By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Cloud (Japan, 2024. Dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa): One of Japan’s most interesting yet low-key filmmakers, one could place Kiyoshi Kurosawa next to Kitano and Miike. I would argue he’s even more gifted. While almost as prolific, Kurosawa’s hit/miss ratio is much higher. His horror output is strong (Cure, Pulse, Creepy) and his dramas have teeth (Tokyo Sonata, Serpent’s Path). His formula is simple: take a social malaise, turn it into a genre movie.

Cloud is not at the same level as Kurosawa’s best work, but it’s not easily dismissible. The ideas are there. They just fail to coalesce into a storyline worth unspooling.

Yoshii (Masaki Suda) is the film’s unpalatable lead. While gifted in terms of brains and leadership, Yoshii doesn’t care about building something or becoming someone. He’s laser focused on making money and his strategy is buying low and selling high any worthwhile merchandise he can get his hands on.

Given his line of work, Yoshii is bound to rub some people the wrong way and by the time he’s forced to relocate to the countryside, he has a healthy roster of chumps who want him dead: dissatisfied clients, jilted bosses, and aggrieved former associates. Even as the net tightens on him, Yoshii is relentless in the pursuit of profit.

Yoshii’s unlikeability and the fact he’s not a particularly interesting crook (let alone human being) hampers Cloud’s impact. Following a lengthy slow burn, by the time the chickens come home to roost, as a viewer I didn’t really care about his fate. The only thing Yoshii has going for him is that his pursuers are either bigger losers or worse criminals than him.

Towards the end, the film hits full allegory mode to underline the message hammered throughout: there’s no value in the modern incarnation of capitalism, and it’s a form of prison unto itself. Fair point, but how about letting the script cook a bit longer? ★★½☆☆

Cloud is now playing in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Charlottetown, Saskatoon, Ottawa, Victoria, and Waterloo. Opens July 25th in Kingston.

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight (South Africa, 2024. Dir: Embeth Davidtz): A Hollywood staple of many decades, pigeonholed in roles of “brainy beauty” (see Bridget Jones’ Diary, Matilda), Embeth Davidtz breaks through as both director and performer in the fierce, oddly titled character study Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, based on the Alexandra Fuller memoire.

Set against the final days of the Zimbabwean War for independence which culminated with the election of Robert Mugabe, the film depicts the unraveling of a white family struggling with radical change. The audience’s stand-in is Bobo (remarkable newcomer Lexi Venter), an eight-year-old girl struggling to make sense of an environment in flux.

While perceived as foreigners by the locals, Bobo’s family believes they’re intrinsically linked to Africa. They have a large farm and are willing to protect it, particularly Bobo’s mom (Davidtz), who has children buried in the land. But it’s the girl the one who has it right: growing up in Zimbabwe means exploring its contradictions and rise above the racial divide.

The Bush War and the transformation of Rhodesia into Zimbabwe is a fascinating subject seldom explored in movies. Director Davidtz is both astute by focusing on the country’s warped reality and perhaps too cautious to dig beyond stereotypes. The family dynamics are broad, and so are the interracial tensions. Regardless, as directorial debuts go, this is a strong, assured start. ★★★☆☆

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is now playing across Canada.