Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi (8/10)

Ok so obviously Drive My Car has gotten a lot of hype and many ppl are predicting for it to sweep the Oscars this year. It's a 3hr movie based on a Murakami short story, and it had taken me a while to find 3 hrs to sit down and watch this movie, but now I'm on spring break. I think it's only because I am only giving my favorite movies of all time a 10/10 that I am not giving this film that rating. I'm a sucker for Japanese landscape, and this film is shot so so beautifully -- the car that the film centers around is beautiful; the Japanese landscape shots are beautiful; the acting is beautiful. The whole film is a visual wonder. I also really liked how literary the film was; it centers on this Chekhov play "Uncle Vanya," and I really appreciated how they used that text to its fullest to complement the story. The only reason I am not giving it a 10/10 is because I think it lacked something deeper and more psychological that I look for in a movie. The film is about grief, and I think it deals with it in a nuanced way -- but it did not blow my mind, lacking a certain je ne sais quoi. I also would have liked to know more about the mysteries behind Oto (and I know that part of the resolution is in the fact that she was not a mystery but just human), but I am so intrigued by the sex-story telling that she does, and I would have liked to spend more time with her I think. Anyways, this movie was really stunning and I did love it. I would def recommend. Also the acting is so fkn good.