Decision to Leave
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a film by Park Chan-Wook, and while his work is well made, I don’t think I was ever really a big fan of any of it. Decision to Leave pretty much puts the nail in the coffin for me to not watch anymore movies directed by him.
I was really not a fan of this film. Much like many of Park’s other films, this one dives head first into the immoral. However in this movie, it tries to make you root for the characters and their “love.” It’s quite frankly a sick love, and the film in general made me sick to my stomach. While it’s not as visually grotesque as some of his previous movies, it’s the implication of the characters’ motivations that cause it to be so revolting to me. The characters in this film make absolutely ridiculous decisions that are outside of my realm of thinking under the pretense of doing it for love, and it really took me out of the film. The ending of the film did not hit for me at all, and the emotional impact it was trying to leave just fell so flat. It’s a shame because the performances and the cinematography in this film is truly great, but it’s hard to enjoy that when everything unfolding on screen is so disappointing.
Grade: C-/58
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On
Now this film was a surprise. A24 is largely known for their elevated horror films, brutal dramas or unflinchingly real coming-of-age stories, so I wasn’t quite sure if one of their first family oriented films could hit its mark. I also felt like the premise of this film was a bit silly prior to watching. However, I was very pleasantly surprised by how wholesome it was, on top of how well it was made.
Jenny Slate gives a terrific voiceover performance as Marcel, and makes his character seem very large in life despite his small frame. The film covers very relatable and pressing themes in our world today, and creatively views them in the eyes of a childlike outsider. It’s a very touching film that left me smiling from beginning to end.
Grade: B+/81
Broker
Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s newest film might have been way more enjoyable for me if I hadn’t already seen his last film, Shoplifters. Broker follows a pretty similar narrative except this time it takes place in Korea, under the world of black market adoption. Korea’s “baby boxes” are quite well known to many churches, and it serves quite literally as a receptacle for anonymous women to be able to donate their children that they either cannot support or do not want to support. Using the baby box to start the story of this film was quite fascinating, as it quickly takes some unexpected turns and becomes a sort of a road trip movie.
The film wrestles with very similar themes as Shoplifters, including choosing your family and being an outcast. However, it did not feel as emotionally resonant with me this time as some of the characters made puzzling decisions when it came to the most important beats in the story. Regardless, it was nice to see Kore-Eda’s work again and the film overall was solid.
Grade: B/78
Barbarian
There was quite a lot of buzz behind this film because of how subversive it was to the horror genre and how it was a brilliantly and competently helmed project from newcomer Zach Cregger (from Whitest Kids U’Know), and with that I have to agree. A lot of the discourse about the film was how it was best to not know anything going into it and to just enjoy the wild ride that it takes you on. While all of that is true, I would like to make a friendly reminder that you could get this feeling for almost all films if you followed the No Trailers way of life! While many people had no idea what was in store for them (especially because the trailer was quite misleading), I can assure you that you can have this feeling with even the blockbusteriest of blockbusters if you just don’t watch trailers! Anyway, that’s my pitch.
It’s true, this film is very subversive, and very well made. Cregger pulls out lots of tricks in the bag to keep you guessing on what’s going to happen in this film. In retrospect, many of the decisions that the characters make in this film are your typical bone-headed choices synonymous with the horror genre, but it’s not as obvious because of how compelling the acting and writing is. There’s also a sequence in the film that happens twice, but with two completely different tones that I found absolutely terrific. So much credit goes to Cregger and his expertise behind the camera. This film was so fun to watch, and for someone who enjoys horror (but not the jump scare kind), this film has well earned jump scares and continues what A24 started by favoring tension through strong camerawork and teasing the audience, rather than having you startled by some stupid loud noise every 5 minutes.
Grade: B+/83
The Woman King
This film was such a nice complement to Robert Eggers’s The Northman that came out earlier this year. Well directed stories about certain ethnic groups that Hollywood has not shown much of a spotlight on in the past, with beautiful and authentic production design. The Woman King is a surprising hit that reminds us that there is a wealth of stories that can be told in the history of the world, so long as it’s treated with love and respect.
Viola Davis is great as a leader of the Agojie, a group of female warriors in 1820s West Africa. There are fantastic supporting characters here as well, including Lashana Lynch who plays a very similar character as the one she played in No Time to Die. However, her character works much better in this film, and she may be my favorite part of the movie. Sheila Atim is fantastic here as well. This film covers quite a lot of history in the 2+ hour runtime, and some of them are very effective and poignant while there were some others that I felt could have been left on the cutting room floor. Overall though, this was a surprising blockbuster that is definitely more accessible than The Northman as it has a larger emphasis on the well-directed action and characters, while The Northman focused more on the atmosphere and the subjectivity of its characters. While I may have liked The Northman more than this film, I was very pleased with how well this movie turned out, and I hope that it starts a trend for telling more unique stories such as this.
Grade: B/79
Blonde
I almost didn’t watch this film because I heard of all the bad press it was getting from movie news outlets everywhere. I decided to watch it thinking it’d be a disposable film for my 4-hour plane ride, but about an hour in I decided to stop watching it so I could return to it on a much larger screen at home.
I get why this film is getting dunked on by critics and viewers everywhere. There are some political messages that people will not like. The film can be interpreted as misogynistic, and some have argued that it’s pure torture-porn. People have said that it’s humiliating to the legacy of Marilyn Monroe. I get that people think that way. But for someone like me who knows little to nothing about Norma Jean, I thought that this was such a thought-provokingly deep cut about the wickedness of Hollywood, and the evil that men are capable of. While that certainly isn’t a groundbreaking theme to cover in a movie, I don’t think it would have been nearly as resonant if director Andrew Dominik had not approached this film with as much brutality as he did. Ana de Armas is fantastic as Norma Jean, and even though she was clearly unable to get rid of her accent for the role, I kind of just accepted it halfway through the film and went with it. What was most important was that she completely nailed the expressions and sense of helplessness that she had as one of the biggest stars on the planet at the time.
While this film might not serve as an accurate biopic, I thought it perfectly encapsulated the hellish and torturous life that Norma Jean must have lived. I did not think that Dominik meant to humiliate her legacy in any way, but to highlight the double-edged nature of stardom and the oppression that women face. The fact that the visuals–which by the way are some of the best that I’ve ever seen–were so engrossing and the cinematography masterful, it only highlighted how conflicted I felt as the movie continued to tell the horror story of being Marilyn Monroe. This certainly is not a movie for everyone, but at the end of the day I cannot deny the feelings that I felt in this film. It was a heartfelt and heart wrenching cinematic juggernaut that left an impact on me more than any other film did this year.
Grade: A-/87
No Trailers. 