 |
| The Hand of God |
Angeles Hernandez and David Matamoros' Isaac aims for pathos and quickly achieves bathos. Overlong at a scant 80 minutes and overly tasteful, even the sex.
Josie Rourke's Mary Queen of Scots is an incoherent mish-mash, neither fish nor fowl. A Ren Faire masque with the occasional actorly interlude. Ronan is fine as Mary, nailing her girlish impulsiveness. Robbie is disastrous as Elizabeth. The film's handling of religious, political, and sexual issues is laughably jejune. The subject seems cursed in terms of film adaptations.
Mikio Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, from 1960, is an engrossing look at the plight of a bar hostess in the Ginza. The film never feels like a manipulative melodrama, despite the presence of a small boy on crutches, because Naruse develops the story deliberately and serenely. The denouement is all the more shattering because of Naruse's restraint. Hideko Takamine, in the lead role, provides one of the era's most memorable characterizations.
Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...Spring, from 2003, offers the story of two Buddhist monks told in five discrete vignettes. The film has the elegance and profundity of a well constructed fable, but also contains the mordant undercurrents that were Kim's calling card. Kim's best film and a landmark of Korean cinema.
Dune is a lumbering sand worm of a movie, but it could have been worse. Director Denis Villeneuve's stolid and humorless style is a good match with that of Frank Herbert's ponderous epic. The film is generally well cast, though the appeal of Rebecca Ferguson continues to escape me. Villeneuve does find untapped pockets of warmth and charm in Jason Momoa. I prefer David Lynch's manic surrealism, but this version is, at least, more coherent.
Reinaldo Marcus Green's King Richard is innocuous Oscar bait. Will Smith is fine and I particularly liked the contributions of Jon Bernthal, Tony Goldwyn, and Aunjanue Ellis. The portrayal of Richard Williams is fairly toothless. He is a far more prickly and complex character than the filmmakers were willing to portray. No other character in the film seems to have a comprehensible psyche. The recent Academy Awards contretemps will linger longer in the collective memory than the forgettable King Richard.
Cary Joji Fukunaga's No Time to Die is above average Bondage.
No comments:
Post a Comment