Promising Young Woman (2020)

I wanted to write this entry immediately after watching "Promising Young Woman", about a week ago, but unfortunately I didn't have enough time. Not that I have now... But probably if I postpone more I'll forget everything I had in mind. There's not much left anyway...

First of all, I avoided for a while to add the movie in my "to watch list" for two reasons: 1) I don't like Carey Mulligan (and I still believe that her act in "Drive" was a big minus for that movie, although after watching the current one my opinion on her acting skills changed dramatically) and 2) I'm fed up with movies carrying a tag related to some social issue, social movement, whatever, no matter what that might be, and I'm literally struggling lately to avoid productions that don't miss the chance to touch such issues. I'ts hard in such cases to make an objective comment that doesn't get twisted by the context. I said it before - when I watch a movie I want something to get me out of the "current real life", or if not, at least to get my attention for its cinematic value. For everything else there are news, documentaries, and other stuff. Fortunately, despite it's labeling in many reviews with a feminist bias - on which I won't comment, "Promising Young Woman" really has a cinematic value. And that's the main reason to watch it for.

The subject is a "revenge story". And as any "revenge story", since Monte Cristo or even older, it's catchy. Casey is a lonely young woman spending her days at a coffee counter, after dropping out of college years before and giving up to a medical carrer. The reason - an incident where the victim was a good friend, on which incident we don't get precise details in the movie (and that's a nuance we'll get back to). However, you can easily assume a rape during a party that went out of control. The result - the perpetrators getting away with it and the girl committing suicide. The trauma however moves forward, and we get to the present day, when the main nocturnal activity of Casey is playing a role of a vulnerable drunk bait, visiting the city's night clubs, up to the moment when somebody trying to take advantage out of her gets to far and is hit by the shock of dealing with a very lucid woman. Again, we don't get an explicit ending to some scenes like that (the same fine nuance), but you can easily assume that the revenge is soft, keeping it at the level of making the potential aggressors to consider carefully any future attempt like that. The context of the action becomes more complicated when Casey meets a former colleague. The way it complicates, you'll see in the movie...

As I said, I probably forgot most of what I wanted to write when this was fresh in my head. To finish the idea started above, the script is excellent as well as the directing - the fine nuance I mentioned is that throughout the whole movie you might get an uneasy feeling that some Tarantinoesque violence will burst out, but this doesn't happen. There is one exception, for which the contrast makes is very hard to watch (and probably that's the whole point), but despite you might expect, all the rest you'll see is a revenge story that's completely non-violent from start to finish, which stands out in the genre and actually makes it memorable. Carey Mulligan is perfect in her character, or better said she's way different from other bland acts I've seen her in - as I mentioned in the beginning, this completely changed my view on her acting skills. Technically, the movie scores on two accounts - editing, it's been a while since I watched something this good (true, there wasn't much to watch lately) and on soundtrack - I don't refer only to the score, but mostly to the songs/covers selection and the way these are used. There are movies (many by Tarantino, "Drive", "Baby Driver", "Atomic Blonde", "A Simple Favor", and other) where this parts counts at least as 10% of the final feeling. "Promising Young Woman" fits perfectly in the same list.

I'll end up with a spoiler (sort of). The ending here is probably comparable shock-wise with the one in "Uncut Gems" (the difference here being that it gives you a bit of time to digest it - because the story is not over). Unfortunately, as in "Uncut Gems", it's quite bitter - much more bitter actually. In some sense it turns the whole thing into an anti-revenge movie, because in the end you can see it like that. On the other hand an outcome of "let it go" would have cancelled the subject, and something more like "John Wick" style would have been totally unrealistic. I remember though that last year I wrote about "A Good Woman Is Hard to Find", so it's possible to have something in between, but I guess the actual intention is explicitly for an ending bitter enough to not forget it. And a criteria for a good movie, is that you'll remember it :) ...

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Afro Samurai (2007) and his Resurrection (2009)

As probably noticeable I still lack the time for new material so I decided to stop at something that I don't remember when or if I had on my blog = an anime. The difference to the usual anime range is that "Afro Samurai" is not an exclusive Japanese production, all the acting and most of the sound design being made in Hollywood. Probably that's why 10 years ago this mini-series had quite some success, having Samuel L. Jackson as lead on the poster. All the action is centered around a pretty straight-forward revenge story. The context is where the original part comes from: Somewhere in a dystopian future, there are two samurai head-bands - No. 1 and No. 2. The toughest samurai holds the number 1 + something like a "god status" = untouchable = he cannot be challenged by anybody else except number 2. Number 2, however, can be challenged by anybody who would like to become number 2, meaning that his life is mostly about fight, more fight and even more fight until he manages to get to number 1, if he lasts that long (because obviously neither number 1 nor number 2 are really the persons to find in a phone book). Well... the story starts with losing the No. 1 head-band along his own head by the father of the main character. The little Afro wants revenge, and from here a series of flashbacks tell us where he did grow up, where he learned to wield a katana, how he got the number 2 head-band and how many dead bodies he left behind in the process. All these come packed with lots & lots & lots of blood... (too much actually...). Anyway, as I said, the context plus some very original built characters (I didn't mention much about an imaginary alter-ego of Afro who's as talkative as silent the main character is) made "Afro Samurai" a decent anime, which is at least interesting. About his resurrection...

In a typical Hollywood fashion, considering the success the first part in the series had, two years after another anime was released basically repeating the whole story. Meaning that (spoiler alert) Afro also loses the No. 1 head-band (but keeps his head), that being taken by a person showing up from nowhere. The sister of one of his former victims, comes up with a diabolical revenge plan = cloning Afro senior as a sort of mindless cyborg and placing Afro junior in the place of killing his own father to get the number 1 head-band and to put him finally to rest. The bad part in all this story is that's a sort of reheated soup, which starts to get boring immediately after another series of endless fights starts... Either that, or I got old and I don't have the patience I had a while ago (I've watched this relatively recent). Therefore...

Rating: AS - 3 out of 5 ; ASR - 2 out of 5

Sushi Girl (2012)

"Sushi Girl" is a revenge thriller with a common story that brings however an exotic note, mostly present in the title. Less in the movie ...

A guy is freed from jail after spending there several years following a robbery. His welcome party organized by the former gang members, who escaped the police but without the stolen diamonds disappeared without trace, is not a nice one. The reunion is organized by the group leader in a context taken from the Yakuza customs (even though we don't have any Japanese present) = a dinner with sushi served on a nude woman, inert, whose presence is meant to be purely "decorative". It's somehow predictable that the person will get out of her role, and at some point it's sort of obvious why is she there. Which I actually said already when I've placed this in the "revenge thriller" genre...

It's clearly a B movie with a low budget. Unfortunately it tries to compensate that with some excessive violence. Well ... maybe I started to get old and my stress level rejects some scenes, but I really think that if we would have less blood spilled we won't lose anything. In any case, the movie has some good points. On one hand we have Tony Todd as the main villain, a role that he played so often that's even hard to not be a good performance. On the other hand we have "the sushi girl", or more exactly her complete absence until the end, despite the fact she's there. She's so absent that you forget her, which is really what seems to be her official role in the scenes. And that actually helps for building some surprise effect for what's supposed to be "the final twist". Unfortunately not one that's really credible ... but well, it's a movie :) ...

Rating: 3 out of 5

The Gift (2015)

I've noticed lately that the thriller, as genre, tends to get an "endangered species" status looking at the frequency of what's produced. Or at least it's less and less present on the weekly box-office list. I don't remember noticing anything since "Gone Girl" = last Fall. That's why I've seen "The Gift" as a very welcomed "color spot" in the series of action, superhero, comedies = the usual summer entertainment batch.

Long story short: a couple relocates in California where he got a new position in the company with a nice advancement perspective, and she's temporarily picking the role of housewife (+ implicitly gets into a mental recovery period after a pregnancy loss). Everything looks good, except Gordo. Gordo = a former school mate of the husband who apparently wishes to catch up and refresh an old friendship ... a wish which seems a bit one-sided. Where from, why, and where it goes ... see the movie ;)

The film is carried by three actors, doing their job perfectly. Leaving aside that I have a soft spot for Rebecca Hall (re-confirmed after having serious doubts following "Transcendence") I was really surprised to find out that Jason Bateman is not just a semi-average comedy actor. Besides the bad guy role, Joel Edgerton makes here a very promising debut as director + screenwriter. Strictly for this, it reminded me of "Gone Baby Gone", also a thriller that was giving a similar start boost for Ben Affleck as director around 8 years ago. If here it goes as well would be nice to see. The movie has an excellent dosage of drama, tension and violence. It's less and less the case these days when I see a director + the script in this case, who knows exactly where should stop. Most often, either the movie rating limits it too much, or when that's not a problem the shock factor is preferred (which for me at least works probably differently than intended, as for horrors = simply disgust). This movie is R rated, but even so (spoiler) I don't know if I've seen in all more than 5 minutes where we had blood on the screen. Everything is in building the tension, in a way a la Hitchcock ... although the feeling is somehow different. I can't say more ;) again, see the movie ...

Rating: 4+ out of 5

Relatos Salvajes (2014)

The only problem of "Relatos Salvajes" (aka "Wild Tales") is that it's not a movie. It's six of them. A collection of shorts with a shared theme: revenge. Generally expressed directly, maybe with one exception. But even there the payback urge stays close to come out loud ...

The movie starts with an intro of about 10 minutes. Which is not really the intro. Is the first story in the set (the shortest one). And at the same time can be considered a sort of promo: "buy the rest" of "switch the channel". For me was more than enough to sell what follows. I would even say I liked it most out of the six pieces. And without exaggerating, it competes to the title of "best first 10 minutes of a movie I've ever seen". I won't give any spoiler about it or on what's following. Like I said, the topic is revenge, in plenty of forms and approaches: premeditated, spontaneous, favored by context, direct, indirect, ... I think almost everything is covered. Don't expect though something as complex as "Count of Monte-Cristo". We're talking about 6 shorts. Which, given the differences probably can't please in equal measure the viewer. Probably that's the "big" minus, which is obviously complemented by the plus that you'll enjoy at least one or two of the tales.

What was catchy for me in "Relatos Salvajes" is the wittiness of the script that stays consistent throughout the six pieces. Well ... in some cases you might get what follows from half-time onwards, but the ending is usually quite extreme, and you probably won't be able to anticipate it from the start. Besides that, there's also the genre. You won't be able to say what you're watching, but it's not something bad. Is it a drama or a dark comedy? The alternation is so well integrated that's transparent. And to make it more effective, the script is supplemented consistently by the movie making side. The editing is brilliant, and the sound the same. If you plan to see this, watch closely the re-encounter scene in story no. 3 and also don't miss the "highway soundtrack". It's something like a Tarantino scene there. Or in the last story, check out the storm in the back-end seen from the roof. Maybe all these are elements that might escape the eye, but show how careful is all this put together.

As said in the beginning the only problem is that we don't have one movie here, but six. As light spoiler, I did wait up to the end to be given a connecting line between the stories. I didn't get one. Except the common theme. Which, to reference again "Monte Cristo", doesn't seem in the end to have the same appeal here as in the classic approaches. You don't really get to feel very empathic with a character. Probably because every story serves also as cold dish the negative effect of a payback attempt. Or, somehow between the lines, the movie tries to tell you that in real life revenge is not an option :) ...
Rating: 4 out of 5