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Bardo – Alejandro G. Iñárritu (2022)

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“Bardo, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades” or “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” is about the succesful documentary maker Silverio, who is about to be the first journalist of Mexican decent to receive a prestigious journalism award in the USA.

Silverio moved to the USA to raise his children. This is exactly something that many Mexicans also want, but do not get the chance to. Silverio makes his documentaries about the people trying to get into the USA.

In a lengthy (2:39 hours) and at times surreal drama, we see Silverio being tossed between his Mexican roots which he basically outgrew because of his succes and his succes as a journalist and how other people react to this succes. His life is not all easy and a son that was born stillborn keeps haunting his nightmares and putting pressure on his relationship with his wife. The fact that his children are neither really Mexicans nor Americans does not help either.

Iñárritu puts the magnifiying glass on migration issues between both countries, on the story of the Mexicans who did and did not make it into the USA and mixes this with the very personal view of the life of Silverio with a thick layer of Mexican culture. The film goes from common drama, to vague scenes and strange camera work.

Pan T. – Marcin Krzysztalowicz (2019)

“Pan T.” (‘Mr. T.’) is a very nice Polish film up on Netflix. In 1953 Warszawa (Warsaw), hence, in communist times, we follow a writer, highly regarded by his colleagues. He proves to live in some sort of writers-hotel. Everybody asks for his advice. Some address him as subversive.

The government has strict rules what can be said and written. On the other hand, it supports writers, journalists, etc. who play by their rules. Thus the trick is to write so that the officials approve, but that the readers can detect criticism to the system.

In this highly controlled environment things are hard for indepedent thinkers. Mr. T. is under observation and balances the thin line of keeping to his principles and trying to make a living.

In moody black and white, a bit of a noir type, slow movie with some odd humour, not too much of a story unfolds, but “Plan T.” makes an interesting watch.

Anima – Paul Thomas Anderson (2019)

A magnificent, surreal and musical short film (15 min) of P.T. Anderson up on Netflix. The music was made by Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

It is not like there is a story to this, but “Anima” is a great and weird ‘image- and soundscape’.

What Did Jack Do? – David Lynch (2017)

What? Did I forget to review a Lynch? Perhaps because it is a short? I have recently been looking for short films for when I have a short time to fill. Short films cannot be (easily) found through the Netflix search (or Amazon Prime), but fortunately there are other ways. I decided to review these short films so that you also have a way to find out which short films are available. Now I notice that I had no review of a Netflix short of none less than David Lynch. I think I (first) saw it shortly after it came out.

Anyway, the monkey of the poster is Jack. He finds himself in jail and is interviewed by David Lynch himself. Lynch projected a human mouth over the monkey’s face so that he can talk back.

A weird and nice Lynch. Not as dark as Lynch can get. Did is more on the humorous side of the good man.

The Rat Catcher – Wes Anderson (2023)

Anderson has a few amusing short films on Netflix, based on stories by Roald Dahl. This time we follow a very amusing Ralph Fiennes who is supposedly a brilliant rat catcher. He is called to catch a particularly clever rat and explains his methods in detail.

The typical surreal humour and weird Anderson stages make this another very amusing 17 minutes film.

Poison – Wes Anderson (2023)

Based on a story of Roald Dahl, Anderson presents a Netflix short with quite a cast.

Ralph Fiennes as Roald Dahl tells the story of Harry Pope (Benedict Cumberbatch) who fears of getting snake bitten unless he stays absolutely still. He asks his doctor (Ben Kingsley) to assist.

An amusing 17 minute film by Anderson.

Triangle Of Sadness – Ruben Östlund (2022)

Not exactly the first arthouse film that I saw, but boy, this really was two and a half hours of: “quit or continue?” I did sit out the entire film, but it was not easy.

The first character introduced is Carl, a male model, during an audition. In the next chapter we meet Carl’s girlfriend Yaya, who is an “influencer”. This whole chapter revolves around a tedious discussion about money.

Then follows a long chapter during which Carl and Yaya are on a cruise for the preposterously rich. The only highlight in the film is the amusing middle part in which the ship sails into a storm during a fancy diner. Eventually the ship does not survive and a handful of characters end up on a beach.

Most dialogues in the film are boring, many even childishly dumb. I suppose this is on purpose, to show the shallowness of modern life, especially that of the rich, but instead of being amusing, it is pretty damn annoying. There are way too little good scenes to allow me to rate the film anything higher than…

Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos (2023)

What a wonderfully weird film! Lanthimos has made some weird films that I had a hard to to find to watch, but later on he managed to get actors such as Colin Farrell and Nicole Kidman and I suppose that made his star rise to the height he deserves.

Willem Dafoe looks even weirder than in “The Lighthouse” as scientist who was both the student and the test subject of his father. He looks quite like Frankenstein in this Frankenstein-type story. Godwin (abbreviated to “God”) is not the ‘Frankenstein’ in this film though. Godwin Baxter found the body of a pregnant woman who threw herself off a bridge. He decides that his next experiment will be to transplant the brains of an unborn child into the body of a grown woman. So, Bella (played by Emma Stone) came to be.

Bella appears to be a retarded young woman, but -as mentioned- she is actually a woman with a child’s brain that is still in development. Baxter tries to keep her close in order to create a scientifically save testing environment. As her brain develops, Bella becomes more independent.

Bella goes on an adventure, first to Portugal and later to other countries in Europe and Northern Africa. There she learns the ways of sex, people and the world, but still with an undeveloped brain. Indeed, there is quite a bit of sex in the film, but not as much nudity as some reviewers suggest.

The whole story is set in a beautiful 1920’ies looking future thus giving the film a surrealistic atmosphere that you may know from directors such as Jeunet, Burton or Lee. Perhaps it is also this somewhat more familiar strangeness that allows “Poor Things” to be played in ‘regular cinemas’.

In any case, Stone is both childish and alluring, some of the scenes are beautiful, there are critical looks on modern life, odd dialogues and a very rapid coming of age.

The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar – Wes Anderson (2023)

A nice surrealistic comedy short (37 minutes) available on Netflix.

A traveler through India hears of a yogi who levitates while meditating. When trying to learn that for himself, he instead develops the ability to see without eyes. He writes his story in a short book that is found by Henry Sugar who decides to learn the art of seeing through playing cards in order to get rich.

All three men need years to develop their abilities, which is pictured in broad strokes. There is more attention for witty monologues and funny situations and how Sugar tries to help the world without becoming famous.

The Lighthouse – Robert Eggers (2019)

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There has been quite some attention for this film recently, but it already somewhat older. In any case: “The Lighthouse” is one of the too few unconventional films on Netflix.

With an aspect ratio of 1.19 : 1 the screen is almost square. The images look like worn Polaroid photos in (gritty) grey scales. Visually, the film is already unconventional.

We follow two men who are up for a four week shift to man a lighthouse on a remote island. Thomas Wake (William Dafoe) is a former seaman, now a rowdy lighthouse keeper. Thomas Howard (Robert Pattinson) is the newbie fleeing from his past. Wake, the rough main man, is a weird character.

Nothing much happens in the film. The two men try to get along, but their characters differ too much. Only alcohol seems to soften the tensions. Howard is not the first who slowly starts to loose his mind which gives Eggers the opportunity to make some nicely weird scenes. Largely the film has a bit of a nightmarish atmosphere.

Not a masterpiece, but something different for sure.