STREAM THIS WEEKEND: Mother 📍
Happy Friday! Not me sending a newsletter on time. In honor of Squid Game, the biggest show in the world, I’m recommending an underrated and underseen Korean thriller from Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho.
Have a terrific weekend. Lots of love, Karl.
Today’s movie: Mother 📍
A mother (Kim Hye-ja) spends her days running an apothecary, giving illegal acupuncture treatments, and looking after her mildly intellectually disabled adult son Do-joon (Won Bin). Though he doesn’t let that stop him from trying to live his own life. After a girl (Moon Hee-ra) is found dead, Do-joon is charged with the murder. To prove his innocence, his mother tries to find the killer herself. Here's the trailer.
Why you should watch it: From its opening moments, Mother has you in its grasp. As Kim’s titular character dances in a field, you see flashes of sadness, anger, longing, fear and oddly joy. It’s a fitting way to begin a movie that makes you feel all those emotions. The story unfolds like a Hitchcockian thriller complete with twists, red herrings and shocking revelations. Still, like all of Bong’s films, it’s unclassifiable.
Beneath the mystery is a bleak comedy about a relationship between a mother and son — and the lengths she will go to to protect him. However, Bong is exploring something more profound than that. The mother wins your sympathy as she desperately and obsessively tries to find any clue to free her son. But you know Bong always has more up his sleeve.
As the movie winds its way to the mindblowing third act, you find that it’s both celebrating and deconstructing the idea of maternal unconditional love. Along the way, blood is spilled, inhibitions lost and relationships tested. And there’s no one I’d rather have to take me through it than director Bong. 129 mins.
🍷 Pair it with:
THE GUILTY | A suspended police detective (Jake Gyllenhaal) relegated to 911 dispatch duty answers a call from a woman who he discovers was kidnapped. He races against the clock to find her before it’s too late. Streaming on Netflix.
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN | Cassie (Carey Mulligan) spends her nights punishing predatory men with her own unique brand of justice. When old college friend Ryan (Bo Burnham) comes back into her life, she hatches a plan to right the wrongs of her past. Streaming on HBO Max.
1 trailer to watch: Uncharted 🗺
As a person who was subjected to dating a gaymer, I know how big of a deal Sony’s adaptation of video game hit Uncharted is. Here’s the synopsis:
Based on one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed video game series of all time, Uncharted tells the story of Nathan Drake and his first adventure with rival-turned-partner Victor "Sully" Sullivan. Starring Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as quick-witted, wise-cracking Sully, Uncharted will introduce audiences to how Nathan Drake becomes the treasure hunter as he unravels one of history's greatest mysteries and treasures in an action-adventure epic that spans the globe.
📽 P.S. You can see every movie I’ve ever recommended right here.
🍅 I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes! You can find new movie reviews here and here.