there's always a sweaty sheen of exploitation to a sean baker movie and very little curiosity about a person beyond their external circumstances. looks like a music video before it starts looking like a travel documentary. lots of repetitive gags. it's never hitting as hard as it thinks. very boy (derogatory).
there’s a real care and intuition kore-eda has with children and how they are able to create their own worlds separate from adults. the ending is an explosion of sun and possibility. it’s gorgeous. i had one of those genuinely satisfying cries in the dark of the theater as the credits rolled.
after the first scene, i started to brace myself whenever marianne jean-baptiste appeared on screen. she fills the air with complaints and invectives that rain down like hail hitting everything. she's a hurricane force, and there's little room for anyone else to get a word in edgewise, particularly her son, who has withdrawn into silence and food. then the turn happens, the realization of how she attacks before she can be attacked, and how exhausting it is to live like that. just fucking phenomenal.
i like when a movie slowly reveals itself as you watch it with each turn and surprise. at first susan chardy's deadpan is funny, the kind of unresponsive mask you put on to deal with crazy relatives. it's that, but takes on a weary edge with time. the familial radius gets wider, eventually encoming "the community" to become about how those ties can bind and chafe, eventually asking at what point we cut through them. marvelous.