Anora

Anora; drama, USA, 2024; D: Sean Baker, S: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Darya Ekamasova

Brighton Beach. Anora is a stripper working in a strip club. After a lap dance for the rich student Ivan, whose father is a Russian oligarch, Ivan invites Anora at his mansion. They have sex and hang around in private. While in Las Vegas, Ivan proposes Anora and they get married. Back in Brighton Beach, two Armenians, Toros and Garnik, and a Russian, Igor, employees of Ivan's father, storm Ivan's mansion to demand the annulment of the marriage. Ivan flees, so Toros, Garnik and Igor force Anora to come with them and search for Ivan across the neighborhood. They find Ivan drunk. Ivan's parents arrive and bring them all in a private jet back Las Vegas. Realizing Ivan doesn't love her, Anora agrees to dissolve their marriage. Igor escorts Anora back to her apartment, returns her wedding ring, she tries to kiss him, but he refuses, so she starts crying.

Despite numerous awards and critical recognition, Sean Baker's independent film "Anora" is in reality still two notches below all the hype. Its main virtue is the excellent actress Mikey Madison who plays the title role, a stripper, yet she, despite her charm, and every other character, are so underwritten they never quite rise to the occasion. The storyline is hacky, jumbled together out of three disparate segments which are shoehorned together without ever managing to fit into a harmonious whole. The first third is a simple romance, a sort of "After" for strippers, or a restructuring of "Pretty Woman": Anora does a lap dance for the rich student Ivan who hires her to be his girlfriend. Their romance is superficial, though: the viewers don't find out much about Ivan, except that he takes drugs, drinks and plays video games the whole day, and thus either this segment wasn't thought out or it seems as if Baker wanted to imply that there is no real emotional bond between them and that she is just after his money. Later on, they even get married in Las Vegas—isn't it illogical that Anora would agree to that even though she never met Ivan's parents, Russian oligarchs possibly connected to the crime world, nor that Ivan met Anora's parents? 

The second segment brings a huge shift in tone, as two clumsy Armenians and a Russian thug, Igor, employees of Ivan's father, storm Ivan's mansion to have the marriage annuled. Ivan flees and thus the whole next 40 minutes is a wild goose chase trying to find him across the neighborhood. From Anora's perspective, she is coerced into participating by the two Armenians and Igor, and their comical inability to properly communicate with other people is what makes this whole middle segment funny, albeit episodic. The third and final segment is some sort of a blend between "Meet the Parents" and "What Happens in Vegas", but in a more serious, somber edition, as Ivan's parents want to annul the marriage. When the Armenian forces Anora and Ivan to the local Brooklyn court, wouldn't it have made sense for Anora to seek help from the judge and call the police because they were forced to appear there against their will? It seems heavy handed. One great little dialogue between Ivan's mother and Anora, though: "And you are a disgusting hooker!" - "And your son hates you so much, he married one to piss you off!" The finale doesn't work. Igor didn't do anything near redemption to reach any levels of a "prince savior", and thus Anora's peculiar behavior in the last scene doesn't have any foundation, comes out of nowhere and isn't earned. "Anora" is a good film, depicting the underclass of strippers and their often disappointing personal problems, yet it seems it was aimlessly meandering itself before it got to that point.

Grade:++

Emilia Pérez

Emilia Perez; drama / crime / musical, France, 2024; D: Jacques Audiard, S: Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir

Mexico City. Lawyer Rita is kidnapped on the street and brought to the narco-cartel boss Manitas—who hires her to find him a gender surgery specialist because he wants to become a woman, and will give her as much money as needed. Rita books him a surgeon from Tel Aviv and evacuates Manitas' wife Jessi and two kids to a Swiss town for their own safety. Manitas stages his own death and starts a new life as Emilia Perez. Rita meets Emilia back in Mexico City and has Jessi and the kids flown back. Emilia lives with them in a mansion, but becomes jealous when she hears Jessi found a new lover. When Jessi flees with the kids, Emilia cuts off her bank account, so Jessi and her lover have Emilia kidnapped to blackmail Rita for money. Emilia reveals she was Manitas. In a car chase, Jessi and her lover argue and crash to their deaths, together with Emilia in the trunk.

Despite all the hype and disagreement among the critics, "Emilia Perez" is a good film. Its premise is ridiculous (a narco-cartel boss kidnaps lawyer Rita to find him a sex surgery clinic so that he can become a woman, instead of simply asking her nicely and paying for her services without coercion) and the musical-dance bits are superfluous (especially the silly "La vaginoplastia" song in a clinic in Bangkok), but overall the storyline flows smoothly and fluently, and its two main protagonists are interesting characters, especially Rita who comes to life thanks to an excellent, outstanding performance by Zoe Saldana. In the highlight of the movie, Saldana's stylistic hand movements in a red suit, as she dances on the table of guests at a charity party, in tune to the snappy song "El Mal", come to full expression and overwhelm the viewers when no other part of the film is ever able to do the same. The rest is good, but standard and predictable, with mediocre dialogue and lukewarm execution. The director Jacques Audiard shows respect towards this transgender theme, since the narco boss Manitas is a much nicer, lovable person as Emilia, showing his hidden feminine side, even though that is in disparity with his violent criminal life up to that point—he tries to escape male problems by becoming a woman and get a fresh start, but even as Emilia, she stumbles upon female problems. "Emilia Perez" is a good movie, but only to a certain extent, since much more could have been made out of it, and the songs aren't that catchy.

Grade:++

Carmen & Bolude

Carmen & Bolude; drama / comedy, Australia / USA / Nigeria, 2025; D: Michaela Carattini, Maria Isabel Delaossa, S: Michaela Carattini, Bolude Watson, Liam Greinke, Elliott Giarola, David Collins, Wale Ojo, Olivia Vasquez

New York City. Hispanic-American Carmen and Nigerian-American Bolude are best friends since childhood, and both lost their mothers. They travel to Sydney for Bolude's wedding with Australian Tommy, but Bolude's father Akin, who is against the marriage, refuses to fly there from Lagos unless she can find a hundred welcomes from different places for the occasion. Bolude thus contacts different ethnic and religious groups in Sydney to gather these welcomes. Carmen falls in love with Ant. When Bolude admits she bought a house in Sydney and plans to stay living there, she has an argument with Carmen because they will now be separated. Bolude finds more than enough locals welcoming her via Internet, and Akin shows up there, but then they decide to have a wedding in Lagos. Bolude remains with Tommy in Sydney, while Carmen returns to New York City.

The independent buddy-comedy-drama film "Carmen & Bolude" works thanks to the charm and chemistry of their two main stars, the uplifting Michaela Carattini and Bolude Watson, though they are not able to patch up every omission from the movie. Carmen, a Hispanic-American, and Bolude, a Nigerian-American, who travel to Sydney for Bolude's wedding, represent a sort of double identity dispossession spanning three continents, and their efforts to somehow reconcile their culture, tradition with their modern way of life and their own private aspiration form the foundation of the storyline. With the two protagonists juggling with these different parameters and trying to find a balance, the movie manages to extract a good deal of humor and portray them as sympathetic characters in the first half. The first half starts off in a funny way—in a NY subway train, a random passenger comes too close to Carmen, so she grabs his hand, holds it and announces loudly to everyone: "Ladies and gentlemen, I just found a lost hand on my ass! Does anyone know to whom it belongs?" 

Another amusing moment is the disastrously culturally insensitive "meet the parents" lunch sequence in Sydney, where Carmen and Bolude are annoyed that Tommy's mom calls Bolude "Blue", and which leads to this exchange between Tommy's grandmother and dad: "I'm just really very happy she speaks English!" - "Mom, seriously! American is not English!" They both then burst into laughter, while nobody else at the tables does, leading to an awkward silence, until Tommy's dad says: "Why are we the only two people laughing?" One genius, hilarious moment that shows the reverse: Carmen uses a kippah from a synagogue for her push-up bra. The movie loses this snappy humor in the second half, though, as it becomes more serious, but less inspired, while the melodramatic scenes of first Bolude crying, and then Carmen crying, feel forced and strained. Likewise, it wasn't quite clear what Bolude's father wanted to accomplish by sending her on a wild goose chase in finding a "100 welcomes from a 100 different places" for the wedding, except that it was an excuse for him to avoid the event. The finale ends on a rather standard note, without much of an expected bang, and about 20 minutes could have been cut to alleviate the pacing issues, but "Carmen & Bolude" still have enough positive energy to carry this sweet film. 

Grade:++

West Beirut

Bayrut El Gharbiyyeh; war drama, Lebanon / France, 1998; D: Ziad Doueiri, S: Rami Doueiri, Mohamad Chamas, Rola Al-Amin, Carmen Lebbos, Joseph Bou Nassar, Liliane Nemri

Beirut, 1 9 7 5. Teenager Tarek studies at a French school, but then sees the Christian Phalangist militia shooting Palestinians in a bus, which marks the start of the Lebanese Civil War. His neighborhood, the Muslim West Beirut, is separated by blockades from the Christian East Beirut. Tarek and his friend Omar want to develop their Super 8 film, but the shops are closed. When Tarek falls in love with a Christian girl without a father, May, he argues with Omar even more. Shootings are heard daily, and Tarek hides inside a building which turns out to be a brothel run by Oum Walid. His mom wants to leave Lebanon, but the patriotic father refuses to be a refugee, even though he lost his job. When the father plays a song, Tarek cries hiding behind a wall.

How would you react if your city was engulfed by war? A fascinating anti-nostalgic autobiographical reconstruction by director Ziad Doueiri of both his childhood and the Lebanese Civil War, "West Beirut" shows the bad luck of youngsters growing up during a conflict, and how they try to remain sane through jokes and fun (the teenage protagonist Tarek is at first happy that he doesn't have to go to school due to war), but slowly the bitter reality catches up with them. Doueiri creates a vividly colorful collage full of little details, transmitting to the viewers how it was to live in Beirut during that time—the episodic structure, a lack of character development for May, and a few clumsy scenes don't really corrode the high impression. One of the most insane moments, worthy of a cult movie, is when Omar throws a boot at the "demarcation" line separating west and east Beirut, and immediately a sniper shoots at it, but Tarek heard from a Taxi driver that by holding a bra anyone is given free access to traverse to the famous brothel, as some sort of universal signal of neutrality, so Tarek asks May to give him her bra, and then he, May and Omar simply safely walk across the street to the other side. 

The madam of the brothel is a feisty character who laments in front of Tarek: "Is this a public house or a headache house?" and "The clients are already bringing the war with them here! One Christian didn't want to sleep with a girl in the same bed that was used by a Muslim before!... Does a bed have religion?!" The movie shows the wide effects of a war on a society, and how it is fragmented into several warring factions, enhancing aggressive behavior. This is bitingly summed up in the sequence where people are standing in line in a bakery, but the baker can only give them one bag of bread per person due to food restrictions, but then a paramilitary cuts through the line and demands 20 bags because he is "protecting the neighborhood", but the baker doesn't want to give him more than ten, so the paramilitary beats him up. Tarek's mom wants to leave the country, which leads to an argument with dad: "Do you know what they call us in Switzerland? Luxury refugees. In London, they send dogs to sniff us. In America, they call us sand-niggers." The movie deliberately gives no context for the complicated Lebanese Civil War to show it from the kids' perspective, since they themselves didn't know who is fighting whom, except that Christians and Muslims are on opposing sides. In a comical sequence, Tarek and Omar randomly find themselves inside a protest and start chanting what everyone is saying around them: "With our spirit, with our blood, we'll remember you, Kamal!", but then Tarek and Omar have this exchange: "Who's Kamal?" - "No idea." This outlines the movie's theme: the war doesn't stop to be PG for kids; and people sometimes fight without knowing why, but just want to join the trend of their group—only later on will they realize the consequences of tribalism around them.

Grade:+++

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Dane-ye anjir-e ma'abed; drama / thriller, Iran / Germany / France, 2024; D: Mohammad Rasoulof, S: Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Setareh Maleki, Mahsa Rostami, Niousha Akhshi

Tehran. Lawyer Iman is at first happy to hear of his promotion to an investigating judge at the country's Revolutionary Court, but just then nationwide protests erupt after the death of a girl, Mahsa Amini, in police custody for not wearing a hijab, and he is shocked to find out his superiors expect him to simply sign any verdict sentencing accused people to death, before he can even research a case. Iman thus clashes badly with his wife, Najmeh, and their two teenage daughters, Rezvan and Sana. Rezvan's friend, Sadaf, joins the protests and is injured. When Iman's gun, given to him by the government for protection, cannot be found, and his personal info is leaked on the Internet, he drives off with his family to a secluded house in the countryside. He locks up Najmeh and Rezvan in two rooms to force them to confess taking the gun, but Sana has the weapon and hides outside. She locks up Iman in a basement, and releases Najmeh and Rezvan. Iman escapes and chases them around an abandoned ancient city. He approaches Sana, she shoots with the gun at the ground, which collapses and Iman falls down to his death.

A rare inside look at the Mahsa Amini protests, otherwise banned from being depicted in Iran's cinema, Mohammad Rasoulof's political drama "The Seed of the Sacred Fig" is a brave, noble, humanistic, ambitious and intelligent contemplation on gender apartheid in Ayatollah's Iran. It shows this clash through a family—on the one side, there is the female perspective, the wife Najmeh and the two teenage daughters, Rezvan and Sana (excellent Setareh Maleki), and on the other side, there is the male perspective, Iman, who on top of that works for the government court, signing death penalties assigned to him by the superiors. This way, the story presents the cyclic farce of the people who work for the system that suppresses the people, selling away their ethics in order to get a career promotion and climb up the hierarchy (Iman is promised a bigger apartment, which would be welcomed so that each of his two daughters has their own room), and explores their bad conscience. Remarkably, even the three female protagonists spend most of the film without wearing a hijab, at home, contrary to the dogma of Ayatollah's Iran's cinema.

The mother at first advises the daughters to avoid the protests, and has excuses for the death of Amini in police custody ("She died of a stroke. Is the government now to be blamed for anyone having a stroke?"), betraying her own gender, but with time has a character change and starts supporting the movement when Rezvan and Sana secretly bring their friend Sadaf, who joined the protests, to their home, and it is revealed half of Sadaf's face is badly injured because the police fired a shotgun at her. This leads to the best frame of the film, a close up shot of Sadaf's face as they are cleaning it and removing shrapnel from her skin, as later on the mother drops a dozen extracted metal shrapnel on the bathroom sink, with blood dripping from them. The movie is very good up to the last third, when it makes a disputable, questionable de-tour and becomes a thriller. The movie should have stayed with the injured friend, Sadaf. Instead, this finale disrupts the structure and tone established up to it, turning into a rather heavy-handed allegory on the idea that every man who works for the Iranian government eventually becomes radicalized and turns against his own family, which loses that subtlety from the first two thirds. 

Grade:+++

Flow

Straume; computer-animated fantasy adventure / art-film, Latvia / France / Belgium, 2024; D: Gints Zilbadois

A grey cat is watching its reflection in a lake in the forest when it is chased away by a pack of dogs. They in turn are all chased away by a herd of reindeer fleeing away from a giant flood. The flood engulfs the entire area, so the cat boards a boat with a dog, a lemur and a capybara. They flow through the ocean aimlessly, and the cat catches fish for food. On a patch of land, the cat is attacked by a herd of secretarybirds, but is saved by a good secretarybird who protects it. As a punishment, the other birds break the wing of the good secretarybird, which thus joins the cat and the others sailing on the boat. On a rock pillar, the secretarybird is beamed up in the sky, and disappears in the light. The water recedes, and the cat, the dog, the lemur and the capybara exit from the boat back on land.

An allegorical minimalist film without any dialogue or human characters, Gints Zilbadois' "Flow" is a raw, astringent and subconscious adventure that breaks the "animation monopoly" held by big budget studios by relying on a free and open-source animation software, thereby achieving a breakthrough on the field of the independent cinema. The storyline is strange and subject to several interpretations, since, by taking only the perspective of the animals, the viewers are not given any context. Is the sudden excessive flood, which covers the entire land surface, a symbol for sea level rise caused by climate change? It would fit with the world where abandoned buildings are seen, and the dogs and other domesticated animals roam freely, in a time where humans went extinct. Since the cat and other animals travel in a boat across this ocean, is it a meditation on the need for disparate groups to cooperate in order to survive during crisis times? And since they have no say in this water current, and their boat just follows the flow, is it a symbol for the voyage in life where everyone is just a pawn of destiny? Is it a meditation on the relativity of circumstances in life, since the flood at first hints that a small land animal like the cat will perish, and that big water animals like the whale will flourish, but when the flood recedes, the whale is stranded on land? All of them could be true. One certainty is that the cat overcomes its fear of water, when it learns how to swim and catch fish, through which the movie speaks about overcoming one's fears and learning to stand on its own. One sequence disrupts the movie stylistically (secretarybird being elevated by a beam of light) in a strange paranormal, religious (?) moment. Is it a divine reward for being good during dark times? "Flow" needed more ingenuity and creativity, since it is a little bit monotone after a while, yet it offers food for thought. 

Grade:++

The Trial of the Chicago 7

The Trial of the Chicago 7; legal drama, USA, 2020; D: Aaron Sorkin, S: Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Alex Sharp, John Carroll Lynch, Noah Robbins, Daniel Flaherty, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Frank Langella, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Caitlin FitzGerald

Chicago, 1 9 6 9. Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner and John Froines are seven left-wing activists on trial for inciting a riot, which ended with a police crackdown. An 8th defendant, the African-American Black Panther member Bobby Seale, is lumped in together with them, even though he is not represented since his lawyer is recovering from sugery. The Chicago 7 are represented by lawyer Fred Hampton, but the judge Julius Hoffman, is visibly biased against them and hampers their proceedings. When Hampton dies under mysterious circumstances, Seale is tied up to his chair, and two jurors are eliminated by Hoffman, the Chicago 7 protest and ask for a mistrial, claiming they only traveled to Chicago for a protest against the Vietnam War. Judge Hoffman sentences them to 5 years in prison, but this is overturned in the appeal verdict. 

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin was always interested in exploring political themes in his screenplays ("A Few Good Men", "The American President", "Charlie Wilson's War"), and thus chose wisely when he picked the rarely talked about real-life legal case of the political trial of the "Chicago 7" for his second directorial work. Sorkin has a knack for inspired dialogues, and thus his sophisticated sense for writing gives the static story a dynamic charge—there is no empty walk despite the long running time, since almost every scene seems important, and instead the viewers will actually feel the story is almost too short. Of the seven people on trial—or eight, if Bobby Seale is included, before his proceedings were separated from the rest—at least three feel only as extras, since there was not enough time to give everyone enough character development, but the four most notable defendants stand out with ease and cover for any omission, especially the two "hippies" with huge hair Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, played brilliantly by Sacha Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong. 

In one delicious moment, as the trial is about to commence and Abbie Hoffman's name is brought up, judge Julius Hoffman turns towards the stenographer: "And the record should reflect that defendant Hoffman and I are not related!", upon which Abbie looks at him from the bench and jokingly says: "Father, no!" Another fantastic moment is when a reporter and Rubin have this sharp exchange: "Why won't Bobby Seale let anyone represent him?" -  "You've posed that question in the form of a lie." Since numerous obstacles are artificially created during the trial, including that judge Hoffman is obviously biased against the Chicago 7, to such an extent that defense counsel Kunstler jokingly says that the judge has "been handing down rulings from the bench that would be considered wrong in Honduras", the movie contemplates about this legal malfunction and democratic deficiency in the US during the Vietnam War, when the government tried to intimidate and hush up the (left-wing) anti-war opposition, standing as a warning that these kind of mistrials can happen even in democracies. It is a very conventionally directed film, except for the neat gimmick that the riot is only presented later on in the film, yet it is ambitious, intelligent, noble and measured, a surprisingly quality experience.

Grade:+++

Les Misérables

Les Misérables; historical musical-drama, UK / USA, 2012; D: Tom Hooper, S: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Anne Hathaway, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter

Toulon, 1815. Convict Jean Valjean, sentenced for stealing bread, is released from a harbor penal prison by prison guard Javert. Valjean needs to report monthly to his parole officer. When he tries to steal silverware from a church, the priest tells the police that he gifted it to Valjean, so the moved Valjean decides to help people from there on. In 1823, Valjean is the mayor of a town and owner of a textile factory, living under a different name. A fired worker, Fantine, finds a new job as a prostitute to pay for her daughter, Cosette, but dies from starvation. Valjean brings up Cosette. In 1832, Marius falls in love with the now grown-up Cosette. The Republicans start the Paris June Rebellion in order to try to overthrow the monarchy led by King Louis Philippe I, but the army crushes them. Since Valjean spared his life when he was caught as a spy by the Republicans, Javert allows Valjean and Marius to escape alive. Marius and Cosette marry, while Valjean dies.

Tom Hooper's film adaptation of Victor Hugo's famous novel "Les Miserables" is a musical-drama that, paradoxically, would have worked much better just as a drama. All the performances would have been great if the forced singing wasn't in their way—while some musicals have isolated singing numbers and then take a "break" and return to being a straight drama for the next 10 minutes, "Les Miserables" consist of almost non-stop singing, even during the most ridiculous situations (singing while fencing, singing while dying, singing convicts pulling a rope in the sea...), since all this feels too unnatural and artificial, which hinders the enjoyment value of the storyline. The whole concept is misguided, since Hugo's novel shouldn't have been transformed into a musical in the first place. Nontheless, Hugo's story still offers a rare depiction of the attempted "Second French Revolution", when the 1832 June Rebellion tried to overthrow the monarchy to again resume the French Republic, showing a complicated set of characters who are fed up with poverty and low life quality, which all serve as a catalyst to try to improve their society. Anne Hathaway is outstanding as Fantine, but shockingly underused—her character dies already 42 minutes into the film, with only 20 minutes of screen time, which is simply too meagre and narrowed down. Hathaway's highlight: the emotional "I Dreamed a Dream" song filmed in one 4-minute take, which is incredible ("...life has killed the dream I dreamed..."). Sacha Baron Cohen is also amusing as the swindler Thenandier, who feigns he is caring for Fantine's daughter, calling her "Colette", while his wife immediately corrects him: "Cosette". Despite flaws, high production values, great cinematography and an emotional ending assure "Les Miserables" is a good film, if the viewers can "adjust" to its musical format.

Grade:++

Black Box Diaries

Black Box Diaries; documentary, Japan / USA / UK, 2024; D: Shiori Ito, S: Shiori Ito

Tokyo. Shiori Ito recounts how in 2015 she had a dinner with the powerful reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi talking about her potential new job, when she suddenly felt dizzy after a drink. A taxi cab drove them to a hotel. She fell unconscious, and woke up naked in a bed of a hotel room, with Yamaguchi naked on her. She left and filed a report to the police, but the indictment was withdrawn, possibly due to Yamaguchi's close ties with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Shiori insisted on the legal prosecution of her case for years, and wrote a book about it. As a journalist, she made recording of her conversations with an Investigator. Finally, the case arrives to a trial, and Yamaguchi is found guilty of rape.

A harrowing and disturbing documentary, "Black Box Diaries" is an unusual film where journalist Shiori Ito recounts and reconstructs her own rape, but does this with a journalistic distance which gives her some relief and objectivity to avoid (and contain) her own trauma. She secretly or openly films video or audio recording of witnesses (the taxi driver who drove Shiori and Noriyuki Yamaguchi when she fell dizzy; the phone call with the Investigator...), the clip of hotel camera footage of them leaving the taxi, or a woman reading Shiori's own testimony as a rehearsal for the trial (some 76 minutes into the film, which includes some graphic descriptions, such as the one where she woke up with Yamaguchi on top of her, and when she went to the bathroom, she noticed her "nipple was bleeding" and that she "had bruises") to combine them all into a chaotic, meandering, but honest and valuable testimony, creating a major catalyst for the advancement of prosecution of sexual violence in Japan. An especially unsettling moment is somewhere 57 minutes into the film, where Shiori reads an anonymous e-mail of a woman who berates her: "With the book, I am ashamed we belong to the same gender. Do you think you haven't done anything wrong? I was strictly raised to avoid such things." While this self-depicting approach is mostly just a primary source, it manages to create a fascinating film essay of the victim insisting on her rights and justice, exposing the often situation where an influential perpetrator knows powerful people, and is thus able to "cover-up" the incident, but not delay the trial at the end. It is a bitter and significant human rights work, and a one that shows Shiori's closure of this crime.

Grade:+++

The Paper Chase

The Paper Chase; drama, USA, 1973; D: James Bridges, S: Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, John Houseman, Graham Beckel

James Hart is a student at Harvard Law School, specialising in contract law, but his Professor Kingsfield is very demanding and difficult to work with. Hart starts a relationship with Susan, but is surprised to find out she is Kingsfield's daughter, about to get divorced from her husband, so Susan doesn't mention Hart to Kingsfield. A student, Kevin, is so under pressure from studying despite having a photographic memory, that he contemplated suicide, so he quits Harvard. Hart and his friend Ford study for the final exam in a hotel room for three days. When he gets his test results in the mail, he makes a paper plane and throws it into the Ocean, unopened.

"The Paper Chase" is one of those rare movies composed only out of pure intelligence. It is a static drama where the students just listen to the lecture of their Professor Kingsfield explaining contract law through the Socratic method, i.e. in the form of questions, answers and discussions with the class, but it is surprisingly fascinating to listen to, mostly thanks to the excellent performance by John Houseman (previously a theater and film producer) as the demanding Kingsfield. Whenever Houseman is on the screen, he brings down the house through his understated charisma, intelligence and stoic-elevated discourse. And he references real-life legal cases, such as Hawkins vs. McGee, where a boy had his hand burned by an electric wire, a doctor promised him a new skin, but he transplated it from the boy's chest, thereby causing hair growth on the palm of the hand of the transplated skin, using this as an example of the expectation damages rewarded to the plaintiff. 

Kingsfield and a student have exchanges such as this one: "What are the elements that could lead to a party being excused from performing his part of the contract, and yet not paying damages?" - "Well, suppose I were to agree to rent an apartment from you. An old apartment which you haven't visited in a while. And the time came for me to move in, and we discovered the apartment house has been burned down. That actually happened to me..." However, the rest of the film is a step below, since the main protagonist Hart and his love interest Susan are bland and not that interesting, and thus the movie starts to drag with them as the main catalysts of the story. Hart is introduced in the first sequence which already plays out in the classroom, when Kingsfield calls him out: "Now that you're on your feet, Mr. Hart, maybe the classroom might be able to understand you. You are on your feet?" - "Yes, I am on my feet." - "Loudly Mr. Hart! Fill this room with your intelligence!" Their later animosity culminates with this: "You are a son of a bitch, Kingsfield!" - "Mr. Hart, that is the most intelligent thing you've said today! You may take your seat." It is a pity there is practically no interaction between Hart and Kingsfield outside the classroom—considering Hart is dating his daughter, this could have been used to meet Kingsfield and find out more about his private life, but that never happens. Kingsfield is always formal to him. The inspiration falls a bit in the second half, where less of the movie plays out in classroom, but it has an interesting point where students just chase that paper which gives them a certificate that they achieved something in society—but Hart then just frees himself from this, in a very symbolic final scene.

Grade:++