2026年第1四半期の映画レビューと作品考察

I watched three TV series during the past few months, including a nine episode dramatization of Orhan Pamuk’s The Museum of Innocence. Good novels never completely translate to the screen, but I thought the acting was outstanding. I also enjoyed a 3-part series on the sax player Wayne Shorter and another 3-part series on mannerist art. The latter really needs a good TV screen, as the images are often stunningly beautiful. I’ve also been watching a lot of Youtube videos where Michael Bartlett discusses all sorts of films. He has an excellent three part series on Japanese film, and many other episodes devoted to various directors such as Ozu, Tarkovsky and Lynch. But it’s not all highbrow stuff, he loves westerns and makes a strong case for Sergio Leone being underrated.As far as books, I finally got around to reading classics like Boswell’s Life of Johnson and Woolf’s A Room of Her Own. Surprisingly (at least to me), I much preferred the feminist essay to the World’s Greatest Biography. I might do a post on the Woolf essay. Johnson’s a wonderful guy with lots of witty observations, but his political views are almost unbelievably appalling. On the other hand, he would have been an incredible blogger.This makes me wonder what views I currently hold that will later be viewed as equally evil. I recently heard a discussion of a lawsuit in Texas where prisoners were complaining about a lack of air conditioning. For someone of my generation, those complaints sound silly. But I could imagine that in 100 years my view will be seen as cruel and inhuman. Less clear is whether that means my view is wrong in an absolute sense, or correct for today but wrong for the world of 2126.In fiction, I read Mario Vargas Llosa’s depressing The War at the End of the World and António Lobo Antunes’s even more depressing The Land at the End of the World. In both cases, I respected the books more than I liked them. I also read Knausgaard’s Autumn and then his more recent The School at Night. The latter seems like one of Knausgaard’s best, but I’m not entirely sure how I feel about the protagonist. Is he an accurate portrayal of a self-obsessed male, or an unrealistic caricature? Not knowing anyone that extreme, I’m not certain. In some respects, this novel is more horrifying than anything by Stephen King. I also enjoyed Far North by Marcel Theroux and After the Flood—an excellent set of essays on the most recent 30 years of Dylan’s career by Robert Polito. I did not enjoy Milwaukee Bucks basketball.This post is not gated for all the new films I saw and the seven best of the older films, but then gated after that.2026:Q1 filmsNewer films:Sirat (Spain/Morocco) 3.8 This is far more impressive (both visually and sonically) on the big screen. Must see for fans of the old French film Wages of Fear (and the equally good remake Sorcerer.) Don’t expect a Hollywood film—this is one of the most realistic depictions of fatherhood that I’ve ever seen.Kokuho (Japan) 3.8 Halfway through I wondered “Why isn’t this a big hit?”, and then when I got home I discovered that it is the highest grossing live action film in Japanese history. The film itself is a bit too Hollywood for my taste, with some familiar drama about sibling rivalry. But the Kabuki sequences were a revelation, and are the reason I give this such a high rating. I had almost no knowledge of or interest in Kabuki and left the theatre thinking it is one of the world’s great art forms.The film’s effectiveness is largely due to the skill of the choreographer and director at using the camera to “explain” Kabuki. It literally took just seconds into the first performance for the filmmakers to get a dunce like me to see Kabuki with fresh eyes. Indeed, I might enjoy a live performance much less that the filmed version. I find that I’m often not receptive to an art form unless it is translated in something more familiar. As a teenager, I didn’t understand what poetry was until I listened to Dylan. Another example is My Dinner with Andre, which might be boring as a stage play but was riveting as a film. Sorry, but this is another one of those films that must be seen on the big screen—the final sequence is breathtaking.No Other Choice (Korean) 3.7 Like many Korean films, Park’s amusing black comedy finds humor in the willingness to push scenes to the absolute limit. I suppose there’s a bit of social commentary on downsizing and AI, but as with the film Parasite only a fool would take any of the politics seriously.Naked Ambition (US) 3.5 I almost gave up on this documentary about Bunny Yeager after about 20 minutes, as it seemed to mostly consist of a series of cheesecake photos from the 1950s. But I stuck with it, and it gradually became more and more interesting.Crime 101 (US) 3.4 At the beginning we see that the rich guy has paintings by Balthus and Gauguin, which is Hollywood’s way of signaling that he’s a pedophile. (Americans are such philistines.) I normally don’t like slick Hollywood crowd pleasers, but I make an exception for a well-made crime drama. This one has all the usual cliches—a rich white male boomer that we are supposed to hate, a black woman that is treated unfairly, a good cop in a corrupt police force, a thief from a broken home with a heart of gold, and an evil thief played by a blond Asian guy--an Ichi the Killer look-alike. It’s also way too long, with some pointless car chases. And yet despite all that, it’s quite entertaining.The way rich boomers are now portrayed in Hollywood makes me wonder if people should start collecting that Social Security immediately and not wait until age 70. But then I recall their voting power. . . .The Mastermind (US) 3.4 Most viewers would find this crime drama to be far more boring than Crime 101, but it’s the sort of low-key film that I generally prefer. Very little action and a somewhat pathetic protagonist, but I enjoyed how well they recreated the feel of Massachusetts back in 1970. I’ve even been to the (obscure) Framingham Art Museum. Lots of quirky humor in the margins.Videoheaven (US) 3.1 A movie about movies that feature scenes from movie rental stores. This nostalgic documentary is occasionally amusing but runs way too long at nearly 3 hours. I had never noticed how many films feature scenes in video rental stores. Oddly, I don’t recall ever renting a video, as I used to always watch films at the theatre. So, for me it was like visiting a foreign country.Peter Hujar’s Day (US) 3.0 My Dinner with Andre worked because it combined outstanding cinematography with a fascinating conversation. This one also has excellent cinematography, but I found the conversation to be fairly bland.The Rip (US) 3.0 As with many modern Hollywood films the pace is so frenetic that you don’t ever become emotionally involved in the drama. There’s too much of pretty much everything, including some overacting from Ben Affleck. Nonetheless, it has an interesting plot and is passable mindless entertainment.Islands (German) 3.0 I wish I could recommend this well-made mystery more highly, but unfortunately it has a predictable plot that becomes a bit tiresome after 2 hours and 10 minutes.A Private Life (France) 2.7 There are just three problems with this film. It is too plot driven. It has a silly plot. And it’s about a psychiatrist. Jodie Foster gives a nice performance, but it’s totally wasted.Mistress Disspeller (China) 2.5 This Chinese film claims to be an exercise in reality TV, a term that generally means the exact opposite—fake TV.Older Films:Mulholland Drive (US, 2001) 4.0 The third time through it was better than ever—which doesn’t happen very often with films not directed by Kubrick. Mulholland Drive is to the 21st century what Vertigo was to the 20th century. (I’d argue the plots are more similar than you might suspect, albeit told from radically different points of view.)Great artists often do their best work when the subject matter is something they know very well, such as producing their own genre of art. Think about Proust and Knausgaard writing about what it’s like to become a writer. Shakespeare’s play within the play in Hamlet. Bi Gan’s Resurrection, Velazquez and Vermeer painting an artist painting a painting. Lynch is at his best when depicting the act of making a film. Consider the two scenes where Naomi Watts goes through her audition. The second is radically different from the first, despite an identical script. Lynch is showing the audience what it means to “act”. And he uses an actress that went through years of disappointment in real life, perhaps knowing that actors are also most effective when doing what they know best.Many of the scenes that seemed “weird” the first time around, now make perfect sense—and are vastly more emotionally powerful as a result.BTW, Is it just me, or is Justin Theroux supposed to look like Godard?Days and Nights in the Forest (India, 1970, CC) 3.9 Satyajit Ray is in the running for the greatest director of all time (along with 20 or 30 other names), and this is one of his best films. As with Ozu’s films, it starts out seeming like a light-hearted look at a group of people and then imperceptibly moves toward scenes that show a profound understanding of how people relate to each other. Featuring the great Sharmila Tagore, who makes all the male leads look like fools. It was great to see a restored print on the big screen—when I saw it 40 years ago the film was in poor shape.Kiki’s Delivery Service (Japan, 1989) 3.9 It’s been years since I enjoyed a film as much as this one. Takes place in a town with central European architecture where people speak Japanese but transistor radio programs are in English. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. In other words—utopia. One of my three favorite animated films (along with Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.) When I think of the best recent films, I often see the work of directors with the eye of an artist (Spirited Away, In the Mood for Love, Uncle Boonmee, Flowers of Shanghai, Resurrection, Winter Sleep, Mulholland Drive, Grand Budapest Hotel, etc.)I was the only person in the theatre. :(BTW, when you are 70, “recent” means anything in the past 30 years.Aguirre: the Wrath of God (Germany/Peru, 1972, CC) 3.8 The Heart of Darkness-style irony is laid on pretty thick, but this remains one of the classic films of the 1970s. Perhaps it’s a product of my age but as I get older, even very impressive films often seem increasingly derivative. In 1972, viewers left films like, The Godfather, Solaris, Last Tango in Paris and Aguirre with then feeling they’d experienced something new, something they’d never seen before. That rarely happens today. There were a lot of other very good films in 1972, including two Woody Allen films made before he became repetitive.Wings of Desire (Germany, 1987, CC) 3.8 A recent list of the 30 greatest films of all time had two entries for Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Coppola, Bresson, Kurosawa and . . . Wim Wenders? Although I’m one of Wenders biggest fans, I have a hard time understanding how he can have two films on a top 30 list that excludes films like Late Spring, Persona, and Rear Window. But I’m glad to see another fan who loves his work.It was interesting seeing Berlin in the years right before the wall came down. Hard to think of another European city that has changed so dramatically. The film has some beautiful black and white cinematography. And Nick Cave fans will definitely appreciate a couple of live performances. If you watch it on Criterion Channel, check out the excellent accompanying documentary The Angels Among Us.The Magician (Sweden, 1958, CC) 3.8 This was made when Bergman’s style had fully matured, and the film is more entertaining than some of his more ponderous films done over the next few years. Great B&W cinematography.Moving (Japan, 1993, CC) 3.8 You can see how the director Shinji Somai was a big influence on modern Japanese masters like Kore-eda and Hamaguchi. He combines a deep understanding of human life (especially the life of children) with a beautiful visual style.Paid subscribers see reviews for another 29 films. You want to see them too? That’ll be 30 bucks, buddy.

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