Divines (2016) - Houda Benyamina

I guess films about the suburb (banlieue) population is a legit genre. People who are from the lowest social ladder try really hard everyday to strive or simply just to survive, most of them have one thing in common, anger. People who are just like us but not really. It’s hard to admit and nothing derogate. Some people just struggle to put food on the table. 

What makes Divines different from it’s genre? It’s funny, it’s light but it’s also hard to watch at times and it definitely doesn’t sugarcoat anything. There is this incredible friendship between the two young actresses which is something rare to see in this kind of genre. It’s interesting how they play with gender roles in the film, they put the female lead into dealing and the male into dancing. When he asked: “do you know how much my life would change right now?” There is a sense of irony, viewing that she was making fun of him working in security for a supermarket on the side while he was auditioning for a dancing company. Obviously she thinks she makes a better choice than he does but does she?

A little side note, the male lead… you will know what i mean when you watch it. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t think so.

Nocturnal Animals (2016) - Tom Ford

I was way too hyped about Ford’s new movie that I looked up his inspiration and started reading it (Tony & Susan). When I was reading it, a lot of questions came through my mind. Most importantly how he was going to adapt it onto the the big screen. To my surprise the changes he made actually give it an edge or a twist. Making Susan (Amy Adams) a contemporary artist and a curator allows him to play with visual cues, considering the limited screen time, this particular decision helps building up the story and even elevated it. 

Nocturnal Animals is extremely brutal and a bit sick in some way. Imagine someone writes a novel just to make you feel bad like really bad. Providing that it could only work if the other end still has feeling for the former of course. It is also about how we perceive ourselves and who we aspire to be. In the case of Susan, she is trying to run away from the shadow of her parents, she doesn’t agree on how they (stereotyped Texans) interpret the world and especially doesn’t want to “become” her mother. She doesn’t want to live in someone else’s expectation but at the same time she is afraid that her mother could be right which eventually leads to her fallout with Edward (Jake Gyllenhall).

The smart part about Nocturnal Animals is the script. The novel Susan is reading, is a guiding tool. The paper cut is the first warning about the true nature of the novel. The story within the story is compelling enough as a thriller but where does it stand between the two worlds. To most of the readers it is just a normal thriller but for Susan it is more than just that. As she says earlier in the film that she did something terrible to Edward thus the novel is the "revenge", how? I guess you have to watch it yourself and find out. Some would say the title Nocturnal Animals give away a little since Susan is basically Tony in the novel. The suspense and the anticipation serve for both Tony and Susan (the original book title), even if you don’t get the point where they are the same person you will still be affected at the vey last scene. 

Ford opts to use Nocturnal Animals as the movie title for obvious reason, to tone down the complexity of the story or simply for better understanding. I personally enjoyed a lot watching the Nocturnal Animals, ever since Ford’s debut, he is one of my favourite directors. Nocturnal Animals just solidifies a place for Tom Ford in the movie industry. 

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016) - David Yates

If Harry Potter is about minorities then Fantastic Beasts expands on this idea which J.K Rowling has been trying to convey for years. 

It is not a coincident Rowling wrote the Fantastic Beasts, if the world of magic is a metaphor of homosexuality (or any minority) then the beasts in the Fantastic Beasts are the outcasts within the outcasts. From the beginning of the film, they make it clear that the magical world/ culture is different between England and the States where they are not supposed to make any contact with no-maj’. The premise of the film is about Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who is on a journey to write a book about the Fantastic Beasts and try to get people to understand them instead of killing them, travels to New York and accidentally his pets run away. Scamander represents an utopia for the mythical creatures, a sanctuary where they shouldn’t  be needing it in the first place. It is just like any fights on equal rights, we should even need to flight for them in the first place.

The concept of “Obscurus” is somehow literate and interesting. It refers to people, mainly kids, who are oppressed/ denied their ability in magic and for some reasons  they become the prefect host for the “virus” obscurus where dark magic takes over and they could no longer control their power and could even be consumed by the virus. Doesn’t it ring a bell? Orlando shooting, the shooter was raised in a conservative background where he was told being gay was not normal to a point he even believed it and took action on it (of course it was just a hypothesis) but it fits perfectly here. 

The idea of outcast is amplified with the characters, Scamander was expelled from school and have no friends, Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) was reassigned to a different department in MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America) and Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) was an outcast of the working class, and we have Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller), Langdon Shaw (Ronan Raftery) just to name a few. The Fantastic Beasts is basically a propaganda for the minorities, stop fighting within ourselves, we should get together and fight for a better life. 

The message behind was overshadowed for years but the Fantastic Beasts brought it back to the limelight. The special effects are as good as usual. It was really a delight watching it. 

Sausage Party (2016) - Greg Tiernan, Conrad Vernon

Sausage Party is really a surprise, I thought It would be straight up stupid jokes but instead it is deeper than expected. And the food porn scene will forever be in my head, I think it is a way to say “Fu*k you” to all those dirty minds out there. I simply don’t know how to react to it. It’s brilliant and explicit, it’s so wrong but it feel so right at the same time. 

How interesting they are trying to deny the existence of GOD. All we need is to believe in yourselves no matter how isolated and despair you feel. As long as you are determined you will succeed even if God is in the way.

Swiss Army Man (2016) - Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

This movie is not for the faint-hearted. This is the genre I personally love the must. Sometime we don’t need to explain ourselves and calculate every single second of the movie. Just let it goes out of hand and see what happens. There are so many shocking moments which make you pounder the credibility of the movie but yet you just smile your way through. 

There are a lot of similarities between almost all of Quentin Dupieux’s films (for example: Rubber 2010)) and Swiss Army Man. In terms of running wild and out of control, somehow the comedic storylines magically merge with each other and become something unexpectedly intelligent and raw at the same time. Dupieux gives us the epic monologue at the beginning however the latter integrates a shocking surprise at the end. Both ways work wonderfully. We might not be used to these eerie ideas and craziness nevertheless, they are way too captivating to ignore. It’s hard to react to these kind of over-exaggerated visions. When they are nicely made, they could be one fine piece of work itself and would be forever immortalised. (There are more and more of these kind of movies in the market, I wonder is there a proper term to describe it or even a study on it.)

Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe deliver a fantastic performance. Ever since Harry Potter Radcliffe tried very hard to break out of his Potter image and he has proven himself a serval times already. Paul Dano, no explanation needed. He has been amazing ever since I knew him from Little Miss Sunshine (2005). 

Not to mention the social issue which is the foundation of the movie. It couldn’t happen then or later, it’s relevant. The isolation deduces from social media that causes the lost of touch between people is getting serious. We never talk about it but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. 

Swiss Army Man might be one of the weirdest movies of 2016, it might not be a big fan favour now, trust me, in maybe few years it will definitely be on the lists of must-watch cult movies of all time.

아가씨 (2016) - Park Chan-wook

The scene where Lady Hideko is reciting one of her uncle’s famous work in front of a first timer “book club member” Count Fujuwara. That fan trick and the chocking just sweep you off your chair. Simplicity, just a flick of her fingers plus her highly seductive intonation, there is no need to understand the content, the performance itself speaks louder than words. 

At first The Handmaiden might seem atypic for a Park Chan-wook film at least the first half. A smart decision to divide the movie in 3 parts. It resonates the revenge trilogy. The further we advance the more twisted the plot gets, which Park excels at in almost most of his movies. They are all looking for a way out, their freedom.

Unlike La Vie d’Adele (2013), the sex doesn’t feel redundant and less forced. Sex is not an easy thing to depict, it could easily stray to a more pornography vibe. The Handmaiden is one steamy hot lesbian fantasy from a man point of view, it is a bit too rehearsed to fit a certain mindset. Even though it is full of girl on girl actions somehow it feels too masculine. On the bright side, it captured the first sexual encounter vividly. The tension, the awe, the sweat, the climax, and those bells.

Still remember the first time watching the Oldboy (2003), I was completely in awe. The violence was teeth-cringing. There is this authenticity in his imageries that it’s hard to watch at times but you could not fight your curiosity. I wonder how could one imagine or create something as bloodthirsty as the revenge trilogy. (I still have to see Mr. Vengence) Park is the Asian version of Tarantino but less comic. A broken arm is a broken arm for Park, you feel it with the protagonist.