Jane Austen Wrecked My Life (2025): Yay – A New Rom-Com !!

by Len Weiler

The big question the new film Jane Austen Wrecked My Life poses is not whether the protagonist’s life
has been wrecked via Austen’s novels or otherwise.  No, the question is whether there’s still life in the rom-com, a once prominent film genre.  [Short answer: well, this one's good.]

        Is the Rom-Com Dead? asked Rolling Stone last December 2024. 

        Rom-Coms … Why Do I Miss Them So Much? bemoaned Wesley Morris in the NYTimes back in April 2019.   

Formerly a Hollywood mainstay, romantic comedies have become a rarity – their consistent decline evident since at least the turn of the 21st century. Take 2024 for instance. Of the 100 top-grossing motion pictures last year, just two were rom-coms: Anyone But You in 35th place and Fly Me to the Moon in 67th place. Compare 1999 when sixteen (16!) rom-coms made the top 100, including Runaway Bride - 9th, Notting Hill - 12th, and Shakespeare In Love - 21st.   [Note: You’ve Got Mail was in 55th place – but only because it was released in mid-December of the prior year; combining the data from the last two weeks of ’98 with the ‘99 box office numbers jumps that film to 13th place - putting four rom-coms in the top 25 films of 1999.]

The reasons given for the decline of romantic comedies are varied, but here are three: (a) the number of movie theaters and screens has declined sharply, especially since covid,  (b) superhero films and other fantasy CGI-heavy spectacles along with animated kid’s movies have increasingly monopolized the remaining theater screens and (3) the explosive growth of opportunities to watch movies and other original content at home on an ever increasing number of streaming platforms has dampened the viewing public’s incentive for going out movies.

But that does not mean we wouldn’t enjoy more quality rom-coms. I sure would! Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is a step in the right direction. This is the first feature-length film for French writer - director Laura Piani, a film and TV scriptwriter  who has long dreamed of making her own romantic comedy. In her notes to this movie, she says, “I wanted to draw the portrait of a quirky woman, so strongly convinced that she does not fit into society that she wishes she was born centuries ago in the world of her favorite novels.” 

Agathe, a charming, if a bit clumsy, young French woman who has been working for several years at the venerable English language bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris, is such a woman, and she is at the center Piani’s film. She loves books, especially 19th century romantic novels,  particularly Jane Austen’s, and most especially Sense and Sensibility.  She loses herself a bit too much in these works, as she acknowledges, and is “desperately single.”  There have been no Darcys to sweep her off her feet. Agathe is convincingly and endearingly played by Camille Rutherford [Mary, Queen of Scots (2013)].

Agathe’s co-worker and best friend is charming, good-natured Felix (Pablo Pauly). She and Felix are buddies, not lovers, but there is an undercurrent of sexual tension there that Felix gets, but Agathe sublimates. In a twist of fate, Agathe gets accepted into an elite writing program in the UK called the Jane Austen Residency. Although she's reluctant, Felix convinces her to go and even takes her to the cross-channel ferry – where they kiss – like, for real - and to her surprise Agathe feels a spark.  

On the British side, Agathe is picked up by a handsome but aloof and diffident fellow named Oliver (Charlie Anson), who claims to be the great, great, great, great nephew of Agathe’s idol. He drives her to the Austen home – a journey that is not without comic mishap.  Although they do not hit it off at all, we sense a kind of chemistry between these two. Is there an incipient romantic triangle here? I’m not saying, but if you know the rules and trajectories of the genre, you can surely guess.

Here's the thing about a good rom-com: it’s not the overarching contour of the plot that bring enjoyment (we know how that works) but the details – the various, oft-times quirky secondary characters inhabiting the tale, the little twists, complications and revelations within the story, the wit and the intelligence of the writing, the quality of the actors and their performances, our attraction to their characters and our belief in their attraction to each other. Piani says that she “wanted to fully embrace the codes [of the rom-com] without reinventing the genre.”  But hers is not another story where the heroine is “saved by the man.” She must find her own redemption. Piani again: “Agathe eventually falls in love with the right man only after she has proved to herself that she is able to write and to exist by herself.”   

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life turns out to be a sweet, witty, charming little movie. It meets all the criteria set forth in the previous paragraph: engaging, credible leads, odd and amusing supporting characters, plenty of unexpected plot turns, smart frequently humorous dialogue, strong performances, and appealing leads. The photography and settings, particularly at the (fictional) Jane Austen Residency, are quite lovely. Unfamiliarity with Jane Austen is no handicap at all to one’s enjoyment of this picture, although the Austen references will surely appeal to fans of her work.  While it's a French film, because much of the story is set in England, a significant portion of the dialogue is in English.  The rest is nicely  subtitled.  

This film may not win any awards for best motion picture of the year,  but it  certainly will be on my list for most appealing. It is a little gem. 

1 hour 38 minutes

Grade:  B+

Opens in select cities beginning on Friday May 23, 2025. To find dates and a theater in your city or region click HERE then click the “Get Tickets” button

In the SF Bay Area:

Opening Friday May 23 at AMC Metreon 16 in SF, Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley, Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, and Cinemark Century Downtown in Redwood City. 

Opens May 30  at Tower Theatre in Sacramento, AMC Mercado 20 in Santa Clara, Cinemark Century Downtown in Pleasant Hill, Rialto Sebastopol in Sebastopol, and Regal Edwards in Fairfield.

Streaming: Part 2 of Recent "Small" Movies you May Have Overlooked

By Len Weiler

In Part 1 of this two-part series, I noted that many worthwhile motion pictures get overlooked every year for reasons that have little to nothing to do with the quality of the films themselves. In this post (Part 2) as in Part 1, my intention is to highlight some of these under-the-radar pictures from the last year or so which you may have missed and which, in my view, deserve your consideration. All are available for streaming [see below].

In Part 1, I reviewed these four movies:   His Three Daughters (2024)  -  Lake George (2024)  - The Last Stop in Yuma County (2023)  -  The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024).  Here’s a link to Part 1, in case you missed it.

Today, we look at three more (in alphabetical order):

The Children’s Train (2024) [aka Il Treno dei Bambini] 
Lee (2024)
Marguerite’s Theorem (2023)

The Children’s Train (2024) [aka Il Treno dei Bambini]  is an Italian film that centers on the experience of a clever and talented 7-year-old Neapolitan boy named Amerigo in the aftermath of World War II. It is a sweet, emotionally evocative, fascinating picture that was never released into theaters at all - not even in Italy! - but went directly to video on Netflix – presumably because the streaming colossus provided a big chunk of the financing. 

Amerigo and his mother, Antonietta, are living in what survives of a mostly destroyed dwelling in the rubble of a bombed-out neighborhood in Naples. Antonietta is doing what she can so that she and her son can survive, but it’s a harrowing, hardscrabble, hand to mouth existence. Especially for a woman alone. It’s almost too much to bear. 

In the immediate postwar period, Italian socialists and communists, having largely led the partisans’ campaign against fascism, were among the most powerful political parties in the country. The communists sponsored an initiative aimed at saving children from poverty, malnutrition and disease in devastated cities in Southern Italy like Naples. Called “Treni della Felicità” [“Happiness Trains”], it encouraged struggling parents to send their kids to the rural, much better off North to stay for a time with a host family, providing an opportunity for them to thrive while giving their parent(s) a chance to reconstruct and stabilize their situation. The children’s trains helped something like 70,000 Italian children.

Antoinetta hears of the program but doesn’t want to part with Amerigo and is fearful of the consequences. Nor does he want to leave his Mama. Agonizingly, she makes the selfless decision to put him on the train, hopefully for a better life. From then on The Children’s Train is Amerigo’s story.  

Adapted from the bestselling historical novel of the same name, The Children’s Train is an evocative story about this fascinating, yet little known facet of WW II history.  Amerigo and Antoinetta  may be fictional characters but the story rings true. It’s heartbreaking and heartwarming both. The acting is first rate, especially a fabulous Serena Rossi [Love and Bullets (2017)] as Antoinetta, and Barbara Ronchi as Amerigo’s initially reluctant foster mom. The kid who plays Amerigo also does a fantastic job. His name is Christian Cervone, which is about all the public information about him. 

Critical scores - IMDB 7.4,  Rotten Tomatoes [audience score] 95%

Available exclusively on Netflix

Lee (2024) keeps us in the WW II milieu, but is something quite different than The Children’s Train. It is the true story of renowned photojournalist Lee Miller, who is played by the great Kate Winslet. Winslet was also an active producer of the film - recruiting the director Ellen Kuras (who was the director of photography of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in which Winslet also starred);  enlisting many of the impressive supporting cast, among them Marion Cotillard, Alexander Skarsgård, Noémie Merlant, Andrea Riseborough and Andy Samberg; and even scouting locations. 

The film is a biopic about an admirable famous person as well as a rugged war story – one that grabs you and then tightens its hold over the course of its 117 minutes.  Premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in 2023, Lee had only a limited theatrical release in the US and grossed  a mere $2 million in North America. While the film did a little better in Europe, total box office receipts failed to recoup its production costs.  Such disappointing results were likely due to the timing of its release and a tepid critical response [see below].

Lee Miller first became known as a fashion model, notably for Vogue. But her real passion was photography, and she soon hooked up with Man Ray as his student, collaborator, muse and lover, becoming friends with many in his avant garde circle. Later she established her own studio in New York. 

When WW II broke out in Europe, she was determined to serve a more public purpose: recording the experiences of people in the war zone, and it is for her impactful wartime photography that Miller is most remembered today.  She became a photojournalist for Vogue/Condé Nast – documenting, among many other things, the Blitz, troops in battle, the wounded in hospital, the  liberation of Paris, the horrors of the concentration camps and, shortly before the German surrender, even Hitler’s private apartment in Munich - where, famously, her colleague David Scherman snapped a picture of Miller, in mud spattered fatigues and boots, sitting in Hitler’s bathtub 

It is this period of Miller’s life that is the focus of Lee. And it is certainly interesting. Yet, while critics generally admired the movie, they didn’t give it a lot of love. Apparently, it wasn’t original enough.  An example of the critical ambivalence is reflected in Christopher Schobert’s review in The Film Stage, when he wrote: “In many ways, Lee is a perfect crowd pleaser - handsomely made, well-acted, based on a true story, filled with recognizable stars. While it is not a great film, it is undoubtedly a good one, and that's enough to warrant a recommendation.”

I liked the film a lot. So have a lot of other viewers [compare the critics’ rating with the audience rating in Rotten Tomatoes, below].  So, I’ll reverse the order of Schobert’s remarks this way: Lee may not be a great movie, but it’s a damned good one – well made, based on a terrific true story, well-acted all around, and especially by Winslet at the center of it all. Definitely worth seeing. 

Critical scores - IMDB 6.9,  Rotten Tomatoes (Critics score 67%, Audience score 94%)

Available on Hulu (free to subscribers), or to rent on AppleTV, Amazon, Fandango, and other platforms.

Marguerite’s Theorem (2023) is one of those movies about a troubled, mathematical genius, featuring lots of rapid scribbling of numbers and symbols on chalkboards and other surfaces. Antecedents include the likes of Pi (1998),  A Beautiful Mind (2001) and The Theory of Everything (2014) to name a few.  But in a bit of a twist, this one is about a brilliant young woman in a field that has long been predominately male. But hers is not so much a struggle against the patriarchy, although the patriarchy does make a troublesome appearance in the person of her mentor, Professor Werner, subtly played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin [best known, to me at least, as Henri Duflot in the great spy thriller Le Bureau (2015 – 2020)].  

The young woman’s name, of course, is Marguerite (the up and coming French actress Ella Rumpf). Marguerite is a math nerd in the extreme. She’s an advanced postgraduate student at the super-elite Ecole Normale Supériore [ENS] in Paris.  Mathematics is her whole life, there is nothing else – no friends really, no romance (or interest in same), no other activities or hobbies – just her work.  And now, after years of effort, she has she has reached her goal: a mathematical proof that solves one of the oldest  problems in mathematics: Goldbach’s Conjecture, which was first proposed nearly three hundred years ago in 1742, but until now never proven.

You can see why such an accomplishment would be a big deal. For Marguerite, this proof will be the cornerstone of a brilliant academic career, one she has long been dreaming of.  But then, during the presentation of her proof, another mathematician points out an error in an early section of her calculations. In a flash her dream, her whole world, collapses.  

This would be quite a downer movie, if it ended there. But this is more a setup than an ending. Sometimes a curse turns out to be a blessing. Marguerite now has a chance to learn that there’s a lot more to life than number theory. Human relationships, for one example.  Success at Mah Jong is another. And how all this works itself out is interesting indeed.  

Marguerite’s Theorem never had a US theatrical release. Largely because it’s in French, with English subtitles (thus a hard sell in the USA) and because it’s not a norm-shattering masterwork. For similar reasons, it did not receive a lot of press as a direct-to-streaming film. And while I like the movie and am recommending it, I wouldn’t call it a must-see picture. But it does make for a lovely evening’s entertainment - quirky, funny and satisfying – even if it’s a bit predictable at times [see above reference to frantic blackboard scribbling].

Critical scores – IMDB 6.8, Rotten Tomatoes  (Critics score) 60%, JustWatch.com [viewer’s rating] 81%

Available to watch on Kanopy [free with subscription (which is free with public library membership)]; or to rent on AppleTV, Amazon, YouTube.

Streaming: Recent “Small” Movies you May Have Overlooked – Part 1

by Len Weiler

It’s always the case that some fine films get overlooked in the marketplace - and so in the public consciousness as well. Sometimes it’s because a film gets released during the awards season flurry of autumn or early winter and gets lost amidst the hype for higher profile projects.  In some cases, the producers and distributors simply decide not to put money into promoting their film - maybe because they can’t get a handle on who the audience might be or on how to pitch an unusual story; or perhaps because there are no bigtime stars involved or the director is an unknown.   Whatever.

Some of these neglected movies are quite decent or even excellent, and those deserve to be seen. So, in this and my next post I want to highlight a few recent under-the-radar pictures in that category. All are currently available for streaming, and I think you will enjoy them. 

Today’s crop includes the following titles (in alphabetical order):

His Three Daughters (2024)
Lake George (2024)
The Last Stop in Yuma County (2023)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024)

His Three Daughters had a limited theatrical release in early September 2024, and within two weeks it was streaming on Netflix. Let’s face it, most people watch Netflix for its limited series and documentaries, not so much for movies – although Netflix releases plenty of those - well over 150 films last year alone. Which is part of the problem. So, while this excellent film has gained a small following on Netflix, it isn’t exactly a tidal wave like Bridgerton or The Squid Games.

His Three Daughters was written and directed by Azazel Jacobs, a relative  unknown, but it stars three terrific actresses: Carrie Coon (The White Lotus [season 2]); Elizabeth Olsen [Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), Wind River (2017)]; and Natasha Lyonne [Orange Is the New Black (2013-19), Russian Doll (2019-22)].   It’s essentially a chamber piece, a dramatic story of three estranged sisters who come together to care for their dying father in his New York apartment. It ought to be a time of reconciliation, of coming together for Dad’s benefit during his final days, but what with their remarkably different temperaments, life styles and priorities, not to mention their the long history of sibling quarrels and resentments, this is not easy. 

The picture is beautifully constructed: it compels our interest over the course of its one hundred minutes, as it paints a complex portrait of each of these sharply disparate characters. Along the way, I found my sympathies shifting between the three women, aligning first with one, then another as I learned more about each of them and their histories. By the end each had earned my empathy. As it should be.  

His Three Daughters is a revealing, touching, occasionally funny, rewarding movie – rich, engrossing and highly recommended. 

Critical scores - IMDB: 7.2,  Metacritic: 84,  Rotten Tomatoes - Critics: 98%

Available on Netflix  [free with subscription].

Lake George is an entertaining, somewhat lighthearted crime-doesn’t-pay movie. This one has flown even more under the radar than His Three Daughters. I first saw it in June 2024 at the Tribeca Festival, its only festival appearance, as far as I can tell. That December, it had a very limited theatrical release (at just eleven theaters) and at the same time became available for streaming. There was little, if any, promotion. 

The film is written and directed by Jeffrey Reiner, who has been a producer and director, largely in TV, for about thirty years - probably best known for producing and directing the series Friday Night Lights (2006-2009) and The Affair (2014-2017). Lake George again stars Carrie Coon, this time opposite Shea Whigham. Both of these actors are known for their excellent work in secondary roles. Before White Lotus, Coon was best known, for example, for her supporting performance in Gone Girl (2014); while Whigham may best be remembered for his role as Eli Thompson in the series Boardwalk Empire (2010-2014)

IMDB tags Lake George as a “crime thriller”, but it’s not so much a thriller, as it is a noirish, darkly funny dramedy. Whigham plays Don, a sad sack ex-con, formerly an insurance adjuster, just released from the pen after doing time for fraud – perpetrated in cahoots with an L.A. crime boss called Armen (Glenn Fleshler). Armen lawyered up and beat the rap, but did nothing for Don. When Don goes to Armen’s mansion to collect the $60k he is still owed, Armen conditions payment on Don doing one more little job for him: get rid of my disloyal wife, Phyllis. We’ve seen plenty of “just one more job” pictures, but this one’s got more than a few unexpected twists. Starting with two facts: one, Don is not a killer and two, Phyllis is a remarkably good actress as played by Coon, a great one.

Lake George may not be a masterpiece, but it is an entertaining ride. A bit of menace, a bit of violence, a bunch of surprises and lots of bittersweet, noirish fun.   

Critical scores - IMDB: 6.4,  Metacritic: 71,  Rotten Tomatoes - Critics: 96%

Available to rent on AppleTV, Amazon, Fandango and other platforms

The Last Stop In Yuma County, like Lake George, is an indie movie that the distributors didn’t quite know what to do with (or perhaps did not have the wherewithal to do much with). It had a very modest release in May 2024 (45 theaters), then went immediately to internet streaming. Like me, most of the relatively few critics that have reviewed Last Stop in Yuma County really like it. A couple of examples:

    Thrilling Noir Film You Absolutely Shouldn’t Miss  … a film that ranks as the year’s most welcome moviegoing surprise - Nick Schager, The Daily Beast

    An Accomplished Pressure-Cooker Thriller That’s Like A Tarantino-Fueled Noir, 30 Years Later - Owen Glieberman, Variety

The film is written and directed by newcomer Francis Gallupi and populated with a number of actors not yet famous, all of whom do a nice job. I was going ton say “credible”, but that may give an incorrect impression: pretty much all of the characters in the film are types, slightly exaggerated for weird and/or humorous effects.

Last Stop in Yuma County begins early one morning in a remote western service station and diner far from anything, on a lonely road – not unlike Highway 50, “the loneliest road in America”, except this one is situated in the Arizona desert. It’s the early 1970s.  The first person to arrive is a quiet, timorous man – a knife salesman to be specific (Jim Cummings), who looks eerily like Anthony Perkins in Psycho. The gas station is run by Vernon, who apologetically tells this guy that there’s no gas at the moment, but he’s expecting a fuel truck shortly. The next service station is 100 miles down the road, he says, suggesting that the salesman might want to wait next door at the diner. 

The diner hasn’t yet opened, and while the salesman waits, we hear on his car radio news of a violent bank robbery in the region. The perpetrators are on the run, armed and dangerous. Soon the diner’s pretty proprietor/waitress Charlotte (Jocelyn Donahue) arrives - [note, she’s dropped off by the local sheriff] - opens up the place, brews some coffee, and tries to chat up our salesman. 

Not long after, another car pulls up to the gas pumps with two guys inside, Travis and Beau, and just from the look of ‘em – especially the very much misnamed Beau - we just know they are the bank robbers.  Receiving similar advice from Vernon, they too enter the diner, make their way to a corner table, and glower sinisterly. More stranded travelers start to show up - various archetypes, including a pair of Bonnie and Clyde wannabes. A distinctly odd atmosphere of tension and foreboding is building.  How is this going to end?

Gallupi shows a remarkably sure hand in creating an offbeat mood and balancing this with a genuinely thrilling story with surprising, original twists. You’ll notice – in a good way – some of his influences, like early Joel and Ethan Coen, early Sam Raimi, and early Quentin Tarantino. Good company to be in. 

Critical scores -  IMDB: 6.9,  Metacritic: 72,  Rotten Tomatoes - Critics: 97%.

Available on Paramount+ (free with subscription); or to rent on AppleTV, Amazon, Fandango and other platforms.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is not exactly an under-the-radar film as far as cinephiles are concerned. But despite a strong critical consensus, its box office take in the US and Canada combined is under $900,000, a relative pittance. Why? One reason is that it’s a foreign language picture  and subtitled – which is a hard sell here in North America. Also, it has a long run time – at two hours 47 minutes. But as the many accolades it has received attest, this is a pretty great movie, and ought not be missed. 

The backstory is also interesting. This Iranian film had to be filmed secretly, without the required pre-approval from the state.  The subject matter of The Seed of the Sacred Fig - Iran’s cruel suppression of free speech and due process - is unflattering to the theocratic rulers of Iran, who do not tolerate criticism or dissent in any form. To prove the point, before the film was released, the regime sentenced Mohammad Rasoulof, who wrote, co-produced and directed it, to eight years imprisonment.  It’s available to us only because he managed to escape to Germany before the sentence could be carried out.    

The story centers on a man named Iman and his family, consisting of his wife Najmeh and their two daughters, Rezvan, who is just starting college, and Sana, a few years younger. It takes place in 2022, during the nation-wide political protests against the harsh repression. Iman, a devout man and dutiful lawyer, has worked for the country’s Revolutionary Court in Tehran for years and has just been promoted to become an Investigating Judge.  His new position that carries with it a higher salary, and just as significantly, a much larger apartment in an upscale neighborhood. This is especially welcome to Najmeh, not just for practical reasons but also for the boost to her social status; but it comes at a significant moral price for Iman. He soon learns that the job requires him to blindly sign off on the harsh sentences for protestors dictated by the Prosecutor, which often include the death penalty, without conducting any investigation himself. If he refuses, he will be stripped of his new position - and perhaps banished or prosecuted himself.

Meanwhile, his daughters are outraged at the government’s harsh, bloody crackdowns on protestors including some of their friends. Famously, a young women arrested for not following the orthodox dress codes was killed. Najmeh, who loves her daughters heart and soul and is loyally devoted to her husband, is caught in the middle. Thus begins a thrilling, heartrending, first-rate, action-packed drama, with terrific performances by all the principals.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is fascinating on many levels, not least because it gives us insight into the lives of ordinary Iranians.  It is one of my absolute favorite films of 2024. Among many other honors, it was a finalist for the Best International Film Oscar, was awarded multiple prizes at Cannes, and received the SF Bay Area Film Critics award for Best Int’l Film, and the LA Film Critics award for Best Director. 

Critical scores -  IMDB: 7.6,  Metacritic: 84,  Rotten Tomatoes - Critics: 97%, Audience:94%.

Available to rent on AppleTV, Amazon, Fandango and other platforms

The Best Movies of 2024: Larry's Top Ten and More

By Larry Lee

The voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have spoken, and their opinion of the best movies of 2024 are (in alphabetical order):

1.  Anora

2.  The Brutalist

3.  A Complete Unknown

4.  Conclave

5.  Dune, Part Two

6.  Emilia Pérez

7.  I’m Still Here

8.  Nickel Boys

9.  The Substance

10.  Wicked

Nine of the these are interesting and creditable films, and they are—for various reasons— worth seeing.  Their appearance on the Acadamy's coveted list is, in some part, attributable to the millions of dollars the studios have spent promoting their films as “important” and/or “noteworthy.”  Fair enough; the history of the Oscars teaches us that the “best” movie generally (but not always) exhibits some degree of social importance, some moral or historical gravitas, or some unusual creativity.  But judge for yourself; here are the last 11 winners:

2024:  Oppenheimer

2023:  Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

2022:  CODA

2021:  Nomadland

2020:  Parasite

2019:  Green Book

2018:  The Shape of Water

2017:  Moonlight

2016:  Spotlight

2015:  Birdman

2014:  12 Years a Slave

The one exception this year, for me, is Anora.  That it is the odds-on favorite to win the Best Picture Oscar is mysterious and confounding to me.  The movie addresses no issue of social importance (compare it to The Brutalist, Nickel Boys, or even The Substance), nor does it bear any apparent moral or historical gravitas (see A Complete Unknown, I’m Still Here, or Nickel Boys).  I also found it not particularly creative (compare it to Dune, Part Two, Emilia Pérez, or Wicked).  It was more like a long, shaggy dog story populated by unpleasant people.  It’s not really even a comedy, despite its occasional absurdist moments.  Perhaps we can understand the movie’s ascent as representative of the rise of Donald Trump and the values he represents.

Anora seemed to have little chance to actually win until controversy began to swirl around the then-front runner, Emilia Pérez, and its star, Karla Sofia Garcon.  Now the buzz in the mainstream media seems to be coalescing around Anora as the favorite.  If it wins, it will surely go down in history as the Best Picture winner with the most full-frontal nudity and simulated (one hopes) coitus, ever.  I was not impressed when I saw the movie when it was first released in November 2024. I found this seedy, sideways take on the hooker-with-the-heart-of-gold story unbelievable from the get-go.  Did Ani (BAFTA and Independent Spirit award winner Mikey Madison) really believe she could make a life with the brainless Ivan?  Did she really think his ultra-wealthy family would accept her?  Was she honestly offended when people called her a hooker?  I recently re-watched Anora and this second viewing confirmed my initial reaction.  Perhaps it is time to retire the story of the compassionate sex worker:  Claire Trevor in Stagecoach (1939), Melina Mercouri in Never on Sunday (1960), Shirley MacLaine in Irma la Douce (1963), Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990).  It’s been done, and much better.

    [Editor's note: for an alternative perspective on Anora, compare Len's glowing review from last October.] 

A quick word on the other Oscar nominees that, while worth seeing, do not appear on my year end list:

Conclave   A handsomely staged, well-acted story of the horse trading that goes on behind the scenes when the cardinals gather to pick a new pope.  I loved this movie until the last 20 minutes.  No spoiler alert here because I’m not telling, but I felt the film went a bit off the rails at the end.  But still well worth seeing.     [Len Weiler's Review]

Wicked   I did not participate in the craze that accompanied Wicked on Broadway, so did not go into the film with the songs ringing in my head.  I must say I was a bit disappointed, as I found the songs not particularly memorable.  Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo are fine as the protagonists and the movie’s production values are suitably lavish, but I found the film tried just a bit too hard.  What shou
ld have been a light and airy soufflé instead felt just a bit on the heavy side after consumption.   

The Substance   This one creatively addresses Hollywood’s relentless pursuit of beauty and youth in women.  And maybe not just in Hollywood.  But what begins as an amusing cautionary tale turns into full-on horror in the end (think 1986’s The Fly, with Jeff Goldblum).  I very much liked this movie until the final 20 minutes when, for me, it jumped the shark.

Nickel Boys   Director RaMell Ross (winner of the Director’s Guild Award for first-time directors) has turned Colson Whitehead’s bestselling novel into a very creative film.  The story, about the oppressive and unrelenting injustice and cruelty of a juvenile facility housing mainly African-American boys and young men in the Deep South, is told mostly in point-of-view shots, as if one of the boys in the group is also holding the camera.  This brings us right into the action but at times makes the exposition vague.  But this is an important story, well told. 

Dune, Part Two   In another universe, this would be the odds-on favorite for the top prize.  Nuanced yet epic, terrific performances, addressing gigantic themes in a wholly-imagined fantasy world, there is really nothing bad to say about this movie.  I know science fiction is not really everyone’s bag, but this one is so good, it threatens to transcend the genre.  Caveat:  One should probably see Part One before seeing Part Two.

Studios usually hold back their most worthy films until the second half of a given calendar year, trying to maximize their golden statuette potential, which can lead to increased sales, profits, and fame.  It is no surprise, then, that most entries on my Half-Oscars™ list have been surpassed by year’s end.  To remind readers, here is my list of the top ten movies released in the first half of 2024:

1.  Civil War
2.  Origin
3.  One Life
4.  The Old Oak
5.  Wicked Little Letters
6.  Dune, Part Two
7.  Hit Man
8.  The Golden Years
9.  Bob Marley: One Love
10.  Driving Madeleine

As noted below, three of these movies showed staying power in my mind.  Before getting to my Top Ten, here are three more notable second-half films that just missed my top ten list:  

The Brutalist (still in theaters as of this writing) is so admirable, so sweeping, so, well, long.  Admirable, inasmuch as it was shot in VistaVision, a widescreen, analog film technology.  [Notable VistaVision films include The Ten Commandments (1956), Houseboat (1958), Vertigo (1958), and North By Northwest (1959)).]  Sweeping, in that old school, historical epic movie sort of way.  [Think Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Out of Africa (1985), The English Patient (1996), The Deer Hunter (1978) - all Best Picture Oscar winners.]  And yes, long:  3 hours and 34 minutes, with a 15-minute intermission.  (That The Brutalist is nominated for an Oscar for its film editing is amusing.  Did they edit it down from a 12-hour movie?)  Its length is all anyone seems to want to say about the movie, and that’s a shame; it’s like describing Wilt Chamberlain and focusing on his claim of having slept with 20,000 women without discussing his unmatched accomplishments as a basketball player.  Moreover, contrary to what many seem to think, the movie’s length is not disqualifying.  Gone with the Wind (1939) was 3 hours and 54 minutes long.  Lawrence of Arabia (1962), 3 hours, 47 minutes.  Ben Hur (1960), 3 hours, 43 minutes.  All took home the big award on Oscar night.  Think those are historical relics of a bygone era?  The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won Best Picture in 2004, and was 3 hours, 21 minutes long.  I recommend you block out some time and treat yourself to an old-fashioned good time at the movies.

A Real Pain (Hulu, Prime rental) is in some ways the polar opposite of The Brutalist.  Clocking in at a brief 90 minutes, the film is about two very different cousins, so close in age they seem like brothers.  Once very close, their adult lives have diverged dramatically and they have grown apart.  After their beloved grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, passes away, they attempt to bridge the distance grown-up life has imposed on them by joining a tour visiting the Majdanek concentration/death camp.  Despite this background of great sorrow, the movie is sometimes funny, at times outrageous, and you will be touched by the end.  Also, your bottom will not be as sore as it will be after 214 minutes of Adrien Brody in The Brutalist.    

Even if, like me, the older you get, the less the coming-of-age genre of movies interests you, 2024’s My Old Ass (Prime) may change your mind.  The movie gives a nice twist to the coming-of-age genre, and boasts great performances by Audrey Plaza and Maisy Stella, who recently (and deservedly) won the Critics Choice Awards for Best Young Actor/Actress.  Stella plays a teenager named Elliott who tries some psychedelic mushrooms and sees her older, 39-year-old self, played by Aubry Plaza.  This one is full of surprises and feels different from your run-of-the-mill, coming-of-age story.        

All three movies are well worth your time and just barely missed making my top ten list.  But ten is ten, so here are my top ten movies of the year:

My Top Ten

10.  September 5  (available soon)  I think anyone who was at least 10 years old in 1972 will find this one fascinating, for who among us oldsters could forget the terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.  We all followed it on our little TVs, often black and white ones, but now comes the behind-the-scenes look at how ABC Sports covered the attack, pivoting from covering sports to news with their video and transmission equipment seemingly from the Stone Age.  The story plays like an out-and-out thriller, although of course none of the camera operators or sound technicians were ever in any danger.  (OK, reporter Peter Jennings was pretty close to the danger zone.)  And like in so many movies about historical events, we know the outcome from the start, but it’s the journey that is so fascinating.   

9.  Exhibiting Forgiveness (Prime rental)   Trauma can lead to great art, but that is sometimes little solace to the person who experienced the trauma.  When one has been emotionally wounded by a loved one, should we assume that forgiveness is always possible?  People often have complicated, messy lives, and although we know that only those without sin should throw stones, is that really realistic?  And aside from the family drama, this movie shows something that is notoriously hard to portray:  an artist’s creative process.  I saw this in the theater and although it does not show up on anyone’s top ten list, ignore Hollywood’s publicity machine and remember that only dead fish always swim with the current.  Fascinating and moving.  

8.  Emilia Pérez (Netflix)   So a few Islamophobic and racist tweets in a movie star’s past Twitter account pop up, and a movie’s Oscar chances go down the toilet.  Well, for the movie’s lead actress, anyway.  But it would be a shame for the entire movie, and Zoe Sandaña’s performance, to be flushed as well.  I mean, people still go see Mel Gibson movies, despite his being a virulent and violent antisemite.  (Google it.)  Or see Mark Wahlberg’s movies despite his previous raced-based assault on an Asian-American.  (Ditto.)  So perhaps we should cut Karla Sofia Gascón some slack: as a transexual, we can assume she has experienced her share of focused hate and marginalization.  But her personal journey, whatever it was, doesn’t really detract from the creative audacity of French director Jacques Audiard’s movie about a Mexican cartel boss who wishes to escape his violent past and transition into a woman.  But although you can take the boy out of the country, can you take the country out of the boy (even if he is now a girl)?  Can she really escape her violent past?  The seemingly gritty tale is told in Spanish, complete with splashy musical numbers and dance routines that sometimes recall Busby Berkeley from Hollywood’s misty, long-ago past.  Up until those tweets surfaced, Emilia Pérez was the odds-on favorite for the Best Picture Oscar.  It still easily makes my Top Ten for 2024.

7.  Origin (Hulu, Prime rental)  If one could be shielded from the hum of the Hollywood publicity machine, it would be easy to see that many worthy films get no publicity, no buzz, no push, and are just quietly released and then predictably fall through the proverbial cracks.  Here is one.  Director Ava DuVernay has crafted an unusual movie with a compelling premise: that when one group in society disadvantages another group, it is less helpful to think of it as racism and better understood as the maintenance of a caste system.  But whether or not you are convinced by the intriguing argument, the movie—based loosely on the best-selling book by Isabel Wilkerson—is a wonderful, explanatory narrative/documentary hybrid, weaving together stories of Wilkerson’s personal stories of loss, the treatment of African-Americans in America’s Deep South during the Jim Crow Era, the treatment of Jews in Nazi Germany, and finally the Dalits (so-called “untouchables”) in India.  Along the way, there are small but great performances by Jon Bernthal, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman (in a MAGA hat!), Niecy Nash, Vera Farmiga, and others. Although this movie was released in January 2024, it is well worth a look.

6.  One Life (Paramount+, Prime rental)   This was the only movie that activated my tear ducts so perhaps it should be #1 on my list.  It’s a shame the film came out so early in the year (I saw it in May), for Anthony Hopkins would surely have been considered for his seventh Oscar nomination and third Oscar win had the studio opted for a Thanksgiving or Christmas release.  This holdover from my Half-Oscars™ list survives the onslaught of late-season Oscar bait by relating the true story of a single, otherwise unremarkable person, and the profound and continuing effect he had on the lives of complete strangers.  At a time when the world is turning meaner, and the national ethos is trending towards the idea of “Every Man for Himself,” to see someone wholly reject that idea is emotionally satisfying.

5.  The Goldman Case (Prime rental)   This movie had only a limited theatrical run but deserved so much more.  I love a good courtroom drama (Absence of Malice, A Few Good Men, even, or especially, My Cousin Vinny), and it’s really interesting to see how a foreign courtroom works (see, e.g., last year’s Anatomy of a Fall).  This one has the additional spice of being based on a true story.  In our current political climate, where the radical actors all seem to be white nationalists and neo-fascists, it’s easy to forget that not so long ago, radicals from the other side of the political spectrum dominated the news.  Pierre Goldman, the son of Polish Jews who fought in the Polish Resistance, was a radical communist who refused compulsory military service in France, traveled to Cuba to hear Castro speak, and later fought with guerillas in Venezuela.  Back in France, he committed three robberies to raise money for his cause but was apprehended and convicted of those crimes, which he did not deny.  He was also tried for two murders committed during a robbery of a pharmacy, crimes he vehemently denied committing.  
This movie is the story of his trial for those murders and shows Goldman as an intense and articulate advocate for himself and for his version of social justice. 

4.  I’m Still Here  (still in theaters)  We in America have had access to some very good movies about the military dictatorships in Argentina (Argentina 1985 (2002, Prime), The Secret in Their Eyes (2009, Prime rental)), and Chile (Chile ’76 (2022, Prime rental), The House of the Spirits (1993, Prime rental), Missing (1982, but not available*).  But until now, not about Brazil.  Director Walter Salles, who as a boy knew the family that forms the heart of this movie, said that he could not have made this movie until the present day due to the past political climate in Brazil.  I assume he means under the presidency of President Jair Bolsonaro, a favorite of Donald Trump.  That newfound freedom of speech in Brazil is itself a reason to rejoice, even if the movie were not very good.  But it is good.  Very good.  The portrayal of life in the 1970s, with its fashions, haircuts, faded photographs and grainy home movies, was impressive and immersive.  The seeming ease with which director Salles conveys the emotional closeness of parents and their children, relying on the small moments they share, rings true and suggests the director is personally familiar with such relationships.  Fernanda Torres, recently the Golden Globe winner for Best Actress in a drama, is touching, empathetic, yet forceful as the matriarch of a family who suffers an unimaginable loss.  She provides a master class in moving on with one’s life while never forgetting the past.  Her mother, Fernanda Montenegro, was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her work in 1998’s Central Station (also directed by Walter Salles) and makes a brief but moving appearance near the end of the film.   [Len Weiler's Review]

* Side note:  Missing was directed by world cinema master Costa-Gavras (Z (1969), a 2-time Oscar winning movie), starred Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, and was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar in a time when the Academy nominated only five movies a year for the honor.  (The other nominees that year were Gandhi (the winner), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Tootsie, and The Verdict.  Other movies released that year were Das Boot, My Favorite Year, Victor/Victoria, An Officer and a Gentleman, Blade Runner, and Sophie’s Choice.  It was a very good year.)  Missing was also nominated for Best Actor (Jack Lemmon), and won an Oscar for its screenplay.  It is a tragedy that this movie is not available to stream anywhere.  It makes me long for a Blockbuster video store.   

3.  Seed of the Sacred Fig (still in theaters) This is a remarkable movie, especially when you consider that it was filmed in secret in Iran.  People associated with the film are now being persecuted in their home country for their participation in the filming, although director Mohammad Rasoulof successfully fled Iran after learning he would be taken into custody for his “criminal convictions,” connected to his previous films and activism, and would be required to serve 8 years in prison.  The movie, in Farsi, but submitted by Germany for consideration for the International Feature Film Oscar, is an indictment of the Islamic Revolutionary Court that sentenced Rasoulof, showing how the court is the target of dissatisfaction and destabilization in Iranian society, and how regular people keep the government’s oppression machine chugging along by just continuing to do their job.  In this case, the regular person is a low-level judge who continues to make rulings he assumes the government wants instead of independently dispensing justice.  Consequences for his actions appear not at work but in the bosom of his once-loving family, completely unbalancing his life and mind.  Recommended.    

2.  Civil War (Max, Prime rental)   This was a tough movie to watch when it was released in April; 2024 but has acquired new resonance with the election of Donald Trump.  It asks a pertinent question:  How should we react if a president doesn’t leave office, violently suppresses civil dissent, co-opts the Department of Justice, the judiciary, and the U.S. Military?  How would you react?  In this amazing (and, hopefully, not prescient) movie, director Alex Garland (Men, Annihilation, Ex Machina) gives us an idea of what our world would look like in those circumstances.  Many of the critical background facts of the story are revealed only obliquely or even not at all; this aspect of the movie has led to some criticism of it by commenters.  Yes, we don’t really know why California and Texas seceded from the United States and joined together to form an army called The Western Forces to fight the rest of the country.  But I reject the criticism and maintain that it is enough to learn our country is at war with itself.  Instead of focusing on the cause of the rift, the story instead zeroes in on Lee (Kirsten Dunst), a war photographer, and Joel (Wagner Moura), a journalist, as they attempt to make their way from New York City to Washington D.C. to interview and photograph the President (Nick Offerman), who we learn is in his “third term.”  (Sound familiar?)  The Interstate 95 corridor has been decimated by war, requiring the duo to detour into Pennsylvania and West Virginia, where they get an up close and personal look at how the civil war has affected people in the country.  But as we all found out in other times of disaster and unrest, the beast that lives inside many of us can easily escape if we are not diligent in maintaining respect for all people and do the hard work to ensure peace and prosperity in our country.  Witness Hurricane Katrina.  The Watts Riots.  Kent State.  Central High School in Little Rock.  And more recently, Charlottesville.  And January 6th at the Capitol.  This movie is sometimes hard to watch, contains violence of a very real sort (i.e., not cartoon or superhero violence), but is important and fascinating.  And despite its failure to appear on many other Top Ten lists, I believe it is destined to become a classic.  I hope it is not for the wrong reasons.    [Len Weiler's Review]

1.  A Complete Unknown (still in theaters)   This movie is far and away the most popular movie in my age group, and I admit age may have something to do with that.  Many of us remember when Bob Dylan went electric!  But be that as it may, the movie beautifully portrays the pivotal early years of one of the most important musicians in American history. Director James Mangold (Walk the Line, Ford v. Ferrari, Logan) does a wonderful job recreating the look of the early 1960s in lower Manhattan, as well as the innocence of the early folk music scene that flourished there.  Portraying real-life people in the movies can be difficult:  do you mimic the real person, or try and capture their essence?  Actor Timothée Chalamet does both; he looks and sounds like Dylan, but we also feel his ambivalence with fame, his emotional discomfort in social situations, and his grating unhappiness with those who would put limits on his creativity.  Edward Norton, who is good in every movie he is in (see American History X (1998), Fight Club (1999), The Score (2001), 25th Hour (2002), The Italian Job (2003), The Illusionist (2006), The Painted Veil (2006) The Bourne Legacy (2012), any number of Wes Anderson movies), continues to impress with his portrayal of Pete Seeger.  Newcomer Monica Barbaro (from Mill Valley!) is terrific as Joan Baez, and pretty much everyone else in the movie is spot on.  This movie captures my top spot because I cannot think of a movie that enjoyed more.  Go see A Complete Unknown!         [Len Weiler's Review]

A Few Overlooked Films

And speaking of complete unknowns, here are three fairly unknown movies that I quite liked:  

Knox Goes Away (2024, Max) According to the World Health Organization, there are 55 million people in the world suffering from dementia, and there are 10 million new cases every year.  Sooner or later, the condition will—statistically speaking—affect a working hit man.  That idea is this movie.  Handled with nuance and skill by director and principal star Michael Keaton, this is a twisty, clever little movie with a satisfying ending.

Marguerite’s Theorem (2023, Prime rental)  There are now enough movies about mathematical geniuses and how the world is unkind to them that I suppose it is now a trope.  (A Beautiful Mind (2001, John Nash), The Imitation Game (2014, Alan Turing), The Theory of Everything (2014, Stephen Hawking).)  Here’s a fetching one about a fictional mathematical genius who makes a critical error in an important proof, has her world fall down all around her, and how she tries to claw her way back to respectability in academia.  (Spoiler alert:  playing mah jong is part of that journey.)  Interesting and entertaining, and a great performance by newcomer Ella Rumph, who won several “best new actress” awards in film festivals across Europe.

Lee (2024, Hulu, Prime rental)    This one came and went in theaters with dismaying quickness.  That’s hard to understand, as it told a compelling true story—about the life of former fashion model-turned-war photographer Lee Miller—and starred Oscar-winner Kate Winslet (The Reader (2008)), in her finest work of late.  And that is saying something, as she has an impressive 7 Oscar nominations next to her name.  She is ably supported by comedic actor (and Berkeley High grad!) Andy Samberg in a rare dramatic role, Oscar winner Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose (2008)), and Oscar nominee Andrea Riseborough (To Leslie (2022)).

I’m Still Here [original title: Ainda Estou Aqui] (2024): Don’t Give Up

by Len Weiler

The new Brazilian film I’m Still Here is a tremendous hit in Brazil, where it opened three months ago. It is a beautifully made, deeply resonant movie that relates a sad, poignant and ultimately uplifting true story. The movie features memorable performances all around, and most particularly that of its star, Fernanda Torres, who just recently won the 2025 Golden Globe award for Best Female Actress in a drama and is increasingly being mentioned as a possible nominee for best actress at the upcoming 97th Academy Awards. The film itself, I’m Still Here, is Brazil’s entry in the Best Int’l Feature category for the upcoming 97th Academy Awards;  it has been shortlisted [top15 candidates out of 85 films submitted] and is considered likely to be one of the final five nominees to be announced on January 23rd. Not only is this a wonderful, engaging movie, it also happens to be a quite timely, relevant one - a cautionary tale for those concerned about the fate of democratic governments around the world and especially in Brazil itself. [1/23/2025 update: The final Academy Awards nominees have just been announced. Torres HAS been nominated for the best actress Oscar; and I’m Still Here has been nominated in two categories: for best movie of the year and for best international film.]

Background: As you may recall, in 1964, a coup d’état replaced Brazil’s elected civilian government with a military dictatorship [the “Junta”] that ruled the country for over two decades, bringing with it a period of harsh repression for anyone who opposed its rule or its policies. The Junta censored all media and arrested, tortured and frequently killed and “disappeared” perceived dissidents. It was not until 1985 that a civil government was restored. More recently however, despite having deposed their right-wing, Junta admiring, President Jair Bolsonaro a couple years ago - via a democratic election in October 2022 - many in Brazil still fear a resurgent anti-democracy movement there. With good reason: Bolsonaro has never conceded defeat and shortly after he lost the election, his supporters stormed the national government’s headquarters in Brasilia, seeking to  instigate a new military coup d’état to return him to power. They failed.  Just a few months ago, federal police arrested a group of supporters for plotting to kill his successor, then President-elect Lula, just a few days before his Lula's inauguration. Around the same time  Bolsonaro and thirty-six cronies were arrested for plotting the attempted 2022 coup, following a two-year investigation. 

The good news is that more than 3 million Brazilians (and counting) had seen I’m Still Here as of the end of 2024. And Brazilian social media is buzzing with appreciation for the movie and its depiction of what it was like during the Junta period; it is seen as a needed tonic against fuzzy memories and an ongoing disinformation campaign that suggests times weren’t so bad and actually were pretty good under the dictatorship. 

As I’ve noted, I’m Still Here is a true story - about a prominent family, who became victims of the Junta’s violent repression. It is based on a memoir, also titled Ainda Estou Aqui (I’m Still Here), published in 2015 by the popular and prolific Brazilian author Marcelo Paiva.  Marcello was one of five children of Rubens and Eunice Paiva. He was 11 at the time the movie’s story begins. His four sisters - Vera (“Veroca”), Eliana, Ana Lucia (“Nalu”), and Beatriz (“Babiu”) - ranged in age from 17 to 10. Marcelo decided to write about his family’s history when his mother was in her eighties and losing her memory. The story in the book and the film is told as an intimate portrayal of the Paiva family, largely from her point of view.  

I’m Still Here opens during the Christmas season in late 1970. The Paivas live in a lovely house situated on Ipanema beach in Rio di Janeiro. Rubens (Selton Mello), the father, is an engineer. He had been an activist in labor causes and an elected member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies before he was removed when the Junta came to power. Since then, Rubens has been prudently apolitical, although still socially connected with liberal friends. Eunice (Fernanda Torres)  is a cosmopolitan woman with a lifelong love of reading and literature, with several esteemed novelists and other writers in her social circle.  She is also a loving, devoted mother to her large family. After eighteen years of marriage, it’s obvious that Rubens and Eunice remain very much in love.  

The kids and some friends are having fun, playing volleyball on the beach. Eventually they return to the house, where, in addition to their parents, other family members are present, and dinner preparations are under way. There’s a lot of talking, both earnest and jolly. Much of the movie’s first act takes place at the Paivas' home, a welcoming place where friends liked to gather. As a teen, the director of I’m Still Here was friendly with the Paiva kids and spent a lot of enjoyable time there. He remembers it as “a house where the doors and windows were always open, where different age groups mingled – remarkable in a country under dictatorship. For the adolescent I was, this contrast was striking.”  One can feel his affection for the family and their place in the way the home is portrayed in the film.  It’s a vision that serves, too, as a striking contrast to the subsequent events in the family’s story.  

That director is Walter Salles, whose acclaimed prior work includes  Central Station (1998) - nominated for two Oscars, [Best International Film and Best Actress], winner of the top prize at the prestigious Berlin Int’l Film Festival  as well as numerous other accolades - and The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), nominated for scores of international  honors, winning awards for best picture or best international film at BAFTA, Cannes, San Sebastian, and other festivals.  I’m Still Here is Salles’s first new feature film in a dozen years and is, for me, at least as excellent as those two earlier works.  Currently, it’s shortlisted [top15 candidates out of 85 submitted films] for the Oscars’ "Best International Film" award – with the final five nominees (this movie is considered a top candidate) to be announced on January 23rd. 

The idyllic family life of the Paiva family is violently upended on January 20, 1971, when a platoon of six armed men suddenly arrive at their home and demand that Rubens come with them at once for a “deposition”.  There’s clearly no way to refuse, so he goes off with two of them, promising to be back as soon as possible.  The other four men stay at the home with Eunice and the five kids, effectively guarding them, although claiming this is standard procedure.  A couple days later, Eunice and Eliana are taken into custody, again without any prior notice. A frantic Eunice pleads with them not to take Eliana, but her pleas are unavailing. Mother and daughter are taken to the headquarters of the Junta’s secret police, and separated. Eunice is imprisoned and interrogated for twelve days. Questions about her daughter’s fate and the situation of the rest of her family are ignored. Instead, she is asked repeatedly to name left-wing “terrorists. Only upon her release does she learn that Eliana and her other children are okay. They receive no information about Rubens, however.  They will never see him again.

The rest of I’m Still Here is about the aftermath. How Eunice tries to hold things together, care for the family, retain some hope for Rubens return, and press the authorities for answers. It‘s the story of her remarkable perseverance and resilience. And of how she eventually reinvents herself, moving the family back to her hometown of Sao Paolo, continuing to care for the children as a single parent, enrolling in law school, and all the while leading the fight for release of information about Rubens and others like him, then, as a lawyer, advocating for the poor.  

It is an exceptional story about an extraordinary woman, a true heroine. It’s told without mawkish sentimentality or overdone melodrama, because the truth needs no exaggeration. It is heartrending and deeply affecting enough.  Surprisingly, what could have been a deeply depressing account winds up being an inspiring one – a story of perseverance as resistance … and triumph.  I’m Still Here works as cinema because of the talents of  Walter Salles and his team, and especially because of the thoroughly credible, deeply committed, brilliant performance of its lead performer, Fernanda Torres. I can’t say enough good things about her. Like how she portrays and evinces so many emotions, often several at once - romantic love, maternal love, longing, worry, anger, fear, determination, relief, joy, pride, pain, grief and more: wit, intelligence, restraint, compassion.  She makes this very demanding role seems so effortless. 

There’s more – for which Torres doesn’t get the credit. But her mother does. That would be Fernanda Montenegro, who plays Eunice in her late eighties near the end of the picture, at a 2014 family reunion. The character has had Alzheimer’s for a decade at this point and does not participate much in the festivities – but there’s a part of Eunice still in evidence – the pride with which she holds herself and the way her eyes react when she recognizes a photograph of Rubens in a TV report.  Montenegro is a much-lauded actress in her own right, at one time referred to as “The First Lady of Brazilian Theater”.  Perhaps her most famous role was in Salles’s Central Station for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, along with numerous other awards.

Speaking of the awards circuit, things seem to be picking up for I’m Still Here. At the Venice Film Festival in August it won the coveted SIGNIS award (see below); then in October it won the Audience Award for Global Cinema at the Mill Valley FF; and just a week ago it picked up the award for Best Foreign Language Feature at the Palm Springs Int’l Film Festival.  I’ve mentioned that Torres just won the 2025 Best Actress award at the Golden Globes. We’ll know within a couple days whether she gets nominated in the same category at the Academy Awards, as she ought to be. [1/23/25 update: As noted above, Torres has been nominated for the best actress; and this movie has been nominated for best picture and for best international film of the year.]

I want to end by quoting from the citation accompanying the SIGNIS award in Venice, given for the movie’s “profound portrayal of resilience, heartbreak and civil commitment.”

Salles transforms a cry of denunciation into a song of hope. … Eunice’s resilience and her refusal to be silenced become a beacon not just for Brazil but for all nations grappling with the legacy of authoritarianism.

 [T]he film is a historical recounting and a powerful commentary on the present. With global democracy increasingly at risk, the film serves as a reminder of the fragility of freedom and the importance of standing up against oppression, even in the face of overwhelming odds.

Amen.

2 hours 16 minutes

Grade: A

Currently being rolled out to theaters in select cities. Currently showing in New York City, L.A., Chicago, and a few other cities. In Northern CA, I’m Still Here opens 1/24/25 at the AMC Kabuki in SF, and Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael; 1/31/25 at Rialto Elmwood in Berkeley and the Orinda Theater;  2/7/25 in Davis, Sacramento, San Jose, Santa Clara, and Sebastopol.   Check HERE  to find opening dates and theaters near you.  

The Room Next Door (2024): Just Being There

The Room Next Door is Pedro Almodóvar’s first feature film in English. It also may be his simplest film in terms of plot, with very few characters, and thus very little of the interweaving of individual histories and personal crises that characterize most of his recent movies. More traditionally for him, it’s about two women, starring Oscar-winners Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore as close friends from way back, reconnecting for an epic personal journey. Moore plays Ingrid, a successful autofiction novelist; Swinton is Martha, a renowned war reporter for the NY Times. 

Those who’ve followed my writing here in Notes on Films know my reverence for Almodóvar, one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. While The Room Next Door  is not your typical Almodóvar story, there’s no mistaking his imprint when it comes to the stunning look of this film. The colors and color combinations - the women’s clothing, the art on the walls, the furniture, even the actresses’ lipstick choices all earn an impressive WOW!  It is a resplendent visual mis en scene typical of Almodóvar’s recent work and clearly  attributable to the auteur himself, as neither his cinematographer, Eduard Grau, nor his art director, Gabriel Liste. had ever worked with him before. 

Ingrid and Martha haven’t seen one another for several years and have lost touch during that time.  When Ingrid hears from a mutual friend that Martha is been ill and is in hospital with cancer, she rushes to the hospital to see her. Martha is happy to see her old friend, and the two easily renew their old friendship. Martha explains that her cancer is inoperable, but there’s a new experimental treatment that her physician believes to be quite promising. Initially, she’s cautiously hopeful, but it’s a hope tempered with skepticism.  

Not long after, it turns out her skepticism was warranted. Martha desperately fears what comes next: not
death itself; she has prepared herself for that working in war zones throughout her career. It is the forfeit of personal integrity, the loss of agency over her body that terrifies her, becoming subject to a system dedicated to keeping her alive for as long as possible, despite what she expects will be an increasingly degrading physical and mental degeneration, and regardless of her wishes. 

Martha cannot and will not tolerate that. Instead, she has an alternative plan: to end her life on her own terms. While she has an adult daughter, they’ve been estranged for years. She has no husband, no other family. But making the arrangements is not a problem, she tells Ingrid; she can do that herself, she’s already started.  Where she needs help is that she doesn’t want to die alone; she wants a friend to be with her. Not to administer the lethal drug, nor to sit at her bedside holding her hand. But to accompany her in her last days, to ease her soul, so to speak (not that she speaks in those terms). As she explains to Ingrid, whom she asks to be that someone, she would just like to know there’s someone in the room next door.

Even so, what a thing to ask! As the first portion of the film comes to a close, Ingrid – who has a just written a book about her own fear of death - struggles to decide if she can agree. Eventually (as you’d suppose - there would not be a movie otherwise), she does. 

Martha has rented a beautiful, luxurious, isolated home in the woods near Woodstock, NY.  where the rest of the story plays out. Ingrid accompanies her there.  The second act of the movie is about that how that experience works out for both. It’s a time of long conversations, during which the two women discuss everything under the sun – homing in on their personal histories and in Martha’s case her regrets. A couple of subsidiary plots are introduced, although they don’t amount to much.  

One relates to Martha’s daughter, Michelle. Martha acknowledges being an emotionally distant mother during Michelle’s youth; as well as physically distant much of the time, due to her frequent and often extended, work-related travels. Despite Michelle’s persistent questioning, Martha never told her about her father, and this withholding became a major issue leading to her alienation. She does, however, relate the story to Ingrid, which Almodovar presents as a sort-of flashback.  

Another subsidiary plot is a source of amusement to the two women: back when both were working for the same magazine, Martha and Ingrid each had affairs with the same guy, Damian (John Turturro), although not at the same time. Ingrid is still friends with Damian, though they have not been lovers for ages. Whatever Damian used to do for a living, nowadays he seems to be some sort of public intellectual. Why is he in the film? Because Damian holds such a despairingly gloomy, unshakably critical view of humanity. He is one of those folks who would never bring a child into the world because people have fucked it up so irretrievably, what with environmental degradation and climate change. Almodóvar, despite making a film about facing death, presents a more optimistic view - represented by Ingrid’s compassion and humanity.

A key theme of The Room Next Door is the human capacity for empathy and compassion toward others. Almodóvar extolls this:  “Providing company …  simply being there, in pain and in pleasure … is a quality superior to the great feelings such as love, friendship, or brotherhood. Being there, with silent, supportive, human understanding, is at times the most we can do for other people. … The Room Next Door shows a character, Ingrid, who learns to fully be alongside Martha.” 

Ingrid’s determination to be there with Martha is not easy, nor is it a mere favor or a simple act of fellowship. It is a mitzvah – allowing Martha to face death not alone but with a companion who cares, is a comfort and a witness, a friend who honors her choice and her humanity.  Like other acts of compassion, this has its rewards for Ingrid as well. She learns more about herself than she might have expected - about courage, fidelity, character, and the beauty of life.  For Ingrid, the way Martha approaches her mortality becomes a life affirming experience.   

So, a related motif in The Room Next Door is an exploration of true friendship.  Says Almodóvar, “This is the process about which the film talks, the friendship regained by the two women, which is sublimated into an emotion similar to love, but without love’s inconveniences, during the weeks they share in the House in the Woods - a place, like a limbo, that lies between real existence and the beyond.”

 These meditations on the right to die, the value of empathy and the special qualities of friendship are part of what makes The Room Next Door interesting and worth visiting. But unfortunately, the single-mindedness of his pedagogic approach to the material also lessens the movie’s appeal. Much of Martha’s story is told to us by Martha herself via long soliloquies about her relationship with Michelle, about the path of her medical treatment, about her reasons for preferring suicide to the alternatives, and so on. This is, of course,  a violation of a prime rule of fiction, most particularly in theater and cinema: Show us, don’t tell us. A related problem is the way that Martha tells us her story, the language that she uses. While straightforward, her speeches are unduly prosaic, lifeless, inelegant. Swinton is a fabulous actress and surely does her best, but more often than not can’t find the life in the words she has been given. Moore fares better, because her role is more reactive – listening, asking questions, and responding – often non-verbally.

It's hard know to what degree Almodóvar’s script, an adaptation of the novel What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez, suffered from the fact that it’s his first in English, but I suspect that’s a big part of the problem. The bottom line is that The Room Next Door is not one the maestro’s best pictures.  In fact, looking back at the thirteen  feature films Almodóvar has written and directed over the past thirty years, I’d have to rate it near the bottom, certainly deeper and prettier than I’m So Excited (2013), but no more entertaining. One must keep in mind, that I’m comparing The Room Next Door to other  Almodóvar films, most of which are quite exceptional.  This one is certainly worth watching, for it’s delving into interesting themes, for its stunning visual beauty, and for the chance to see two great actresses at work – especially Julianne Moore in this case.

1 hour 47 minutes

Grade B / B-

Beginning a rolling theatrical release over the next several weeks.  In the SF Bay Area, opening today January 10 at The Realto Elmwood (Berkeley), Smith Rafael Film Center (San Rafael), and Alamo Drafthouse (San Francisco); opening January 17 in numerous Northern California theaters, including AMC Metreon in SF and also in Orinda, Emeryville, Pleasant hill, Daly City, Redwood City, Santa Rosa, Davis and Sacramento. Click HERE to find a theater near you.