What to watch on Netflix — Dec 2020

Something if you liked Parasite

The Handmaiden — Park Chan Wook

With all the buzz around Korean cinema after Parasite (it’s about time!) It’s only fair to spotlight the other golden boy of the movement — Park Chan Wook. You may have come across some of his films like such as Joint Security Area, Stoker or Old Boy (the Korean version not the awful Spike Lee remake…) but he really comes to full form with ‘The Handmaiden’, an adaptation of the historical crime novel ‘Fingersmith’ by Sarah Waters. Filmed as a period piece and set in Japanese-occupied Korea, the story follows a con man posing as a Count who gets a poor girl to infiltrate a wealthy family and help him seduce and marry the daughter so that he can steal the family inheritance. The story is split into three parts and has a bit of a subjective Rashomonesque narrative style that really does a good a job at keeping you on your toes. Also the trailer for this film is one of the few times where it manages to get the perfect balance between showing what to expect around style and tone but giving nothing away about the story — check it out and get hyped!

Something thrilling

Upgrade — Leigh Whannell

Before directing this year’s Invisible Man remake — which by the way is bad***. Leigh Whannell gave us this under-the-radar sci fi revenge thriller that features some of the best fight scenes I’ve seen in a movie in a long time. Beginning like most revenge thrillers, Grey Trace (yeah seriously that’s his name…) and his wife are attacked by a gang of thugs resulting in her death and his paralysis. After having his body modified with A.I. by an eccentric billionaire, he sets out to get back at the people who destroyed his life. Think John Wick with a sense of humour and topped off with some Cronenbergian body horror. On the acting front Logan Marshall-Green gives a strong performance particularly with the balletic fight scenes which must have been heavily choreographed but which really give this film a unique touch!

Something with superheroes

Darkman — Sam Raimi

Without Sam Raimi’s cult classic superhero film ‘Darkman’ the Marvel Cinematic Universe might not have come to be what it is today. After the doom and gloom of Tim Burton’s first two Batman film, Warner Brothers lost their valuable tie-in deal with McDonald’s after parents complained that the films were too violent and sexualised for a PG-13 rating. In came Darkman in this period and offered a new approach to superheroes, one where they don’t take themselves to seriously and despite having to fight baddies usually get themselves into goofy slapstick situations. The next two Batman films by Joel Schumacher combined some of Sam Raimi’s campy aesthetic but didn’t stick to the whole formula and only used sidekicks and supporting characters as comic appeal. Only after Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy did Jon Favereau start applying the same effect to other Marvel characters beginning with Tony Stark in Iron Man.

While the approach to tone and characterisation carried through to the MCU, something that is uniquely Sam Raimi and you don’t see as much anymore other is his pulpy visual style that really makes you feel like you are watching a comic book unfold infront of you. His use of the camera achieves an almost cartoonish effect as it dollies in at jarring low angles, uses dutch angles to distort and whip transitions to mimic comic book transitions. I’m not going to give too much away except that Sam Raimi wanted to make The Shadow but couldn’t get the rights so created his own character starring Liam Neeson. Partly influenced by the 1930’s Classic Universal Monsters movies such as The Invisible Man and Phantom of the Opera, he came up with his own vision that shaped superhero forever after.

Instead of posting a lame 90s trailer, check out the Pink Elephant scene.

Something British

Calm with Horses — Nick Rowland

In his feature film directorial debut, Nick Rowlands gives us the story of a washed up Irish boxer “Arm” or Armstrong (Cosmo Jarvis) who struggles to balance his job as the muscle for Dymphna (Barry Keoghan) the scion of an Irish crime family, with his desire to create a meaningful connection with his autistic son. Barry Keoghan is great as usual and shows his range as both this menacing kid you shouldn’t cross, but also as someone with deep affection for his friend. Cosmo Jarvis on the other hand steals the show as the gentle giant who wants to change but realizes he is in too deep and this is all that he knows. Filmed in the eerily beautiful countryside of West Ireland and perfectly scored with a haunting soundtrack by Blanck Mass which together really evoke the central character’s loneliness and struggle to connect with others.

Something anime

Your Name — Makoto Shinkai

As an astroid passes earth, a boy living in Tokyo and a girl living in the countryside have their fates intertwine in one of the most heartfelt anime’s since the heyday of Studio Ghibli. It’s difficult to express the beauty of this film. It manages to combine the wistfulness of an Ozu film with Miyazaki’s sense of youthful adventure and all expressed through highly saturated but mesmerising drawings. The film is reminiscent of a beautiful dream you wake from and try as you might to fall back asleep, you are unable to capture that magic you just saw. So no trailers please. Just flip this one on and start dreaming!

Something everyone IS talking about

40 Year Old Version — Radha Blank

Radha Blank writes, directs and plays herself in this story about a 40 year old black playright from Harlem who hasn’t made anything in a decade and is feeling the pressure to find success as she gets closer to middle age. The film begins with some interviews of people asking them what it’s like turning 40 before switching over to Radha that delivers a delightfully funny yet touching account of her own experiences trying to find success as she moves from encounter to encounter with all her friends who slowly lose patience in her wavering projects.

Filmed in grainy black and white 35mm film and then shifting to colour for brief moments where Radha envisions the execution of her play. The film really gives off a 90s New York vibe which is brought out with the Old School Hip-Hop soundtrack and the Brooklyn style of Spike Lee that comes up from time to time but doesn’t distract from her own hip-hop rooted version. The film deals with big themes such gentrification in Harlem, growing old, dealing with insecurity and most of all what it means to be a 40 year old black woman trying to making it in the creative industry. It’s no wonder that this film won the directing award in the US Dramatic Category at Sundance, it’s bold vision and story are just yearning to be told and Radha shines with this directorial debut.

Something everyone SHOULD be talking about

Aquarius — Kleber Mendonça Filho

This one scored my highest grades back at the BFI film fest in 2016 so I was glad to see that it was finally on Netflix! Directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho and starring the amazing Sônia Braga (Kiss of the Spider Woman) the film takes place in Recife, Brazil and is about a 50-something, widowed, cancer-surviving family matriarch and her struggles against a large real estate developer trying to kick her our of the building. At the same time the film is about so much more, her relations with her family, search for intimacy, class relations in Brazil. To top it all off we get to enjoy what would already be a great film in the exotic locale of Recife and to a tune of a funky 70s brazilian soundtrack (she has a fantastic record collection in the film).

Something Classic

Out of Sight — Steven Soderbergh

J Lo and George Clooney in their prime play cat and mouse in this steamy heist drama about a career bank robber who wants one last score and the US Marshall who wants to stop him. Directed by Steven Soderbergh after a series of box office flops this film helped revitalise his career and really set the stage for the stylistic choices that came to define his directing.

The mixing of genres, funny and engaging characters, cinematography that plays with colour temperature based on setting and uses a voyeuristic perspective (handheld shots / obstructed over the shoulder), an achronological structure and the use of jump cuts for pacing all first become evident in this film.

The film also features one of the steamiest dream sequences and one of the best cut and probably most consensual love scenes in film. This is very much a film about two equals, if not one where the woman has the upper hand which makes it all the more satisfying in the way the love scene is portrayed. Her character is the one who starts the kissing, moves the scene to her hotel room, leads the transition to the bedroom, starts the stripping, and first climbs into bed. Throughout all this, Clooney’s character just follows along, smiling. The use of cross cutting between the hotel bar where they start their conversation and the bedroom afterwards switches the focus from whether they will get together and instead on the slight gestures and subtext behind their scintillating seduction.

Something Funny

Galaxy Quest — Dean Parisot

Most sci fi films these days take themselves too seriously and usually fall flat (cough, cough… Midnight Sky) that’s why it was so refreshing to rewatch this classic spoof on the genre. I completely forgot how many big actors starred in this one. Tim Allen plays the lead of a former Star Trek-like series whose too self-absorbed in his bygone fame to realize he’s a jerk to his co-stars Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Sam Rockwell, Tony Shaloub, and Rainn Wilson (Dwight Shrute from the office in his first on screen appearance). For an older film that heavily relies on VFX it really holds up well and it’s still a great family-friendly comedy to watch over the holidays. At the same time there are some great jabs at the sci fi genre by Sigourney Weaver’s character where she gets angry at the writers for using sexist genre stereotypes such as making her wear a skimpy outfit or making her job on the spaceship to repeat back what the computer says. At the end what really stands out is just how much fun everyone seems to be having making this film and it’s about time that critics have re-appraised this film as a cult classic.

I could keep going but this honest trailer nails it.

Something with zombies

Overlord — Julius Avery

What happens when you mix zombies with Nazis? Well there definitely has to be a flamethrower scene… but for the rest I didn’t know before I saw Overlord, but it was a helluva time! On the eve of D-Day in World War II, a platoon of soldiers is flown behind enemy lines to take out a radio jammer but instead comes across a Nazi lab under a creepy church where they are conducting gruesome experiments. What results is a high stakes race against time, since all of D-Day depends on this one platoon blowing up the radio jammer but now they have to fight their way through superpowered Zombo-Nazis. On top of all that fun there is some great dynamics between the soldiers (although no where near Inglorious Bastards or Dirty Dozen levels) as well as an obligatory love interest with the rebellious local girl (but this one doesn’t get much screen time… the way it probably shouldn’t in a Nazi/Zombie movie) although it does a good job at making us empathise with the protagonist (which these types of films generally don’t do).