I Never Sang for My Father

I Never Sang for My Father; drama, USA, 1970; D: Gilbert Cates, S: Gene Hackman, Melvyn Douglas, Estelle Parsons, Dorothy Stickney, Elizabeth Hubbard

Gene Garrison, a college professor, picks up his parents, Tom and Margaret, at the airport after they came back a vacation. Gene's wife died, but he met a new woman, Peggy, yet is reluctant to move with her to California because he doesn't want to abandon his parents. When Margaret dies from a heart attack, Tom could be left alone in the house. Gene's sister, Alice, who was banished by dad for marrying a Jew, returns for the funeral and recommends to get a housemaid for Tom, but he refuses. Gene is torn between going with Peggy and staying to take care of his father, who is of failing health. Tom tells him he hated his alcoholic father who left him and his mother. After an argument, Gene leaves the house for good. Gene narrates how Tom died later.

Even though it was critically acclaimed during its premiere, Gilbert Cates' father-son relationship drama "I Never Sang for My Father" is today rather dated, tripping too much over melodrama and too sappy excess. It works due to the strong, dedicated and committed performances of veteran actors, the excellent Gene Hackman and Melvyn Douglas, who keep the movie going in spite of itself. The overlong, ponderous or heavy-handed dialogues reveal that the movie works only on one level, its theme, yet has nothing else going for it. Hackman's character Gene seems to have found himself in the son role from his later own movie "The Royal Tenenbaums", since Douglas' character of the grumpy dad Tom is truly difficult, though in a much more tragic edition here. Among other, Tom is constantly nagging Gene, telling him that he mumbles too much and cannot understand him; or that he didn't want to allow his late father to attend his late mother's funeral, prompting Margaret to comment: "Can you imagine going around telling everyone how he shoved his father off the funeral coach?" Gene even confesses to his sister: "Everytime I see him like this alseep, the old tiger, the old man, my father... And then he wakes up and becomes Tom Garrison, and I'm in a lot of trouble." It also contemplates the problem of taking care of old parents, who become a burden to their children, similarly like "Make Way for Tomorrow". However, humanity and emotions aside, there is not enough to conjure up some broader cinematic versatility, since the director stopped at just being solid, and nothing more. 

Grade:++

Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time

Shin Evangerion Gekijoban; animated science-fiction psychological drama, Japan, 2021; D: Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki, Katsuichi Nakayama, Mahiro Maeda, S: Megumi Ogata, Yuko Miyamura, Megumi Hayashibara, Fumihiko Tachiki, Kotono Mitsuishi, Maaya Sakamoto

The NERV and WILLE organizations battle each other, the former wanting to continue with a Fourth Impact to initiate an "upgrade" in human evolution, the latter trying to prevent it and restore Earth back to normal. Mari pilots an EVA robot that helps WILLE restore Paris back to normal. Shinji Ikari, Rei and Asuka go to live in a village, and participate in planting rice, or meet Misato Katsuragi's son, Ryoji Jr. A final battle of Evangelion robots is against Shinji's father, Gendo, who wants to start an "additional impact" to reunite with his late wife Yui. Plunging into an anti-universe, Shinji finds out more about Gendo's loneliness when he was a teenager, and his love for Yui. Using the Lance of Gaius, Shinji creates a "restart" of the world, cleaning it of misery. At a train station, Shinji is greeted by Mari, who has affections for him, and they both run away.

Nine years after the last film, "Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo", the director Hideaki Anno finally completed the 'reboot' film series with the fourth and final film, "Evangelion: 3.0+1.0 Thrice Upon a Time", yet 14 years after the first film, "Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone", one can safely conclude—it was not worth the wait. Anno's original '95 anime chef d'oeuvre simply cannot be topped, and the attempts to further explore or explain certain of its vague, confusing or abstract aspects won't give a satisfactory compensation. This final film didn't justify revisiting this story due to a lack of inspiration—the opening action sequence in Paris, covered in red plasma, where Mari's giant Evangelion robot uses the tip of the Eiffel Tower as a spear to attack and stab the energy consule of an Angel is brilliant and shows that Anno still has sharpness and ingenuity, yet all other action and battle sequences afterwards are just muddled and obfuscated. For instance, can anyone truly understand what is going on in the confusing battle sequence at around 80 minutes into the film? 

The image of a "spaceship-scarecrow" floating through some red ether doesn't give you that much of a kick. The almost hour long sequence where Shinji, Asuka and Rei live in a village and plant rice could have easily been cut without losing much from the overall impact of the story. Some shocking moments are dubious, as well, such as the one where Asuka takes her eyepatch off and pulls a giant rod from her eye to transform her EVA. The only truly focused ingridient is the finale which becomes a psychological study of Shinji's dad, Gendo, showing him in a flashback as a lonely teenager, indicating that he himself experienced the same intergenerational trauma of isolation as did Shinji. The film poses the question: is it alright to let go and simply embrace someone you love, as was Gendo's relationship with Yui, so that life goes on, as imperfect as it is? This helps Shinji connect more with his estranged father, and is able to finally outgrow his own anti-social behavior and to start a new phase in his life, the one where he goes on to connect with other people and become part of society. This psychoanalysis has merits and amends some other flaws of the story, making for a good, personal, albeit uneven movie.

Grade:++

21 Jump Street

21 Jump Street; comedy, USA, 2012; D: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller, S: Jonah Hill, Chaning Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle, DeRay Davis, Ice Cube

During high school, Schmidt was a geek who was unpopular, while Jenko was popular, but missed the prom night because he was punished for having low grades. Seven years later, they are both cops, and they both get a chance to go back to high school undercover to find who is selling a new drug, HFS, to teenagers. Schmidt falls in love with Molly and even holds a party at his parents' house, thus gaining popularity. Schmidt and Jenko discover Eric is selling drugs, and by investigating they find out his boss is physical education teacher Walters, so they arrest them during prom night. 

Before their success with writing "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" and "The Lego Movie", Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed this untypical comedy for the wide audience, a sort of spoof film adaptation of the serious crime TV series "21 Jump Street" from the 80s, and thus it comes as no surprise that in one scene the Deputy Chief ironically gives a wink to the viewers when he says: "We're reviving a canceled undercover police program from the '80s and revamping it for modern times. You see the guys in charge of this stuff lack creativity and are completely out of ideas, so all they do now is recycle shit". The movie works almost exclusively thanks to the comedy charm of comedian Jonah Hill, though his co-star Chaning Tatum also has his moments. The screenplay has an interesting twist—'geek' Schmidt was unpopular in high school, but now, as an undercover student, he finds times have changed and the new high school kids respect his intellect, giving him chance to finally become popular, whereas Jenko was considered dumb, but now hangs out with 'geeks' to learn something from them. 

Unfortunately, this is where the script stops and the rest is basically just routine, with several lame, forced or contrived situations on autopilot. A subplot where the teacher finds Jenko attractive, but is afraid to make any moves since she thinks he is still a minor, was dropped without the writers doing anything with it. The finale is typical "give up" conclusion that relies only on shouting and hysterics, without any further thought. However, one joke is outstanding and pure comedy gold: around 34 minutes into the film, Schmidt and Jenko have to take drugs from a dealer as to not blow their cover, but as they walk back through the school hall, they stumble upon the physical teacher Walters and try as hard as they can to stay "serious" while he talks, but they start uncontrollably giggling and experiencing hallucinations, such as Walters saying "So, you're Doug? You're Doug? You're Doug?" again and again; eyebrows on Walter's face going down to his lip to form a moustache; or Walter's head looking like an ice cream, while Schmidt sticks his tongue out, attempting to lick it. This goes even further, when Jenko is hyperactive afterwards and ostensibly writes a difficult equation on the school board, only for the camera to reveal he just wrote the same number "4" a thousand times. This is indeed a howlingly funny sequence, and is a highlight of the movie that is never able to repeat it on this level.

Grade:++

Land of the Lustrous

Hoseki no Kuni; animated fantasy series, Japan, 2017; D: Takahito Kyogoku, S: Tomoyo Kurosawa, Mikako Komatsu, Ai Kayano, Ayane Sakura

In the far future, advanced organic life has mostly vanished from Earth after an asteroid strike. The surface is inhabited by humanoid gems, consisting of around twenty female gems and their male master, Sensei, who live together in a palace on an island. They are often attacked by Lunarians, an unknown humanoid species from the Moon that often arrives on a floating black platform. The green-haired gem Phos is too fragile to fight, so Sensei orders her to write an encyclopedia. When Phos loses her legs in a fight with the Lunarians, but doctor Rutile repairs it and gives Phos new legs. During winter hybernation, Phos also loses her arms, while Antarcticite dies from Lunarians. Phos is given new arms made out of gold, but thus her personality changes and she becomes stronger. She decides to help the poisonous Cinnabar get a new assignment, since she is unhappy to be working only at night.

"Land of the Lustrous" is the darnedest thing: it only covers the first season of the manga and is thus left incomplete and unfinished, yet it hints at far greater potentials through its philosophical existantialist contemplation about the purpose of life and finding a new role in the world, reminiscent of "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" just set in the far future with humanoid gems. One of the most bizarre and peculiar stories ever set in an anime, "Land of the Lustrous" has a sympathetic main protagonist, the green-haired Phos who undergoes a fascinating character arc from a weak, insecure personality to a tough, mature and more focused new character. It is freaky how often Phos' body breaks apart (she holds a gem on a cliff via her notebook, but both of her hands break and fall down; during the Lunarian attack, she loses her both legs), yet since she is a mineral-based being they are able to replace her limbs with new ones, including giving her golden arms, thus giving her also a new superpower where she can use gold to increase ten-fold and even transform it into various shapes, from a shield, through a "gold elevator" up to creating a humanoid golden figure as a distraction from a monster in episode 11. Yet, as Phos gets new body parts, her personality changes, too, since new elements give her a new composition. There are some thought-provoking questions here, such as what makes a person's personality, and how much would it change if new donors would occupy more and more share of said person's body. However, the story needed a more focused point and narrative, instead of straying into too weird moments (a giant snail swalloving Phos in episode 2 or a giant beige-colored Lunarian with six arms emerging from a "portal" through the sky in episode 10) which are of questionable usefulness. The themes of transformation of a person through time and personal growth are intruiging, and yet the ending is so vague and abrupt that one wishes for a second season to "wrap it up", since in this edition the viewers will feel "cheated out" of a conclusion. Due to some connection of character traits with features of minerals (cinnabar is toxic when its mercury component is placed at room temperature; amethyst appears in twinning version, and is thus represented through twins here) it can be considered as 'fan service' for geologists.

Grade:++

Weathering with You

Tenki no Ko; animated fantasy romance, Japan, 2019; D: Makoto Shinkai, S: Kotaro Daigo, Nana Mori, Shun Oguri, Tsubasa Honda

Hodaka (16) travels on a ship from his island to Tokyo, yet it is hit by a heavy rain storm. Hodaka is saved from drowning by Keisuke, who eventually takes pity on him and hires him to work in his Tokyo magazine publishing company with his niece Natusmi, where they investigate paranormal rumors. It is constantly raining, but Hodaka witnesses how a girl, Hina (18), prays and is able to stop the rain, causing sunshine. Hodaka and Hina open an Internet website where they charge people for Hina to stop the rain. Hina reveals the only way to stop the rain permanently is for her to sacrifice herself, thereby returning the weather back to normal. She disappears, Hodaka is chased by the police for escaping from his home, but is able to find Hina in the clouds. Hodaka persuades Hina not to sacrifice herself. The sunshine disappears, and the rain keeps falling for three years, drowning Tokyo. Returning back from his island, Hodaka meets Hina again in parts of Tokyo still not submerged by the sea.

Makoto Shinkai's 6th feature length anime film is a dark allegory on climate change which poses some uncomfortable questions about a clash between Ayn Rand's individuality of objectivism and the need for sacrifice for a greater collective good and the future of humanity. As with most of Shinkai's movies, "Weathering with You" also suffers from a too vague, loose 'stream-of-consciousness' narrative where there is an excess of superflous scenes which are disconnected from each other, no matter how gorgeously animated they are. In the first half, it almost seems as if large portions of the movie are just "random scenes" in search for some organized storyline. However, the main plot of the relationship between Hodaka and Hina, a girl who can bring sunshine and stop the rain, has its moments of poetry (for instance, an epic scene of Hodaka looking from the cliff, where a beam of light from the sky travels across the sea, as he narrates he found the other end of the light in the scene where the beam of light illuminates Hina in Tokyo). Wherever Hodaka goes, it is constantly raining. On the other hand, Hina has the power to clear the sky and bring sunshine, a stable weather. Their pairing is thus a merging of yin and yang. The ending is chilling—Hodaka shrugs off the fact that Hina's sacrifice could bring back a normal weather by claiming that the "world was always messed up", and thus the dark ending sets in. Hodaka and Hina choose individuality and personal happiness instead of saving collective humanity, which therefore destroys the happiness of millions of people. Is personal selfishness more important than selfless altruism which could change the future for the better of humanity? These themes deserved a better movie than the rather chaotic "Weathering with You", though it gives food for thought.

Grade:++

Holiday

Holiday; romantic comedy, USA, 1938; D: George Cukor, S: Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Doris Nolan, Lew Ayres, Henry Kolker, Edward Everett Horton

While on vacation, Johnny Case met a girl, Julia Seton, and decided to marry her. Upon arriving at her home, Johnny is surprised to find out Julia lives in a mansion, since her father, Edward, is a rich banker, and isn't inclined that her daughter marries an "ordinary", working class man. Julia's sister Linda is much more free-spirited and thus actually connects with Johnny even better than the uptight Julia. The enagagement is announced at a New Year's Eve party. Upon hearing that Johnny wants to take a few days off from work to think about his role in life, and that he plans to sail away at the evening, Julia breaks up the engagement. Linda runs after Johnny in the ship, and they kiss.

One of George Cukor's lesser films is still a fine fun due to a competent screenplay and a tight rhythm, whereas the two leading actors Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn play these role as enthusiastically as if they are in an excellent film. "Holiday" is objectively a good film, yet it needed more snappy dialogues, ingenuity or inspiration to edge itself into something permanent, since its central theme of a clash between free-spirited individualism and rigid conformity, as well as advocacy for independence wasn't articulated as well as it could have been, and some moments of 'empty walk' reduce its quality. Even though most of the dialogues are rather routine or straightfroward, some of the best ones have spark and charm, whether comical ("If you ask me, this is the worst case of downright rudeness I've seen!" - "And has someone asked you?"; "You think talk is all it was?" - "I think it was less than that!") or emotional ("Johnny, when two people love each other as much as you do, anything that keeps them apart must be wrong"). The authors and actors seem to be more energetic about the movie than its actual final result warrants it, yet some of its best moments could have easily fit into the two best Grant-Hepburn comedies, "Bringing Up Baby" and "The Philadelphia Story".

Grade:++

Jacob the Liar

Jakob der Lügner; drama / tragicomedy, Germany / Czech Republic, 1974, D: Frank Beyer, S: Vlastimil Brodský, Erwin Geschonneck, Henry Hübchen, Blanche Kommerell, Manuela Simon, Armin Mueller-Stahl

A Jewish ghetto, World War II. Jakob Heym is caught by the guards walking on the streets after 8pm, and thus sent to report to the office for punishment. In the hallway, Jakob overhears a radio announcement that the Soviet Army is 20 km away from Bezanika. A superior releases him. In order to stop friend Mischa from stealing potatoes from a wagon, Jakob lies that he has a radio and heard the news of the Soviet Army. The rumors of the radio spread, and the people keep asking Jakob about further news, so he has to make stuff up, or lie that the radio is broken. Jakob also takes care of a little girl in his apartment, Lina. Mischa on the other hand marries Rosa. When Jakob reveals the truth, that there is no radio, his friend Kowalski hangs himself. The Nazi Army orders all the Jews deported from the ghetto on to a train, to an unknown direction.

One of the most famous movies from East Germany, a brave, honest and cathartic depiction of an episode from the Holocaust made by the Germans themselves, "Jacob the Liar" is a giant meditation on the ethical problem of lying in the name of giving people hope. Is it justified? Can a lie be used for good? Is it not better to simply accept reality, no matter how depressing it is? Can these lies create even more problems? The director Frank Beyer uses a "raw", minimalist style without music to depict the disturbing environment of a Jewish ghetto in World War II as a direct contrast to his protagonist's imaginary lies and pipe dreams, and is much more "grounded" and realistic than Benigni's similar "Life is Beautiful"—among other things, Jakob finds a fly in his bowl of soup, whereas when he decides to use a public toilet intended for German officers, his friend Kowalski has to deliberately throw some boxes on the ground, to distract a German guard who was waiting in front of said ocuppied toilet, so the guard beats Kowalski while Jakob secretly escapes from the toilet. One Jew who defied an order and approached a wagon was shot on the spot. On the other hand, Jakob is surprisingly optimistic and stoic as a character, which gives the story optimism—there is just enough humor for this whole story to not be unbearably depressing and dark. In the opening, a text says: "The story of Jakob the Liar never happened like that". But then another text adds: "Definitely not". "Maybe it happened like that, nontheless". In one scene, Jakob talks to the girl Lina: "I think school is a great invention. Dumb kids go in, and smart kids come out". Some illogical moments bother (why would nobody demand to see Jakob's alleged radio?) and certains scenes don't work (the cringe attempt of Jakob changing his voice to deceive Lina that she is listening to a radio hidden behind a wall), yet the story's overall grip is simply superior and intelligent.

Grade:+++