Four incredibly different movies, but all connected by the idea of locating the place and/or activity that you think is best for you.

1.
Maria Chapdelaine
2021, Sebastien Pilote

The plot opening: It's 1910. It's Quebec. The Chapdelaine family are clearing yet more land. They've been through this before, more than once, but sooner or later, the father (Sebastien Ricard) always wants to move on again, further away from people, further into the wild. The 17-year-old Maria (Sara Montpetit) is in love with Francois, a former neighbour who now makes a living by guiding and fur-trapping. He promises to come back, but goes missing (presumably dead). Maria has two other suitors: Lorenzo, who has gone to work in the factories of Massachusetts, and promises her a much more comfortable life; and Eutrope, another neighbour, whose future dreams look very much like more of her present reality.

The niche: After the death of Maria's mother (Helene Florent) -- and in this situation, you can expect no proper diagnosis for your illness, let alone a cure, and if the priest can reach you in time for the last rites, then you've been lucky -- I guess our expectation is that Maria will lean towards Lorenzo. She's seen, at first hand, after all, the limits of self-sufficiency. But no, she doesn't long for a comfortable life; her niche is here in the wilds. She tells Eutrope to talk to her again in two years...

Pluses: The landscapes are vividly conjured, endlessly unfurling before you as you trot along behind Charles-Eugene, the horse (who pulls a sleigh or a cart, depending on the season). And it's a powerful picture of pioneer life, which pretty much amounted to unremitting toil, it seems. Whatever else might be said of frontiersmen, they were certainly energetic and courageous...

Minuses: At 2.5 hours, it's perhaps just a tad too long...

Curiosities: This is the fourth film adaptation of a book by Louis Hemon, which became a classic of French-Canadian literature. A Breton who lived in Quebec for two years, Hemon wrote his story based on his own experiences and observations as a farm worker. In 1913, when he was only 32, and before his work had even been published, he was fatally struck by a train. The novel is available on Gutenberg, so I've added it to my thousand-mile-long reading list...


Niches in Nakhon Si Thammarat, 2019



2.
Chef
2014, Jon Favreau

The plot opening: Chef Carl (Jon Favreau) is struggling on several fronts. Divorced, never quite having enough time to spend with his 10-year-old kid, Percy (Emjay Anthony), stymied by the guy (Dustin Hoffman) who owns the restaurant where he works, and shafted on social media by a disappointed critic -- all in all he's caught up in one of those downward spirals.

The niche: His ex-wife persuades him to launch a food-truck, and it turns out that Carl is a born food-trucker... With his former colleague to help him cook, and Percy to help him do the publicity, everything starts to head north again. He has fun; his kid learns tons; the public gets to eat great food; he even gets back with the ex-wife.

Pluses: A nice little blast from the past in terms of the power of Twitter and the like... Great dialogue. Awesome food shots. Cool music. And it's kind of heart-warming. A good one to watch with a glass of wine.

Minuses: None, really, so long as you accept that the improbably happy ending is part of the genre.

Curiosities: All the food in the movie was designed by real-life chef and food-trucker Roy Choi.





3.
Easy
2017, Andrea Magnani

The plot opening: Isidoro, aka Easy (Nicola Nocella), used to have a niche as a go-kart driver. But weight gain has meant he literally won't fit into this niche any more. His life has now for many years consisted of living with his mother, playing videogames, and taking anti-depressants. When his unscrupulous brother (Libero de Rienzo) tasks him with driving back to Ukraine with the body of Taras, a migrant worker who has died in a (probably preventable) accident, the resultant odyssey sees him lurching from debacle to debacle. But he sticks doggedly to the job, and on the long, hard road (not to mention river) that eventually leads to the decent burial Taras is owed, the urgent need to solve problems moves Isidoro from his initial almost catatonically passive state to a place where he takes on challenges, and increasingly exercises curiosity about the world and its highly diverse inhabitants.

The niche: We don't quite know what role Easy will slot himself into next, but the question on which the movie ends -- "Now what do I do? -- suggests that he is finally ready to look for one.

Pluses: Lots to like here. It is genuinely funny, albeit in a vein that goes back and forth between the slapstick and the macabre. But it also has very profound things to say about depression. (Magnani: "When a person is depressed, it’s almost as if they have died a little, bit by bit, so I thought that a quasi-dead person carrying around an actual dead person, was a perfect metaphor to talk about suffering.") Quite a profound take on the road-movie genre, then. But it also casts interesting glances at language and (non)communication, and of course, given that the man in the box is a migrant, there's a poignant commentary on migration: "By having Easy take Taras back in person, Magnani was hoping to give back some of the dignity Taras and others like him have lost."

Minuses: Just that teentsy little bit too weird in places...

Curiosities: This is the first Italian-Ukrainian co-production... Shooting was scheduled to start in 2014, but was put on hold because of the war (that one, not this one -- so many wars...). In 2016, word came through that filming could start -- but it had to be immediately, even though it was the middle of winter. Kudos for sticking with the river scene (one of the best)...



4.
Whiplash
2014, Damien Chazelle (who also made La La Land, which we saw in KL in early 2017)

The plot opening: Andrew (Miles Teller) is studying at an elite music school, and wants to be a top-notch drummer. His ambition makes him easy prey for Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons), the teacher who has made bullying, manipulation, and personalized psychological warfare into his niche par excellence. Constantly tricked and humiliated by this loathsome man, Andrew nevertheless refuses to give up. He drums till his hands bleed; and he alienates his family and friends, seemingly taking on some of the hectoring insensitivity of his mentor.

The niche: Andrew survives, drums his way to Carnegie Hall, bests the vile Fletcher at his own deceptive game, and even elicits a look of appreciation. He has definitely found his niche -- at what cost to his happiness, though, is an open question.

Pluses: It's a fascinating exploration of the attitudes surrounding learning and teaching. Maybe some musical (and other) geniuses have been spurred on by harsh treatment (this is Fletcher's constant self-justification), but how many musical geniuses have been lost on the way -- to discouragement or even to suicide? When the movie came out, there was apparently a bit of a discussion about whether the final triumphant scenes ultimately justify Fletcher's tactics, making the film's message self-contradictory. (There even seems to be a teeny bit of ambivalence in Chazelle's own expressed views: "I do believe in pushing yourself... If every single thing is enjoyable, then you’re not pushing yourself hard enough, is probably how I feel... But this movie takes it to an extreme that I do not condone." Interesting...) But I came away from the movie feeling no such conflict. To me, Andrew's triumph came despite not because of Fletcher. To me, he was not "tragically wasting his effort on this sociopathic void of a man", but doing brilliantly what he does best. You can respect that, while all the time knowing that he will likely pay dearly for it (Chazelle predicts that "Andrew will be a sad, empty shell of a person and will die in his 30s of a drug overdose"...) Finally, I'm not a jazz fan, but Hank Levy's Whiplash is really good...

Minuses: It's hard to watch at times, and you can't help experiencing a really strong desire to hurt Fletcher very badly...

Curiosities: Abuse in music education is a widespread problem: "What I have seen, overwhelmingly," says Ian Pace, "from having gone through an elite musical training, working as a professional musician, and also from a large amount of information disclosed privately to me, is a systematic pattern of domination, cruelty, dehumanisation, bullying and emotional manipulation from unscrupulous musicians in positions of unchecked power, of which sexual abuse is one of several manifestations."