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drama

Swan Song – Todd Stephens (2021)

  • drama

Udo Kier passed away on 23 November 2025. He turned 81 a month before. Kier played in many films, but I mostly remind him for his double role in Lars von Trier’s “Riget” series.

When a great actor passes away, I try to find a movie featuring that actor, preferably one that I did not yet know. I found “Swan Song” in which Kier played the main role, while he is usually more in the background.

Based on a real story, Kier plays Pat Pitsenbarger a flamboyant hair dresser in a rural town in the USA. We find him old and weak in a retirement home. When a former client of him passes away, the will specified Pitsenbarger for the hair dressing. Pitsenbarger initially refuses, but later decides to take the walk to the funerary hall.

Apparently Petsenbarger lived in the same town his entire life, also towards the end. Walking back into town, he relives memories. His deceased partner, the gay bar where he used to perform, the place where his house used to be, etc. Quite like in “Lucky” we see an actor at the end of his days, playing a character going towards his end with drama, memories and humour.

Kier proves to be an exellent actor whose face can show any emotion. “Swan Song” was beautiful yet heavy.

Frankenstein – Guillermo del Toro (2025)

  • drama

I guess the name of the director rose my expectations a bit too much. “Frankenstein” is good, but not great.

Del Toro made quite a dramatic version of the famous story. He added a few thriller elements because Victor Frankenstein is hunted by his “creature”. In flashbacks he tells the story of the creation of the “creature”.

The viewer gets the usual elaborate fantasyful world of Del Toro, but too often it is too obviously made on a computer. The story is known, there is a somewhat interesting element of forbidden love. Overal Del Toro presented just an alright drama.

Ballad of a Small Player – Edward Berger (2025)

  • drama

“Lord Doyle” (Collin Farrell) has exchanged England for Macau, China. In different ways he is looking for money and he had to flee. In China his attempts are trying to win in casinos, but his luck is not what he hoped.

Convinced that he will be able to solve his problems, he works himself into more and more problems. Not unpredictably, he is chased by people who lent him money. Slowly, but surely, “Lord Doyle” sinks away in a swamp. There is a tiny flicker of light when he grows closer to a woman who works in one of his casinos.

“Ballad of a Small Player” is an alright drama with an amusing Tilda Swinton.

Emma. – Autumn de Wilde (2020)

Anya Taylor-Joy is gorgeous as Emma Woodhouse, the 21 year old daughter of a a rich man. Emma leads the careless life that she pictures for herself, manipulating her surroundings and being the rich girl in general.

Emma brings people together or rather the opposite. From a nearby school for girls, she befriends Harriet (Mia Goth) who she tries to educate in her own way.

A plan of Emma concerning Harriet turns out differently from what she had in mind and Emma learns that she cannot control everything.

“Emma.” is a very amusing costume drama with nice, British humour.

Wednesday (series season 1-2) – Tim Burton (2022-2025)

These series had been in my Netflix watchlist for a while before I noticed that they are directed by Tim Burton. On IMDb the creators are listed. Is that perhaps because in many series different episodes are not directed by the same persons? I have not checked if Burton directed them all though, but I figured I would credit him.

The Wednesday from the title is Wednesday Addams of the Addams family. She is sent to a Hogwarts type school for “outcasts” where apparently her father and her mother met and where other family members also went to.

Wednesday is a “neo-goth”, grim looking girl with a too large ego. The series are full of the typical Addams family jokes in which the family members enjoy the darker things in life. The series are packed with interesting actors such as Catherine Zeta-Jones, Gwendoline Christie, Steve Buscemi and Billie Piper.

The stories are only mildly interesting, but the Addams family type humour is fairly enjoyable and the Burton atmosphere and stages are good. The result is a bit too ‘teen’ for my liking, but I suppose when the announced third series are available, I might watch them at some point.

Lions For Lambs – Robert Redford (2007)

Remembering Robert Redford (1936-2025) I picked a film that was directed by him and has himself as an actor. “Lions For Lambs” is a complex film. Not that the story is complex, but the subject it deals with is.

In spite of American presence in Afghanistan, the Taliban is slowly taking back control. Leaving is not an option (which is explained during the film), so senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise) has a bold plan to take back control.

Irving wants the public to be on his side, so he invites journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep) for an unusually long and detailed interview. This is one element of the film.

In other part, we see the soldiers who are to execute Irving’s plan. Then we have university professor Stephen Malley (Redford) who tries to convince a promising student to take an active role in the debate about the matter.

The complex subject is lighted from all sides giving a fair idea of the dilemmas of politics.

Crooked House – Gilles Paquet-Brenner (2018)

  • drama

Remembering Terence Stamp (1938-2025) we watched this Agatha Christie ‘whodunnit’.

The young private detective Charles is hired by an extremely rich family that lost its ‘pater familias’. Even though the whole family lives in one big house, there is a lot of tension between the members.

Needless to say that the suspect for the murder keeps shifting until the end. “Crooked House” is a descent old style crime film.

Certain Women – Kelly Reichardt (2016)

  • drama

Three different films about three different women with only here and there overlap. All parts play in some remote and cold part of the USA.

Gina is building her own house in the wilderness while she lives in a tent with her family. Jamie has a winter job at a horse farm and one night she just joins a course for school teachers given by Beth who lives four hours away. Then we have Laura (Laura Dern), a lawyer with a client who does not take no for an answer.

A calm and alright drama.

Climax – Gaspar Noë (2018)

For some reason I thought this was a film of Julia Ducournau. Now I see that is is a Noë. Maybe that explains why I felt like watching “Enter The Void” afterwards.

“Climax” is by and far not was good as “Enter The Void”. We follow a French group of dancers. You get scenes in which the group wildly dances (is this the style they call “Vogue”?) The style of dancing is intense en erotic and the next scenes are nothing but dancers talking about sex. This goes on for about an hour.

Then after one show, the usual Sangria is served at the afterparty and apparently the Sangria has been mixed with some sort of zombie drug. Some people get sick, other get horny, but generally the atmosphere becomes a whild nightmare with turning and twisting cameras, close ups, screaming people and all that jazz. This long last scene is indeed not your usual kind of film, but even for Noë it is too much.

The first part is boring, the second half quite uninteresting.

Small Things Like These – Tim Mielants (2024)

  • drama

Cillian Murphey plays Bill Furlong, a trademan in coals in rural Ireland a couple of decades ago. He has a hard life, but a loving wife and five daughters.

One of his customers is a nearby cloister which is a so-called “Magdalene asylum”. Young women, usually pregnant without a partner, are sent there and Bill starts to realise that they are not treated very well.

“Small Things Like These” is a slow, gritty, minimalist film based on the fairly famous book by Claire Keegan.