Never have I cared less who won a tennis match. Or, for that matter, spent two hours with three less attractive, less interesting people. Pretty much everything about the tennis rang false, except perhaps the arrested development of the players. If this is what’s getting good reviews these days, heaven help the viewers over a certain age.
As a fan of Japanese history and culture and having read positive reviews, I was looking forward to spending the next couple weeks watching the ten-part Shogun. Episode 1, however, left me annoyed, despite the wonderful costumes and pageantry.
How could John Blackthorn emerge from the wasted schooner, where starvation had struck the crew, with a body-builder’s body and no apparent ill effects, physical or psychological?
Why did the Japanese adopt Blackthorn almost as an equal?
The retainer who speaks out, bringing extinction on his family line, makes a point about honor in the society, but we’re given no context.
The Japanese dialogue is easier to follow, because it’s subtitled. I frequently couldn’t understand the speech of Rodrigues, the Portuguese pilot – why make it so hard for the viewer?
The death-by-boiling-water episode was meant to show how casually cruel the Japanese could be and their lack of respect for foreigners, but the method chosen made little sense: the lord said he wanted to see how a man handled death; boiling in water was hardly instructive of anything.
The whole climbing down the rope episode made no sense: there’s no way the Japanese lord would have undertaken the task himself, or felt challenged to do so by the foreigner, especially if the object was rescuing a Portuguese.
In short, the verisimilitude of the set was belied by the lack of realism in the plot. I sense a costumed soap opera coming
Two good in-flight movies, following basic formulas: boy-meets-girl for Anyone But You and coming of age for Blinded By the Light. There are no surprises, but attractive leads make the predictable stories fun to watch. Blinded, of course, benefits from a soundtrack of great Bruce Springsteen songs. Anyone left me with the question of what makes a relationship? He and she had nothing in common, except their suppressed lust, which arose on first sight. Fine for the movies, but what about life?
Taking a cue from the Oscars and in another way the Golden Globes, I have divided my Top Ten for 2023 into two categories: five of the very best were foreign-language films, and I was able to cobble together five respectable movies in English. Contrary to what the critics said, and seem to say every year, this was not a great year for the movies. Were it not for the Oscar-nominated foreign films, which weren’t released to the public until 2024, I could not have put together a top ten.
Foreign-Language Films
1. Anatomy of A Fall. A clever story and attractive actors showed what a director can do with minimal sets and a small budget. The plot challenged you every step of the way: did she push her husband or did he fall, and the question ran another level deeper. Then, does a trial deliver justice, or truth? And the genius was, at the end we don’t know the answers.
2. Zone of Interest. A chillingly original take on the Holocaust, a story we thought we knew, brilliantly conceived, photographed and acted. The relevance today, with events in Gaza, only made the message, never spoken, more powerful.
3. Io Capitano. At the other end of the budget spectrum from Fall, this Italian film brought to life an immigrant’s journey from Senegal, through Mali, the Sahara Desert, to Sebha then Tripoli in Libya before ending on the Mediterranean. Seemingly too horrific to be true, parts of the story are playing out every day. A wringer of a film (as were Zone and Fall).
4. Fallen Leaves. Another bleak world, but where there is love there is hope and beauty. The rom-com story is familiar but it is told with a spare sweetness that more than engages. The Finnish setting doesn’t try to be attractive; we have the lead couple’s faces for that.
5. The Teachers’ Lounge. A young sixth-grade teacher against the German school system was refreshing for the real-world problems it offered. When to buck the system, when to go along, how much to take upon yourself are questions we see around us, at least in the newspaper, every day.
Foreign, English-Language Films
1. Oppenheimer. This deserves a category of its own, the best picture in almost every category, from Acting to Cinematography to Directing to Score. The story is Important and cleverly told: we are sucked into the drama of Robert Oppenheimer’s odd life, while the world events around him jog our memory of history without taking over. And the surprising use of Lewis Strauss as a foil allows the filmmakers a moment of happy ending before we are left to ponder our future. And what actors!
American Films
1. The Holdovers. The feel-good movie for Christmas, and boy was it needed! In every way a throwback to the ’70s, this was funny, sweet, easy to follow and impossible not to like. The three leads were award-worthy and forged an unlikely three musketeers relationship that warmed the snowy prep school setting.
2. May December. An acting tour de force with another unlikely trio rubbing each other the wrong way, setting off little sparks. The Southern milieu added a Gothic sheen to a story that would seem farfetched had it not been infamous.
3. Priscilla. A sideways take on the Elvis Presley story, with a remarkable performance in the title role and a darn good Elvis.
4. Barbie. There was so much here, you could pick and choose what you liked (Barbie) and what you didn’t care for (Ken). It was a comic strip made with subtle intelligence and a love of the cinema.
5. Air. A film about Michael Jordan that didn’t show Michael but gave us the wonderful Matt Damon/Ben Affleck tag team. Very American and the best corporate drama of the year.
I felt I was watching My Dinner With Andre, times three or four, held in a rural, charmless Turkish village in winter, in the snow. The “hero” tested the viewer’s sympathy by lying to his student, psychologically abusing her, betraying his roommate, taking advantage of a disabled woman and being a crappy teacher. But he was never at a loss for words. And he was an exceptional photographer, in an aside that was extraneous to the plot. Even though everything moved slowly, at length, over the film’s 3:20 I didn’t quite catch who some of the characters were. Or why our hero walked out of his village into a movie studio at one point. I will say that after thinking I would leave after an hour, I fell into the film’s rhythm–it was well made–and made it to spring, when the dry grasses appeared out of nowhere.
What better setting for a horror flick than a convent somewhere out in the Italian countryside? When Sydney Sweeney, playing a young naif from Detroit, takes her vows in a foreign tongue she little expects that the Immaculate Conception of the movie’s title will be thrust, unwillingly as 20 centuries before, upon her. The Catholic Church sustains another nail in the coffin, but that ship may have already left port.
As good as Timothee Chalamet was in Wonka, he’s that bad in Dune. His thin frame and wispy good looks do not an action hero make. I suppose there is a story, as the film is based on a famous book, but I couldn’t discern it. The ‘2’ in the title might have tipped me off to the movie’s ending, which was less resolution than warning that ‘3’ is still to come. The shots of the dunes and flying machines may be spectacular, but the effects weren’t special. Star Wars made more sense and was better in every way.
Maybe if you’re a big fan of Jon Batiste or a personal friend of his wife…
Matteo Garrone, a master director, created multiple vivid and convincing worlds: the shanties of Dakar, the emptiness of the Sahara, the hellholes of Libya, the turbulence of a Mediterranean crossing, just to name his principal locations. The artistry of his shots also fed the most beautiful closing credits I’ve ever seen. The settings were secondary, however, to the gripping, and shocking, story of two Senegalese cousins lured to Europe by a dream. While we can only hope for a happy ending to their story, the film title–”I Captain”–marks the personal growth of Seydou, the astonishing 16-year-old who carries the film.
Lest I forget, I should thumbnail the seven films I saw at SBIFF (not counting the extra-festival free showing of Zone of Interest), from best to worst:
Wicked Little Letters – our best festival experience, augmented by having our names as sponsors highlighted before both showings. Jessie Buckley should get a BAFTA nomination for her performance as the louche Irish neighbor, and Olivia Colman was wonderful as usual. Everyone else was a kick, too, and the story provided laughs galore.
The Cowboy and the Queen – a documentary from our backyard with an enlightening, inspiring story about a better way to “break” horses. And a good supporting role for QEII.
Suze – We enjoyed the lighthearted very Canadian story of the overdoting mother who takes care of her daughter’s ex-boyfriend.
Before It Ends – Well made story of moral dilemma in Denmark weeks before the German occupation ended.
Snow Leopard – not a good movie by Western standards, but an insight into Tibetan culture and humor, not unlike ours.
Dance First – a fantasy about Samuel Beckett that shed little light and left me cold.
Let Me Go – Sorry, but an unattractive lead and unsexy sex made me wish I were elsewhere.
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