Baccano!

Baccano!; animated fantasy crime series, Japan, 2007; D: Takahiro Omori, S: Hiroyuki Yoshino, Masaya Onosaka, Sayaka Aoki, Akemi Kanda, Atsushi Imaruoka, Keiji Fujiwara, Kinryu Arimoto, Sanae Kobayashi

In the 18th century, while on a ship traveling through the Atlantic Ocean, alchemist Maiza and Huey draw a star on the floor and summons a demon which mixes them a magic potion that grants immortality to anyone who drinks it. Over a dozen passangers onboard drink it, but one among them, old bearded man Szilard, opposes the consensus to not share the formula of the potion with the world, and kills some of them by "sucking" their bodies. The passangers scatter... Chicago, 1 9 3 0s. In a train heading for New York City, "Flying Pussyfoot", the Russo gangsters, wearing white clothes, led by sadistic Ladd want to hijack the train, but clash with Lemure cult, wearing black, that want to hold a Senator's family hostage to pressure him to release their leader Huey from prison, whereas other people intervene: two clumsy thieves Isaac and Miria join forces with outlaws Jaccuzi, Nick and Nice to protect the passangers. The train is saved, and assassin Vino is able to throw Ladd and his fiancee Lua out... Szilard finally perfected the elixir, but its bottles are stolen by delinquent Dallas. Szilard's own humanoid creation, Ennis, advises Firo to "suck out" and kill Szilard.

An anthology told in non-chronological order, all telling one grand story, "Baccano!" is a peculiar fantasy crime anime which works the best in its first three to four episodes, but loses that inspiration and awe later on, settling more for just routine and schemtic chases and fights. There are some creative ideas at the beginning: for instance, in episode #2, the silly crime couple Isaac and Miria decide to try out their luck digging for gold in an underground mine, or as he comically describes it: "I mean, we're stealing gold from this Earth!" Four months later, after they didn't find anything, they decide to go to New York City, and Isaac explains his plan: "By the way, a train robbery means... Going to the destination by train, then commit a robbery... Then jump on a train again and run." Cut to Chicago, where a car is parked in front of a building where an old man is sitting on the porch, listening to a baseball game on the radio. The radio announcer goes: "He raises his arms... and he threw!", as this unravels in tune to Isaac and Miria, wearing baseball uniforms, hitting two gangsters near said car with baseball bats, stealing their bags and running away, in a "home run". This couple is both stupid and charming at the same time. The setting of "Baccano!" is much more complicated, though, with dozens of subplots unraveling parallelly, involving gangsters, alchemists and the smuggling of an immortality elixir. However, too many stories start going in way too many directions, until they overburden the viewers' patience.

Episode #3 has a clever scene: two gangsters arrive at The Daily Days newsdesk and ask where Dallas Genoard is hiding, and the newspaper editor Nicholas greets them, since the newspaper isn't only a newspaper, but an information shop as well, where info can be sold. The gangsters don't want to pay 500$, reach for their shirt—but all of the dozen reporters inside the office suddenly stop typing and raise their guns at the gangsters, showing they cannot be that easily intimated. More bizarre ideas start to take over the story, though. In that same episode, a man, Barnes, suddenly raises a sledgehammer and squashes a poor mouse tied to a wood plaque on the table. However, in a twist, the blood suddenly starts flowing back, "Terminator 2"-style, until it assembles back to the mouse and revives it, meaning that Barnes perfected the immortality elixir. The story of how the elixir bottles are stolen and handed over from person to person, thinking its only liquor, would have sufficed, but "Baccano!" for some reason decided to overstretch the story way its breaking point, by inserting a weird train hijacking subplot—since these two stories don't have much to do with each other, they clash badly sometimes. Moments of sadistic splatter violence contaminate the story the most, when better, more sophisticated ideas or solutions would have worked better. For instance, sadistic criminal Ladd and assassin Vino are the worst. In order to force a man to anwser his questions, Vino holds him above from the running train, lowering his hand down the speeding railroad tracks, grinding his arm to a bloody pulp. In another, the kid Czeslaw turns out to be an immortal, meaning that no matter how much he will be hurt, he will still regenerate at the end, but Vino holds him and insists on hurting him by cutting off his fingers in episode #11. Ladd, on the other hand, has a bizarre wish that he must be the one who will kill his fiancee Lua. This doesn't work. Out of over twenty characters, at least half could have been cut to better focus the meandering storyline, since overburdening doesn't always lead to overabundance of quality, whereas the finale is weak and feels arbitrary.

Grade:++

Scarecrow

Scarecrow; drama / road movie, USA, 1973; D: Jerry Schatzberg, S: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Eileen Brennan, Dorothy Tristan, Ann Wedgeworth

Max, who served six years in prison, and Francis, an ex-sailor, meet randomly on a road as they travel from California to Pittsburgh. Max plans to open a car wash with the money he saved in the Pittsburgh bank, while Francis wants to see Annie again, with whom he had an affair, but then left for a ship voyage while she was pregnant five years ago. Max and Francis first stop at Max's sister Doley and her friend Frenchy. When they get arrested for a fight outside a bar, Max and Francis are sent to a prison for a month. A convict tries to force Francis to give him a blow job, Francis refuses and is beaten up. Released again, Max and Francis arrive at Annie's house in Detroit. Francis phones her, but Annie tells him she married someone else in the meantime and lies she had a stillbirth even though her boy is fine. Francis feigns he is alright, but then loses his mind, falls into a catatonic state and is hospitalized. Max buys a ticket for Pittsburgh.

Legendary actor Gene Hackman achieved a rare feat in 1973-74 when he starred in two movies that won the Golden Palm in Cannes twice in a row, Jerry Schatzenberg's "Scarecrow" and Coppola's "The Conversation". Today forgotten and not that fresh anymore, "Scarecrow" is an episodic road movie that seems to deliberately want to defy the classic three-act structure in movies, instead opting for a messy, wild and unpredictable flow assembled out of five separate stories, akin to "Five Easy Pieces" and the raw-organic 'New Hollywood' movement in general. Hackman and Al Pacino are excellent in the leading roles as Max and Francis, and speak their lines with more conviction and dedication than such bland writting sometimes warrants. Several episodes just come and go, without much inspiration, and some scenes seem to lack a point, and thus Schatzenberg manages to build the best bits during those episodes which are focused and clear in their intent. One of them is the segment where Max and Francis land in prison for a month, and a convict is suspiciously much more friendly to Francis than he should be. The finale is the highlight: all the loose ends are finally tied up and offer three consecutive moments of intensity in a row, starting from the eerie fountain sequence. The final act is where Hackman and Pacino excel, giving an emotional roller coaster, yet the entire movie is nowhere near as good as up to that point.

Grade:++

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

¡Átame!; erotic satire, Spain, 1989; D: Pedro Almodóvar, S: Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril, Loles León, Francisco Rabal, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma

Madrid. Ricky is released from a mental asylum and immediately goes to a film set where actress Marina is wrapping up the finale of a horror film by director Maximo. Ricky follows Marina that night to her apartment and forcefully enters, ties her up, and says that he will remain there until she falls in love with him, after which they will have kids. Since Ricky kicked her head to silence her scream, Marina's tooth hurts, so they go outside to get some painkillers. After Ricky returns beaten up by a street gang, Marina has ptty on him and they have sex. When Ricky goes out to steal a car, Marina's sister Lola enters the apartment and unties Marina. They flee, but Marina changes her mind, finds Ricky in his native village, and they start a relationship.

A bizarre blend between Stockholm syndrome, romantic comedy and BDSM, "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" is one of those movies that aged badly—the director Pedro Almodovar embarkes in misguided gaslighting since the story about a woman tied up in her own apartment romanticizes the kindapper way too much. It's a pity, because so many scenes are very well directed, with dynamic and unusual camera angles and crazy, comical ideas (while trying to break out, Marina even takes He-Man toys (!) on a shelf to try to smash the window), but its concept simply blocked the movie from a greater grade right from the start. That is an often debate in Almodovar: his bizarre movies lack a more normal counterbalance, while his normal movies lack more bizarre outbursts. The two main actors, Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril, are excellent, though, as Ricky and Marina, and one almost wishes they were in a different setting with a more honest love story. The opening act, which depicts Marina starring in a horror movie directed by Maximo, bound to a wheelchair, is full of creative outbursts. For instance, in the dressing room, Marina takes her underwear off from her dress, leading to this exchange with Lola: "I'm taking my panties off. They show" - "What's worse, that your panties are visible or your pussy?" While Marina is on her all fours on the movie set, Maximo observes her from the floor, as she asks him: "Why are you staring at me like that?" - "I'm not staring. I'm admiring you." 

The sole sequence shown in this fake horror film is when Marina interacts with a man in a Gladiator-like costume, wearing a mask on his face, who came to take her away, which foreshadows the main plot point of the movie—except that here, Marina throws a cord over the man, runs out the window and hangs on the balcony, as the other end hangs the villain. The main story sets in, and in all of its awfulness, wrecking the movie. Ricky is a misguided character, and it is never clear what Almodovar wanted to say with him that he couldn't have said with a more proper, adjusted character in a normal romantic comedy. He is so impulsive he is almost a caricature. In one scene, Ricky threatens Marina not to say anything to anyone about her captivity: "If you tell anything, I'll kill you and then I'll kill myself. I have nothing, so I have nothing to lose." That Banderas managed to recover from such a character is a testimony to his talent and luck in his later career. The message that some aggressive men are just "clumsy" at expressing themselves and accidental brutes, but that that deep down inside they are honest and just want love, isn't coming across. The ending and the "rehabilitation" thus do not feel earned. Still, Almodovar has so many moments of humor and wacky ideas that he is able to engage the viewers throughout, and the sex sequence between Marina and an injured Ricky is brilliant. "Tie me Up!" is only for the "Fifty Shades of Grey"-side of audience, though it hints at a lot more potential and talent among their authors.

Grade:++

I'm Still Here

Ainda Estou Aqui; historical psychological drama, Brazil / France, 2024; D: Walter Salles, S: Fernanda Torres, Luiza Kosovski, Valentina Herszage, Barbara Luz, Selton Mello, Guilherme Silveira

Rio de Janeiro, 1 9 7 1, during the right-wing Brazilian military dictatorship. Eunice Paiva is married to left-wing politician and former Congressman, Rubens, with whom she has five children: four daughters (Vera, Eliana, Nalu, Maria) and one son (Marcelo). One day, unknown armed men in civilian clothes enter their house claiming to be from the government, and take away Rubens for questioning. Eunice and Eliana are also taken away to an unknown location, interrogated and left in prison for days. Eunice and Eliana are released, but Rubens is gone, and the government denies to know anything about him. After a lot of time, news emerge that Rubens was killed. 25 years later, Eunice receives an official death certificate from the government, now democratic again. 

A biopic about the case of Eunice and Rubens Paiva, Walter Salles' "I'm Still Here" is a symbol of the Brazilian military dictatorship, and through it a case study on enforced disappearance, torture and murder as a crime against humanity, set during the even wider context of Cold War. Calm, measured, restrained, the movie is able to be both objective and emotional at the same time, showing this personal tragedy of the family as an sllegory of the plight of Brazilian people during the dictatorship—but it is one of those 'social issue' movies that place their entire weight into its messages, and not that much into cinematic techniques or artistic creativity. The sequence where unknown men in civilian clothes, holding guns, suddenly enter the family house, claim they are from the government without showing any ID, and take away father Rubens in a car, is eerily disturbing, creating the sense of unease and suspense—since the viewers are not sure what is going to happen next. Later, even Eunice (very good Fernanda Torres) is taken away in the car as well, and placed a black hood over her head. 

The interrogation sequence in the military barrack is clever, since everything is only hinted at (while being taken away by the soldier through the hallway, Eunice passes by a door, through which only two seconds of a woman's head being pushed into a barrel of water by soldiers is shown), yet everything is understandable and sharp. The rest of the movie is Eunice's search for her husband, who has "disappeared", but the government pretends it doesn't know what happened to him. Rubens' friend admits to her in one sequence: "So, me, Rubens, Gaspa, Raul... One talks to the foreign press, another provides shelter for people, another delivers letters to families with no news. We do what we can. But we're not involved in the armed struggle." As a left-wing politician, Rubens was one of the targets of the right-wing dictatorship for suspicion of communism and rebellion against the regime. Another gripping moment is when Eunice reads aloud the letter of her oldest daughter, Vera, writting from London, to her children in the house, but later Eunice's daughter Eliana confronts her mother, since she didn't read the entire letter, specifically the uncomfortable part where Vera writes about the British press mentioning the abduction of Rubens. "I'm Still Here" is very good, noble and humanistic, with a detailed reconstruction of the 70s era in Brazil, yet too conventionally directed and still somewhat schematic, just like Gavras' "Missing" was, whereas its 25-minute epilogue is overlong and makes the movie feel overstretched.

Grade:+++

No Other Land

No Other Land; documentary, Palestine / Norway, 2024; D: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, S: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Basel Adra is a Palestinian activist filming and documenting how Israeli soldiers and their bulldozers are little by little demolishing Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta, a collection of 19 villages in the south of West Bank. The Israeli court decided that houses must be cleared in order to build an Israeli firing practice zone, and thus numerous Palestinians are evicted, and now how to live in nearby caves. New Israeli settlements are built on the land and Israeli settlers show up. A protestor, Harun, is shot and left paralysed from his head down, bedridden and taken care off by his mother, until a few years later he dies. Basel is supported by Israeli human-rights activist Yuval Abraham, who becomes his friend.

A critically recognized documentary, "No Other Land" gives its contribution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the scope of Israeli soldiers and bulldozers evicting and destroying homes of Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, south West Bank, assembled as a collection of video footage made by Basel Adra over the span of three years. It also follows Basel's friendship with Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham who supports his cause. Several images—a bulldozer demolishes the walls of a house, an elementary school and even a chicken coop; a truck pours mix concrete over a well in a Palestinian garden, under the pretext that the farmers "don't have a permit" and that it's an "illegal well"; a family packs its personal belongings and leaves the house; the Israeli soldiers confiscate construction tools of a family who wanted to rebuild its demolished home—all leave sufficient indications of crimes of forcible transfer and wanton destruction. One frame of Basel lying on the ground while a bulldozer is driving above him on the hill, over the horizon, summed up everything down to a T and was even used as the film's poster. There is also the human dimension when Basel and Yuval bond and talk as friends. One unexpectedly humorous moment has Basel and Yuval have this exchange: "You and me should leave this place altogether." - "Really? Where will we go?" - "To the Maldives." Then the sound of a donkey is heard in the background, so Yuval adds: "The donkey is laughing at your idea", causing Basel to chuckle. There are several surprising moments, as the one where the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair visits Basel's village, and thus the Israeli soldiers canceled their plans to demolish an elementary school. An honest, 'raw', astringent and thoughtful document about its era and time: it's the feeling of despair and hopelessness caught on film. 

Grade:+++

A Real Pain

A Real Pain; drama / comedy / road movie, USA / Poland, 2024; D: Jesse Eisenberg, S: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe, Kurt Egyiawan, Jennifer Grey

David Kaplan, a disciplined family man, and his cousin Benji, a clumsy slob, take a flight from New York City to Warsaw, to visit Poland, the country of origin of their late Jewish grandmother. They join a group of several other Jews, led by a British tour guide, but David thinks Benji is acting inappropriate, since the latter also smokes marijuana. The group travels to Lublin, where they visit the remnants of the former Majdanek concentration camp run by the Nazis. David and Benji also visit the old house of their grandmother, now occupied by someone else, and then return back to New York City. 

The 2nd feature length directorial work by actor Jesse Eisenberg, "A Real Pain" is a surprisingly funny, emotional and clever road movie, with a neat set-up of the two protagonists taking a trip to Poland to visit their Jewish roots. The viewers accompany them on this journey, and the disparate interactions between the opposite personalities of David and Benji manage to be both entertaining and educational at times. Kieran Culkin as Benji isn't consistently interesting, though: his character is sometimes charming, sometimes annoying. The most stand-out moment is the excellent one in the middle of the film, when the group sits at a table in a tavern, and Benji leaves, which is followed by David looking directly into the camera and giving a fantastic, virtuoso written monologue ("I just wanna ask him, and I just can't. Like... like, how did the product of a thousand miracles overdose on a bottle of sleeping pills?") that changes everything, so much that the viewers suddenly understand Benji's background and view him henceforth in a different perspective. This is followed by a sound of music, and David turns around to see Benji playing the piano in the background, showing what kind of a contradictory person he is—both broken, full of problems and self-doubt, and yet also charming, unpredictable and talented at the same time. Another funny moment is when Benji makes ridiculous poses in front of a monument to World War II soldiers—but to David's shock, other tourists join him in making equally as silly poses. Unfortunately, there is not a single important Polish character, which is a pity, since it would have been good for the group to connect to the locals and ask about their lives. A major problem is that the movie lacks a conclusion. After Benji was acting is such a tormented way, the movie had an opportunity to give him a sort of catharsis after they all visit the remnants of the concentration camp in Lublin, something that would calm him or help him open up about his problems, but it doesn't happen. Likewise, the ending feels incomplete and wasted, as clearly the one found in the similar road movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" would have been potentially more satisfying.

Grade:++

An Angel at My Table

An Angel at My Table; drama, New Zealand / Australia / UK, 1990: D: Jane Campion, S: Kerry Fox, Karen Fergusson, Alexia Keogh, Kevin J. Wilson, Iris Churn

A biopic about the author Janet Frame. She was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, to Scottish immigrants. Her twin died at childbirth, and there were five siblings in the family. Janet's sister Myrtle drowned. Janet received a scholarship and studied together her sister Isabel, but the latter also drowned. Janet found a job as a teacher, but was too timid to teach. She loved writing. A teacher read about her attempted suicide, and thus Janet was sent to a mental asylum for 8 years, diagnosed with schizophrenia. After winning a literature prize, Janet is released from the asylum and travels to London for a writing scholarship. She met an American in Ibiza and had an affair with him. Her novel was published, but her publisher demanded she write a bestseller. Back in New Zealand, Janet is approached by reporters for becoming a famous writer.

"An Angel at My Table" is an emotional and touching biopic about Janet Frame, who withered in harsh real life, but flourished in art of writing. The director Jane Campion assembles the movie as a series of lyrical loose vignettes, and thus the storyline feels disconnected, but then again, that is often the case in real life: it is chaos. The problem, though, is that some episodes are better, while some are weaker and less interesting. It is sad watching all the tragedies and hardship that befall Janet, showing that the childhood and growing up of artists is sometimes even worse than our own. At 2.5 hours, the movie is overlong and overstretched, yet Kerry Fox is great in the leading role, with that giant red hair which makes her stand out wherever she goes. The two most fascinating segments: one is when Janet is sent to a mental asylum, and her fragile state is obviously misplaced there (the nurses escort patients to four consecutive toilets without doors, to watch over them so that they might not harm themselves, and when Janet is too ashamed to defecate in front of them watching, one nurse just pulls Janet's pants down and makes her sit on the toilet seat; electroshock therapy; Janet writes poems on the wall...). The other is when Janet arrives in London after a long ship voyage, and is lost in the city: when she goes to a hotel, she is horrified that her reservation by mail didn't pass through, so she has to find another place to stay. Campion has a sense for conjuring up a few dreamy images in nature, which amends even some lesser melodramatic (albeit true) moments.

Grade:++

Anora

Anora; drama, USA, 2024; D: Sean Baker, S: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova

Brighton Beach. Anora is a stripper working in a strip club. After a lap dance for the rich student Ivan, whose father is a Russian oligarch, Ivan invites Anora at his mansion. They have sex and hang around in private. While in Las Vegas, Ivan proposes Anora and they get married. Back in Brighton Beach, two Armenians, Toros and Garnik, and a Russian, Igor, employees of Ivan's father, storm Ivan's mansion to demand the annulment of the marriage. Ivan flees, so Toros, Garnik and Igor force Anora to come with them and search for Ivan across the neighborhood. They find Ivan drunk. Ivan's parents arrive and bring them all in a private jet back Las Vegas. Realizing Ivan doesn't love her, Anora agrees to dissolve their marriage. Igor escorts Anora back to her apartment, returns her wedding ring, she tries to kiss him, but he refuses, so she starts crying.

Despite numerous awards and critical recognition, Sean Baker's independent film "Anora" is in reality still two notches below all the hype. Its main virtue is the excellent actress Mikey Madison who plays the title role, a stripper, yet she, despite her charm, and every other character, are so underwritten they never quite rise to the occasion. The storyline is hacky, jumbled together out of three disparate segments which are shoehorned together without ever managing to fit into a harmonious whole. The first third is a simple romance, a sort of "After" for strippers, or a restructuring of "Pretty Woman": Anora does a lap dance for the rich student Ivan who hires her to be his girlfriend. Their romance is superficial, though: the viewers don't find out much about Ivan, except that he takes drugs, drinks and plays video games the whole day, and thus either this segment wasn't thought out or it seems as if Baker wanted to imply that there is no real emotional bond between them and that she is just after his money. Later on, they even get married in Las Vegas—isn't it illogical that Anora would agree to that even though she never met Ivan's parents, Russian oligarchs possibly connected to the crime world, nor that Ivan met Anora's parents? 

The second segment brings a huge shift in tone, as two clumsy Armenians and a Russian thug, Igor, employees of Ivan's father, storm Ivan's mansion to have the marriage annuled. Ivan flees and thus the whole next 40 minutes is a wild goose chase trying to find him across the neighborhood. From Anora's perspective, she is coerced into participating by the two Armenians and Igor, and their comical inability to properly communicate with other people is what makes this whole middle segment funny, albeit episodic. The third and final segment is some sort of a blend between "Meet the Parents" and "What Happens in Vegas", but in a more serious, somber edition, as Ivan's parents want to annul the marriage. When the Armenian forces Anora and Ivan to the local Brooklyn court, wouldn't it have made sense for Anora to seek help from the judge and call the police because they were forced to appear there against their will? It seems heavy handed. One great little dialogue between Ivan's mother and Anora, though: "And you are a disgusting hooker!" - "And your son hates you so much, he married one to piss you off!" The finale doesn't work. Igor didn't do anything near redemption to reach any levels of a "prince savior", and thus Anora's peculiar behavior in the last scene doesn't have any foundation, comes out of nowhere and isn't earned. "Anora" is a good film, depicting the underclass of strippers and their often disappointing personal problems, yet it seems it was aimlessly meandering itself before it got to that point.

Grade:++

Emilia Pérez

Emilia Perez; drama / crime / musical, France, 2024; D: Jacques Audiard, S: Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir

Mexico City. Lawyer Rita is kidnapped on the street and brought to the narco-cartel boss Manitas—who hires her to find him a gender surgery specialist because he wants to become a woman, and will give her as much money as needed. Rita books him a surgeon from Tel Aviv and evacuates Manitas' wife Jessi and two kids to a Swiss town for their own safety. Manitas stages his own death and starts a new life as Emilia Perez. Rita meets Emilia back in Mexico City and has Jessi and the kids flown back. Emilia lives with them in a mansion, but becomes jealous when she hears Jessi found a new lover. When Jessi flees with the kids, Emilia cuts off her bank account, so Jessi and her lover have Emilia kidnapped to blackmail Rita for money. Emilia reveals she was Manitas. In a car chase, Jessi and her lover argue and crash to their deaths, together with Emilia in the trunk.

Despite all the hype and disagreement among the critics, "Emilia Perez" is a good film. Its premise is ridiculous (a narco-cartel boss kidnaps lawyer Rita to find him a sex surgery clinic so that he can become a woman, instead of simply asking her nicely and paying for her services without coercion) and the musical-dance bits are superfluous (especially the silly "La vaginoplastia" song in a clinic in Bangkok), but overall the storyline flows smoothly and fluently, and its two main protagonists are interesting characters, especially Rita who comes to life thanks to an excellent, outstanding performance by Zoe Saldana. In the highlight of the movie, Saldana's stylistic hand movements in a red suit, as she dances on the table of guests at a charity party, in tune to the snappy song "El Mal", come to full expression and overwhelm the viewers when no other part of the film is ever able to do the same. The rest is good, but standard and predictable, with mediocre dialogue and lukewarm execution. The director Jacques Audiard shows respect towards this transgender theme, since the narco boss Manitas is a much nicer, lovable person as Emilia, showing his hidden feminine side, even though that is in disparity with his violent criminal life up to that point—he tries to escape male problems by becoming a woman and get a fresh start, but even as Emilia, she stumbles upon female problems. "Emilia Perez" is a good movie, but only to a certain extent, since much more could have been made out of it, and the songs aren't that catchy.

Grade:++

Carmen & Bolude

Carmen & Bolude; drama / comedy, Australia / USA / Nigeria, 2025; D: Michaela Carattini, Maria Isabel Delaossa, S: Michaela Carattini, Bolude Watson, Liam Greinke, Elliott Giarola, David Collins, Wale Ojo, Olivia Vasquez

New York City. Hispanic-American Carmen and Nigerian-American Bolude are best friends since childhood, and both lost their mothers. They travel to Sydney for Bolude's wedding with Australian Tommy, but Bolude's father Akin, who is against the marriage, refuses to fly there from Lagos unless she can find a hundred welcomes from different places for the occasion. Bolude thus contacts different ethnic and religious groups in Sydney to gather these welcomes. Carmen falls in love with Ant. When Bolude admits she bought a house in Sydney and plans to stay living there, she has an argument with Carmen because they will now be separated. Bolude finds more than enough locals welcoming her via Internet, and Akin shows up there, but then they decide to have a wedding in Lagos. Bolude remains with Tommy in Sydney, while Carmen returns to New York City.

The independent buddy-comedy-drama film "Carmen & Bolude" works thanks to the charm and chemistry of their two main stars, the uplifting Michaela Carattini and Bolude Watson, though they are not able to patch up every omission from the movie. Carmen, a Hispanic-American, and Bolude, a Nigerian-American, who travel to Sydney for Bolude's wedding, represent a sort of double identity dispossession spanning three continents, and their efforts to somehow reconcile their culture, tradition with their modern way of life and their own private aspiration form the foundation of the storyline. With the two protagonists juggling with these different parameters and trying to find a balance, the movie manages to extract a good deal of humor and portray them as sympathetic characters in the first half. The first half starts off in a funny way—in a NY subway train, a random passenger comes too close to Carmen, so she grabs his hand, holds it and announces loudly to everyone: "Ladies and gentlemen, I just found a lost hand on my ass! Does anyone know to whom it belongs?" 

Another amusing moment is the disastrously culturally insensitive "meet the parents" lunch sequence in Sydney, where Carmen and Bolude are annoyed that Tommy's mom calls Bolude "Blue", and which leads to this exchange between Tommy's grandmother and dad: "I'm just really very happy she speaks English!" - "Mom, seriously! American is not English!" They both then burst into laughter, while nobody else at the tables does, leading to an awkward silence, until Tommy's dad says: "Why are we the only two people laughing?" One genius, hilarious moment that shows the reverse: Carmen uses a kippah from a synagogue for her push-up bra. The movie loses this snappy humor in the second half, though, as it becomes more serious, but less inspired, while the melodramatic scenes of first Bolude crying, and then Carmen crying, feel forced and strained. Likewise, it wasn't quite clear what Bolude's father wanted to accomplish by sending her on a wild goose chase in finding a "100 welcomes from a 100 different places" for the wedding, except that it was an excuse for him to avoid the event. The finale ends on a rather standard note, without much of an expected bang, and about 20 minutes could have been cut to alleviate the pacing issues, but "Carmen & Bolude" still have enough positive energy to carry this sweet film. 

Grade:++