1.
A Man Called Ove
2016
Hannes Holm

What ends? Well, lots of things... The Ove of the title (Rolf Lassgard) was once happily married, but now his beloved Sonja is dead. His prospects of parenthood ended long ago after the bus accident that left Sonja paralysed. His job has been ended by the dreaded "whiteshirts", and the quiet, orderly life on his pleasant suburban housing estate has ended -- at least in his view -- because people KEEP BREAKING THE RULES.

The plot: Ove is the quintessential grumpy old man. He terrorizes shop assistants over the wording of discount notices; he harangues his neighbours in his self-appointed role of bylaw-enforcer; and he shoos away the cat that has unaccountably taken a fancy to him. Bit by bit, we're made aware of the various sad endings that have brought him to this state, and we also come to realize that his crabby demeanour doesn't cut it against his overall sense of grief and purposelessness. So he tries to commit suicide. And fails. Several times. (This is billed as a "comedy" after all, and it's funny because usually what stops him dying is the compulsion to be his overbearing and meddlesome old self just one more time...) Gradually he forges the relationships that will help him see the point in life. In particular, he gets to know Parvaneh (Bahar Pars), the pregnant Iranian woman who has newly moved into the neighbourhood with her hapless Swedish husband. Parvaneh has the advantage of not being scared by Ove, and is able to put him in his place, while also demonstrating genuine compassion for him. And she it is who engineers that Ove takes in the (truly gorgeous) cat who has been accompanying him on his rounds.

Take-home message: Don't be like Ove-I. Be like Ove-II. And adopt a cat.

Verdict: It is a fairly predictable story. But it's an enjoyable movie, with enough bite to make you want to relish the life you have.



2.
Bellbird
2020, Hamish Bennett

What ends? New Zealand dairy farmer Ross (Marshall Napier), who is nothing if not taciturn, experiences the end of his little world when his cheery wife, Beth (Annie Whittle), dies. Beth is the one who has kept the channels open to their neighbours, and to their son, Bruce (Cohen Holloway), who works at a local recycling centre. Without her, there's pretty much an end to all communication. And Ross contemplates the end of his life's work, too. He can't manage the farm alone, and it doesn't seem to be Bruce's thing, so he contemplates selling up.

The plot: The story shows us how Ross learns to communicate his feelings (a little bit, anyway), and how Bruce learns to reconcile himself to the blood and guts of farming (thereby dissuading his father from selling out to an agricultural company). I wasn't 100-per cent convinced by Bruce's conversion to agriculture. I reckon he might struggle in the future. But the men are not alone. They're helped in different ways by Klem, the local vet (Stephen Tamarapa); by Marley (Kahukura Retimana), the capable young kid who loves nothing better than mucking in on the farm; and by Connie (Rachel House) who is Bruce's boss, and (by the end) love interest.

Take-home message: Talk to each other... For heaven's sake, just talk to each other... One of Bruce's most moving lines is the one where he tells his dad: "I know you miss mum. I miss her every day too. If we miss her together, it feels a little bit easier than doing it by ourselves."

Verdict: I liked this. It's a very Kiwi movie... It's not only the unique scenery (which really makes you want to go back for a quick look, as it's been SOOO long). It's also the script, the impact of which is nailed by Graeme Tuckett: "The dialogue in Bellbird accurately represents that near-poetry of sparseness and gruffness that a particular breed of rural New Zealanders have at their command. If any of us city types tried to communicate so much with so few words, I reckon we'd faint from the effort." I'm also impressed by the fact the film-maker has a day job as a primary school teacher...



3.
Little Men
2016, Ira Sachs

What ends? So much ends in this film... When Granddad dies, he leaves his Brooklyn property to son Brian (Greg Kinnear) and daughter Audrey (Talia Balsam). The downstairs shop that he has rented cheaply to Latina dressmaker Leonor (Paulina Garcia) must now (says Audrey) fetch a market rate. Leonor can't afford it, so that's the end of her business, at least at that location. The rift between the families also spells the end of the friendship that has developed between the 13-year-old sons of the landlord/tenant families, respectively introvert Jake (Theo Taplitz) and outgoing Tony (Michael Barbieri). They share an ambition to pursue their artistic interests at the LaGuardia High School, but the final (chilling) scene shows that they have gone in different directions, and Tony's ambitions have (at least for the moment) run into the buffers. On a broader level, we are shown how gentrification -- "a hostile act, an exploitation of communities, and something to be resisted" -- spells the end of cities.

The plot: The basic conundrum -- more rent, or the same rent -- is not resolved peacefully, despite the attempts by Brian's wife, Kathy (Jennifer Ehle), to employ her conflict resolution skills... There is simply too much at stake for each party. Brian, a not particularly successful actor, relies on Kathy for financial support; Audrey also finds it hard to pay her bills, and needs the extra income. Leonor, on the other hand, does not at all feel that she has been living on charity. Granddad felt her contribution to the neighbourhood was important, and she had a good relationship with him (she remarks to Brian, a little cruelly, that she probably knew more about his latter years than his son did). She's not all self-deprecating and grateful and conciliatory. She's angry. Caught in the middle are the boys, powerless as children so often are.

Take-home message: It's always about economics, and there are no easy answers...

Verdict: Excellent. Understated. Packs an enormous amount of social commentary into its 85 minutes.



4.
Between Two Worlds (Ouistreham -- for once the English title is better than the somewhat cryptic French one)
2021, Emmanuel Carrere

What ends? Trust, essentially. A warm camaraderie has built up between a group of low-income cleaning staff and Marianne Winckler (Juliette Binoche). The cleaning team discover that the woman they befriended, supported, and encouraged -- the woman they thought was just a colleague, one of them -- is actually a writer, who has inserted herself into their world in order to document their working lives. The betrayal is HUGE. They hang out with her. They open their homes to her. And then they find out that she's treating them as lab rats. Particularly affected is the woman to whom Marianne drew closest, Chrystele (Helene Lambert).

The plot: As Marianne gets to know the harsh world of the cleaning industry, she becomes familiar not only with its insane demands, but also with the solidarity and mutual help that undergird the teams of workers subjected to it. The story is based on a book by journalist Florence Aubenas, who also insinuates herself into the world of minimum-wage gig cleaners, in order to expose its inequities. The cast is made up mainly of non-professionals recruited in Caen, and two characters from Aubenas's book play their own roles. Notably, though, Aubenas doesn't strike up friendships with those she is associating with, and it's this personal element that gives Carrere's story its unique dimension. The film portrays two types of reaction to the accidental big reveal, when Marianne's cover is suddenly blown by someone who recognizes her from her "real" life. The scene at the end very realistically shows how Marianne's bad faith provokes hurt and anger, her justification (that she's attempting to give these downtrodden people a voice) sounding hollow and patronizing. Before that, however, when her book is launched, some of the cleaning staff are in the audience. They have obviously forgiven her; they might even be proud of her. I found that scene slightly less than credible (personally, I'd have been FURIOUS to be spied on this way).

Take-home message: All that tedious stuff you do in university on ethics in research really does have a point...

Verdict: I thought this movie deserved better reviews than it largely seemed to garner (it scores just 74 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes). Peter Bradshaw is pretty damning, for example, seeing Between Two Worlds as "earnestly intentioned but naive and supercilious", and carping that the film doesn't properly investigate the exploitative nature of modern employment practices. I don't think that's fair, given that the movie's key focus is the writer's ethical dilemma. True, the book launch scene was a bit phoney (see above), but overall I think the movie explored that central dilemma -- what is acceptable in writing a book, and what isn't? -- very effectively.