Ok, started watching screeners for the Spirit Awards. Quite a year for movies! Last week, finally watched Todd Fields' TAR, and have to say it is an impressive (i was almost tempted to say imposing) movie, it had a "grand" feeling to it (the result of shooting the film in those monumental concert halls, which are used almost to dwarf the people) with a razor-sharp, focused performance by Cate Blanchett. It's certainly a virtuoso performance. But i want to say that Michelle Yeoh's performance in EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is just as virtuosic, and is (in fact) far more varied and multifarious, because she has to do so much! It's beyond layered what she has to do, because at any given moment, her performance has to switch, not just in register, but in actuality. Physical comedy, martial arts, intense family drama, movie star glamour, bawdy slapstick, you name it, she does it, and sometimes within a split second. Just my opinion, but i hope other people take note. (This is one of the occasions where, if there were a rare tie at the Oscars, it would be entirely justified, but i fear that Michelle Yeoh's virtuosity might lose out because her performance is essentially "comic" as opposed to the "dramatic" turn by Cate Blanchett.)

Yesterday, watched Charlotte Wells' AFTERSUN and Alice Diop's SAINT OMER. Very different experiences, but both eminently worthwhile. Was particularly taken by AFTERSUN. The "plot" is simple: a divorced father taking his preteen daughter on vacation. But the way that Wells keeps the story very elliptical, providing hints and asides (often by having the "action" of the father and daughter not central in the frame), and using a lot of different formats (video, 16mm, etc.) to create a very complex visual texture to the movie, is remarkable. It's one of the most tactile movies i've seen in a long time, reminding me of the work of people like James Herbert and Larry Gottheim, so there is an experimental feel to AFTERSUN which i found enchanting.