By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Starring: Alan S. Kim | Ben Hall | Darryl Cox | Eric Starkey | Esther Moon | Noel Cho | Steven Yeun | Will Patton | Yeri Han | Yuh-jung Youn
Country: united_states
Year: 2021
Running time: 115
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10633456/reference
Diane says: “MINARI is a gentle family drama, an autobiographical work by Korean-American director Lee Isaac Chung. Mother (Yeri Han) and father (Steven Yuen, also producer) are a loving couple divided by the conflicting drivers of dreams and practicality. The family moves to a farm in Arkansas (played by Oklahoma) after years of unrewarding work in California, and faces challenges in putting down roots, literally and figuratively.
“From a distance of 30+ years, Chung is able to look compassionately at the difficulties in his parents’ marriage. His own fictional persona, a sickly, fussed-over child, is played by charmer Alan Kim. WIll Patton has a colorful role as a Pentecostal neighbor. And I was won over by yet another grandmother, cussing, card-playing Yuh-jung Youn, who brings vitality and humor to the household and deftly defuses arguments.
“A little too pat, but I’ll give it 4 cats“
Brett says: “MINARI is a valiant effort, but it too often drowns in its own melodrama. At times, the dialogue feels ripped out of bad stock footage from a TV family drama. The edits and choices with the camera are often quite satisfactory and proficient, but the soap opera stares and shot-reverse shot conversations become too much after a while when layered on top of the more genuine scenes and overall premise of the film. It’s a see-saw of realism and plasticity, a slice of life at time and manufactured Mountain Dew film-making at other times.
“The premise is strong, and perhaps that’s what is carrying it to awards shows everywhere, but I much prefer films with a little more authentic spirit and personality in the delivery from beginning to end. Too many moments were very clearly illustrations of a script rather than genuine characterization. To its credit, the film should be considered a success in its preservation of a personal American story at its core. In that regard, the film is also self-explanatory and not over-arching with an ulterior theme; that is, the family story does sit at the forefront and speaks for itself adequately enough, holistically speaking, despite the manufactured feel of quite a few scenes that drew too much attention to the script rather than the moments themselves.
“I must say it’s a little frustrating to find Steven Yeun getting more credit in the mainstream and during awards season than he got for
BURNING, especially when he is called upon too many times in this film to drift into versions of bad episodes of
This Is Us. In addition, child acting and having a child as a main character is always precarious and tricky to begin with, so when a film so clearly relies on the ‘cute factor’ to try to sway favor as this one does, I tend to react the opposite. There are times when young Alan Kim is quite impressive, but director Lee Isaac Chung doesn’t do him any favors at other times by relying on fairly uninspired, base humor or cuteness; likewise, the conventional dramatics overall fail to deliver the punch the film deserves at some critical moments.”
Philip says: “I hate it when I don’t gush over a beloved film. MINARI’s got a 98% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I found the movie dull and not particularly realistic. A Korean family moves to Arkansas in the 1980’s to create a farm and grow vegetables specifically for the Korean-American community. The history of the family was fascinating and true to the American immigrant story. Husband and wife spend time sexing chickens in factories in California. Squirrel away money and move to Arkansas where they can have their own business. One spouse is better at sexing than the other. Their two kids are simultaneously intrigued and horrified at their new surroundings. What didn’t ring true to me was the lack of bigotry and prejudice. I like the idea of a film not focusing all of its energies on hatred so it can show a story about a young family struggling to find their American dream. Minari just didn’t seem realistic to me. How could this family plop themselves down in rural Arkansas and not face any prejudice from the white community? As a result, I didn’t finish MINARI. But I did get through enough of it to feel like I needed more. 2 cats
