Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
The balance maintained by Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s anthology film Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy is as delicate and unforgiving as a James Joyce short story. Told in three parts, each distinct in tone and subject matter, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy draws an imaginative line through contemporary Japanese life with varying degrees of spiteful discord and refreshing humanism, but never quite succumbs to the vilest of possible outcomes. Proving himself a modern leader in a Japanese film industry that boasts some of the greatest artists of all-time, Hamaguchi somehow, along with the phenomenal Drive My Car, managed two wonderfully compassionate films in 2021. And while Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy may not match the somber elegance of Drive My Car, it is no less worthy of attention. Tenderness, generosity, jealousy, and even cruelty are all explored with the utmost care and sympathy in this fantastic exploration of humanity.
The Last Duel (2021)
Directed by Ridley Scott
With The Last Duel, Ridley Scott certainly takes a noble stab at Kurosawa’s Rashomon technique, but falls just short of pulling it off to a fully satisfying degree. That’s not to say the film isn’t worth your effort (it is), but the storytelling structure made famous in 1950 doesn’t quite capture the imagination like its predecessor, if such a thing is even possible. What’s very interesting, though, is that Scott has taken a historically famous duel between two French nobles and made it into a pretty decent #MeToo fable that drips with not-so-subtle parallels to modern, and still far too common, cases of sexual violence and harassment. Matt Damon and Adam Driver typify the varying degrees of toxic masculinity that still poisons our society, while Jodi Comer embodies the victim doomed to shame and humiliation whether she’s telling the truth or not (spoiler, she is). The story culminates in an extended and intense “trial by combat” that the history books tell us was one of the last of its kind, proving that simply believing women was as out of the question in the 14th century as it remains today.
Portal Runner (2021)
Directed by Cornelia Duryée
Cornelia Duryée’s Portal Runner is harmless and reasonably entertaining for what it is, but unfortunately suffers from the highly contagious “should have been a short” syndrome. Its runtime is so padded-out with unnecessary fluff that, even at just 70 minutes, it still feels too long. I have no major issues with the concepts that make up its multi-versal premise (and, in fact, rather appreciate the expediency with which the story gets underway), but it too often strays into Goosebumps territory, which in turn brings the production value and acting down to a level beneath what the film deserves. This is especially disheartening considering I very much enjoy Sloane Morgan Siegel, the film’s young star, in the delightfully somber and underrated teen sci-fi series Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street. However, it should be stated that I, a 44-year-old grump, am admittedly not the target audience for Portal Runner, and that a younger demographic may get something completely different out of it than I did. As the father of a movie-loving 7-year-old, I have no problem with this whatsoever.
James is a writer, record collector, wrestling nerd, and tabletop gamer living with his family in Asheville, North Carolina. He is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association, the North Carolina Film Critics Association, and contributes to The Daily Orca, Razorcake Magazine, Mountain Xpress, and Asheville Movies.