A documentary about a 53-year old North-Macedonian bee keeper could go a lot of ways so I was completely caught off guard by how much fukkery this movie delivers.
But right when you realize ol' lady reveals she's 53 while looking like she's 85 and her mom who's actually 85 sits in a corner looking like she's 800 years old with literal witch hands, you know you're in for something crazy. Then a Turkish farming nomad family moves in next doors and the fukkery grows even more intense. It almost becomes a disaster film for parents who spoil their kids because those parents don't give a shyt about their kids' health and just boss them around while they get stung by bees and kicked by bulls and whatnot. On one hand it feels like exploitation porn about poor people but at the same time I felt a low-key respect for folks who live their lives this way. They don't have shyt and their lives are hard as fukk but they don't really know better and certainly don't have time to ponder about it. Absolutely must-see!
Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan's new film about two friends who through a series of unexpected circumstances have to reluctantly kiss each other on camera for the art film of one of their friends' sister. The film fades to black and we continue with their lives, as one prepares to move to Australia for two years while the other tries to work his way up in a lawyer firm. But both are overcome with confusing feelings about what happened between them and what they really feel for each other. It's a remarkably restrained film (for Dolan that is) that could've been a bit shorter but does manage to say a lot without having its characters say all that much. But since it also hits a lot of common themes in Dolan's work, you'd probably be better off watching those first explorations of these themes.
Ang Hupa (The Halt) is the new film by minimalist master Lav Diaz. A four and a half hour exploration of a dystopian Philippines set more than ten years in the future where volcanic eruptions have made it so the Asian continent is fully covered in darkness while drones and special forces roam the street. The story shows the (somewhat daily) lives of the megalomaniac dictator of the country, the female leaders of his special forces, a near-blind former band singer turned rebel leader and a former history teacher forced into prostitution. The movie balances political satire and dry wit with a cold, clinical look at how the lives under dictatorship are slowly ripped apart piece by piece. A perfect rainy sunday afternoon film.