Shogun (2024)

from New York Times:https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/26/arts/television/shogun-review.html



‘Shogun’ Review: Rediscovering Japan

The FX remake of the classic mini-series is classed up, retuned for contemporary sensibilities and still an epic soap opera.

By Mike Hale
Published Feb. 26, 2024Updated Feb. 28, 2024


The new FX mini-series “Shogun” is getting a lot of credit simply for not being “Shogun,” the 1980 NBC mini-series also adapted from James Clavell’s best-selling novel about the last days of feudal Japan. But the new show stands and falls on the same terms as the old show: its success as an epic costumed soap opera. You can correct for wooden acting, dated production values and Eurocentrism, but you can’t really correct for the basic nature of the material.

And on those terms, this “Shogun” — which premieres Tuesday on FX and Hulu with two of its 10 episodes — is perfectly successful. It is sumptuously produced, mostly well acted and not excessively sentimental or sensational. If its story seems to stop and start a bit, there are reasons for that, which become clear in a satisfying and moving ending; if there are major characters who don’t stand up to scrutiny, there are others who come alive and hold your interest. It may not live up to its hype, and it may leave you wondering why so much time (more than a decade) and money needed to be spent reanimating Clavell’s tale. But it delivers.

Created by the husband-and-wife team of Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo, the FX “Shogun” is still the story of an English navigator, John Blackthorne, who arrives in Japan at the turn of the 17th century and becomes embroiled — to a startling degree — in the political, cultural and romantic life of the country. (Blackthorne, like most of the significant characters, is loosely based on a historical figure.)

Kondo and Marks have recalibrated the narrative, however, moving Blackthorne’s point of view down in the mix and elevating the roles of many of the Japanese characters, particularly Toda Mariko, the noblewoman who becomes Blackthorne’s translator and love interest, and Yoshii Toranaga, the lord who both protects and manipulates him.

That’s a notable change from the original “Shogun,” but 44 years down the road, it’s not as if the show should get a ton of credit — it’s an easy win. In the current global TV environment, the show’s emphasis on Japanese characters and language is welcome but not exceptional. (Tremendous effort reportedly also went into vetting the details of period costume and behavior; few viewers, even in Japan, are likely to know the difference, but what’s onscreen certainly looks credible to the rest of us.)

As the plot, busy yet not all that complicated, unwinds — Toranaga and his rival Ishido jockeying for power, with Blackthorne as a reluctant pawn; Blackthorne being alternately repulsed and seduced by his new surroundings — the real difference between the old and new shows has less to do with cultural enlightenment than with a higher level of tastefulness and technique. Though there is a multicultural dimension there, too: Marks and Kondo’s show is informed by the craftsmanship of classic Japanese samurai films, which were in turn heavily influenced by the attitudes and styles of Hollywood westerns and swashbucklers. This “Shogun” sits in a polyglot comfort zone.

Not everything has been improved. Cosmo Jarvis (“Lady Macbeth”), stepping in for Richard Chamberlain as Blackthorne, seems just as lost as his stranded, bewildered character. He works a dull note of dazed petulance for much of the series, eventually shifting to stunned sorrow. While the story builds Blackthorne up — he is continually (improbably) saving the day — Jarvis’s lack of presence works against the narrative, making Mariko’s attraction to Blackthorne and Toranaga’s sympathy for him hard to buy.


We stay engaged, though, because the actors Jarvis is matched against easily hold our attention. Anna Sawai, who did not quite click as a contemporary action hero in “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” is thoroughly convincing and captivating as Mariko. And Hiroyuki Sanada carries the show as the relentlessly pragmatic, humanely inhumane Toranaga; he is not the most expressive of actors, but he has a quiet force and regality that fit the part.

A number of the supporting players are also excellent, beginning with the Japanese film mainstay Tadanobu Asano as the scheming daimyo Yabushige and including Takehiro Hira as Ishido, Moeka Hoshi as Blackthorne’s consort and Tokuma Nishioka as Toranaga’s most loyal retainer.

The roles those performers play so capably are familiar ones, and if the creators of the show display an increased sensitivity to stereotypes, that does not prevent this “Shogun” from exhibiting signs of a familiar cinematic Japonisme. It’s there in the fetishization of death (seppuku recurs) and the central contrast of Blackthorne’s Western individualism with the Japanese characters’ devotion to duty and sacrifice. Sex is aestheticized; a maid is a member of a secret assassin’s guild (though the character is no longer a full-on ninja, as in 1980). Dialogue keeps blossoming into poetry.

All these things may be historically and culturally accurate to some degree, but they are also undeniably the tropes of Western romanticization of Japan. And at the end of the day, “Shogun” — if it stays tied to Clavell’s book at all — remains a prime example of the Westerner’s attempt to encapsulate his fascination, or infatuation, with Japanese style and attitude.

So why go to so much trouble to spruce up a British writer’s half-century-old fantasy of Japanese history? It may be defensible only in commercial terms. But when Toranaga and Yabushige meet on a cliff in the rising sun and explain what the whole story has been about, Sanada and Asano glide past all those paltry concerns.

The Perfect Couple (2024)

 This was not very good. I don't even feel like finding a review to post.

The Boys Season 4

from Wikipedia

1 "Department of Dirty Tricks"

The CIA tasks The Boys to assassinate Victoria Neuman, but the mission goes awry when they are discovered by her superpowered daughter, Zoe, who attacks the group. Ryan learns that Butcher has approximately six months to live. At CIA headquarters, Butcher reunites with Joe Kessler, an old friend, who attempts to recruit him to take down the Supes. Homelander, obsessed with his aging and fed up with his sycophant group, recruits Sister Sage (known for being the smartest person on the planet) to join The Seven. He and Sage have three supporters beaten to death by the Deep and Black Noir II, including Monique's ex-boyfriend Todd. Sage instigates a riot outside the courthouse when Homelander is found "not guilty"; A-Train dumps the corpses of Homelander's supporters into the riot, ensuring the Starlighters are blamed. Butcher arranges a meeting with Neuman for the Red River files but changes his mind at the last second after having a hallucination of his deceased wife, Becca. Hughie learns his father has suffered a stroke and reunites with his mother.

2 "Life Among the Septics"

Butcher tells The Boys his remaining time to live and is kicked out. However, Butcher tracks them and helps them to spy on Sage, who is recruiting alt-right Supe Firecracker at TruthCon. Butcher and M.M. fight, causing the former to leave. Their plan is thwarted when Sage, Firecracker, and Splinter intervene; Sage leaves and a fight ensues. Butcher returns and kills Splinter, and Firecracker flees in the aftermath. Guilty over his actions, A-Train gives Hughie and Annie files exonerating the Starlighters accused of murder. Homelander and Sage organize Ryan's first public mission, a scripted rescue. The mission ends awfully when Homelander appears off-script and shocks Ryan into killing the stuntman disguised as the criminal. Butcher opens up to M.M. in an attempt to rejoin The Boys, to no avail.

3 "We'll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here"

Homelander introduces Sage and Firecracker as new members of The Seven and appoints Sage as the new CEO, replacing Ashley, who is reduced to "mascot" status. Butcher meets with Kessler, and they devise a plan to kidnap Ryan. The former arranges a meeting with Ryan with the intent of drugging him, but they instead spend time bonding together. M.M. recruits A-Train as a spy, who reluctantly accepts. Frenchie and Kimiko go on a mission to destroy a Shining Light Liberation Army cell. During the mission, a drugged Frenchie hallucinates about his past, while an old acquaintance confronts Kimiko. Annie confronts Firecracker, who reveals that she holds a grudge against her because of a rumor she spread that ruined her career. Hughie and M.M. infiltrate a meeting between Homelander, Neuman, and Sage to assassinate President Robert Singer, which goes awry when Homelander detects and attempts to kill Hughie; A-Train rescues him. Hughie's mother, Daphne, reveals that depression and a failed suicide attempt led to her departure. Ryan returns home only to be confronted by Homelander for visiting Butcher, which results in Homelander having a mental breakdown.

4 "Wisdom of the Ages"

Homelander returns to the Vought lab where he was raised and experimented upon, tormenting most of the employees before its director, Barbara, intervenes. Daphne's plan to take Hugh Sr. off life support angers Hughie. Annie meets with Singer to strike a deal to take down Vought. Hughie and Kimiko secure Compound V from A-Train for Hughie's father but are ambushed by the Shining Light. M.M. and Butcher fail to blackmail Firecracker, who publicly discredits Annie by revealing her decision to have an abortion months prior, leading to a brutal fight that damages Annie's reputation and ends her alliance with Singer. Ezekiel attacks Frenchie while investigating Firecracker, but Butcher intervenes only to be choked unconscious; he awakes to find Ezekiel dead, torn to pieces. Butcher tells Hughie that he used V to cure his illness but admits that it failed and accelerated it instead. Frenchie confesses to Colin about killing his family and is brutally beaten by him before threatening his life should he see Frenchie again. Hughie witnesses his father waking up from his coma after receiving Compound V. Bloodied, Homelander leaves Barbara locked in a room with the corpses of her colleagues.

 5 "Beware the Jabberwock, My Son"

After Hugh Sr. wakes from his coma, Daphne reveals she administered the V. Butcher informs The Boys about a virus that kills Supes, acquired by Neuman.[a] He and M.M. visit Stan Edgar in prison, seeking help to obtain the virus in exchange for amnesty. The Boys and Edgar discover V and the virus being tested on animals at a farmhouse, where Neuman arrives as well. After being attacked by the mutated farm animals, they locate Dr. Sameer Shah who has the last remaining sample of the virus, but are forced to use it to kill a herd of mutated sheep. Afterward, Sameer goes missing and is presumed dead. M.M. returns Edgar to prison, but Neuman frees him. Empowered and mentally confused, Hugh Sr. kills patients at the hospital but soon returns to his sense; Hughie ends his life peacefully. Homelander declares The Seven will now be "wrathful gods" for the "greater good". In the presence of Robert Vernon / Tek Knight, Cate Dunlap, and Sam Riordan, VNN anchor Cameron Coleman is framed as the leak by Ashley and killed by The Seven. Wracked with guilt, Frenchie surrenders to the police. Butcher reveals to Kessler that Sameer is alive and he has kidnapped him to replicate the virus.

6 "Dirty Business" 

The Boys learn that Tek Knight is hosting a party at his mansion with Neuman and The Seven in attendance; they infiltrate the party by disguising Hughie as the Supe Webweaver. When Tek Knight discovers Hughie's identity and attempts to torture him, they enter the mansion to rescue Hughie. M.M. shoots Sage in the head right before he has a panic attack; A-Train saves M.M., rushing him to the hospital, and Sage survives. Annie and Kimiko save Hughie and restrain Tek Knight. The three antagonize Tek Knight until he reveals that Homelander and Sage plan to use his prisons as internment camps before he is killed by his butler Elijah. Homelander and Neuman convince the senators to rally against Singer. Firecracker tells Homelander about her encounter with Annie, realizing that the leak is still alive. Meanwhile, Butcher forces Sameer to replicate and make the virus strong enough to kill Homelander. When Sameer reveals that enhancing the virus could potentially eradicate every Supe on Earth, Butcher is pressured by Kessler to continue but discovers he is a hallucination, as the real Joe Kessler died years ago.

7 "The Insider"

Butcher bails Frenchie out of jail to assist Sameer with the virus. M.M. gives up leadership of The Boys, passes the baton back to Butcher again, and considers leaving with Monique and Janine; A-Train convinces him not to leave. The Boys discover a plan to assassinate Singer that will be carried out by an unidentified Supe shapeshifter. Homelander kills Webweaver, believing he is the leak. Hughie goes to Neuman's house to convince her to stop everything, to no avail. Homelander sends The Deep and Black Noir II to kill The Boys, starting a fight with Butcher and Annie, who are saved by A-Train and M.M. Infuriated, Homelander fires Sage from The Seven for hiding A-Train, who has fled the country with his family, as the leak. Tired of being used by Vought and Homelander's manipulation, Ryan gets fed up, interrupts a live show to give a speech, and leaves. Frenchie and Kimiko reconcile by telling each other what they blame themselves for before Sameer injects Kimiko with the dose of the virus he has prepared and escapes; Frenchie saws off her leg so the virus doesn't spread. Butcher passes out in a bar and Annie wakes up to find herself shackled in a room somewhere, realizing that she has been impersonated and replaced by the shapeshifter.

8 "Assassination Run"

While Butcher recovers, Mallory and Ryan visit him, where the latter is told of Homelander's crimes and that he must kill him. However, Ryan refuses, accidentally kills Mallory, and leaves, causing Butcher to embrace his dark side of Kessler. Homelander tasks the remaining Seven with killing everyone at Vought who has incriminating evidence against them; a targeted Ashley injects herself with V. While Frenchie develops the virus, The Boys monitor Singer in a bunker where they discover Annie is the shapeshifter and a fight ensues; the real Annie arrives and kills the shapeshifter. When Homelander reveals that Neuman is a Supe on air live, she calls on Hughie to protect her and Zoe in exchange for help. When The Boys and Neuman meet, Butcher arrives, kills Neuman with his new superpowers, and steals the virus. Sage reveals to Homelander that his plan has been a success when Singer is arrested for conspiring with The Boys to kill Neuman. Speaker of the House Steven Calhoun becomes the new President of the United States, swears allegiance to Homelander and declares martial law, deputizing Homelander and his army of superhumans. The rest of The Boys are ambushed and captured by Vought troops, led by multiple Supes, but Annie regains her powers and manages to escape; Butcher drives off with the virus. In the mid-credits scene, Calhoun shows Homelander where Soldier Boy is being held captive.

Fantastic Four (2018) #40-42: Reckoning War

Fantastic Four (2018) #42

"Brother Against Brother" One of the most pivotal planets in the Marvel Universe faces imminent destruction. Jennifer Walters, the Sensational SHE-HULK, finally learns her part in this chaos.And in the middle of all of this carnage, two lifelong friends will have a battle to the death – prepare yourself for THE THING versus MISTER FANTASTIC!

Fantastic Four (2018) #43

THE RECKONING WAR CONTINUES!"Victor Von Doom: Hero of Earth" The last time the Cormorant appeared, he destroyed the Baxter Building and the Latverian Embassy, completely overpowered the Fantastic Four, and left without anyone laying a hand on him. Now, for the sake of the universe, Doctor Doom must face him alone. Hail Doom! Meanwhile, four of Earth's greatest heroes are trapped in the toxic wastelands of the Barrens...and there is no way for all of them to make it out alive. Guest-starring: The Silver Surfer, She-Hulk, and an army of Marvel's most cosmic champions!

Fantastic Four (2018) #43

THE RECKONING WAR HEATS UP IN THIS OVERSIZED ISSUE! "The End of Everything That Ever Was or Ever Will Be" This is the final battle of the Reckoning War. At the Apex of the All Reality, the fate of the Marvel Universe will be decided. And no matter who wins, nothing will ever be the same again. This is not hyperbole. This is happening. There will be consequences. If you care about the Fantastic Four, their extended family and the rest of the Marvel U...you will not want to miss this. Starring Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny, Nick Fury, Victor Von Doom, Norrin Radd, Uatu and Jennifer Walters.

Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/23/movies/deadpool-and-wolverine-review.html

Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

By Alissa Wilkinson
Published July 23, 2024

“Disney’s so stupid,” Deadpool declares trollishly at the beginning of “Deadpool & Wolverine.” It’s the sort of jab — in this case, at the studio distributing the film we’re watching — that we’ve grown used to from this dude, a potty-mouthed exterminator in a face-obscuring suit vaguely reminiscent of Spider-Man. Not quite a hero, not quite anything else, Deadpool is an answer to the conflicted but upstanding superheroes of 21st-century Hollywood. He kills messily, he makes a lot of inappropriate jokes and, in an industry that practically decrees a profit-boosting PG-13 rating, his movies are always rated R.

Despite first appearing in Marvel comics, Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds), a.k.a. Wade Wilson, also used to stand slightly outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But in the six years since his last big-screen appearance in “Deadpool 2,” the Merc with the Mouth has been shoehorned into the M.C.U., along with the X-Men, for reasons involving Disney’s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox. (Which was promptly renamed 20th Century Studios, and you can be sure Deadpool will joke about that too.)

Deadpool explains all this very quickly at the beginning of “Deadpool & Wolverine,” just to catch us up. He has a lot of expositional ground to cover, since he also has to clarify how this movie will avoid desecrating the memory of Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), a.k.a. Logan, who was laid to rest in the excellent eponymous swan song from 2017. “We’re not,” Deadpool announces. Deal with it.

The first two Deadpool movies set out to skewer the conventions of superhero cinema, with “Deadpool” (2016) scrapping conventional opening credits for alternate text jabbing at tropes: “A British Villain,” “A Hot Chick,” “A Moody Teen,” “A C.G.I. Character” and also some words we can’t print here. Deadpool broke the fourth wall constantly, remarking to the audience about what was happening or about to happen, as well as the paltry budget of the film and the silliness of him, a minor and ridiculous character, being in a movie at all.

But times sure have changed, and not just because those movies made a whole lot of money. Yes, “Deadpool & Wolverine” still features quips about residuals and digs at characters in DC’s rival comics universe, and a bunch of them made me chuckle. It still features Reynolds making fun of himself; it has some fun set pieces, clever sight gags, amusing surprises, left-field references and adoring pauses to admire Jackman’s biceps and abs.
More on ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’


Now, though, Deadpool has been dragged into the M.C.U. With that comes all kinds of new opportunities for goofy mash-ups, cameos and plotlines, such as Deadpool’s fervent and futile desire to join the Avengers. Most important in this case, the M.C.U.’s turn toward the multiverse in recent years — a move providing dizzying latitude to remix, reboot and jack up profits — gives “Deadpool & Wolverine,” directed by Shawn Levy, some narrative room to work with.

This is not an unmotivated crossover event. Wolverine (or sometimes just Jackman himself) has been an offscreen object of fun since the first “Deadpool,” someone to serve as the butt of jokes and jealousy. Deadpool and Wolverine share some key origin trauma, and they sometimes feel like two sides of the same damaged coin, with Deadpool covering his trauma with jokes while Wolverine glowers. They’re also both middle-aged guys — Reynolds is 47, Jackman is 55 — and the film’s many ironic needle drops, from Avril Lavigne and ’N Sync to Goo Goo Dolls, AC/DC and Madonna, seem calculated to scratch some itch in brains of a certain age. It seems natural for the duo to be in a movie together, plus it’s a great opportunity to yank two high earners onto the same screen.

But now that this is an M.C.U. film, there are mandates. The stakes have to be absurdly high, having to do with the destruction or salvation of whole universes. More important, there must be corporate synergy. Now “Deadpool” needs to not just jab at but explicitly tie into other M.C.U. properties, weaving itself into the tangled web of movies and shows that function as much as advertisements for one another as a coherent plot.

In this case, that means maximizing the multiverse, pulling in references to so many properties I wouldn’t dare to note them all. (You might want to re-familiarize yourself with the broad strokes of the TV show “Loki,” though.) As Marvel’s cinematic universe has grown ever larger, the role of fan service has ballooned, counting on the pleasure of cheering for a cameo or a dozen to give the people what they came for. But you wouldn’t want me to spoil your fun.

I could tell you all about what happens in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” its many twists and turns, its various themes and villains, but that would not really explain it. “Deadpool & Wolverine” is a “Deadpool” movie, which means it’s rude and irreverent, funny and disgusting, weird and a little sweet. Reynolds and Jackman are fun to watch, in part because their onscreen characters contrast so violently with their nice-guy personas offscreen. So much of what the M.C.U. offers feels churned out of the same factory, which makes anything with a distinct personality feel like a relief.

But in the end, “Deadpool & Wolverine” is a movie about corporate mergers, about intellectual property, about the ways that the business of Hollywood battles the creative process. It is a film about how anything that was ever successful in Hollywood is made to repeat that same song and dance endlessly, how a bloated and risk-averse industry can’t let well enough alone, how nobody is ever really dead anymore, how the world is always ending but the story is never allowed to finish.

“Deadpool & Wolverine” devilishly plays on this, of course. It is watchable because it’s self-reflective. But now that the jabs are coming from inside the house, it hits different. On the one hand, “Disney’s so stupid.” On the other hand, Disney paid for this movie, and we pay them to watch it. This business makes suckers of us all.

from Roger Ebert: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/free-time-movie-review-2024

Free Time (2024)

Brian Tallerico March 22, 2024

Colin Burgess is having a bit of a moment with the buzzy success of the micro-indie “Dad & Step-Dad” and this week’s release of the truly funny and clever “Free Time,” a movie that uses Burgess’ on-screen energy perfectly. Ryan Martin Brown’s film jumps into the oft-visited waters of the quarter-life crisis but it does so with its own comic voice, one that produces laughs in the very first scene and doesn’t really let up for this film’s tight 78-minute runtime. This is one of the better indie comedies in a long time, enjoyable from minute one until the final frame, and deceptively insightful about the structure of the modern world, one that encourages us to do more with our free time but doesn’t offer much guidance to what exactly we should be doing.

In the phenomenal opening scene, Drew (Burgess) goes to his superior at his job to express his dissatisfaction with being more of a data entry employee than a data analysis one. What starts as a conversation that feels like it will lead to a new position or maybe even a promotion ends with Drew quitting on the spot, aggravating his boss by leaving him without an employee. Drew takes his stuff and goes back to the apartment he shares with a clickbait-writing roommate, having no idea what he’s going to do next.

Drew’s efforts to figure out that last part is the driving narrative force of “Free Time.” He quickly realizes that his friends have lives that include jobs, leaving him little to do during the day—a bit where his roommate’s girlfriend yells at him for how often he’s watched the same movie on DVD (this time with commentary) is excellent. As he faces more people in his life who are stunned that he quit a good job in this economic climate, Drew starts to realize that he made a mistake. When the band he’s in shifts focus to country, leaving Drew’s keyboard playing behind, it’s another blow.

From art to fiction to motivational speakers, we’re constantly told to make the most of our free time, but what exactly are people like Drew supposed to do with all that freedom? How do you make your dreams come true when you don't really have interesting dreams? Some of the direction is a little too loose, and the non-stop piano score grows a little grating, but Brown’s script is wonderfully natural and organic, allowing Burgess to drift through the film in a way that’s consistently fascinating. Whether he’s completely blowing a potential hook-up (Jessie Pinnick, so great in “Princess Cyd”) or aggressively trying to get his job back, Burgess is perfect here, never leaning too hard into what could have been a really mannered performance. We all know guys like Drew. We may have even been guys like Drew.

“Free Time” is a funny character study for about an hour before it becomes something even more remarkable that I couldn’t possibly spoil. Suffice to say, this movie has some surprises up its sleeves, and they unfold in a way that really drives home the theme that free time can be more emotionally costly than we’ve been led to believe.

from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2024/01/05/1222869886/memory-review-jessica-chastain-peter-sarsgaard

Memory (2023)

By Justin Chang

The Mexican writer-director Michel Franco is something of a feel-bad filmmaker. His style can be chilly and severe. His characters are often comfortable bourgeois types who are in for some class-based comeuppance. His usual method is to set up the camera at a distance from his characters and watch them squirm in tense, unbroken long takes.

Sometimes all hell breaks loose, as in Franco's dystopian drama New Order, about a mass revolt in Mexico City. Sometimes the nightmare takes hold more quietly, like in Sundown, his recent slow-burn thriller about a vacation gone wrong.

I haven't always been a fan of Franco's work, not because I object to pessimistic worldviews in art, but because his shock tactics have sometimes felt cheap and derivative, borrowed from other filmmakers. But his new English-language movie, Memory, is something of a surprise. For starters, it's fascinating to see how well-known American actors like Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard adapt to his more detached style of filmmaking. And while his touch is as clinical and somber as ever, there's a sense of tenderness and even optimism here that feels new to his work.

Chastain plays Sylvia, a single mom who works at an adult daycare center. From the moment we meet her, at an AA meeting where people congratulate her on her many years of sobriety, it's clear that she's been through a lot. She's intensely protective of her teenage daughter, rarely letting her hang out with other kids, especially boys. Whenever she returns home to her Brooklyn apartment, she immediately locks the door behind her and sets the home security system. Even when Sylvia's doing nothing, we see the tension in her body, as if she were steeling herself against the next blow.

One night, while attending her high school reunion, Sylvia is approached by a man named Saul, played by Sarsgaard. He says nothing, but his silent attentiveness unnerves Sylvia, especially when he follows her home and spends the night camped outside her apartment. The next morning, Sylvia learns more about Saul that might help explain his disturbing behavior: He has early-onset dementia and suffers regular short-term memory loss.

Some of the backstory in Memory is confusing by design. Sylvia remembers being sexually abused by a 17-year-old student named Ben when she was 12, and she initially accuses Saul of having abused her too. We soon learn that he couldn't have, because they were at school at different times. It would seem that Sylvia's own memory, clouded by personal pain, isn't entirely reliable either.

Despite the awkwardness and tension of these early encounters, Sylvia and Saul are clearly drawn to each other. Seeing how well Saul responds to Sylvia's company, his family offers her a part-time job looking after him during the day. As their connection deepens, they realize how much they have in common. Both Sylvia and Saul feel like outcasts. Both, too, have issues with their families; Saul's brother, played by Josh Charles, treats him like a nuisance and a child. And while Sylvia is close to her younger sister, nicely played by Merritt Wever, she's been estranged for years from their mother, who refuses to believe her allegations of sexual abuse.

The movie poignantly suggests that Sylvia and Saul are two very different people who, by chance, have come into each other's lives at just the right moment. At the same time, the story does come uncomfortably close to romanticizing dementia, as if Saul's air of friendly, unthreatening bafflement somehow made him the perfect boyfriend.

But while I have some reservations about how the movie addresses trauma and illness, this is one case where Franco's restraint actually works: There's something admirably evenhanded about how he observes these characters trying to navigate uncharted waters in real time. Chastain and Sarsgaard are very moving here; it's touching to see how the battle-hardened Sylvia responds to Saul's gentle spirit, and how he warms to her patience and attention.

This isn't the first time Franco has focused on the act of caregiving; more than once I was reminded of his 2015 drama, Chronic, which starred Tim Roth as a palliative care worker. I didn't love that movie, either, but it had some of the same unsettling intimacy and emotional force as Memory. It's enough to make me want to revisit some of Franco's work, with newly appreciative eyes.