This Inspiring, Disturbing Drama Is The Best Movie You Didn't Get Around To Watching This Month
(Welcome to Under the Radar, a column where we spotlight specific movies, shows, trends, performances, or scenes that caught our eye and deserved more attention ... but otherwise flew under the radar. In this edition: J.A. Bayona's "Society of the Snow" is an existential triumph, Jodie Comer delivers an unforgettable performance in "The End We Start From," and "Fallen Leaves" tells a timely love story amid war.)
The new year brings us the first installment of "Under the Radar" in 2024 and, with January having drawn to a close, it's worth looking back and taking stock of how no matter how much things change, the more things stay the same. You know how all our bright and optimistic New Year's resolutions are already aging like milk, despite our best intentions? Well, that's kind of like how Hollywood tends to approach the month of January — except maybe without the "best intentions" part.
The turning of the calendar is typically accompanied by movie fans breathlessly anticipating the next slate of movies and shows scheduled (however tentatively) for the next twelve months. But even in a time when the "summer blockbuster season" is no longer confined to the actual summer, the vast majority of the most exciting titles don't start popping up until March and beyond. (Looking at you, "Dune: Part Two.") So where does that leave us?
Predictably, 2024 has gotten off to a slow start at the box office, giving moviegoers the impression that there was simply nothing to see. But, to quote Dakota Johnson, "That's not the truth, Ellen." We've rounded up the best of the best from the so-called January doldrums: streaming debuts that should've generated more buzz, limited theatrical releases that deserved a wider audience, and powerhouse performances we'll remember long after Oscars season fades away.
Society of the Snow
On October 13, 1972, a Uruguayan flight transporting 45 passengers and crew, almost half of whom were members of a close-knit rugby team, crashed in the Andes Mountains and kicked off a months-long fight for survival. Their desperate attempts to stay alive in the harshest terrain imaginable have been the subject of numerous documentaries, books, and even podcasts, but never before has it been depicted as viscerally or with as much empathy as in director J.A. Bayona's masterful "Society of the Snow." Based on author Pablo Vierci's book of the same title, the film cuts straight through the sensationalism baked into the real-life tragedy — it eventually leaked out that the survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism of their dead friends and family members to stay alive — and finds the moving sense of inspiration and humanity at the heart of the tale.
Led by an ensemble of Uruguayan and Argentinian performers (as rugby player and narrator Numa Turcatti, actor Enzo Vogrincic is the closest thing the film has to a "main" character) and bolstered by Bayona's ever-tasteful direction, "Society of the Snow" never once strays into voyeuristic or exploitative territory. Neither does it fall into the same traps that turn countless survivalist depictions into hollow, toothless, and ultimately forgettable products. Here, viewers are made to truly feel every death and setback. As the starving begin to contemplate the unthinkable, the notion of faith as both a detriment and a boon for endurance takes centerstage. And tying it all together is some of the most deft and assured filmmaking Bayona has ever produced, lending just as much focus on the harrowing and brutal crash as he does with quieter moments of introspection.
"Society of the Snow" is currently streaming on Netflix.
The End We Start From
London is flooding under unprecedented levels of rising waters and the complete breakdown of social order is soon to follow, but it wouldn't quite feel accurate to label "The End We Start From" as a post-apocalyptic thriller. The shockingly reserved and subtle drama, directed by Mahalia Belo from a script by Alice Birch (and based on the novel by Megan Hunter), instead plays out in a minor key and allows its images — along with one heck of a lead performance — to do all the talking. Right from the opening shot of running water slowly engulfing the frame in a tub, Jodie Comer commands the screen as an unnamed woman who has just given birth to her first child. The unflinching delivery is frightening enough, with the baby coming too soon and without the woman's husband (played by "Game of Thrones" alum Joel Fry) at home to help, but the floodwaters currently invading her home only raise the stakes even higher.
What follows is a family drama in which Comer and Fry's characters must make the best of an impossible situation in the midst of an environmental crisis, the likes of which neither is remotely prepared to handle. When they inevitably split up in order to give themselves the best chance to survive, we're left entirely in the perspective of Comer's character as she navigates a hostile world, potential friends in unexpected places (like one played by the always-great Katherine Waterston or the haunted stranger briefly portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch), and the impossible task of raising a child in such dire conditions. Part cautionary tale, part ode to motherhood, and part exploration of what makes home worth fighting for, this film delivers on all fronts.
"The End We Start From" is now playing in theaters and is also available for purchase or rent.
Fallen Leaves
What's the point of life when it feels like society's collectively headed off a cliff? We can either try to enjoy what little time we have left ... or shut down entirely, succumbing to our vices since we're convinced we won't live long enough for the consequences to matter anyway. This might seem like a horribly depressing way to convince anyone to check out a movie, but allow us to assure you that "Fallen Leaves" is a bright ray of hope amid the darkness.
Directed by Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki, known for his focus on blue-collar workers fighting tooth and nail to avoid being crushed under the gears of capitalism, his latest movie is set in Helsinki with the backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine uncomfortably existing in the background. Hopelessness pervades every scene in the early going as we follow Ansa Grönholm (a brilliant Alma Pöysti), a lonesome woman struggling to make ends meet. Flitting from job to job due to pressures she's hardly responsible for, the opportunities available to her are hardly glamorous: a grocery store clerk, a dishwasher at a run-down bar, and a factory worker on the line. She's not the only one stuck on a never-ending conveyor belt, though the walking disaster Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) is entirely at fault for his own alcoholism, smoking addiction, and fatalistic worldview.
The eventual meeting and rocky romance between the two almost feels inevitable, as does the creative choice to feature symbolic shades of red in practically every scene — sometimes as a warning, others as a representation of love. Yet there's something beautiful about even the most lost and loneliest of souls determined to find meaning together in a world of fallen leaves.
"Fallen Leaves" is currently available to stream on Mubi.