once more movie review

Making beautiful music together

Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard star in "Once."

I’m not at all surprised that my esteemed colleague Michael Phillips of the Tribune selected John Carney’s “Once” as the best film of 2007.

I gave it my Special Jury Prize, which is sort of an equal first; no movie was going to budge “ Juno ” off the top of my list. “Once” was shot for next to nothing in 17 days, doesn’t even give names to its characters, is mostly music with not a lot of dialog, and is magical from beginning to end. It’s one of those films where you hold your breath, hoping it knows how good it is, and doesn’t take a wrong turn.

It doesn’t. Even the ending is the right ending, the more you think about it.

The film is set in Dublin, where we see a street musician singing for donations. This is the Guy ( Glen Hansard ). He attracts an audience of the Girl ( Marketa Irglova ). She loves his music. She’s a pianist herself. He wants to hear her play. She doesn’t have a piano. She takes him to a music store where she knows the owner, and they use a display piano. She plays some Mendelssohn. We are in love with this movie. He is falling in love with her. He just sits there and listens. She is falling in love with him. She just sits there and plays. There is an unusual delay before we get the obligatory reaction shot of the store owner, because all the movie wants to do is sit there and listen, too.

This is working partly because of the deeply good natures we sense these two people have. They aren’t “picking each other up.” They aren’t flirting — or, well, technically they are, but in that way that means, “I’m not interested unless you’re too good to be true.”

They love music, and they’re not faking it. We sense to a rare degree the real feelings of the two of them; there’s no overlay of technique, effect or style.

They are just purely and simply themselves. Hansard is a professional musician, well known in Ireland as leader of a band named the Frames. Irglova is an immigrant from the Czech Republic, only 17 years old, who had not acted before. She has the kind of smile that makes a man want to be a better person, so he can deserve being smiled at.

The film develops their story largely in terms of song. In between, they confide their stories. His heart was broken because his girlfriend left him and moved to London. She takes him home to meet her mother, who speaks hardly any English, and to join three neighbors who file in every night to watch their TV.

And he meets her child, which comes as a surprise. Then he finds out she’s married. Another surprise, and we sense that in his mind he had already dumped the girl in London and was making romantic plans. He’s wounded, but brave. He takes her home to meet his dad, a vacuum cleaner repairman. She has a Hoover that needs fixing. It’s Kismet.

He wants to record a demo record, take it to London, and play it for music promoters. She helps him, and not just by playing piano. When it comes down to it, she turns out to be level-headed, decisive, take-charge. An ideal producer. They recruit other street musicians for a session band, and she negotiates a rock-bottom price for a recording studio. And so on. All with music. And all with their love, and our love for their love, only growing. At one point he asks if she still loves her husband, and she answers in Czech, and the movie doesn’t subtitle her answer, because if she’d wanted subtitles, she would have answered in English, which she speaks perfectly well.

“Once” is the kind of film I’ve been pestered about ever since I started reviewing again. People couldn’t quite describe it, but they said I had to see it. I had to. Well, I did. They were right.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Glen Hansard as The Guy
• Marketa Irglova as The Girl

Written and directed by

• John Carney

Photographed by

• Tim Fleming

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• The <i>Brutalist</i>—At Least, Half of It—Is as Exhilarating as Any Movie You’ll See This Year

The Brutalist —At Least, Half of It—Is as Exhilarating as Any Movie You’ll See This Year

W hat separates a genius from the rest of us schmoes? That’s the question Brady Corbet—a prolific actor who’s gradually building a career as an inventive, out-there director—mines in The Brutalist, the story of a fictional mid-20th-century architect who, though acclaimed in his homeland of Hungary, finds himself scrambling to rebuild his life in the country he feels fortunate to have escaped to, the United States. Adrien Brody plays László Tóth, who has survived imprisonment in Buchenwald and made the tumultuous passage to New York: we get a point-of-view shot that captures what it might have been like to disembark from a crowded steamer and see the Statue of Liberty all topsy-turvy and sideways before you. She looks great, like someone who’s actually happy to see you. László will soon find out just how unwelcome he really is, though by staying true to his outsized vision, he will eventually achieve outsized fame—and it will take a runtime of three hours and change (with a 15-minute intermission in between) to lay all of this out.

The Brutalist, playing in competition here at the Venice Film Festival , is almost nuttily ambitious. In his third feature as director, Corbet does nothing by half measures, which doesn’t mean everything he tries is 100 percent successful. The Brutalist is half a great film: the hefty chunk of movie leading up to that intermission is as exhilarating as anything you’re likely to see this year—there’s a Rite of Spring brashness to it. But in the second half, its bold, angular lines soften into something more oblique and conventional, even though some of the plot elements are quite harrowing. It’s as if Corbet, along with his regular co-writer Mona Fastvold, used all their best ideas in their master-builder climb to the top, without figuring out how they might climb down.

But we live in an age when it’s hard enough to make even half a great film. And no matter how you cut it, The Brutalist is a spectacle, the sort of movie that can turn an afternoon into an event. Corbet divides the story into three sections, plus an epilogue, beginning in 1947 and winding up in 1980, at that year’s Venice Biennale, the first devoted to architecture. The film opens with that suitably jarring, shaky-cam arrival at Ellis Island. This is where we get our initial glimpse of Brody’s László, disembarking with a friend; their first order of business is to relieve some sexual tension. As a winsome beauty goes to work on László, she asks him why her ministrations aren’t doing the trick. “It’s the space above your brow that’s a problem,” he says, looking down at her upturned face. “There’s something I don’t like.”

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It's a cruel thing to say, but it’s also quintessential architect-speak. These are people with firm ideas about what they like and don’t like—aesthetic choices are their lifeblood. But for László, there’s something else: he and his wife, Erzsébet, were forcibly separated and sent to different camps during the war. She’s trapped in Austria—along with the couple’s niece, Zsofia, who has some health problems that demand special attention—but László doesn’t yet know that they’re still alive. When he finally reaches Pennsylvania, where he's reunited with a cousin, Attila (Alessandro Nivola), he learns that both are alive. His relief breaks through in a flood of tears; Brody makes you feel both their heat and their restorative coolness. He's wonderful in this role.

Attila and his Connecticut blonde wife (Emma Laird) run a custom furniture business; their specialty is ugly brown wood stuff. Attila gives László an empty storeroom to sleep in, and allows him to help with the business, though László’s pride prevents him from accepting more than that. In line at a soup kitchen, he meets a single father, Gordon (Isaach De Bankolé); the two will form a long-lasting bond. This is how Corbet inches forward with László’s story, which really kicks into gear when he and Attila accept a quickie commission from a rich skinflint, Joe Alwyn’s Harry Lee Van Buren. Harry wants to surprise his millionaire father with a refurbished library. Can they do it in a week? László takes charge, taking a stuffy old space and creating a glorious, half-moon shaped reading refuge with adjustable sliding bookshelves and, in the center, a single, swoonworthy chrome-and-leather lounge chair reminiscent of Le Corbusier. The future has arrived.

Then papa bear Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce, in a fine, flinty performance) arrives home early. He hates this surprise, and blasts László and Atilla with his anger; young Harry refuses to pay them. Attila sends László off on his own, telling him he must fend for himself. Fast-forward a few months: it turns out Harrison's futuristic reading room has been featured in LOOK magazine, marking him as a man of taste and vision. He digs around and learns that László was a very big deal back in Hungary; in his eyes, that further burnishes László's star. He finds László, who's toiling away nobly at menial construction jobs, and offers him the chance of a lifetime: the opportunity to design and build a community center in honor of Harrison’s late mother, to whom he was devoted. The building, to be the pride of Doylestown, Pa., must contain a library, a gymnasium, an auditorium, and a chapel. László fulfills this impossible mission by designing a spare, elegant edifice that can do it all.

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That’s barely the beginning of The Brutalist. The story that follows doesn’t just map László’s rise, fall, and eventual re-ascent: it’s a thumbnail history of the last half of the 20th century, a meditation on the realities of being an outsider and a Jew in postwar America , a detailed treatise on the way rich people can sometimes giveth, though in the end they’re much more likely to take away—and we’re not just talking about money. The Bauhaus-trained László is so ahead of the curve, he’s almost out of sight. That’s what makes people hate him, and even fear him. The Brutalist strives to explore the best and worst of human behavior, and just about every gradation in between.

Erzsébet ( Felicity Jones ) and Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy) eventually make it to New York, and though László has long dreamed of reuniting with them, their arrival demands that he shift his thinking. It also cramps his style: he seems to care, at times, only for creating monuments to himself. But he’s also hardworking and principled. At one point, Harrison fawns over him by asking, “Why architecture?” László doesn’t have an easy answer, but rather one that branches out like the veining in a fine slab of marble. His work had been deemed “un-Germanic” by the Reich; now, he wants his buildings to stand tall and spark protests, so that humans may strive to effect change. But on a more intimate scale, he suffers: he’s an on-again, off-again junkie, having gotten hooked in order to relieve the pain caused by injuries he sustained during the war.

The first half of The Brutalist is so dramatically robust that you almost can’t wait to see where it’s headed. Corbet and his cinematographer Lol Crawley love big-picture shorthand and skewed camera angles that probably shouldn’t work but somehow do. Instead of showing us a train headed for a crash, they build a sense of dread by sending the camera zipping along a set of train tracks, followed by a magnificent overhead shot of a plume of normal engine smoke erupting into a fireball explosion. Daniel Blumberg’s music is just as evocative, both exhilarating and unmooring at once: he goes for chunky symphonic shards of sound, building and releasing tension with, say, a flutter of woodwinds or plucked strings. (Corbet has dedicated the film to the late singer-songwriter and record producer Scott Walker, who composed the monumentally far-out scores for Corbet’s previous films, the extraordinary fascist-in-training drama Childhood of a Leader and the uneven but imaginative pop-star parable Vox Lux. )

The Brutalist does demand some patience, as well as a good chunk of your time. And it really starts to wobble near its wrap-up, using a single event—admittedly a traumatic one—to explain why László has suddenly become an obsessive tyrant, rather than just a demanding perfectionist. We don’t see him reveal his secret torment; that apparently happens during an especially tender moment with Erzsébet. The movie feels as if it’s in a rush to finish, and by that point, your patience might be running out, too.

Yet we need filmmakers like Corbet, who thinks in big visual loops rather than tiny shapes designed to fit neatly on a laptop screen or the back of an airplane seat. The Brutalist was shot with VistaVision cameras and projected here in Venice in glorious 70mm format. Not everyone—in fact, very few—will be able to see it that way. But if we can’t dream big, why bother at all? The Brutalist is a kind of crazy space church, designed specifically for the communal moviegoing experience. It's a place to gather and give thanks.

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Once Upon a One More Time review: Justin Guarini and Briga Heelan charm in Britney Spears musical

A group of fairytale princesses discover there's a lot more to life than marrying a prince in the jubilant new jukebox musical.

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at  Entertainment Weekly  with over five years of experience covering the latest in entertainment. A proud Kingston University alum, Emlyn has written about music, fandom, film, television, and awards for multiple outlets including MTV News,  Teen Vogue , Bustle, BuzzFeed,  Paper Magazine , Dazed, and NME. She joined EW in August 2022.

Oh baby, baby, how were the fairytale princesses of yore supposed to know that something wasn't right about their happily ever afters?

The Grimms Girlies — including Cinderella (Briga Heelan), Snow White (Aisha Jackson), Rapunzel (Gabrielle Beckford), and more — are officially closing the book on their "deeply problematic" storylines once and for all in Once Upon a One More Time , a jubilant jukebox musical opening June 22 at the Marquis Theatre.

The musical, which was authorized by a post-conservatorship Britney Spears and features some of her greatest hits, isn't your run-of-the-mill rendition of the pop princess' life story. Instead, it sets up its wildly whimsical premise straight out of the gate: Each night, a princess is selected to act out her whirlwind romance as a bedtime story for children around the world. However, it's clear that tonight's protagonist, Cinderella, isn't as charmed by glass slippers and glittering gowns as the rest of her companions. After finishing her story, she tentatively asks Prince Charming ( Justin Guarini ) if he ever wants… you know… something more than just pumpkins and proposals?

The idea is nothing short of blasphemy to the Prince's ears — "You're paid to be pretty and I'm paid to be charming ," he tells her, prompting Cinderella to ask, "You're being paid?" — but it's exactly what the Notorious O.F.G (Brooke Dillman), the Original Fairy Godmother, has been longing to hear in the neon-soaked, happy-go-lucky kingdom brought to life by set designer Anna Fleischle.

She bequeaths Cinderella a copy of Betty Friedan's 1963 novel The Feminine Mystique , that opens her eyes to a world beyond never-ending household chores, evil stepmothers, and self-centered princes. After sharing the novel with her Scroll Club pals, Cinderella suddenly finds herself at the forefront of a full-scale royal rebellion against the dastardly Narrator (Adam Godley), who demands that all roles be performed exactly as written, and their frustratingly outdated folk tales.

Book writer Jon Hartmere reimagines the heroines and their stories under a new, Gen Z-inspired lens that is equally as hilarious as it is self-aware. He makes no qualms about pointing out how brutal the fables used to be — with Cinderella's Stepmother (Jennifer Simard) waxing nostalgic about the good ol' days when she would cut off her daughter's toes — and the real-life implications they continue to have on readers, as Cinderella frets that her and her pals have all been peddling a "warped version of the real world" to impressionable children for centuries.

Their self-discovery journey is perfectly soundtracked by Spears' sparkling discography, which transforms the musical into a high-octane concert that will leave theatergoers breathless. While Spears' songs are no stranger to the Broadway stage — several of her hits are incorporated in other shows currently playing across the Great White Way — they take on new life in Once Upon a One More Time with a few lyrical twists that succeed in not only reframing their meanings, but also preventing theatergoers from unconsciously singing along too ("Toxic" will never not be catchy, okay?).

In turn, Hartmere's story beats are all precisely timed to each beat drop, like when Belinda (Amy Hillner Larsen) and Betany (Tess Soltau) command Cinderella to clean the mansion as they sing a hilarious rendition of "Work Bitch," or Charming's side-splitting, absolutely outrageous performance of "3" as he frantically learns how to read so he can impress Scroll Club.

The performances are bolstered by inspiring choreography from Keone and Mari Madrid, who are also working double duty as the musical's directors. The couple — who have choreographed for BTS , Justin Bieber , and So You Think You Can Dance — have crafted a collection of high-energy routines that not only drew audible reactions from the crowd, but whipped them into a frenzy that led to several pauses for applause throughout the evening. As directors, the pair keep its story moving at an equally speedy gait, never pausing for longer than necessary before diving headfirst into the next musical number.

Being able to perform the demanding routines alone and sing Spears' iconic songs is a hefty challenge, but it's one that Once Upon a One More Time 's talented cast more than rises to meet. Guarini is phenomenal as the delightfully smarmy Charming, a role which highlights both his comedic chops and dominating stage presence as he powers through sensational renditions of " Circus " and "Oops! … I Did it Again," the latter of which incorporates Spears' original choreography.

Heelan, in her Broadway debut, maintains Cinderella's starry-eyed innocence and warmth without ever making her feel out of touch, and her celebratory "Brightest Morning Star" duet with Jackson's stellar Snow White is one of the most stunning performances of the evening. Hooray for female friendships getting the love and respect they rightfully deserve!

While its main conflict may resolve itself a bit too easily in the end — not unlike its source material — Once Upon a One More Time is a youthful, exuberant take on beloved tales that's more dazzling and polished than Cinderella's glass slipper. Expect to keep on dancin' long after the musical ends. Grade: B+

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Once More Reviews

• 2 hr 3 mins
• Drama, Suspense
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An archaeologist discovers a mysterious dagger and travels to Avadhpuri to find out more, uncovering a secret from the past that explains his unhappy marriage.

Rated R

Film Review: ‘Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood’

Quentin Tarantino's tale of a TV-Western actor and his stunt double, and how they collide with the Manson Family in the Hollywood of 1969, is a heady engrossing collage of a film — but not, in the end, a masterpiece.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

• ‘Wolfs’ Review: George Clooney and Brad Pitt Are Rival Fixers in a Winning Action Comedy Spiked With Movie-Star Chemistry 1 day ago
• ‘The Brutalist’ Review: Director Brady Corbet Breaks Through in His Third Feature, an Engrossing Epic Starring Adrien Brody as a Visionary Architect 2 days ago
• ‘The Order’ Review: Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult in an Explosive Crime Drama About the White-Supremacist Cult of the 1980s 2 days ago

It has been 25 years to the day since Quentin Tarantino ’s “Pulp Fiction” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival , crystalizing a cinema revolution, and we have never looked back. Yet here’s one more QT anniversary, a bit less monumental but, in its way, as meaningful: It has been 10 years since the premiere of “Inglourious Basterds,” which also took place at Cannes — and for me, at least, that means it’s been a decade since Quentin Tarantino gave us an unambiguously great Quentin Tarantino movie.

You know the difference as well as I do, because it’s one that you can feel in your heart, gut, nerves, and soul. It’s the difference between a Quentin movie that’s got dazzle and brilliance and a number of hypnotic sequences, and is every inch the work of his fevered movie candy brain, and a Quentin film that enters your bloodstream like a drug and stays there, inviting (compelling!) you to watch it again and again, because it’s a virtuoso piece of the imagination from first shot to last, and every moment is marked by a certain ineffable something , the Tarantino X Factor that made “Pulp Fiction” the indie touchstone of its time.

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“Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” which premiered today at Cannes, is not that total X Factor movie — though for long stretches (a good more than half of it), it feels like it could be. It comes closer than “Django Unchained” or (God knows) “The Hateful Eight.” It’s a heady, engrossing, kaleidoscopic, spectacularly detailed nostalgic splatter collage of a film, an epic tale of backlot Hollywood in 1969, which allows Tarantino to pile on all his obsessions, from drive-ins to donuts, from girls with guns to men with muscle cars and vendettas, from spaghetti Westerns to sexy bare feet. In this case, he doesn’t have to work too hard to find spaces for those fixations, since Tarantino, in this 2-hour-and-39-minute tale of a Hollywood caught between eras, is reaching back to the very source of his dreams.

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In “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” Tarantino tells the dual story of Rick Dalton ( Leonardo DiCaprio ), who starred in a black-and-white TV Western series called “Bounty Law” in the late ’50s and early ’60s, but whose career is now hitting the skids; and Cliff Booth ( Brad Pitt ), Rick’s longtime stunt double and best pal, who has become his gofer and driver. Both are drawling, easy-going good ol’ boys who are functional drunks (Rick favors whiskey sours; Cliff likes his bloody Marys), and they’ve been kicked around Hollywood, but they’ve got a yin-and-yang thing going.

Rick, who appears to be based at least partly on Burt Reynolds, is an instinctive actor, a gentle charmer, and a secret softie in a tan leather jacket — the first Tarantino hero to prove that real men do cry. (When the tears come, it’s for how badly Rick has let his career melt down.) Cliff, by contrast, is a war veteran and rough-and-tumble stud bruiser who lives in a cruddy trailer next to the Van Nuys Drive-In but seems happy and satisfied, like most Brad Pitt characters, within himself. When he’s crossed, he will kick the bejesus out of anyone, and he’s got a bad reputation. The rumor is that he killed his wife and got away with it. (A flashback to a scene on a boat with that very wife, who digs at him mercilessly, doesn’t spill the beans, but it’s not exactly evidence that the rumor is false.)

The first two-thirds of “Once Upon a Time…” is set in February ’69, and Tarantino views these two characters with a straight-up macho humanity that is gratifyingly unironic. DiCaprio and Pitt fill out their roles with such rawhide charismatic movie-star conviction that we’re happy to settle back and watch Tarantino unfurl this tale in any direction he wants. And he does digress, in that following-his-free-associational-bliss way. A car-denting, fists-meets-martial-arts duel on the set of “The Green Hornet” between Cliff and Bruce Lee (played to ferocious perfection by Mike Moh)? Why not! A scene with Rick, playing a black-hatted villain on the new series “Lancer,” getting into a philosophical chat about acting with his 8-year-old girl costar, who’s a budding feminist Method Actor? Bring it. And when Cliff, driving Rick’s cream-colored Coupe de Ville, keeps passing an outrageously flirtatious teenage hippie vamp in cut-offs and a halter top, who lives with a guy named Charlie at the Spahn Movie Ranch, the sense of worlds colliding, in ways as sinister as they are vibrant, feels right.

Many have turned the spectacle of Charles Manson and his girls into drama, but Tarantino is onto something by viewing Manson’s followers as ominous harpies who also incarnated a new kind of sexualized feminine consciousness. And Tarantino takes us deeper than we’ve been into the life of Sharon Tate ( Margot Robbie ), who along with her husband, Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), has rented the house next to Rick’s on Cielo Drive. Robbie nails Tate’s wide-eyed slightly aristocratic sensual daze, and has a lot of fun in a scene where Sharon goes to a movie matinee to watch herself in the Matt Helm caper “The Wrecking Crew,” exulting in her performance as she props her feet up on the seats, so that Quentin — in an image he uses as a motif more than ever before — can park his camera in front of them, as he does a little later with the Manson girls.

In “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” Tarantino re-creates the Hollywood of 50 years ago with a fantastically detailed and almost swoony time-machine precision, and it’s not just about the marquees and the billboards featuring end-of-the-studio-system-era corn like “Three in an Attic,” or all the juicy Top 40 chestnuts on the soundtrack. The movie captures how Hollywood, by 1969, was a head-spinningly layered place.

Here’s the TV-cowboy mystique of the ’60s, which is really a degraded schlock echo of the movie-cowboy culture of the ’50s. Here’s the rock ‘n’ roll of the moment (Paul Revere and the Raiders, “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man,” “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show”), which popped like crazy yet with a rambunctious easy-listening bounce. And here, beyond the music, is the new noisiness of America: the “hip” commercials blaring from transistor radios, the TV sets that never get turned off (even the Manson girls are TV zombies), the flamboyant hippie garb that’s starting to go mainstream, turning the counterculture into a living fashion boutique.

Here’s a Playboy Mansion party where Steve McQueen (Damian Lewis) is hanging out, as you might expect him to be, but then so is Mama Cass (Rachel Redleaf). McQueen fills in the back story of Sharon, Roman, and their friend Jay Sebring (Emile Hirsch), the hairdresser who is still in love with Sharon — and, according to McQueen, is hanging around with them because he’s biding his time, waiting for Roman to screw up his marriage. At that point, we’re hooked enough on Tarantino’s heightened version of true-life Hollywood that this love triangle sounds like a little movie of its own.

Rick, on the set of “Lancer,” turns out to be a desperate but terrific actor. There’s a sensational extended sequence of him playing the villain, forgetting his lines, hating himself in the trailer, then revving himself to go back and give a hell of a performance, and it’s all a testament to what an extraordinary actor DiCaprio is. Pitt is just as inspired. The sequence in which that Manson girl, named Pussycat (Margaret Qualley), gets Cliff to drive her back to the Spahn Movie Ranch, where Cliff used to shoot Westerns, and where he meets the Family (though not Charlie, who is only in the film for about 30 stray seconds), is creepy, suspenseful, and vengefully gratifying. All Cliff wants to do is say hello to his old colleague George Spahn (Bruce Dern). But to do that he’s got to threaten his way past Squeaky Fromme (Dakota Fanning), who sleeps with George to secure the place for the Manson cult. In the late ’60s, a lot of people passed through Spahn Ranch, and this encounter — though, of course, pure fiction — plays with an eerie plausibility.

Rick has an offer on the table, from a shrewd if scuzzy agent (Al Pacino), to shoot a Western in Rome. The prospect fills him with despair; he thinks spaghetti Westerns are the bottom rung of the entertainment totem pole. In a sense, he’s right, but he goes and does it, taking Cliff with him, and he spends six months there, making a few more movies; he comes back with an Italian wife. And it’s just at around the point of his return that “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” which thus far has been an enchanting Quentin ride, begins to move forward with less cocksure bravura, less virtuoso snap. In the movie, Tarantino has already introduced a narrator, who he uses sparingly, but then he starts to use the narrator more often, breaking the show-don’t-tell mystique, and we wonder why. Isn’t he the master of showing?

It’s now August 8, 1969, and the rest of the film is devoted to Quentin Tarantino’s version of how the Manson murders play out, which I will not reveal. I will say that what Tarantino does here rhymes, to a point, with the violent climax of “Inglourious Basterds.” Yet that movie, as much as it toyed with history (which was no more, really, than any of the late-studio-system World War II movies it drew from), was also, in the largest sense, true to history. Hitler got destroyed, and the Americans won. Which is, in fact, what happened. The way Tarantino plays with the Manson murders in “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” is at once more extreme and more trivial. And frankly, for this Tarantino believer, that made it less satisfying.

You can say, as many will, that it’s only a movie. But for much of “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” Tarantino brilliantly uses the presence of the Manson girls to suggest something in the Hollywood cosmos that’s diabolical in its bad vibes. And the way the movie resolves all this feels, frankly, too easy. By the end, Tarantino has done something that’s quintessentially Tarantino, but that no longer feels even vaguely revolutionary. He has reduced the story he’s telling to pulp.

Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Competition), May 21, 2019. Running time: 159 MIN.

• Production: A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures, Heyday Films, Bona Film Group, Visionaria Romantica production. Producers: Quentin Tarantino, David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh. Executive producer: Georgia Kacandes.
• Crew: Director, screenplay: Quentin Tarantino. Camera: (color, widescreen): Robert Richardson. Editor: Fred Raskin.
• With: Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Margot Robbie, Dakota Fanning, Damon Herriman, Austin Butler, Emile Hirsch, Scoot McNairy, Luke Perry, Al Pacino, Nicholas Hammond, Spencer Garrett, Mike Moh, Lena Dunham, Damian Lewis, Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell, Timothy Olyphant, Zoë Bell, James Marsden, Michael Madsen, James Remar, Brenda Vaccaro.

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Movie Review

Once More Unto the Galactic Void

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By A.O. Scott

• June 7, 2012

If you grew up in the 1970s, you may have a dim memory of “Chariots of the Gods,” an international best seller by Erich von Däniken full of dubious speculation about extraterrestrial influences on ancient earthling civilizations. The book, a kind of space age “Da Vinci Code,” inspired a goofy German documentary and, if memory serves, some earnest, anxious debates among sixth-grade protogeeks who shall remain nameless.

Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” which arrived at the decade’s end, had a far more durable impact. If you saw it in a theater at an impressionable age you may still be seized by irrational, mortal fear every time you experience a touch of indigestion . A powerful, perfect blend of the space-travel and horror genres, “Alien” tapped into a deep, claustrophobic anxiety and an equally primal sense of adventure, the simultaneous thrill and terror of the unknown. The sinewy resilience of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and the designs of the Swiss graphic artist H. R. Giger — including various horrible manifestations of the alien itself — have been etched into the pop-cultural DNA ever since.

In his new film, “Prometheus,” Mr. Scott, returning to science fiction after a 30-year post-“Blade Runner” absence, entwines the visceral, creatural dread of “Alien” with some of the quasi-mythic grandiosity of “Chariots.” Once again a vessel lumbers through the galactic void, and a diverse crew must contend with menacing weirdness outside the ship and growing paranoia within it. The Giger alien may still be out there. Something wicked lurks in subterranean tunnels, their walls etched in freaky runes. And hovering over all the scary stuff are some big, metaphysical questions about the origin and ultimate fate of humanity.

A lot of the pleasure of “Prometheus” is in that hovering. Once the themes touch down and the arc of the story becomes clear, some disappointment sets in. But Mr. Scott’s sense of visual scale, which has often produced hectic, hectoring grandiosity ( are you not entertained? ), achieves, especially in the first hour, something like genuine grandeur. Twinned opening scenes — the first involving a giant, alabaster-skinned biped sacrificing himself to propagate life on Earth, and the second, thousands of years later, devoted to scientists’ finding traces of his presences — impart a palpable sense of awe. The music, by Marc Streitenfeld, soars and rumbles toward cosmic significance. And the shudders of sublimity only grow more intense as Mr. Scott elegantly lays out a series of overlapping conceits.

You might also call them science-fiction clichés, but the amazing thing is that, at least for a while, they don’t feel that way. The visual scheme is sufficiently captivating, and most of the performances are subtle enough that whatever skepticism you may arrive with quickly turns into happy disorientation. The 3-D is unusually graceful — your gaze is absorbed rather than assaulted — and you are pulled into a world of lovely and disconcerting strangeness with plenty of time to puzzle over the behavior of its inhabitants.

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'Everything Everywhere All At Once' Ending Explained: Complicated, Compelling, Bagels

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The Big Picture

• A24's film 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' dives deep into the multiverse concept with a unique and emotional storyline.
• The movie's use of symbolism, like the 'everything bagel,' adds layers to the narrative, exploring themes of meaning and nihilism.
• Through complex family dynamics, the film ultimately conveys a powerful message about love, resilience, and the choice to find meaning.

In between the franchise juggernauts Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , the independent production company A24 released its own multiversal feature film. Even without a Disney-backed MCU budget, Everything Everywhere All at Once embraced the concept of the multiverse in more detail and with more ambition than those comic book films. The idea of the multiverse is simple: there exists an infinite number of universes and possibilities alongside our own. However, the directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert , also known as the Daniels , complicate the multiversal story of a Chinese-American mother struggling to keep a laundromat in good standing with the IRS while at the same time barely keeping her own family together. When she is tasked with saving the multiverse by her husband from an alternate universe, she must harness her special skills and powers from across space and time in order to defeat the ultimate evil that threatens all of existence.

The story is far from streamlined, yet audiences embraced Everything Everywhere All At Once and helped it become A24’s highest-grossing film at the domestic box office , and win Best Picture at the Oscars. If you didn’t get a chance to see the film a second time in theaters or if you are watching it for the very first time, here’s how the various parts of Everything Everywhere All At Once work towards a complicated, rewarding, and emotional ending.

What is 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' About?

Everything Everywhere All At Once introduces the worn-out Chinese-American immigrant Evelyn Wang ( Michelle Yeoh ), who finds herself trying to keep her head above water. Between running a laundromat, dealing with her sweet but clueless husband Waymond Wang ( Ke Huy Quan ), her struggling daughter Joy ( Stephanie Hsu ), and her ill, old-school father Gong Gong ( James Hong ), there’s no such thing as breaks in Evelyn’s life. But things take a turn for the truly bizarre during a routine IRS visit, when a multiverse mess-up throws her into interdimensional chaos. Suddenly, she’s an unexpected hero with access to countless versions of herself from alternate realities. But that’s the least of her worries. When Evelyn learns of the more sinister, alternate version of Joy, a.k.a. Jobu Tupaki, Evelyn must harness her talents to stop an all-powerful force bent on destroying everything .

Amid the crazy pool of mind-bending visual effects, bizarre characters, and a kaleidoscope of alternate universes, it’s easy to get carried away by the awe-striking absurdism that the movie is celebrated for. But at its heart, Everything Everywhere All At Once is a deeply personal story about a mother trying to untangle her messy family relationships - especially with her daughter, Joy. Evelyn isn’t just hopping through multiverses to save existence from being swallowed up by nothingness; she’s also fighting to convince her daughter that life, despite all its chaos and confusion, is still worth living. Each leap into another reality is a step toward healing, not just the universe, but the broken bonds between mother and daughter.

Jobu Tupaki and the Everything Bagel

It’s impossible to discuss the ending of Everything Everywhere All At Once without discussing one of the film’s most important symbols: the everything bagel. The climax takes place in an IRS building where Evelyn and other agents of the Alphaverse take their last stand against Jobu Tupaki, a variant of Evelyn’s own daughter Joy and whose multiversal powers resulted from Alphaverse-Evelyn’s experiments. It is in this scene where the everything bagel is first mentioned.

“I got bored one day, then I put everything in a bagel… everything. All my hopes and dreams, my old report cards, every breed of dog, every personal ad on Craigslist… sesame… poppy seed… salt, and it collapsed in on itself. ‘Cause you see, when you really put everything on a bagel, it becomes this… the truth.”

The everything bagel might look like anyone’s standard breakfast treat - round, with a hole in the middle, and sprinkled with sesame seeds - but this isn’t your everyday bagel. Instead of serving up carbs and morning satisfaction, this bagel transforms into a sort of cosmic black hole, ready to suck in any poor soul that comes into contact with it. Forget cream cheese - this bagel is serving up existential dread.

Tupaki keeps this ominous bagel in a pristine, all-white temple, but that circle shape has been occurring almost everywhere throughout the movie. Audiences might have noticed the bagel, or the mere mention of the round shape, before Tupaki even explains what the bagel is. Tupaki’s striking circular hairpiece, which she puts on in the temple scene, makes her look like she’s carrying the bagel on her head. In the early scene in the IRS office with Inspector Deirdre, she’s repeatedly drawing black circles on Evelyn’s tax papers, like she’s stamping the bagel’s mark on her life. And then there’s the washing machine door, a literal spinning circle of monotony, echoing Evelyn’s spiraling existence. Even her party speech talks about everyone just going around in circles.

‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ Review: Michelle Yeoh’s Insane Multiverse Comedy Lives Up to Its Name

Daniels return with one of the most ambitious and bonkers films in recent memory.

This endless loop, along with the everything bagel, becomes a symbol of dissatisfaction, emptiness, and disappointment. It’s like the bagel gobbles up all meaning and purpose, turning life into an endless void. Tupaki takes this despair and wears it like a badge, embodying the nothingness the bagel represents. And what does the bagel say? Life is meaningless, hopes and dreams? Forget about them. The everything bagel becomes the ultimate symbol of nihilism , where life feels empty, and purposes seems to vanish into a never-ending, soul-sucking vortex.

Tupaki’s power to see and feel everything everywhere all at once leads her to believe that nothing really matters, in any and every single universe. Her main goal, then, is to use an everything bagel — the literalization of everything not mattering — to suck all of the multiverse into an infinite void of nothingness. Tupaki tries to convince Evelyn of her nihilistic vision, showing her how in every universe Evelyn’s attempt to keep her family together will always fail. This is why Tupaki has been searching for Evelyn, so that she can finally find someone who can understand why nothing matters and join her in the everything bagel’s path of destruction. Even in her quest to end the multiverse, Tupaki would rather not be alone in orchestrating all of oblivion.

Waymond Wang and the Power of Love and Kindness

When Evelyn seemingly succumbs to Jobu Tupaki’s nihilism, her husband Waymond gives her an alternate point of view. Rather than be lost in the chaos and infinite nothingness of the universe, Waymond finds a more open and optimistic belief. In a universe where Evelyn becomes a Kung-Fu action star, Waymond tells Evelyn, “You tell me it's a cruel world and we're all running around in circles. I know that. I've been on this earth just as many days as you.” He knows how someone like Jobu Tupaki can come from a place of despair and pessimism when faced with such inevitable doom and gloom. However, he finds a more meaningful outlook. Waymond states, “When I choose to see the good side of things, I'm not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It's how I've learned to survive through everything.” He ultimately calls himself a “fighter,” and it is this optimism that ultimately convinces Evelyn that Jobu Tupaki is wrong, that there is more to living and existing than a void of nothingness.

Evelyn’s own Waymond (from her same universe) provides similar words of optimism that help her find the will to fight for what matters. “I know you are all fighting because you are scared and confused. I'm confused too,” Waymond explains, “All day, I don't know what the heck is going on. But somehow this feels like it's all my fault.” With the threat of their laundromat business being seized by the IRS, and with doubts surrounding his marriage to Evelyn and his intention to divorce her, what Waymond’s life has become is just one example in which someone can find it difficult to find hope. This is especially significant when taking into consideration the American Dream and how Waymond brought Evelyn to the United States from China. If his marriage and business are falling apart, is the American Dream even real? Was it all worth it? However, rather than give up on everything, Waymond finds the strength to confront life’s unexpected challenges through kindness: “I don't know. The only thing I do know is that we have to be kind. Please. Be kind, especially when we don't know what's going on.”

This is exactly the lesson that Evelyn learns and applies in her fight to stop, and save, Jobu Tupaki. At the IRS building, rather than fight her Alphaverse adversaries through pure violence, she instead uses her multiversal powers to grant them some form of happiness — after all, with great power comes great responsibility. While Jobu Tupaki makes her way towards the void that is the everything bagel, Evelyn gives the people what they want, from their BDSM fantasies to even giving tax auditor Deirdre Beaubeirdre ( Jamie Lee Curtis ) the love that she deserves — in an alternate universe where people have hot dogs for fingers, Evelyn and Deirdre are in love. Evelyn gives them back the hope and happiness that opposes Jobu Tupaki’s nihilism.

Nothing Really Matters in the End, Except…

Once Evelyn reaches Jobu Tupaki (who is simultaneously her daughter Joy), she, Waymond, and even Evelyn’s estranged father Gong Gong ( James Hong ) attempt to pull Tupaki away from the void. Despite the generational trauma between Gong Gong and Evelyn, and now Evelyn and Joy, they all find hope in keeping their family together. But Jobu Tupaki needs a little more convincing.

Just as Evelyn seemingly is ready to let go of her daughter, she doubles down on her love for her and explains why that is enough meaning for them to hold onto . Evelyn reiterates the words and perspective of Jobu Tupaki, “Maybe it's like you said. Maybe there is something out there, some new discovery that will make us feel like even smaller pieces of shit. Something that explains why you still went looking for me through all of this noise.” But even when advances in science and technology make it seem like people are as insignificant as some rocks, even when nothing seems to matter, Evelyn tells her daughter, “no matter what, I still want to be here with you. I will always, always, want to be here with you.” Joy isn’t yet ready to accept this, “Here, all we get are a few specks of time where any of this actually makes any sense.” But Evelyn refuses to let go of her daughter and says, “Then I will cherish these few specks of time.” The two embrace and Jobu Tupaki, through Joy’s reignited love for her mother, abandons the everything bagel’s meaningless void for something worth living for.

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The emotional climax between Evelyn and Joy isn’t your run-of-the-mill, cliche moment of vulnerability. It’s a breakthrough - a genuine, gut-punching acknowledgment of their wounds. The fact that they even get to the point where they can vocally express to each other that they’re hurt is monumental, especially given the cultural context of their mother-daughter dynamic. In traditional Chinese familial relationships , hierarchy is regarded with utmost importance. The older generation is always right, and the younger generation is expected to toe the line, respect their elders, and follow the rules . If someone’s above you, you respect them, no questions asked. Parents are never expected to apologize, simply because they’re never supposed to be wrong. But here’s the catch: no one is right all the time, not even our elders. That’s where the tension in the movie bubbles up, simmering just beneath the surface.

This dynamic is all too real in Everything Everywhere All At Once . From the very start, you can feel the uncomfortable, unaddressed tension in Evelyn and Joy’s relationship. It’s not loud, it’s not in-your-face - it’s that quiet, suffocating tension where everything is left unsaid. Joy’s frustration simmers under the weight of her mother’s expectations, and Evelyn’s passive-aggressive reactions reflect that deep-rooted belief that confrontation, especially from a child to her elder, just isn’t done. And that’s what makes their confrontation in the parking lot so raw, so powerful. It’s a moment that cuts deep for anyone who’s grown up in that cultural bubble. They finally go head-to-head with each other, laying bare the things they dislike, the hurts that have been festering for so long. Yet, despite their differences, Evelyn chooses Joy, and is willing to fight for her. No matter what universe, no matter what reality, Evelyn would go to the literal end of the world just to show Joy that life is worth living, even when there’s no meaning. Despite the cultural context, everyone can relate to the messy, beautiful essence of parenthood that Evelyn experiences with Joy.

In Evelyn’s universe, everything is set right, despite the difficulties of life. She and Waymond rekindle their marriage, Joy is happy to be with her family, and all together they are willing to face any challenge, even the IRS. Maybe Jobu Tupaki was right: nothing matters. But Waymond was also equally right: If nothing matters, then we get to choose what does. We have the choice to look at the bright side of things, and we get to choose who matters to us the most. Even something as trivial as doing laundry and taxes can mean the most if it means doing it with the love of your life.

Everything Everywhere All at Once is now streaming on Max in the U.S.

Everything Everywhere All at Once

A middle-aged Chinese immigrant is swept up into an insane adventure in which she alone can save existence by exploring other universes and connecting with the lives she could have led.

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Common Sense Media Review

Sweet, romantic musical hits all the right notes.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Once is an endearing indie romance. Although there's a fair amount of swearing -- particularly "f--k" -- hardly anything else would raise a flag for teens and up. In fact, it's one of the few love stories that doesn't require its leads to get naked or fall in…

Why Age 13+?

Lots of swearing, usually involving "f--k" -- as in "for f--k&#39

Some smoking in pubs; lots of drinking in social situations.

Very little, though the street musician sings in front of a CD store with the na

A man propositions a woman, but indirectly and awkwardly. One mention of "h

No overt violence, but some potentially upsetting scenes related to poverty -- f

Any Positive Content?

The characters develop a wonderful, delicate, and respectful romance; from the o

Lots of emphasis is placed on pursuing your dreams, and the couple is very suppo

Lots of swearing, usually involving "f--k" -- as in "for f--k's sake" and "f--king brilliant."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Very little, though the street musician sings in front of a CD store with the name fully displayed.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A man propositions a woman, but indirectly and awkwardly. One mention of "hanky panky," but in a jovial, respectful manner. Sexual tension, but the focus is on the couple's burgeoning emotional attachment, not what would happen if they got naked.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

No overt violence, but some potentially upsetting scenes related to poverty -- families shoehorned into very small apartments, for instance.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Role Models

The characters develop a wonderful, delicate, and respectful romance; from the onset, they treat each other like equals (a rare thing onscreen). Characters care for both their elders and their children with grace. A couple of sour notes: Lots of swearing, and a man drives after some drinks and no sleep.

Positive Messages

Lots of emphasis is placed on pursuing your dreams, and the couple is very supportive of each other's wants and needs.

Parents need to know that Once is an endearing indie romance. Although there's a fair amount of swearing -- particularly "f--k" -- hardly anything else would raise a flag for teens and up. In fact, it's one of the few love stories that doesn't require its leads to get naked or fall in bed together. A thief does try to make off with the musician's street earnings, and there's some bitter talk of past breakups, plenty of beer drinking, and flirtation between a married woman and a single man (even though both know she's still married). But the positive messages about love and emotional connection outweigh any iffiness. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (7)
• Kids say (10)

Based on 7 parent reviews

Wrong supportive message

A great story of an unlikely friendship and finding your passion despite hard circumstances., what's the story.

Glen Hansard, frontman for beloved Irish indie-rock band The Frames, stars as an unnamed musician who sings on the streets of Dublin in ONCE. During the day, he plays Van Morrison songs, but at night, he sings his own compositions -- sad, affecting tunes -- with a passion that has no relationship to audience size. One day he meets a young woman (Marketa Irglova) who turns out to be an accomplished, impoverished Czech immigrant who plays the piano beautifully but sells flowers and cleans houses to make ends meet. They're soul mates, and theirs is a story of the transformative power of love and music.

Is It Any Good?

John Carney 's musical is one of those gems that so rarely graces the big screen these days: a truly good movie. That Carney, who once was a member of The Frames himself, could fashion such a moving, romantic film without resorting to the ho-hum boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl formula is a testament to his talent as both a writer and a director. Deftly and lightly, he lets emotions build up quietly for maximum impact. The relationship between the two leads develops as if in real life: unhurriedly but with great force.

Once 's songs aid the storytelling -- but, unlike most musicals, they pour out naturally, as you'd expect when two accomplished musicians unite. In "Falling Slowly," a haunting melody, the pair sings in harmony: "I don't know you/But I want you/All the more for that." In fact, the movie itself plays like a great song; you could listen to it over and over and rediscover something new each time.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about what makes Once so different from typical Hollywood romances. How does the main couple connect without having sex? Do other movies rely too much on establishing relationships primarily through getting physical?

How do most movies define "love"? Is that realistic?

Families can also discuss the fact that movies often portray the pursuit of dreams. Do these dreams seem attainable? If not, how do you keep the faith?

How do the characters in Once demonstrate communication ? Why is this an important character strength ?

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 16, 2007
• On DVD or streaming : December 18, 2007
• Cast : Glen Hansard , Hugh Walsh , Marketa Irglova
• Director : John Carney
• Studio : Fox Searchlight
• Genre : Musical
• Character Strengths : Communication
• Run time : 85 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language.
• Last updated : April 26, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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• Vijay Thalapathy (Hero)
• Simran (Heroine)
• S. A. Chandrasekhar (Director)
• Deva (Music Director)
• C. V. Rajendran (producer)

Watch Trailer

“Once More” is a 1997 Tamil romantic comedy directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar, featuring a stellar cast including Sivaji Ganesan, Vijay, Simran, and Saroja Devi, along with supporting actors like Manivannan, Charle, S. S. Chandran, and Anju Aravind. The film, known for its incorporation of flashback scenes from the 1963 film “Iruvar Ullam” featuring Ganesan and Saroja Devi, released on July 4, 1997, and enjoyed significant commercial success.

The story revolves around elements of romance and comedy, encapsulating the essence of relationships and the quirks of love. Vijay and Simran play pivotal roles, weaving a narrative enriched with humor and emotional depth. The inclusion of iconic veteran actors like Sivaji Ganesan and Saroja Devi in flashback sequences adds a nostalgic touch, enhancing the film’s appeal to a wider audience.

The success of “Once More” in Tamil cinema prompted its remake in Telugu titled “Daddy Daddy” in 1998, further extending its impact across regional cinema. The film’s popularity stemmed not only from its engaging storyline but also from the performances of the ensemble cast, the captivating chemistry between the lead actors, and the deft direction of S. A. Chandrasekhar.

Overall, “Once More” stands as a significant milestone in Tamil cinema, blending elements of romance, comedy, and nostalgia, leaving an enduring impact on audiences and cementing its place as a memorable and commercially successful film in Indian cinema history.

More Details

Director
Story
Screenplay
Dialogues
Cinematography	R. Selva
Editor	B. S. Vasu , Saleem
Music
Producer
Cast	, Mannangatti Subramaniyam
Release Type	Theatre
Language	Tamil
Production	Shree Ganesh Vision
OTT Platform	Prime Video

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Once Review

19 Oct 2007

NaN minutes

Every year, while the big studio titans battle for box-office supremacy, a few indie whippersnappers manage to weave their way through the tumult, emerging unsquished and lauded for their success. So while our expectations of the much-hyped monsters are either met or (more likely) punctured, it’s always welcome when a film pops up from nowhere to steal your heart.

So it is with Irish director John Carney’s Once, which won the Audience Award at Sundance and counts Steven Spielberg among its admirers. You could call it a sleeper, but it’s more like the dream. But it’s hard to make it sound even halfway appealing. A movie about a guy who composes whinge-ballads on an acoustic guitar? A love story with no sex?

It’s also a film with some very scuffed edges. Carney’s loose, low-fi shooting style isn’t particularly pretty, and despite the social-realist trappings he allows himself a few scenes which, under cold scrutiny, border on corny. One such moment sees ‘Guy’ (Glen Hansard) and band in the studio, having been dismissed as time-wasters by a surly engineer. A verse into their first recording, the engineer starts to nod in approval. By the end of the song he’s a fan. Talent wins out, as it can only in a movie.

But here’s the good news: it’s impossible to scrutinise moments like this coldly, or object to the muddy photography, for two crucial reasons. Firstly, the songs are fantastic. And secondly, you can’t help but love the people who’ve written them. And they’ve really written them.

Leads Hansard (aka Outspan from The Commitments) and Markéta Irglová (making her debut) had already recorded an album together and collaborated on all of Guy and Girl’s songs here. So there’s no dubbing, no miming, none of that gleaming-toothed ersatz quality that hopscotches through your usual big-screen musical. This is why, ultimately, the rough shooting-style suits: it’s more like catching a pair of true, raw talents in one take than watching an elaborately stage-managed show that follows months of rehearsal and leotard-tight choreography. One scene sees Girl sing along to a temp track that’s playing on a Discman as she walks along the street in her pyjamas; another has Guy composing a tune while he’s mooning over home-video footage of his ex-girlfriend (Marcella Plunkett). In short, it’s less razzle-dazzle, more warm glow.

Anchoring such moments are Hansard and Irglová’s tender, natural performances. He’s self-effacing and likeable; she’s plucky, cheeky and sweet. Both, though, have been hardened by tough experience, emotionally and financially. As suggested by the fact they display an instant connection through their music, you feel these two are destined to be together whatever the obstacles (he’s pining for his ex, she has a young daughter), their songwriting just a prelude. Naturally, things aren’t that simple. A subtle, engrossing romance ensues, but it’s one which is achingly platonic, laced with a bittersweet tang.

Still, Carney knows how to end on a high note, if not the kind you expect. Appropriately, he concludes with the most impressive shot in the movie, one guaranteed to leave a tear in your eye, and for all the best reasons, too.

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My Hero Academia: You're Next

Izuku Midoriya, a U.A. High School student who aspires to be the best hero he can be, confronts the villain who imitates the hero he once admired. Izuku Midoriya, a U.A. High School student who aspires to be the best hero he can be, confronts the villain who imitates the hero he once admired. Izuku Midoriya, a U.A. High School student who aspires to be the best hero he can be, confronts the villain who imitates the hero he once admired.

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Top cast 11

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• October 11, 2024 (United States)
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• 我的英雄學院劇場版：You're Next
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Yesterday Once More Reviews

Yesterday Once More is a time-travel love story that gets a little too convoluted in order to cover up some possible plot holes. However, the performances in this drama are engaging. The movie also gives a worthwhile look at fate versus freedom of choice.

Full Review | May 16, 2023