Some more recent movies to stream….or not.
No Other Choice ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This is a movie where evil triumphs over good, where man loses out to machine. And yet a lot of it is pretty darn funny.
Man-su is a man who has everything, a charming wife, a daughter and a son. He has purchased and renovated his boyhood home. He’s passionate about plants and has a thriving greenhouse. He’s a line manager at Solar Paper and was even once named “Pulp Man of the Year.”
But an American company has bought out Solar and as they move to cut expenses Man-su, who has been with the company for 25 years, has 25 minutes to get out. The serious, social commentary part of this movie is a look at the devastation this has on the family. He may lose his house, he can’t pay for his daughter’s cello lessons, he even has to give up his two dogs because “there’s too many mouths to feed.” His daughter won’t talk and his son resorts to shoplifting.
Man-su isn’t the only paper man out of work because of changes in the economy in Korea. In fact, there’s another Pulp Man of the Year on the job market. There’s one paper company doing well and hiring. How to get a job there? A great resume? Better interviewing skills? References? Nope. He has no other choice. Eliminate the competition. Literally.
This movie has everything: murder, family devotion, corporate greed, marital strife and a healthy dose of satire. It’s long enough to include all that and more. A masterpiece…of sorts.
(Available to rent at Prime Video or Fandango at Home
The Secret Agent ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A university researcher is pursued by a hit man hired by an unscrupulous corporate executive. That is the glue that holds together the plot, but there is oh so much more going on in this movie. There’s corrupt cops, corrupt government officials, bullying businessmen. There’s hired killers subcontracting to other hired killers. There’s a lovely refuge for the potential victims of all these predators run by a charming old woman. And last, but not least, there’s the mysterious story of the severed human leg discovered inside the body of a dead shark. Local media can’t get enough of that one and it finds its way into the dreams of young and old.
It’s Brazil in the 1970’s. Was the country really this dangerous and chaotic? It may well have been since it was in the throes of a military dictatorship. The movie takes place during Carnival time and the papers are keeping tabs on the fatality count. It hits 100.
The director of this movie, Kleber Mendonca Filho, won the best director award this year at Cannes. Easy to see why. One technique that he uses is to not spell everything out, leaving some questions unanswered. That may not always work but it does here. The loose ends of the story add a layer of mystery to the adventure. Wagner Moura, who played the lead role, was named best actor at Cannes.
This is by far the best fictional movie I saw at the festival. It’s nearly three hours, but it’s so engaging that the time flies by. It is Brazil’s entry in the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film.
The Secret Agent is scheduled to be released in theaters Dec. 5.
(Available to rent on Prime Video, Apple TV or Fandango at Home)
Hamnet ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A massive exercise in grief. You’ll feel it right down to your toes. And it will stick after the movie is done and gone.
This is a story of William Shakespeare and his family. It is based on a book I didn’t read;a history I know little about. What I do know is Shakespeare is known for his tragedies and the movie Hamnet easily fits that description.
The story includes Shakespeare, his parents, his wife (the daughter of a ‘forest witch), and his three children, one of which is Hamnet. We are advised at the start of the movie that the names Hamlet and Hamnet are one and the same.
Shakespeare spends his time in London working on writing and staging his plays. Agnes, his wife, stays behind in Stratford with the children. Turns out that that kind of arrangement didn’t work out so well in the 16th century either. Add to the mix the plague.
The highlight of the movie is Jesse Buckley’s portrayal of Agnes. Some movies are referred to as ‘feel good’ films. The opposite term isn’t used but Hamnet deserves the ‘feel bad’ title.
(Available to rent on Prime Video or Fandango at Home)
Marty Supreme ⭐️⭐️⭐️
A brash, loud, in-your-face movie. If you feel you need to add more arrogant narcissists to your life, welcome in Marty Mauser, aka Marty Supreme. Supreme he is not.
On one level this is a movie about table tennis. But along the way it hits on illicit affairs, dognappers, gangsters and hucksters. This is not your classical dedicated athlete story about the guy who sacrifices and works his butt off to achieve his dreams. Marty is a liar, thief, and con artist who disrespects everyone in his path.
There are some cringeworthy moments, like the scene from a concentration camp that pops up out of the blue and the foul ‘joke’ about Auschitz. I also thought the stereotypes in the portrayal of Japanese people watching a table tennis tournament were offensive.
There is an element of historical fiction. Indeed, the strength of the movie is in creating a 50’s style rough-and-tumble streetwise New Yorky vibe. It’s fast-moving, slickly produced and has big stars. (I don’t think assuming the persona of Marty Mauser would have been a stretch for Timothy Chalamet.) There’s a tear-jerker sentimental ending but it’s otherwise hard to sympathize with any of these characters.
(Available to rent on Prime Video or Fandango at Home)
Hedda ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Two hours or so of a supposedly high society party in a mansion. And these are academics, so it’s surely not contemporary. But because of that, a lost manuscript is a key part of the plot, that is, amidst the drunkenness, infidelity, lewdness and other forms of misbehavior that characterizes this shindig. Hedda Gabler, the evil mistress hostess, is the ringleader for most of it.
I have neither read nor seen the Henrik Ibsen play that the movie is based on so I can’t offer any comparisons. But I would think it’s a safe bet that the interracial and Lesbian trysts were probably not part of Ibsen’s 19th century work. The movie does borrow liberally from other classic pieces of literature, most notably the Great Gatsby from which both the party scene and the time frame seem to have been derived. It brings to mind a number of other books and movies about women trapped in marriages they don’t really want.
This is a story of a group of equally unlikeable people each self-destructing in their own way. As a genre, I have to say that total despair is not my favorite. That is not to say the acting isn’t excellent, the cinematography well done and the script cleverly put together.
Hedda is available on Prime Video.
off the leash 