delivery of the film certainly wouldn’t have stood out as much without Hardy’s absurd vocalizations and facial tics, and this makes it a no-brainer must-see. But could it have been good? Maybe. Four Beers.
207. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. The Reverend
Black Mirror‘s Charlie Brooker may have been the first to have seen the potential of a Choose Your Own Adventure-style interactive film with Netflix, but Tina Fey & Co perfect it in this laugh a minute return of the inimitable Kimmy Schmidt and her strange makeshift cohort. You’re going to want to watch/play through this until you’ve reached every last dead end and witnessed every bizarre digression. Capital stuff. Two Beers.
208. Blue Story
British rapper Andrew Onwubolu aka Rapman makes his directorial debut in this story of two school friends from different neighborhoods who are drawn into gang life on either side of a war, and knocks it out of the park (or kicks a goal?) He raps his own Greek chorus to the events happening on screen, which are shot with the kind of specificity only someone familiar with what he’s chronicling can have, and emerges as a fully formed stylist who will be exciting to watch continue to grow. He’s already signed up to direct an English-language remake of A Prophet, which I now have high hopes for. Two Beers.
