This year has been disappointing so far. Not a single American film this far has cracked the 4 out of 5 level. While the US releases haven’t delivered, the International ones certainly have. They are the top four on my list and all at 4 or 4.5 out of 5. Spoiler for this post, but Perfect Days is in this conversation as well. I was wondering on my drive back from the theater last week if this is how most years go. It is called “Dumpuary” for a reason. Well, in 2023, we had M3gan and Knock at the Cabin. Those weren’t world beaters, but they were at least interesting. 2022 had nothing in the first two months. So maybe his is how it’s supposed to be. A lot of mediocre films and independent films that are harder and harder to seek out. The good news is March is next week and usually brings the goods. This year is no different. Dune is next week. First, this week’s reviews!
Going into this Screen Unseen, I was not feeling excited. The trailers were not really selling me on the premise. It only took one trailer for someone to get up and leave because he saw what was coming. That fella should have stayed because this wasn’t that bad of a movie. It does feel like two different movies fighting to be the main story and it was not great for the most part. It did all tie together at the end, but that really isn’t a solution. The journey to the end is part of the story. Our two movies are a gripping family drama about a 5-year old dying from the same disease her mother died from, and a borderline narcissistic alcoholic trying to help the family. Ritchson is great as the Dad of the family. You really see how everything is getting to him as he doesn’t see a way out. That way out is Swank’s character, and she is our main character, but how she gets things done i just didn’t believe, but its’s a movie, so don’t think about it. The trailer for this one gives a lot the movie away, but this kind of movie only can finish one way, so the drama at the end of the movie just doesn’t have the teeth to not seem like it is playing withyour emotions.
Not sure where to begin in this. The trailers make it seem like a chase type of movie, but it’s barely that. What it is is 2 LGBTQ friends road tripping in a car with something in the trunk they aren’t aware of. That find that case until an hour into the movie, and once you find out what’s in the case the movie just gets dumber. As for the characters in the movie, they’re a mixed bag. Qualley is just annoying, and I don’t really know what she was doing with that voice. As for the other main character, Viswanathan is ok. The people after them for the case are fun, but they get annoying too after a while. This movie just wasn’t for me, and if it’s true that this is the first of a trilogy from Ethan Coen, I’m out. He sure just go back to making films with his brother.
This was so different than the last movie. Kind of like The Zone of Interest, this film is just a few days in the life of our main character. The difference between that film and that one is that one is about evil people doing the worst things, and the other is about a peaceful man cleaning bathrooms. With this being Japan’s nomination for Best International at next month’s Oscars, I had high hopes. This was exactly what I was wishing for. Yakusho’s Hirayama just loves his job and just being in nature. Every morning, you see him leave his house and smile up at the the sky our tree outside his house. He is a man of few words too.
It isn’t until his niece enter the story we see that maybe he doesn’t like his lonely life as much as it seemed early in the film. You see his sister just feel so bad that he doesn’t want so more than cleaning toilets. As if he doesn’t want anything better. You don’t see the cracks in how he wants to be seen until the last scene in the film which is just looking at his face as his fights back breaking into tears, driving to his next bathroom to cream. The song playing during this scene (“Feeling Good” by Nina Simone) works perfectly as he moves back and forth between joy and almost tears. This was just such a great film that just has no chance to win anything in March. This is awful. Yakusho should have been in the running for Best Actor, and he won that award at Cannes, so there is that at least.
So just I thought at the beginning of the week, Perfect Days at #3 means my entire top five now are International films. That might not be true for much longer. Movie #24 up next is finally Dune Part 2, and there is a pretty good chance it crashes the Top 5 party. Also, we have reached the end of Dumpuary hopefully for the year, so better films on possibly on the horizon following the fight for Arrakis on Thursday.
Mitten Film Nerd 
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