Although I had time over the holidays to catch up on some films, particularly foreign films, I didn’t necessarily have the time to write about each of them at length. That said, I ended up liking all of them a lot and wanted to put something on paper. So here are my thoughts on 3 great foreign films that I’ve watched in the last couple of weeks.
The Secret Agent
This was a challenging film for me. Not because it’s a tough watch or anything like that, but because it really needed to simmer in my mind for a few days before I could appreciate it for everything that it is. There is a lot happening in this film, but it somehow also finds a way to take its time. Surely my ignorance of the politics and ongoing events in Brazil at this time did not help my initial takeaway, but just sitting with it and thinking about it reveals a lot that could be hard to grasp at first blush.
This really is one of the movies where the journey is the destination. There is no grand climax you’re barreling towards, no arc that you’re waiting for a conclusion on or a heroic finale. It’s an exploration of, as the movie posits, A Time of Great Mischief. Although that does downplay the levels of corruption and persecution of the 1970s in Brazil, it also sheds light on the way things were portrayed at the time.
This is a film that touches on corruption among the rich and powerful, discrimination of minority groups, immigration, integrity of research, paths of resistance, and also somehow a sentient leg that was found eaten in a shark. There are parts of this movie that border on being a thriller while others that may as well be slice of life. The eclecticness and contrast between different sections though I think ends up forming the complete tapestry that the film is going for rather than being something more traditional that has a more narrow employment of plot.
Don’t be fooled though, there is a plot here! And quite a compelling one at that which will anger you at times as you have to watch scenes of abuses of power and the impact it has on people. And yet, the brilliant directing of Kleber Mendonça Filho finds tranquility and some joy in solidarity among victims of the systems. Wagner Moura is also outstanding in a role that is measured but you can feel the anger boiling underneath without ever tipping over. I also just loved Tânia Maria as Dona Sebastiana.
So my advice is of course watch this movie, but don’t be shocked if it doesn’t fully click right away. Let it stay in your brain and think about it and ask yourself why certain things happened and what they might mean. The ending just didn’t quite do it for me personally, but it does nothing to erase everything that came before it. I think you will see your appreciation for it grow. I think it’s very deserving of all the accolades it is getting on the awards circuit this year, but my pick for those awards would go to the next movie in this roundup.
No Other Choice
If The Secret Agent challenges you with imagery and open-endedness for you to really think about after the film, No Other Choice is a sledgehammer with its messages on its sleeve, but so cleverly and beautifully done that you are just in awe of what you are watching. It is the ultimate realization of those jokes you make with friends in the form of “Imagine if I did that” and this movie just does all of those things and makes you ask yourself who the bad guy is.
Park Chan-wook just blew me away with this film. It is equal parts funny and a scathing commentary of the capitalist systems we live in. But the brilliance of the film lives in every aspect. I could watch this film with no audio or subtitles and appreciate it because of the myriad beautiful shots that evoke but never overstay. Even the most mundane moments are leveled up by the artistry in the composition and blocking.
Meanwhile the story itself – an experienced professional is laid off as his industry consolidates and is then unemployed for so long that he resorts to extreme measures – in many ways can be related to by most audience members. Even if we may be well employed, I think we all know someone struggling to find employment these days. In that sense, it is very of this moment. The desperation is so palpable that it almost makes you root for him despite the awful things he ends up doing.
Lee Byung-hun is mesmerizingly magnetic in this role as he goes from the most devoted father and husband to any means necessary to return his family to the glory he thinks they deserve. He is my pick this year for best actor even though I know he will not get nominated. The whole movie hinges on his performance to give it the right tone. We have fun family barbecues and dance scenes but we also have gruesome [CENSORED, WATCH THE MOVIE]. And his character feels coherent throughout, which is a true tour de force for me.
In any other year, I think this could have been the Parasite, but this year is particularly stacked in the international film category, which has led to divided attention. I bring up the comparison to Parasite simply as “a film that overcame the ‘foreign film’ tag to be considered as a best film”, and it is purely coincidental that they both happen to be Korean films. It is unfortunate that awards voters and audiences in general seem to have a hard time considering more than one foreign film at a time for the highest honours, but I think it should also just be celebrated that multiple foreign films are being recognized on some level. We are finally giving them the attention they deserve with The Secret Agent and No Other Choice chief among them, but this next film is just as much in the conversation.
Sentimental Value
While the previous two films tackle broader systemic issues at play within a country or in the world in general, Sentimental Value is much more personal in its exploration of family and relationships. Joachim Trier pairs up again with Renate Reinsve after their work together in 2021’s The Worst Person in the World.
Before I get into the movie itself, I just wanted to shout out Renate Reinsve for some great performances in the past few years that have gone under the radar. Outside of her work with Trier, I loved her in A Different Man as well as Presumed Innocent. I hope this film is the final straw that raises her profile among general audiences and she gets more high profile roles.
Sentimental Value is an exploration of familial trauma between a father, played brilliantly by Stellan Skarsgard, who left his family and his daughters coming together after the mother’s death. As the daughters deal with their complicated feelings towards their father, they are forced to face them more directly than they would have liked as he proposes to use the family home to film a very personal movie.
This is a film that just pulls all the strings to pick at your own baggage you may have with your family. It is buoyed completely by the performances of the three main actors – Stellan Skarsgard, Renate Reinsve, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas. The latter I think is going under the radar for a truly great turn as the anchor of the film that tries to keep everyone together despite herself having unresolved issues with her father as well.
Elle Fanning plays a well known movie star who Stellan Skarsgard’s character casts as the main actor in the film after his daughter rejects the proposal. Although she plays her part as intended, her time on screen felt like it pulled me away from what I really wanted to see, which was more of the interaction with the family. It was a good other element to contrast the main goal of the movie, but at times, I wish it was less prevalent.
Regardless, I think it caused all the anxiety and squirming reactions it wanted to, and it is another film deserving of recognition along with the previous two. Depending on your own baggage, this could be a real tearjerker, but even if it doesn’t get you to that point, the discomfort it causes is artistic in itself.
All three of these films are very deserving of the attention they are getting and you should most definitely seek them out. If it were up to me, half the best picture nominations would go to international films that I have seen this year, and that’s without having seen a couple of the big ones which I hope to remedy soon!
