Ali Wong: Baby Cobra (2017)

We had to watch Ali Wong's first Netflix special before we could get to her new one. She is hilarious. We need more Asian Americans in comedy. She offers a refreshing voice and bravely delivers her set 7-months pregnant.

In the Fade (2017)

This is a three-part story. Part I is a tragedy. Part II is a legal drama. And Part III is a tense thriller. Diane Kruger is excellent, portraying three distinct stages of grief. It was interesting watching this movie after The Insult, watching another civil law legal proceeding. The questions come without order from all sides. There is bizarre hand-raising in the courtroom. The legal drama is not particularly as interesting to me because it seems almost fake, though I can't really say how a real German courtroom works. That ending though is powerful.

Loveless (2017)

This was super depressing for a plane ride. Andrey Zyangintsev is the master of doom and gloom. It is supremely bleak and uniquely Russian. A couple is going through a nasty divorce and neither parent wants to care for their twelve-year-old son, who runs away after overhearing their dispute over him. Adults are really the worst. Everyone is so bitter and awful. But it just gets more and more heartbreaking. They don't notice he's gone for two days. And I don't want to spoil the end, but I can assure you it's not a happy ending. Despite being a downer, it is really well done. It says so much about modern Russia without saying it out loud. As they search for their son, they come across these other cases of missing persons that are not even their son. What does that say about society?

The Insult (2017)

The Insult is a Lebanese courtroom drama that I found really interesting. Civil law legal systems are totally different from the common law system I'm used to. So it's unclear to me how over-dramatized the courtroom action was. For example, in an inquisitorial system, as opposed to an adversarial system, the judge can ask questions. It makes for lots of extra drama and less order, if you ask me. This whole court is out of order.  But what is really interesting is the political dynamics, which factor into the law, despite not being strictly legal. Religious cleavages are very challenging. Palestine and Lebanon and Israel have a complicated relationship that plays out. It all starts with a minor plumbing incident. And it just escalates and escalates and becomes more tense. There are some cliche twists but I can overlook it. I enjoyed it very much. 

A Fantastic Woman (La Mujer Fantastica) (2017)

I saw this fabulous movie on a plane. I like to watch foreign movies on planes because otherwise foreign films are sometimes hard to find with subtitles. Daniela Vega is absolutely phenomenal. The story is a heartbreaking tale of a trans woman in Chile not being permitted to grieve the greatest loss of her life. But she is fierce and does not give up in the face of insults, humiliation, and physical assault. And there is this brilliant, surreal dance interlude in the middle.

Deadpool 2 (2018)

I don't even really remember anymore what I wanted to say about it. I saw it nearly a month ago. But I remember that I wasn't impressed. And I did not really like the ending.

Isle of Dogs (2018)

I love Wes Anderson's quirky style and evidently so do a lot of big name Hollywood actors, as he has attracted a star-studded voice cast for his second stop-motion feature. The visuals are stunning. Anderson's attention to detail in his fully controlled animated world far surpasses what he is able to do in a live-action environment. The oddity of this world is charmingly hilarious. And Anderson's witty humor is just brilliant. It's not for everyone, but I can't help but smile at how fun this is. The music by Alexandre Desplat is exciting and beautifully features taiko drums.

The big directorial choice Anderson made was to linguistically divide the dogs from the humans. The humans speak Japanese and are not subtitled. We, like the dogs, do not understand them. We rely on interpreters to give translation sometimes. Sometimes, we are just left in the dark. The dogs speak English, or rather their barks are voice-translated in real-time. There is a language disclaimer right in the beginning. I understand the separation he tries to make, putting the audience firmly in the dog world. That being said, I was not crazy about the bilingual foreign exchange student saving the day. A student movement rightfully has its place in the movie, but it doesn't have to be led by a white student. She serves as a convenient means of translation, but Anderson is clever enough to have figured that out. They could've diagrammed their plans, for example.