ALL OF A SUDDEN (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
North American Premiere

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi continues to be a cinematic magician, conjuring structurally inventive yet plainspoken dramas that exude effervescent wisdom for hours on end. Any surface description would convince you that this film should be deadeningly dull, but it overflows with enrapturing humanity through its nearly 200 minute running time.

Objectively about humane memory care in a former metal asylum on the outskirts of Paris, it follows two women who find themselves at the precise here/now to form an instantaneous yet fleetingly potent bond. From its scenes depicting staff meetings among administrators, nurses, and caregivers to long takes following walks along the Seine in deep conversation it gently challenges our sensibilities. In a callback to Drive My Car, there’s even a mid-film theater piece that expands frame to include historical context and artistic interpretation.

The depictions of the residents and workers at the facility feel more real, alive, and compassionately observed than a documentary could ever achieve. In one calm unhurried scene after another their dialogues, training sessions, principled arguments, and clear minded explanations are supremely compelling about a need for transformation without ever resorting to polemic. From the two enchanting leads (Virginie Efira as the facility’s practical if idealistic director; Tao Okamoto as the perceptive experimental theater director) to every extra in the cast, everyone who graces the screen is vibrantly alive. Be it the four core pillars of a new type of interaction for caring for people with dementia, the financial obstacles that prevent them from being widely adopted, or the ease by which the women bond, everything flows in perfectly compelling order. Spectacular and riveting.

(Or: I, too, cried at the three-hour movie with an extended whiteboard dissection of the ingrained failures of capitalism. Everyone does, it’s the law.)

POSSIBLE LOVE (Lee Chang-dong)
North American Premiere

Lee Chang-Dong anchors a simmering excavation of the seismic personal consequences of the rapid erosion of Korean labor among two couples forming a glancing friendship across a growing economic gulf. Inspired by real events in the wake of the conglomeration of factories that created a middle-class, sense of pride, and identity the film unfolds via a novelistic approach.

When we laid-off worker Ho-seok (Sul Kyung-gu) and his wife Mi-ok (Jeon Do-yeon), the “something nice” they’re dressed up for is a funeral for one of his former colleagues, who we later learn has committed suicide. An independent (of capital) documentary filmmaker Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong) is interested in telling the story of the crushing blow to unionized workers. Mi-ok is an eager participant; Ho-seok is deeply reticent to speak about his suppressed trauma in therapy, let alone to a filmmakers. A seeming camaraderie between the wives forms, bringing her bemused financier husband Sang-woo (Zo In-sung) along for the ride.

As the project moves forward and the couples spend more time together — be it over dinner or on a weekend getaway — the uneven power dynamics become increasingly evident. Through flashbacks to the working-class couple’s youth and in private moments between the wealthy couple and culminating with an explosive finale at a beachfront estate, this richly layered portrait holds walloping reveals of deep personal and societal wounds.

THE LIBERATION (Guy Nattiv)
North American Premiere

An incandescent (as always) Carrie Coon outclasses everyone around her in this sensational story of a New Jersey mother who disappeared from her family and job with Holocaust reparations into a PNW cult in the 1980s. Inspired by the true story of director Guy Nattiv’s grandmother, the film is effectively structured across two timelines that provide reflections and reveals as the plot unfolds.

In the first, we see the home and worklife of an unfulfilled but not unhappy mother. The other finds her daughters seeking her out in the woods of Washington, astonished by the changes since her departure. Bella Ramsey is a bit overmatched as the skeptical daughter linking past and present. Still, a lot of the nature and self-affirmation vibes check out. Lily James is suitably chilling as the scheming sorceress whose belief in her own mix of witchcraft and affirmation preys on middle aged ladies and their yearning for psychedelic sapphic self-discovery. It’s a fascinating tragedy even if some of the notes occasionally feel routine.