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.

julieta (2016) - Pedro Almodóvar

Almodóvar said in an interview that every single colour used in the film meant something, from the wardrobe to the wallpaper. (a lot of directors do pay a lot of attention to colours but not all of cause like Gus Van Sant [not as much]) And julieta is different from his other films since the presence of female dialogues are less prominent even through the film is guided by the narrative point of Julieta.

Looking the Movie (2016) - Andrew Haigh

I love the tag line for the movie, “The end is a new beginning”. 

The final chapter of the HBO series Looking, a year later after where season 2 ended. Patrick (Jonathan Groff) comes back to San Francisco for a weekend to attend a wedding. 

Obviously, this movie is about closures. Maybe I am a bit basis, I have been and always will be “Team Kevin”, the scene where they meet for the last time just breaks my heart. I feel like it has happened to all of us before. There are a lots of “what if” throwing in the air, I am not saying we should just forgive our cheating boyfriends and start all over again. It’s more about facing the problem, how you handle your emotions and most importantly how you deal with it. Running, of course is a solution but it will probably lead you nowhere. Relationship is about “the spark”, yes, but the most crucial thing is how you work it out. Every relationship has their ups and downs, but if we always run away from them, what good does it do to us? The whole Kevin situation happened because Patrick is running away from his problems with Richie in the first place. 

What I love about Looking the series and the movie in general is how the show runners and the creators convey the emotions we all have, yes, it is a gay-themed series, but it happens to we all. It will be equally good even if it’s a heterosexual series. 

I guess the reason why it didn’t work with the audience is because it’s too real, too cruel. They are just like Patrick turning away from their problems and try to turn a blind eye to what is really happening around them. People hate conformation, they like something they could relate to but not too much. 

I love the idea that the movie could be called “the weekend” too, if you what I mean.

The Neon Demon (2016) - Nicolas Winding Refn

I didn’t realise it was a Nicolas Winding Refn film at first and honestly the trailer looks a bit too avant-garde to have a solid story. I was wrong, it might seems like a deja-vu but yet it is not really something we have seen before. The visuel is definitely an eye-catcher, it is almost too beautifully constructed that we could just put any high fashion name on it and it could totally transform into an advert, Refn consciously put the Logo NWR to mimic that with his recent experience with high fashion perfume ads. [seriously the first few minutes of the film I murmured “Dior, j’adore” the resemblance is too significant.] 

Again like Dive (2011), I was attached to the music right from the start, without doubt when we could manipulate these 2 aspects the rest suddenly seems less important. The Neon Demon is not the case. It has a solid story, it might sound hideous but when we put everything together it shines, literally. 

It’s a simply story about a beautiful 16 year-old went to LA to become a model, we could have guessed what would happen after. But it is more than that, how an innocent girl turns into a narcissist, how terrifying and cruel the modelling industry is. We could just imagine the harm it entails, the horror of this movie is the reality itself. How we perceive beauty is absolutely horrifying. As it says in the film [beauty isn’t everything, it’s the only thing].

There are so many unforgettable scenes, the shower, the eating the eyeball, the party entertainment… etc. I would dare say The Neon Demon is the most audacious film of 2016. (Yes, not even Elle - Paul Verhoeven.)

Frantz (2016) - François Ozon

In Ozon film univers female characters are always significantly important and complex. Anna (Paula Beer) is not an exception. One day she stumbled upon a french man known as Adrien (Pierre Niney) visiting his fiancé’s grave, not long a relationship between a german “widow” and a french men develops in the post-WWI circumstances where the two nations don’t see eye to eye with. 

Later we find out that their relation is built on a lie. Quite a visual interpretation from Ozon, whenever the movie is in colour, it is a lie. Reality, black & white. (Ozon stated in interviews that he wanted to make a film about “le mensonge” (a lie), so technically it is not a spoiler.) The fact that he visually manipulates the images amplifies the degree of the impact, it is like he controls the switches of our hearts. With a flick of his finger we are in this faux impression of happiness and seconds later he brings us back to reality. Some people might think he is trying too hard to manoeuvre the audience, sorry but I am struck. I was so drawn to Adrien’s grief maybe it’s Ozon or the magic of him and Niney and later the dilemma of Anna. No matter which it’s a solid performance.

At times, you wished Ozon had had worked on more on the images since, at least I did got distracted by composition of some imageries. However you are way too busy to play attention to a lot of the details, Frantz is 90% in black & White and 90% in German. You have to be fluent in both languages in order the ignore the subtitles. Maybe that’s why? I know what I am suggesting it’s not well justified but still I enjoyed the experience.

Life is cruel and we all live in a lie (in one way or another), that’s the best I could do without giving too much away on what’s the story is about. Ozon never really disappoints so just watch it. 

Life - Anton Corbijn

Life is a really simple story about the beginnig of 2 artists - James Dean and Dennis Stock play by Dane Dehaan and Robert Pattinson. 

I love biopics and Life is a compelling story but it is missing something. When there aren't much happening in the movie is hard to convey emotions. A lot is happening in the movie, I mean metally for both of the characters but the artors are struggling to bring those delimmas on the big screen. It was a really plain performance by the two leads.

The thing is I don't really get why they casted Dehaan for the role for James Dean, he doesn't phyiscally fit the role nor his appearances. Yes James Dean might be awkward, but awkwardly talented and handsome. Dehaan just gave us awkward period. On the other hand Pattinson just barely made the mark.

I felt like it was kind of a waste to see a good movie got downgraded because of the performances of the cast.

"Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean" is a better example of the interpretation. Yes it might be a bit too expiremental for mainstream cinema but at least in my opinion it lives up to the standards more than "Life" does.

Steak - Quentin Dupiex

I would say this is my Quentin Dupieux favourite so far.

Dupieux himself said Steak might be his least received work ever. First, steak is a film which should have been released in no more than 40 theatres. Since it is featured 2 well-known french comedians Eric & Ramzy, the PR marketed it as a typical comedy so it was released in more than 300 theatres in France. If you know a little about Dupieux, you would have known his style is no where close to typical french comedies (it is pretty much the same as the American comedies, only it tries to have a message behind, kind of like "what we've learnt from the fairy tales".) In order words his movies are not for everyone.

Steak is trying to tackle the issue of social status. How we try to fit into the norm, be part of something that we are not or literally changing our apperances to be more attractive. ( it exists in some places already. In South Korean plastic surgery is really common.) But how far w1ould we go? To which point we will say stop and just be ourselves. Hat off for the way how Dupieux presents the scenario.

Life is a never ending high school. When they are a group of people there will be troubles. Anti bulling campaigns keep saying "it's getting better".  Because we don't see those people in a regular basis or you could hide yourself from them after you graduated. We could embrace it and live with it or even try to be one of the bullies. Steak is a little more than just becoming one of them. Fitting in is not easy, faking it is even harder. At the end of the day you would ask yourself why? Why am I doing this?

I love how the little details Dupieux put in his movies. Again they are really subtle but yet they are powerful enough to have his points come across.

*As per my understanding Steak has only been released in french speaking countries. Only the Canadian DVD has english subtitles but unfortunately it has been out of stock since. I think you might be able to find the english subtitles online.