Carbon

Carbon; satire / black comedy, Moldova / Romania / Spain, 2022; D: Ion Borș, S: Dumitru Roman, Ion Vântu, Igor Caras-Romanov, Adriana Bîtca, Viorel Cornescu, Ion Coșeru

A small town in eastern Moldova, August 1 9 9 2. The country is preparing for its first independence day after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but Goreshist Russia ordered war criminal Igor Smirnov to carve up a puppet state, Transnistria, which leads to war. Dima, an unemployed lad, decides to enlist to the Moldovan army because veterans will receive an apartment, and he wants to settle there with his girlfriend. Dima persuades a former Afghan war veteran and now farmer, Vasea, to drive him in a tractor to the battlefront. However, along the way, they find a burned corpse of a man on the ground. Vasea insists they must burry him properly, but in the hospital they say to get a certificate from the priest, who in turns tells him to get a certificate from the police, who in turn sends them to the mayor. When a fake rumor spreads that the corpse is actually of Smirnov, four Russian mafia thugs capture Dima, Vasea, the mayor and the policeman, but let them go when Smirnov turns out to be alive. Dima takes care of the corpse, a separatist, while Vasea gives him the keys to a new apartment.

The higest-grossing Moldovan film in Moldovan cinemas at that time, with over 150,000 tickets sold at the local box office, "Carbon" is a moderately interesting satire on the country's specific past, in this case the Transnistrian War. The director Ion Bors does not have that much inspiration, nor a sense for how to conjure up a good gag, but its symbolic story touches the nerve of the country's collective consciousness, depicting the bitter time of the Transnistrian separatism in a comical, absurd way through the story of two clumsy men who want to burry an unknown, burned corpse, but only encounter bureaucracy and sloppiness, which also says a lot of about the mentality of their society—a nurse tells them to first get a death certificate from the police station, but once there, Vasea finds the doors locked, as the policeman is in his back yard, preparing pork for a wedding, so Vasea has to take a knife and shave the pig from the sides. Dima and Vasea then go to a priest, but he is more preoccupied with blessing a new car with holy water, as its owner shoves him money in the pocket. Dima and Vasea finally call the mayor to give them a permit for a burrial, and the first thing when he arrives at the policeman's back yard and sees the corpse covered by a blanket, is to think it is the pork. Several absurd situations appear in the second half: in one of the best, as the Russian thugs appear to search for the corpse in an Orthodox church, Dima, Vasea and another man hide it under a cloth, kneel in front of it, and claim it contains the holy remains of Saint Ictirian. Despite the wacky and ridiculous situations, they are still grounded: especially memorable are little clips from Russian TV, accusing Moldovans as "fascists" to try to cover for the Russian-controlled puppet state of Transnistria, which rings even more true as the film was released during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, with similar imperialist cliché excuses. "Carbon" never truly ignites into some outstanding moment, and thus feels more like lukewarm fun.

Grade:++

Trikal

Trikal; drama, India, 1985; D: Shyam Benegal, S: Leela Naidu, Sushma Prakash, Nikhil Bhagat, Anita Kanwar, Neena Gupta, Soni Razdan, Dalip Tahil, Naseeruddin Shah

Ruiz Pereira returns in a car to his now abandoned mansion in Goa. He remembers his life 24 years earlier, during the Portuguese rule of Goa: Ruiz is one of the many Portuguese people attending a funeral of the influential Ernesto. His widow, Dona Maria, refuses to accept his death, tries to summon his ghost during sessions with her maid Milagrenia, and orders that her granddaughter Ana should marry the student of medicine Erasmo. Francis is in love with Aurora, Ana's sister. However, Ana is in love with her old acquientance Leon, an escaped convict hiding in their basement. Ruiz was in love with Ana, but since she rejected him, he starts a fling with Milagrenia, who is left pregnant. Ana is also left pregnant from Leon, much to the shock of her mother Sylvia who thinks she ruined their family reputation. The Indian attack and takeover of Goa scatters the family: Ana and Leon leave for Lisbon; Milagrena marries an older man and also leaves. Back in the present, Ruiz leaves the mansion.   

"Trikal" is a rare film depicting the life of the Portuguese Goa exclave before the 1 9 6 1 Indian attack and annexation, connecting the isolated lifestyle of the colonial families there with the historical changes during the decolonization of Asia in the second half of the 20th century. Hindu actors here play Portuguese characters, but speak Hindi and Konkani languages. The opening act is the best directed thanks to the competent director Shyam Benegal, elegantly setting up everything: a man in a suit, Ruiz Pereira, travels in a car through a village in Goa, stops and enters an empty mansion, as a flashback appears in the same scene, as men are carrying a coffin behind him, and the viewers are transported to 24 years in the past. As people are mourning a dead man in bed, Ernesto, Ruiz the narrator introduces several characters in the room, and finally points to a young lad among them: "That is me 24 years ago". As the grandmother (and now widow) Dona Maria sits in a chair and loudly listens to music, ignoring the funeral, she speaks in Portuguese, but then Ruiz the narrator says: "Let's switch to a language we can understand", and she (and everyone else) start speaking Hindi for the rest of the film. The funeral is a symbol for the end of the Portuguese rule in Goa—but the characters don't know it yet. 

After the funeral, a man holds a speech for the guests at the table: "He left among us his good wife, a nice daughter. And other than that, some beautiful children... of which some are present here", igniting a chuckle among the crowd. The daughter, Syvlia, complains: "He shouldn't have said that", as her husband says: "Your father was like that. Who knows how many children he has?" The hypocrisy of the family is already set-up here, showing how these people accept Ernesto's illegitimate children, but will attack the granddaughter Ana and maid Milegrena for their "illegitimate" pregnancy. The debates among the locals about the political situation and the Indian blockade is interesting to listen to: "So now Indians will rule here?" - "Why not, aren't we Goan Indians?" - "Not at all. We are citizens of Portugal." - "That's why general Ferry sent the entire army to Africa. Portugal will not protect Goa." - "We want our own country. Where there will be our own culture and people". Finally, Mr. Simon concludes: "Where a person was born, grew up, resided, that's his culture. Our country is a blend of many beautiful colors. And its most beautiful color is Goa." The anxiety, fears and uncertainty of these characters, who do not know what their future will look like, is palpable, as one woman comments how there will be no more flights from Goa to Lisbon. The husband and his wife contemplate: "There is no reason to be worried." - "We are Portuguese citizens. If the Indian army arrives here, they will put us in jail." Benegal later drops politics and focuses more on the love relationships, walking on a thin line between a soap opera and a more aspirational drama, but the big mistake is the absence of the sole Indian takeover of Goa—only some brief shooting is heard during the night and a character mentions it off-screen—since this would have been fascinating to see. This reduces the film's potential, yet it is aesthetic, without typical Bollywood dancing, and allegories on the Portuguese family not realizing their lifestyle and traditions became "obsolete".

Grade:+++

Salt for Svanetia

Marili Svanets; silent docudrama, Georgia, 1930; D: Mikhail Kalatozov

The Svan people live on the northern mountains of Georgia, still following ancient traditions. Village Ushguli is surrounded by towers and walls to keep feudal tax collectors at distance. The people travel to mountains, chisel layers from them, drag them on a travois without wheels, and use them as riles for rooftops. They collect grains, threshing them via another travois carried by a cow going in circles. There is a lack of salt in the area, so men often travel to bring some. An elderly man dies, and since it is considered bad luck to give birth during a funeral, a pregnant woman is banished from the village: she gives birth alone, but the baby dies, so she drips her milk on the soil of its grave. In order to rid the village from this isolation and backwardness, the new Soviet government organizes workers to build roads and connect the village with civilization. 

Voted in a local national poll as one of the 12 best films of Georgian cinema, "Salt for Svanetia" is an hour-long ethnographic silent film that was presented as a documentary, but is in reality a docudrama where anonymous actors stage and recreate the events of an isolated, backward village, Ushguli, in northern Georgia. How much all of this is authentic is debatable, but the director Mikhail Kalatozov has an impressive visual style consisting out of unusual camera angles (the point-of-view of a bucket being raised up on a tower by a rope pulled by villagers), frames, huge close-ups and contrasts between the small people filmed in wide shots of majestic mountains in the background, thus making this "ordinary" depiction of a backward village much more cinematic than expected. Some scenes are even comical: for instance, in order to underline what a huge "shortage" of salt there is in this mountainous area, the camera shows a goat licking the sweat from a head of a sleeping peasant, his legs, and even cows licking a spot after a man urinated behind a wall, because even urine has salt. It is interesting watching this hermetic culture, with some unusual situations (during one day in July, a shadow of a cloud covers the entire mountain, and snow suddenly falls, so the villagers have to quickly pick the grain before it freezes—how much of this is authentic, remains unknown) and poetic scenes (the mother dripping milk from her breast on the soil where he dead baby is buried), all showing the harsh nature and huge efforts of the locals to live and try to survive—with a propagandistic excuse in the end, namely that Soviet industrialization is needed to save these villagers from backwardness and isolation, and a road that will connect them with civilization and make their lives easier. Despite these convoluted prearranged set-ups, "Salt for Svanetia" is an impressive and expressionistic depiction of a peculiar place and culture.  

Grade:+++

The Boys (season 5)

The Boys; fantasy thriller series, USA / Canada, 2026; D: Phil Sgriccia, Karen Gaviola, Catriona McKenzie, Sylvain White, S: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Laz Alonso, Tomer Capone, Karen Fukuhara, Valorie Curry, Colby Minifie, Susan Heyward, Cameron Crovetti, Jensen Ackles, Emma Elle Paterson

Billy "The Butcher", Hughie, Annie / Starlight, MM, Frenchie and Kimiko develop a virus that can kill any superhero, but when they test it in a house, two superheroes die, but the third one, Soldier Boy, turns out to be immune due to his V1 shots during Vought experimentation. Homelander thus starts a quest to find the last V1 vial to inject himself. It is held by superhero Bombsight, who appears when The Boys take his ex-fiancé as a hostage in the retirement home. Soldier Boy takes the V1 vial and gives it to Homelander, making him thereby indestructible. Homelander declares himself the ruler of the United States, settles in the White House, starts persecuting any opposition, and decides to call himself God, even killing Soldier Boy for disobeying him. Replicating Voughts experiments, Frenchie is able to give Kimiko Soldier Boy's powers: the ability to take superpowers away from a superhero. In a daring raid, The Boys enter the White House during a live TV speech and take Homelander's powers away. Billy then kills Homelander. When Billy wants to release the anti-superhero virus the next day, Hughie shoots him.

Season 5 is a grand—and worthy—conclusion to the hyped superhero fantasy thriller series "The Boys", based on the comics by Garth Ennis, staying true to its satirical tone and messages. Similarly like the previous season, this one also starts with the 1st episode that is practically a masterwork, brilliantly set-up, planned and executed, but after it, the story falters, meanders and feels a bit unfocused, yet the last two episodes form a finale that is so stunning and satisfying that it brings down the house, a one that compensates for any omission. The middle episodes feel as overstretched fillers at times: especially in the weak episode 5.4, whose concept of a negative energy that possesses the heroes in the abandoned factory, causing them to argue and fight, feels too esoteric and vague, almost incompatible with the rest of the series which strives to be more grounded. Likewise, it is kind of annoying to constantly have the protagonists going on a wild goose chase, instead of focusing more on the main concept of a totalitarian dictatorship of a superhero, Homelander. This is noticeable in the "mixed bag" episodes 5.5 and 5.6: the search for a V1 vial is a bit tedious, with a very late and unnecessary introduction to a new superhero Bombsight, as well as unfunny "splatter violence" cameos of celebrities in Hollywood who die when a superfast superhero accidentally goes through them in a mansion (including Seth Rogan, the series executive producer). Nonetheless, some observations about modern America are so ingeniously subversive that you wonder how the authors managed to get away with them in a big budget production. Its theme is that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely", but it also observes how people who could have stopped this descent into a dictatorship just failed and bent over, and how the masses are controlled through propaganda. There are some moments that are "creatively impossible", yet they filmed them anyway, and you watch with awe at how this impossible plays out on the screen. 

Some of the best bits are in already aforementioned 1st episode, 5.1—Homelander's concentration camps are called "Freedom camps", with an entrance sign saying "Freedom shall set you free!", whereas inmates wear "uniforms" with Homelander's face and an American flag on their shirts. The government officials are persecuting any anti-Homelander Starlight fans, while the news call them "Marxist Starlighters". Homelander's assistant Sage has enough courage to tell him: "No matter how much power you amass, it will not make you happy". One also needs to single out A-Train who undergoes one of the most fascinating character transformations on the show, starting as a negligent, arrogant egocentric, but then redeeming himself, joining the anti-Homelander coalition and becoming a true superhero. Homelander becomes a symbol for how patriotism, nationalism and religion can become a mental trap—in a death's-head hawkmoth syndrome, many people will just listen to the frequency of their ideology, and not pay attention to the actual enemy slowly taking over and exploiting them. As Homelander's egoism reaches grotesque levels, and no checks and balances of power remain, his cult of personality becomes a source of several black-humored jokes: for instance, the painting "Washington Crossing the Delware" has been changed, now featuring Homelander in Washington's pose, whereas he even has outrageous hallucinations of an "angel" telling him: "But who is more loved than Jesus? And why should he have more love than you? ... You baptize the unfaithful in their own blood", de facto advising Homelander to kill anyone who opposes him. "They'll call me a monster." - "No, the only ones left will be your faithful." After that, Homelander announces that he is "God", and all his sycophants just nod and accept the latest downgrade of life standards, with one, Firecracker, offering him "The American Testament" in "Homelander Bible". A giant commentary on the mental illness called totalitarian dictatorship, "The Boys" is a warning that it takes different shapes and sizes throughout times, but its detrimental effects on humanity are always universally disastrous. But it does so with a lot of humor, clever ideas (in 5.3, a superhero aims her telekinetic powers against Hughie, but instead of him, she just kills the invisible man, because she didn't "see" that he was standing right between them), whereas several characters are colorful (in 5.6, MM says: "The whole world's gone crazy, I'm just catching up!"). The finale is cathartic and exciting, elegantly ending the series, leaving the viewers shaken and thinking: what if this totalitarian takeover would happen to your country?

Grade:+++

Extraordinary Exhibition

Arachveulebrivi gamopena; drama, Georgia, 1968; D: Eldar Shengelaia, S: Guram Lordkipanidze, Valentina Telechkina, Vasil Chkhaidze, Dodo Abashidze, Salome Kancheli

Tbilisi after the end of World War II. Sculptor Aguli returns from the front back to his home and father Pipinia. Aguli has a giant marble rectangular cuboid in his back yard and plans to make a sculpture out of it, "Spring Lights". However, in the meantime he makes granite busts for the deceased at a graveyard, a well paid job. He marries Russian woman Glafira, who gives birth to their twins, and then another twins, and then a boy. Aguli argues with his father and briefly leaves home to have an affair with his childhood love Tina. He returns back to Glafira, and while wondering off to the graveyard, he sees his "exhibition" of busts. Aguli then hands over the marble cuboid to his apprentice Zaur. 

Voted in a local national poll as among the 12 best films of Gerogian cinema, Eldar Shengelaia's humorous drama "Extraordinary Exhibition" is a bitter tale of how people have their dreams, but life forces them to accept ordinary jobs and never gives them the chance to use their full potentials, yet it does so with a lot of colorful humor and uplifting energy. The film starts with the protagonist Aguli, a sculptor, planning to make a special sculpture out of his giant marble rectangular cuboid, and ends with this same marble left untouched decades later, as he gives it to his apprentice who overjoys with a plan to do wonders with it—solidifying the allegory of this theme, hoping only that the next generation will have it better. Some of the humor really is well done—for instance, Aguli's telegram ("I will exhibit my new work "Spring" in the autumn..."); his tendency to try to add "artistic touches" to a bust of a deceased, so his widow as angry that her late husband's looks are not identical to the bust; or Aguli's argument with his dad, also a war veteran ("It was you who run faster than your own horse at Port Arthur! Well done, the Japanese!"). Shengelaia has good shot compositions, but the story is meandering and not always engaging, with several episodes (20th anniversary of classroom reunion with benches outside of ruins a fortress) that seem rather superfluous and unnecessary, whereas not every character is that interesting.

Grade:++

Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story

Tsisperi mtebi anu daujerebeli ambavi; satire, Georgia, 1983; D: Eldar Shengelaia, S: Ramaz Giorgobiani, Vasil Kakhniashvili, Teimuraz Chirgadze, Sesilia Takaishvili

Tbilisi. Writer Soso delivers two copies of his manuscript for a novel, titled "Blue Mountains, or Tianshan" to a publishing house, and the editors assure him that they will read it. But they don't. Soso keeps showing up in the building, asking editors Vaso, the director and Irodioni if they read it, but they always have excuses, citing that they are busy. Months pass, and Soso keeps showing up in their offices, but nothing changes, they just keep him waiting. During a committee session, the dozen officials all say they will yield towards the opinion of the majority, but nobody read the manuscript. A crack appears on the ceiling, the building collapses, they all relocate to another building, but keep their mentality of stalling.  

"Blue Mountains" is one of those movies that are classics in their home country, but much weaker when seen outside in the rest of the world. The problem is not in the topic, which is surprisingly relevant and universal—but more so in the rather lax, too conventional and slow execution, which drags. The concept of a writer who wants to publish his manuscript, but nobody at the publishing house wants to read it, is a bitter satire on problems of artists who want to follow their dream, but don't have the means to achieve them—who knows how many amazing films and novels were never made just because producers or publishers didn't want to bother with "unknown" authors? Unfortunately, the director Eldar Shengelaia does not have a sense for comic timing nor how to build up a joke, since the movie is overstretched and not particularly funny. In one of the best moments, writer Soso delivers his manuscript to the director of the publishing house, "Blue Mountains, or Tianshan", but the man does not even listen to him, and instead just superficially talks about some people on motorcycles playing "motorball" with a football on the field seen through the window, to get rid of him as soon as possible, feigning he will read both "Blue Mountains" and "Tianshan", not even realizing these are the same title, not two different manuscripts. The director even has this exchange with him: "Soso, you must be more active. Bother people!" - "I am bothering you". - "Good!" As cracks start appearing on the ceiling of the publishing house, and one overweight official even pulls the entire window to open it, the allegory takes on grotesque dimensions about the decay and collapse of inefficient bureaucracy and incompetent institutions not doing their job, but this cannot quite compensate for the fact that the film is at times a little bit boring.

Grade:++

Slice of Life

Slice of Life; science-fiction short, Croatia, 2019; D: Dino Julius, Luka Hrgović, S: Anton Svetić, Ivica Pustički, Emilija Habulin, Miran Šabić, Karla Zelić

In a metropolis in the future, a man in a flying car is trying to sell as many drugs as possible to earn 100,000 credits for a space trip to another beach planet. However, since he is 10,000 credits short, he robs an ATM machine. A corrupt cop makes a photo of him and blackmails him, demanding the money for himself. The man and the cop fight in a toilet, and the cop is killed. However, the man misses the flight and now has to wait another year for the next opportunity.

In one of the best Croatian independent short films in the last twenty years, directors Dino Julius and Luka Hrgovic crafted a homage to "Blade Runner" by releasing it in the year it plays out, remarkably re-creating its mood and aesthetics. "Slice of Life" was filmed in their house garage, using matte paintings, miniature models, walls and an old car, filmed in Blackmagic Design 4K camera—but it all looks so fantastic it is incredible. There is not much of a story or directing skills in here, it's all style over substance, but the huge close ups and meticulous eye for little details (drops dripping from a faucet, the hero typing in numbers on his laptop to crack the password of an ATM machine, the mouth of the corrupt cop eating ribs, a silhouette of a flying car passing by over a screen of a mouth of a woman in a TV commercial...) all create a stunning aesthetic and visual style that looks so modern that it has weight. No character speaks a single line (except for the off audio of TV commercials heard from screens), but everything is clear in this simple story of greed and fight for money, as the hero wants to flee to another world in time. You can almost smell the odor of some scenes (the hero removing rats from a restaurant dumpster and taking some noodles in a paper box to eat; him lighting the cigarette of the brand "Slice of Life" in the finale) and feel the rain seen in so many frames. It is a remarkable and impressive film, stylish to the cinematic boiling point. Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049" is not the true spiritual sequel to "Blade Runner"—it is the much more worthy "Slice of Life".

Grade:+++

Eliso

Eliso; silent historical drama, Georgia, 1928; D: Nikoloz Shengelaia, S: Kira Andronikashvili, Aleksandre Imedashvili, Kokhta Karalashvili, Tsetsilia Tsutsunava, Aleksandre Jorjoliani 

The Caucasus, 1864. Goreshist Russia wants to expel Chechens from a village in order to resettle Cossacks there, using it as a springboard for further imperialism and colonialism towards the south. A Chechen girl, Eliso, is in love with a Georgian lad, Vajia. Her father Astamur, the village elder, hears from commander Seidulla that they are to be evicted from their village. The Chechens all sign a petition that ostensibly says they want to stay, but Seidulla then reveals that, since they cannot read Cyrillic, the petition actually stated that they "voluntarily" signed on to leave the village. Vajia goes to a Russian military outpost, battles the soldiers and forces the general to issue a decree allowing the Chechens to stay. He brings the document to Eliso, but it is too late, the Chechens are already moving. Astamur says he only regrets that they didn't burn the village behind them, so Eliso runs back, sets the village on fire, and returns back to the caravan. Vajia wants to marry Eliso, but since he is a Christian, and the Chechens now blame every Christian, Astamur rejects his proposal, and Eliso travels with the Chechens into the Ottoman Empire.

Ranked in a local poll as one of the 12 best Georgian films of all time, "Eliso" is an ethnographic study of the peoples in the Caucasus as well as a historical lesson about the deportation of the Chechens during the 1864 Circassian genocide, which is a subject touched upon only indirectly. Their deportation in the end also marks the end of the Romeo & Juliet-type couple, the Christian lad Vajia and Chechen Muslim woman Eliso, who departs with her nation. Using wide shots of the mountainous region, whose desolate nature becomes an allegory of human cruelty and rough nature, the director Nikoloz Shengelaia crafts an economic, but also intimate and ambitious portrait of rural people who are not sophisticated, but still have more honor, humanity and integrity than the Russian military that is encroaching them. Two most memorable sequences: in the first, Vajia enters the Russian military outpost and eventually starts a fencing duel with three Russian soldiers, having only one sword and a shield in his hands. He jumps on a table, one soldier grabs his leg and pushes him to fall down, but Vajia simply continues fencing with them, lying on the ground (!), and then going under the table for cover. In the second, the Cossacks are heading towards the village on horses, but a hundred Chechens villagers simply sit on the ground, thereby blocking their entrance, since the horses stop and refuse to trample on humans. The maniacally fast editing of the Chechen dance sequence is also unusually hyperactive and dynamic for the silent movie era, creating its very own rhythm. The ethnic cleansing in the finale advances into a symbol for human suffering due to intolerance and selfish plans of remote people in power, advocating for universal human rights and sanctity of lives which should never be interrupted. 

Grade:+++

Silence

Silence; historical drama, USA, 2016; D: Martin Scorsese, S: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Tadanobu Asano, Yosuke Kubozuka, Shinya Tsukamoto, Liam Neeson, Issey Ogata

In 1639, using a Japanese local Kichijiro, Portuguese Jesuit priests Sebastiao and Francisco travel from Macau to Tomogi, Japan, to find out what happened to priest Ferreira who went there to convert Japanese to Christianity. Sebastiao and Francisco find a group of Japanese Christians hiding from the authorities, who are killing Christians. Eventually, they are discovered and arrested. Francisco tries to save four people tied up and thrown into the ocean from the boat by the authorities, but drowns himself. A government Inquisitor Inoue tries to persuade Sebastiao to renounce his religion to save other captives from death. When Ferreira shows up and reveals he renounced Christianity and blended in with the Japanese, to save locals from the death penalty, Sebastiao does the same. Inoue sends him to live with a widow whose husband died. 

In one of his weakest films, Martin Scorsese practically made a pamphlet for Christianity. Based on the novel "Silence" by Shusaku Endo, the film's historical setting of two Portuguese priests trying to keep up a Christian stronghold in Japan in the 17th century is interesting, but its story is simply too boring and too long at an overlong running time of 160 minutes, with monotone, ordinary dialogue that have no inspiration. The whole film is too thin, without much to connect to movie goers, except as an ode to persecution of Christians. Scorsese uses a wonderful, gorgeous cinematography (a bird's-eye view of a ship sailing on the ocean; the camera spinning around priest Ferreira who is turned upside down by the authorities for preaching Christianity; an occasional contrast between huge close-ups of someone's head and the panorama in the background...), but it is all technicalities, and no substance or essence. One of the rare examples of some awe is the disturbing sequence of Japanese Christian Mokichi who is tied up to a cross near the shore with two others, and as the ocean levels rise in the evening, the waves are splashing them well over their heads, as priest Sebastiao observes from the hill, and narrates how "it took Mokichi four days to die". However, except for their struggle, and Sebastiao's wondering about God's silence, not much is here to deserve to invest the viewers' time to watch these events. The Portuguese tried to assimilate a Japanese area through their religion, but failed. That is the core theme that is avoided in the story. Another is the appeal for freedom of religion. However, for such a topic, the story and execution warranted a richer inspiration.

Grade:+

The Boys (Season 4)

The Boys; fantasy action thriller series, USA / Canada, 2024; D: Phil Sgriccia, Karen Gaviola, Fred Toye, Eric Kripke, S: Karl Urban, Jack Quaid, Antony Starr, Erin Moriarty, Jessie T. Usher, Tomer Capone, Laz Alonso, Karen Fukuhara, Colby Minifie, Valorie Curry, Claudia Doumit, Giancarlo Esposito, Chace Crawford, Simon Pegg, Ann Cusack

Superhero Homelander wants more power, so he unexpectedly hires Sage, the most intelligent woman in the world, with the power of self-regenerating brain, to be his advisor. They concoct a plan to have superhero Victoria Neuman run as Vice President to US President elect Bob Singer, so that she can kill him, take over, and be de facto Homelander's proxy. Homelander gets a new assistant: Misty / Firecracker, who leads an internet propaganda campaign to always attack his enemies. Meanwhile, Billy, MM, Frenchie, Kimiko, Annie January / Starlight and Hughie from "The Boys" team up with A-Train who gives them secret information he heard from Homelander. They release Stan Edgar, who leads them to a secret laboratory that developed a virus that can kill a superhero. Just as Victoria shows up to talk with Hughie to team up, Billy, having injected Compound V in himself, kills her. Homelander announces martial law to hunt down all the "Starlighters". 

The fourth season of "The Boys" once again shows what a patchwork and mixed bag it is: it has both one of the best episodes of the entire series, 4.1, where everything is so meticulously written and planned down to a T, and every little detail and action has a why and because; and one of the worst episodes, 4.6, drowning in sado-masochistic excess and banality. All the seasons are like that— inconsistent, walking between genius and garbage. Yet this one is among the better ones, with insane satirical allegory on modern American society, whereas Karl Urban and Erin Moriarty are once again excellent in their roles as Billy and Annie January / Starlight, respectively. Antony Starr is disturbing in the role of the villain-superhero Homelander, who seems like the evil, degenerate Superman from "Superman III" won in a fight against the good Clark Kent and went on a quest to gain more and more power, in a totalitarian aim to rule (and re-shape) the entire country. As the previous seasons warned, if someone is given unlimited power, how can there ever be a normal society based on rule of law? Who will stop him from doing crimes or abusing everyone? Episode 4.5 embodies these disparate traits of "The Boys". On the one hand, it addresses these problems of absolute power when Ryan orders a director to apologize to his female assistant for harassing her, but his apology to her ("I'm sorry if I exploited our inequitable power dynamic and made you feel uncomfortable") actually refers to Homelander standing right next to Ryan, in his rule of fear over humans. 

The new character of the super-intelligent superhero woman Sage has some wonderful wisecracking comments ("Y'all just think I'm stupid poor white trash", says Homelander-fanatic Misty / Firecracker, as Sage replies: "I don't think you're poor"). The bizarre joke where The Boys go to a top secret rural laboratory, but its superhero components accidentally leaked into the ground and "contaminated" some of the animals, so they encounter "superhero chickens" at a farm who are so invincible that they cannot be killed when shot at, is hilarious. But the flying sheep, revealed later on, were just stupid and too much. The same goes for Homelander's "revenge" against the laboratory scientists in episode 4.4 who experimented on him when he was a kid—it goes into extreme violence and torture, and is kind of a stretch (would all these same people still be working in the exact same place after 20 years? And after no more superhero experiments are necessary?). And as one scientists ironically adds, even as a kid, Homelander could have simply broke the laboratory door and walked away anytime he wanted. The worst episode, 4.6, involves Hughie dressed up as a superhero, but stuck in a dungeon of a rich sadomasochist, in an awful and unnecessary sequence of explicit perversions. Yes, upstairs in the mansion, all the billionaires and Homelander are planning a coup d'état to take over the US, but their perversion and decadence is already elaborated enough without a need to show the infamous dungeon sequence, as already Sage's comment at seeing so many billionaires in the mansion is sharp: "38% of the US GDP is in this room." The conspiracy theory convention episode 4.2 is also very funny and subversive, summed up in a simple scene where Sage asks: "What are you selling?", and Misty replies: "Purpose. These people got nothing." Different directors yield different results per episode, but season 4 has so many surprises that it is at times incredible (even Will Ferrell has a delicious cameo; the deal between Neuman and Misty in case she becomes the Vice President: "No teaching of critical Supe theory"; Sage orchestrating an internet anti-Starlight campaign, "until 100 million people are outraged by Starlight for reasons they cannot explain"), with politics taking over the center stage. But then again, through its themes (corruption; false idols; domination of the upper class (in this case, the superheroes); criminals covertly taking over the entire country through propaganda claiming they are the good guys), politics was the inevitable outcome already established in the first season. 

Grade:+++