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      ‘True Mothers’ Review: Family Entanglements

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘True Mothers’ Review: Family EntanglementsParents clash in this Japanese melodrama from Naomi Kawase.Aju Makita in “True Mothers.”Credit…Film MovementJan. 28, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETTrue MothersDirected by Naomi KawaseDrama2h 20mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Remarkably resistant to sentimentality in individual scenes yet baldly manipulative in the big picture, the melodrama “True Mothers” is probably the most mainstream effort yet from Naomi Kawase, a Japanese director who hasn’t received much distribution in the United States but has been a mainstay of the Cannes Film Festival for two decades. Although the pandemic canceled the festival in May, in June the Cannes programmers announced “True Mothers” as an official selection of the event-that-wasn’t (and later screened it at a mini-festival in October). The movie has the sort of densely plotted texture and widely accessible emotions that might have earned it the Palme d’Or — not necessarily for the best reasons.Adapted from a novel by Mizuki Tsujimura, the film is told through a series of intricately interlocked flashbacks. At the outset, Satoko (Hiromi Nagasaku) and Kiyokazu (Arata Iura) have a kindergarten-age son, Asato (Reo Sato), whom they adopted when he was a baby. His teacher calls to say that a boy has fallen off the jungle gym and claims Asato pushed him. Soon after, that boy’s mother, taking a jab at what she perceives as Satoko and Kiyokazu’s wealth, requests reimbursement for the medical expenses. Is it possible that the couple took in a bad seed?[embedded content]In straight cuts — that is, the time shifts aren’t obviously telegraphed with blackouts or dissolves — “True Mothers” doubles back to the story of how Asato was adopted: of how Kiyokazu’s inability to start a pregnancy led him to propose divorce, of how the pair learned of an adoption agency and independently began to research it.By the present action, they have blossomed into devoted and conscientious parents. Then Satoko receives another call: A young woman claiming to be the boy’s biological mother wants either the child or a payoff.Satoko and Kiyokazu suspect she isn’t who she says she is, and Kawase drops a new anvil of flashbacks to tell the story of Hikari (Aju Makita), the teenage girl who gave birth to the boy. A further set of flashbacks is triggered after police turn up at Satoko and Kiyokazu’s door. Whether the stranger claiming to be the mother was an impostor, and how these narratives loop together, isn’t settled until the end.“True Mothers” explores the malleable nature of family and complementary forms of mothering: one mother gives birth, another nurtures and a third — the head of the adoption agency (Miyoko Asada), who sheltered Hikari at a difficult time — acts in a mother’s stead. The gauzy flourishes from Kawase’s less accessible films remain, such as her penchants for blown-out imagery and transitional nature shots. The stunning seascapes of the Hiroshima-area island where Hikari lives during the pregnancy help establish a contemplative mood.Only a mountain couldn’t be moved by “True Mothers” — but like Asato’s parentage, the sources of that effect are complex. From one angle, “True Mothers” is sensitive and layered. From another, the tricks it plays with perspective constitute an all-too-calculated ploy for tears.True MothersNot rated. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes. Watch through virtual cinemas.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Beginning’ Review: Faith Under Attack

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Pick‘Beginning’ Review: Faith Under AttackDea Kulumbegashvili’s debut feature ensnares its heroine in circles of religious and patriarchal persecution.Ia Sukhitashvili in “Beginning.”Credit…MubiJan. 28, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETBeginningNYT Critic’s PickDirected by Dea KulumbegashviliDramaNot Rated2h 10mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The boxy frame of the camera turns into a trap in “Beginning,” the masterful debut feature by the Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili. For the film’s opening, the camera plants itself on one end of a small Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall and stays there, unmoving, as the congregants slowly filter in and the preacher begins his sermon. It doesn’t budge even when, nearly eight uninterrupted minutes into the shot, a Molotov cocktail flies into the room and explodes into flames, scattering the panicked worshipers.The scene is a warning to viewers of this unsparing film: Fear the frame. Locked in its rigid, rectangular grip, you will be unable to escape what’s onscreen or anticipate what awaits just outside.[embedded content]“Beginning” follows Yana (Ia Sukhitashvili), the preacher’s wife, as she deals with the fallout of that firebomb attack. A former actress, she has given up her career to support her husband’s mission in a predominantly Orthodox Christian town outside Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. The film ensnares her in circles of religious and patriarchal persecution: The police take no action on the attack despite there being surveillance footage of the perpetrators, and when Yana’s husband goes to the city to consult with community elders, a detective arrives at her doorstep. In one of the film’s many queasy tableaux of simmering violence, this unnamed man interrogates Yana in her living room, preying more and more humiliatingly on her status both as a cultural minority and a woman.Power-plays of faith and gender trace acrid paths across “Beginning,” but neither is the central subject of the film. There’s little psychological or sociocultural detail in the movie’s fastidious compositions, which fix Yana in shadow-flecked rooms and landscapes as stifling as they are gorgeous.Instead, if Kulumbegashvili’s film is about anything, it’s the act of seeing — of witnessing. Such is the effect of the violence that ensues when Yana encounters the detective near her home in the dead of the night. Kulumbegashvili holds the bone-chilling scene for what feels like an eternity, keeping us at a distance that only amplifies its horror. If this test of viewer endurance is a bit sadistic, it’s also remarkable in how cleanly it strips the scene of any sensationalism. Rarely has a film made me so painfully, viscerally aware of the impotence of spectatorship — of the dubious remove from which we watch suffering.As the film’s cloistered frame closes in on Yana, “Beginning” plunges us further into despair — until its mystifying coda opens the movie into a whole other world. Kulumbegashvili leaves us with an ethereal reprieve from her film’s corporeal terrors.BeginningNot rated. In Georgian, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 10 minutes. Watch on Mubi.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Supernova’ Review: On the Road, to a Heartbreaking Destination

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCritic’s Pick‘Supernova’ Review: On the Road, to a Heartbreaking DestinationColin Firth and Stanley Tucci play a longtime couple facing unpleasant facts in this spectacularly moving film from Harry Macqueen.Colin Firth, left, and Stanley Tucci in “Supernova.”Credit…Bleecker Street, via Associated PressJan. 28, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETSupernovaNYT Critic’s PickDirected by Harry MacqueenDrama, RomanceR1h 33mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.It’s rare to see a cinematic drama executed with such consistent care as “Supernova,” written and directed by Harry Macqueen and starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci. And here, that care pays off to devastating effect.Firth and Tucci play Sam and Tusker, a longtime couple who, we learn early on, derive as much pleasure from snarky bickering as they do from sex, snuggling and serious conversation. As they toddle through England’s lake country in an R.V., Macqueen unravels their back story subtly and organically. Sam was once a concert pianist; Tusker is a novelist and an astronomy enthusiast. On a break from driving, Sam pages through one of Tusker’s works and waxes sarcastic about the novel’s challenging style.Tusker’s current challenge is early-onset dementia. He’s insistent on working through it. Up to a point.[embedded content]Their journey has an end and a coda: the country home of supportive relatives. Despite the condition that encroaches and shrouds Tusker daily, taking away bits of memory and faculty, he’s arranged a surprise birthday party for Sam. But it’s Sam who has to read Tusker’s eloquent toast, in one of several heartbreaking scenes.As performers, Tucci and Firth embody the best kind of masculinity, which has been missing from popular culture for so long that we’ve forgotten what it looks like. Their characters are men of passion but also men of integrity. And most important, they’re men who know what love is.Where they disagree is about what love can do. Tusker knows it can’t save him. “You’re not supposed to mourn someone before they die,” he notes, and in Tucci’s voice you hear both mordancy and the deepest kind of compassion. This astounding movie offers that latter quality in abundance.SupernovaRated R. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Finding Ohana’ Review: Treasure Hunting and Family Healing

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Finding Ohana’ Review: Treasure Hunting and Family HealingThe adventure narrative in this Hawaii-set Netflix film distracts from a deeper story about cultural heritage and family dynamics.From left, Lindsay Watson, Kea Peahu, Owen Vaccaro and Alex Aiono in “Finding Ohana.”Credit…Chris Moore/NetfilxJan. 28, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETFinding OhanaDirected by Jude WengAction, Adventure, Comedy, FamilyPG2h 3mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.The Hawaiian term ohana, which means family, may be most recognized from its popularization by the Disney animated film “Lilo and Stitch.” Like that alien-populated coming-of-age comedy, the Netflix film “Finding Ohana” uncovers adventure in the midst of familial dysfunction. But the treasure-hunting escapade at the center of this film weakens a more compelling look at the dynamics of a family and the uncertain future of its cultural legacy.Frequently at odds, the gregarious Pili (Kea Peahu) and her cooler-than-thou brother Ioane (Alex Aiono) are none too happy to be uprooted from their Brooklyn lives. Their widowed mother, Leilani (Kelly Hu), moves them to her Wi-Fi-free childhood home on Oahu to take care of her father (Branscombe Richmond). Restless in their new surroundings, the teens (along with their new friends) occupy their time by chasing after an ancient treasure hidden in a cave on the island.[embedded content]A Gen Z crusade, hyper-aware of its Indiana Jonesian influences, is an entertaining conceit. But the plodding pace of Jude Weng’s film, along with its shabby dialogue, distracts from the more emotionally intricate subplot of the mother returning home to her father after her husband’s death. Implied here is a more tangible sense of grief, not only in terms of a lost loved one, but also a now disparate connection to one’s heritage and family history.This consideration of how to preserve cultural identity and meaning through future generations is most eloquent at its least talkative; neither the script (which overexplains Hawaiian colloquialisms) nor the younger actors can handle the weight of these ideas. But Hu and Richmond convey a tender and bruised relationship, one that emphasizes learning how to move forward and live on.Finding OhanaRated PG. Running time: 2 hours 3 minutes. Watch on Netflix.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      ‘Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream’ Review: Writing With Movies

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main story‘Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream’ Review: Writing With MoviesCreated from 400-plus movie clips, this film reflects on the filmmaker’s recovery from a breakup in a small town.An image from the documentary “Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream.”Credit…KimStimJan. 28, 2021, 7:00 a.m. ETJust Don’t Think I’ll ScreamDirected by Frank BeauvaisDocumentary1h 15mFind TicketsWhen you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.Frank Beauvais’s pastiche “Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream” paints with a palette of 400-plus films. In 2016 Beauvais recovered from a breakup in an Alsatian village by filling his days with music, beer, pot, and torrents of movies. The cineaste monologues over clips from his half-year of viewing to create something resembling a dyspeptic novelist’s journals.The magic trick of recycling cinema has a long tradition from the Soviet filmmaker Esfir Shub’s “Fall of the Romanov Dynasty” to Bruce Conner’s avant-garde classic “A Movie” to Christian Marclay’s installation “The Clock.” Beauvais and his editor, Thomas Marchand, use the stream of (soundless) snippets as a psychological EKG, illustrating his spoken words more often than opening up ambiguities. Even when the clips come from films by well-known directors, they seem chosen to head off the frisson of recognition, though Beauvais name-drops some sources and touchstones (Vernon Subutex, Hermann Hesse, Blake Edwards, Bonnie Prince Billy).[embedded content]Mostly he despairs about terrorism and capitalism after bombings in France, vents about the tedium of conservative Alsace and his own inertia, and laments that his father died while watching an Occupation-era drama. He has a happy community of friends in Paris, filmmaker visitors, and a helpful (if oddly underrepresented) mother. But his images breathe isolation: amid the anonymous figures, disembodied hands, hard-to-place curios and assorted bleak moments, faces are rare.By the time Beauvais dismisses some chestnut trees as “bland,” the movie screams nothing so much as the pained self-absorption of depression — an anguished revelation, but dead-on.Just Don’t Think I’ll ScreamNot rated. In French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes. Watch through Film Forum’s Virtual Cinema.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Gunnel Lindblom, Familiar Face in Bergman Films, Dies at 89

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeBest Netflix DocumentariesNew on NetflixAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyGunnel Lindblom, Familiar Face in Bergman Films, Dies at 89She appeared in early classics like “The Seventh Seal,” “Wild Strawberries” and “The Virgin Spring” and devoted much of her long career to the stage.Gunnel Lindblom and Gunnar Björnstrand in Ingmar Bergman’s classic 1957 film “The Seventh Seal.” She appeared in several of his early films. Credit…Svensk Filmindustri, via PhotofestJan. 27, 2021, 5:04 p.m. ETGunnel Lindblom, a Swedish actress who worked with Ingmar Bergman in his early classic films and on decades of stage productions, died on Sunday in Brottby, Sweden, a small community north of Stockholm. She was 89.The death was announced by her family.In “The Seventh Seal” (1957), Bergman’s portrait of a knight (played by Max von Sydow) returning from the Crusades to find his village devastated by plague, Ms. Lindblom was an unnamed mute girl. At the film’s end, her character finally speaks, announcing biblically, “It is finished.”In “Wild Strawberries” (1957), about an elderly professor reflecting on life and loneliness, she was the man’s beautiful and kind sister in turn-of-the-century flashbacks.In “The Virgin Spring” (1960), Bergman’s tale of Christianity and revenge in medieval Sweden, Ms. Lindblom was a young, sullen, accidentally pregnant, Odin-worshiping servant girl of a wealthy landowner (also played by Mr. von Sydow). She witnesses the rape and brutal murder of his daughter, her spoiled but naïve teenage mistress.Ms. Lindblom’s professional relationship with Bergman, who died in 2007, continued and evolved. After “The Virgin Spring,” she appeared in two parts of his film trilogy about religion and faith: In “Winter Light” (1963), her character was a depressed fisherman’s wife; in “The Silence” (1964) she was a woman isolated with her dying sister in an unfamiliar foreign country.A decade later she had a supporting role in “Scenes From a Marriage,” Bergman’s Scandinavian mini-series, which starred Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson and was released internationally as a feature film in 1974. Her character, Eva, is an attractive work colleague of the leading man.One of Ms. Lindblom’s seven screen directing credits was “Paradistorg,” a drama about a family getaway. When it was released in the United States in 1978 as “Summer Paradise,” Janet Maslin’s review in The New York Times summed up the characters’ middle-class crises: “The women are lonely, the men are weaklings, and the children are growing up without proper supervision.”When Bergman directed “Ghost Sonata,” August Strindberg’s 1908 modernist play, at Dramaten in Stockholm at the turn of the millennium, Ms. Lindblom was cast as the Captain’s Wife, a beautiful woman who becomes a mummy.Strindberg, although he died in 1912, was perhaps the second most influential Swedish artist in her career; in recapping it, in fact, the first credit that some European obituaries mentioned was her title performance in a 1965 BBC production of Strindberg’s “Miss Julie,” his story of a wealthy young woman’s attraction to a servant. Ms. Lindblom received an honorary Guldbagge, Sweden’s Oscar equivalent, for lifetime achievement in 2002.Ms. Lindblom in “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” the 2009 Swedish film version of Stieg Larsson’s best-selling novel. It was her last high-profile movie role.Credit…AlamyGunnel Martha Ingegard Lindblom was born on Dec. 18, 1931, in Gothenburg (Goteborg), Sweden, and studied acting at the Gothenburg City Theater in the early 1950s.She made her film debut in Gustaf Molander’s “Karlek” (the English title was “Love”), a 1952 drama about a young priest, and collaborated frequently with Bergman at Malmo City Theater, where he had become artistic director.She had a busy six-decade theater career, most notably with the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm, and played close to 60 screen roles — including Aunt Julie in “Hedda Gabler” (1993), the professor’s wife in “Uncle Vanya” (1967) and the ex-wife of a guilty choreographer in Susan Sontag’s “Brother Carl” (1971).She appeared in three recent film shorts (the last, “Bergman’s Reliquarium,” in 2018) and made a guest appearance on “The Inspector and the Sea,” a Swedish crime-drama series, in 2011. But her last high-profile screen role was in the Swedish film version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” (2009), based on Stieg Larsson’s best seller. (Two years later, an American version, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, was released.)In the Swedish film “Millennium” and in the 2010 American mini-series inspired by it, Ms. Lindblom played Isabella Vanger, the mother of the serial-killer antagonist. Isabella knew for years that her children were being sexually abused and said nothing.Ms. Lindblom and Sture Helander, a Swedish physician, married in 1960, had three children and divorced in 1970. In 1981, she married Frederik Dessau, the Danish film director and writer, and they divorced in 1986.No information on survivors was immediately available, but Ms. Lindblom had two sons, Thomas Helander and Jan Helander, and a daughter, Jessica Helander.Much of Ms. Lindblom’s career was devoted to theater, but she gladly acknowledged her love of filmmaking — sometimes just for the joy of shooting outdoors rather than being cooped up inside a theater, she said. And she had a particular appreciation for period films, partly because some managed to convey true timelessness.Watching contemporary films of the past, “you say, ‘Oh, that was made in the ’50s,’ ” she reflected in a 21st-century video interview. “But in a period film, if it’s well done, you don’t see when it’s made.”After all, the human condition itself is timeless.“I don’t think people have changed very much,” Ms. Lindblom said in the same interview, alluding to her medieval character in “The Virgin Spring.” “The feelings are very much the same. So you have to go for the truth.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Cannes Film Festival Is Delayed Until July Because of Pandemic

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesSee Your Local RiskVaccine InformationWuhan, One Year LaterAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyCannes Film Festival Is Delayed Until July Because of PandemicThe 2021 edition of the event, which was canceled last year, is now set to take place two months later than planned.The scene in Cannes the last time the festival was held, in 2019.Credit…Alberto Pizzoli/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJan. 27, 2021Updated 4:29 p.m. ETThe Cannes Film Festival, one of the movie world’s most renowned events, has been postponed, showing the continuing impact of the coronavirus pandemic.The festival was meant to run May 11-22, but has now been rescheduled to July 6-17, the organizers said in a statement on Wednesday. “As announced last autumn, the Festival de Cannes reserved the right to change its dates depending on how the global health situation developed,” the statement said.The decision had been expected. Last month, Aïda Belloulid, the festival’s spokeswoman, told The New York Times that the event might be shifted because of the pandemic, as cases were then surging across Europe. Whatever date the festival took place, she said, it will be “a ‘classic’ Cannes,” including stars on the Croisette.Since then, the situation has only gotten more complicated in Europe. Case numbers are flattening in some countries, but deaths have surged and restrictions on daily life have been extended.In France, there is a nationwide 6 p.m. curfew and cultural venues including movie theaters are shut with no reopening date in sight. Daily Covid-19 cases and deaths appear to be stabilizing, but more than 22,000 new cases were announced on Tuesday, with 612 deaths.Some 74,000 people in the country have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.The French government is rolling out vaccines, but its drive has been hit by production delays and a growing row between AstraZeneca, the European Union and Britain over scarce supplies. There is also widespread skepticism of vaccines in the country.It is the second year Cannes has been affected. Last year, the customary May festival was canceled. It had been set to include the premieres of Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” and Pixar’s “Soul” with a jury led by Spike Lee. (The Anderson movie has not debuted yet; “Soul” was released on Disney+ in December.) In the end, Cannes was only able to hold a “special” edition in October featuring a handful of films and little of the usual red-carpet glamour. The event received next to no media attention.Movie fans had hoped some major festivals could be staged this spring, especially given vaccine rollouts. But Cannes is only one of several major cultural events in Europe that have now been postponed or canceled, showing that the pandemic’s effects on cultural life will be felt throughout the year. In December, the Berlin Film Festival, scheduled to start Feb. 11, was postponed, and organizers said they wouldn’t stage public screenings until June.Last week, the Glastonbury festival, Britain’s largest pop music event, scheduled for June, was canceled. The same day, Art Basel announced that its flagship trade fair in Switzerland would be postponed until September, providing a major blow to the international art trade.Cannes will have to wait and see if the new July dates are possible. “If the festival takes place, it means the global health situation allows it, and people will be able to travel again,” Belloulid, the festival’s spokeswoman, said in an email. “The industry, the film teams, the journalists, they all want to come,” she added.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More