Filmmaniak

Temporaries is a devastating social drama about a group of Guatemalan labourers who are repeatedly imported into a Canadian food factory without knowing their rights and working conditions, and are thus grossly exploited to the point of physical breakdown in a poorly thought-out and unjust system that eventually beats down everyone, including not only the suffering workers, but also their callous Canadian employers, who must meet quotas and are existentially dependent on cheap labour. The whole issue is seen from the perspective of a sympathetic interpreter who is the only one to see the workers as individuals, while also being aware of the other side’s problems, which makes the film powerfully empathetic without sliding into moralising judgments. The strong plot based on a topical and socially important issue further benefits from its gradual build-up of intensity and emotional conclusion.

A charmingly minimalist romance between a melancholic labourer with an excessive fondness for alcohol and a shy, introverted shop assistant. This sombre old-world tragicomedy about the painful coming together of two desperate souls excels thanks to its flawless directing, Kaurismäki's unmistakable distinctive stylisation, dry humour delivered with a straight face and idiosyncratic characters. The film also has a social dimension, as it unobtrusively incorporates current events (in the form of radio reports about the war in the Ukraine heard in the timeless retro setting of Helsinki, which is given a nostalgic air), as well as superbly appropriate music and charming, loving cinephilic references to the work of Kaurismäki’s directing role models and friends from the world of independent and art film. And all of this in only eighty minutes.

About Dry Grasses is an extremely complex and layered film-novel containing numerous themes – from a teacher’s abuse of power from a position of authority to an intellectual-love triangle – which overlap without any of them being clearly dominant. All of the film’s components, including the detail-oriented directing, the surgically precise screenplay and the fantastic cinematography, which in long shots frequently captures toiling characters and their long, lively exchanges of dialogue, creating an extremely pliable and realistic world that completely absorbs the viewer. It’s just necessary to get used to the company of the misanthropic and morally dubious protagonist and the omnipresent, extremely cynical tone towards humanity.

This tender romantic drama tells the story of two people who are clearly meant for each other, but fate determines that their steps will not lead them to a life together. Spanning three decades with three major jumps in time, the narrative focuses only on a trio of characters who are united by the theme of fateful predestination and the millennial interconnection of their souls. The bittersweet, timeless story benefits from reminiscences of long-ago loves, painful relationship situations and well-cast actors who shine even without words. Though the beginning may seem somewhat rushed along with the characters’ entry into adulthood, the narrative comes together and focuses on what is essential. Sometimes strength and beauty really do lie in simplicity, especially when that simplicity consists in precise, economical directing and clever and mature dialogue.

This deeply felt and precisely directed drama initially deals with social issues, but then allows its entirely believable characters of an ex-convict mother and her young son to find their way out of the misery of their lives thanks to their strong will and determination and to lead a normal life with a bright future, though it’s definitely not an easy life. With the passage of time, the mother shifts away from the position of protagonist and her son comes more to the fore, thus shifting the point of view. The final act then presents an unexpected shot to the heart and reveals that the well-thought-out and solidly constructed narrative is even more sophisticated than it may have seemed before.

A Zen spiritual film with a magical atmosphere and emphasis on the motif of sleep and dreams. Watching it is akin to having a transcendental experience. After the first half, which takes place among monks in a Laotian monastery and the surrounding area, the film invites viewers to take part in accompanying the soul of a deceased elderly woman into the next life. The second half of the film comes with an endearing point and a fundamental change of location, though it also contains unnecessary additional literalness and less interesting action. Full of poetic melancholy, Samsara is a remarkable meditative film that offers deep thoughts and several original and understated creative concepts. Ideally, however, it would have ended shortly after its original, unconventional and long-resonating middle section.

A powerful drama about a moral dilemma, in which a wealthy Arab woman hits a black child with her car in a slum and then fearfully leaves the scene of the crime. The child escapes unharmed, but an unfortunate misunderstanding results in the death of his father, who was chasing the fleeing driver on his motorcycle. The remorseful woman then secretly seeks out his unsuspecting wife, hires her as a servant and houses her and the child in her home. The powerful subsequent development of the two women’s relationship and the suspenseful postponement of the inevitable revelation of the truth are complemented by the motif of the Muslim protagonist’s life together with her distant husband and the context of the political situation in Sudan, which is on the verge of a national referendum on the autonomy of its southern region. On multiple levels, the film honestly and comprehensively deals with a number of motifs and characters, incorporating into the story themes such as guilt and redemption, lies and mistrust, the shift from racial prejudice to warm friendship, and determining priorities when making major life decisions.

Sisu is an unhinged action flick with an abundance of exaggeration that will decidedly not bring joy to fans of realistic period depictions and historically factual information, but it might please fans of bloody B-movie guilty-pleasure entertainment grounded in westerns and one-against-all stories in the style of Rambo, John Wick and Taken, and which in a few places is reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds and Tommy Wirkola’s Dead Snow. Lovers of black humour, Nordic landscapes and expansive tundra – or amateur surgery – will be in their element. Conversely, it’s not for viewers who can’t stand the sight of people’s (and horses’) bodies getting blown to pieces while attempting to cross a minefield. The numerous variations on mowing down Nazi soldiers are often rather inventive (have you ever seen a protagonist kill his enemies under the surface of a lake and suck in the air escaping from their slit throats so that he doesn't have to resurface?) and the two protagonists standing on opposite sides of the barricade are almost perfect to the point of being fascinating, which makes it practically impossible to take your eyes off of them. The film starts off with a serious tone, but it loses all sense of seriousness at an accelerating rate as the absurdity of the individual scenes gradually increases. Jalmari Helander has not only proven himself to be a filmmaker with interesting ideas, but also – for the first time – a solid storyteller, screenwriter and director, in whose presentation the gritty tale of the gold prospector and fighter Aatami has its own memorable face, which is also due in part to the film’s distinctive stylisation and cast.

Compared to the original, this spectacular revival of the classic musical benefits from its outstanding modern rendering and is thus catchier and has a generally quicker pace. The actors are great and the song-and-dance sequences are phenomenal. And the songs – not only about love and celebration of life, but also about discrimination and violence – have not lost their power and relevance even after all these years. Furthermore, they are performed in service of this great film, which boldly matches the qualities of its predecessor, showing us that the motif of racial conflict still remains a relevant social issue today.

No Time to Die is a worthy conclusion to the pentalogy in which James Bond is believable not only as an action hero saving the world, but also as a melancholic, torn and vulnerable man who longs for loving closeness and a stable supportive environment. Fukunaga is self-assured in the action scenes and in his emphasis on the melodramatic relationship storyline, in which Daniel Craig’s acting qualities are on full display. Despite the well-done psychological delving into the protagonist’s inner self, however, this subtle intimate level doesn’t make as an emotional and satisfying impression as it could have because of the slight naïveté of the screenwriting and the occasional hollowness of the dialogue. The bland character of the main villain is utterly disappointing, as his complicated personality is neglected in comparison with the protagonist, making him merely an uninteresting and incomprehensibly behaving tool in the diabolical plans. In contrast, the agent played by Ana de Armas, who appears only for a moment, is great, but she deserves to be featured throughout the film. There is an obvious intention to shoot the conclusion of the Bond saga with everything that involves, so the familiar trademarks are again dusted off, but when Bond utters sarcastically humorous lines as he eliminates enemies, it somewhat counterproductively diminishes the attempt at a more sensitive and realistic concept of the character. Though in terms of its overall style, the film does not especially deviate in any way from the standard of the previous instalments starring Craig, its creators did not lack the courage to come up with one or two extra elements that significantly disrupt the conventions of Bond movies, thus elevating the experience of watching No Time to Die to the category of unforgettable despite its several shortcomings.