“Polite Society”
One of this year’s most underrated films so far is “Polite Society,” a giddy, dreamy fusion of Jane Austen niceties and wire-fu butt-kicking. Such a combination is made possible by the rising talents of writer/director Nida Manzoor, making her film debut here after her Peacock show, “We Are Lady Parts,” became a word-of-mouth hit. The story’s edge also comes from a ferociously funny performance by Priya Kansara as Ria, who plays a high schooler who dreams of being a stuntwoman. Ria steps into real-life but comically exaggerated heroics when she realizes that her sister Lena (Ritu Arya) needs saving from a total dud of a fiancé with an overbearing and wolf-like mommy. Manzoor cleverly turns Ria’s fights of fantasy into a high-stakes mission with the help of her friends Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri). “Polite Society” is an original through-and-through, with the chops in front of and behind the camera to leave a mark. – NA [Read our review]
“R.M.N.”
For a large part of Cristian Mungiu’s “R.M.N.,” the camera remains still, but it’s not static. It lightly bobs up and down as if it were breathing, watching different residents in a small Romanian town enter a crisis after two men from Sri Lanka start working at the local bakery, with more newcomers on the way. This camera style from cinematographer Tudor Vladimir Panduru is but one of many assured and telling touches from Mungiu’s examination of a common worldwide debate, which premiered at Cannes last summer and is now in limited release from IFC. Centered on a terse performance from Marin Grigore, whose Matthias returns to the village after facing his own discrimination abroad, the movie confidently circles its themes and internal problems until it reaches a third-act town hall sequence that has Mungiu’s camera listening and looking for a gobsmacking 17 minutes. Various citizens, some who are more immediately immigrants than others, pick at each other and bicker over their xenophobia; Mungiu conducts these many fired-up performances gracefully like an 80-piece orchestra. “R.M.N.” captures this strife with an enveloping icy nature, poignantly depicting the anxieties that destroy communities like this from the inside out. – NA [Read our review]
“Showing Up”
Simply put, the world is blessed to have Kelly Reichardt making movies in the 21st century. Even when they take almost a year to hit theaters following a 2022 Cannes Film Festival debut. A true American auteur, Reichardt’s latest collaboration with Michelle Williams (this is their fourth) centers on Lizzy, a sculptor trying to get through a seemingly never-ending series of mundane intrusions to stage her latest gallery show. There is the constant frustration of her friend and landlord, Jo (Hong Chau), refusing to fix her hot water heater. There’s her mother and boss at the Oregon College of Art and Craft (Maryann Plunkett) who is clearly as disappointed in her as Lizzy is in Jo. Her father (Judd Hirsch) is oblivious to the couple taking advantage of him and her brother Sean (once again, the great John Magaro) is spiraling from another dangerous mental episode. But there’s also her art show. And that injured bird she found probably wants to fly away. Should it? Is it healthy enough? Or are the safe confines of its box what it really needs? Lizzy has so much to consider. If she could only get focus on her art without life’s distractions. – GE [Read our review]
“Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse”
Superhero films might be taking it on the chin this year at the box office (see “The Flash,” “Shazam 2,” and “Ant-Man 3”), and while that always sounds the alarm of “superhero film fatigue!,” films like Sony’s ‘Spider-Verse’ sequel prove exceptions to the new rule. And or, as audiences tire of the same, the demands for quality, originality, and innovation also rise to perhaps unattainable, unsustainable heights. Whatever the issue is the “Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse” film does not face them. A dazzling, spectacular sequel on every level, the film breaks new ground in the field of animation (expect another Oscar nomination if not another win), features profound heart, soul, and emotion, and ups its levels with new characters, new adventures and new problems without ever feeling repetitive. ‘Spider-Verse’ brain trusts Phil Lord and Chris Miller (the writers and producers) just seem to fundamentally understand what makes all Spider-People tick, and more importantly, they’ve thrived with the less-familiar story of the young, uncertain, but still brave Miles Morales. – RP [Read our review]
That’s it for now; read ‘em and weep and all that. Check back in another six months for the complete end-of-year list ends and wraps up 2023, and or better yet, see you every day from now until then and beyond.
