"Never Rarely Sometimes Always" (2020), Eliza Hittman.
NRSA is not a fringe hateful right wing political party, but a movie about a serious subject that puts all the fault in humans with a certain distribution of chromosomes in their DNA. Hittman (proper for a hit job on men) films her two characters in close-up for minutes, following their odissey to New York so one of them can get a late abortion. The movie, though, avoids any important controversy. Is it in favor of abortions for unintended pregnancies or only those that are result of abuse? We don't know. It remains unclear. Because the center of the film is hate for men, for all of them. The message of this misandrist piece is "men are evil, always". It is not even functional as a documentary, because the view remains so entrenched in the girls' faces and bodies that we can't even understand how the locations play in their troubles. Is the bus station far or close? What's their itinerary? Do they go in circles? You see them walking to a clinic with difficulty, when you note a metro stop right there at the door. Is it because they're inexperienced or because the director is not really interested in practical matters like script? The biggest question is not about the movie but the world of film criticism. Why is this universally acclaimed? Fear.
PD: Good acting by the two girls.
"Bacurau" (2019), Juliano Dornelles , Kleber Mendonça Filho.
Thinly veiled Brazilian allegory about American imperialism south of the border. A minuscule town is being attacked in all fronts and could dissappear. The locals want to fight back. It is very enjoyable albeit short despite the running time. The set of notable characters presented are memorable, from the mathriarc's friend (the spectacular Sonia Braga) to the local young bandit/criminal/revolutionary leader.
"Akahige" (Red Beard, 1965), Akira Kurosawa.
Episodic humanist film about a young doctor learning the meaning of his profession from an old mentor in a public clinic in 19th Century Japan. Multiple shots are carefully constructed masterpieces of mise-en-scene, camera movement and lighting, in beautiful black and white. Episodes relate poverty to marriage, family, love and loss, and each one is memorable. There's even an action scene. It sits deep down at the end of the TSPDT list and like all classics it deserves analysis which is outside of the scope of this short recommendation (I'm writing this in a bus in my way to work). I fear that nowadays this film would be "canceled".
