Week Ending 1/10/25
Emilia v. Laszlo? Oz in the wings.
Some surprises arrived with this year’s SAG nominations. No Guy Pearce for The Brutalist, but Jonathan Bailey for Wicked?! What a wild choice. Three nods each for Wicked and Emilia Pérez is making it look like those two are in the driver’s seat for Oscar glory—a film I thought was fine and another I haven’t brought myself to watch yet. I guess it’s time to see just how “audacious” Jacques Audiard’s musical is.
My first OFCS ballot is due on Tuesday, so I’ll probably catch-up to Emilia Pérez shortly after nominations are announced since my gut tells me it will get at least one. In the meantime, I’ll keep chipping away at my watchlist.
I got to a bunch this week even though I only have three full reviews below. I think I’m going to make a concerted effort to stick with brief “Quick Hits” for those films I don’t really have much to say on. That’s where you’ll find TRANSFORMERS ONE, THE ROOM NEXT DOOR, WILL & HARPER, and VERMIGLIO on my website (they can also be found on Letterboxd).
And while I was creating that section, I decided to start getting my Top 100 Songs posts going again. I pretty much do it in Spotify while I work through settling on my annual mixes, so it’s not too much work to shore things up and remove the excess. 2024, 2023, and 2022 are up now. I have playlists in various stages of completion straight through 2011. Some are just going to take longer than others (2020 is at 100 but out of order while 2018 still has 182 songs to whittle down).
Because why not add more to my to-do list?
What I Watched:
BIRD
(streaming on MUBI)
Bailey (Nykiya Adams) is kind of raising herself. Her father (Barry Keoghan's Bug) was fourteen when her half-brother Hunter (Jason Buda) was born and not much older for her. The trio squat in northern Kent and pretty much go about their business separately unless someone needs something from the other. And since the kids had to learn not to count on dad to provide what they need (namely attention), they aren't too keen on giving their own away so easily. So, of course Bailey rejects the assumption she'll drop everything to be a bridesmaid at his wedding that he literally just told her about. It's a little about rebellion and a little about respect, but also the fear that marriage might mean she'll get even less of him than before.
Needing an escape, Bailey decides to follow Hunter and his criminal friends as they run around town doling out an ill-conceived brand of vigilante justice. It's on her confused journey back that she meets a stranger blown in on a weirdly rhythmic wind named Bird (Franz Rogowski). She's obviously hesitant talking to him considering men have never had a trusting presence in her life, but she begins to at least believe his purpose: finding his long-lost family. Why that quest seems to take her back to her own (Bailey's mother used to be a neighbor of his) doesn't quite compute as more than a coincidence at first, but their interactions (and interactions she believes she's making with him even whem he's not there) soon turn fantastical. To the point where she must question if he's even real.
Andrea Arnold might use this character's search as the propulsive force moving Bird from start to finish, but the result ultimately opens Bailey's eyes to her own life's trajectory and the sometimes unfair sense of relativity marking it. Because while Bug is hardly a shining example of good or reliable parenting, he accepts the job to his best abilities. The same can't be said about Bird's father who left his mother. Nor about the man to whom Bailey's mother (Jasmine Jobson's Peyton) is currently attached—an abusive opportunist named Skate (James Nelson-Joyce) who domineers and controls a household that also contains Bailey's three younger half-siblings. This realization isn't about absolving Bug, but presenting Bailey the chance to accept his love for what it is rather than what it should be.
I say "chance" because she doesn't have to accept it. Bailey's journey is one about fact-finding and context at a moment in her life (puberty) where it seems there's no safety net. She doesn't want to be a kid anymore, so she tries to be a gangster lying about her virginity and her stomach for violence. She doesn't quite want to be an adult either, though, because she sees the struggle her mom faces every day next to a volatile figure constantly threatening to kill her. All Bailey knows for certain—and one could argue it stems from Bug's own penchant for rising to the occasion when someone he loves is in trouble—is that she must protect her siblings at all costs. And, to some extent, that includes the child-like Bird. She wants to give them and him the promise of a life she didn't have herself.
The magical realism that Arnold injects into the story isn't as easy to parse as you might expect in these types of films. For two-thirds of the runtime she very intentionally ignores the idea her story possesses magical realism at all by constantly having Bailey's attempts to prove its existence fail. But then the last third arrives with a wealth of impossibilities that simply cannot be explained as anything else. The question then is whether you believe Bird is the cause of it all or if Bailey is conflating what she needs him to be with who he actually is. Kind of like the exact opposite of what she does with Bug. Maybe Bird never returns after his first goodbye and Bailey's mind imagines the rest. Or maybe all those coincidences really do reveal his appearance was always as her guardian angel.
I love that ambiguity. Not because of how it relates to the action, but because of how it teaches Bailey that she has a say in how she experiences her life. Bird becomes a catalyst for maturity. A prism with which to look back at moments she once saw colored as tragic disappointment that now seem like examples of optimism for the future. Adams impressively shoulders that pivot with an authentic performance that both adheres to her character's physical age and an emotional intelligence reaching well beyond it. Rogowski is fantastic as the quasi chaperone and chaperoned—just as scared and hurt as Bailey yet also as strong when needed. And Keoghan rounds things out with a hard exterior yet empathetic soul. Because maybe things would be easier without his kids, but he's never once regretted having them.
- 8/10
EVERY LITTLE THING
(limited release)
As all the radio broadcasts allude to at the start of Sally Aitken's Every Little Thing: people really love hummingbirds. They're a legitimate sight to see floating in the air with wings flapping so fast that you can barely clock they exist. To think a bird that small can survive in one place let alone through a migration is wild, so it shouldn't be surprising to learn many do struggle to make it that far. It's why Terry Masear proves such an inspiring and compassionate force in the Los Angeles area. Whenever someone finds an abandoned nestling or injured hummingbird, all they must do is call Terry and she'll provide her expertise and rehab clinic to give each a fighting chance.
The film follows these endeavors with phone correspondence assisting in capture and transportation tips, testimonials from some finders, and the weeks-long process of getting her current stable of birds back into the air. While the whole proves a great feel-good story, however, it's not without its tragic results considering Terry isn't a magician. She knows pretty much upon arrival which patients will make it, but keeps that truth close to her vest so as not to disappoint their potential saviors before sending them home. Because it's not an exact science. Eighteen years doing this work merely supplies her a feel for not getting too close to those with a more arduous road ahead. It also makes the ones who beat the odds seem like little miracles.
So, expect a couple bodies to get buried along the way. Expect some displays of human trauma as well once Terry starts delving into her own journey to mirror the experiences her hummingbirds must endure as living creatures in an increasingly cruel and selfish world. Because we don't get a ton of detail beyond its context towards this career path, Every Little Thing is definitely more about the birds than Terry herself. She plays a role in their survival and in injecting some empathy into the community too as far as letting people know they can put their position on the animal food chain to use for creatures that cannot always help themselves. And now we know sugar water is for feeding, not bathing.
The highlight for many will be the extensive slow-motion footage of hummingbirds in their element. It often looks fake because of how impossible the steady-cam nature of their bodies are while their wings flap away. We watch them licking water and bugs from flowers, staring into the camera, and even engaging in some fisticuffs to make good on Terry calling them warriors. And all the while she nurses Cactus, Jimmy, The Wild Boys, and others back to health with precise programs meant to let them regain strength, learn how to fly, and grow accustomed to living outside their cages. We ultimately begin to push for their success as hard as she does, crossing our fingers that setbacks aren't too large to overcome and progress isn't too slow to get them back under the sun.
- 7/10
GREEN BORDER
[Zielona granica]
(VOD/Digital HD)
It’s a dream come true for Amina (Dalia Naous) and Bashir (Jalal Altawil). Unable to survive in Syria with ISIS and Russia threatening death, his brother has set in motion a plan to get them to Sweden. One plane ride to Belarus so they can cross over into Poland and then a ride through Europe to freedom. Everything is paid for. The danger is low. The governments of both Belarus and Poland have made it clear that this is something they are working with the refugees to accomplish. So, the confusion that arises upon their arrival courtesy of border guards on either side screaming in their faces while violently accosting them is warranted. They were practically invited over and now they’re being left to the wolves.
Agnieszka Holland holds nothing back in this damning critique of her native Poland. Co-written alongside Maciej Pisuk and Gabriela Lazarkiewicz, Green Border reveals the truth of how these two nations initiated a deadly game of political warfare by using innocent migrants as their pawns. Because neither the Poles nor the Belarusians are initiating deportation papers. Sending everyone back to the Middle East and Africa wouldn’t serve their purpose of screwing with each other on an international scale. So, the Belarusians plank over the barbwire and yell at the refugees to run across while the Poles lift the same fence to yell at them to go back.
The longer it goes on, the more men, women, and children inevitably die. That’s the goal. Why? Because these countries have seen that the world doesn’t care about living beings having their rights trampled on. The international community simply turns its head and spouts company lines like “Do it the right way next time.” No, the world only lifts its head when bodies are found because you can’t sweep that evidence under the rug (well, you couldn’t, but Gaza has certainly proven you can now). The corpses become the border patrol’s weapons. Throw them to the other side and hope they are found, documented, and reported on. Make the other side look eviler than them.
This is the Sisyphean drama that opens the film. Bashir and Amina’s family, alongside an Afghan English teacher (Behi Djanati Atai’s Leïla), discover their roles very quickly. Into Poland. Back to Belarus. Return to Poland. And around and around they go. Other refugees tell them they’ve gone through this dance five or six times already. Their phones have been destroyed by the guards. Their money has been extorted. And they are covered in blood, mud, and desperation. Everything that’s happening is against the law, but what can the law do if it’s unable to witness the atrocities? Because Poland covers its bases well by designating the border an “emergency exclusion zone.” Only authorized people can enter and all others are arrested on sight.
While Green Border is justifiably a harrowing tale of despair with little hope, Holland and company do give voice to those willing to do their part to inject as much of the latter as they can. Even their roles, however, are complicated. Guards like Jan (Tomasz Wlosok) have the conscience to not turn someone in at home, but few options to not participate in the carnage when on the clock. Activists like Marta (Monika Frajczyk) push right up against the edge of putting themselves in danger to petition for asylum knowing it’s a long shot at best, but they live to fight another day when they need to risk making this one their last. That’s where Julia (Maja Ostaszewska), Zuku (Jasmina Polak), and Bogdan (Maciej Stuhr) come in as frustrated souls bridging the gaps regardless of the consequences.
Even when things are going well, though, tragedy still strikes. You can’t blame Holland for going for the jugular either as far as making that tragedy as horrific as possible since reality spares no one. Many people die during the course of the movie and every single one is preventable. How do we know this? One: Because those deaths are intentionally orchestrated by evil regimes who seem to revel in the abuse they’ve been indoctrinated to dole out (“every Syrian is a bullet in Putin and Lukashenko’s guns”). Two: Because Holland exposes the other side of Poland’s “charity” via a brief epilogue mirroring this crisis with that on the Ukrainian border. You can probably guess things go much smoother there. I wonder what the difference is?
At two-and-a-half hours, the script never lulls. It helps that we bounce between characters—meeting some early on before they get their own focus in a later chapter. Jan and Marta connect Syria and Ukraine. Julia connects Jan and Leïla. So on and so forth. We see Bogdan’s rage find a productive outlet. We see Jan’s guilt assuaged by rebellion. And we watch as Bashir and Amina devolve into ghosts of themselves. You won’t therefore be leaving without your own fair share of anger for what happens even as some good does ultimately occur before everything fades to black. Will it be enough to push you towards donating money? To radicalizing yourself into the fight like Julia? Or will you be Basia, explaining how you did your part voting for the opposition and now must look after yourself since they lost?
- 8/10
New Releases This Week:
(Review links where applicable)
Opening Buffalo-area theaters 1/10/25 -
BETTER MAN at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
DEN OF THIEVES 2: PANTERA at Dipson Flix & Capitol; AMC Maple Ridge & Market Arcade; Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
GAME CHANGER at Regal Elmwood, Transit, Galleria & Quaker
IDENTITY at Regal Elmwood
THE LAST SHOWGIRL at Dipson Amherst; Regal Elmwood, Galleria & Quaker
“[Anderson taps] into our preconceptions of her celebrity as well as her own regrets born from its hold on her to deliver a beautifully confident, soul-searching, and cathartic masterclass of authenticity.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
VANANGAAN at Regal Elmwood
Streaming from 1/10/25 -
AD VITAM – Netflix on 1/10/25
AMERICAN STAR – Hulu on 1/10/25
GET AWAY – Shudder on 1/10/25
LOOK INTO MY EYES – Max on 1/10/25
THE SILENT HOUR – Hulu on 1/12/25
MY PENGUIN FRIEND – Hulu on 1/14/25
RED ROOMS – Shudder on 1/14/25
“It's a stunning tightrope walk that expertly weaves together a taut script, sensory overload (via very intentional and effective cinematography and score), and an enigmatic performance from Gariépy.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
UNSTOPPABLE – Prime on 1/16/25
Review at jaredmobarak.com on Monday.
Now on VOD/Digital HD -
2073 (1/7)
FLOW (1/7)
“It's a beautifully animated and choreographed film with suspenseful life or death moments and effective action. I don't think Flow is quite as captivating a story as Away, but you cannot deny that Zilbalodis has evolved his craft in all other aspects.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
GEORGE A. ROMERO’S RESIDENT EVIL (1/7)
THE MAN IN THE WHITE VAN (1/7)
SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT (1/7)
“The way Grimonprez weaves it all together is enlightening. His ability to also keep it kinetic with the jazz backdrop, damning text quotes, and visual callbacks for two-and-a-half hours is impressive.” – Full thoughts at HHYS.
GET AWAY (1/10)
GRACE POINT (1/10)
LAWS OF MAN (1/10)
MEANWHILE ON EARTH (1/10)
“Meanwhile on Earth is, in many ways, very similar to Clapin's previous work I Lost My Body. Elsa is the dismembered hand trying to reclaim the past when it's the future that she should be focusing on.” – Full thoughts at The Film Stage.