Johnny Suede

Johnny Suede; comedy, USA, 1991; D: Tom DiCillo, S: Brad Pitt, Catherine Keener, Calvin Levels, Alison Moir, Michael Luciano, Samuel L. Jackson

Brooklyn. Johnny Suede wants to be a rock n' roll star. Unfortunately, his hairdo is bigger than his talent, and thus he has to work as a wall painter to pay his rent. Johnny is practicing playing guitar with his friend Deke, trying to form a band. Johnny starts a relationship with Darlette, even though her jealous boyfriend lives right across the street, and hopes to make it since Darlette's mom works for a music producer. However, Darlette finally reveals she doesn't love him. Johnny's next girlfriend is Yvonne, but he constantly postpones moving in with her. Johnny follows a woman in the subway and sleeps with her in her apartment. When he returns to Yvonne, who prepared birthday presents for him, she smells a female perfume on him and realizes he cheated on her. They argue and break up. However, Johnny later returns to Yvonne's place and says he's sorry.

An inadvertent forerunner to the cartoon character "Johnny Bravo", Tom DiCillo's feature length debut "Johnny Suede" is a vague, thin and strangely underdeveloped film. The meandering story without a clear goal or purpose is all over the place, hopping from episode to episode, all until the disappointing, inconclusive ending which feels like a cop-out. Nonetheless, it is notable for featuring the then unknown Brad Pitt in one of his early leading roles, here playing the swab title hero with a 6-inch hairdo sticking up above his head, allegedly done without a wig. Suede is an exaggerated, but still palpable depiction of the lower class trying to make it big by following their dream, but the harsh reality always gets in their way and leaves them right where they are. However, this grey routine somehow contaminated the whole film, which is unable to be hip enough. Some good jokes manage to lift the film up from its drab mood: for instance, the dialogue between Darlette and Johnny when they first meet at a night club: "You remind me of a prince in a fairytale." - "With that pink dress on, you remind me of a strawberry ice cream cone." In another one, Johnny is so annoyed by two men in suits in the subway train, where one imagines the love of his life will just show up eventually by destiny: "Yeah, she's out there. Somewhere." So Johnny sarcastically adds: "You know what, you're right, she is out there, in fact I just saw her in the next train, she's all dressed up as Cinderella, asking everybody if there is a stupid idiot who looks like you!" There is even a dream sequence where a dwarf stabs Johnny, which might have influenced DiCillo in his next film "Living in Oblivion". "Johnny Suede" never really connects as a whole and feels more like patchwork, but has one highlight: Catherine Keener, who is excellent in her supporting role as Yvonne, Johnny's much more consequential girlfriend.

Grade:+

Nixon

Nixon; drama, USA, 1995; D: Oliver Stone, S: Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, J. T. Walsh, James Woods, Powers Boothe, Paul Sorvino, E. G. Marshall, Bob Hoskins, David Hyde Pierce, Kevin Dunn, Fyvush Finkel, Mary Steenburgen, Ed Harris, Madeline Kahn, Dan Hedaya

A chronicle of the 37th American president Richard Nixon. As a Republican, he ran for president in 1 9 6 0, but lost in the debate against Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy. Nixon promised his wife Pat that he would not run again. However, he did and was elected president in 1 9 6 9. He continued the Vietnam War and even expanded it through US bombing of Cambodia, making him even more unpopular. However, his Chief of Staff Harry Haldeman and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger supported him. In 1 9 7 2 Nixon met with Chinese leader Mao Zedong. In his second term, the Watergate scandal, a covert attempt at wiretapping the Democratic headquarters in Washington, D.C., took its toll, and under pressure, Nixon resigns in 1 9 7 4.

Despite complaints of Nixon family members, Oliver Stone's biopic is probably the most humanistic portrait possible of the 37th US president Richard Nixon without losing its balance and objectivity. Even though he hated his presidency, Stone strives towards a neutral, unbiased and professional depiction of the politician, who is here excellently played by Anthony Hopkins: he reproduces an impeccable accent of Nixon, but does not physically resemble him, and thus certain prosthetics on his nose and jawline would have been welcomed. The crystal clear cinematography by the brilliant cinematographer Robert Richardson is stunning, all the supporting roles are well cast (including Bob Hoskins as FBI director J. Edgar Hoover), whereas some insights are surprising (for instance, the detail that E. Howard Hunt blackmailed the president (!) and demanded money for his trial of the Watergate scandal). However, overall, at 3-hours of running time, "Nixon" is perplexingly unfocused and disorganized, with random, excessive scenes and overlong running time, seemingly hoping from episode to episode without some tighter grip of a narrative thread. For instance, except for Nixon and his wife Pat (Joan Allen), we do not find out much about any other character in the film, who are just random supporting wheels. Nixon's meeting with Mao Zedong is handled almost superficially. Still, the movie looks modern even today, and several little details have weight (during a dinner on the yacht where he was discussing expanding the Vietnam War, Nixon's steak starts to bleed on the plate; upon Haig saying that they cannot get around the Supreme Court demanding the tapes, Nixon adds that he picked three of them there; Nixon observing Kennedy's painting: "When they look at you, they see what they want to be. When they look at me, they see what they are").

Grade:++

Vuk: The Little Fox

Vuk; animated film, Hungary, 1981; D: Attila Dargay, S: József Gyabronka, Judit Pogány, Teri Földi, Gyula Szabó

Vuk is one of the fox cubs of a lair under a tree. The fox father goes to get some chicken from the farm of a hunter, while Vuk goes out to explore the forest. The hunter follows the fox father with his dog and a gun to the lair and kills them. Vuk returns to find the lair empty, but his fox uncle Karak adopts him and brings him to a cave on a hill. Vuk grows up and continues stealing chicken from the farm, where he also saves a female fox from a cage. The hunter and his hound dogs start a giant search raid, Karak runs to distract their attention, but is shot and killed. Vuk takes his revenge by attacking the farm. The hunter places bear traps, but gets caught in them himself, together with two of his dogs. Vuk and the female fox get their own fox cubs in a lair.

The highest-grossing Hungarian film of the 80s, with over 2,400,000 tickets sold at the local box office, one of the most famous animated films by the Pannonia Film Studio, "Vuk" is more beloved in its home country than outside its borders. It did not age well. Intended as some sort of a Hungarian-wolf answer to Disney's "Bambi", "Vuk" seems more like a kids movie done in a kids way than a kids movie done in a clever, universal way which is able to keep the interest of the grown up viewers as well. The only two more ambitious moments are the dramatic, albeit restrained scenes of the murder to Vuk's family and later his uncle Karak by the hunter (we never see the faces of the human characters, who are only visible from their legs), but even they are not able to elaborate into a more emotional experience. Not much is going on, and the scenes involving the clumsy hound dogs of the hunter are too goofy, but some scenes have humor (the two geese getting drunk on the farm; Vuk liberating the female fox behind bars by taking stones away from underneath the wheels of a wagon which crashes into the cage, demolishing its bars). For the time that it was made, the animation is good, but still a bit clumsy, while it also constructs a bigger theme of the circle of life and some cycles in development, noticeable that movie basically begins and ends in the same setting. A charming, amusing animated film, yet too rudimentary, and therefore it is no match for "The Land Before Time" or "Fantastic Mr. Fox".   

Grade:++

Cat City

Macskafogó; animated spy comedy, Hungary / Canada / Germany, 1986; D: Béla Ternovszky, S: László Sinkó, Miklós Benedek, Péter Haumann, János Körmendi

Anthropomorphic mice are terrorized in their city by a crime cat syndicate led by mafioso Teufel and his boss Gatto. After the cats rob a mouse bank using a tank, the mice send their special agent Nick Grabowski to go to Professor Fushimishi in an oriental country and get a secret microfilm from him that will save the mice. Teufel, who has wiretapped the secret mouse headquarters, dispatches four rat gangsters to stop Grabowski. Upon finding Fushimishi, and the microfilm hidden in his beard, Grabowski takes his female assistant Seno San with him, but both are caught by the cats and sent to Gatto during a special cat party. However, Grabowski and San are saved by mouse police officer Dick who befriended bats who flew and helped them. The microfilm has a plan that gives the mice a secret weapon: a giant robot dog that catches all the cats and transforms them into peaceful animals.

One of the most popular animated films by the Pannonia Film Studio, "Cat City" (also translated as "Cat-Catcher") enjoys cult status in Hungary, but outside its borders, its appeal and enthusiasm doesn't quite hold up. It is a blend of James Bond-style spy films, gangster films and comedy, which is uneven, but has its bizarre moments of charm. The protagonist is supposed to be secret mouse agent Nick Grabowski, but he is featured surprisingly little, only for about a third of the film, while the cat villain Teufel is given too much screen time, almost overshadowing him. A third subplot, revolving around a mumbling mouse police officer Dick who got lost in the jungle and met some Mexican bats, is superfluous and could have been cut altogether. Nonetheless, "Cat City" has a good amount of jokes and luckily doesn't go into too abstract-surreal territory. The "Star Wars"-style opening credits are already amusing, depicting the setting as "80 AMM (Anno Mickey Mouse)", whereas someone can enter the mouse intelligence headquarters only via a "tail scan" machine, and in there a committee member complains about Grabowski: "After the King Kong situation, he told everybody that he is the 13th reincarnation of Mickey Mouse". There are themes of a stronger nation trying to dominate a weaker one, but the director Bela Ternovszky is mostly only interested in crafting a simple action comedy. It is a chaotic patchwork, but some ideas have that coveted creativity and inspiration (after jumping from the plane, Grabowski is falling from the sky holding San in his arm, but then comments that it is raining, so he ejects a parachute from his backpack, which works conveniently both as an umbrella and a softener for their landing).  

Grade:++

Living in Oblivion

Living in Oblivion; comedy, USA, 1995; D: Tom DiCillo, S: Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Danielle von Zerneck, James LeGros, Peter Dinklage

Nick is a director of an independent film. He tries to film a scene of actress Nicole playing the role of a woman confessing to her mother that her father hit her, but numerous problems keep messing up the take. In the end, a beeping sound is heard. Nick wakes up, it was all a dream... High-profile actor Chad Palomino joins the cast of Nick's film, but constantly keeps changing the place of his position with Nicole on the set, leaving him out of the frame. His arrogance causes a fight with Nick, who beats Chad and leaves him unconscious in a cab. Nicole wakes up, it was all a dream... Nick wants to direct a dream scene, but the dwarf actor Tito protests that it doesn't make sense and leaves the set. Nick's mom surprisingly takes Tito's place, holds an apple for Nicole, and thus the scene is filmed. Nick is so pleased he fantasizes of winning an award for the film.  

Sometimes, behind-the-scenes problems of making a movie are more interesting than the finished movie, and director Tom DiCillo uses his own personal experience from filmmaking in this fun independent comedy. "Living in Oblivion" is a one-note concept overstretched into a feature, but is still an honest ode to all artists everywhere struggling to achieve their vision, and their dream work of art, despite all the obstacles and opposition. It is comprised out of three segments. The first one is filmed in black-and-white cinematography, except in the actual scene of the film which is in color, and shows how a single take can be ruined in so many ways that it becomes absurdly creative: a boom mic falls into the frame; loud music from someone's car outside on the street is heard; or the hilarious moment where the actress Nicole (excellent Catherine Keener) is reciting her line, but all of a sudden fragments of glass fall into the scene, as the light exploded from too much heat.

The second segment is filmed in color, except for the scene from the fictional film which is in black-and-white, but this time depicting the tribulations caused by a "hot shot" movie star Chad, who is trying to direct a scene more than the director Nick himself. In one of the best ideas, Chad persuades the cameraman to place actress Nicole from the foreground into the background, with himself in the close up, under the pretext that she says "I've always admired you from afar". Even better is the scene where Nick sits next to Nicole and repeats the played scene almost word-for-word, admitting he admired her as an actress. Unfortunately, the movie suffers from the bad idea that the first two segments are revealed to be only a dream, implying that only the last 30 minutes are the actual filming of the movie, which should have been re-written to be included as one continuous, uninterrupted story from three different days. The last segment revolves around the dwarf actor Tito (Peter Dinklage in an early role) in all seriousness confronting Nick about the illogical nature of a dream sequence: "Why does my character have to be a dwarf?! ... Oh, make it weird, put a dwarf in it! Everyone will go: whoa whoa whoa, it must be a dream, there's a dwarf in it!" Other good gags are the smoke machine for said dream sequence which causes so much smoke in the room that it triggers the smoke detector, or the cameraman Wolf who is wearing an eyepatch, but a tear flows underneath it. Not every joke works, some are forced or underwhelming, and DiCillo doesn't have such a sense for comic timing, but overall, "Living in Oblivion" is a loving homage to underdogs trying to realize their dream. 

Grade:+++

The Real Blonde

The Real Blonde; comedy, USA, 1997; D: Tom DiCillo, S: Matthew Modine, Catherine Keener, Maxwell Caulfield, Daryl Hannah, Bridgette Wilson, Mario Thomas, Kathleen Turner, Elizabeth Berkley, Denis Leary, Steve Buscemi, Christopher Lloyd

New York. Joe wants to make it as an actor, but is only working as a waiter and still has no agent. Joe is questioning his relationship with his girlfriend Mary, deeming their sex underwhelming lately. His co-worker Bob accepts a job at a TV soap opera and wants to find a real blonde. Joe meets with agent Dee Dee and accepts to perform as an extra in a Madonna music video, but instead of the singer, only her stand-in is on the set, Tina. Due to an argument with an anti-Judaist assistant, Joe is fired. However, Dee Dee lets him audition for a role with Tina, and Joe gets a part in a movie. Tina kisses him, Joe at first embraces her, but then stops, leaves and returns back to Mary. Joe and Mary have passionate sex again and thus make up. 

Tom DiCillo's only big budget Hollywood film, "The Real Blonde" has a story that is difficult to pin down: ostensibly, it is about a blonde, but it uses that only as a symbol for a contemplation about integrity and happiness. The main character is struggling actor Joe (very good Matthew Modine), trying to make it in New York, which again touches upon DiCillo's themes of struggling artists and filmmaking from "Living in Oblivion"—Steve Buscemi even practically reprises his role as the director of the Madonna music video. The best bits are Joe's relationship scenes with Mary (outstandingly natural and genuine Catherine Kenner): as a couple, they are not idealized, they have troubles, they argue, but they have the ability to listen, improve and understand each other as truly grown up characters, which is fascinating. The movie starts with Joe and Mary in a crisis in bed, as they hear through the window of their apartment that some old lady's dog is kidnapped on the street; conversely, the movie ends with Joe and Mary making up and having wonderful sex in bed, as the old lady outside spots her lost dog returning back to her on the street. The dog is thus a symbol for balance, comfort in Joe's and Mary's relationship, which is lost, but then found again.

Their crisis is caused by Joe's refusal to star in TV soap operas, deeming them weak, as he only aims for artistic roles in quality films, but this way he is often short on money. As his agent tells him, he must be willing to accept even bad roles in soap operas, because that's all "just business". Joe's friend Bob is basically Joe's "what if?" shadow: Bob is also an actor, but accepts to star in a soap opera for money. Bob is thus a symbol for shallowness and giving up for easy comfort. He is looking for a "real blonde", but eventually ends up with a woman who admits she only dyed her hair and is a brunette. In a skillful twist of the viewers' assumptions, DiCillo implies that Joe is also technically a blond, a male blonde, but has integrity and standards. Ironically, Mary thus ends up with a real blond, while Bob ends with a fake blonde, because he is so superficial. The storyline defies a typical three-act structure and meanders a lot, but for some reason it flows so smoothly and naturally that it is simply engaging to watch it. The movie is often funny through little character quirks and lines, whereas these characters grow on you. One has sympathy for Joe who navigates through this world of weird videos and photo shoots about nothing, without a soul. In one crucial sequence, Joe meets Tina who has blond hair; later, they meet again at an audition, but Tina now has natural brown hair. Tina kisses him, but he decides to return to Mary. Is the message that small, imperfect happiness is still preferable to idealized, illusory happiness because it is at least—real? Either way, "The Real Blonde" is a comfy fun.

Grade:+++

Unseen Wonder

Čudo neviđeno; satire, Montenegro / Serbia, 1984; D: Živko Nikolić, S: Savina Geršak, Petar Božović, Boro Begović, Dragan Nikolić, Taško Načić, Vesna Pećanac, Boro Stjepanović, Danilo 'Bata' Stojković, Velimir 'Bata' Živojinović

A small village on the Skadar lake. A young American woman comes to visit, claiming her father once lived in this village. She finds a job as a waitress of a tavern, seduces its owner Baro and even persuades him to sign the ownership over to her name. Four lads from a neighboring village try to woo her, but she wants to know who is the strongest among them, so they end up fighting each other. Šćepan, a tycoon, persuades her to seduce every man and trick him into signing a document approving for his plan to build a tunnel which will drain the lake and leave a fertile valley for a plantation farm. The American woman seduces also Boro, who is unsuccessfully trying for years to have his wife Krstinja impregnated. Since the sea level is higher than the lake level, the lake floods the area. The American woman wants to marry fisherman Zeljo, but while they were on a boat, the clash with another group of men on a boat, shoot and fight, until all the men die and she is left the only one alive on the boats.

"Unseen Wonder" is considered one of the best Montenegrin movies by one of the best Montenegrin directors, Zivko Nikolic, a peculiar, but delicious satire in which the director tells one of the most ironic stories of Yugoslav cinema: the one how Western liberalism and modernism, embodied in, of course, a woman (excellent Savina Gersak) arrives to the backward conservative East and causes such a stir and commotion that it eventually reforms / destroys it. Nikolic makes fun of conservatism, patriarchism, religion, pseudo-scientific local "experts" and overall primitivism of the most backward Balkan areas with gusto, inserting a lot of humor with a lot of sense for local mentality. Several observations are subtle (all the women work in the lake, while all the men just lazily sit in the pub and drink), while some are so direct it is hard to miss them. The main protagonist, a nameless American woman of Montenegrin roots, finds this place and surprisingly turns it into her very own party, always keeping the upper hand, in a more logical feminist retelling of Pasolini's film "Teorema", using her erotic touch to control the men in her favor. 

Several jokes are very funny. For instance, the American woman swims naked in the Skadar lake, while two Orthodox priests observe her from the monastery: "What is this, father Makarije? A fallen angel punished by God or the devil in woman's body?" - "No, father Leontije, that's just what the blunt people would call, a good pussy!" Makarije is later seen "helping" the infertile woman Krstinja by telling her to lie on the bed in the monastery room, while he has sex with her to "help" her become pregnant. Just as her husband Šoro wanted to divorce her since the American woman claims to be pregnant with him, Krstinja announces she is pregnant as well. Later on, in a twist, Krstinja demands that the American woman hands her the baby after birth, revealing she just placed a pillow on her stomach under the skirt—but the American woman then also reveals her own pillow from under the skirt. In a sequence where a man secretly brings the American woman to his home at night, his father wakes up and protests, as they have this exchange: "You bring this freak here? If she enters this house, I am leaving!" - "Oh, father, you will leave even sooner than that." Serb comedian Danilo Stojkovic has an unusual role of the tycoon Šćepan who wants to drain the lake, but is still excellent in it. The ending is a bit vague and incomplete, failing to circle out everything clearly, but the overall conclusion is still amusing.

Grade:+++

Fiume o morte!

Fiume o morte!; docudrama, Croatia / Italy / Slovenia, 2025; D: Igor Bezinović, S: Andrea Marsanich, Albano Vučetić, Tihomir Buterin, Izet Medošević, Massimo Ronzani, Lovro Mirth, Silvana Zorich

Following the end of World War I, the Allied forces (Italians, French, Americans, British...) enter the city of Rijeka (Italian: Fiume). Austria-Hungary dissolves, Italy gains Istria, but the status of Rijeka on the border remains uncertain. On 12 September 1 9 1 9, Italian poet and ultra-nationalist Gabriele D'Annunzio unilaterally gathers hundreds of volunteers and crosses with 26 trucks into Rijeka, claiming it for Italy. However, since the left-wing government of Italy at that time refuses to annex Rijeka, fearing a clash with Yugoslavia, D'Annunzio declares himself as the governor of Rijeka, enjoying in parties and cocaine. Thousands of Italian volunteers flock to Rijeka to form his private army. Following the Treaty of Rapallo, Rijeka is supposed to become the Free State of Fiume. Since D'Annunzio refuses to accept the treaty, on 24 December 1 9 2 0 Italian soldiers invade Rijeka, defeat the local army and chase away D'Annunzio. In 1 9 2 2, Benito Mussolini becomes the dictator of Italy. Two years later, he annexes the Free State of Fiume. 

Documentary-docudrama "Fiume o morte!" is a chronicle of one of the most bizarre and surreal episodes from not only the Croatian, Italian, but also European history: the case of Italian ultra-nationalist Gabriele D'Annunzio who, on a whim, spontaneously invaded Rijeka after World War I with his volunteers, claiming it for Italy—but Italy refused to annex it, which led to an almost 1.5 year long standoff, where D'Annunzio led the city as a private property. The director Igor Bezinovic films on real locations, elegantly blending in staged scenes and archive footage: in one of the most genius moments, the scene of actors playing D'Annunzio and his followers holding a speech on a balcony of a building, the camera zooms out into a wide shot, revealing an empty location, but then cuts to the black-and-white photo of that identical place from 1 9 1 9, with hundreds of people in the crowd cheering at D'Annunzio. The opening scenes show a hand holding a photo of old bridges of Rijeka from a hundred years ago, and then lowering said photos to reveal real life locations today. 

Bezinovic also mixes delightfully quirky humor and metafilm touches: D'Annunzio is played by six actors (!), each at one point of the film, whereas even bloopers are allowed (an old woman pats and comforts the fever-struck D'Annunzio lying in bed, but then both actors randomly burst into laughter at speaking out these absurd theatrical lines; an extra playing D'Annunzio's soldier at Korzo is addressed by a random grandma, who tells him the soldier outfit "doesn't suit him" and that he should "dance with a girl in a disco" instead). The first half is very amusing and educational, showing D'Annunzio as a sort of proto-fascist (in one archive footage, he is even seen giving a Roman salute; Benito Mussolini visited him for one day in Rijeka), but, unfortunately, the movie runs out of steam and becomes dull after a while, and is definitely overlong with its running time of 113 minutes. "Fiume o morte!" certainly needed a better editor, since several scenes are superfluous and could have been cut (interviewing actors reading out for the audition; soldiers singing; guys playing on the beach...). Despite its overstretched tone and some questionable idiosyncrasies (why does the narration suddenly switch from Croatian to Fiuman Italian?), "Fiume o morte!" is still a valuable film spotlighting one of the most ironic historical lessons, since D'Annunzio is a symbolic forerunner to the failure of fascism in itself.

Grade:+++

Spy

Spy; action comedy, USA, 2015; D: Paul Feig, S: Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Miranda Hart, Jason Statham, Jude Law, Bobby Cannavale, Allison Janney, Morena Baccarin

Susan works as a dispatcher for the CIA agent Bradley, giving him info through his ear piece. When he gets assassinated by the mysterious arms dealer Rayna, the CIA takes a daring step of giving Susan the job of a spy to discover more info about a missing nuclear bomb. CIA spy Ford objects, and secretly follows her. Susan manages to gain Rayna's trust in Rome, presenting herself as Rayna's father's bodyguard. In Budapest, Susan is uncovered by Rayna's men, and she finds out Bradley only feigned his death to pretend he teamed up with Rayna. Together with the clumsy Italian agent Aido and friend Nancy, Susan is able to stop Rayne from selling the nuclear bomb to criminal De Luca. 

"Spy" is a moderately funny spoof on various spy and secret agent movies, incorporating just enough jokes to carry the film. The director Paul Feig has only a half-successful sense for comic timing: in his better moments, he can conjure up a few funny gags; conversely, during his weaker moments, he relies too much on empty, overlong babbling or just plain lazy zany scenes to cover up a lack of true comic inspiration. Melissa McCarthy is fun as the CIA dispatcher Susan who is sent on a mission as a spy, while Jason Statham is a real surprise as the clumsy CIA agent Ford, cast against type in a rare comic role. Some of the best moments arrive as spoofs of various action cliches: for instance, just as Susan is in danger of being shot, Ford suddenly enters the room triumphantly, seemingly as one of those "saved-in-the-nick-of-time" moments, only for his trench coat to get stuck on the door knob, him dropping the gun, slipping, and then falling clumsily on the floor, knocking himself unconscious. As Ford is later seen boarding a motorboat, claiming he will go for an Italian vacation to relax, starting it and shouting "Arrivederci!", Nancy and Susan look at him and have this exchange: "Do you think he knows that's a lake?" - "No". The Italian secret agent Aido also has a good humorous moment when, after acting horny and with a bad accent all the time, he suddenly appears in a fancy suit and andresses Susan in a perfectly gentleman manner and impeccable British accent, claiming to be an MI6 agent who was "just carried away with playing a lustful Italian". Several jokes fail to ignite or have a punchline. The movie could have been cut by at least half an hour by simply removing said lackluster attempts at humor, but even as it is, it is efficient and has enough fun.

Grade:++

Rental Family

Rental Family; comedy / drama, Japan / USA, 2025; D: Hikari, S: Brendan Fraser, Takehiro Hira, Akira Emoto, Shannon Mahina Gorman, Mari Yamamoto, Shino Shinozaki

Tokyo. Desperate due to the fact that nobody wants to cast him, small time American actor Phillip accepts to work for the Rental Family company led by Shinji, which specializes in actors playing real-life roles for clients. Phillip thus plays several roles: a friend of a man who wants to play video games with someone; a husband for a fake wedding of a lesbian woman intended to appease her parents, so that she can get away from them; a father for the 6-year old Mia, since her mother Hitomi believes that her daughter will be enrolled in a prestigious school if she is not a single parent; a reporter interviewing retired actor Kikuo, ostensibly to write an article about him... Phillip gets emotionally attached to the last two jobs. Mia figures out he is not her real dad, is angry, but makes up with him. Kikuo dies after Phillip brings him to his birth town. Shinji thus reforms the company: it now offers no apology services.

An unusual film that explores the unusual 21st century phenomenon of alienated modern Japan, companies for Rental family services, this comedy-drama is both comical and sad, and the more you think about it, the sadder this concept gets. Brendan Fraser is good as the American expat Phillip struggling to understand Japan, and thus accepts the task of playing acting roles in real life for hire to better "blend in", for people who need a friend, a fake husband, and even a fake father. Through it, the director and screenwriter Hikari paints a bigger picture of absence of human touch, contact and connection lost in urban megalopolises, which mutate into stranger and stranger directions. At moments, the disappearing border between deception and reality seems as bizarre as "The Truman Show": Phillip is suppose to fill in the gap for missing relationships, but he feels more and more like a fake himself. Hikari shows a lot of sense for humor (Phillip's over-the-top toothpaste commercial; the scene where Phillip pretends to be Hitomi's husband for the school interview, and when the committee asks them what is the most important in raising a child, he and Hitomi answer differently at the same time: "Honesty" and "Communication", so Phillip improvises to save the situation: "An honest communication"), yet becomes surprisingly emotional in the last third, when Phillip actually becomes friends with retired actor Kikuo and the 6-year old Mia, playing her "dad". "Rental Family" lacks some higher creative "jumps", and it should have included at least one moment where Phillip's separate acting jobs overlap and contradict each other, which is a pity, but it does have an interesting moment where Mia recognizes Phillip playing a pirate in a movie. The emotional bond between Mia and her surrogate father Phillip is surprisingly sweet, showing that sometimes even surrogate emotions can traverse from fake to real.

Grade:++