Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020)

Direction: Jason Woliner
Country: USA

In the return of Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev (Sasha Baron Cohen) to America, the latter heavily mocks the dim-witted Republican supporters, parodies on how they deal with the virus, and tries to limit the wonderful discoveries of Tutar (Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova is a revelation), his 15-year-old daughter. Here, Tutar is shockingly taken into a hotel bedroom by Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, after a fabricated interview. There’s also a wild and unforgettable debutante ball, and a well-intentioned middle-aged African-American babysitter (Jeanise Jones), who patiently tries to educate the misled Tutar in several aspects of life. She is the only non-fictional character that deserves our respect. 

The film, directed by Jason Woliner from a screenplay that Cohen co-wrote with seven others, is often messy in its ludicrousness, but a trip worth taking, considering the delicate situations that Cohen and Bakalova put themselves in. It’s incredible how they pull out some sad truths from an America in tatters. We never know what to expect next, and perverse laughter is inevitable.

The Forty-Year-Old Version (2020)

Direction: Radha Blank
Country: USA

Flowing at the right beat, Radha Blank’s debut feature is made of honest words, genuine characters, irreverent humor, and raw emotions.

Set in Harlem, this semi-autobiographical story focuses on Radha (Blank), a playwright/teacher who decides to try something new and find her real voice by becoming a rapper at the age of 40. She has been struggling lately, and if the best of inspirations usually becomes trapped in the ‘system’, then gentrification is a real, scary threat. In need of a prompt transformation in her life, she will dive headfirst into the art of rhyme with the help of D. (Oswin Benjamin), a young beatmaker, and, even if intermittently, Archie (Peter Kim), her longtime gay best friend.

Gorgeously shot in black-and-white 35mm film, The Forty-Year-Old Version converts a slice of real life into a powerful artistic statement.

Digging For Fire (2018) - capsule review

Direction: Joe Swanberg
Country: USA

The frivolous blend of ludicrous mystery and tepid romance offered in Digging For Fire got me quickly bored. Writer/director Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies) fails to surprise, while actors Jake Johnson (who co-wrote based on his real experience) and Rosemary DeWitt never stepped it up. During a planned house sitting weekend at a client’s, a tired yoga teacher and her relaxed husband go on separate adventures.

The problem is that both adventures are terribly unsatisfying and real laughs are missing, taking this unfurnished two-sided tale to drag along with no gravity whatsoever, but rather burdensome moves that often feel contrived.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

Direction: Aaron Sorkin
Country: USA

Aaron Sorkin is someone from whom we can expect good things, especially when we look into his solid past work - he’s the screenwriter of The Social Network, Steve Jobs and Moneyball. This playwright-turned-screenwriter-turned-director frequently centers on fact-based material and his sophomore directorial effort, The Trial of the Chicago 7, is an entertaining legal drama with a few successful comedic passages.

The film guarantees a lively screen translation of the episodes that took seven anti-Vietnam War protesters to court, charged with conspiracy and riot-related offenses on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Yet, most of the pic’s duration concentrates on the often hilarious court sessions led by the obnoxious, discriminatory and incompetent Judge Julius Hoffman (veteran actor Frank Langella).

Even tolerably wobbly in the structure, this film comes in a time where the words ‘protest’ and ‘conspiracy’ are most heard. The fine performances give the story a boost, especially Sacha Baron Cohen as Abbie Hoffman and Jeremy Strong as Jerry Rubin.



Following (1998) - capsule review

Direction: Christopher Nolan
Country: UK

Following, the debut feature film of genius filmmaker Christopher Nolan (Memento; Inception; Dunkirk), is a fascinating and immersive neo-noir enhanced with terrific acting. Filmed in black and white, it sort of nods to Godard but becomes quite darker in tone, giving us a hint of what Nolan can do with a low budget. The film, compellingly written and directed, manages to be provocative in an understated way, probing the earlier paths of success that turn Nolan into one of the most respected and innovative filmmakers of our times.

Enola Holmes (2020) - capsule review

Direction: Harry Bradbeer
Country: UK

A quite charming detective adventure, Enola Holmes is also extremely entertaining, regardless the messy way it was assembled.

The plot, adapted from Nancy Springer’s writings, follows Sherlock Holmes’ sister, Enola (a launching pad for Millie Bobby Brown’s career), in a double mission. While she tries to solve the mysterious, if deliberate, disappearance of her liberal mother (Helena Bonham Carter), she also helps a young Lord (Louis Partridge) to escape his controlling family and a relentless killer sent his way.

An expedite pace, strong production values, easy humor, candid romance, and a pertinent subtopic involving women’s rights are all motives to see Harry Bradbeer’s first non-TV movie.



Tigertail (2020) - capsule review

Direction: Alan Yang
Country: USA

Tigertail, the quiet debut feature of American writer/director/producer Alan Yang, is rudimentary but honest. It’s a bitter immigrant song immersed in simplicity and sacrifice, whose interest decreases with the time. Patiently structured with numerous flashbacks and temporal leaps, the narrative never succumbs to the melodrama artifice, providing the right tonal balance to favor connectedness with the viewer. It might be forgettable and meager, but the truth is that Yang never loses contact with his characters and their emotional states. 

My Happy Family (2017) - capsule review

Direction: Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß
Country: Georgia

Hailing from Georgia, this powerful drama film denotes wonderful acting and a compelling direction from Nana Ekvtimishvili, who wrote it, and Simon Groß. Thoroughly engaging from start to finish, this is a fluid and confident effort centered on family and intricate relationships. It surpasses in a large scale the pair’s debut feature, In Bloom (2013). It tugs the heartstrings as the realistic life crisis unfolds.

A Taxi Driver (2017) - capsule review

Direction: Hun Jang
Country: South Korea

A Taxi Driver depicts a black page in South Korean’s history, being often melodramatic to become entirely satisfying. The historical facts are lightened up by a charismatic central character enjoyably played by Song Kang-ho (Parasite; Snowpiercer). Despite overlong and emotionally elaborate, Hun Jang’s drama film has its moments and ensures amusement.



The Assistant (2020) - capsule review

Direction: Kitty Green
Country: USA

Kitty Green’s rigorously observant The Assistant depicts a long, exhausting work day in the life of Jane (Julia Garner), a fresh college graduate and producer-wannabe working as a junior assistant for a wealthy film production company in New York.

Perspicacious, she soon figures out the sordid schemes that occur in a male-dominated office; she identifies the predators and the preys, the indifferent and the ambitious, as well as the frequent sarcasm and passivity in the face of the abusive behavior of a leader, whose face we never see. We have the sense that he hides in the shadows, yet still spreading gloominess around.

Despite strong and able, Julia is about to break down with embarrassment and disappointment, and the taciturn drama poignantly expresses the miserable work environment that many people experience but haven’t the courage to denounce.

Wasp Network (2019) - capsule review

Directed by: Olivier Assayas
Country: France, other

A misstep from acclaimed French director Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper; Clouds of Sils Maria), Wasp Network tangles itself in a plot transferred to the screen with the shopworn conventions associated with the American cinema. The espionage tale, toggling between Cuba and the US, is based on a true story, but the capable cast led by Penelope Cruz and Edgar Ramirez was powerless to make it shine.

Sunday's Illness (2018) - capsule review

Direction: Ramón Salazar
Country: Spain

Exhibiting a severe, intriguing mood, this film could have been much more effective if the director, Ramón Salazar, didn’t have stretched a few scenes into the limit while packing them with a lugubrious gloominess. Somewhat painful to watch in all its human suffering and ultimately redemption.

The Social Dilemma (2020) - capsule review

Director: Jeff Orlowski
Country: USA

A comprehensive and eye-opening documentary by Jeff Orlowski about the dependency, isolation and other serious problems caused by social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to their users. What has started with good intentions ended up in greediness, personal data manipulation, adverse political influence, and negligence. The ones who warn us are true connoisseurs of the business, people who have worked in these companies but became conscience-stricken with the direction things went. Watch the film to be both elucidated and petrified about the controversies surrounding the topic.

I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) - capsule review

Director: Charlie Kaufman
Country: USA

With this new film, Charlie Kaufman (Synechdoche, New York; Anomalisa) confirms his tendency for knotty, moody, suspenseful writing/storytelling crammed with references to past lives, time discontinuities, memory tricks and baffling developments. I found some scenes utterly repetitive and ultimately inconsequent. The final segment of the film touches the ridiculous and, at times, it’s inevitable not to think: ‘I’m thinking of terminating this movie session’. But I give you one good reason to watch it: David Thewlis.

An Egyptian Story (1982) - capsule review

Director: Youssef Chahine
Country: Egypt

Egyptian director Youssef Chahine makes his most personal statement with An Egyptian Story, which, not having the magnetism of Cairo Station (1958), encapsulates some metaphoric scenes that implies both self-analysis and self-acceptance. Chahine trusts the leading role to Nour El-Sherif, taking us from one delicious take to another with legitimacy.

RBG (2018) - capsule review

Director: Julie Cohen, Betsy West
Country: USA

A so-so documentary about a key figure in the fight for gender equality and women’s right. It’s sort of bland the way co-directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West conduct this presentation, but if you want to know a bit more about Justice Ruth Baden Ginsbourg, maybe this is a good place to start.



Cuties (2020) - capsule review

Director: Maimouna Doucouré
Country: France

Most of the polemic involving Cuties, the debut feature of Maimouna Doucouré, is unjustified. It’s just painful to watch. I don’t see a bad intention from the writer/director here, rather seeing the story as an eye-opener for the perils to which susceptible youth is exposed through social media. The pursuit of fame at all cost, cultural differences, estrangement, and insertion in a new community are addressed. Yet, the film gradually loses strength and focus as it moves forward.

2 Films by Teinosuke Kinugasa - A Page of Madness (1926) and Gate of Hell (1953)

Japanese director Teinosuke Kinugasa’s avant-garde/experimental horror reflection is also infused with scary moments and emotional turmoil. The plot, adapted from a short story by Yasunari Kawabata, follows a remorseful man who accepts a janitor job in a remote asylum located in rural Japan in hopes of freeing his incarcerated wife. Simply feverish.

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A tenacious country samurai pursues a married woman, who is forced to take extreme measures to deal with his insolence. Obsessive mad love in a Japanese samurai classic that, despite not crammed with sword battles, possesses a continuous, intense dramatic flair.



The Garden Left Behind (2019)

Direction: Flavio Alves
Country: USA

Having the Bronx, New York, as a backdrop, The Garden Left Behind depicts the dreams, struggles and relationships of a young Mexican transgender woman. This feature debut from the New York-based Brazilian filmmaker Flavio Alves also marks the first appearance on screen by Carlie Guevara. Co-written by Alves and John Rotondo, the drama film has the particularity of having trans actors in all trans roles, using the same methodology for the Spanish-language characters. Even more peculiar is the fact that it became the first independent feature to be significantly funded through donations and sales via eBay.

Tina (Guevara), formerly called Antonio, drives an Uber to make a living. She has been in the US since the age of five but remains illegal, a predicament that makes her process of transitioning harder. Ever since, she's been living with her sympathetic grandmother, Emilia (Miriam Cruz), the only family she has left.  

The occasional quarrels between them are never a threat to the strong bond, yet Tina has been going through a lot lately. She’s under the attentive psychological evaluation of Dr. Cleary (veteran actor Edward Asner), whose countless questions upset her; she joins an activist group of trans women against the recurrent discrimination, being consequently dumped by her boyfriend, Jason (Alex Kruz); and keeps struggling to find a job that feels like a good fit for an illegal alien. What she doesn’t suspect is that the quiet clerk of her neighborhood corner store, Chris (Anthony Abdo), has a secret crush on her.

With a compelling narrative and a surprising, heartbreaking finale, The Garden Left Behind satisfies as a whole. Yet, it couldn’t hide a couple of less effective scenes - like when grandma thinks she broke the vacuum cleaner - or when Guevara’s performance becomes subtly vacillating. Nevertheless, the heart of the film is in the right place, and the story serves both as a reflection about common immigration-related concerns as well as an alert for the intolerance and hatred that continuously leads to violence in America.

Young Ahmed (2020)

Direction: Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Country: Belgium / France

In the last decade, the Dardenne Brothers offered us an impressive sequence of pragmatic and intelligent gems such as The Kid with a Bike (2011) and Two Days, One Night (2014). However, they failed to maintain those levels of excellence in the last five years. If The Unknown Girl (2016), even forgettable, was still able to create some mystery, the most recent Young Ahmed is a disastrous, utterly conventional tale of fanaticism focused on a brainwashed Belgian teenager who, under the psychological control of an authoritative Imam (Othmane Moumen), decides to take extreme actions in the name of the Islam. 

The obstinate Ahmed (newcomer Idir Ben Addi) marks his apostate teacher Ines Touzani (Myriem Akheddiou) as a target, but his plan to take her life away falls short. His single mother (Claire Bodson) almost gets relieved when he’s sent to a youth rehabilitation facility. From there, he’s taken to work on a farm, where he’s supposed to ease his spirit and change the radical posture. However, the experience becomes bittersweet since he immediately gets the attention of Louise (Victoria Bluck), a like-aged white girl who’s not afraid to demonstrate romantic interest in him. She stole his first kiss, but is Ahmed capable of redemption?

In some situations, the film is meticulously descriptive in the details, a factor that further limits the already rudimentary plot, and on the other hand, the scenes feel fabricated. All this makes it unpersuasive as a drama. Ahmed’s meek eyes and tractable pose bring his monstrous intentions to phoniness. Never haunting or hypnotic, the film basically relies on self-obsession to succeed, and any interest in Ahmed as a character may evaporate in no time. The conclusion is more ludicrous than shocking.