Film Festival Reviews. Part 2.

Mother

A South Korean drama, with suspense and murder mystery elements. Or the other way around. Possibly. The movie starts out as somewhat of a comedy as we follow a strangely amnesiac boy trying to get revenge on some big-shots that almost ran him over. Then this entire plot line is more or less dropped entirely, and completely different things happen where a girl gets murdered. Then more plot lines get dropped and new ones introduced. This movie would probably be better off getting chopped up into several interesting short movies instead of this long winded frankenstein monster of a movie.

Best part: The photography, especially the framing, was superb.
Worst part: Far too uninteresting and sometimes outright boring.
Score: 2/5

A Serious Man

This was a surprise movie, so I didn’t know what movie we were going to get to see until literally 20 seconds before the movie started. Being the latest Coen Brothers movie, I knew I was either going to hate it or love it.
The movie follows a middle aged jewish man going through a very stressful time while trying to stay calm and civilized. Everyone around him focus on their own needs and problems, and he seeks counseling from the local rabis.
Richard Kind has a small role as the brother. I’ve always liked Kind, for some reason, but he’s a horrible actor. Fortunately, his role is almost entirely comedic, so he works fine.

Best part: Both the acting and the ending are perfect.
Worst part: As usual with the Coens, a LOT is left to guesswork.
Score: 5/5

posted 14 years ago