Fr. Dennis' Pandemic Movie Picks - Pt 2 - Dramas



Hi folks,

Offering here a "Part Two" to my pandemic movie picks.  "Part One" centered on Comedies.  Here are dramas / thrillers.  Every one of these films is accessible via Amazon and/or Google Play and IMHO worth one's time.

Enjoy ;-)

Fr. Dennis


7 Boxes (orig. 7 Cajas) [2012] (Paraguay, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - Who needs fast cars, speed boats and helicopters to produce a heart-racing thriller?  Here a random somewhat spoiled teenager who wants to buy himself a better cell phone is given a task of moving seven boxes from one end of Asuncion, Paraqugay's Central Market to the other, and ... much, much, much ensues ;-) - 4+ Stars - Amazon Prime Video

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2014] (Iranian Exiles/Farsi, subtitled) - R - A spectacularly well-made horror / drama, made by young Iranian exiles here in the U.S. - 4 Stars - Mubi on Amazon Prime Video / Google Play Video

A Touch of Sin (orig. Tian zhu ding) [2013] (China, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - An often visually spectacular multifaceted story set in contemporary China - 3 Stars - Mubi on Amazon Prime Video / Google Play Video

Amour Fou [2014] (Germany / Austria, subtitled) - UR would be PG-13 - "Artfully" filmed (on several levels) German "Downton Abbey"-like period piece (yes superficially beautiful, but with much going on) set in Prussia during the time of Napoleon / Jane Austen. - 3 Stars -- Amazon Prime Video.  If you liked this film, you may like the French My Mother's Castle [1991] which is visually very similar.

Avé [2011] (Bulgaria, Subtitled) - UR (would be R) - Lovely but _crushingly sad_ young adult drama, about two lost souls hitchhiking across cold, rainy, industrial Bulgaria (the "New Jersey of Eastern Europe") each hoping to fix things that are ... _so hard_ to fix - 4+ Stars -- Mubi on Amazon Prime Video

Bajirao Mastani [2015] (India/Tamil, Subtitled) - UR (would be PG-13) - Visually AWESOME Indian pre-British Historical Epic.  You'll never think of India as somehow "small" or above-all "poor" again -- 4+ Stars -- Google Play Video

Battleship Island (orig.Gunhamdo) [2017] (South Korea, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - Often searingly brutal historical drama about a notorious slave labor camp on an island off the coast of Nagasaki during Imperial Japan's domination of Korea -- 3 1/2 Stars - Amazon Prime Video

Before ... Sunrise [1995], Sunset [2004], Midnight [2013] Trilogy (United States) - a spectacularly creative story: two random young adult / college students, he American, she French, meet on a train from Budapest to Vienna in 1995 and strike up a conversation that plays-out (up till now) over three different "one day" installments over 20 years - Amazon Prime Video [1] [2] [3] 

Betibú [2014] - (Argentina, subtitled) - UR would be PG-13 - well-spun "lighter" noirish crime story about a sensational murder and a team from a B.A. newspaper tasked to break the case - 3 1/2 Stars - FlixLatino on Amazon Prime Video

Dark Glasses (orig. Espejuelos Oscuros) [2015] (Cuba/Spain, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - fascinating (on multiple levels) "small INDIE" CUBAN production about a middle-aged Cuban woman who like Scheherazade of 1001 Nights has to talk herself out of a near impossible situation - 4+ Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

Dark World (orig. Темный мир / Temnyy Mir) [2010] (Russia, subtitled) UR (would be PG-13) - Very well spun, often visually spectacular Russian "Twilight"-like young-adult oriented saga involving contemporary college students from St. Petersburg on an "ethnological trip" to the forests of nearby Karelia.  Ah, what Russia could be, what stories it could tell ... without Putin - 3 1/2 Stars - Amazon DVD

Detective Dee and the Phantom Flame (orig. Di Renjie) [2010] (Hong Kong / China, Subtitled) - PG-13 - Fun / Flashy, "Indiana Jonesey" Medieval China-set "Who done it" - 3 1/2 Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

El Jeremias [2015] (Mexico, subtitled) - Lovely family dramedy from the POV of an 8 year old boy - 4+ Stars - Amazon Prime Video

Forgotten (orig. Olvidados) [2014] - (Bolivia, subtitled) - UR would be R - an utterly UNFORGETABLE, life-changing, world-view confirming, historical drama about the Cold War Era (1970s-80s) "Operation Condor", prequel to the United State's post-9/11 "War on Terror" complete with abductions, "secret prisons," etc.  Some 60,000 accused leftists, mostly students, disappeared all across Latin America in the 1970s-80s as a result of this shocking operation -- 4+ Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

Girlhood (orig. Bande de Filles) [2014] (France, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - Contemporary coming of age story of group of teenage girls, of West African descent growing up "in the projects" at the outskirts of Paris, France - 3 1/2 Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

Gloria [2013] (Chile, Subtitled) - R - Juliane Moore's 2018 Hollywood remake is okay but doesn't hold a candle to the Chilean original offered here - 3 1/2 Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

Instructions Not Included [2013] (Mexico/USA, subtitled at times) - PG - lovely cross border story about a Mexican single dad, trying to raise his precious daughter - Google Play Video

Labyrinth of Lies (orig. Im Labyrinth des Schweigens) [2014] (Germany, Subtitled) - UR (would be R) - profoundly honest and at times funny (if you can't laugh, you're just going to cry) drama about (West) Germany's struggle in the 1960s to confront its Nazi past - 4+ Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

Njinga Queen of Angola (orig. Njinga Rainha de Angola) [2013] (Angola, Subtitled) - UR (would be PG-13/R) - Historical drama about Njinga, a wise / powerful Angolan queen at time of first European (Portuguese/Dutch) incursions into southern Africa who at least in her time kept the Europeans at bay - 4 Stars - Google Play Video

Pietà [2012] (S. Korea, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - Often quite brutal S. Korean crime story about a young enforcer who ... nevertheless finds someone remarkable who loves him - 3 1/2 Stars -- Google Play Video

Protektor [2009] (Czech Rep, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - A young 1930s Czech "power-couple" faced with negotiating the then "new realities" of Nazi Occupation - 3 1/2 Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

Queen [2014] (India/Hindi, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - Bollywood young adult oriented rom com, where "the dance" actually comes first, for reasons that become clear, great movie! - 3 Stars -- Google Play

Tag (orig. Riaru onigokko) [2015] (Japan, Subtitled) - UR (would be R) - A true Japanese teenage horror / splatter film (not for everybody ;-) - 2 Stars - Amazon Prime Video

The Assasin (orig. Nie yin niang) [2015] (China / Taiwan, subtitled) - UR (would be PG-13) - visually stunning, Chinese martial arts story set in 15-th century, Tang Dynasty China -- Amazon Prime Video

The Dark Valley (orig. Das Finstere Tal) [2014] (Austria, subtitled) - UR would be R - An "Austrian Western" ... set in the Alps of the late 1800s ;-) - 4+ Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

The Forgotten Kingdom [2013] (South Africa, Lesotho, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - A somewhat lost young adult son who grew-up in J-burg, South Africa fulfills his father's dying wish to be buried in his home country of Lesotho - 3 1/2 Stars - Amazon Prime Video

The Great Beauty (orig. La Grande Bellezza) [2013] (Italy, subtitled) - UR would be R - A grand Italian dramedy about, a la Fellini, all sorts of "great" but long thoroughly compromised characters.  Still they can put on a great show, "bella figura" above all ;-) -- Amazon Prime Video

The Lunchbox (orig. Dabba) [2013] (India/Hindi, subtitled) - PG - Lovely personalist Drama that plays out amidst the sea of countless people in contemporary Mumbai, India - 4 Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

The Sapphires [2012] (Australia) - PG-13 - Lovely, heart-rending Australian, "girl group", Vietnam War era "coming of age" movie (yes it's all that) - 4 Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

The Skin I Live in (orig. La Piel Que Habito) [2011] (Spain, subtitled) - R - a brilliant but VERY CREEPY modern-day Frankenstein story - 3 Stars (w. Parental Warning) -- Amazon Prime Video

White God (orig. Fehér Isten) [2014] (Hungary, subtitled) - UR would be PG-13 - Strange title, but stunning Hungarian "Planet of the Apes" story only playing-out here with dogs ;-) - 3 Stars -- Amazon Prime Video

White Lies [2013] (New Zealand) - UR (would be PG-13) - Colonial era period piece about the manifold tragic importance of skin color in making distinctions between and among the local colonials / indigenous Mauris of New Zealand - 4 Stars - Amazon Prime Video

Will you still love me tomorrow? (orig. Ming tian ji de ai shang wo) [2013] (Taiwan, subtitled) - UR (would be R) - Heart-wrenching gay themed young adult coming-out story - 4 stars - Amazon Prime Video


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