House of Hummingbird
A sensitive, wrenching, and overall hopeful portrait of an early teen finding her way in '94 Seoul. Eun-hee finds and loses love, rebels, suffers abuse, witnesses abuse, confronts the nature of friendship, and finds someone she can ultimately depend on. At the emotional core is the cruelty and senseless of life, centered on the collapse of the Seongsu Bridge (not a spoiler as it's in the one-sentence summary on Rotten Tomatoes). This is definitely in landscape-as-a-character territory as in one of the most recent Filmspotting episodes. It's also one of the better films of the year.
Dick Johnson is Dead
Lots of hype, at least in what I've been reading. It's good, heartfelt stuff, though it also made me feel incredibly sad because I have a dad who lives with me who I don't want to see deteriorate and die, like, ever. But my personal opinion doesn't go into my opinion of the film all that much. There are a lot of tears and sadness here, and maybe I'm just an insensitive bastard, but I've seen enough of this type of mourning for a life. I will see a ton more for my family members, and I don't need more from the families of others, to be honest. I do see the value in some of her stunts, basically faking possible gruesome fates her father could meet, as part of the process of preparing for his inevitable death, and there are some dance pieces that are celebratory and pretty. There is good cinema going on here. I just don't see it as particularly revelatory when it comes to loss and grief. I also question the value of putting her father and the others around here through this charade, especially as I question the possibility of her father actually consenting to it. A good watch, though, but nothing beyond that.