Dear friend,

this week included a couple of bank holiday days, so this gave me the opportunity for two cinema outings. With the complicity of my brain, which imposed total rest through a series of terrible migraines, I also collected many hours on the sofa-plex.

Egg, written and directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, Japan, 2005 - ⭐⭐⭐

I started the week with a Japanese film chosen absolutely at random, and that was such a bizarre experience: a woman is (understandably) upset by the fact that every time she closes her eyes, she sees an egg. And that egg is hatching…
That idea is followed by seventy-ish minutes of fear, obsession, crazy friends and crazier police people in the weirdest J-something film I’ve seen since House.

2LDK, directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi, co-written with Uiko Miura, Japan, 2003 - ⭐⭐⭐

…and then Letterboxd told me that the most popular film by the same director is this one, the title of which stands for the Japanese denomination of a 2-bedroom flat (plus living room, dining room and kitchen). The movie chronicles an evening in such an apartment (although, I guess not all Japanese flats are equipped with a fountain, a piano and a parrot) when the already difficult relationship between the two tenants - two young actresses with very different backgrounds - escalates after they find out they’re both being considered for the same role.
It’s not as weird as Egg, and quite repetitive even during its 70-minute running time, nevertheless, it’s quite enjoyable. An American remake was foreseen but never materialised.

The Phoenician Scheme, directed by Wes Anderson, co-written with Roman Coppola, US, 2025 - ⭐⭐⭐

I started being bored with Wes Anderson’s style fifteen years ago, but then I loved both Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel, each one providing, in my opinion, something new that transcended the trite mise-en-scene.
Isle of Dogs was still fine, but, after that, I feel we went back into tedious territory, with The French Dispatch and Asteroid City failing to make any impression in my memory.
The Phoenician Scheme falls, for me, along the same lines: I go to the cinema, I recognise faces, I struggle to get interested in a story among all the symmetry and 90-degree shots, and when the film ends, nothing’s left.
Several reviews are quite positive about this film; for me, it ranks among his worst ones.
I agree, though, with Chuck Jordan’s appreciation for one specific camera movement.

The Wild Robot, directed by Chris Sanders, co-written with Heidi Jo Gilbert, based on Peter Brown’s novel, US, 2024 - ⭐⭐⭐½

There was so much enthusiasm about this film last year, yet I don’t understand it. Maybe one needs to be a parent to get fully involved in this story. This old heart-of-stone witnessed some humour and a colourful movie, but a plot that was at the same time emotionally basic and narratively over-complicated. And, despite me being usually very prone to tearing up during films, this time it didn’t happen.

The Orphanage, directed by J.A. Bayona, written by Sergio G. Sánchez, Spain, 2007 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

I finally got around to watching this almost 20-year-old Spanish horror, and it was not as I expected it to be: much less focused on scares than on family dynamics. No wonder it’s one of Mike Flanagan’s favourite horrors.
Little Tomás is terrifying though.

Bring Her Back, directed by Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou, written by Danny Philippou and Bill Hinzman, Australia, 2025 - ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

I wasn’t as much in love with Talk to Me as everybody else was, but the second film by the Philippou brothers blew me away.
It takes some time for the film to explain what’s going on, as the ambiguity about Sally Hawkins’ and Jonah Wren Phillips’ characters is slowly removed. This puts us more or less in the same position as Billy Barratt’s Andy, making this film superbly immersive.
I have never recoiled in horror in a cinema before, and I have never heard people in the audience shout to ease the tension.

Phantasm, written and directed by Don Coscarelli, US, 1979 - ⭐⭐⭐

In what film have I seen recently someone going to the cinema to watch Phantasm II? Was it maybe the new Fear Street? Anyway, I was reminded of this series so I gave the first movie a try.
Granted, it’s a bad film that doesn’t make much sense, but it’s entertaining and, in a way, stylish. Somehow, at that time, it got away with stealing from Dune the whole fear is the mind-killer scene.

Horror in the High Desert 2: Minerva, written and directed by Dutch Marich, US, 2023 - ⭐⭐

Right… the second film in this series is much better than its predecessor, so this is an actual two-star rating instead of a reward for the author’s commitment. The videotapes are genuinely creepy.
On the other hand, its plot is mostly unrelated to the first film, and it sews together two different, unlinked, stories one after the other - a choice I’m not a fan of (also see In Fabric). The climax is purely an audio recording, so I can’t say I was enthralled.
On the plus side, it made me realise that Boots - which has become my mantra for holding on during difficult times at work - is a 120-year-old poem, and not something that was created for 28 Years Later, so I have to be thankful for that.