Hong Sang-soo's Hat Trick
In The Novelist's Film, Hong explores the meaningful things people share and inspire by virtue of simply engaging with one another.

One goat had seven young goats, whom she loved as only a mother can love her children. One day, when she had a few errands to run, the little ones had to promise her firmly not to open the door to anyone. As soon as the mother was out of the house, the bad wolf knocked. But the clever seven little goats did not let him in, as their mother had instructed them. But the wolf did not give up so easily and immediately concocted a cunning plan to outwit the little goats and enter the house.
In The Novelist's Film, Hong explores the meaningful things people share and inspire by virtue of simply engaging with one another.
I hadn’t heard of it either until recently—and yet, it’s one of the highest grossing movies of all time.
Who knew a drunken game of truth or dare could launch one of the most chaotic rom-coms of the year? The Threesome takes Connor’s fantasy night with Olivia (Zoey Deutch, in peak queen-of-indie form) and Jenny (Ruby Cruz) and flips it into a deliciously messy nightmare when both women end up pregnant. What follows isn’t cheap comedy—it’s a whip-smart, heartfelt exploration of love, consequence, and the beautiful disasters we call adulthood.
The Bluff unravels its mystery slowly, opening on the capture of a ship captain named Bodden (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and the swift execution of his entire crew. Then, viewers are treated to a tranquil British settlement in the Cayman Islands in the 1850s, where a mother bakes a coconut birthday cake for her son in a house suspiciously rigged with makeshift tripwires and burglar alarms. As it turns out, that mother is Priyanka Chopra’s quick witted and resourceful ex-pirate Mrs. Ercell Bodden, and her husband’s captors are on the way to the island to hunt her down for abandoning them and stealing their loot. The pirates of the Libertas land on the beaches of Cayman Brac, and the scenes that follow show a Viking-esque slaughter of half the island.
Years before Mexican director, Alfonso Cuaron, was winning Academy Awards for movies like Gravity (2013) and Roma(2018), he directed a small, intimate film about two best friends who decide to embark on an improvised road trip to spend time with an older, attractive woman who miraculously agrees to go with them. Y tu Mamá También is a deep journey into the raw sexuality and friendship of the young protagonists, as well as a subtle social and political commentary on Mexico at the time.
The three themes of lessons learned from HBO Max's Station Eleven are the same as the pandemic: love, regret, and art.