‘Drowning Dry’
This elliptical thriller by the Lithuanian director Laurynas Bareisa opens in the midst of a mixed-martial-arts bout; one of the film’s lead characters, Lukas (Paulius Markevicius), is beaten up quite brutally but emerges victorious. One might expect a sports drama to ensue, but “Drowning Dry” turns out to be about a different kind of competition — the ego battles that preoccupy men, which, in this case, has tragic consequences.
After that high-octane opening, the movie shifts to a slower pace. Lukas’s wife, Ernesta (Gelmine Glemzaite), is very close to her sister, Juste (Agne Kaktaite), and the two of them gather their husbands and children for a trip to their countryside home. Languorous scenes of summer fun — swimming, eating, basking in the sun — are interrupted by prickles of tension between the two men. Tomas (Giedrius Kiela), Juste’s peevish and potbellied husband, is envious of Lukas’s physique, while Lukas is struggling with financial issues; both also seem to have problems in their marriages. But midway through, a sudden accident occurs, and the film shifts gears again, now hopping back and forth in time. Slowly, grippingly, Bareisa traces the catastrophic ripple effects of petty masculine one-upmanship.
‘Chuck Chuck Baby’
This song-studded dramedy set in North Wales combines the bitter grit of kitchen-sink realism and the joyous ebullience of musical comedies to wonderful effect. “Chuck Chuck Baby” follows the timid, mousy-haired Helen (Louise Brealey), whose living arrangements encapsulate her defeatist attitude to life: She rents a room in her fool of an ex-husband’s house, in which he lives with his new wife and baby, as well as his dying mother. Helen cares for the kindly elder, the only familial figure in her life; the woman’s imminent passing hangs over Helen like a heavy fog, unleavened even by the camaraderie she shares with her co-workers at a drab poultry processing plant. Then an old acquaintance, Joanne (Annabel Scholey), returns to town and reignites passion and hope in Helen.
Their romance is nothing short of an awakening for our heroine, who is enthusiastically encouraged by her friends. But these women live precariously in an insular town marred by patriarchal violence, where pursuing your heart requires not just love but also courage. In occasional interludes, this modest film’s grand emotions swell and the characters burst into song, as if in defiance of the emotional repression that seems to be a way of life in their town. Written and directed by Janis Pugh, “Chuck Chuck Baby” is warm and bright but never cheaply sentimental, with the script and performances firmly rooted in reality even as the characters look up to the stars.
‘Waterdrop’
Aida (Gresa Pallaska) and her husband, Ilir (Arben Bajraktaraj), live in a high-rise that towers over their city of Pogradec in Albania, their large glass windows offering a stunning view of Lake Ohrid. The two are a power couple, both working with the city government on lucrative projects, though it’s clear from early on that Aida is the leader while Ilir rides on her coattails. Then Aida’s life of fancy cocktails and corporate deals comes to a shuddering halt. Her teenage son, Mark (Iancu Paulo), is accused of raping a classmate and arrested; the son of the city’s mayor is also implicated. Aida’s immediate reactions reveal her internalized misogyny: denial, victim-blaming, desperate promises to pull strings and throw money around to get Mark out of jail. But the more she investigates, the harder it becomes for her to maintain her self-delusions of excellence; she has to confront that despite all her striving, she may have married the wrong man, raised an amoral son. The director, Robert Budina, envelops the characters in a sinister atmosphere of blues and grays and warped perspectives, emphasizing the deep rot that lies just below the surface of the lives of the rich and powerful.
‘The Match’
If you live outside of East Asia, it’s likely that you’ve never heard of Go. Invented in China and popular in Japan and Korea, it is a chess-like strategic game in which two players use black and white stones to try and claim maximum territory on a board. It’s not particularly thrilling to watch and — one would think — even harder to dramatize onscreen. Yet in the Korean film “The Match,” the director, Kim Hyung-joo, succeeds in crafting a nail-biting drama set in the world of professional Go. The film is based on the real-life relationship between Cho Hun-hyun, one of South Korea’s Go champions, and his mentee, Lee Chang-ho, who ended up becoming his primary rival.
“The Match” opens in the 1980s with Cho (Lee Byung-hun, of “Squid Game” fame) on top of the world, having just won an international championship. Soon after, he discovers the 11-year-old Lee at an amateur game and, impressed by his raw talent, takes him on as a protégé. Lee moves in with Cho and embarks on a rigorous program of training. A kind of psychological thriller ensues as the two prodigious players — separated by age, experience and style, but not talent — balance the intensely personal mentor-mentee relationship and the dynamics of competition. As Lee rises and Cho falls, both are plagued by self-doubt about what they owe to themselves and each other. Handsomely shot and featuring superb performances, “The Match” delivers an emotional wallop even as it rolls out twists and turns through to the very end.
‘Pamfir’
In a small town on the border between Ukraine and Romania, there are two local religions: Christianity and the smuggling business. As Leonid (Oleksandr Yatsentiuk), the protagonist, a once-legendary and now-reformed smuggler says at one point, “The only people in this town who don’t smuggle are the elderly and the sick.” When “Pamfir,” directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk opens, Leonid has just returned from abroad, where he now works a legitimate job, to visit his wife and son and attend the annual Malanka carnival. Leonid’s entire family used to be smugglers, until an accident persuaded him to give up the job and his wife to become a committed, fearful churchgoer. His family is desperate to have him stay with them, and his son does something very irresponsible in trying to make that happen, leading to a chain of events that force Leonid back into the dangerous trade he had left behind — and into the snares of the new mafias in town. “Pamfir” is a ferocious film, driven by a magnetic and imposing performance by Yatsentiuk. Blood, flames, grime and the demonic-looking costumes of the Malanka festival all mix together into the film’s color palette, evoking dark magic and even darker realities.