Category Archives: movies

Bob Marley One Love

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Humble beginnings can shape powerful voices.
There is this scene in the film One Night in Miami where these 4 black Americans discuss their fight against the standards of white America. This discussion is all speculation but it is resounding. At one point Malcolm X calls out Sam Cooke for catering to white taste. That Sam Cooke had the attention of the nation and thus had the power to use his talent to make a change. Cooke admits to extreme jealousy over Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ in the Wind. How could a white man write such a powerful song about the African American struggle? After that Sam Cooke came out with what might be one of the most powerful Black rights songs ever, A Change is Gonna Come.
This film, Bob Marley One Love, shows a man who has such a firey passion that can only be expressed through music. It might possibly be excessive amounts of weed smoked, but Bob Marley and the Wailers were so authentically themselves. Unapologetically. There is a scene in their early life in which they come to a recording studio with a very white appealing song. The manager was less than impressed and as he is walking out they quickly switch to a more rasta song. It touches.
Marley wanted only one thing, for Peace. For people to stop fighting and to come together. His music never wavered from that. And as his fame grew and audiences adored his music, while they may not have truly understood the message of his music, the music still resounds. It resounds because it is so deeply true to him that one can’t listen to it without feeling it in their soul. And perhaps as he did his tour people responded so strongly because you can’t feel conflict in your heart while listening to a Marley song. You can’t feel hate while listening to One Love.

Black Bird

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The idea of going into a prison and working has never worried me. I am in the middle of reading The Devil You Know by Dr. Gwen Adshead, an English psychologist. She goes into prisons and does therapy with convicts. The idea is that everybody has a story and that every story deserves to be heard.
Maybe this series isn’t quite the same thing. Young Jimmy Keene, a star footballer, is arrested and rather than the sentence of five years with parole after four he is expecting, he is charged with more and sentenced to 10 years without parole. He is eventually approached by the FBI and propositioned to enter a maximum security prison and coerce a confession from a suspected serial killer. The reward for taking the job, his freedom and a clean record. After his father, portrayed by Ray Liotta, has a major stroke, Jimmy realizes his father wont be around for 10 more years. He accepts the deal and is transfered to the maximum security prison where Larry Hall is being held. The series bounces back and forth between the time of the killings and the time in prison, following police detective Brian Miller, portrayed by Greg Kinnear, as he tries to find proof that Larry killed some 21+ young girls.
While the prison atmosphere is gritty with corrupt guards and clear gang alliances, the focus remains primarily on the relationship that builds between lonely Larry and charming Jimmy. It becomes clear that there is mental instability in Larry, who convinces himself that the murders are all just dreams he is having. He begins to trust Jimmy amd eventually opens up more and more to him.
As the date for his appeal approaches for which it is certain that Larry will be released it becomes imperative that Jimmy get the confession from him.
The series is based on a true story.

Beyond Utopia

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It is easy to wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, get ready for work… and think your life sucks. It is easy to understand the concept of death, and yet there are people who can’t understand the concept of freedom.
I remember when I saw a video of defected North Koreans eating meat for the first time. They were not children. They were adults.
We watch our 100+ channels and listen to our choice of radio station and can’t even comprehend a life of 1 tv station, and 1 radio station, the is constantly spouting propoganda and anti-American scentiment.
At one point, when asking a child how she felt once she had crossed the river away from North Korea, she cried and said she didn’t feel safe. When you live in a country that will put your entire family on a watch list for the disobedience of one member, how do you ever feel safe?
In an interview, one successful defector talked about remembering how after school the children all went into performance training. Not in some gymnasium with fat mats, but outside, on the hard cement, in the blasting heat, and the freezing cold. And you realize, while watching all the mass performances during grand sporting events and oohing and aahing over the synchrosy and beauty, that one misstep could mean extreme punishment. No food for your family, or even beatings.
This film was completely hand-camera style. It was uncomfortable. And I am not going to pretend that I didn’t cry. It is a world that seems almost science fiction, and yet, the most heartbreaking part is… it isn’t.

The Good Nurse

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It only got subpar ratings, but it needs to be given credit for the exceptional acting.
So maybe it isn’t a film involving loud bangs and blood and guts. In fact, for a hospital drama, there is no blood, or guts. But there is a gratuitous amount of death.
These are the ones who confuse me. These types of serial killers. Medical professionals. Often, grossly labeled Angels of Death. Motivation still opposes the purpose of the profession. To heal.
I am not fully familiar with medical serial killers. This was my first deep dive. After watching a documentary episode on Charles Cullen a nurse who had worked at numerous different hispitals. He injected insulin and digoxin into IV bags. Not while they were hooked up to patients. Before they had even left the med room. Indescriminant and complete random chance as to who was given one of the contaminated IV bags.
Where is the motive? Where is the twisted, carnal satisfaction typical serial killers need? What was even the point?
He had no point. He had no motive. It was simply that no one stopped him.

Silenced

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I wanted to have something to say.
I NEEDED to have something to say. But my heart can’t find the words.
How ironic, when talking about a movie about people needing to speak up…

Memories of Murder

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Based on a play this film depicts two detectives hunting down a serial killer in Hwaseong, Korea in the 80s. Directed by Bong Joon-Ho, director of films like The Host, Snowpiercer, and award winning Parasite. Also starring Song Kang-Ho, who has worked in  a number of Bong’s films, as well as many other amazing films.
In the farmland of Hwaseong women are turning up raped and murdered. The real killer, Lee Chun-Jae killed 15 women and was reported to have over 45 victims over the span of nearly a decade.
This film isn’t gritty in the way special effects and edgy music can bring. Rather, it is slow burn. In the 80s when resources for detective work was limited and children ran wild through crime scenes, the hope of catching the killer seems almost hopeless.
But there is an energy amd atmosphere about the film that keeps you there with the detectives. You see them working tirelessly, at one point one of them getting IV fluids courtesy of his wife. And you see the toll it begins to take on their sanity as well as their moral compass.
Bong Joon-Ho won an Oscar for best director for good reason. He is a master at his craft. This isn’t going to be a Dahmer type serial killer movie. It is more of a ride with the detectives who are trying to catch the killer.

The Chaser

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Na Hong-Jin’s directorial debut, this film is loosely based on the real-life serial killer Yoo Young-chul. Named Korea’s first serial killer.
After watching The Raincoat Killer documentary on Yoo Young-Chul and his crimes, this film feels surprisingly tame. The scariest kind of serial killer: one who doesn’t stick to the same pattern. At one point Korea was afraid there were two active serial killers on their streets. This film focuses on his last pattern. Luring prostitutes to his apartment and killing and dismembering them. These deeds only hinted at in the film. Nothing as jarring as the descriptions of the real acts.
And where Yoo Young-Chul, a true serial killer with no empathy or remorse was quoted as justifying his actions with “women shouldn’t be sluts…,” Je Yeong-Min is seen laughing at the police, cowering under a raised fist, eating chocolate. He does not evoke the spine chilling terror of a serial killer so much as a bored, teenage boy.
I think one of the most important moments of the real serial killer case was when Yoo Young-Chul was covered with a hat, a mask, and a raincoat, walking through a mass of reporters and civilians who had, only just the day before, been terrified. That moment was lost here, and with it the world building terror, the chill that runs down our spine.
But, this was just a movie.

Past Lives

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Jane Austen may have been a master, but she can’t hold a candle to Korean love stories. In-Yun, Fate. Only in Korea could such an idea be so poetic, so hopeful, and so tragic.
Past Lives could be seen as a modern, Korean version of Austen’s Persuasion. Two young children who fell in love, as only young children can. Na-Young immigrates to America at the age of 12 leaving Hae-Sung in Korea. Though she maintains the Korean language by talking with her mother, Na-Young begins to develop into a young American woman, while Hae-Sung grows into a wholey Korean man.
Reunited multiple times throughout time. Still harboring the love for each other deep in their hearts, timing was never on their side.
Celine Song does a masterful job of creating the tension and longing and energy between the two. The gentle rocking back and forth on the subway train. The wind blowing Na-Young towards Hae-Sung. The long, silent stares between them. Every background person one half of a couple..
This film is the ultimate question of “what if.” What if you hadn’t left? What if you had come to America? What if I wasn’t married? Who might we be to each other?
“In-Yun is basically about how you can’t control who walks into your life…and who stays in your life.”

Knock at the Cabin

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I kept waiting for the M. Night Shyamalan twist. I kept thinking of psychological experiments or religious nonsense. But it never came.
This may be the most straight across the board movie I have ever seen. The premise of the movie was clear and it executed to a T. There were no shocks, no revelations, no mysteries. Everything happened exactly how you knew it was going to. It ended exactly how you knew it would.
While maybe an interesting story. And maybe the idea of being faced with the ultimate decision of who to sacrifice tp save the world is something to ponder on… this movie was the American Cheese of the cheese world. It tastes how you expect, it melts how you expect, there is no depth or complexity.

Overall: Disappointed.

Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

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40th Anniversary

So… I am going to start out by saying that I am sorry I spent money to go see this… Now, don’t get me wrong, Episode VI is my favorite, but this was not what I grew up with.
Return of the Jedi was originally released a few years before I was born, so I did not have the pleasure of seeing it in theaters in all it’s glory. I grew up watching it over and over on VHS. Full trilogy pack, baby.
What I DID get to see in theaters was a travesty! Some gawd awful added special effects and garbage. This, an attempt to reignite the passion, I am sure. I was 11, and I can still remember finding it horrible.
A 40th anniversary only comes once, and yet I just spent some ten or so dollars to see the version that came out 25 years ago… I will say that in my disappointment I got up and did something I can honestly say I have never done… I left the theater and bought some popcorn…

(Also take note of the fact that it was  rereleased AFTER it’s actual anniversary, and will be leaving BEFORE national Star Wars Day.)

Okay, but in reality… all you young men who think Episode III is the greatest episode of all time. (Yes, I am talking to You.) Becauae it was the first rated PG-13 episode. Who cares?! You think the iconic Leia costume didn’t get 12 year olds a little hot in the pants? And how can you hate on one of the greatest creatures ever created, the Ewoks? Okay, yes, they had a spin off movie that nobody remembers… except apparently me. (Dude with a magic stick?) But Episode VI has everything. A reasonable love story that doesn’t make you want to puke in your mouth a little. Lightsaber action scene with lost limbs. Speaking of “loss,” loss. Epic characters like Lando, who was such a hero to me, in my refrigerator box space ship, I answered to Commando Lando. (Don’t mock, I didn’t yet know what “commando” meant.) And literally every character is a strong character (except Jabba, who was killed by a woman in a sexy outfit.)

Episode VI is the culmination of everything. It is the ultimate Good vs Evil show down, that ends in death, explosions, and dancing. What, I ask you, can be better than this?

(Except Rogue One. But we have a few years more before it reaches 40.)

Suzume no Tojimari

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There are people in this world who decide not to watch anime, for whatever reason. They don’t want to read subtitles, they think they are kid’s shows, they are afraid to have their eyes opened. And then there are the people who have had their eyes opened…
Anime doesn’t have to be some Naruto, Pokemon fad following. What I love about anime is its ability to create and bring life to stories no amount of CGI can bring. The breadth of world building and character creating, the attention to detail and the emotional evocation…
Suzume no Tojimari, brought to you by Makoto Shinkai, the same man who brought us Your Name, does all of that.
The very first scene, with it’s strange and ominous music, reminicient to me of the first time I saw the beginning of Princess Mononoke, or the opening sequemce of Beauty and the Beast. Breath-taking.
Suzume is a movie about a young woman who begins a journey to fix a world destroying problem she inadvertently started. The array of characters, while perhaps stock and seen before in animes of similar style. The drunken karaoke singers. The suspicious toddlers. The trouble-making cat. The aloof young man who walks the world alone, until he meets someone worth walking it with.
Suzume is a movie about a young woman who begins a journey and eventually falls in love. There is no mystery about that. It is about what happens in between. This movie exercises its power to make us feel confused, feel angry, to laugh, and to cry. And in the end, you realize everything has come full circle. When that strange music begins to play again and the credits roll, suddenly you feel the that door close softly behind you.

Bholaa

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Weirdly, the last Indian film I watched starred Ajay Devgn. This film was nothing extraordinary, in the sense of unseen.
Ajay, who played the title role of Bholaa, is merely seeking to find his daughter. But, he is roped into a confusing drug crime and we learn a bit more about his brooding self’s past.
Ajay is like the Tom Cruise of Indian films. Action packed, extraordinary stunts, and 3D worthy special effects. All while wearing a sensible pair of sketchers.
Majority of the film, admittedly, confuses me. He, a short dorky guy, and a stern, by the book, cop lady, drive a bus desperately to town, hauling some 40 drugged cops. It is like the film Speed, only Indian.
Along the way various bad guys set to foil their journey. Perhaps the best group, a group of shirtless, Samoan beachy haired guys, wearing basketball shorts.
All the while, a group of bad guys sets upon an impenetrable police station. It becomes the scene out of the bad Resident Evil movie. You know the one. Where Leon, the new recruit, finds himself locking the station down against a zombie onslaught. Only, this recruit is 55, and the zombies are mindless henchmen.
And, being an Indian film, you can’t forget the Bollywood music and dance. Unfortunately, only one scene, and not super impressive. Save for the lead bad guy, a goth Javier Bardem look-a-like Bollywood dancing while killing some failure.
And, the romcom montage scene of him falling in love with the beautiful doctor and attempting to change his ways…
This is all not to say that the film was bad. Indian films have been stepping their game up and I was happy to spend money to see this one. Films like this give you a taste of everything. Musical, romantic, funny, and slightly ridiculous Tom Cruise action scenes.
It also cheritably provided an intermission. Actually, the second theater outing with an intermission I have experienced within a year. Running at some 2.5 hours, they are being generous. Here in America, 2.5 hours is child’s play compared to the Marvel films or the Lord of the Rings. You will hold your pee or risk missing the MOST critical scene of the entire film.

The Banshees of Inisherin

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So here’s the thing, has anyone legitimately seen and Irish movie that wasn’t somehow heartbreaking. And don’t say Leap Year, because I mean a proper Irish movie.
Previously, in 2008, these two actors, Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell had been in a movie together.  A comedy. This movie did not have the sort of American humor that slaps you in the face. This movie had the UK humor that is just so clever.
But, this film was not a comedy, so don’t go into it expecting to have a good laugh. This film revolves around two men, the moody Colm, played by Gleeson, and the confused Pádraic, played by Farrell. Once best friends, Colm suddenly wakes up one morning and decides and doesn’t like Pádraic anymore. His reasoning, while sound, is also abrupt and not very nice. But the question is: what do you do when a person is not serving any purpose in your life. Living on the small Irish island of Inisherin, Colm realizes he has done nothing with his life to leave behind. His fear is doing nothing to be remembered by.
The film questions the meaning of friendship and kindness. And despair that spirals so deep, you wonder if it is possible to come out. The lengths one will take to cut someone from their life just to be able to find themselves.

All Quiet on the Western Front

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I remember the impact this book had on me after I read it some 20 years ago. Opening my eyes to the acknowledgement that every conflict has multiple sides.
The plot follows a young man, Paul, a German so eager to fight for his country that he forges his enlistment papers. But he and his trio of young friends are unprepared for what they walk into. War is not the romanticized idea they thought it was. The young soldiers are thrown into a bloody battle between the Germans and the French.
While the battle between the sides is unmerciful, the reality is that the soldiers on each side are the same. Though they speak different languages, they both have homes, wives, and families. This is emphasized after Paul kills a Frenchman up close and has to watch him die. Neither side truly hates one another. One of Paul’s friends runs off with a trio of young French women for a quick tryst. This idea also the entire premise of the true story film from 2005 Joyeax Noel, when the Germans, French, and Scottish all cease fire on Christmas morning. The soldiers indescriminately play soccer, drink together, and sing songs.
This film was not breath taking, and it has been made before. But it dove deep into the comradery and the emotional toll this war had on it’s soldiers. And for me, served as a reminder that even though you may not speak the language, ascribe to the same religion, or have the same color skin, each side of a conflict still involves human beings.

Broker

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The word “abandoned” gets thrown around in this film quite a bit. And for some, that might be their idea of what adoption is. But that is also viewing the concept single mindedly and without empathy. You can’t always know all the reasons and factors that drive a woman to give up her child. There was a period in China when it was against the law to have more than one child. Sometimes a mother simply doesn’t have to means to provide a healthy upbringing for her child. Hell, Superman’s birth parents gave him up because their planet was exploding. You can’t look at a baby and assume you know.
This film doesn’t punch you in the feels so much as nudge you in the heart strings. There is no denying who the characters are or what their motivations are. They are all so deeply real. Down to the young mother who puts her newborn baby in a church baby box. Such things implying this is not an unusual occurrance. The baby is taken and then the adventure is on to find this baby a home.
It is ironic to me that “adoption” carries such warm and hopeful feelings with it. Where as “human trafficking” carries so much negativity. But they are the same thing in these cases. And that is a tragedy. That people can authentically want children to have a stable home, and yet be criminalized for it.
This movie was more than that though. Awkward journey around the country to find loving parents for this child. In the process, redefining what it means to be family.