Earlier this year I was actively reading a lot about the Selk’nam genocide that occurred in the 19th and early 20th centuries after reading this very cool paper. Even when the movie is not focused on the genocide itself, but rather follows the voyages of an odd trio consisting of a Chilean mestizo named Segundo (played by Camilo Arancibia) with a Selk’nam background, a Scottish military man, and an American mercenary, it gives a fair impression of what happened during those decades and the brutality of it. The performances of Camilo Arancibia and Mishell Guaña, who plays a Selk’nam woman who was kidnapped and ends up living in Chiloé with Segundo. Her ending scene…literally chills.

Available on Mubi.

(Also, for the Spanish-speakers, if you’re interested in this topic a strongly recomend this book by José Luis Marchante).

But as a Kore-Eda fan, I had to watch this movie. I don’t regret it: it was beautifully made, with stellar performances. But I cried a lot, not gonna lie. I really want to watch it again because (trying not to spoil the movie here) it has a lot of time jumps and different POVs, so watching this movie once again, knowing the full picture, might provide a new perspective. But honestly, I’m afraid of doing so haha. Maybe in the future.

The film follows Dev Patel’s character in his quest to avenge his mother’s death who was assassinated when he was a child, after his village was torn apart due to religious persecution. The movie caused a lot of controversy in India and they even had to tone the movie down a bit as it originally had references to India’s nationalist party. I really hope they can release the director’s cut at some point since they apparently cut a lot of things to avoid backlash. In any case, the movie has a lot of excellent action scenes (if you like John Wick’s movies, this is exactly your cup of tea), a great performance by Dev Patel, and pretty decent cinematography.

But when the movie started, I
realized that everything was in ITALIAN. Yikes..I struggled with reading German subtitles fast enough, and even when I could catch some Italian words because I speak Spanish and some things are similar, it was not enough. The movie is beautiful though, and I think I was able to catch all the important plot, but it wasn’t until later, when I watched the movie again (on a plane, not the best setting…) with English subtitles, that I was able to really appreciate it.

Josh O’Connor does a great job portraying a melancholic Arthur grieving the loss of his former lover. It is a very touching, at times sad but also a heartwarming movie.

I’ll try to keep it short because I could write an entire blog post (most likely several) only about Challengers. When I try to pinpoint what originally hooked me about this movie, it is probably a combination of great casting, a great soundtrack, and the fact that it seems like an anime plot but in a 2-hour 30 30-minute movie. I was so obsessed when I first watched it that I even read the script, and started listening to podcast episodes where they interviewed the movie’s screenwriter (who also happens to be married to Past Live’s director. Crazy household).

I knew nothing about this movie when I first watched it, and honestly, it was the right call. I was surprised not only by the film’s beautiful photography, performances, and soundtrack (I ended up being obsessed with Caroline Polachek’s song for the movie), but also by the overall original and profound story. According to the film’s director and screenwriter, Jane Schoenbrun, the plot serves as a metaphor for gender dysphoria, as Owen can only be his true self when living through The Pink Opaque. It is a beautiful film and it’s definitely worth it to watch it a few times to really get the plot’s nuances.

The performance of Didi’s mom, Joan Chen, is honestly one of the best supporting actress performances of the year. I’m also glad that the film made me remember the existence of this song by Hellogoodbye, which I listened to nonstop the week after I watched the film haha. This film was made for nostalgic millennials.