Film Review: "The Grocer's Son"

A good film never ever ages. And I've confirmed that once again. I am so excited to share what I discovered on Netflix tonight. It's this 2007 small French film that's brimming with charm that it can win anyone over by just one petulant glance of its leading character, Antoine, or by one disarming laughter of Claire, Antoine's friend who comes along with him as he spends the summer in his hometown to help his mother tend to their family grocery business while his father recuperates in the hospital after a heart attack. One could also be won over easily by the captivating and picturesque village used as a fitting backdrop to this film about a grown-up man rediscovering his roots, his life, his family, his true self in the town that he once left, abandoned and promised to never return.

"The Grocer's Son" is such a wonderful, feel-good film that would make one yearn to return to their hometown and experience once again the simple joys and simple pleasures that only the towns of our childhood could offer. In this film, Antoine had to rediscover this only after he had to go back to driving the old family van filled with grocery items from one hamlet to another and meeting the same old folks -- a bunch of quirky but oddly endearing villagers -- he met when he was growing up. He also had to fall in love for the first time to fully realize that for one man to be truly and honestly happy is for him to give a part of himself to something or to someone.

But there's more to the film than just Antoine's personal story. The film is also about a family coming to terms with the return of the prodigal son. The older brother is loving but contemptuous - and is keeping his ex-wife's demand for divorce after becoming pregnant by another man a secret from his family. The mother is forgiving but fearful that Antoine might decide to leave again. But despite all these side stories, the film consistently kept the focus on Antoine and his personal journey. There are so many occasions in the film when the simmering family conflict could have easily been mined for dramatic effect but the director wisely staged each scene with minimal confrontation. The final meeting between Antoine and his father is one fine example of how the filmmaker's restraint succeeded in making what could have been a loud, tense encounter into a quiet conversation that never involved a hug, a tearful reconciliation or a moving score. It was just a father finally talking to his son and a son finally listening to his father. Powerful!

I first saw Nicolas Cazale, the actor who played Antoine, in the film "Three Dancing Slaves" a couple of years ago and the pained expression on his face playing Mark in that film has stuck with me. Tonight, his performance as Antoine is something I will always remember him by. He has only done a few films. I hope to see all of them.

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars

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Raymond

Film Review: "Guten Tag, Ramon"

This heartwarming and deeply moving Mexican film from director Jorge Ramirez Suarez has finally reached Netflix! This is one of the most perfect films for the big Thanksgiving week. It's a beautiful story of kindness, generosity and friendship wrapped around a young man's inspirational journey from his poor and violent Mexican village to a prosperous German city where he discovers that the biggest barrier to human understanding is not the lack of a common language between people but the lack of compassion and empathy. Make sure you have a box of Kleenex handy.

This movie was a big box office hit in Mexico and has received numerous awards since its release last year. It screened in US theaters spring this year.

Young Mexican actor Kristyan Ferrer embodies the courageous and kindly spirit of Ramon whose only desire is to be able to help his grandmother get her medication and to help his mother put food on the table. He is smart enough to avoid the drug trade but attempts several times to cross the US border only to be caught and sent back to Mexico every time. Frustrated but unwilling to give up, a good friend suggests he goes to Germany and work with his friend's aunt. He decides to go equipped with zero knowledge of the German language, a few spare euros, a sheet of paper containing the step-by-step instruction on how to reach the aunt, and a wide-eyed excitement of the opportunity he was sure Germany would offer him. But when he arrives in Germany, he finds that the aunt has moved and no longer lives in the address provided by his friend. Desperate and scared, he returns to the airport to get a flight home only to be told that he needed to pay a couple of hundred euros for rescheduling fees.

With his luck running out, he decides to return to the city where the aunt used to live in the hopes of meeting her by chance. He sleeps at the train station at nights braving the winter cold and, for food, he resorts to begging outside a deli where a kind clerk offers him food occasionally. A retired nurse who he initially meets at a park and later outside the deli, takes pity on him and offer her basement for him to stay. And his story turns for the better. Maybe.

This film is a perfect companion piece to another moving immigrant saga, "Brooklyn", playing in theaters now. Both films feature wonderful performances from the cast and a hopeful ending that will make you feel so good about the world and will make you wish for that kind of heartwarming ending to cap your everyday endeavors so that you'll look forward to the challenges of the next day and the days after with much enthusiasm and excitement.

Rating: 5 Stars

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Raymond Lo

Film Review: "Beasts of No Nation"

Saw this new film from Cary Joji Fukunaga, one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers whose visual compositions and storytelling prowess I truly admire.

His films have this certain aesthetic that lures you in until you are lost in the story and you find yourself virtually immersed in the world that he has created for you.

In "Beasts of No Nation", he takes us to war-torn Africa, to a story of a young boy who witnesses his family murdered by the very government that's supposed to protect them. He escapes and falls into the hands of a violent warlord who trains him in the ways of the war. He becomes a soldier and a murderer. He is forced to become a man in the body of a helpless, scared little boy.

Despite the blood curdling violence, this movie is about the loss of childhood, of innocence, and that is an act more violent than the graphic scenes of boys hacking men to death, or of a woman shot in the head while being raped, or of a young girl trampled to death by a mob of angry boys.

We all know that war can be ugly. But this movie not only shows us how ugly it can get but it takes us to hell. It's horrific and what makes it truly scary is the numbing effect the movie has on you after being subjected to it and you'll feel as if you are the one trapped in it, unable to escape, unable to run. And even if you already find bloody conflicts despicable, this movie will make you abhor it even more.

This film shares some thematic similarity with "War Witch", the Oscar-nominated film from Canada that's also set in Africa and I find both equally masterful and important.

"Beasts of No Nation" bowed in theaters and on Netflix yesterday. It's a major Oscar contender and I wouldn't be surprised if Idris Elba gets nommed for his compelling performance as the rebel leader only known as the Commandant. But the film's greatest performance was delivered by newcomer Abraham Attah, who plays the lead role, Agu. He inhabits his character with a commanding mix of tenderness and ferocity that even if you see pools of blood being rained down on the pavement or walls splattered with blown body parts, when you his eyes, you can't help yourself but glimpse some hope residing in it and we, in turn, pray for his deliverance. I can ramble on forever. Just watch it.

Rating: 5 Stars!

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Raymond Lo