Evil Does Not Exist (Aku wa sonzai shinai) (2023)

Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Cast: Hitoshi Omika, Ryô Nishikawa, Ryûji Kosaka. 106 min. Drama.

• A widower and his smart young daughter live in the serenity of a small Japanese village, far from the commotion of urban life - until one day, an imposing tourist corporation invades their calm, offering to build a "glamping" (glamorous camping) site on the villagers' territory, and thereby threatening to irreversibly disrupt the natural habitat, and as a result their own way of life. But read the movie title again: are any of the corporate agents ... truly evil? Are any of the villagers who resist the invasion (some in strange ways), evil? Or are we just living in a constant struggle, each employing our own Darwinian skills to survive?
• The scenes juxtaposing the villagers' lives, and the city dwellers' views on their lives, are nothing short of fascinating. The corporate people look at the village as a lovely rural paradise where they might want to retire, and the villagers look at them as imbeciles who have no clue what living in such a place means. The contrast brews an ominous atmosphere, and you know something awful is bound to happen soon. 
• This is a slow movie. It is directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, who also directed the longer and slower 2021 Oscar-wining film, Drive My Car. But a movie's pacing should not be the reason to avoid one. You'll begin watching this, wondering: where are all these long tracking shots and haunting musical themes going? Until pieces start falling into place, and the surreal last scene is delivered with a smacking punch, leaving you in a daze to think what actually happened. 
• Watch this thought-provoking film in a group - you'll be discussing the ending (oh, that ending) for quite some time after it's done. And if you watch it alone, you'll be jumping all over the internet to understand the final scene. Just as I did.

MoGo's rating: 9/10

The Apprentice (2024)

Director Ali Abbasi. Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova. Rated R. 122 min. Biography, Drama.

• This movie, about the early days of Donald J. Trump in the 70s and 80s, was widely released just a few weeks before the November 2024 election. So one would assume it's a piece a political propaganda to hurt Trump's chances of winning (and we all saw how well that went). For this reason, I intentionally postponed watching it to after the elections, to see if it contained any artistic merit regardless of the political atmosphere. To my surprise, it did.
• The Apprentice is directed by Ali Abbasi, a Swedish-based Persian director whose previous disconcerting film, Holy Spider (2022), was about the true story of a serial killer who committed crimes based on a blind ideology, and by the end of the movie, you're not sure if the criminal is driven by his own intent, or is merely a product of his environment - the same concept we see in The Apprentice. The young Trump tries to make his own under the condescending stare of his rich father, until he meets the lawyer Roy Kohn, who as IMDb puts it: "... personified the dark arts of American politics, turning empty vessels into dangerous demagogues - from Joseph McCarthy to his final project, Donald J. Trump."
• The ideology taught by Kohn (and later taken credit by Trump in his book, "The Art of the Deal") is clear: 1. Attack, attack, attack. 2. Admit nothing, deny everything. 3. Claim victory, and never admit defeat. The film shows how Trump thrived using these basic principles, and everything else became secondary. As very well symbolized in Trump getting a liposuction and scalp reconstructive surgery, this is a Frankenstein story - a creator creates the creature, and the creature later destroys the creator. Considering what we know now, the narrative does not sound too fictitious. 
• With grainy cinematography, flashy editing, and a musical score eerily reminiscent of none other than Brian DePalma's Scarface, the movie is incredible in establishing the feeling of 1970s Manhattan, and Sabastian Stan ("Winter Soldier" in the Marvel movies, and Tommy Lee in Hulu's Pamela Anderson biopic) is unbelievable at re-enacting the real life character's mannerisms, gestures and hand movements. Watch this actor - he will be flying high.

MoGo's rating: 8/10