“Minari” Review

Minari is a tender family drama that also takes a sobering look at the difficulty of achieving the American dream. The film delves into a family of Korean immigrants who eventually move to Arkansas with dreams of finding success on their own farm. It does a great job of revealing the difficulties of making something from nothing, something emblematic of both growing crops and pursuing the American Dream.

Everyone gives a great performance in this film. Most notable are the two kids, especially the young boy David (played by Alan Kim). The film doesn’t shy away from small character moments that don’t necessarily add much to the overall narrative, but takes its time allowing you to slowly fall in love with the family.

One small thing I liked about this film was that it didn’t try to shoehorn in some sort of tacky message about racism or the difficulties of being Asian during the 1980s. With films nowadays, it’s so easy to stoke the flames of Oscar-bait by adding another one of those messages about being oppressed and so forth. Being Asian myself, I think that this film does a better job of capturing the essence of the Asian culture as opposed to drumming up some sort of drama that takes away from the overall message of the film.

I think I wanted a little bit more from the overall story in order to love it as much as critics did, and the ending was a little bit abrupt. However I think this film was certainly more about the journey than the destination, and it does enough to keep you engaged in the day-to-day events of growing a farm. At this point I don’t expect anything less than greatness from A24, and they continue to deliver with Minari.

Grade: B+/81

“Monster Hunter” Review

Paul W.S. Anderson continues to commit domestic abuse to his wife Milla Jovovich by casting her in such bad movies. However, there is something…alluring to the badness of his films. I can’t really explain them. It may be because he treats them so seriously? It seems like he really wants people to like his films, even if he’s incredibly set in his directing ways and would never listen to any criticism.

This ain’t a good film y’all, but if that’s what your expectations were then, prepare to still be let down. I’ve played one Monster Hunter game, and I expected the film to throw a lot more of the iconic monsters at you in the movie. There’s a very small number of monsters, and only a few instances where they pay homage to the game. Most of the film is Jovovich playing charades with Tony Jaa.

Eh, if you’re a fan of dumb and mindless movies, I’d say go for it! Otherwise, you could do a lot better with 100 minutes of your time.

Grade: D+/55

“Nomadland” Review

Unfortunately due to life events keeping me more busy than I’d like to be, I haven’t really been able to take as much time to watch movies as many movies I want to, let alone reviewing them. Going forward, I’ll probably be keeping these reviews a bit more brief. Hopefully to the 5 people that actually read this blog, that’s okay! I apologize!

I saw Chloe Zhao’s The Rider back in 2018 and thought it was pretty neat. I liked the use of real life people thrust into acting roles, even if some of the performances didn’t give me that exact feeling I was hoping for. It was still a refreshing look into the American Midwest, and Nomadland is even better.

Frances McDormand undoes all of the bad juju from her grumpy, vulgar character in Three Billboards, and plays a really lovely and sweet woman named Fern trying to find her way in the American West. All of the people she meets use their real-life names for the film, and basically just take you through the lives that they actually live. I love Zhao’s fascination with the parts of America that we don’t often see nowadays, and the cinematography really reminded me of Terrence Malick films. This was truly a film I would have loved to see in the movie theater.

While the narrative may be a bit lacking at times, the performances and visuals drive the film and it’s a very enthralling experience throughout. Some might say that this film is pretty Oscar-baity and I wouldn’t disagree, but I really enjoyed every moment of it. There are plenty of small character moments that get you invested in the lives of these nomads. While there is certainly commentary about the marginalized and capitalism to be found here, I think the most endearing moments are from the people who find satisfaction in the life they’ve been given, living off of what God’s green earth gives them.

Grade: B+/84