By: Henry J. Fromage –
This week saw the start of the Wisconsin Film Festival and the debut of a host of flicks I missed at smaller festivals last year.
247. Inside
While I would stand by the assertion that I’d watch Willem Dafoe read the phone book, this single-setting thriller in which he plays an art thief trapped in an impenetrable and poorly provisioned penthouse suite will put that a tad to the test. He’s never less than fascinating, and I would go nuts in that situation, too, but his spiraling is pretty much the extent of the plot. Three Beers.
248. In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal
This, you guessed it, Netflix true crime show focuses on Korean cult leaders, of which there are not a few it turns out. Some follow the tried-and-true super-rich superchurch super-perv path, while others appear to declare their Jesus and watch the followers and disturbing crimes roll in. Despite some odd repetition in the first two episodes focused on the bastard in the picture above, this becomes more interesting (and bingeable) as it goes along. Two Beers.
249. Run Sweetheart Run
This horror film is a really interesting exercise in genre mash-up that starts as a standard psychopath slasher (Pilou Asaek, who is great outside of the part he’s supposed to be convincing us he’s not a straight villain) and then goes a lot crazier places as first and final girl Ella Balinska ramps up her badassery in a struggle to survive everything thrown at her. Director Shana Feste has a good eye and some clearly pretty quality influences, but her ambition may outstrip her resources here and there. She’ll be one to watch, though. Three Beers.
250. Munich: The Edge of War
Another plane ride, another newish European-produced WWII flick. Although, I suppose this technically doesn’t count as it is actually the story of Neville Chamberlain’s attempt to appease Hitler into chilling out and not starting WWII (which obviously worked out fine). It’s as much the story of a couple of Oxford mates on either side trying their damndest to torpedo the talks by revealing the monster Hitler is to the world. Well-acted drama from all involved, especially George Mackay and Jeremy Irons. Two Beers.
251. Leila’s Brothers
Now, on to the Wisconsin Film Festival. My first film is from Iran, and tells the story of long-suffering Leila as she tries to help her four brothers get out of their own way and start to make something of themselves, even as her little-respected father threatens to squander those plans and what little the family has in a bid to become the largely symbolic patriarch of his clan. It’s like Succession but everyone’s chasing each other to the bottom, with a bit of the vicious class-based sarcastic symbolism of Parasite. Heart-rending, yet impossible to look away from. Two Beers.
252. Mother and Son
Next up was this French drama about a young immigrant mother from the Ivory Coast and her two very sharp sons, as they adjust to life in first Paris and then across the country, together and apart. This is a delicately observed and acted film, so much so that I fully expected it was written and/or directed by a young black man only partially fictionalizing his own last a la Charlotte Wells in her Aftersun. I was shocked to discover that a white French woman that’s my age, Léonor Serraille, did both. Bravo to her and to the absolutely superb cast. Two Beers.
253. Polite Society
Focus Features can sense it has a hit on its hands with this one, and if the absolutely packed festival crowd for my screening was any indication, they’re probably right. It doesn’t hurt that this story of a Pakistani girl who wants to be a stuntwoman and also to break up the wedding of her aspiring artist sister with a seemingly rich Mr. Right with an absolutely vamping mother (Sarita Choudhury, getting her Michelle Yeoh moment) plays like Crazy, Rich Asians and Scott Pilgrim vs The World with a dash of Everything Everywhere All at Once. Now, not to get your hopes up too much, I feel like this ends up not quite hitting the respective heights of those films, but it’s still one hell of a fun time. Three Beers.
254. Next Door
Wrapping up festival Friday was this Korean thriller about a young man who’s failed his public service exam to become a police officer for three straight years. He finds himself in the middle of a crime scene, though, when he wakes up in his neighbor’s apartment with a hangover, a shiner, and oh yeah, a dead body on the floor. I won’t tell you how it spirals from there, but he’s in for a very bad day, plus he needs to get his application in for this year’s test by 6pm. Perhaps just the right side of goofy and/or believable at times, this is a film with a dark sense of humor and facility with breath-stealing thrills. Three Beers.
255. Ever Deadly
I was not prepared yesterday morning for this documentary on Tuvan throat singers, or really one in particular who is working to bring the tradition into some more modern styles. It sounded like a fascinating subject, but one minute into the above screenshot scene in which these two women growl and moan at each other (which goes on at least another 5, maybe 10), I was so very much out. I stuck around and eventually you do get some pled and bled for context, but man, was this a chore. Five Beers.
256. Pianoforte
On the other hand, this documentary about the International Chopin Piano Competition manages to give you a feel for the lives, hopes, and dreams of ten or so of the young people competing as well as explain its musical background in a fraction of the time. If you enjoy sports or spelling bee documentaries, this will scratch much the same itch as you see the competition progress with rapt attention and your own personal favorites from such a diverse group of personalities. Two Beers.
257. The Happiest Man in the World
This Sarajevo-set drama takes a bit of getting into, as we watch a 40-year-old woman on a speed date group activity of some sort as she meets with the 43-year-old man she set it up with, and quickly sees as we all do that something is very wrong with him. He has motives buried in their shared war-torn past, and as they come to terms with them the entire event of mostly middle-aged folks like them from every side of the conflicts that tore apart the region in the early 90s starts to spin out of control. A very well-structured script with another set of superb performances. Two Beers.
258. The Night of the 12th
The closest film I can think of to compare this story of French police officers obsessed with the inexplicable murder of a young woman via burning is Memories of Murder. Similar to that film, catharsis is hard to find as one lead after another turns up cold or one asshole after another ends up having an ironclad alibi. This isn’t about a case, although it is a fascinating one based on true events, but what how it can burrow into the psyches of the officers working it, another ripple of violence emanating out from the deed itself. Two Beers.
259. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman
This animated largely French-produced film blends together a few short stories from esteemed Japanese author Haruki Murakami. I’m not in love with some of the ugliness of the character animation (despite there being very fine animation on display everywhere else), nor the English dubbing, although no vocal performance is bad per se, but it undoubtedly does capture a little of the philosophical, sex-starved je ne sais quoi of the best of Murakami’s writing, and that’s a small miracle in its own right. It goes some pretty interesting places as well as you can see from the still. Three Beers.
