I still mean to finish Drive My Car, the Oscar-winning, much-lauded earlier movie from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi that, unlike everyone else, I found so boring, but in the meantime I did finish his Evil Does Not Exist - just - because it is marginally more interesting, I suppose, but mainly because such odd choices are made to tell its story of a Japanese village whose water supply is threatened by the development of a glamping site, like the choice to cast mostly non-professional actors (wooden barely begins to describe the performances), the choice of filming long, quiet shots that continue long after you've thought to yourself, "OK, I get it" (of winding car trips after school pickup for instance, or of treetops moving overhead during not one, not two, but several forest walks), and the choice to work in inexplicable details like "talent agents" who work as spokespeople for a property development company, feathers that look like blades, and a serial killer burial site (my theory), which are all details that keep promising significance.
★★★☆☆
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