Scarlet

 

Another "girl power" anime, probably reflecting powerlessness of women in the Japanese society. Yes, a current Prime Minister of Japan is a woman but Elizabeth I and Katherine II were absolute rulers, yet their position did not signify a feministic streak in 16th century England or in 18th Russia. 

The movie is beautifully done and has a very interesting idea of an afterlife. In the afterlife, people die turning to "nothingness", achieve Paradise on the Gold Mountain, or remain in limbo continuing some version of their previous lives. 

Zootopia 2.

 

A long blue serpent is hardly a credible good guy in the animation intended for children. 

All You Need Is Kill

   

Enticing but totally forgettable anime with stock characters: lonely unrecognized girl with powers and lonely boy with less powers fighting interplanetary/supernatural invader Darol.

Housemaid

     

       This thriller, or maybe horror, is quite true to its genre and is well wrought. Why it was as well as "One battle after another" castigated as a comedy is a mystery. It turns out that MAGA doll Sydney Sweeny can act! And that is without any special education, which suggests that film courses for actresses may be a sham. Seyfried is also very good. There is a slight wrinkle: the villain did not even attempt to use pliers to remove the lock. 

Nuremberg.

       

              The movie on Nuremberg trials could not be anything but formulaic. But the wonderful acting by Rami Malek and, especially, Russel Crowe, despite poorly believable German accent and his unusual facility with the tongue of the Bard. An obvious defect is the Woodall's character who, after five years in America, speaks perfect English without any accent. Kissinger, who was a military translator during the WWII, never got rid -- or wanted to -- get rid of this German accent. 

    Hollywood orthodoxy imposes the judgement in Nuremberg as the story of Shoah. This is wrong -- Nazi atrocities against the Jews had much less significance for the Anglo-Saxon judges, civil servants and politicians among whom there were many anti-Semites. Much more significance for them held "violation of the laws of war", as if any ever existed -- such as murder and enslavement of the POWs, sinking of hospital and refugee ships and the "war of aggression". 

    Obviously, the thrust of the movie was directed against Trump (riding roughshod over the American laws and the Constitution) and Putin, in connection of "the war of aggression" -- no story could be made without him and if Russians did not exist they had to be invented. 

        But, all in all, the movie is better than can be expected given the straightjacket of the American public consciousness. 

      

Bugonia.

      

            A cool movie by Yorgos Lanthimos, probably helped by Ari Aster about an impending apocalypse. The ending is so logical that it is quite expected. Lying woman floating in the air is freely borrowed from Tarkovsky's "Sacrifice". Acting by the "evil witch" Emma Stone, Jesse Plemmons and the novice Aidan Delbis is impeccable. 

One battle after another.

     Inability of PT Anderson to create a normal length feature film probably is influenced by his love for his own cinematic proficiency and refusal to frugally cut his movies.

     This movie is advertised as a comedy-drama. There is nothing comedic in its turgid plot about impending civil war in America. It is positively depressing and after 2 hours 40 minutes of unrelenting angst -- though the latter half is more dynamic -- the viewer comes out as totally wasted. 

    Of course, what is considered a mediocre movie by PTA is unreachable heights for most of the current Hollywood directors.