Diva! (2017) Open Roads 2018

Stunning portrait of actress Valentina Cortese has eight actresses speaking on camera as Cortese while a wealth of clips  highlighting her career, and acting as a cinematic Greek Chorus to her life play.

If you want to see a film that will make you fall in love with it's subject see DIVA! Half way into the film I wanted to run to the computer and find every film she was every film she was ever in (IMDB says it's 105).  Call me heathen, but while I know I've seen Cortese in films it wasn't until I saw this film that I connected up all her film roles an realized who she was and what she's done.

I really don't know what to say but this is one of the my favorite films at Open Roads and probably of the year.This is a film for lovers of film and of a life. It is an absolute delight and highly recommended.

For tickets and more information go here

The Place (2017) Open Roads 2018

Valerio Mastandrea gives a great performance as a nameless man who seems to have all of the answers. Day and night people come to him asking for their wildest desires and he tells them how to achieve it, but telling them there is a price. he also demands that the return to him regularly to update him with details.

Based on the series The Booth at The End, THE PLACE is a heady and expected charmer. While it clearly asks us to ponder what we would do to get what we truly wanted, the film also gives us a glimpse into the hearts and souls of the people visiting this name less man.

Despite being a kind of cinematic stage play, we never leave the man or the table though time clearly passes, this is a gripping film.  We are sucked into the lives of everyone who passes, and even the an himself. Who is this person? We don't know What is his game? We can only guess. In theory this shouldn't be as compelling as it is but the entire cast sells the whole affair. We believe everything e are seeing which says a great deal.

Highest praise has to go to Valerio Mastandrea who asks questions, says stray comments and writes in his book. He seemingly does very little but reveals everything to us in each look and gesture. By the time the end comes around we feel the weight of the world upon him.

While I highly recommend the film I will pass on one word of warning, if you want action and changes of scenery look else where. This film is all talk in one place. For those who can accept that this is going to be a glorious way to start this years Open Roads look at new Italian cinema.

THE PLACE plays Thursday May 31st at Lincoln Center. For tickets and more information go here.

The annual Open Roads Festival of New Italian Cinema opens Thursday

Open Roads is one of the great festivals in any film year. Lincoln Center’s annual survey of Italian cinema always gives me a whole bunch of cinematic delights that I would never have seen otherwise. Every year I’m always tempted to see everything because the films are always so wonderfully curated. There is almost never a bad film, only one that looks weak only when compared to the other high quality films.

This year is the same way, there is nary a bad one in the bunch, and I’ve seen pretty much everything they are running. While there is one film I’m not reviewing because I’m the wrong person to talk about it, everything else is choice and recommended. That may sound like PR BS but it’s not, I really liked everything I’ve seen.

If you need a push why not try THE PLACE, BOYS CRY or STORIES OF LOVE THAT CANNOT BELONG IN THIS WORLD-. Though see whatever interests you because there is something for everyone.

The festival starts Thursday and runs through June 6th . For more information and tickets go here.

Vault of Walt 6

Sixth time out of the gate for Jim Korkis is a delight. The Vault of Walt 6 is one of the best in the series. While it may not have what you’d think were tantalizing tidbits it has some the best and most satisfying.

As long time readers know I am a huge fan of Jim Korkis’ work (see my previous reviews here) and a huge fan of his Vault series. I instantly snap up each and volume as it comes out and I devour them as fast as I can. I do this because Korkis is one of the finest historians, of any sort, I’ve ever run across. The depth of his knowledge and understanding is limitless. When you read something by Korkis you know you aren’t getting a regurgitated fact but something more with the understanding and context of what something means. Jim is telling us this story for a reason beyond filing a page.

A case in point is the opening chapter on Abraham Lincoln. In the opening chapter get the story of Walt’s love of Lincoln which took hold in his early days when he would recite the Gettysburg Address in school on traced it how followed through his life to the point where Lincoln appeared at the World’s Fair in 1964 and eventually the Hall of Presidents. In the chapter we get this glorious sense of how Lincoln shaped Disney’s person and sense of justice.

Of course there are some other chapters which delight, such as one on Walt and Chaplin- who helped shepherd SNOW WHITE through to completion. There are bits on Disneyland in 1957 and 1967 that are just put the changes happening in the park into wonderful prospective, and a whole history of the Love Bug.

Interestingly there is also a killer chapter on Bob Clampett connection to Disney that talks of his connection to Mickey Mouse dolls and his later work on Disney spoofs. Its a fantastic chapter that talks about a lot of things including the in now infamous COAL BLACK AND DE SEBBEN DWARVES which explains the care that studios other than Disney put into their making of aniated shorts.

My  favorite bit is a tiny piece that mentions that King Kong was killed by planes with Mickey Mouse on their sides because RKO tricked the fliers of Floyd Bennet Field to fly around the EMpire State Building-and their insignia had mickey on it.

What can I say this is yet another must read for any Disney fan and more importantly any film fan.

Thank you Jim Korkis.

The book is available from Theme Park Press, Amazon and other book sellers.

The Brooklyn Film Festival Starts Friday

The Brooklyn Film Festival starts Friday and it runs until June tenth. If you are in the New York Metro area and can get there I highly suggest you go.

The festival is now 21 years old and it’s been a festival that we at Unseen have been covering since we started. As a result I have a warm place in my heart for the festival. The festival was place where I did one of my first interviews when I stumbled upon Stephan Wassmann the director of SCRAPPERS and ended up having a very long conversation with him about his film in the lobby of the now gone Brooklyn Heights Cinemas.

While the festival has bounced around Brooklyn over its life time it has never stopped showing great films. This year is no exception. As this posts I’ve only seen a couple of films but what I’ve seen in choice. (Give AFGHAN CYCLES a shot if you can) I have more films slotted to see and I’m hoping to get some reports from some of Unseen’s Brooklyn correspondents. Keep an eye out for reviews closer to time.

For more information and tickets go here.

Mat Tales: True Stories from the Bizarre, Brutal World of Pro Boxing

One of the first releases from Pulp Hero Press, a blood relative of Bob McLains’s awesome Theme Park Press, Mat Tales is good little look at some of the weirder things that have happened in the boxing ring.

Compiled by Dan Sisneros, a feature writer for ProBoxing Update and a former boxing judge, the book recounts some of the things that he saw happen. We are treated to recounting of the Mitch Greene Mike Tyson street brawl, the infamous Fan Man who crashed the second Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield fight fight, Bowe's battles with Andre Golota and the blink and you'll miss it Crawford Grimsley James Thunder fight which answers the question, how short can a fight be?

Once I got past the slight disappointment that this was not going to be larger compendium of ring weirdness I fell in love with the book. As a longtime fan of the sweet science I witnessed a number of the events myself on TV. Some I remembered and some I didn’t. Once you’ve seen the Fan Man incident you can never forget it. Intrigued by many of the reports of fights I hadn’t seen I found myself bouncing back and forth to Google to try and run down video of the incidents. Talk about stretching your time with a book…. This is gets better and better the farther into the book you go.

I had a blast reading Mat Tales. While it may not click with all audiences, for anyone who has any interest in boxing the film is worth getting. It’s a great deal of fun. Best of all it makes you hope that there are going to be more volumes.

Deadly Spaghetti

Breezy pocket guide to some off the beaten path Spaghetti Westerns is an amusing fast read.

Put together by John LeMay who wrote the Big Book of Japanese Giant Monster Movies , which I love, this small scale book is similar to the earlier volumes, however the tone is much less serious to the point that I thought the book was written by someone else. The tone of the book makes this much more like shooting the breeze than authoritative.

The collection of the films breaks each film via certain categories (Moral Message, Best Unintentional Moment, How Accurate is the Poster, The Spaghetti Code ect.) with each film ultimately rated as good bad or ugly.  Most of the real writing takes place in the Background & Commentary section where the plot is laid out in detail and Lemay discusses the films in a friendly and matter of fact way. Its the sort of discussion you'd have while sitting around with your friends.

The choice of films is interesting in that LeMay intentionally steers away fro the great films and instead focuses on 31 lesser known films many of which you're going  to find on bargain DVDs and streaming on the internet for free or next to nothing. Sure we get KEOMA and MANNAJA which are two excellent westerns, but we also get things like JOHN THE BASTARD, SHANGO or TWICE A JUDAS which are nowhere near as well known.

I had a blast reading the book, especially since the tone is loving but far from academically serious. Its a sweet little trifle of  book. If you like westerns its worth a look. Be warned though, this isn't  a reference guide but merely a friendly a pointer, which  isn't bad

THE INTERPRETERS (2018) Telluride Mountainfilm Festival 2018

This is the story of three interpreters, Phillip Morris, Malik and Mujtaba who worked for the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan and looking to find safety in America. We follow them over several years as they explain what their job was like and as they try to navigate the

This is an excellent documentary that really gives you a sense of what it is like to work with the Americans. We see exactly what that means from the good things to the dangers of simply being out with the soldiers on patrol to the fact that extremist forces have marked them for death because they choose to work for their enemy. It's a scary story that I really haven't seen so clearly and level headedly portrayed. There is no holding back and no sugar coating.

The film will also really piss you off as the men who served America are kind of left to twist in the wind as bureaucracy makes what was supposed to be a ten month fast tracked process to get them to America   taking the glacial five years as they live in constant danger of being killed for having connections to America. By the end of the film you will want to stand up and do something especially since the Trump administration has slowed the visa process to a crawl.

This film is one of the most important of the year and is a must see  because it highlights a part of our military misadventure that we don't really consider despite it being one that should be in the forefront.

Go see this film.

THE INTERPRETERS World Premieres May 26th and 28th at the Telluride Mountainfilm Festival. For more information and tickets go here.

In Her Words: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, The Woman Behind Merchant Ivory June 8-13 at the Quad

The Quad celebrates two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the woman behind Merchant Ivory's most beloved works, with a 12-film retrospective. Titles include: The Remains of the Day, A Room With A View, Shakespeare Wallah, The Guru, and more!

With James Ivory and Jhabvala's daughters Renana Jhabvala, Firoza Jhabvala, and Ava Jhabvala Wood in person at select screenings

The creative sobriquet of Merchant Ivory was coined, at the outset of what became nearly 50 years of storied moviemaking, from the surnames of director/screenwriter James Ivory and his partner and producer Ismail Merchant. Yet there would not have been Merchant Ivory as we came to know it without a third core collaborator, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who became far and away the team’s favored screenwriter. She was born in Germany of Polish and Jewish ancestry, and then raised in the UK in the 1940s; she and her husband would live both in his native India and in her New York working base. As this citizen of the world drew high praise for novels and short stories, she was asked to write the screenplay adaptation for Merchant Ivory’s first feature — and the rest is screen history. Jhabvala won two Academy Awards, for her E.M. Forster adaptations A Room with a View and Howards End, and was nominated again for The Remains of the Day. She was later made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). Her screenplays cast a compassionate eye on the nuances of the human condition, quietly advocating for self-awareness while exhorting the excitement of exploration.

Image courtesy of Photofest
Autobiography of a Princess
James Ivory, 1975, UK, 60m, DCP
Le Divorce
James Ivory, 2003, U.S., 117m, 35mm
The Golden Bowl
James Ivory, 2000, U.S./France/UK, 130m, 35mm
The Guru
James Ivory, 1969, U.S./India, 112m, 35mm
Heat and Dust
James Ivory, 1983, UK, 130m, 4K DCP
Howards End
James Ivory, 1992, UK, 142m, 4K DCP
Mr. and Mrs. Bridge
James Ivory, 1990, UK/U.S./Canada, 126m, 35mm
The Remains of the Day
James Ivory, 1993, UK/U.S., 134m 4K DCP
A Room With a View
James Ivory, 1984, UK, 117m, DCP
Shakespeare Wallah
James Ivory, 1965, UK/India, 120m, DCP
A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries
James Ivory, 1998, UK/France/U.S., 127m, 35mm
Surviving Picasso
James Ivory, 1996, U.S., 125m, 35mm

How Long Will I Love U: Chinese Time Travel Makes a Comeback

From 1999 to 2018, Shanghai real estate values skyrocketed. That is a reality that will jump out at an aspiring property developer like Lu Ming when he gets a chance to see the future with his own eyes. However, fate will not allow him to profit from his advance knowledge. He also happens to be rather distracted by his fellow time traveler, Gu Xiaojiao. They live in the same apartment during different time periods, but suddenly they become reluctant roommates in director-screenwriter Su Lun’s How Long Will I Love U, which opens this Friday in New York.

Gu used to live a life of privilege, but it all collapsed after the untimely death of her father. Lu has a vision of an exclusive building of loft condos, but his only potential investor is conspicuously dodgy. Both are missing something in their lives when destiny throws them together. One fateful morning, they wake up to find their apartments have been merged together. When they leave the flat, they enter either 1999 or 2018, depending on which one of them opened the front door. The entire apartment is sort of like the mailbox in Il Mare (The Lake House).

At first, there is a whole lot of bickering between the two roomies, but slowly, a sort of Tracy-and-Hepburn romantic attraction starts to percolate between them. However, viewers also start to pick up hints that there might be some connections between the time travelers even they are not aware of. Then they get a load of Lu’s future (or present) self.

How Long starts out as a mildly goofy rom-com, but it evolves into an endearingly bittersweet time travel fantasy. Although not as tragic as Il Mare (not even close), it gets pretty serious, wading into some heavy themes of redemption, free will, and identity, in a reasonably credible fashion.

Tong Liya truly lights up the screen, making us feel for the insecure Gu, even when she is at her poutiest and most immature moments. Playing Lu at both ages, Lei Jiayin is awkward and reserved to a fault, which rather better suits his more calculating older self. Still, when he allows the façade to finally crack in the third act, it constitutes a real pay-off.

Su Lun keeps the time travel fantastical enough, we can justify overlooking the logical knit-pickings. She also has enough ironic time-line-continuum stuff going on to keep science fiction fans invested. There is some fresh stuff here, but she never over-reaches her grasp. For what it’s worth, it is also somewhat encouraging to hope and assume the Communist government has slightly loosened its absurd ban on time travel narratives, judging from this film and last year’s Duckweed. Recommended for fans of Richard Matheson’s Somewhere in Time and the heart-tugging anime film Your Name, How Long Will I Love U opens this Friday (5/25) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Troll Inc (2018)

Troll Inc is a film I almost passed over. The offer for access to the film came from a PR firm that normally sends me low budget horror films. Occasionally they will handle a small drama needing TLC but largely they handle horror films or thrillers or science fiction films. However occasionally they do handle documentaries, and when they are handling documentaries I always sit up and take notice because their docs are choice. I mention the fact that I almost passed the film over because with the name Troll Inc, I thought it was going to be a horror film. It wasn’t until I took one last look at the email that I realized it was a doc and as such it jumped to the top of must see pile.

Having seen Troll Inc, you should put the film on the top of you must see list.

Nominally a portrait of Andrew Auernheimer who took his skills and went from a money making mad man creating click bait to a wanted criminal and general pain in the ass for authorities with his trolling around various topics, Troll Inc is actually so much more. The film is a super look at the role of the internet and all of social media in today’s world. It’s a film that explains why and how wacked out stories trend, why people seem to be believing weird ass stories and why society seems to be careening toward a cliff of stupidity. It also reveals scary invasions of privacy that reveal we are not really safe on the internet.

I was absolutely shocked by some of the things the film reveals, particularly the wide belief that people seeing nothing wrong with fucking with people’s heads just because. I understand the need to shake people out of complacency and get an occasional laugh but things are getting out of hand people are actually buying some of this nonsense.

But there is so much more to this story and it would take me a couple hours to discuss it all. As a result I’m going to leaveit hear and simply say see this film. Its out on VOD as of today and is worth your time andmoney.

Mary Shelley opens Friday

Elle Fanning stars as the creator of Frankenstein. Covering the period from just before Mary's meeting with her future husband to just after publication of her world altering novel.

Well acted and great looking MARY SHELLEY is a film that manages to generate some emotion despite never really earning it. A kind of speed trip through Mary's life the film hits all the high points with out all of the sensationalism of say Ken Russell's GOTHIC. Indeed the trip that inspired the tale is just one in a series of events that brought the monster to life.

And that is kind of the problem with the film, it hammers away at all of the things that came together to make the novel come together. Every time something happens we get a shot of an expanding universe and a musical underline to let us know that this was one of the moments. It becomes silly after a while with the effect it takes us out of the film instead of keeping us in it.

The music by Amelia Warner is a stunner (I'm going to see about getting a copy) but director Haifaa Al-Mansour has mixed it badly so that it is often intrusive than actually part of the story.

Still despite it's problems the film does generate some emotion at the end. When Shelley returns for a salon where the book is discussed and categorically states that the book was beyond his ability to write and was the work of Mary brought tears to my eyes.

The fact that the film generates emotion despite it all makes it worth a look see

Summer 1993 (2017)

Carla Simon’s autobiographic SUMMER 1993 has the lived in quality that few memory plays ever achieve. Simon’s recounting of what happened when her parents died and she was sent to live with an aunt and uncle is nicely unsentimental. More a warts and all retelling of what happened, or as close to what a six year old would feel and experience.

The film is the story of young Frida. She is, at the start a silent cypher. Something terrible has happened around her and she is being moved around by adults. We don’t fully understand what is happening because Frida doesn’t understand. Taken in my her aunt and uncle she now finds herself with a defacto sister, three year old Anna, on whom she vents her frustration and sadness. The love hate relationship results in Frida being viewed with caution by the adults.

This is a glorious slice of life.  Even in the darkness. Simon has made a film that lives and breaths and as if she had managed to capture a moment in time and show it to us

While the film is wonderful across the board I particularly love the scenes between Frida and Anna. The moments between these two children are incredibly powerful and don’t seem scripted. Watching the pair interact is like watching real children talk to each other. How the hell Simon managed to get them to transcend what had to be a scripted exchanges to be something taken from real life perplexes me. At no moment does it feel fake.

I love this film.

I original screened this film back at the start of the year when the film was playing at some festival or another. Because I was given access to the film late I was asked to hold off reviewing the film until it was released to theaters everywhere. While I groaned and stomped a bit because I soooo wanted to talk about the film I completely understand it because the distributor wanted someone to talk about the film when it would do the most good- at the time of release.

If you love good movies go see  SUMMER 1993.

Better yet go see SUMMER 1993 so that studios know and understand that people don't just want giant blockbusters but really good films of all sizes.

SIGN OF GLADIATOR

Head of the Roman legions allows himself to be taken prisoner by the army of Palmira. Tricking his way into meeting the queen he swears loyalty. Eventually they fall in love, complicating his mission to  crush the enemy army.

Decent sword and sandal film looks spectacular and has a good story. Better than many other similar films, this is one you'd probably watch a second time. While the film can be more than a bit soapy it remains compelling thanks to gorgeous wide screen photography.

Definitely worth a look.

Sinister Capsules CHINESE MACK and MACISTE IN KING SOLOMON'S MINES

CHINESE MACK (1974) (aka Jue Zhao aka Martial Arts)
Young kid wants to learn martial arts. When he grows his family is threatened by gangsters...and you've bee  here before.  That said this is a really good martial arts film with a well told story and some killer action seuences which seem to pop up every couple of minutes. Highly recommended
(A word of warning the film does contain a dog fighting sequence about half way in)

MACISTE IN KING SOLOMON'S MINES
Good looking but rather dull film has the kingdom where King Solomon's mines is located over thrown by greedy no good nicks. In desperation word is sent to Maciste to come and help. He arrives only to fall under a mind control spell- eventually breaking free and pitching the baddies. Lots of shots that would be better placed in a Tarzan film fill the running time. Its not bad but after a good first ten of fifteen minutes it becomes dull and a tad silly.

Talking CARGO with Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke and Kristina Ceyton

With the excellent horror film CARGO opening today in theaters in Australia and on Netflix in the rest of the world I wanted to share the interview I did with directors Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke and producer Kristina Ceyton. The interview took place one day short of one month ago when the film was playing at the Tribeca Film Festival and it was one of the coolest things I’ve done. I say that because everyone were so absolutely delightful I never wanted it to end. I think you’ll like it.

Before I turn you over to the interview I have to give you a couple of quick notes.

First thing you need to know is that the video was made because my audio recorder went on the fritz as I was setting up to do the interview. As a result I had to resort to my back up and use the video recorder. When I set everything up everyone was in the frame and then everyone shifted in their seats and Ben and Kristina drifted out of the frame. It really doesn’t make a great deal of difference since we simply talk. Additionally this is everything, unedited from start to finish

The other thing you need to know is that this is a VERY spoiler filled discussion. From the second question on we are talking about what happens, who lives and who dies and all sorts of other things relating to the film. If you don’t want to know then do not watch this video until after you see the film. If you haven’t seen the film then go watch it then come back and watch this.

Lastly, this is a spoiler filled discussion. I know I just said it but I don’t want to be accused of ruining things if you haven’t seen it.

Escorts (2015)

British documentary about two escorts and their lives.

Okay film looks at making money from sex and fantasy in the modern world. While for adults it's not really purient and kind of makes the life, though not the money as something that just sort of is. I was five minutes in and was like "oh, thats it then?" and it kind of stayed in one place emotionally and went nowhere.

 Not bad but nothing special-which weirdly may mean it is something special- I'm not sure.

First Reformed opens Friday

Just a note or two at the start before I turn you over to the repost of my review 

This is the piece I wrote after the film World Premiered as a sneak preview at the New York Film Festival last October. It is sparse with details since it was the first time anyone had seen it and I don't want to spoil anything just yet.

It was written when my thoughts, passion and enthusiasm were in a fugue state after seeing it. The piece reflects that and I haven't tried to change it.

Paul Schrader sneak previewed his FIRST REFORMED at the New York Film Festival some seven months before it's US release- and the result was screening that ended with gasps, applause and the desire to spend the next two weeks talking about the film.

The film, which concerns a minister in a historic church in Upstate New York who has a crisis of faith and has to wrestle with demons, is a messy masterpiece. The film is clearly Schrader firing on all cylinders and making the film he wanted to make. It is deep discussion on the nature of faith, belief and what God wants from a man who has been pondering the question for the better part of the last half century.

If the film looks and sounds familiar it is because Schrader is in a way summing up. Openly pulling from a variety of sources and filmmaker Schrader is filtering everything he has wanted to say about all of the film's themes in one package. Schrader indicated at the post screening Q&A that a conversation with Pawel Pawlikowski, the director of IDA, that now was the time to make the film on faith that he always wanted to and he attacked it with wild abandon.

Schrader has made a one of a kind film. It's a film that you either go with, especially in the third act or you don't. Schrader is challenging us to go with him no matter how silly a couple of scenes are. He seems to know that not everyone will go with him but he is betting most will. There were some laughs at a couple of things but in the end the film was met with thunderous applause.

Schrader wonderfully upsets expectations. Where he goes and why is rarely where we expect. I don't think anyone was expecting the ending or the journey of how we get there. Schrader subverts our notions of storytelling and forces us to engage or "die".

Talking after the film I said this was the ballsiest film at the New York Film Festival this year and Nora Mandel suggested THE SQUARE and it's off beat scenes might, but I don't think so. To me THE SQUARE is a very messy and unfocused button pusher. Scenes like the dinner party, the You Tube video or the Tourettes while effective are much too calculating. Director Ruben Ostland is simply trying to provoke a reaction in scenes which aren't fully connected to the narrative. He wants the audience to react. In FIRST REFORMED Paul Schrader wants the audience to think. He is telling you a tightly wound story and he is doing it his way. He is well aware the film isn't going to work for everyone but he won't change his story to win people over.

I need to see the film again, preferably right before a dinner with the entire Unseen Films family because I want to see and hear the discussions that result. One of the first things Paul Shcrader said was that the film was going to be the subject of years of college papers- oh hell yea.People will be talking about this for years.

I am floored. It is a film that you can not ignore. It is a film you must see and must engage with.

I have no idea what anyone will think of the film but I know it will force you to react in ways you won't expect. I have no idea how it will play the second time but I can't wait to see what that is. (The fact that is going to provoke you to think and react makes it a film that I will treasure)

(Apropos of nothing - pair this with Scorsese's SILENCE for a really interesting double feature)

This was one of the coolest screening I've ever attended because just being part of the audience which had no expectations and got to react to the film blindly was just magical.

One of the best film at this year's New York Film Festival and of 2017.

Champion: Don Lee Arm-Wrestles

It takes a brave man to star in an arm-wrestling movie after the face-plant that was Over the Top. Ladies and gentlemen, that man is Don Lee (Ma Dong-seok). He is the one who brawled his way through a train car of zombies in Train to Busan. Believe it or not, his character even references the notorious Sylvester Stallone bomb as his inspiration. Yet, Lee manages to surpass his role model in Kim Yong-wan’s unabashedly earnest family sports drama Champion, which opens this Friday in New York.

“Mark” Baek Seung-min is big, but shy. He had a hard time of things during his formative years, so it is understandable. His desperately poor Korean mother gave him up for adoption, but his American foster parents died shortly after his arrival in the States, leaving him essentially on his own. Inspired by Over the Top, arm-wrestling became his only passion, but his professional career was cut short in America by a dubious scandal. His only friend, the sleazy (but possibly decent way deep down) Jin-ki has lured him back to Korea with the promise of managing his professional comeback.

To sweeten the deal, Jin-ki also offers up the address of Baek’s birth-mother, but the arm-wrestler soon learns she has recently passed away from cancer. However, he discovers he has a sister (Su-jin), a niece, and a nephew he never knew of. Suddenly, they have someone to chase away the mobbed-up bill collectors and fix things around the apartment, while Baek finally starts to feel a sense of belonging. Of course, his refusal to throw matches at the behest of a crooked sponsor will probably lead to trouble down the line, especially when the scummy sports bettors recruit Punch, a steroid-juicing, psychotic former contender to be their standard bearer, straight out of prison.

Lee, who was born in Korea, but grew up in America, graduating from Columbia State University, clearly understands where his character is coming from. He is acutely earnest as Baek, but he also looks like he could rip Stallone’s arm off. It is easy to see why he has already reached a significant level of stardom in Korea and is poised to do the same internationally when you see him interacting with Ok Ye-rin and Choi Seung-hoon, the young, ridiculously cute thesps playing his niece and nephew. The fact that he is not dramatically up-staged by them, pretty much says it all.

Lee also shares some nice chemistry with Han Ye-ri’s Su-jin and turns some rewarding third act scenes with Kwon Yool’s heretofore annoying Jin-ki. Unfortunately, Yang Hyun-min and Lee Kyoo-ho make rather generic villains, who really are not very enterprising. Plus, Kim’s screenplay manufactures a lot of bogus drama that starts to try our patience. Yet, we can’t help rooting for Baek and his potential new family, because they all look so good together.

So, to recap, if you need a sensitive hulk, Don Lee is your man. As good old Lincoln Hawk says: “The world meets nobody halfway. When you want something, you gotta take it.” To that end, Lee carries this film and thereby grabs leading man status. Nobody should have any illusions—Champion is shamelessly manipulative and sentimental, but it is an indomitable crowd pleaser—with distinctly Korean sensibilities. Recommended for fans of Don Lee and family-friendly triumph-over-adversity sports movies, Champion opens this Friday (5/18) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

A couple of quick words on End Trip (2018) Cannes 2018

Demented ride share driver is actually a serial killer in disguise.

While not breaking any new ground,Aaron Jay Rome's thriller is much better than you'd expect. Despite doing everything you'd expect it to the film manages to over come a sense of dejavu thanks to Rome's skill as a filmmaker. While very much a horror film, the film looks at times more like a film noir offshoot of Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER with a frequent use of style that makes the film worth seeing.

What I like abut END TRIP is that I actually wanted to see where this goes. More often then not with many recent inde- horror films I have to force myself to stay to the end. Sometimes I make and sometimes I don't.  With END TRIP I stayed to the end because I genuinely wanted to know what was going to happen. Sure I had an idea or two but at the same time I still cared enough to find out. That may sound like faint praise, and something that is going to make the filmmakers pull their hair out, but understand the ability to say this is a good and solid little film is a triumph. The fact that I can simply say "give the film a go it's good from start to finish" is actually better than my saying well this bit is good but the rest is crap.  Rome and his fellow filmmakers have made a film that entertains from beginning to end.

Worth a shot for anyone who likes small scale thrillers with lots of style.