• Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Lists
    • Yearly Top Tens
    • Trailers
    • Contact
    • Hire Me
    • About
Menu

World of Reel

Street Address
City, State, Zip
Phone Number
Home
IMG_5240.jpg
‘Kung Fury 2’: Batsh*t Crazy Footage Leaks Online as Movie Remains “Held Hostage”
IMG_5239.jpg
AMC to Slash Movie Ticket Prices by 50% on Wednesdays
IMG_5235.jpg
Austin Butler to Star in Matt Ross-Directed ‘City on Fire’
IMG_5228.jpg
Kevin Costner’s $100M Gamble on ‘Horizon’ Now Mired in Legal Dispute
IMG_5226.png
Madonna Biopic is Now A Netflix Limited Series
Featured
Capture.PNG
Aug 19, 2019
3-Hour ‘Midsommar' Director's Cut Screened in NYC
Aug 19, 2019

This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center premiered Ari Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar” this past Saturday.

Aug 19, 2019

World of Reel

  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Interviews
  • Lists
  • More
    • Yearly Top Tens
    • Trailers
  • About
    • Contact
    • Hire Me
    • About

Sundance 2020: ‘Minari' Wins Audience and Jury Prizes; ‘I Carry You With Me' Sweeps Next Section

February 2, 2020 Jordan Ruimy

If there was one movie that wowed critics and audiences at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival it had to be Lee Isaac Chung’s beautifully sweet and simple “Minari.” So much so that last night it won both the Audience and Grand Jury Prize — a first for a movie since 2016 and Nate Parker’s “The Birth of a Nation.”  Based on the director’s own upbringing in the 1980s as a seven-year-old Korean American boy, the film has on-screen father Jacob (Steven Cheung) disapprovingly moving his son, David, and daughter from the West Coast to rural Arkansas with frustrated wife, Monica — she’s irked by the relocation to a mobile home in the middle of nowhere. Troublemaker David and his sister are bored by the vast plains, but have their lives quickly disrupted when their grandmother arrives from Korea to live with them and set the family dynamic straight again, but life gets in the way, and things don’t go as planned. Meanwhile, Jacob passionately wants to use their 50 acres of crop to open his own farming business of Korean vegetables, throwing the family’s finances in danger, his marriage out of loop, and the stability of the family into freefall. Chung tackles the American Dream with the highs and lows of this Korean emigree family. There are shades of Ozu’s bittersweetness here, ditto the perceptive nature that made the Japanese master’s films so indelibly memorable. Each character is fully sketched by Chung, who throws episodic melodrama at his audience to tell his story. A film like “Minari” getting overpraised could be dangerous to its overall impact. Make sure to go into this film fully aware of its simple but substance-filled frames. The lack of any showiness is, in fact, part of Minari’s charm. Whether it can build up an audience upon its release this summer is still up in the air due to the aforementioned subtleties, but this is a film whose every scene was carefully chosen by its director. [B+]

Another double whammy happened in the NEXT section when Heidi Ewing’s passionate gay romance “I Carry You With Me” ended up winning the NEXT Audience and Jury Prize. An effervescent mood piece with incredible relevance, Wing had originally set her sights for the film to be a doc about its two subjects, but when she couldn’t complete it, she decided to tell her story through, mostly, fictitious lens. Set in Mexico, Wing tells the true story of aspiring chef Iván, hoping to land a spot in the kitchen while supporting the mother of his child, and Gerardo, a teacher who, unlike Iván, is not closeted about his homosexuality. However, once they are discovered as lovers and he is no longer able to see his son, Iván makes the arduous trek to cross the border with the promise of the American dream at his disposal. Ewing returns with her solo directorial narrative debut. This bittersweet American Dream is based on an acclaimed New York City chef, whose cuisine pays homage to his beloved country. Lensed by the impressive and fast-rising Mexican cinematographer Juan Pablo Ramírez, Iván’s memory is rendered indelible, making Iván’s predicament of not being able to return to Mexico all the more heartrending. The film is a tender romance and a complicated journey beautifully captured. [B+]

A little less subtle was Edson Oda’s “Nine Days,” which is already getting love/hate reactions. This wildly ambitious, but pretentious, narrative feature won the screenwriting award, but if its watered-down simplified philosophy about life and death may work for some, I found it completely nauseating to sit through. Occurring in some pergatory-like place where people’s souls make a pit stop between life and death, Will (Winston Duke) heads a program to choose who will go on and be born with life and who will ultimately fall by the wayside. The candidates have nine days to prove their worth to Will. The Brazilian-born Oda is filled with ideas, albeit rather clunky ones, and in his feature directing debut chooses to go big or go home with his story, a metaphysical jaunt into a Bresson-inspired unknown. Sure, a movie like “Nine Days” must be commended in its unadorned artistic aim for the skies, but the execution is rather clunky. Will, haunted by the apparent suicide of one of the souls he granted life to, does his “soul searching” in an isolated cabin in a dessert-like Utopia. It’s there where he watches lives unfurl, via VHS tapes no less, on old-school TV screens. You’d think such an advanced world, able to grant breathing life to individuals, would have better technology at its disposal. [D]

← Oscar Next: ‘1917' Dominates BAFTAs Winning Best Picture and Best Director‘Parasite’ and ‘Jojo Rabbit’ Win WGA; Oscar Chances Boosted →

FOLLOW US!


Trending

Featured
IMG_4571.jpg
David Fincher & Brad Pitt Reunite for ‘The Continuing Adventures of Cliff Booth' + Plot Details
IMG_4549.png
Warners Bros. Chief Admits Missteps on ‘Joker: Folie à Deux’: “We Misread the Room”
IMG_4541.jpg
Scorsese’s Next Film? Hawaiian Mob Epic With Dwayne Johnson Eyes 2026 Shoot
Capture.png
Jim Caviezel to be De-Aged in ‘The Resurrection of the Christ'
IMG_4465.png
Harmony Korine Says Hollywood Struggling Because “Movies Suck Today”

Critics Polls

Featured
Capture.PNG
Critics Poll: ‘Vertigo’ Named Best Film of the 1950s, Over 120 Participants
B16BAC21-5652-44F6-9E83-A1A5C5DF61D7.jpeg
Critics Poll: Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ Tops Our 1960s Critics Poll
Capture.PNG
Critics Poll: ‘The Godfather’ Named Best Movie of the 1970s
public.jpeg
Critics Poll: ‘Do the Right Thing' Named Best Movie of the 1980s
Critics Poll: ‘Mulholland Drive' Named Best Film of the 2000s
g4.jpg
Critics' Poll: ‘Goodfellas' Named Best Movie of the 1990s
Critics Poll: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road' Named Best Movie of the 2010s
World of Reel tagline.PNG
 

Content

Contribute

Hire me

 

Support

Advertise

Donate

 

About

Team

Contact

Privacy Policy

Site designed by Jordan Ruimy © 2023