YNOT at the Movies

In the deeply divided United States of America nowadays, many right-wing individuals are more likely to fit the profile of being violent and extreme. But the director Craig Zobel's satirical bloody thriller "The Hunt" (USA 2019 | 89 min.) turns the table around and pokes fun at the liberals, without sparing the right-wing as the butt of the joke. This is the most violent movie I have seen in a while. In fact, its violence is part of the reason for the original delay of the film's release last summer when two mass shootings took place in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. But despite a thin plot line and the over the top gore, the movie is quite amusing and exciting.

Just think about the following scenario for a second. In order to find an outlet to release the anger and frustration, a bunch of elite liberals come up with a scheme to kill a dozen of people from the right part of the political spectrum, for fun. They round up a few gun-toting, immigrate-hating, global-warming-denying, Trump-supporting, redneck-talking individuals to a secret location and then hunt them for sport. It sounds absurd, doesn't it? But the film remarkably pulls this plot off, while having a lot of fun in the mindset of these liberals who think their targets are a basket of deplorables who deserve to be eliminated.

Gagged like attending the Folsom Street Fair, a group of people showed up at an unknown location. Before they know where they are and why they are here, they get shot, stabbed, blown up, and chased after.

But Crystal (Betty Gilpin) is smarter and tougher than the rest. She outplays her hunters and closes in on the ring leader Athena (Hilary Swank). Once they face each other with Beethoven's music in the background, they finish off the game by a brutal physical fight without sorting off their ideological differences.

The director Craig Zobel keeps the killing spree on the screen lean and efficient. Just a few minutes into the movie, you will lose count of how many of these "deplorables" have been killed. And many of these deaths are quite messy. In fact, some killings are so violent that they appear to be comical. Fans of Japanese gore genre will definitely have a good time watching the hunt in this movie.

Obviously the film isn't providing a feasible solution to the deep division in politics. Rather, it pokes fun at both sides. While it stereotypes people from the right, it also sharply pokes fun at the left. It's hilarious to hear the NPR-listening hunters talking about the need for kidnapping a black victim for the sake of diversity among their victims. That kind of comical tone nicely matches the over the top gore and provides ample amusement.

So, how to resolve the political divide if the hunting game in the film should not be the path for us to take? The coronavirus might offer a clue.

"The Hunt" opens on Friday, March 13, 2020.

As if to support the point made by the legendary director Martin Scorsese about superhero movies, the director Cathy Yan's latest DC Comics adaptation "Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" (USA 2020 | 109 min.) is a noisy over-the-top farce. Watching this film is more like flipping through a comic book written for a teenage girl. The film is written and directed by women, has an all-female leading cast, and has a plot centered around female characters. But if the film is meant to proclaim women's empowerment, it misfires and adds another repetitive addition to the crowded comic book adaptations.

Before the poker-faced Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) even appears on the screen, her rapid-fired voice-over already takes over the house explaining her psychologist background and her recent break up with Joker, accompanied by animation. She needs to release her grievance by going out in Gotham City and making some destruction.

Other characters are introduced one by one with their names and grievances written across the screen. They include a cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez), a revenger Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a night club singer Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell), a pick-pocket Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco), and a nightclub owner Roman Sionis (Ewan McGregor). After Cassandra steals a diamond from Roman, these characters run around the city, even raid the police station, to get the diamond back. In almost every scene, women kick asses and defeat every male villain in their way, no matter how mean these men look and how big they appear. Speaking of girl-power.

Despite being hailed as the first Asian woman to direct a major studio-backed superhero film, the director Cathy Yan ((阎羽茜) should have made a better choice for her second feature to be a real cinema project. Her award-winning first feature "Dead Pigs" (海上浮城 | China 2018) is a terrific film that crafts a few mesmerizing and lovely characters and tells an engrossing story. But that vision and style in her first feature is nowhere to be found in this loud and ridiculous superhero installment.

Even serving as an action flick, the fighting sequences in the film are repetitive and last too long. They kick, flip, then kick and flip, and on and on. I am not sure why this is labeled as a superhero movie, because besides winning every fight, there is nothing super about these women. But they are surely all angry as hell. Harley's voice-over hardly stops throughout the film and you just want her to shut up. Who cares if she has a Ph.D. in psychology, she rarely has anything meaningful to say anyway.

Judging from Cathy Yan's two features films, you cannot help but to agree with Martin Scorsese's opinion wholeheartedly. Let's hope Cathy Yan will show her immense talent in her next feature like she did in her first feature, by making cinema instead of comic books.

"Birds of Prey" opens on Friday, February 7, 2020.

If the San Francisco International Film Festival and other film festivals year round in the City are not indie enough for you, there is actually an annual SF Independent Film Festival (SF INDIEFEST) where you can indulge yourself in indie films even more. The 22nd SF INDIEFEST takes place January 29 - February 13, 2020 at the Roxie Theater and the Victoria Theatre in the Mission neighborhood. This year's edition presents 57 shorts and 47 features of new independent films from 21 countries.

Here are a few Asian flavored films at this year's festival.

• The Wild Goose Lake (南方车站的聚会 | China/France 2019 | in Chinese | 113 min.)

  The only Chinese language film in competition at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Chinese director Diao Yi'nan's (刁亦男) grim "The Wild Goose Lake" tells another underground crime story in China.

  Zhou Zenong (Hu Ge) is a gang leader who has been absent from his wife (Regina Wan) and his young son for five years. When a brawl between motorcycle theft gangs goes out of hand, Zenong is injured and on the run from police's dragnet led by Captain Liu (Liao Fan). There is a thirty-thousand-yuan reward money for Zenong's capture. After he meets a prostitute Liu Aiai (Kwei Lunmei), they team together to outsmart the gang and police by sacrificing himself for the reward money to be given to his wife.

  The director Diao Yi'nan has been known for crafting crime stories in modern China in realistic form, despite the fact that there are far less violent organized crimes over there, especially with the heightened surveillance security in recent years. You have to rely on his storytelling to overcome your skepticism about the unconvincing plot. Yet, the film is irresistible to watch with the help of an exquisite cinematography by Dong Jingsong.

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• Mellow (メロウ | Japan 2020 | in Japanese | 106 min.)

  The prolific Japanese writer-director Rikiya Imaizumi's (今泉力哉) quiet and bitter-sweet dramedy "Mellow" is a charming delight portraying its characters' unrequited love.

  The artistic and polite Natsume (Kei Tanaka) is a passionate florist running a boutique flower shop called Mellow. He frequently patronizes a young woman Kiho's (Sae Okazaki) ramen shop. Surrounding their seemingly ordinary daily routines, plenty of admiration and unrequited love are floating around involving both themselves and their customers. They deal with each incident, often comical, with candid honesty and earnest grace.

  Rikiya Imaizumi assembles his characters the same way as Natsume stylishly puts together a collection of lovely flowers from the shop. Each character has their unique quirkiness and persona, yet they share a common trait that is kind and likable. Together, they brighten the world and lift the spirit.

  Watching this feel-good film may have the same effect as you bring home a bunch of beautiful flowers. Treat yourself.

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• Come As You Are (USA 2019 | 106 min.)

  Bay Area filmmaker Richard Wong's new road-trip comedy "Come As You Are," tells an extraordinary story about three disabled young men. The film is a remake of "Hasta la Vista" (Belgium 2011) that is inspired by a true story.

  In order to lose their virginity by visiting a brothel in Montreal that caters to disabled men, wheelchair-bound Scotty (Grant Rosenmeyer) and Matt (Hayden Szeto), joined by blind Mo (Ravi Patel), hire a driver Sam (a terrific and hilarious Gabourey Sidibe) to take them up north.

  Good at heart, the film is enjoyable to watch despite some cliché moments.

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• Things I Do For Money (Canada 2019 | 89 min.)

  Claimed to be the first Japanese-Canadian-cello-crime-heist-caper-music-movie by the writer-director Warren P. Sonoda, "Things I Do For Money" is more impressive for its wonderful music than its farcical crime story.

  To audition for the Banff Conservatory, 17-year-old Eli Yaguchi (Theodor Aoki) composes a duo-cello piece that he is going to perform with his older brother Nick (Maximilian Aoki). But their rehearsals leading to the audition are constantly side-tracked by Nick's involvement with an underworld crime organization. The two become the lookout for a gangster Alexi Raduli (Dax Lough).

  Before you get lost in the overstuffed plot, money exchanges hands, people get shot and kidnapped, painting is stolen, and fantastic music is performed.

  Music is the best part of the film, the rest of it is actually quite dreadful. The two talented siblings Theodor Aoki and Maximilian Aoki not only give a terrific acting debut, but also write and perform the film's music. This would have been a pretty good movie if it got rid of all the implausible crime subplot nonsense and told just the interesting story about two young cellists making music and pursuing higher education as Japanese Canadians.

  Of course, that wouldn't be a Japanese-Canadian-cello-crime-heist-caper-music-movie.

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• Vise (Manriki | Japan 2019 | in Japanese | 78 min.)

  Silly, bizarre, comical, explicit, and gory Japanese B-movies are never short in supply at the SF INDIEFEST. This year's selection is Japanese director Yasuhiko Shimizu's (清水康彦) "Vise" about a surgeon's unique solution for women's desire for a smaller face.

  A young cashier (Julian Koike 小池樹里杏) at a supermarket keeps failing her audition for modeling and she blames it on her face for being too big. She comes to a cosmetic surgeon (Takumi Saitoh 齊藤工) for help to make her face smaller. But the surgeon's method for doing it is nothing you can imagine.

  The film might be a social commentary toward Japanese' culture, but the language used in expressing its view might also be lost in translation. The over the top horror-comedy scenes perhaps can only be appreciated by the faithful fans of Japanese B-movies.

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It's time for the annual top-ten list again. Here are the ten best films among the 339 feature-length narrative and documentary films I watched during the calendar year of 2019, no matter when and if a film was released in the US during 2019.

10. The Guilty (Den skyldige | Denmark 2018 | in Danish | 85 min.)

    The writer-director Gustav Möller astonishingly composes a thriller set entirely inside a room where an emergency dispatcher receives a call from a kidnapped woman.

    

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9. We the Animals (USA 2018 | 94 min.)

   The director Jeremiah Zagar crafts a lyrical and dreamy movie about three siblings living in poverty.

   

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8. Joker (USA 2019 | 122 min.)

   Joaquin Phoenix's tour de force performance creates a mesmerizing character in the director Todd Phillips's psychological thriller.

   

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7. Birthday (생일 | South Korea 2019 | in Korean | 120 min.)

   With powerful performances by the lead actors, the director Lee Jong-eon's (이종언) unapologetic tearjerker depicts the unbearable grief from the parents of the victims of the horrific Sewol ferry disaster (世越號沈沒事故) on 16 April 2014.

   

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6. Marriage Story (USA 2019 | 136 min.)

   The writer-director Noah Baumbach's outstanding divorce drama features a few of this year's best performances.

   

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5. A Dog Barking at the Moon (再见, 南屏晚钟 | China/Spain 2019 | in Mandarin | 107 min.)

   Loosely based on her own experience, the writer-director Lisa Zi Xiang (相梓) strikingly unwraps an engrossing family saga.

   

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4. The Harvesters (Die Stropers | France/South Africa/Greece/Poland 2018 | in Afrikaans | 104 min.)

   Etienne Kallos's beautiful directorial debut explores a boy's struggle with masculinity in South African culture after a street boy joins his family.

   

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3. Parasite (기생충 | South Korea 2019 | in Korean | 132 min.)

   The Korean auteur Bong Joon Ho's (봉준호) Palme d'Or winner brilliantly injects social commentary into an arresting and sometimes amusing story.

   

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2. So Long, My Son (地久天长 | China 2019 | in Mandarin | 185 min.)

   The sixth generation Chinese director Wang Xiaoshuai's (王小帅) epic unfolds a heart-wrenching tragic tale in a couple's life that reflects the decades of social and economic changes in China since the '80s.

   

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1. 1917 (UK 2019/USA | 110 min.)

   With stunning technical achievements, Sam Mendes's masterpiece "1917" (UK/USA 2019 | 119 min.) will guarantee you a breathtakingly immersive war experience. My review.

   

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Until next year...

No matter how many war movies you have seen, the Academy-Award winning writer-director Sam Mendes's impeccably crafted World War I masterpiece "1917" (UK/USA 2019 | 119 min.) will guarantee you a breathtakingly immersive war experience. It will sweep you right through the middle of that harrowing war which took place more than a century ago. Besides its stunning technical achievements in cinematography, music, production design, editing, and costume design etc., the director masterfully tells an absorbing story about a couple of war heroes who are not only courageous and brave, but also compassionate and human. This is no doubt one of the best films of the year, if not the best.

The film is inspired by stories told by the director Sam Mendes's grandfather Alfred Mendes, a World War I veteran. On April 6, 1917 in Northern France, the Germans suddenly abandon their trenches and retreat from the Western front. Col. Mackenzie (Benedict Cumberbatch) is going to lead 1600 British soldiers to attack the fleeing enemy in the next morning. But General Erinmore (Colin Firth) obtains intelligence showing that the retreat is a trap. But because telecommunications are cut off, he needs urgently to deliver a letter to order Col. Mackenzie to cancel the attack.

Two messengers Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman) and Schofield (George MacKay) are given the daunting task to deliver the letter across a few miles of no-man's land. They understand the danger lying ahead; they are terrified; yet, they are determined to save the lives of their fellow soldiers, including Blake's older brother (Richard Madden), by delivering the letter before the attack which starts in the morning.

The seemingly simple plot thrillingly unfolds on screen, superbly performed by two lead actors and aided by the triumphant accomplishment from every technical aspects under the extraordinary direction from Sam Mendes. He and his cinematographer Roger Deakins astonishingly compose the entire movie as if it is just one continuous take from start to finish. Even though it's not a single take, you can hardly notice, thanks to the editor Lee Smith.

The one single take effect is not merely a technical exercise, it enhances the storytelling dramatically. As if you have put on virtual reality goggles at the beginning of the film, you are completely immersed into a cold, muddy, and dangerous place where Blake and Schofield must pass through. You are up close and personal to the protagonist during every moment of the film without missing one heartbeat. The experience is both exhilarating and terrifying. Yet, you will hardly notice the painstakingly orchestrated techniques because you will be entirely captivated by what's happening on the screen.

The harrowing war zone in the film is vividly recreated as if you are watching a scene from Peter Jackson's remarkable documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old" (UK/New Zealand 2018). Thomas Newman's brilliant score adds more gravity to each frame.

As if a timeless painting hanging in a museum, with extraordinary realism and stunning visuals, this film illustrates the brutality of World War I and the great sacrifice by the soldiers. These war heroes are all gone by now, but they will not be forgotten.

"1917" opens on Wednesday, December 25, 2019 in San Francisco Bay Area.

It was a different era twenty-three years ago when a bomb exploded in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park that killed two and injured more than a hundred during the 1996 Summer Olympics Games. There were no metal detectors at the entrances like these days, nor were there social media platforms to spread fake news. People got their news from traditional media in those days, but that didn't mean the news media always measured up to the high bar. And of course, the government agencies have never stopped ruining some innocent citizens' lives. The Academy-Award winning director Clint Eastwood took a sharp jab at both the news media and the FBI in his new film "Richard Jewell" (USA 2019 | 129 min.). As a seasoned filmmaker, the director superbly tells the story of the late Richard Jewell, a security guard who was hailed as a hero after the Centennial Olympic Park bombing but became the prime suspect of the bombing shortly after. The seemingly unremarkable Richard Jewell was falsely investigated by the FBI for 88 days and was unfairly treated by the news media. Based on a Vanity Fair article "American Nightmare: the Ballad of Richard Jewell," the film aims to restore Richard Jewell's reputation once and for all, and shows how prejudice and power can destroy ordinary people's lives.

If just judging from the appearance, the overweight Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) may be regarded as an oddball. He still lives with his mom Bobi (Kathy Bates) even though he is 34 years old in 1996; he cannot hold on to a job for very long; he is fascinated with firearms; and he is overzealous about becoming part of the law enforcement.

During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Richard works as a security guard for the Olympic venue, and he takes his job very seriously. During a concert at the Centennial Olympic Park in the evening of July 27, 1996, he spots an unattended backpack under a bench. He alerts security and begins to evacuate the crowd. His diligence significantly reduces the casualties after the explosion of the bomb in the backpack.

From yesterday's nobody, Richard instantly becomes a hero, and Bobi is immensely proud of him. But that fame is cut short when an unethical and ambitious reporter Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde) from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution exposes that Richard is a prime bombing suspect and he is under FBI's investigation, led by Tom Shaw (Jon Hamm).

Considering himself a lawman, Richard initially is eager to help the FBI by volunteering information. But he is not as dumb as the FBI thinks. When he realizes that he is falsely targeted by the FBI, he calls the only lawyer he knows—Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell), an acquaintance from his previous job.

Despite the fact that the FBI doesn't have any evidence against Richard, Richard and Bobi's lives are turned into a living hell by the investigation and the news media. But with conviction and determination, they fight back the prejudicial and unjust treatment that Richard faces.

The director Clint Eastwood certainly knows his subject as good as his craftsmanship. He doesn't floss over the flawed protagonist and presents Richard Jewell as truthfully as possible. By doing so, he makes us more sympathetic toward Richard Jewell, and angrier toward the overreaching government and the corrupt FBI agents. He clearly demonstrates how dangerous the government and the news media can be, and how they can destroy an ordinary citizen. He superbly creates an arresting character that deserves to be seen beyond the news cycle decades ago and to be remembered as a hero, not a bombing suspect.

The director's vision is perfectly materialized by Paul Walter Hauser's terrific performance. He not only physically resembles Richard Jewell, but also brilliantly illustrates Richard's mindset through his demeanor. He is the key in telling Richard's story.

Now we live in an age of disinformation and artificial intelligence. What if we face false information spread by social media to the public, in addition to profiling by the government? Will there be more victims like Richard Jewell? You bet.

"Richard Jewell" opens on Friday, December 13, 2019.

When we are constantly bombarded by news full of war, violence, disaster, corruption, injustice, and doomed climate in this turbulent world, we desperately gasp for fresh air that reflects humanity and kindness. The director Marielle Heller's timely new film "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (USA/China 2019 | 108 min.) offers us a much-needed antidote during this Thanksgiving holiday. We will be thankful for Tom Hanks, perhaps the nicest guy alive, to bring back the saintly figure Mr. Rogers on the big screen. The film doesn't tell Mr. Rogers's story as extensively as last year's beloved documentary "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" (2018), nor is it perfect by all means, but it gently touches and warms our heart nevertheless. It makes us yearn for Mr. Rogers to come back and offer comfort to us, as well as generations to come.

Even though the film opens with a scene in which Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) changes his shoes and puts on his signature red sweater, while amiably singing and talking to the television camera, Fred isn't the film's protagonist. Fred comes to the story to help another man named Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), a fictional version of the writer Tom Junod, who has many issues including his anger toward his estranged father (Chris Cooper).

Lloyd is an award-winning writer for the magazine Esquire. He is given an assignment to write a profile of Fred Rogers, who makes the popular children's program Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Despite the fact that he and his wife Andrea (Susan Kelechi Watson) are raising an infant child, Lloyd isn't too excited about interviewing a TV host who talks to children in a slow and compassionate voice with plain and comprehensible words. But soon after he meets Fred, Lloyd is fascinated by Fred's charisma and demeanor, and he begins to open up to Fred. Between the two, the table is turned and Lloyd becomes the subject of the interview. He starts to reflect on his life and deal with his issues with Fred's unassuming yet potent help.

In the end, a 400-word assignment is turned into a 9,000-word cover story: Can You Say...Hero?

Kindness, acceptance, and compassion is the hallmark of Fred Rogers's personality on and off camera. He dedicated himself to help children while making himself approachable. He was a master of communication and made everyone feel that they are at the center of the conversation, regardless of how difficult the subject matter might be. The director Marielle Heller wonderfully captures that spirit and made Lloyd at the center of the film's story. She skillfully showed us how Mr. Rogers's irresistible affection can profoundly impact not only a child, but just about anyone.

Besides wearing the colorful sweaters and slowing down his speeches, Tom Hanks probably doesn't need to do much else to become Mr. Rogers. They share plenty of common traits as decent human beings. That can be both a blessing and a curse because sometimes it becomes hard to distinguish which one we are watching on the screen: Mr. Rogers or Mr. Hank. No matter who that might be, he is probably the nicest person you have ever known.

Even though there was only one Mr. Rogers, there could certainly be more kindness in this world. That would make it a beautiful day no matter in which neighborhood you are.

"A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" opens on Friday, November 22, 2019.

Thirty-five years ago, James Cameron created sleek and lethal sci-fi characters in "The Terminator" (1984) and made "I will be back!" a catchphrase for Arnold Schwarzenegger. Four sequels and three and a half decades later, Terminators are back with spectacular actions and a couple of more heroines in "Terminator: Dark Fate" (USA 2019 | 128 min.), directed by Tim Miller. Despite its fine execution and exhilarating action sequences, the film is a typical and forgettable franchise reboot.

The film starts in Mexico City, where Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) and her brother Diego (Diego Boneta) live like every ordinary happy family. Dani has no idea that she is the target of the deadly robots, a.k.a. Terminators, created by humans in the future. In fact, there is no time to reason why she has become the target after a Terminator named Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) drops from the sky and zooms in on her. Rev-9 is able to transform himself into the appearance of anyone he touches. He also swiftly eliminates anyone in his way, stylishly and terrifyingly.

Also dropped from the sky is Grace (Mackenzie Davis), an enhanced super-soldier from the future who is determined to protect Dani, and never mind the rationale behind Grance's action either. Immediately, you will be dragged into the eye-popping chase sequences, joined by a vengeful Terminator-hunter Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton).

During the cat and mouse pursuit, Sarah encounters her enemy, the Terminator named T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who is gruff and aged (apparently AI cannot solve the aging problem). Even though T-800 has decided to be more human and claims himself to be extremely funny, this isn't really a happy reunion. However, unlike the US government, Sarah is able to put her grudges aside and gets on with the mission of saving Dani, as well as the human race.

Of course, the story is not entirely making sense, but that's beside the point of this film. It can get away from logic or physics as long as it creates imaginary sci-fi characters involving time-travel. Instead, the film focuses on actions and CGI spectacles. The director Tim Miller knows exactly how to clearly orchestrate action sequences and cut off the mellow portions in between. He is able to pack the film with action sequences that are entertaining regardless of whether they are convincing.

What's even more delightful is the film's humorous references to our current paralyzed political environment, especially regarding immigration. It's also refreshing for this new installment to focus on its three female fighters in the battle with the robots.

But despite its CGI achievement and nostalgic sentiment toward Sarah and T-800, this is just another forgettable reboot of this aging franchise without much to be remembered. Do you recall what happened on Judgement Day and who killed whom in previous installments? That's okay. You won't remember much in this film either after all the noise fades away.

"Terminator: Dark Fate" opens on Friday, November 1, 2019.

Sir Arthur C. Clark once famously wrote: "Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." Yet, space exploration has captivated the imagination of both scientists and artists. There are great films such as "Gravity" (2013) that depict the exhilarating experience about going into outer space, and the frightening effort to try to get back on earth, if at all. But the director James Gray's sci-fi movie "Ad Astra" (USA 2019 | 124 min.) isn't about a thrilling mission of going out of and getting back on earth, rather, it tells a human story unfolding beyond the earth. The film's Latin title means "To the Stars," although its story is quite down to earth. It tells the story about a father-son relationship, while showing us plenty of terrifying moments and spectacular imaginary visuals from outer space.

That son is the focused, confident, and intelligent astronaut Maj. Roy McBride (Brad Pitt) whose pulse rate never exceeds 80 beats per minute no matter under what stressful situations. His unattended father is Clifford McBride (Tommy Lee Jones), a devoted astronaut who leads an exploration mission named Lima Project near Neptune to search for other intelligent lives in the Universe. But the project went dark sixteen years ago when Roy was only 16 years old, and Roy believes his father is dead.

After a series of dangerous electrical surges that cause catastrophic damages on earth, Roy is summoned to go on a top-secret mission to go to Neptune. That's because the U.S. intelligence believes the source of the electrical bursts are coming from the Lima Project and Clifford is still alive and responsible for it. After a stop-over on the moon, Roy is deployed to a military base on Mars where he attempts to make contact with his dad Clifford. If he can establish communications with Clifford, he will travel to Neptune and destroy the Lima Project in order to save the earth and the solar system.

That's a tall order to fill, even for the gifted Roy. When he realizes that his father Clifford is actually alive and he has to persuade him to give up on the Lima Project to save the earth, his heart beat starts to quicken, his assertive voice begins to tremble, his psychological screening begins to flunk, and his emotions toward his dad begin to bubble up.

Even though the setting is not quite convincing (you can open a door when a spacecraft begins to launch, really?) and sometimes rather confusing (what planet are we looking at?), the human story always takes the center stage in the story and the director James Gray patiently let Roy's emotion build up, often in a solitary environment. He also paints a grim picture for the colonized Moon and Mars. Will humans mess with other planets after the Earth is torched up?

To watch Brad Pitt play Roy is pure pleasure. Even though he has two more decades' worth of wrinkles than a 32-year-old, his demeanor and expression perfectly convey taciturn Roy's mind—a strong and wounded soul that both admires and resents his absent father. His deep voice-over resonates as if he is reciting Sir Arthur C. Clark.

Apparently, daddy issue is a more urgent matter to resolve before we figure out if we are alone in the Universe.

"Ad Astra" opens on Friday, September 20, 2019.

If you have read Donna Tartt's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, you would probably feel unsatisfied to say the least by its much anticipated motion picture adaptation "The Goldfinch" (USA 2019 | 149 min.), directed by John Crowley. Despite the fine performances and the lush production for an extraordinary story, the film doesn't quite convey the emotions of its guilt-stricken protagonist. That being said, if you have not read the book, then you may enjoy the storytelling about a young man's incredible coming-of-age journey.

The film's title refers to a painting with the same name painted by Carel Fabritius in 1654. Even though the painting is hanging in the Mauritshuis in real life, for the sake of this story it's displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) in New York City.

When 13-year-old Theo (Oakes Fegley) and his mom visit the Met, a terrorist sets off a bomb and Theo's mom is killed along with many others. Covered in white ash and disoriented, Theo arrives at his classmate Andy's (Ryan Foust) home. Appearing in a perfectly tailored and gorgeous, but always different, outfit in every scene, Andy's mom Mrs. Barbour (Nicole Kidman) takes Theo in as part of the family. Gradually, Theo seems to be getting back to normal hanging out with Andy in their daily routines, but he is hiding his grief for losing his mother. Something else he is hiding is the masterpiece The Goldfinch which he walked out of the Met with in the immediate aftermath of the bombing.

But Theo's life takes another sharp turn when his absent father Larry (Luke Wilson) and his girlfriend Xandra (Sarah Paulson) show up. Larry decides to take Theo to the outskirts of Las Vegas where they live in a home surrounded by foreclosed houses. Theo soon forms a bond with a Russian-born Ukrainian boy Boris (Finn Wolfhard) who lives with his abusive father and is probably the only other kid around the neighborhood. The street-smart Boris teaches Theo things ranging from smoking and drinking to sniffing crushed pills. The painting seems to have been forgotten while hidden under Theo's bed.

Before long, this neglected and idle desert life takes another turn for Theo and he comes back to New York City and finds a safe harbor in Hobie's (Jeffrey Wright) antique shop. Years later, under Hobie's mentorship, and adult Theo (Ansel Elgort) becomes a sleek sales-person for Hobie and reconnects with the Barbour family. But his grief and guilt from that fatal day at the Met never goes away. That long forgotten painting which reminds him of his mom's death also comes back to haunt him.

The teenage and adult Theo's odyssey is intertwined by constant flashbacks. But despite the voiceover confession, how the guilt and grief shaped his mental state and his actions never becomes clear. Even more cloudy is how the painting plays a significant role in his coming-of-age, because the painting could have been easily replaced by a piece of his mom's belongings. It's also puzzling that even though the film uses the painting as its title, it never gives the masterpiece a close-up, nor does it explains why Theo decides to hide it instead of returning it to the Met after he became an adult.

The performance from the fine ensemble cast, however, is quite pleasant to watch throughout the film. Jeffrey Wright is particularly impressive as the knowledgeable and philosophical guardian for Theo. Finn Wolfhard is equally impressive, and even amusing, as the eccentric and resourceful bad boy Boris.

Even though the film may not be a perfect adaptation of the novel, it might serve as a two-and-a-half-hour trailer, so you can go back and read Donna Tartt's best-selling book to fill in the blanks left by the film.

"The Goldfinch" opens on Friday, September 13, 2019.