The Alabama Solution (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): The systemic failures of Alabama prisons

Posted on January 21, 2026 by kaist455

HBO documentary film “The Alabama Solution” is often sobering as presenting the alarming failures of the prison system of the state of Alabama in US. It may not surprise you much if you have ever heard about how problematic the American prison system has been for many years, but the documentary is still captivating on the whole, and we come to care more about the stories of several defiant inmates still struggling under their oppressive system even at this point. 

The documentary begins with when directors/co-writers/producers Andrew Jarecki, who has been mainly known for his Oscar-nominated HBO documentary film “Capturing the Friedmans” (2003), and Charlotte Kaufman came to Easterling Correctional Facility in Alabama in 2019. The purpose of theirs was simply shooting a religious revival meeting among a bunch of inmates in the prison, but then a number of inmates approached them off-camera in the middle of the shooting, and what these inmates told them led them to more investigation during next several years. Via contraband cellular phones, Jareki and Kaufman could subsequently correspond with several prison inmates, who surely had a lot of things to show and tell them.

Among these prison inmates willing to step forward for the human rights of theirs and many other fellow inmates, the documentary comes to pay more attention to two of them: Robert Earl Council and Melvin Ray. Both of them are smart and articulate dudes who have learned and experienced a lot as being stuck in prison for many years, and they are certainly very determined to get the stories of them and their fellow inmates known more in public, though they may never be free for the rest of their life.

As they and some other inmates show and talk about many serious problems of their prison system, the documentary presents more facts on why their system really needs to be changed from the top to the bottom. For example, many of the state prisons in Alabama have dreadfully understaffed while the number of inmates has been way beyond their maximum capacity, and it is often horrifying to see how poor the life conditions inside these state prisons really are. Not so surprisingly, things can often become very stressful for many of those inmates incarcerated there, and violence has naturally become a usual part of their daily prison life, but those authorities in the state department of correction have ignored this and many other problems in their prison system.

In addition, there have also been countless incidents of abuse committed by prison guards and wardens. In case of a lad named Steven Davis, he was beaten by his several prison guards so severely that he was quickly taken to a local hospital, but he died a few days later, and this certainly devastated his family a lot. Still grieving over her son’s unjust death, Davis’s mother tried to find what exactly happened to her son, but the state department of correction was more occupied with covering up everything as much as possible, and that certainly exasperated and frustrated her.

At least, her son’s cellmate could be a possible witness to testify, but Davis’s mother and her lawyer were only reminded again that how things were disadvantageous for their possible lawsuit. While the state of correction kept blocking them from getting more information as before, Davis’s cellmate understandably declined to tell more mainly because he could be released within a few months, though, as he saw almost everything at that time, he promised to see and talk with her once he felt safe enough outside.

 Meanwhile, we also see more of how Council and Ray kept struggling day by day. As a little human rights movement of theirs got known more on the Internet, the systemic failures of the Alabama state prison eventually got a lot more attention than before, but, again, the state government led by Governor Kay Ivey, who is still occupying her position even at this point, was determined to block any reformation or progress. When the federal government attempted to intervene, Ivey, who is your average conservative Southern politician, insisted that it was just a state problem to be handled and then solved by her state government itself, but, of course, her state government only came to start building three bigger prisons to replace the old ones.

And we see more of what has motivated Governor Ivey and many other powerful political figures in Alabama: money and profit. As already shown from Ava Duvernay’s Oscar-nominated Netflix documentary “13th” (2016), the American prison system has virtually a modern slavery exploiting the labor force of millions of inmates for almost free, and the prison system of Alabama is no exception at all. Council and Ray eventually organized a massive statewide strike along with many inmates of the state prisons, and that surely caused a headache for the state government as well as its department of correction, though they were soon cruelly and systemically punished for their brave act of defiance.    

In conclusion, “The Alabama Solution”, which was recently included in the shortlist for Best Documentary Oscar, handles its main subject with enough care and thoughtfulness. Vividly presenting the long history of human damage and devastation caused by a very flawed system, the documentary will leave you a lot of things to muse on after you watch it, and it is definitely one of the better documentaries of last year in my trivial opinion.

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2000 Meters to Andriivka (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): In the middle of a battle over one Ukrainian village

Posted on January 20, 2026 by kaist455

Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov’ latest documentary film “2000 Meters to Andriivka”, which won the Directing Award when it was premiered at the World Cinema Documentary section of the Sundance Film Festival early in last year, is a pretty grim experience to say the least. Closely following a battle over one Ukrainian village in 2023, the documentary gives us a vivid and close look into the horror and devastation of the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, and it feels all the more depressing considering how things are still getting worse in Ukraine even at this point.

The documentary mainly consists of not only what Chernov and his fellow journalist Alex Babenko recorded with their camera but also a bunch of body-cam footage clips recorded by a number of Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield near a village named Andriivka during that time. Thanks to the latter, we are thrown into one perilous situation right from the beginning of the documentary, and this effectively sets the overall tone of the documentary before it begins its main narrative.

As reflected by the very title of the documentary, the Ukrainian army was fairly close to liberating Andriivka during that time, but, as Chernov’s phlegmatic narration explains to us, the Russian army was surely ready to stop its opponent by any means necessary. There was only one possible route which was a very narrow forest area surrounded by minefields and trenches, and those Ukrainian soldiers had to advance bit by bit along this route even though they could be heavily attacked at any point.

Considering how much it has been devastated by the ongoing battle, liberating Andriivka seemed rather meaningless, but most of those Ukrainian soldiers accompanied by Chernov were willing to fight more for their country nonetheless. From time to time, Chernov talked a bit with some of them, and their impromptu interview scenes feel poignant when Chernov tells us how many of them died in one way or another. We are amused a bit when one young solider and Chernov come to find some common area between them, but then we come to learn that this young soldier was unfortunately killed on another battlefield several months later.

As the Ukrainian soldiers continued to get closer to Andriivka, the opposing Russian soldiers attacked them more, and the documentary gives us several strikingly intense moments to remember. I must point out that those body-cam footage clips often look like the live-action version of video game demonstration, but this impression quickly goes away as we become more aware of the imminent peril faced by those Ukrainian soldiers. No matter how quickly they think and act, they can get themselves killed at any point, and their increasingly grim circumstance comes to overwhelm us more than expected.

The documentary occasionally provides bits of background information, and we get more understanding of how despairing things are really in many aspects. While the Ukrainian army was confident in its ongoing counterattack operation against its enemies, but the Russian army remained as a formidable opponent despite many setbacks in their invasion plan, and the battle over Andriivka eventually became stuck in stalemate even though the Ukrainian army managed to advance toward the village bit by bit.

Needless to say, the documentary does not overlook the human toils behind this battle. At one point later in the documentary, a soldier becomes seriously shell-shocked after another dangerous moment on the battlefield, and it is harrowing to observe how his face looks hard and numb even while a lot of things are happening around him. As following the funeral of one particular soldier who was once a truck driver before the war was begun, the documentary shows how many people in his village including his mother grieved over his death, and there is a somber but powerful moment when the camera simply looks over a cemetery filled with a lot of newly added graves.

Around the point where the battle over Andriivka finally came to end, there came some relief as expected, but Chernov expresses weary skepticism in his narration. As many of us know too well, there is still no end in sight for the Russo-Ukrainian war, and now it is the matter of which one will endure longer in the end. It goes without saying that Russia will stagnate Ukraine by any means necessary, and that will certainly corner Ukraine more than before.

On the whole, “2000 Meters to Andriivka”, which was selected as the Ukrainian submission to Best International Film Oscar (It was also included in the shortlist for Best Documentary Oscar, by the way) is another solid work from Chernov, who won an Oscar for his previous documentary “20 Days in Mariupol” (2023). Although it is relatively less engaging compared to “20 Days in Mariupol” because of the rather distant attitude, it is still worthwhile to watch as another important documentary to be added the growing list of the Russo-Ukrainian war documentaries, and I appreciate its visceral qualities while admiring Chernov and his crew’s dedicated efforts. As far as I can see from his two documentaries, he is quite determined to follow and then record the war to the end, and I can only hope that his possible next Russo-Ukrainian war documentary will be a bit less grim at least.

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Cover-up (2025) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A journalist still fighting for truth and transparency

Posted on January 19, 2026 by kaist455

Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ Netflix documentary film “Cover-up”, which was released around the end of the last year, gives an overview on the career of Seymore Hersh, a Pulitzer-winning American investigative journalist who deserves to be known more in my humble opinion. As following his several big scoops in the past, the documentary presents well his long and tenacious fight for truth and transparency, and that is why it is touching to see how he keeps going as before even at present.  

The early part of the documentary mainly revolves around an infamous incident in Vietnam which was a big breakthrough in Hersh’s career. In the late 1960s, Hersh was just a plain journalist who got tired of how he and his fellow journalists simply wrote down whatever the US government told them, but then he came across an opportunity for big scoop not long after he became an independent journalist. He happened to learn a bit about a massive civilian massacre which occurred in some rural region of Vietnam, and he became all the motivated as investigating more on how the US government had been trying to cover up this horrible incident which would eventually be known as My Lai Massacre. 

It goes without saying that his eventual article on My Lai Massare was disregarded by many major newspapers in US, but, once it got printed on Chicago Sun-Times in 1969, all the American newspapers became quite interested in this incident. Needless to say, Hersh virtually became a persona non grata to the US government. Although he later got hired in New York Times as he accordingly became more prominent, the US government kept watching for him – especially when he reported on a covert CIA operation against the left-wing student organizations in US. 

In case of the Watergate scandal, Hersh actually could have delved more into it from the very beginning, but New York Times was not so willing to allow that just for not ruining its good relationship with the US government, and, as many of you know, the ball was eventually handled to that famous duo of the Washington Post. Nevertheless, once the Washington Post reported more and more on the Watergate scandal, Hersh indirectly supported his competitors at the Washington Post via a series of crucial articles on that scandal, which ultimately led to more public interest in that scandal and then the eventual political downfall of President Richard Nixon.  

During next several decades, Hersh kept working steadily. After getting more disillusioned about how New York Times has been willing to bend itself to the US government as well as those wealthy corporations in US, he eventually left and then became an independent journalist again. Nonetheless, many people still approached to him as insiders with important information or secret as usual, and he even published a number of books which certainly did not please many people out there. 

Nevertheless, Hersh has always stuck to his professional integrity for many years without any compromise. Unless his informant is dead for a long time or agrees to come out, he refuses to reveal many of his numerous informants, and that occasionally causes frequent conflicts between him and the directors. As a matter of fact, Poitras actually tried to make a documentary about him around 20 years ago, but he did not accept her proposal at that time, and he agreed to be interviewed only after Poitras decided to make a documentary along with Obenhaus, who had also tried to delve into Hersh’s career for years just like Poitras.

Moreover, Hersh is also rather guarded about his personal life. He is quite willing to tell about his rather unhappy childhood and adolescent period as well as how he got a very fortunate opportunity to become a newspaper reporter in his hometown Chicago, but that is all he can openly talk about in front of the camera. At one point, he talks a bit about how supportive his wife has been to her for many years, but that is all we can learn about his family life here in this documentary.

Nevertheless, we come to admire Hersh more as observing more of his professional diligence. During the 2000s, he drew public attention again for his sobering article on what was committed in the name of War on Terror in Iraq, and that certainly made him less welcomed by the US government than before. At this point, he works on the investigative reporting on the ongoing human tragedy in Palestine, and, not so surprisingly, he tries to cover his sources as much as possible even when he generously lets us get some glimpse on his ongoing journalistic project. Although he is approaching to 90 at present, he remains as active as before, and you will be touched by how much he is still driven by his strong professionalism as before.   

 In conclusion, “Cove-up” is a compelling documentary which presents well its human subject with enough care and interest, and Poitras, who has steadily impressed us with several excellent documentaries including “Citizenfour” (2015) and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” (2022), and Obenhaus surely deserve all the praises they have received during this award seasons. Although the documentary does not point out how much American journalism has hit the bottom more than once during last several years, its engaging presentation of Hersh’s intrepid professionalism during last several decades is more than enough to make many of us reflect more on that serious issue in the American society, and you will surely come to think more about that undeniable value of good journalism in democracy.

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The Straight Story (1999) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): Lynch at his most sincerely heartfelt

Posted on January 19, 2026 by kaist455

David Lynch’s 1999 film “The Straight Story”, which happened to be shown in selected South Korean theaters along with his several other works in last week, shows Lynch at his most sincerely heartfelt. While many of his works are filled with dark, strange, and disturbing surrealistic elements, there is also a considerable amount of sincerity which sometimes seems to you as corny and clichéd as a piece of cheery pie and a cup of black coffee as shown from “Blue Velvet” (1986) or his cult TV series “Twin Peak”. With the gently sincere and haunting sensibility of “The Straight Story”, he demonstrates here that there has indeed been heart behind his darkly wild style and imagination from the very beginning of his filmmaking career, and this modest but special film can be regarded as an important artistic breakthrough as much as his subsequent film “Mulholland Drive” (2001).

The movie, which is based on the true story of an old man named Alvin Straight, begins with the opening scene which evokes a bit of “The Elephant Man” (1980) and “Blue Velvet”. At first, we see the big and wide sky full of shining stars which will surely take you back to the ending of “The Elephant Man”, and then the movie looks over and around a small little town in Iowa which looks and feels not so different from that suburban world in “Blue Velvet”. However, nothing serious or ironic or disturbing happens on the screen in this time, except a sudden little medical problem for Straight, played by Richard Farnsworth.

Once his daughter Rose (Sissy Spacek) and his neighbors find him collapsed on the floor, Alvin is subsequently taken to a local hospital. His doctor advises that he should pay more attention to his aging body which may stop functioning at any time, but he does not follow the doctor’s advice at all while continuing his usual lifestyle as before. He keeps doing his daily stuffs, and Rose, who incidentally has some mild mental retardation, is always around him whenever she is not working on birdhouses.

And then there comes an unexpected news from Wisconsin. Alvin’s estranged brother Lyle (Harry Dean Stanton) had a serious case of stroke, and Alvin comes to decide that he should really go to see Lyle, though they have never talked with each other for around 10 years due to some personal clash between them. Because of his weak eyesight and fragile legs, driving is out of question for him from the beginning, and there is no direct bus going to where Lyle lives, so Alvin eventually decides to use his old lawn mower for his long journey from Iowa to Wisconsin.

Although there is some amusement during the first days of Alvin’s journey, the screenplay by editor/co-producer Mary Sweeney and her co-writer John Roach sticks to its plain sincere attitude as before. When his lawn mower turns out to be not so reliable not long after he leaves his town, Alvin simply buys another lawn mower and then starts the journey again. The lawn mower can only move at a maximum speed of 5 miles per hour (8.0 km per hour), and he will have to cross over the distance of 240 miles (390 km), but he is not daunted at all as patiently driving along the road to his brother’s place.

Just like many other road movies out there, the movie doles out a series of episodic moments as he meets a number of different people one by one along his journey, and Lynch presents them with a considerable amount of restrained sensitivity. For example, when Alvin comes across a young female hitchhiker, we are not so surprised that they eventually spend a night together, but we are later touched by how sensitively the movie handles the brief but meaningful conversation between them. In case of a scene involved with one particularly unlucky woman who seems to come from a usual Lynch film, the movie surprises us as thoughtfully and empathically regarding her anger and pain along with Alvin, and then we get a little genuine laugh from how he takes care of the mess from her another unfortunate accident.

And we get to know more about Alvin and his past. It is revealed later in the story that he fought in World War II, and there is a quiet but powerful moment when he reveals a bit of his personal demon as talking with an old man who understands him well as a fellow World War II veteran. The camera simply focuses on his rough and wrinkled face during this moment, but we become more engaged, while sensing more of his old personal pain from the past.

Leisurely rolling the story and its hero along its mildly eventful narrative course, Lynch and his crew fill the screen with the warm and gentle rural atmosphere you can expect from the midwestern American background of their movie. While cinematographer Freddie Francis, who previously collaborated with Lynch in “The Elephant Man” and “Dune” (1984), did a splendid job of presenting wide and beautiful landscapes with unadorned realism and poetic beauty, and the score by Angelo Badalamenti, who was also one of Lynch’s main collaborators, is appropriately folksy at times as subtly capturing the emotional line of the story.

Above all, the movie depends a lot on the wonderful lead performance from Farnsworth, who was Oscar-nominated not long after his death. Thanks to his nuanced acting, we come to sense more of his character’s humanity along the story, and he is especially terrific during a mildly amusing scene where his character tells something important to the two brothers working on his broken lawn mower. He does not sound preachy or condescending to them at all as simply talking a bit about his relationship with his estranged brother, and those two brothers clearly get the point even though they say nothing at all.

Around Farnsworth, a number of various supporting performers simply come and then go along the story, but they are quite believable as the real people you may encounter while you travel across the midwestern American regions. In case of Sissy Spacek and Harry Dean Stanton, they are reliable as usual while functioning as the crucial parts of the story, and Stanton, who is virtually Colonel Kurts of the story, is effortlessly poignant with Farnworth during the expected finale.

Overall, “The Straight Story” is surely quite an abnormally plain, humane, and normal work in Lynch’s idiosyncratic filmmaking career, but it is much more than that. Just like the Coen brothers in “Fargo” (1996), Lynch came to show more heart than before here in this little but exceptional movie, and I believe that was really vital for the critical success of “Mulholland Drive”, where he finally hit the right balance between his nightmarish genre exercise and the sincere aspects of his distinctive artistic sensibility. In my humble opinion, the movie deserves to be admired and cherished as much as many of Lynch’s other works, and I assure you that you will not forget its aging human hero after watching it.

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Inland Empire (2006) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): An actress under Lynchian influence

Posted on January 18, 2026 by kaist455

David Lynch’s 2006 film “Inland Empire”, which is being shown along with his several works at selected South Korean theaters, is still capable of alternatively baffling and dazzling me. Although I already watched it a couple of times, I am still not so sure about what it is exactly about, but my eyes and mind somehow got engaged in how it is about during my recent viewing despite its rather long running time (179 minutes).

As many of you know well, the movie was a little experimental filmmaking project from Lynch. After the considerable critical success of his Oscar-nominated film “Mulholland Drive” (2001), Lynch was ready for anything new and different, and then he became interested in shooting a film via digital camera mainly because it might allow him more creative freedom. Although he did not have a finished screenplay from the start, he began to shoot the film anyway, and most of the movie was actually developed on scene-by-scene basis during the rather long and loose shooting period during next three years.

The story initially seems to be about the making of the latest movie of a Hollywood actress named Nikki Grace (Laura Dern). Not long after she is introduced to us after the elusively surreal opening part featuring a trio of talking rabbit figures, she gets cast as the lead actress of a movie titled “On High in Blue Tomorrows”, and she is quite excited for working with the prominent lead actor and director of that movie, both of whom are also eager to work along with her.

However, of course, there was already a bad sign for Grace. Early in the film, she was visited by a weird middle-aged lady, and this strange lady, who is incidentally played by Grace Zabriskie from Lynch’s iconic TV drama series “Twin Peaks”, baffled her a lot as saying a series of incomprehensible things and then eventually leaving.

In addition, the movie gives several more ominous signs to notice along the narrative. Grace is married to a wealthy and influential man who looks rather menacing to say the least, and he does not seem that pleased about whom she is going to play with, mainly because the lead actor of “On High in Blue Tomorrows” is your average ladies’ man. Although her co-star, played by Justin Theroux from “Mulholland Drive”, assures that nothing will happen between him and Grace, but, what do you know, they soon find themselves attracted to each other as trying to channeling their respective roles as much as possible in front of the camera and their director.

On one day, something odd occurs when Grace and her co-star prepare a bit along with their director on the set, and the director, who is flatly played by Jeremy Irons, confides to them about a hidden fact behind their movie. According to him, their movie is in fact a remake of some unfinished German film based on a cursed Polish folktale, and the production of that German film was halted after its two lead performers were found murdered under a very mysterious circumstance.

After coming to learn about this disturbing background of her movie, Grace gets gradually disturbed in one way or another. While trying to keep acting as before, she somehow finds herself quite confused between reality and fiction, and her viewpoint becomes all the more unreliable when she later gets tumbled into what can be described as your typical Lynchian dreamland. As she becomes more stuck in this nightmarish labyrinth, many seemingly random moments pop up here and there, and we naturally become more and more confused just like our heroine.

While Lynch might not have any clear idea on his big picture from the very beginning, we come to sense a sort of dream logic beneath the increasingly baffling narrative flow of the film thanks to his casual but confident direction. Just like “Mulholland Drive”, the movie feels quite confusing and incoherent at times, but it keeps engaging and then intriguing us with its sheer style and mood nonetheless. Its visual quality is rather rough as Lynch, who also served as the editor and cinematographer of the movie, shot it on low-resolution digital video, but that somehow fits with its the overall dreamy atmosphere, and Lynch occasionally adds extra digital effects for more surrealistic mood, as shown from a truly frightening moment later in the movie which can be regarded as one of the scariest cinematic moments during last several decades.

Above all, the movie is steadily anchored by the strong performance from Laura Dern, who was no stranger to Lynch’s singular artistic vision considering her appearances in “Blue Velvet” (1986) and “Wild at Heart” (1990). Regardless of whether her character is real or just a mere projection of some very unhappy young woman’s state of mind, Dern always holds the emotional center of the film, and it can be said that her rather overlooked performance here in this movie led her to another chapter of her impressive acting career, which is filled with a series of equally stellar performances including her Oscar-winning supporting turn in Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” (2019).

Just like Zabriskie, Irons, and Theroux, many of the main cast members in the film simply come and go as dutifully supporting Dern. Despite their brief appearances, William H. Macy, Laura Harring, Julia Ormond, Nastassja Kinski, Mary Steenburgen, Terry Crews, Harry Dean Stanton, and Diane Ladd, who is Dern’s mother and sadly passed away a few months ago, leave some impression on us, and Naomi Watts, who was the heart and soul of “Mulholland Drive” along with Harring, provides the voice for one of those recurring rabbit figures in the movie.

In conclusion, “Inland Empire” is relatively less accessible compared to what Lynch achieved so fantastically in “Mulholland Drive”, but it remains as another important work in Lynch’s long and illustrious career. Yes, this turned out to be his final feature film, but he kept entertaining us with a number of various stuffs ranging from the long-awaited third season of “Twin Peaks” to the enjoyable cameo appearance at the end of Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” (2022), before he sadly died early in last year. He will be missed more and more, but we will continue to admire and cherish many of this great American filmmaker’s interesting works at least.

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The Rip (2026) ☆☆1/2(2.5/4): The trouble with the rip

Posted on January 18, 2026 by kaist455

Netflix film “The Rip”, which was released on this Friday, is a typical crime action thriller film which will not surprise you much if you are familiar with its genre clichés and conventions. While it is relatively more competent than many of average Netflix products, the movie does not bring anything particularly new or fresh to its genre territory, and it is a bit disappointing to see a number of prominent performers merely filling their respective roles as much as they can.

The movie opens with what we have seen from countless police movies out there. Captain Jackie Valez (Lina Esco), the key member of the Miami-Dade Police Department, is murdered when she is investigating on something quite serious, and the members of her specialized unit are immediately investigated by FBI right after that. Needless to say, everyone in the unit including Valez’s second-in-command Lieutenant Dane Dumars (Matt Damon) becomes a possible suspect, and even their chief, Major Thom Vallejo (Néstor Carbonell), is not so willing to help or support them.

Meanwhile, Dumars suddenly brings another task to handle despite this tricky situation of theirs. According to him, he recently received a tip on a certain drug house located in some neighborhood of Hialeah, and his four fellow detectives, JD Byrne (Ben Affleck), Miko Ro (Steven Yeun), Numa Baptiste (Teyana Taylor), and Lolo Salazar (Catalina Sandino Moreno), go along with him to that place despite their reluctance.

Of course, it soon turns out that Dumars and his fellow detectives get themselves into a very serious situation. When they knock on the front of the door of that place, a young woman named Desiree “Desi” Molina (Sasha Calle) comes out, and it is apparent to them that this young lady seems to be hiding something behind back. After thoroughly searching here and there inside Molina’s house, they eventually discover a hidden space, and, what do you know, there is a lot of drug money inside this secret space.

As they check on how much the money actually is, Dumars comes to look more untrustworthy to everyone around him. For example, he still does not tell the others more about how he received that tip in question, though we already had a pretty good idea even before the movie reveals that early in the story. In addition, he told each member of his a different figure when asked about how much money they would find, and that makes him look all the more suspicious.

Anyway, Ro, Baptiste, and Salazar just follow Dumars’ instructions as expected, but Byrne comes to regard Dumars with more reservation and suspicion. Mainly because he was quite close and loyal to Captain Velez, Bryne has been determined to find whoever is responsible for her death, and it looks increasingly possible to him that Dumars is the one he is looking for.

Meanwhile, the situation expectedly becomes more complicated than before, and the movie did a good job of dialing up the level of tension on the screen. It seems that not only Dumars but also several other main characters in the story are not so reliable, and Dumars and his fellow detectives feel more pressured and cornered after it turns out that there is also someone else targeting on the money they are checking on.

Around that narrative point, you may easily guess the real villain if you are familiar with the law of Law of the Character Economy, though the movie does a fairly good job of distracting us from that. Around Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, the movie assembles a bunch of notable performers such as Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sasha Calle, Scott Adkins, Kyle Chanlder, Lina Esco, and Néstor Carbonell, so it is a bit difficult for you to get the answer at first, but then you will see that the answer is pretty obvious right from one of these main cast members appears on the screen for the first time.

Nevertheless, director/screenplay writer Joe Carnahan, who wrote the story with Michael McGrale, keeps thing rolling before the movie eventually arrives at the expected finale where everything is fully explained as required. Steadily maintaining its level of suspense during its second half, the movie serves us with a couple of intense action sequences, and Carnahan, who previously gave us “Narc” (2002) and “The Grey” (2011), demonstrates that he is a dependable action movie director as usual.

In case of Damon and Affleck, who also serve as the producers of the film, they ably carry the film together as clicking with each other as well as they once did in their Oscar-winning film “Good Will Hunting” (1997), and their solid chemistry compensates for the clichéd aspects of the story from time to time. In contrast, many of the main cast members in the film are sadly under-utilized, but Taylor, Calle, and Moreno manage to hold each own small place well despite their thankless supporting roles.  

Overall, “The Rip”, whose title incidentally comes from a slang meaning police seizure, is a passable genre product with some entertaining moments thanks to the diligent professional efforts from its overqualified cast and crew members. To be frank with you, I do not think I will remember it much around the end of the year, but I will not stop you from spending your spare time on it.

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Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): Through a child’s viewpoint

Posted on January 16, 2026 by kaist455

Animation feature film “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain”, which recently won the Best Animation Film Award from the LA Film Critics Association, is colorfully charming as steadily sticking to its little heroine’s viewpoint. As she tries to process and understand the world surrounding her, we are often amused by some whimsical details popping around here and there, and we also come to sense more of whatever is beyond her limited sight.

The opening part of the film is inspired by an old Japanese belief. The Japanese believe that children are born as gods before eventually becoming humans at the age of 3, and the opening sequence shows us how Amélie (voiced by Loïse Charpentier and Emmylou Homs) becomes conscious of her existence even when she is still in her mother’s womb. To our little amusement, she regards herself as a god, and we see how she decidedly stays inside her own little world even after she is born later.

Needless to say, her Belgian parents, who have lived in Japan for years because of Amélie’s father’s diplomatic job, are rather worried at first, but they have been already quite busy with taking care of Amélie’s two elder siblings, so Amélie are mostly left in her “vegetative” state during next two years before something eventually happens. A little earthquake occurs on one day, and this somehow bursts Amélie’s little world. As a result, she becomes much more active and communicative than before to her parents’ delight, but she soon turns into a little terror to them due to her hyperactive behaviors.

Fortunately, there comes some help from two unexpected figures. One is Amélie’s grandmother who has just come from Belgium for visiting her son and his family, and she instinctively knows how to calm down her little dear granddaughter. The other one is a local nanny recommended by the landlady of the house where Amélie and her family reside, and she instantly befriends Amélie right from their first encounter and then becomes someone to lean on for Amélie when Amélie’s grandmother eventually returns to Belgium later.

Leisurely moving from one episodic moment to another along with its heroine, the film doles out a series of lovely visual moments worthwhile to watch from big screen. As she grows up day by day, Amélie becomes more conscious of the world surrounding her, and she often explores more of whatever exists in the surrounding environment of her family house. The film cheerfully wields a lot of stylish touches to be savored, and we come to feel more of her daily joy and excitement.

In the meantime, more serious story elements come to linger around the main narrative. At one point, Amélie sees her father becoming quite emotional, and that is how she comes to know a bit about a certain inevitable part of life. We also come to sense that Amélie’s nanny has some painful past behind her gentle appearance, and we are not so surprised when she reveals that to Amélie later in the story, though Amélie cannot fully grasp how much her nanny still feels hurt because of that. In case of the landlady, she seems quite harsh and frigid at first, but then she turns out to have her own deep sadness behind her back.

Simply letting us gather whatever is going on at the fringe of the story, the film continues to focus more on the gradual emotional maturation inside Amélie’s unadorned state of mind. When she comes to learn that there will soon be a big change for her as well as her family, she certainly resists, but, of course, there is nothing she can do about that, and this leads to a big emotional turmoil for her in the end.

The screenplay by directors Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han and their co-writers Aude Py and Eddine Noël, which is based on Belgian novelist Amélie Nothomb’s autobiographical novel “The Character of Rain” (The meaning of the title is explained by one key scene in the film, by the way), is sometimes a bit too thin in terms of plot and characterization, but this weak aspect are mostly compensated by a lot of mood and details generated from its charming animation style. Although the animation style of the film initially looks quite simple and broad, it often dazzles our eyes with the deft utilization of vibrant colors, and that is particularly evident in case of the amusingly grotesque presentation of Japanese carps during one particular scene. While we can clearly see how much our little heroine is repulsed by them gobbling up their feed, we can also appreciate the stunning technical aspects of this striking scene, and you will admire more of the efforts of Vallade and Han and their crew. Although this is their first feature animation film, you can clearly recognize their considerable skill and talent, and it will be interesting to see what may come next from these two promising animation film directors.

In conclusion, “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” lightly passed by my eyes during its rather short running time (77 minutes) at first, but its distinctive style and mood grow on me after that. While many of Hollywood animation films were not particularly new or fresh during last year except, perhaps, “KPop Demon Hunters” (2025), there were fortunately a number of good animation films outside Hollywood such as “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” (2025) and “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle” (2025), and I can assure you that “Little Amélie or the Character of Rain” is one of such enjoyable works from last year.

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The Square (2025) ☆☆☆(3/4): A star-crossed romance in North Korea

Posted on January 15, 2026 by kaist455

South Korean independent animation film “The Square” is an earnest melodrama about two very different people who cannot help but love each other despite an oppressive society surrounding them. While it is another typical tale of star-crossed lovers, the film draws our attention with its interesting specific background first, and then we come to care more about the couple at the center of the story as observing more of their desperate love.

At first, we get to know Isaac Bori (voiced by Lee Chan-yong), a young Swedish diplomat who has worked in the Swedish embassy in Pyeongyang, North Korea for a fairly long time. Because his grandmother is a Korean immigrant, Bori speaks Korean mostly well, but his foreign appearance still stands out whenever he goes outside, and that is the main reason why he has to be very careful about meeting Bok-joo (voiced by Lee Ga-yeong), a pretty young traffic officer he has been secretly dating for some time.

Not long after another clandestine date with Bok-joo, Bori requests the extension of his stay in the embassy, just because he simply wants to be with Bok-joo as long as possible. After all, most of his fellow young diplomats are not particularly willing to work in North Korea, so it seems that he can continue to occupy his position in the embassy as before.

However, his request is unexpectedly denied, and now Bori has to leave North Korean within a few days. Naturally, he protests, but there is nothing he can do about this changed circumstance. Besides, marrying Bok-joo or taking her out of the country is impossible to say the least, and Bok-joo, who has been more clear-eyed on their romance, is willing to accept their upcoming separation even though it will be very painful for both of them.

Meanwhile, not so surprisingly, their relationship is closely monitored by Myeong-joon (voiced by Jeong Woon-jong), who works as a local translator at the embassy. Having been around Bori for a long time, Myeong-joon knows a lot about what Bori and Bok-joo have been doing in private, and he also comes to care about Bori a lot behind his flatly phlegmatic attitude. Nevertheless, he must routinely report to his direct superior about whatever is going on between Bori and Bok-joo, and he becomes all the more conflicted when his direct superior considers investigating more on Bok-joo.

Although there is not much surprise for us as the story becomes expectedly melodramatic, the movie keeps engaging us via its modest but haunting presentation of Pyeongyang on icy winter days. The streets and alleys of the city often feel barren and oppressive with all those drab buildings and aggressive slogans, and the resulting stark atmosphere is often accentuated by the occasional electricity shortage in the city.

In such a cold and bleak world like that, Bori and Bok-joo’s romance comes to feel more desperate and poignant to us. Although he is unbelievably naïve in handling his increasingly problematic circumstance, it is touching to observe how Bori keeps trying just for his love, and the movie does earn its weepy finale along with him. The finale is rather contrived at first, but it still works due to the earnest emotions beneath it, and we are moved more by the following last scene, which feels somber and restrained but will linger on your mind for a while.

This is the first animation feature film by director/writer Kim Bo-sol, who demonstrates here that she is a good animation director with considerable talent and potential. Although the story and characters are pretty simple to say the least, the film is filled with enough mood and personality on the whole, and it does not waste any second of its rather short running time (73 minutes). In case of one intense chase sequence unfolded inside a subway station, Kim and her crew did a commendable job of generating some thrill and suspense on the screen, and I particularly enjoyed how this compelling sequence evokes the similar scene in William Friedkin’s “The French Connection” (1971).

The main voice cast members of the film are solid, though I must point out that it is a bit awkward for me to see both of the Swedish and North Korean characters in the film speaking in Korean. While Lee Chan-yong and Lee Ga-yeong generate a little but precious chemistry between their lead characters, Jeon Woon-jong holds his own small place as his character comes to show more heart and conscience along the story, and Lee Yoo-joon is also effective as Myeong-joon’s direct superior.

In conclusion, “The Square” is a promising start for its director’s burgeoning career, and it also reminds me of how South Korean animation made a small but significant leap during last year via a number of notable works. Although I did not like “Exorcism Chronicles: The Beginning” (2024) and “Mr. Robot” (2024) enough for recommendation, their technical qualities impressed me to a considerable degree nonetheless, and then there came “Your Letter” (2025), which is the best in the bunch in my humble opinion. Just like these three recent South Korean animation films, “The Square” gives another good sign of the ongoing progress in South Korean animation, and I sincerely hope that they will lead to the production of more local animation feature films to come in the future.

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The Passengers of the Night (2022) ☆☆☆(3/4): As she starts over

Posted on January 15, 2026 by kaist455

Mikhaël Hers’ 2022 film “The Passengers of the Night”, which was belatedly released in South Korea around the end of the last year, is a mild but engaging drama mainly driven by mood and emotion. Simply rolling with its several main characters along its rather loose narrative, the movie generates a series of small but touching human moments, and we get more involved in their emotional journeys along the story.

The movie, which is set in Paris during the 1980s, begins with the prologue set in 1981, and then we see how things become difficult for a plain ordinary woman named Élisabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg) in 1984, She recently divorced after her husband left her and her two adolescent kids for some unspecified reason, and now she has to find any job to support her and her two children. Because she has been a housewife for many years, she understandably feels uncertain and confused, and she becomes daunted as she fails more than once in her attempt to get employed.

Nevertheless, the situation is not that bad for Élisabeth. Her ex-husband, who is incidentally never shown in the film, allows her to stay with their two children in their apartment technically belonging to him, though he does not pay his alimony that well. In addition, her daughter Judith (Megan Northam) will soon leave for her college education, so Élisabeth can pay more attention to her younger son Matthias (Quito Rayon-Richter), who still seems indecisive about his future while getting more interested in poetry.

Above all, Élisabeth finally gets stably employed. She applies for a rather menial job in some night radio program, and she is instantly hired after her brief interview with Vanda Dorval (Emmanuelle Béart), the host of that night radio program. She is not so sure about whether she can do the job well at first, but all she has to do is tactfully handling those numerous callers for her boss, and she soon gets accustomed to that, though she also has to work as a librarian during daytime for earning more for supporting herself and her son.

Vanda sometimes invites a random guest to be interviewed for her night radio program. On one day, a young woman named Talulah (Noée Abita) comes to the studio of the night radio program, and Élisabeth comes to care about her as Talulah talks a bit about how she became homeless after having a lot of difficulty due to her parents. In the end, Élisabeth approaches to Talulah later, and she suggests that Talulah should stay in her apartment for a while at least. After all, there is a spare room in Élisabeth’s apartment, and Talulah does not mind accepting the kindness of a stranger.

While Matthias also does not mind this sudden change at all, we gradually sense that he becomes interested in getting closer to Talulah. He comes to spend more time with her, and we are not so surprised when they eventually get quite intimate with each other at one point, but then she makes a sudden decision to his bafflement on the very next day.

And then the movie moves forward to four years later. While she still has to do two jobs, Élisabeth’s daily life has been more stable than before, and she even comes to have another chance for love via a handsome guy who has often visited her library just because of her. In addition, she has become the more crucial part of that night radio program, and we observe how confident she is now compared to her first days at the studio.

When Talulah comes back into her life, Élisabeth is naturally surprised, but she lets Talulah stay in the apartment again, though her ex-husband is now going to sell it sooner or later. Not so surprisingly, Matthias, who has struggled to start his artistic career for a while, finds himself drawn to Talulah again, but we come to sense that she prefers to remain as a friend to him.

Instead of pushing its main characters into unnecessary conflicts, the screenplay by Hers and his co-writers Maude Aeline and Mariette Désert lets them follow common sense and decency. When Talulah turns out to be more troubled than she seemed at first, Élisabeth shows more concern and compassion to her, and that leads to one of the most moving moments in the film. After that, Talulah becomes more decisive about what should be done about her rather complicated relationship with Matthias, who understands and respects her decision without any bad feeling at all.

I personally wish the movie delved a bit deeper into the story and characters, but I also enjoyed its casual mood and free-flowing narrative at least, and I also appreciated its solid main cast members. As showing a lighter side of her acting talents compared to her intense performances in several works of Lars von Trier such as “Antichrist” (2009), Charlotte Gainsbourg duly holds the center as required, and several other cast members including Quito Rayon-Richter, Noée Abita, Megan Northam, Thibault Vinçon, and Emmanuelle Béart have each own moment to shine around her.

Overall, “The Passengers of the Night” compensates for its rather thin narrative via its enjoyable mood, storytelling, and performance. You may feel a bit impatient with its leisurely narrative pacing at first, but it will be a fairly rewarding experience on the whole once you give it a chance, and you will come to care about its main characters more than expected.

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Leaving Las Vegas (1995) ☆☆☆1/2(3.5/4): A harrowing alcoholic love story in Las Vegas

Posted on January 14, 2026 by kaist455

Mike Figgis’ 1995 film “Leaving Las Vegas”, which was recently released in selected South Korean theaters, is still superlative for many good reasons. At first, its two lead characters seem to be more or less than familiar archetypes, but the movie elevates them as depicting their love story with a lot of human qualities to engage and then move us. In the end, you will not forget them at all after they eventually reach the inevitable ending of their love story.

At the beginning, the movie shows us how serious the alcoholic condition of its hero really is. Ben Sanderson (Nicholas Cage) once had a fairly successful screenplay writer working in Hollywood, but both of his life and career have crumbled a lot as he tumbles down toward the bottom of his alcoholism. In the end, he gets fired, and he soon goes to Las Vegas simply for drinking to death as quickly as possible.

The movie does not explain much about what has actually made him driven to alcoholism and those frequent self-destructive behaviors associated with it, but that does not matter much to us as we observe more of his worsening alcoholism. As he recognizes in a self-deprecating manner at one point early in the film, he has been so deeply mired in his alcoholism that he does not seem to know or remember whether his alcoholism came before losing his dear family or vice versa.

Around the point where Ben arrives in Las Vegas, the movie shifts its focus toward Sera (Elisabeth Shue), a young female prostitute who has worked in Las Vegas for years. Not long after she and Ben come across each other, they happen to meet each other again, and Ben manages to convince her to spend some night with him besides having a sexual encounter in his motel room.

While Ben looks like a creep to her at first, Sera does not say no when they are in his motel room. Although she has sometimes been pretty miserable as working under a Latvian pimp who is thankfully gone later in the story, she is a seasoned professional expert who knows what and how she will do before getting paid. There is a scene where she talks about how deftly she handles those seedy clients of hers as a well-experienced sex worker. She is willing to be whatever her clients desire in exchange for money, but she is not so eager to get emotionally involved with them more.

However, Ben surprises Sera, because she comes to care more about him than expected. She senses something sad about Ben, and then she lets him stay inside her residence. While not being persuaded to stop his suicidal plan at all, Ben asks her to let him stuck with bottles as before, and Sera does not mind this despairing request of his.

Not so surprisingly, both Ben and Sera come to love and care about each other a lot more than they can admit. Getting more and more frustrated with Ben’s worsening alcoholism, Sera cannot help but try to persuade him to get any good chance for recovery, but Ben does not listen to her at all while always thinking about another glass of drink – and what should be done for her before he eventually becomes too burdensome for her.

Although often being well-aware of his incorrigible alcoholic condition, Ben cannot help but follow his alcoholic impulses just like many other alcoholics out there. As many people say, one cannot love others without loving oneself first, and Ben cannot possibly be liberated from deep self-loathing, which comes with the territory in case of alcoholism. In the end, he comes to hurt Sera’s feelings a lot, and that accordingly leads him to another bottom to hit.

As the harrowing soul of the film, Nicholas Cage, who deservedly received a Best Actor Oscar for this movie, gives one of the best performances in his rather bumpy career. While he can be pretty bad if he is seriously miscast, Cage has usually showed considerable professional commitment during last several decades, and that is why he is often fantastic in demanding roles requiring a lot of efforts. As a part of his preparation, he studied Albert Finney’s Oscar-nominated alcoholic performance in John Huston’s “Under the Volcano” (1984), and, just like Finney, he gives a compelling performance both subtle and intense. While there are several striking moments emphasizing Ben’s worsening alcoholism, Cage aptly handles these scenes with human nuances to notice and observe, and we come to have more understanding of what Sera sees from Ben as they genuinely fall in love with each other.

On the opposite, Elizabeth Shue, who was also Oscar-nominated, functions as the precious heart of the movie. As the story advances, we get to know more about Sera’s feelings and thoughts during several personal scenes of hers where she reflects on her relationship with Ben. As Sera struggles to process her experience with Ben along the story, she comes to us as an engaging human figure to care about as much as Ben, and Shue, whose career has not sadly been boosted as much as Cage’s after this movie, is simply unforgettable when her character says something quite simple but very poignant at the end of the story.

On the whole, “Leaving Las Vegas”, which is based on the semi-autobiographical novel of John O’Brien (He killed himself shortly before the shooting of the movie began, by the way), is a powerful human drama about not only alcoholism but also love and compassion. This is surely one of the best works in Figgis’ filmmaking career, and I am glad that South Korean audiences can get a chance to see this little masterwork again in movie theaters.

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