;)
Nathaniel has recently shared the Best International Feature Contenders List and given us an overview of the stars and directors and stats. Like last year, I'll be reviewing as many of the contenders as I can get my hands on, beyond the reviews already shared here at The Film Experience for the submissions from Czech Republic, Georgia, Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Palestine, Romania, Switzerland, Taiwan, and Venezuela. The number of contenders is at an all-time high!
To start our voyage around the world, let's take a look at the submitted films from the last three champions of the category: Chile (2017, A Fantastic Woman), Mexico (2018, Roma), and South Korea (2019, Parasite)…
THE MOLE AGENT (Chile)
Some of the most interesting cinema of our days exists in the realm between narrative and documentary, between fiction and non-fiction. Maite Alberdi's The Mole Agent belongs to this experimenting panorama though the result isn't nearly as astounding as one might expect. The premise centers around a charming old gentleman hired by a private investigator to infiltrate a retirement home and discover if a resident is suffering mistreatments. As the days, weeks, months(?) go by, our intrepid mole becomes more enmeshed in the community's bittersweet existence, its warmth and dispiriting loneliness. There's such forceful whimsy varnishing a heartfelt observation of old age that one can't stop themselves from wondering how the film would look like with a more traditional non-narrative approach. The artifice is too obvious and obtrusive, from the compositions to the story's premise, its cuteness so inescapable the insights get drowned in treacle. Squandered potential aside, The Mole Agent still packs a weepy punch, and leading man Sergio Chamy is a delightful screen presence. C+
The Mole Agent is available to stream on Hulu and Hoopla.
I'M NO LONGER HERE (Mexico)
In Monterrey, Mexico, the landscape is a painting of contrasts. Fernando Frias' camera sees a city that's both dreamlike and sobering, a flat valley glittering in the night, framed by mountains and poor neighborhoods that are built on an incline almost as if to better see what's out of reach. Teenagers walk through those steep streets in baggy clothes, and among them, Ulises stands out with his gelled hair looking like a princely crown. He and his gang are part of the Kolombia subculture and often dance to cumbia music, their bodies moving to a mix of jubilation and gloom, silent longing expressed in slow turns, short steps encumbered by invisible chains. Through non-linear narrative, Frias shows us Ulises' life, in Mexico and on the other side, allowing his dance's gentle melancholy to bleed into the film's tone, mutating an observational character study into a portrait of homesickness, youthful desolation, worn-out vitality. Near its third act, a series of cross-fades summarizes I'm No Longer Here's delicate balance. Following the memory lane of music, they take us from a rooftop in New York to a lively choreography performed with the Monterrey mountains as its backdrop, from loneliness to companionship, from present hopelessness to past hope. It took my breath away. B+
I'm No Longer Here is available to stream on Netflix.
THE MAN STANDING NEXT (South Korea)
Staying true to the tradition of great South Korean thriller filmmaking, director Min-ho Woo constructs an elaborate machine of suspense when dramatizing the 40 days preceding the assassination of President Park Chung-hee in 1979. Through introductory title cards, The Man Standing Next gives uninformed audiences some basic historical context but, from then on, the viewers are on their own and the picture makes little concessions to those who slack behind. Precise cutting keeps the pace, funneling the tension until it all explodes in a violent finale that's shot in one beautifully choreographed take. It's formalistically pristine work, as polished as a shiny black pearl. However, it's the cast that holds the experience together. As the KCIA director and would-be assassin, Lee Byung-Hun deserves special praise for how he illuminates the nerves hiding behind a severe façade, for the ruthlessness of his actions and an inspired pratfall in the aftermath of murder. B
You can rent The Man Standing Next from most services.
From this trio, The Mole Agent's sentimental appeal should make it a good magnet for AMPAS' attention. I'm No Longer Here's success with awards bodies also suggests it might be a good candidate to appear in the Academy's shortlist of 15. South Korea's Oscar bid, on the other hand, feels too low-profile and too historically specific to get much traction.