Movie Mini-Reviews: Memories of Murder (2003) and Nightcrawler (2014)

* Memories of Murder (2003)

A serial rapist and murderer terrorizes a rural South Korean town in the late 80's while rural cops struggle to make headway in the case. They opt to blame the most vulnerable people in their community and use abusive methods to extract false confessions. Their supervisor tries to reign them in, but they seem committed to undermining the investigation at every turn.

Memories of Murder is a Bong Joon Ho film that portrays problems with law enforcement that persist today, especially in the US. Kang Sang Ho plays Detective Park Doo-man, a seemingly well meaning police officer trying to find the murderer/rapist. He is so affable and understandable that his behavior gets quite extreme before I doubted his intentions. He genuinely wants to catch this killer, but he relies on looking into the person's eyes to sense if they are guilty instead of preserving evidence or going off of anything more concrete than rumors. His partner's penchant for jump kicking suspects starts out as a slapstick, funny thing and then turns out to be a hinderance and indicative of an out of control temper. Both sabotage their own investigation on top of things out of their control such as a small, rural operation.

I'm sure plenty of corrupt police don't see themselves as such in the present day and they justify their horrific actions with working towards justice. With very few to hold them accountable and the pressure to support their co-workers whether or not they did something wrong, it's easy to see how good intentions simply aren't enough and how corruption can go unchecked. As with all Bong Joon Ho films, the conclusion left me emotional and broken with its reveal. 

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

* Nightcrawler (2014)

Louis Bloom is looking for ways to make money. When he happens upon a car accident and sees a film crew swoop in to document it, his interest is piqued. He sells stolen scrap metal to buy a cheap camcorder and a police scanner to throw himself into the nightcrawler life, filming accidents, police stops, and bungling it until he learns what news stations will pay for. Louis will do anything to keep a steady flow of footage for his chosen news station and will take out anyone in his way.

I had always heard good things about Nightcrawler and I found that Jake Gyllenhaal can play an incredibly convincing creeper. Louis Bloom doesn't have any lines he won't cross. He expects everyone to acquiesce and when they don't, he finds a way around them. The man is chilling in his singlemindedness and ability use information to his own advantage. I felt sorry for those around him, a means to an end or disposable. Near the end, I was on the edge of my seat because he decided to insert himself into the stories he films. When he arrives at a home where people are still being killed and robbed, I was just waiting for him to get caught or killed. He has no boundaries and finds nothing wrong with tailgating police on a chase or sacrificing others to get a good shot.

Nightcrawler took me on a wild ride. The ending is pretty unrealistic, but the whole ending sequence had me in complete suspense. The storytelling is amazing and shows how confident, unscrupulous person can get far by exploiting others. It's also a critique of what the public finds newsworthy (white families being attacked and car accidents). This thrilling film really hit me and went unexpected places. 

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Movie Mini-Reviews: BlacKkKlansman (2018) and Sorry to Bother You (2018)

* BlacKkKlansman (2018)

Ron Stallworth is the first African American policeman hired in Colorado Springs. After being disrespected and relegated to the evidence desk, he requests a transfer to go undercover. His first assignment is infiltrating a local rally headed by a civil rights leader Kwame Ture. The only negative he sees is the white police officers hassling and sexually assaulting Ture and the college students who invited him. Then Ron is reassigned to Intelligence where he pretends to be a white man to join the KKK. Co-worker Flip plays Ron in person and Ron plays himself on the phone to cultivate a relationship and investigate if the organization is violent under its new leader with the perfect facade David Duke.

This film has Ron Stallworth stuck in between groups. He's not part of the civil rights movement because they have rejected the idea of trying to improve corrupt organizations of the inside. He's also not part of the white police force who largely treat people of color horribly with the support of everyone in that system. He tries his best to keep things from getting to him, but he feels the tension of being pulled at from both sides. The situation where he pretends to be white to infiltrate the KKK seems humorous and ridiculous. It proves to be quite serious and dangerous, especially when his own boss essentially sabotages him.

BlacKkKlansman is film that portrays real events in the 70's but also informs events happening today. One particularly well done scene compares the civil rights movement with the KKK where they tell personal stories and bond over shared experiences. The difference is that the African American people heard W.E.B. Dubois' horrific account of a lynching while the KKK watched Birth of a Nation and told racist stories about African Americans. The most telling aspect of the link between the 70's and the present is the real footage at the end of the Charlottsville Unite the Right rally with the white supremecists, counter protests, the car attack, and Trump's awful comments about the event. This film is timely, powerful, and critical of the current state of the US.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

* Sorry to Bother You (2018)

Cash Green is struggling to make ends meet as a telemarketer and lives with his girlfriend Detroit in his uncle's garage that's converted into a bedroom. Once a coworker shows him the advantage of sounding white and carefree on the phone, he rakes in the cash and gets to the upper echelons of the company while his coworkers strike for better wages and treatment. Cash has to decide if financial success is worth turning his back on his friends and who he used to be.

Sorry to Bother You is an insane, over the top satirical film that merges critique of capitalism with science fiction elements. Cash is relatable to a lot of people struggling to afford to live and find success. His success stemmed from suppressing who he was and code switching to be acceptable to a largely white customer base. Even though his girlfriend Detroit is critical of him, she does exactly the same thing during her art installation where she affects an English accent to seem more sophisticated to white clients. This shows a problem that the white general public is offput by people of color. They are forced to not only have a cheerful facade like all people who work with the public, but have an added layer of changing their tone and way of speaking on top of that.

While his coworkers rally for higher wages, Cash is led into a luxurious upper floor where he has to sell people or weapons. The people are from an organization called WorryFree which is essentially slavery in a lifetime work contract in exchange for free food, free housing, and being free of debt. Cash enjoys the money, but has some guilt when Detroit breaks up with him and when he has a can thrown at him while crossing the picket line and becomes a meme. Is all this worth it to be rich? Late in the film, a jarringly science fiction aspect is introduced that pushes the film in the absurd, but it's effective. It's offputting and you'll either love it or hate it. Sorry to Bother You is hilarious, weird, and crazy in addition to critiquing the capitalist, exploitative, and racist aspects of our society.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Oscar Review: Phantom Thread (2017)

* spoilers *

Eccentric fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock goes through phases of being enamored and inspired by a woman followed by being annoyed with the realities of a relationship and compromise that cycles over and over. Then he meets Alma a waitress, and they have a whirlwind romance and a marriage. When she moves in, the harsh reality of his controlling nature crashes down on her when she doesn't quite fit into his peculiar habits and well worn routines. It seems only a matter of time until he leaves Alma as they fight more and more.

I didn't know what to expect with Phantom Thread, but I enjoyed it more than I thought. Daniel Day Lewis plays Woodcock to an extreme level, imbuing him with manic energy and temper tantrums. The character is pretty awful, completely unable to change his routines at all. He uses women as inspiration and then drops them when they aren't the silent, compliant mannequins he wants. It's honestly hard to watch him with Alma because he doesn't hesitate to scream at her for the smallest perceived infraction. It's grossly accurate that he gets a pass on his behavior because of his success and brilliance as a fashion designer.

His sister Cyril is by far the most amazing character. She runs her brother's house and business so he can focus on the artistic side, but her role is a partner rather than an underling. She keeps his routines and habits because it's how he is most productive, which is good for the company. You might think that she's as cowed as everyone else, but that would be wrong. Whenever he becomes deluded, she is quick to verbally cut through him and it's clear that she would win any sort of battle of wits. Everything she says is always polite on the surface no matter what biting insult lies beneath. Her iron will, sarcasm, and sass are amazing and she grounds the film with her sensible nature.

Alma is an unexpected character. She started out as rather wide eyed and idealistic, but then refuses to be cowed by Woodcock's demands, throwing his schedule in disarray and leaving him lost. As he loses more and more interest in her, she continues to blaze her own trail and leave him behind if necessary. When he's at the breaking point, she poisons his tea with mushrooms and nurses him back to health, essentially resetting their relationship back to the honeymoonstage. After the second time she does this, she tells him about it and he accepts that this is simply another routine that must be done. For a normie movie, that's a pretty odd detail. I like that Alma didn't lose herself in him and Woodcock learned to compromise in his own bizarre way. My only criticism is that the film meandered near the end and felt about a half hour too long. Other than that, eveything from the aesthetics to the score to the acting were very well done.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

The Beguiled

It's three years into the Civil War and Martha Farnworth continues to run her school for girls after most of the students, staff, and slaves have left, leaving only Ewina Morrow and five students who have nowhere to go: Amy, Alicia, Jane, Emily, and Marie. Amy finds an injured Union soldier named Corporal John McBurney when picking mushrooms for dinner and helps him back to the school where they give him medical attention. He rests in a locked room while they decide what they want to do with him, but all visit him frequently and build a relationship with him. He fears returning to the war, but how far will he go to stay in the school?

Based on the advertising, I expected The Beguiled to be a thriller through and through. It turned out to be mainly a drama with a sprinkling of thriller in the latter half, so I was a little disappointed. However, the film won me over with its beautiful cinematography, gorgeous costumes, and nuanced performances from the actresses. So many screenshots were simply works of art that the slow pace was welcome to enjoy them. The costumes, while beautiful, aren't really realistic for the time. They would have had very few resources especially with very few if any paying students attending the school, so their beautiful clothing and full table don't seem realistic. Effort is made to show the students mending clothing, but even mended it wouldn't look that nice. It does give an almost fantastical air to the film and to the women with their similar blond hair and white clothing since they are so removed from the war that it rarely interacts with them directly at all.

Corporal McBurney's arrival is the most exciting thing to happen in the school in years as the sounds of war have become a dull backdrop to their lives. Not much is truly known about him since he puts on a different persona depending on his audience. Each of the women had a different type of attraction him based on their stage in life, which he is quick to exploit. Amy, the youngest of the main characters, has a bit of a crush and appreciates being spoken to as an adult and as a friend. He calls her his favorite and praises her whenever he can, making sure to be nonthreatening. Teenage Alicia lusts after him as her isolation has left her burgeoning sexuality with no outlet. McBurney is cordial to her in public and equally lustful behind closed doors. Edwina is an adult who wants romantic love and a husband to secure her future. She isn't able to achieve her ideal life with a family where she is. John plies her with romantic platitudes and promises of elopement. Martha is an older woman more interested in a worldly companion to share stories with, which John eagerly provides. He is a master manipulator and plies the women so he won't have to return to war.

As his injury heals, John tries to make himself indispensible to the household by working in the garden, an activity the women and girls don't have time for. His manipulations work wonders as the women make him fancy meals in their best finery and bicker with each other for his attention. His luck changes when he advances on Alicia and is caught by Edwina. A horrific accident follows leaving John with a leg severed at the knee. When he sees he can no longer get what he wants with flattery, he turns to violence and abuse. Most of the women reject him, but Alicia and Edwina still pursue him. They try to call for help, but John becomes more violent. The conclusion has all of the women (except Edwina) banding together to take care of their problem in way that John never expects. They take a stereotypically nurturing, feminine action/event and take the power and agency of themselves and their home back. I loved it and found it a powerful ending.

The Beguiled has a few flaws, but overall, it's a beautiful film that has two very different halves. The first is light and happy as John brings an excitement to the house that hasn't been seen in years. The second is dark as he turns to abuse to get what he wants after what he perceived as their attack. John would do whatever it takes to get what he wanted, but he underestimated the intelligence, ingenuity, and capability of the women who he masterfully manipulated. My only other criticism is that the story is pretty straight forward without any subplots to speak of that could have filled out the story a little more. Other than that, I would say it's a drama with a splash of thriller that is well worth your time.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins