Living Review

BY ALEX DE VORE alex@sfreporter.com

Though Bill Nighy’s performance in Shaun of the Dead should be considered one of the finest pieces of acting in film history, the man is dominating Oscars conversations for his performance in Living, the new ultra-British drama from director Oliver Hermanus and writer Kazuo Ishiguro. The piece is adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru—itself a sort of adaptation of Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich—wherein a man with little time left to live decides he’s gonna do some good while he still can.

Oh, it’s not that Nighy isn’t excellent in the film. As a stuffed-shirt über-fop working for London’s public works department in the 1950s, he’s perfectly flat and emotionless. All around him, vestiges of Britannia’s mind-your-manners faux politeness reign. “A bit like church,” says one character, as painfully correct as it is weird and pointless. As a dying guy who realizes propagating red tape kind of sucks, Nighy’s Mr. Williams is...well, he’s still pretty staid. Still, though, the message about trying to do good is pretty nice as messages go, and Living certainly cuts a pretty picture thanks to cinematographer Jamie Ramsay.

Here we find a repressed and aging British gent grappling with a terminal cancer diagnosis. None of his co-workers (über-serious Brits, all) know of his troubles, but they do seem irked when he stops

Celebrated fast-talking actor Jesse Eisenberg enters a new career era with When You Finish Saving the World, an adaptation of his 2020 audio drama for Audible wherein disparate generational perspectives inform challenges across a wide spectrum of life’s hurdles.

Eisenberg penned and directed the film version of his story, trading out his own vocal performance from the Audible release—and that of Booksmart actress Kaitlyn Dever—for a more grounded take on the mother/son quagmire. Julianne Moore plays the humorless mother Evelyn; Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard tackles son Ziggy, a powder keg of growing pains, online validation and run-of-the-mill teen bullshit.

In World, Wolfhard’s Ziggy finds support and acknowledgement when livestreaming folk-rock songs to a listener base of 20,000—a number he casually drops into conversation far too often. Aurally, the songs sound like old Beck—super-early, One Foot in the Grave Beck. Lyrically, they’re a painfully spot-on glimpse at teenage emotions that strike a believable balance between silly little nothings and moments of genuine insight and talent.

Ziggy’s parents just don’t understand, though, and while his explosive reactions to his mother showing up for work for just two days. See, he’s pulled out half his savings and set off for the coast, where, under the tutelage of some kind of poet or something (Jamie Wilkes, whom we know is artsy because he monologues briefly about how Paris is cool) he drinks a bunch, buys a new hat and falls in love with the art of the arcade claw machine. Oh, he returns to work shortly thereafter, only between his oceanside exploits and a growing platonic relationship with former employee Margaret (Aimee Lou Wood, Sex Education), he decides he’ll help some poverty-stricken mothers build a middling playground in, like, Whitechapel, probably.

The rest is either told through flashbacks that prove how dedicated Mr. Williams was in the end or painfully polite exchanges between his son, his underlings, his boss, the intriguing young Margaret and so on. Living is a little bit about happiness, a little bit about living and a whole lot slow. It would be so tempt- and father (Jay O. Sanders) seem over the top, Eisenberg’s script shows deft understanding of just how hard we feel when we’re young.

Moore’s Evelyn is the founder of an abused women’s shelter, and though she freely shows support for her patients, she struggles to connect with her own son. Here, World is at its best with a character steeped in relatable flaws who thinks she’s helping but kind of just goes on hurting. Moore expertly phases from work mom to home mom, and we might hate her for the glib manner in which she questions Ziggy’s motivations if we didn’t remember how tired we can be at the end of the day—or just how tough teens can be. Wolfhard mostly keeps up with her, too, and proves to be a capable performer. It is doubtful, however, this will be remembered as his best work.

When Evelyn forms a bond with a new patient’s son, things get tricky. Seeing in him the things she most wants in a son, her misguided jabs at a motherhood redo become ever more frantic. Ziggy, meanwhile, tries to infiltrate a friend group of woke-lite kids at his school, all the while misunderstanding why his passions don’t carry weight similar to his classmate’s pseudo-politicking. Ultimately, though, his earnestness saves him. Moore’s Evelyn comes to understand this, just as Ziggy comes to understand how his mother’s efforts, though not flashy, are wildly impressive. Gee, it’s almost like everyone has their own story or something. (ADV)

Center for Contemporary Arts, Violet Crown, R, 88 min.

BROKER 8 ing to cite Nighy’s stirring rendition of a man literally re-discovering his voice as enough, but this is otherwise a run-of-the-mill drama that seemingly confuses swelling, dramatic music and tearful funerals as fine filmmaking. In fact, had any other actor undertaken the role of Mr. Williams, it might be a different conversation altogether. As it stands, the best you can say is that Nighy’s always good, so we can forgive the kind of slow pacing that kills cinema newcomers’ interests before they can blossom. Still, as Mr. Williams says in the film, if even the things without longevity can help someone, that’s enough—maybe Living will convince someone to live or be nice to people or something.

LIVING

Directed by Hermanus

With Nighy, Wood and Wilkes Center for Contemporary Arts, PG-13, 102 min.

+ KILLER WRITING AND CHARACTERS

- PACKED WITH NEEDLESS SCENES THAT DO VERY LITTLE FOR PLOT

Korean writer/director Hirokazu Koreeda comes out swinging with Broker, a sort of examination of economics, given vs. chosen family and the choices we make while backed into a corner. And though Koreeda’s tale lacks the sharp sting of films like Parasite, it does wend its way through the beauty of South Korea, landing upon a moral that’s something like: You can’t always get what you want, but you might find you get what you need; if you’re open to it.

We mainly follow Sang-hyeon (now-legendary Parasite star Song Kang-Ho) and Dong-soo (Dong-won Gang), a pair of lower-class worker types who, through Dong-soo’s job at a church orphanage, sometimes sell the babies surrendered at the doorstep. When one such baby’s mother returns to claim her child, however, their plan seems doomed—right up until it turns out she’s on board with selling the kid so long as she gets a cut. That mother (a magnetic Ji-eun Lee) seemingly cares very little for the child, but once the trio picks up a stowaway orphan (Seung-soo Im), lessons on relationships abound, leading each of the ragtag family members to examine their choices, their agency and their place in society. With a pair of cops hot on their tail and no shortage of would-be parents clamoring for the infant, our heroes travel the breadth of their country deprogramming from their traumas both shared and not. Bonds form and tensions ease. You’d almost root for them if it weren’t for the whole selling babies thing.

Kang-ho has certainly proven a powerful performer in recent years, and one with an endless reservoir of charm. Here he gets the opportunity to stretch out across a stirring variety of motivations and emotional storytelling moments. We go so quickly from distrust to devout respect that it hardly seems possible. He particularly shines in scenes with the young Im. Gang’s performance is life-affirming, too, and sometimes a harsh reminder that ambivalence doesn’t look good on anyone. Lee might be the true standout, though, particularly in her ability to convey so much while saying so little. The baby is just plain cute.

Cut to no shortage of environmental storytelling, gorgeous coastal backgrounds and cities swelling with too many people; find a different kind of love story. The most shocking surprises, though, hit slowly and unfold across the film, be it the cop who secretly loves very deeply or the young son of a neighborhood merchant who went down the dark path. Broker is like a masterclass in character development, and though slow, feels more than worth it once its bittersweet conclusion rolls around.(ADV)

Center for Contemporary Arts, R, 129 min.

JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

“Free Spin”—moving around with some vocab.

by Matt Jones

29 Like a conversation with your typical five-year-old

32 Convenience store convenience

35 One sent out for information

36 Yearbook div.

37 Where jazz organist Jimmy Smith is “Back at”, according to the classic 1963 album

40 “___ Magnifique” (Cole Porter tune)

41 Get the picture

42 University that’s a lock?

46 British war vessel of WWII

48 Hero with a weak spot

50 “Anon ___” (2022 debut novel from @DeuxMoi)

51 MSNBC legal correspondent Melber

54 Govt. securities

55 Professional equipment

59 Video games (like Street Fighter) that require fast fingers and little nuance

60 Dampens, as many towelettes

Down

1 Phrase on a sign for storage units or moving vans

2 Straddling

3 Pool worker

4 Military truces

5 Bit of rest

6 North American indoor sports org. claiming among its total players about 10% Iroquois

7 Web marketplace

8 Meet-___ (rom-com trope)

9 “You ___ Airplane” (of Montreal song)

10 French seasoning

11 Flexible curlers for some perms

12 Bright Eyes frontman Oberst

13 “Heat transfer coefficient” in window insulation (its inverse uses R--and its letter doesn’t seem to stand for anything)

14 Prefix before “demon” (as seen in games like Doom Eternal)

15 Some salts

20 Royal resting place

21 Separator of the Philippines and Malaysia

23 Leslie’s friend on “Parks & Rec”

26 Legendary

27 One can be used to detect asthma (nitric oxide) or lactose intolerance (hydrogen)

30 Get inquisitive

31 Pendulum path

32 Take as true

33 1958 sci-fi movie starring Steve McQueen

34 Sushi bar order

38 Windy City public transit inits.

39 “Star Wars” villain

43 Sacrificial sites

44 Yorkshire County Cricket Club’s locale

45 “To be” in Latin

47 Sampling

49 Words before “Mood” or “Heights”

52 Word after control or escape

53 “Dance as ___ one is watching”

56 8.5” x 11” paper size, briefly

57 “Spare me the details”

58 Owns