Mismatched grieving, hypothetical futures, confrontations, pursuing perfection and jazz in a coup d'etat. This week I watched...
A Real Pain (2024)
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Genre/s: Comedy/Drama Length: 1 Hour 30 Minutes Language: English Countries: Poland/USA
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin, Will Sharpe, Jennifer Grey, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy, Daniel Oreskes
Synopsis: Jewish Cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Culkin) go on a trip to Poland as they join a holocaust tour as well as visit the childhood home of their recently deceased grandmother.
My Take: Everyone processes pain differently—whether it’s from the present or the past, generational or circumstantial. A Real Pain explores how grief, in particular, can both unite and separate us, regardless of the support systems we have in place. Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin are outstanding as the mismatched personalities, constantly clashing through personal grievances in different scenarios. One is more organized, valuing order, the other likes to go with the chaotic natural flow of things (points on guessing who is playing which personality type). And although these two are playing their usual typecasts here, it doesn’t diminish their character’s experiences and most importantly, how they approach the pain of grief, of connecting with the past and how they can use that to grow or even regress. It’s a massively impressive directorial debut from Eisenberg (who also wrote it) that is both combative but completely respectful in confronting the hang-ups that his characters are constantly facing, never resorting to over-the-top blow-ups for conflict's sake. It’s relatable in how we compare ourselves to others, and how we unfairly punish ourselves because of it. But as A Real Pain reaches its conclusion, Eisenberg lets us take a look at our own hang-ups as we ask ourselves what is to become of them: will we absorb them and grow from it, or let them define who we are and will become?
Where you can watch it: In theatres (USA, UK, SA - 24 January), most VOD platforms (USA), Hulu (USA – 16 January).
Black Box Diaries (2024)
Director: Shiori Itô
Genre: Documentary Length: 1 Hour 39 Minutes Languages: Japanese/English Countries: Japan/UK/USA
Synopsis: Journalist Shiori Itô investigates and documents her journey to confront and seek persecution against a high-profile individual who sexually assaulted her.
My Take: An eye-opening account of how sexual assault is dealt with and perceived in Japan, Black Box Diaries is among the most personal and important films of the year. Shiori Itô directs this documentary about her experience, providing the important through-line of the subject’s experience at the eye of the storm. Both persecuted and supported by colleagues and strangers alike, it shows us both how different and similar such experiences are for women in other parts of the world, but what differentiates Black Box Diaries is just how vulnerable it always is and chooses to be. Itô refuses to put up a shield that obscures and hides the pain, fear and uncertainty she faces, and what we get is some of 2024’s most viscerally charged, truthful moments captured on screen – from panic attacks to tearful gratitude towards the kindness of strangers needing to do what is right so that she may obtain justice and most importantly, closure, for her own healing. It’s vital, furious filmmaking that looks to confront and make sense of its author’s trauma, however painful it may be. Essential.
Where you can watch it: Paramount + (USA), Most VOD platforms (USA, UK).
2073 (2024)
Director: Asif Kapadia
Genre/s: Documentary/Sci-Fi Length: 1 Hour 25 Minutes Language: English Countries: UK/USA
Synopsis: Acclaimed documentarian Asif Kapadia hypothesizes and warns us of the trajectory with which our current political and socioeconomic climate is taking us.
My Take: 2073 is a strange film— and not necessarily in a good way. Asif Kapadia is one of the finest documentarians working today, providing some of the greatest biographical documentaries of figures who have reached myth-like statuses (Senna, Amy and Diego Maradona are all extraordinary) that has him working strictly with archival footage and no talking head interviews, letting audio narration of those close to his subjects let the images truly come alive. Inspired by Chris Marker’s highly influential experimental sci-fi short La Jetée (later remade by Terry Gilliam with 12 Monkeys), 2073 merges documentary filmmaking with sci-fi storytelling – confronting and sounding the deafening alarm bells in our present, before propelling us to its hypothetical future. Samantha Morton plays this central, nameless character in a dystopian Orwellian future.
But what is initially an interesting concept, ends up being so clunky in execution, with its fictional future-set aspects being the film’s major weak point that unfortunately defines its failure. When the film chooses to elaborate on the scenarios that would lead us to this hellish future, it finally provides stern and compelling warning signs that can be useful for us so that we may fight the present in order to save the future. But when you have better documentaries that deal with what 2073 touches on from the dangerous rise of populist leaders to journalism’s death rattle to how social media is fast-tracking us to an Orwellian hellscape, 2073 feels just too heavy-handed as it doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know.
Better, more detailed and incisive films like A Thousand Cuts; All Light, Everywhere; The Dissident and most recently, The Bibi Files, do a better job of driving the urgency of these topics, ones that provide thought-provoking endings that leave us questioning our world at large and what is to be done. And although 2073 has good intentions with its “smash you over the head approach”, its execution feels cheap and muddy – an understandably desperate plea to save the future that unfortunately feels like a summarized bullet point presentation of the aforementioned (and better) films: uppercased and lacking the finer details to let it be as urgent and profound as it so desperately wants to be. A rare dud from an otherwise remarkable filmmaker who is clearly better suited to biographies.
Where you can watch it: Most VOD platforms (USA, UK).
Look Back (2024)
Director: Kiyotaka Oshiyama
Genre/s: Animation/Drama Length: 58 Minutes Language: Japanese Country: Japan
Cast: Yumi Kawai, Mizuki Yoshida
Synopsis: Socially active Fujino and home-schooled shut-in Kyomoto form an unlikely friendship when their love for drawing changes their lives forever.
My Take: Sometimes it takes just a little nudge to push you over the edge, for better or for worse. It can be a little comment or a small observation that can change your worldview – pushing you to be better or giving up entirely. Look Back uses this as its basis, a relevant story about self-esteem, about coming out of your comfort zone to realize and pursue your dreams, passions and desires. It’s very real in how it views self-worth and the destructive capabilities that our negative thoughts play into our obsessive drive of either NEEDING to be the best or to not be anything at all. In its short (maybe even too short) running time of just 58 minutes, Look Back conveys these feelings so well and so succinctly, and by tying in the film’s most important and powerful theme of fate into the mix, Look Back goes from being a sweet tale of unlikely friendships and self-worth into a heavily layered tale of wish fulfillment that is simultaneously sweet and heartbreaking. It’s pretty much perfect really, from its stunning hand-drawn animation to its all-too-relatable characters. But most importantly, it reminds us to be gentle on ourselves, to not compare ourselves to others as we look to be perfect in an imperfect world.
Where you can watch it: Prime Video (worldwide).
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat (2024)
Director: Johan Grimonprez
Genre: Documentary Length: 2 Hour 30 Minutes Languages: English/French/Russian/Dutch/Flemish Countries: Belgium/France/Netherlands
Synopsis: Soundtrack breaks down the maddening series of events and circumstances that led to Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba’s assassination in 1961.
My Take: “If Africa is shaped like a gun, then the Congo is its trigger”. Soundtrack is an extensive history lesson, an important one that unpacks the revolution of decolonization that occurred during this period in time, with Congo being its focal point as it attempts to break away from the violent cruelty of its Belgian oppressors. Through stylish edits, structure and its vibrant jazz musical identity, Soundtrack crams so much information in an already lengthy two and a half hour runtime, but where Soundtrack falters is its loss of focus, not on the big picture, but the subject it initially anchors its whole premise on: Jazz and Patrice Lumumba.
I’m not saying that the film isn’t good. It’s very good, but when the film intends to tell you the story of Lumumba and how his assassination, a coup and Jazz’s unintentional role in it all, Soundtrack gets lost in its own improvisational whirlpool. Context in any doccie is important, but it feels as though Grimonprez provides too much of it before we finally get into the meat of what the doccie is supposed to be about, or was at least intended to be. If it was a doccie mini-series a la Ken Burns covering Africa’s role in the cold war, then it wouldn’t bother me so much as it is about the whole history much like Burns did with his mammoth Vietnam War series. Its focus would be wider, therefore making it feel more cohesive in its intent. I love the jazz score and it is undeniably cool in establishing the film’s musical identity, but for most of the film, I couldn’t understand why insists on being there. It's not just the music, but we often cut to jazz musicians talking and performing before linking back to the cold war and decolonization. And although it vaguely touches on this connection, it waits nearly two hours to finally explain it, finally telling us about how a Louis Armstrong performance in the Congo was used as a trojan horse by the US and Belgian governments in order to distract everyone from their murder of Lumumba.
I also walk away not knowing much about Lumumba, barely knowing anything about the horrific bloodshed the Congolese endured at the hands of their Belgian oppressors. It makes a big point about it early on, only to get lost in everything around it - filling up on starters, but too full for the main course. It’s still an extraordinary feat, but Soundtracks is a film that I feel could’ve benefited more from widening its initial focal point as opposed to priming on one or two that go ignored for most of the film. Once you can ignore the film's intended subjects as being the main focus, Soundtracks remains an exhilarating and important history lesson, furthering one’s understanding of an important footnote in Africa’s tragic, bloody history with the colonizers who still look to exploit it.
Where you can watch it: Bluray and DVD (Kino Lorber), most VOD platforms (USA, UK).
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