The Last Letter From Your Lover [2021] ★★
I like a good old-fashioned love story as much as the next person, but Netflix’s “The Last Letter From Your Lover” misses the mark on multiple occasions, despite a good cast. Felicity Jones is wasted as an ambitious journalist who discovers a pile of love letters from 1965, which leads her to investigate the mystery at the center of this forbidden love. The movie borrows a lot from such classic love stories as “Brief Encounter” and “An Affair To Remember”, especially when we go back in time to learn more about these characters. Shailene Woodley is good as the married woman who falls for another man. And the film is well-shot, but there’s never a sense that we’re watching something special, or at least memorable. If you’re curious about it, it’s still an entirely watchable film. But just know that you may or may not remember it the next day.
2020 was a terrible year for moviegoers, and with the absence of cinemas, it was so easy for a lot of movies to get lost in the shuffle. “Sylvie’s Love” comes straight out of Amazon Studios, and it’s an old-fashioned loved story that I thoroughly enjoyed. Set in the 1950’s and 60’s, the film follows the love story between an aspiring saxophonist (Nnamdi Asomugha) and the daughter of a record store owner (Tessa Thompson). They meet during the summer of 1957, but life and its consequences forces them to separate, before meeting again a few years later. Like I said, this is as old-fashioned as they come, with two solid performances and great attention to detail. “Sylvie’s Love” is easy to watch and just as easy to admire. It doesn’t pretend to be anything more than it is, but the characters are well fleshed-out, giving us rooting interest right from the start. If love stories are your go-to destination, then consider this one a must-see.
Think of every bad movie you’ve seen (including the preposterous “50 Shades” trilogy), dig deeper and there you’ll find “365 Days”, a film so atrocious and so stupid, it shouldn’t be allowed to exist in this day and age. A truly awful Michele Morrone plays Massimo, a member of the Sicilian mafia family who has his own ways of making women fall in love with him: by kidnapping them. I swear I’m not making this shit up. His victim? Laura, a sales director on vacation with her boyfriend. Massimo is convinced that she’s the woman of his dreams, so he kidnaps her and gives her 365 days to fall in love with him. Seriously, I’m not making this shit up. Of course, Stockholm Syndrome is on the menu, which leads to a series of dull erotic sequences. Looking for a story? You won’t find any here. “365 Days” fails on every conceivable level. One may also argue that it’s offensive by blatantly romanticizing kidnapping. One thing’s for sure: you won’t find a movie as badly scripted, directed, and acted as this. It’s a horrible horrible thing to witness.
I didn’t think I’d care for another version of “Little Women”, but now that I’ve seen what writer-director Greta Gerwig has managed to achieve, I have to apologize. This is a beautiful film from start to finish, a staggering achievement from a filmmaker that doesn’t play by the rules. How can a story written by Louisa May Alcott over 150 years ago still feel fresh and timeless in 2020? It’s a simple story on the surface: Four sisters who grew up together have to make life-changing decisions once they’ve come of age. And much like life itself, these changes can be audacious and sometimes cruel. Although the film’s emotions are immediate and contemporary, Gerwig never lets us forget that this is still a period piece, set at a time when men made most of the decisions. The costumes, sets and locations have an organic feel to them that suits all the wonderful performances. Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and Eliza Scanlen are all perfectly cast. And there are no weak links in the supporting cast, including Timothée Chalamet, Laura Dern and the great Meryl Streep. I don’t say this quite often about a recent release, but “Little Women” is impossible not to love, especially with Yorick Le Saux’s stunning cinematography and Alexandre Desplat’s evocative score. It’s a reminder that no genre is completely played out when there’s a talented filmmaker around to see it with fresh eyes. And indeed, Gerwig has managed to pull-off the impossible: turn a familiar story into a full-blown triumph. “Little Women” could well be my favorite period piece, ever.
In modern romantic movies, from the words of Nicholas Sparks to “The Fault in Our Stars”, tears are the ultimate goal. Just get a load of “The Sun is also a Star”. I watched the film version of Nicola Yoon’s novel surrounded by people who probably read the book (I could tell from their excitement). As for me, I didn’t have any particular expectations. Surprise: the movie isn’t a painful endurance test. Sure, it’s corny. But it’s also sweet, and that’s what makes it worth seeing. In telling the story of how two young people (Yara Shahidi and Charles Melton) meet and fall in love in one day, director Ry Russo-Young makes the most of New York’s city beautiful spots, shooting everywhere from Central Station to small cafes that truly make you feel like a tourist. Of the story, I can tell you that it has too many coincidences that might not go down easy with audiences seeking something more “real”. Still, you can’t blame fans too much for being seduced by two shiny young stars in a bittersweet love story. I’ve seen my share of good and bad romantic films. “The Sun is also a Star” falls somewhere in between. It doesn’t hit all the right notes, but it’s an enjoyable ride overall.
Hollywood has given comedies a black eye these past few years, so it’s always refreshing to encounter one that doesn’t fail to entertain. “Long Shot”, directed by Jonathan Levine (if you’ve never seen his terrific movie “50/50”, do it now) and starring Seth Rogen and Charlize Theron as two people with almost nothing in common, shouldn’t work as much as it does. But it does, and I had a mighty good time watching it. Theron is running for Presidency. Rogen is an unemployed journalist who gets hired as her speechwriter. Here’s the twist: she was his babysitter once upon a time and he had a major crush on her. That’s “Long Shot” in a nutshell, an entertaining comedy that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still manages to deliver the goods. I just wish it was a bit shorter and didn’t drag too much during the final act. Still, there’s a lot to enjoy here, and in a summer that promises to be filled with blockbusters, it’s not too bad to sit back and relax with an old-fashioned comedy like this one. It’s not a game-changer or anything, but the chemistry between the two leads makes it worth seeing. Who would have thought?
You can see it coming a mile away. Naive young college girl (Josephine Langford) meets and falls in love with a bad boy (Hero Fiennes Tiffin). They embark on a somehow “impossible” relationship (I believe the word I’m really looking for is “toxic” but who am I to judge?). Then something draws them apart. You know how these stories go. Novelist Nicholas Sparks has provided material for many similar stories over the past few years, and they all follow the same formula. “After” was adapted from a novel by Anna Todd (who originally wrote the story on a fanfiction site dedicated to Harry Styles, but you probably couldn’t care less about that), and quite frankly I couldn’t tell the difference. To say that this film is predictable from the word go would be a spoiler only for people who have never been to the movies. Worst of all, I don’t really know who the target audience is. It can’t be for young adults, as it somehow glorifies a toxic relationship. It’s not for adults either, as it will probably bore them to tears. So who is it for really? Probably no one, and that’s probably for the best.
I bet you couldn’t wait for the next movie about two sick teens who fall in love. I’m kidding, of course, but if you’ve seen “The Fault in our Stars”, then you probably know what to expect from a movie like “Five Feet Apart”. Personally I’ve enjoyed the former and I don’t mind sentimentality in movies, but this one just doesn’t have what it takes. In telling the story of how two teenagers (Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse, in his feature debut) with cystic fibrosis meet and fall in love in a hospital, director Justin Baldoni relies heavily on every genre cliché in the book. The actors do their best, notably Haley Lu Richardson who truly makes the whole thing go down easier with her humor and likable character. But movies like “Five Feet Apart” should leave me feeling something. Sadly, I did not. I’d say it was easy to watch, and just as easy to forget. But if you’re a sucker for this kind of romantic films, then you might find something here. Others, you’ve been warned.
This stunning movie from Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski is up for 3 Academy Awards, and deservedly so. Shot in beautiful black and white and set against the backdrop of the 1950’s Cold War in Poland, Pawlikowski tells an impossible love story between two musicians: Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), a jazz musician putting together a traditional folk group that sings traditional songs about love and heartbreak, and Zula (wonderfully played by Joanna Kulig), who joins his group to become a professional singer. The emotional impact comes from our ability to relate to these characters from the word go, and you couldn’t ask for better actors to fulfill this mission. There were times where I forgot I was watching a modern film and convinced myself that both these actors were straight-out of a 1950’s film. That’s not to say that the film is merely a star vehicle. Everything else, from the music to the costumes to the cinematography, are simply beautiful. “Cold War” is clearly a labor of love for Pawlikowski and his collaborators, and the result is cinematically and emotionally dazzling. It’s a thing of beauty.
Let's Talk About Movies 