Us

2019’s Us, written and directed by Jordan Peele.

Starring Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, and Napiera Groves.

What is it about?

A nuclear family (Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, and Evan Alex) go to their cabin to have a vacation, but are interrupted by doppelgangers who want to forcefully take their place. With the country having similar issues widespread, will the family (and nation) make it through the night?

Why is it worth seeing?

In a culture currently dominated by superheroes, sequels/prequels, and cartoons, Jordan Peel’s original IP is a breath of fresh air. After 2017’s wicked thriller satire Get Out, Us sees Peel again creating something both original, and firmly enhanced by what came before. At times reminiscent of The Great Outdoors (check out Winston Duke’s John Candy sized tribute to dad jokes), before sharply pivoting to odes to The Strangers and Funny Games, Peele makes the proceeding all his own, with little flavours of 80’s nostalgia sprinkled throughout.


Similar to Get Out, lurking behind the cat and mouse doppelganger hunter action, Peele’s script has something more meaningful to it than just mere horrifying kicks. It’s metaphor may not work as sharply, or as precisely, as his previous work’s thoughts on entrenched racism and humans willing to break the rules of nature to propagate one’s self interests, but its thoughts on finding oneself, identity, and clones stimulate some neurons upstairs as the action unfolds. Fantastic work by the actors (particularly Lupita Nyong'o)- all playing doubles of themselves, and the rocking soundtrack doesn’t hurt either, which is either cool as the breeze or hilariously ironic.


Peele’s confident camera moves and in house creative tendencies reminds me of another auteur, M Night Shymalen- if M was half as good. Seriously, if Peele can continue to stay true to himself, not let studios meddle to produce works as timelessly hopeless as Avatar: The Last Airbender, and embrace the spirit that made him so successful as a sketch comedian, he will go far in his work. His resume speaks for itself so far.

Rating:

3.5/5

Trailer: Click Here.

Destination Wedding

2018’s Destination Wedding, written and directed by Victor Levin.

Starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, and a mountain lion.

What is it about?

Frank (Keanu Reeves) and Lindsay (Winona Ryder) are invited to Frank’s family’s wedding. Unhappy but stuck together for the weekend, they find that their lack of social skills and borderline agoraphobia to be fetching. As the bride and groom celebrate their weekend, Frank and Lindsay celebrate a reunion of chemistry not seen since Bram Stroker’s Dracula.

Why is it worth seeing?

It should be noted that Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves haven’t shared the screen together since 1992’s Dracula. I point that out, if only because the two thespians really spend a lot of the movie together- virtually all of it, in fact. People who have skimmed the summaries of Richard Linklater’s sublime Before trilogy could compare the fated by potent chemistry couple of Jessie and Celine to Wedding’s characters, but unfortunately what is missing (besides the quality of dialogue, chemistry, and authentic settings) is the idea that the planet has other people on it worth speaking to. Reeves and Ryder’s characters are so hopelessly solipsistic, so helplessly narcissistic in their introversion, that there is almost no scenes, where either of them (or together) are they seen actually having a conversation with somebody else. It’s a decision that is decidedly odd for the wedding setting, and even more so as a potential maybe-kinda-sorta rom-com, to have so much in common, narratively speaking and not qualitatively, with My Dinner with Andre.


With literally no ancillary characters, the focus goes squarely on to the two players and their micro worlds of pity filled angst. For a project that is essentially a dialogue, the protagonists aren’t that likable. Fueled by machine gun dialogue that goes back and forth in a game of insults and then insight-lacking vulnerability, it’s too clever by half, for two characters who are too clever to not be insufferable. Eventually the jibber jabber starts to drone on, as William Ross’ music plunks on and on. Given its lack of energy, it’s both a wonder that the film is as long as it is (and feels longer), and revealing how short is actually is at 85 minutes. All of this is supplemented by the worst offender of this passionless romance- predictability. Everybody (or rather, two people) say no, while we know yes. Everybody should have just RSVP’d no and stayed home.

Rating:

2.5/5

Trailer: Click Here.

A Separation

2011’s A Separation, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi.

Starring Peyman Moaadi, Leila Hatami, Sarina Farhadi, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Shirin Yazdanbakhsh, Merila Zarei, and Babak Karimi.

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (Asghar Farhadi) and Best Foreign Film.
Winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

What is it about?

Based in Iran, mother and wife Simin (Leila Hatami), wishes to divorce her husband, Nadir (Peyman Moaadi). Disagreeing with their nation’s patriarchal and religious views, she wants to leave the country and take their daughter, Termeh (Sarina Farhadi). Focused on taking care of his Alzheimer’s afflicted father, Nadir refuses to leave, so he and Termeh hire distant friend and devoutly religious, Razieh (Sareh Bayat), to look after him. Razieh’s husband, Hojjat (Shahab Hosseini ), beset with debt obligations and devoutly religious, is not to know that Razieh has a job caring for a man, and the separation process becomes very complicated for Simin and Nadir. Because of their country’s legal laws and religious norms, a series of misunderstandings, tragedies, and lies threaten to further tear the family apart.

Why is it worth seeing?

Due to censorship efforts by its government, Iran can be a puzzle when it comes to cinematically depicting everyday life for its citizens. Director Asghar Farhadi was victim to his government’s efforts when his film was briefly banned, allegedly for Farhadi’s support of other lightning rod Iranian film makers. All of this is to say that A Separation is a blessing in that it actually came to be.


A loose Iranian version of Kramer vs. Kramer, if there is a film that better depicts (more or less) middle class life (and class struggles) in contemporary Iran, I don’t know of it. Writer/Producer/Director Asghar Farhadi’s camera goes straight into an apartment (and many bureaucratic offices) teeming with life, and the decision to keep scenes handheld gives a vague sensation of sensory overload, a feeling that one can never quite settle amidst life’s never ending changes.


Relationships, and all the inherent messiness that comes from coupling, are complicated (and that’s before children are added to the equation). But how does one reconcile that when those dynamics are contrasted with the cultural and religious views of a nation, and with its laws? As the film’s characters grapple with that- with intent, respect, disrespect, anger, calm, and bewilderment- it becomes clear that the movie’s title is not just about a family breaking apart, but indeed a nation’s views and institutions being separate from those of its citizens.


Farhadi’s script, rightly celebrated, has just the right amount of conversation to ping pong back and forth. At times, the film is quietly reverent of its characters’ motives and domesticity, and in others it resembles a ferocious debate in which the moderator has lost all control. It’s a fascinating view of a culture in which overworked judges decide things such as murder and divorce- but with no lawyers to represent the parties. The end results are as fiery and desperate as you would expect, given the consequences if implicated. While Ferhadi’s story is intensely focused on the results of the proceedings, in the background it asks what our children think of us when they learn that we don’t always keep our word- and the realization that we are no longer gods to them.


No matter the skills involved in the filmmaking (and they’re considerable), what’s irrevocable is the fact that in divorce, the child usually loses. Here, it’s incredible, the pressure that is put on the adolescent character- torn between choosing a feuding parent’s side, helping support her family, focusing on her studies, and just being a teenager. You’d think any culture touting the values of family, togetherness, and honesty would have less cognitive dissonance.


Not always fun, but always interesting and sometimes fiery, A Separation has a lot to unpack in its run time, and its closing shot confirms that the chasms that separate people formerly connected can be both wide and blurry. Its only flaw is that it leaves its female protagonist largely in the shadows- but that only authenticates her motivations for wanting to leave in the first place.

Rating:

4.5/5

Trailer: Click Here.

Certified Copy

2010’s Certified Copy, written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami.

Starring Juliette Binoche, William Shimell, Adrian Moore, Gianna Giachetti, Jean-Claude Carrière, and Agathe Natanson.

What is it about?

Set in present day Italy, antique collector (Juliette Binoche) arranges to spend the day with author, James Miller (William Shimell). The two of them pontificate about their thoughts on the difference between originals and copies in both art and life, but something is off. Through espresso, weathered streets, and historical art, the nature of their relationship comes into question as they reveal themselves for what they really are.

Why is it worth seeing?

Departed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami once said that one can never get close to the truth except through lying. Here, his tale of two people exploring a constantly morphing relationship, invites viewers to multiple interpretations. Awash in the classical splendour of Italy’s Tuscany, it is never clear on which terra firma the couple resides.

Through a prism of conversation around topics such as the difference between authenticity and fakery, Kiarostami’s script about Binoche’s French/Italian passionate art curator and Shimell’s English distanced author intellectual produce insights that reveal themselves gradually, changing our perceptions of everything that came before. The result is a film that is as interested in mystery, as it is the irregular beats of those from Venus and Mars.


Like a lot of great works, Copy’s movie trailer and marketing don’t do it justice. To see it hyped is to speak to some sort of  Hollywood meet cute elevator pitch in which a pair of strangers decide to pretend to be a couple, to presumably fantastic results resulting in wedding bells and bliss. Instead, it produces something much more beguiling- interested in what happens when people investigate both their pairing, and themselves. Packed with reflective surfaces, mirrors, and isolated shots of actors speaking to one another, Kiarostami plainly reveals how muddled the difference between reality and fantasy can be.


As the principals in 95% of the film, Shimell and Binoche both give performances of depth, their respective backgrounds informing who they are without stereotypically defining. In particular, Binoche is spectacular, alternating between English, French, and Italian like a Formula One driver switches gears, with an engine to match. The decision to award her Best Actress at Cannes that year has aged well.

Unique and intoxicating, elegiac and at times tragic, like its male protagonist, Certified Copy can at times tip into the overly intellectual, but its mystery, themes, and mastery of craft, are no forgery- they’re the genuine article.

Rating:

5/5

Trailer: Click Here.