It’s a car!

Oops; this is three hours long. Movies sure are long these days…

So culture.

Gosh! I wonder what he’ll find when he returns home unexpectedly…

I like the pacing the movie has… but so far it’s been kinda… normal? But this is based on a Murakami short story, after all, so soon something semi-mystical should happen.

Could this be the semi-mystical event?

I like the interiors here. Well, throughout the film — they’re very thoughtful.

Whaaa… and now we get the opening titles? 40 minutes in? So I guess that was the prologue.

Well, that’s a really good explanation for him having a driver!

Nice jacket.

The multi-lingual theatre performance schtick is pretty weird. That is, all the actors are speaking different languages. But as we’re watching the film subtitled anyway, it makes absolutely no difference to us.

I think the most accurate genre designation for this movie is “Oscar bait”. It’s a serious, very serious, film about grief and stuff, but more importantly, it stars a (theatre) director and we witness a bunch of actors rehearsing (etc) for a play.

I think that the dictionary definition of “Oscar bait”.

It’s not that I dislike watching people rehearse for a play — I love Noli me tangere — but those scenes here doesn’t really feel real. They seem really contrived.

They’re sightseeing around Hiroshima, see.

The colour grading in this film is a bit much, isn’t it?

Oh, sorry, I kind of zoned out there for an hour. Did anything happen?

Man, this got so much worse than I thought it would. I now understand perfectly why it was nominated for All The Oscars.

What a let down.

But don’t mind me — everybody loves this.

Drive My Car. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. 2021. ⚁

This is quite odd, which I guess is the point. I got all of Jeff Baena’s movies after watching his most recent one, Spin Me Round, and it was just the right amount of zany fun. I’m just ten minutes in here, but this is not… that movie.

Wow! Can on the soundtrack! This is some kinda hipster movie!

Oh, OK, it’s a comedy/horror movie…

It’s just a bit frustrating, because it seems obvious where all this is going now, it’s taking its time.

OK, zombies liking smooth jazz — that’s a solid joke.

They’re going for zany chaos instead of doing actual jokes (with soft jazz blaring), and it’s just a bit exhausting.

Life After Beth. Jeff Baena. 2014. ⚂

I’ve watched quite a lot of movies from 40-45, and surprisingly (to me), very few actually deal with the war at all. But it’s not that strange — audiences want to be diverted, right? But it looks like this is going all in on the war?

Oh, it’s .. it’s… whatsername. Georgia Caine — she’s in a bunch of Sturges films, in small roles.

He’s tall!

Google Translate says that that may mean something like “joyous road”…

This is very funny.

It is somewhat surprising that they’d make something like this at this time — the premise is a guy that’s failed out of the marines (for having hay fever) after a month, but is then mistakenly taken for a war hero when returning home. Hi-jinx ensue. So that’s a normal enough premise, but his soldier buddies (who’ve arranged the whole thing) are slightly sinister, and keep on lying. It’s just a bit… off colour?

I.e., the implication seems to be that all tales told by returning soldiers are lies.

This movie just doesn’t let up. There’s so many chaotic, zany scenes… I don’t think I’ve quite seen anything like it. It should be exhausting, but instead it’s exhilarating.

(He’s the villain.)

It’s very funny, and it’s extremely well made (in that Studio way), and it lands the ending.

Hail the Conquering Hero. Preston Sturges. 1944. ⚄