RNZ film reviewer Simon Morris picks his five favourite movies of the year to date. Have you seen his pick of the bunch?
Having spent an inordinate amount of time, I thought, complaining about movies this year, I'm surprised at how many I've enjoyed.
These five are fairly random, but the one thing they have in common is a certain ironic quality. Sad but happy, fun but bitter, painfully sweet. No idea why that is.
Civil War
Civil War has split audiences wherever it plays, but most haters miss the point. This is not a "what if?" sci-fi thriller. This is an "it's already happening" story of the logical conclusion to today's culture wars.
Three journalists - old, middle-aged, young - get as close to the action as they dare, and discover the war is really about their role. Do people even want the truth these days? Career-best performances by Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons, but the real star is writer-director Alex Garland.
Drive Away Dolls
Drive Away Dolls is the Coen Brothers movie we've been wanting for a while - even if it's only Ethan this time. It's sharp, it's funny, it's screwball - and it's mostly lesbian.
Ethan Coen and his wife Tricia Cooke go back to Coen's roots for a caper film about mysterious packages, plaster casting and incompetent bad guys. It's Some Like It Hot meets Thelma and Louise, with Matt Damon in his dumbest role yet. How can you resist it?
How To Have Sex
How To Have Sex (directed by Molly Manning Walker) is an ultra-low budget tale of three young girls off the leash on holiday in Crete. They want booze, they want fun and they want to hook up as soon as they get there. And despite this bald description, it's almost painfully sweet, particularly star Mia McKenna Bruce.
If you loved last year's Scrapper and Aftersun, if you were ever a teenager… Best. Holiday. Ever. Just not the one you were expecting.
American Fiction
Thelonius "Monk" Ellison is a respected rather than a best-selling author. So he decides to dumb it down for a joke. And to his horror... American Fiction (directed by Cord Jefferson) is funny, it's cruel, it's horribly true, and despite itself it's not as cynical as it thinks it is.
And it's a rare starring role for the great Jeffrey Wright, after years of adding class to everything he's been in. More please.
Perfect Days
German Old Master Wim Wenders makes the year's most unexpected charmer. Hiroyama has turned his back on his old life and now devotes his life to maintaining Tokyo's famous, up-market public toilets. Then one day he's dragged back to life by his runaway teenage niece. There's more, there's much more, mostly all under the surface.
Star Koji Yakusho was named Best Actor at Cannes, but by the end of Perfect Days you already know that.
