Movies reviewed this week: Kimi, King of New York, and Memories of Murder.
2/12/2022: Kimi (2022): ***
Lesser Soderbergh is still Soderbergh and Kimi is taut with great sound design and a quality performance from Zoë Kravitz. I really liked the way Soderbergh amplified the surveillance paranoia of The Conversation, Blow-Up, and so forth. These days, voyeurism and surveillance permeate everything.
But man, what was up with that ending? That’s not how trauma recovery works.
Also I now know how New Yorkers feel when they wonder how the protagonist could afford an apartment like that.
2/12/2022: King of New York (1990): ****
Purity of purpose and technique.
2/13/2022: Memories of Murder (2003): *****
Criterion Challenge 2022
Progress: 7/52
Prompt: Watch a film from the 2000s
Who doesn’t love Bong Joon-ho? So of course I really wanted to see this. I was rewarded with a dark, bitter dose of social criticism: don’t go into this expecting a mystery, and despite common threads this isn’t even Zodiac. Despite great acting (particularly, unsurprisingly, from Song Kang-ho), it’s not about the characters either. Rich and interesting as the cops are, they’re the paintbrushes with which Bong is telling his story.
Based on a true story. Look it up after you’ve seen the movie, because there’s an unexpected coda.
Be First to Comment