It’s the weekend again, and that means Film Focus. Here’s Mike Laidman with what’s new in local theaters.


[Report]

A bit of a slower week, this one. Thor will likely repeat at number one, and so the other movies releasing in Korea this weekend are a little smaller, or else catering to entirely different audiences.

We’ll take a look at two of the latter. Happy Death Day is a thriller, and The Only Living Boy in New York is exactly what it sounds like - a drama tracing the life of a guy in New York.

[Slug CG]

Mike Laidman

Welcome to another edition of Film Focus. I’m Mike Laidman.

[Slug CG]
Happy Death Day (2017, Christopher Landon)
A student must relive the day of her murder over and over.

Are you ready for some weird time travel? I hope so! But don’t get your hopes up too much, because this is likely the worst way to be traveling back in time. To do it, you’ve got to die. And you can’t move on until you’ve figured out who killed you.
The premise of Happy Death Day is simple: a college student relives the day of her murder with both its unexceptional details and terrifying end until she discovers her killer's identity.

It’s a fairly fresh take on slasher conventions, with its dark humour and sci-fi conventions. It moves along well, and manages to effectively poke fun at the genres from which it borrows, all the while crafting a suitable story and providing some good jump scares.


[Slug CG]
The Only Living Boy in New York (2017, Marc Webb)
A college grad's life is upended by his father's mistress.

Thomas Webb, the son of a publisher and his artistic wife, has just graduated from college and is trying to find his place in the world. Moving from his parents' Upper West Side apartment to the Lower East Side, he befriends his neighbor W.F., a shambling alcoholic writer who dispenses worldly wisdom alongside healthy shots of whiskey. Thomas' world begins to shift when he discovers that his long-married father is having an affair with a seductive younger woman. Determined to break up the relationship, Thomas ends up sleeping with his father's mistress, launching a chain of events that will change everything he thinks he knows about himself and his family.

Pierce Brosnan puts in an admirable performance, but the story is pretty contrived and doesn’t really move anywhere interesting. There’s not enough on tap here to garner a solid recommendation, and so, if you can handle it, Happy Death Day is probably the better choice this weekend.