Time of Violence

Vreme na nasilie; historical drama, Bulgaria, 1988; D: Ludmil Staikov, S: Yosif Sarchadzhiev, Ivan Krastev, Valter Toski, Rusi Chanev, Anya Pencheva, Vasil Mihaylov, Momchil Karamitev, Kalina Stefanova

Bulgaria during the Ottoman occupation, 1668. A Janissary regiment led by Kara Ibrahim, himself a Bulgarian kidnapped as a child and converted to Islam, is sent to the village of Elindenya, Rhodope valley, with the order by the Sultan to forcefully convert all Christians there into Muslims. The villagers, among them shepherd Manol, are summoned to the headquarters and given 10 days to decide to convert. The wedding between Manol and Sevda is interrupted when Ibrahim's soldiers show up, arrest everyone and send them to a prison for the last three days of their ultimatum. The women are raped, while those men who refuse to become Muslims are murdered publicly. When Ibrahim threatens to kill Manol's son, Manol feigns he will put the turban on his head, but then starts a fight with the soldiers and is killed. A boy brings the head of one of the last rebels hiding in the caves, Momchil, to the headquarters. When Ibrahim crouches to look at the head, the boy stabs him with a knife.

Voted in one local poll as the best Bulgarian movie of the 20th century, allegedly based on real events from the 17th century, 4-hour monumental historical film "Time of Violence" by director Ludmil Staikov is an excellent historical depiction of forced conversions of Bulgarian Christians to Islam during the reign of the Ottoman Empire, with a remarkable sense for reconstruction of the mentality and way of life of the people of that time, to such an extent that their actions and behaviors seem easily recognizable even today. Through this story several universal themes are observed, whether political ones—colonialism, imperialism, collaborationism, forced assimilation, resistance of suppressed nations to survive—whether personal, humanistic ones—some individuals show integrity and honor, refusing to convert to Islam, while others give up faced with coercion in order to save their skin (Sevda converts to Islam to save Manol, but is killed by the soldiers when she insults Ibrahim; an orthodox Christian priest leads the villagers from the cave to convert to Islam). The leading antagonist is Kara Ibrahim (played by the impressive Yosif Sarchadzhiev) who is the embodiment of (religious) fundamentalism, showing how extremism slowly destroys everything in its way, starting with moderate people. This is illustrated in the disturbing sequence where Ibrahim and his regiment arrive to a town, guided by the moderate Ottoman governor Suleyman Aga, and spot a man on a roof of a building. Ibrahim has this exchange with Aga: "Who is he?" - "A carpenter. A foreigner." - "Religious or non-religious?" - "Non-religious." - "Sell him to me." Ibrahim gives Aga a small bag of money, then takes a gun and shoots the man on the roof. Aga then asks: "Why did you kill him?" - "So that everyone in the headquarters know that I have arrived".

Upon hearing that Ottoman soldiers have arrived, the villagers quickly send all their kids away so that they won't be abducted to become Jannisary, and dig a hole in the ground to place a huge vase there, and grain inside the vase, covering it with grass, to hide their food. The dialogues are surprisingly engaging and sharp. For instance, there is a sly comment about the Ottoman Sultan: "A desperate man wth power, my friend, is the worst of all evils." When the Christian villagers are "bullied" into finally becoming Muslims, one villager has this exchange with Ibrahim: "I can't, Aga." - "What if others change their religion?" - "I'll see then, Aga. Let me be the last one." - "Isn't it all the same, Giaur?" - "It isn't, Aga. If I'm the last one, no one will be left to curse me after it." The moderate Ottoman governor is opposed to these forced conversions: "A green water melon, forcibly riped, isn't sweet!" Despite this, nothing is presented as black and white: Ibrahim, ironically, is himself a Bulgarian Christian who was abducted by the Ottomans and converted to Islam, meaning that he is now the continuation of his own injustice that wrecked his life, and he has intermittent flashbacks of his mother running after him. Even more ironic, a man who tries to assassinate Ibrahim in his room, turns out to be Goran, his own long lost brother, hinting at the cyclic nature of self-destruction. The director Staikov crafts several aesthetic images thanks to the fantastic locations in Rhodope mountains: one is the wonderful panorama shot of three flocks of sheep running across a yellow meadow on a hill, the other are the amazing frames of hundreds of people fleeing inside giant caves. Dark and bleak, but also contemplative, philosophical, "Time of Violence" has a remarkably fluent story flow from start to finish.

Grade:+++

May December

May December; drama, USA, 2023; D: Todd Haynes, S: Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, Charles Melton, Cory Michael Smith, Elizabeth Yu

Actress Elizabeth visits an unusual wife whom she is about to play in a movie: Gracie, who had sex with her husband Joe when he was 13 years old, and she was 36. Gracie gave birth to their child in prison, but upon release she married Joe, and now they have three kids: Honor, Charlie and Mary. Elizabeth befriends Gracie and Joe, stays at their house, and studies their behavior. Joe has sex with Elizabeth, but regrets it. Charlie and Mary graduate, while Gracie tells Elizabeth to beat it. Elizabeth later films the movie on set.

What would happen to a grown woman who had sex with a 13-year old boy 20 years later? Todd Haynes' "May December" is a movie that tells this story after the paparazzi sensationalism, depicting it in a restrained, clinical and cold manner, showing this couple (Gracie, Joe) now married, with kids, as they are visited by an actress, Elizabeth, who studies Gracie to play her in a movie. The sole story is "spicy", but the movie isn't very cinematic. It's all rather stale after one gets used to the opening concept, since the storyline doesn't know what to do with this in the end. Natalie Portman as Elizabeth and Julianne Moore as Gracie are again excellent. The direction is competent, yet it needed more creativity and a better plot that would offer a higher amplitude of events than the rather routine one we got.

Grade:++

My Dear Theo

Z lyubov'yu z frontu; documentary, Ukraine / Poland / Denmark, 2025; D: Alisa Kovalenko, S: Alisa Kovalenko

On 24 February 2022, Goreshist Russia invades Ukraine, contaminating the land with occupation. Kyiv film director Alisa Kovalenko decides to follow her own promise in case of such invasion and joins the Ukrainian Army to defend her country, and takes her camera and microphone to also intermittently film the war front. Her unit battles Russian invaders in the Kyiv and Kharkiv Oblasts. During that time, Alisa writes letters to her 4-year old son Theo, confessing she misses him and doesn't know if she will survive the combat.

Excellent "unplanned" documentary "My Dear Theo" is assembled out of random episodes from the director Alisa Kovalenko's secret recordings from the front in the Russo-Ukrainian War, but almost every one of her frames are stylized, aligned and directed with such a concise guidance that it all can be analysed from any sequence on its own, showing the director's sense for cinema, even though she was surprised to stand in front of the camera instead of behind the camera. Whether these scenes are terrifying (random "flashes" of explosions on the countryside of a village seen over the horizon from afar), tragic (cows too afraid to get back in the barn from too loud explosions in the background as a farmwoman is trying to guide them back) or poetic (ants walking over the trenches), they all illustrate a broader picture of the historic event, and give enough context despite their disconnected nature. Kovalenko also inserted her own narration of her letters to her 4-year old son from the title, which gives the movie a metafilm touch. Despite all of the madness and death of the war, and the eerie feeling of uncertainty since the enemy is always outside the frame, only its crimes and violence visible, the movie is even able to find moments of optimism and humor (Kovalenko filming rabbits on a farm for her son via the mobile phone, joking that "battlefront rabbits are greeting" him; a soldier lamenting: "It's the 21st century, and we are digging trenches for the war instead of going to Mars!"). A fascinating film, a chronicle of a destroyed 21st century by politicians with neo-atavism, a contemplation on courage, honor, humanity and integrity during dark times, and valuable archive for future generations.

Grade:+++

Chainsaw Man

Chainsaw Man; animated horror series, Japan, 2022; D: Ryu Nakayama, S: Kikunosuke Toya, Fairouz Ai, Shogo Sakata, Tomori Kusunoki, Taku Yashiro

Teenager Denji is stuck paying off the debt of his late father by killing Devils, demons that sometimes appear in the city. Denji's demon pet dog Pochita has a chainsaw on its snout. When the Yakuza decide to switch sides and join the Devils to gain more power, their zombies attack and kill Denji in a warehouse. However, Pochita transfers his powers to Denji and merges with him, reviving him and giving him the ability to transform into Chainsaw Man. Denji is recruited by Makima and assigned to a special Division, which includes Power, Aki and Himeno, in order to fight the Devils. After an assassination attempt in which several agents are killed (including Himeno), Denji, Aki and Power manage to find the perpetrator and punish him.

The plot concepts of some anime TV series sometimes sound like April's Fools' Day. Sometimes the viewers just need to think of a preposterous idea, google it, and realize that it was already made into an anime. Did you ever wonder how it would look like if a teenager had the ability to transform into a superhero with two chainsaws on his hands and another one on his head? It can be tracked down in "Chainsaw Man", a bizarre blend between "Evil Dead II" and "RoboCop", reaching cult status. The title protagonist, teenager Denji, is cynically introduced in the opening of the first episode—as he is walking down the road, wearing an eyepatch, he narrates: "Then there's the kidney I sold, that was 1.2 million. My right eye was 300,000. Sold one of my balls... How much was that again? I think not even 100,000. And I still owe about 38,040,000 yen." He sleeps in a shed in the forest, having only his demon dog Pochita for company. This already establishes his unappealing situation he found himself in due to his father's debt, as a motive for him to yearn for a change of this status quo and get out of this misery as soon as possible. And he does, in a very bloody, gory, brutal way, after he is attacked by zombies, but saved by Pochita who gives him demonic superpowers—as is the case in most superhero stories, where the protagonist starts out at the bottom but then slowly climbs up to the top. Denji is assigned to a special division of Devil Hunters and given a partner, Aki. There's a lot of black humor and sly jokes in these opening few episodes. 

For instance, in episode 2, as they walk on the street, Denji randomly asks if their boss, Makima, has a boyfriend, so Aki just tells him to come with him, behind a back alley—where Aki kicks him and orders him to quit his job, ostensibly because it's too dangerous for him, since he is only after Makima's affection anyway. In a symbolic, lingering moment, Aki throws his cigarette at Denji's shirt, and extinguishes it by spitting on it (and Denji), with barely hidden contempt. To prove him he is not so weak, Denji then stands up and kicks him in the crutch. Later, upon returning back to Makima's office, Denji is holding a wounded Aki and says to her: "The guy's testicles were attacked by the Nut Devil, ma'am!" In episode 3, his colleague, girl Power, promises Denji that he can fondle her breasts three times if he is able to save her cat from a giant bat demon hiding in an abandoned house. Things go terribly wrong, the bat demon swallows Power and flies away, but then looks down—as Denji is hanging on to the demon's leg, saying: "Give me my tits back!" The whole storyline is full of these kind of humor and crazy style, but it also has stunning, incredibly detailed animation which gives it even a certain flair. Episode 7 breaks the high impression up to that point, though, and after it "Chainsaw Man" kind of loses its sense of humor and becomes just a routine fight-kill demons full of splatter violence at times. A really bad moment in episode 7 is at a dinner party, where a drunk Himeno decides to give Denji his first kiss, but due to alcohol, she throws up in his mouth. Disgusting and unnecessary. Later, after he passed out from alcohol, Denji wakes up in Himeno's room as she tries to have sex with him. He is tempted, but then remembers he only loves Makima and decides to save his "first time" for her. In a later episode, Himano dies due to a demon, which sends a rather somber message that sometimes it's better not to wait, but to indulge in some people's wishes while they are still alive. With only 12 episode, "Chainsaw Man" is concise and has no 'empty walk', yet its routine action second half drained a part of its freshness from the great opening episodes.

Grade:++ 

Good Children

Dobra djeca; drama, Croatia, 2024; D: Filip Peruzović, S: Filip Šovagović, Nina Violić

After the death of their mother, a brother and sister meet up again at her secluded house in Sveta Nedelja. The brother was living there, taking care of the mother, while the sister came from America back for the funeral. They clean up the house and she is angry when she finds lice under the mattress. They argue, make up, recall their childhood and enjoy in nature. He finally sells the house and moves out, while she leaves Croatia.

Despite attempts at meditative cinema in rural area, Filip Peruzovic's feature length debut film "Good Children" is too overstretched and too weak to engage from any cinematic azimuth. This minimalistic film (only two characters, located only on one location, with very little dialogue) deliberately leaves out some crucial information and thus wants to disentangle from any kind of narrative standards, leaving up to the viewers to fill out some gaps in the unsaid things between the brother and sister in the empty house. However, this way, it simply isn't engaging nor interesting, and becomes boring fairly quickly. It has a few aesthetic frames (brother and sister looking at the lights in Zagreb from the hill in the forest; the sister on a swing while the wind is blowing, announcing a storm; a lightning bolt in the night sky in the forest) which somewhat salvage the impression here and there. But the majority is just too thin to carry this as a feature, since this should have been a 25 minute film. When the only "highlight" that 'twitches' the grey mood is when a third character, a neighbor, shows up for guests in the living room, and there is a 10-minute static shot of him talking with the brother and sister, it just isn't sustainable without some intruige or interesting plot.

Grade:+

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 allegory 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:++

West Beirut

Bayrut El Gharbiyyeh; war drama, Lebanon / France, 1998; D: Ziad Doueiri, S: Rami Doueiri, Mohamad Chamas, Rola Al-Amin, Carmen Lebbos, Joseph Bou Nassar, Liliane Nemri

Beirut, 1 9 7 5. Teenager Tarek studies at a French school, but then sees the Christian Phalangist militia shooting Palestinians in a bus, which marks the start of the Lebanese Civil War. His neighborhood, the Muslim West Beirut, is separated by blockades from the Christian East Beirut. Tarek and his friend Omar want to develop their Super 8 film, but the shops are closed. When Tarek falls in love with a Christian girl without a father, May, he argues with Omar even more. Shootings are heard daily, and Tarek hides inside a building which turns out to be a brothel run by Oum Walid. His mom wants to leave Lebanon, but the patriotic father refuses to be a refugee, even though he lost his job. When the father plays a song, Tarek cries hiding behind a wall.

How would you react if your city was engulfed by war? A fascinating anti-nostalgic autobiographical reconstruction by director Ziad Doueiri of both his childhood and the Lebanese Civil War, "West Beirut" shows the bad luck of youngsters growing up during a conflict, and how they try to remain sane through jokes and fun (the teenage protagonist Tarek is at first happy that he doesn't have to go to school due to war), but slowly the bitter reality catches up with them. Doueiri creates a vividly colorful collage full of little details, transmitting to the viewers how it was to live in Beirut during that time—the episodic structure, a lack of character development for May, and a few clumsy scenes don't really corrode the high impression. One of the most insane moments, worthy of a cult movie, is when Omar throws a boot at the "demarcation" line separating west and east Beirut, and immediately a sniper shoots at it, but Tarek heard from a Taxi driver that by holding a bra anyone is given free access to traverse to the famous brothel, as some sort of universal signal of neutrality, so Tarek asks May to give him her bra, and then he, May and Omar simply safely walk across the street to the other side. 

The madam of the brothel is a feisty character who laments in front of Tarek: "Is this a public house or a headache house?" and "The clients are already bringing the war with them here! One Christian didn't want to sleep with a girl in the same bed that was used by a Muslim before!... Does a bed have religion?!" The movie shows the wide effects of a war on a society, and how it is fragmented into several warring factions, enhancing aggressive behavior. This is bitingly summed up in the sequence where people are standing in line in a bakery, but the baker can only give them one bag of bread per person due to food restrictions, but then a paramilitary cuts through the line and demands 20 bags because he is "protecting the neighborhood", but the baker doesn't want to give him more than ten, so the paramilitary beats him up. Tarek's mom wants to leave the country, which leads to an argument with dad: "Do you know what they call us in Switzerland? Luxury refugees. In London, they send dogs to sniff us. In America, they call us sand-niggers." The movie deliberately gives no context for the complicated Lebanese Civil War to show it from the kids' perspective, since they themselves didn't know who is fighting whom, except that Christians and Muslims are on opposing sides. In a comical sequence, Tarek and Omar randomly find themselves inside a protest and start chanting what everyone is saying around them: "With our spirit, with our blood, we'll remember you, Kamal!", but then Tarek and Omar have this exchange: "Who's Kamal?" - "No idea." This outlines the movie's theme: the war doesn't stop to be PG for kids; and people sometimes fight without knowing why, but just want to join the trend of their group—only later on will they realize the consequences of tribalism around them.

Grade:+++

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Dane-ye anjir-e ma'abed; drama / thriller, Iran / Germany / France, 2024; D: Mohammad Rasoulof, S: Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Setareh Maleki, Mahsa Rostami, Niousha Akhshi

Tehran. Lawyer Iman is at first happy to hear of his promotion to an investigating judge at the country's Revolutionary Court, but just then nationwide protests erupt after the death of a girl, Mahsa Amini, in police custody for not wearing a hijab, and he is shocked to find out his superiors expect him to simply sign any verdict sentencing accused people to death, before he can even research a case. Iman thus clashes badly with his wife, Najmeh, and their two teenage daughters, Rezvan and Sana. Rezvan's friend, Sadaf, joins the protests and is injured. When Iman's gun, given to him by the government for protection, cannot be found, and his personal info is leaked on the Internet, he drives off with his family to a secluded house in the countryside. He locks up Najmeh and Rezvan in two rooms to force them to confess taking the gun, but Sana has the weapon and hides outside. She locks up Iman in a basement, and releases Najmeh and Rezvan. Iman escapes and chases them around an abandoned ancient city. He approaches Sana, she shoots with the gun at the ground, which collapses and Iman falls down to his death.

A rare inside look at the Mahsa Amini protests, otherwise banned from being depicted in Iran's cinema, Mohammad Rasoulof's political drama "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" is a brave, noble, humanistic, ambitious and intelligent contemplation on gender apartheid in Ayatollah's Iran. It shows this clash through a family—on the one side, there is the female perspective, the wife Najmeh and the two teenage daughters, Rezvan and Sana (excellent Setareh Maleki), and on the other side, there is the male perspective, Iman, who on top of that works for the government court, signing death penalties assigned to him by the superiors. This way, the story presents the cyclic farce of the people who work for the system that suppresses the people, selling away their ethics in order to get a career promotion and climb up the hierarchy (Iman is promised a bigger apartment, which would be welcomed so that each of his two daughters has their own room), and explores their bad conscience. Remarkably, even the three female protagonists spend most of the film without wearing a hijab, at home, contrary to the dogma of Ayatollah's Iran's cinema.

The mother at first advises the daughters to avoid the protests, and has excuses for the death of Amini in police custody ("She died of a stroke. Is the government now to be blamed for anyone having a stroke?"), betraying her own gender, but with time has a character change and starts supporting the movement when Rezvan and Sana secretly bring their friend Sadaf, who joined the protests, to their home, and it is revealed half of Sadaf's face is badly injured because the police fired a shotgun at her. This leads to the best frame of the film, a close up shot of Sadaf's face as they are cleaning it and removing shrapnel from her skin, as later on the mother drops a dozen extracted metal shrapnel on the bathroom sink, with blood dripping from them. The movie is very good up to the last third, when it makes a disputable, questionable de-tour and becomes a thriller. The movie should have stayed with the injured friend, Sadaf. Instead, this finale disrupts the structure and tone established up to it, turning into a rather heavy-handed allegory on the idea that every man who works for the Iranian government eventually becomes radicalized and turns against his own family, which loses that subtlety from the first two thirds. 

Grade:+++

Flow

Straume; computer-animated fantasy adventure / art-film, Latvia / France / Belgium, 2024; D: Gints Zilbadois

A grey cat is watching its reflection in a lake in the forest when it is chased away by a pack of dogs. They in turn are all chased away by a herd of reindeer fleeing away from a giant flood. The flood engulfs the entire area, so the cat boards a boat with a dog, a lemur and a capybara. They flow through the ocean aimlessly, and the cat catches fish for food. On a patch of land, the cat is attacked by a herd of secretarybirds, but is saved by a good secretarybird who protects it. As a punishment, the other birds break the wing of the good secretarybird, which thus joins the cat and the others sailing on the boat. On a rock pillar, the secretarybird is beamed up in the sky, and disappears in the light. The water recedes, and the cat, the dog, the lemur and the capybara exit from the boat back on land.

An allegorical minimalist film without any dialogue or human characters, Gints Zilbadois' "Flow" is a raw, astringent and subconscious adventure that breaks the "animation monopoly" held by big budget studios by relying on a free and open-source animation software, thereby achieving a breakthrough on the field of the independent cinema. The storyline is strange and subject to several interpretations, since, by taking only the perspective of the animals, the viewers are not given any context. Is the sudden excessive flood, which covers the entire land surface, a symbol for sea level rise caused by climate change? It would fit with the world where abandoned buildings are seen, and the dogs and other domesticated animals roam freely, in a time where humans went extinct. Since the cat and other animals travel in a boat across this ocean, is it a meditation on the need for disparate groups to cooperate in order to survive during crisis times? And since they have no say in this water current, and their boat just follows the flow, is it a symbol for the voyage in life where everyone is just a pawn of destiny? Is it a meditation on the relativity of circumstances in life, since the flood at first hints that a small land animal like the cat will perish, and that big water animals like the whale will flourish, but when the flood recedes, the whale is stranded on land? All of them could be true. One certainty is that the cat overcomes its fear of water, when it learns how to swim and catch fish, through which the movie speaks about overcoming one's fears and learning to stand on its own. One sequence disrupts the movie stylistically (secretarybird being elevated by a beam of light) in a strange paranormal, religious (?) moment. Is it a divine reward for being good during dark times? "Flow" needed more ingenuity and creativity, since it is a little bit monotone after a while, yet it offers food for thought. 

Grade:++

The Trial of the Chicago 7

The Trial of the Chicago 7; legal drama, USA, 2020; D: Aaron Sorkin, S: Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Alex Sharp, John Carroll Lynch, Noah Robbins, Daniel Flaherty, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Caitlin FitzGerald

Chicago, 1 9 6 9. Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner and John Froines are seven left-wing activists on trial for inciting a riot, which ended with a police crackdown. An 8th defendant, the African-American Black Panther member Bobby Seale, is lumped in together with them, even though he is not represented since his lawyer is recovering from sugery. The Chicago 7 are represented by lawyer Fred Hampton, but the judge Julius Hoffman, is visibly biased against them and hampers their proceedings. When Hampton dies under mysterious circumstances, Seale is tied up to his chair, and two jurors are eliminated by Hoffman, the Chicago 7 protest and ask for a mistrial, claiming they only traveled to Chicago for a protest against the Vietnam War. Judge Hoffman sentences them to 5 years in prison, but this is overturned in the appeal verdict. 

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin was always interested in exploring political themes in his screenplays ("A Few Good Men", "The American President", "Charlie Wilson's War"), and thus chose wisely when he picked the rarely talked about real-life legal case of the political trial of the "Chicago 7" for his second directorial work. Sorkin has a knack for inspired dialogues, and thus his sophisticated sense for writing gives the static story a dynamic charge—there is no empty walk despite the long running time, since almost every scene seems important, and instead the viewers will actually feel the story is almost too short. Of the seven people on trial—or eight, if Bobby Seale is included, before his proceedings were separated from the rest—at least three feel only as extras, since there was not enough time to give everyone enough character development, but the four most notable defendants stand out with ease and cover for any omission, especially the two "hippies" with huge hair Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, played brilliantly by Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong. 

In one delicious moment, as the trial is about to commence and Abbie Hoffman's name is brought up, judge Julius Hoffman turns towards the stenographer: "And the record should reflect that defendant Hoffman and I are not related!", upon which Abbie looks at him from the bench and jokingly says: "Father, no!" Another fantastic moment is when a reporter and Rubin have this sharp exchange: "Why won't Bobby Seale let anyone represent him?" -  "You've posed that question in the form of a lie." Since numerous obstacles are artificially created during the trial, including that judge Hoffman is obviously biased against the Chicago 7, to such an extent that defense counsel Kunstler jokingly says that the judge has "been handing down rulings from the bench that would be considered wrong in Honduras", the movie contemplates about this legal malfunction and democratic deficiency in the US during the Vietnam War, when the government tried to intimidate and hush up the (left-wing) anti-war opposition, standing as a warning that these kind of mistrials can happen even in democracies. It is a very conventionally directed film, except for the neat gimmick that the riot is only presented later on in the film, yet it is ambitious, intelligent, noble and measured, a surprisingly quality experience.

Grade:+++

Les Misérables

Les Misérables; historical musical-drama, UK / USA, 2012; D: Tom Hooper, S: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Anne Hathaway, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter

Toulon, 1815. Convict Jean Valjean, sentenced for stealing bread, is released from a harbor penal prison by prison guard Javert. Valjean needs to report monthly to his parole officer. When he tries to steal silverware from a church, the priest tells the police that he gifted it to Valjean, so the moved Valjean decides to help people from there on. In 1823, Valjean is the mayor of a town and owner of a textile factory, living under a different name. A fired worker, Fantine, finds a new job as a prostitute to pay for her daughter, Cosette, but dies from starvation. Valjean brings up Cosette. In 1832, Marius falls in love with the now grown-up Cosette. The Republicans start the Paris June Rebellion in order to try to overthrow the monarchy led by King Louis Philippe I, but the army crushes them. Since Valjean spared his life when he was caught as a spy by the Republicans, Javert allows Valjean and Marius to escape alive. Marius and Cosette marry, while Valjean dies.

Tom Hooper's film adaptation of Victor Hugo's famous novel "Les Miserables" is a musical-drama that, paradoxically, would have worked much better just as a drama. All the performances would have been great if the forced singing wasn't in their way—while some musicals have isolated singing numbers and then take a "break" and return to being a straight drama for the next 10 minutes, "Les Miserables" consist of almost non-stop singing, even during the most ridiculous situations (singing while fencing, singing while dying, singing convicts pulling a rope in the sea...), since all this feels too unnatural and artificial, which hinders the enjoyment value of the storyline. The whole concept is misguided, since Hugo's novel shouldn't have been transformed into a musical in the first place. Nontheless, Hugo's story still offers a rare depiction of the attempted "Second French Revolution", when the 1832 June Rebellion tried to overthrow the monarchy to again resume the French Republic, showing a complicated set of characters who are fed up with poverty and low life quality, which all serve as a catalyst to try to improve their society. Anne Hathaway is outstanding as Fantine, but shockingly underused—her character dies already 42 minutes into the film, with only 20 minutes of screen time, which is simply too meagre and narrowed down. Hathaway's highlight: the emotional "I Dreamed a Dream" song filmed in one 4-minute take, which is incredible ("...life has killed the dream I dreamed..."). Sacha Baron Cohen is also amusing as the swindler Thenandier, who feigns he is caring for Fantine's daughter, calling her "Colette", while his wife immediately corrects him: "Cosette". Despite flaws, high production values, great cinematography and an emotional ending assure "Les Miserables" is a good film, if the viewers can "adjust" to its musical format.

Grade:++

Black Box Diaries

Black Box Diaries; documentary, Japan / USA / UK, 2024; D: Shiori Ito, S: Shiori Ito

Tokyo. Shiori Ito recounts how in 2015 she had a dinner with the powerful reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi talking about her potential new job, when she suddenly felt dizzy after a drink. A taxi cab drove them to a hotel. She fell unconscious, and woke up naked in a bed of a hotel room, with Yamaguchi naked on her. She left and filed a report to the police, but the indictment was withdrawn, possibly due to Yamaguchi's close ties with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Shiori insisted on the legal prosecution of her case for years, and wrote a book about it. As a journalist, she made recording of her conversations with an Investigator. Finally, the case arrives to a trial, and Yamaguchi is found guilty of rape.

A harrowing and disturbing documentary, "Black Box Diaries" is an unusual film where journalist Shiori Ito recounts and reconstructs her own rape, but does this with a journalistic distance which gives her some relief and objectivity to avoid (and contain) her own trauma. She secretly or openly films video or audio recording of witnesses (the taxi driver who drove Shiori and Noriyuki Yamaguchi when she fell dizzy; the phone call with the Investigator...), the clip of hotel camera footage of them leaving the taxi, or a woman reading Shiori's own testimony as a rehearsal for the trial (some 76 minutes into the film, which includes some graphic descriptions, such as the one where she woke up with Yamaguchi on top of her, and when she went to the bathroom, she noticed her "nipple was bleeding" and that she "had bruises") to combine them all into a chaotic, meandering, but honest and valuable testimony, creating a major catalyst for the advancement of prosecution of sexual violence in Japan. An especially unsettling moment is somewhere 57 minutes into the film, where Shiori reads an anonymous e-mail of a woman who berates her: "With the book, I am ashamed we belong to the same gender. Do you think you haven't done anything wrong? I was strictly raised to avoid such things." While this self-depicting approach is mostly just a primary source, it manages to create a fascinating film essay of the victim insisting on her rights and justice, exposing the often situation where an influential perpetrator knows powerful people, and is thus able to "cover-up" the incident, but not delay the trial at the end. It is a bitter and significant human rights work, and a one that shows Shiori's closure of this crime.

Grade:+++

The Paper Chase

The Paper Chase; drama, USA, 1973; D: James Bridges, S: Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman, Graham Beckel

James Hart is a student at Harvard Law School, specialising in contract law, but his Professor Kingsfield is very demanding and difficult to work with. Hart starts a relationship with Susan, but is surprised to find out she is Kingsfield's daughter, about to get divorced from her husband, so Susan doesn't mention Hart to Kingsfield. A student, Kevin, is so under pressure from studying despite having a photographic memory, that he contemplated suicide, so he quits Harvard. Hart and his friend Ford study for the final exam in a hotel room for three days. When he gets his test results in the mail, he makes a paper plane and throws it into the Ocean, unopened.

"The Paper Chase" is one of those rare movies composed only out of pure intelligence. It is a static drama where the students just listen to the lecture of their Professor Kingsfield explaining contract law through the Socratic method, i.e. in the form of questions, answers and discussions with the class, but it is surprisingly fascinating to listen to, mostly thanks to the excellent performance by John Houseman (previously a theater and film producer) as the demanding Kingsfield. Whenever Houseman is on the screen, he brings down the house through his understated charisma, intelligence and stoic-elevated discourse. And he references real-life legal cases, such as Hawkins vs. McGee, where a boy had his hand burned by an electric wire, a doctor promised him a new skin, but he transplated it from the boy's chest, thereby causing hair growth on the palm of the hand of the transplated skin, using this as an example of the expectation damages rewarded to the plaintiff. 

Kingsfield and a student have exchanges such as this one: "What are the elements that could lead to a party being excused from performing his part of the contract, and yet not paying damages?" - "Well, suppose I were to agree to rent an apartment from you. An old apartment which you haven't visited in a while. And the time came for me to move in, and we discovered the apartment house has been burned down. That actually happened to me..." However, the rest of the film is a step below, since the main protagonist Hart and his love interest Susan are bland and not that interesting, and thus the movie starts to drag with them as the main catalysts of the story. Hart is introduced in the first sequence which already plays out in the classroom, when Kingsfield calls him out: "Now that you're on your feet, Mr. Hart, maybe the classroom might be able to understand you. You are on your feet?" - "Yes, I am on my feet." - "Loudly Mr. Hart! Fill this room with your intelligence!" Their later animosity culminates with this: "You are a son of a bitch, Kingsfield!" - "Mr. Hart, that is the most intelligent thing you've said today! You may take your seat." It is a pity there is practically no interaction between Hart and Kingsfield outside the classroom—considering Hart is dating his daughter, this could have been used to meet Kingsfield and find out more about his private life, but that never happens. Kingsfield is always formal to him. The inspiration falls a bit in the second half, where less of the movie plays out in classroom, but it has an interesting point where students just chase that paper which gives them a certificate that they achieved something in society—but Hart then just frees himself from this, in a very symbolic final scene.

Grade:++