B movies

I’m of the opinion that “B movie” stopped having much useful meaning some time ago, certainly by the time the Transformers series became the box-office juggernaut that it is today — or was, until its latest installment opened at just under $45 million domestic. (Thank goodness for that sweet, sweet international market!) Unless maybe “B” stands for “billion.”

But just look at this week’s bounty of more literal B’s: Baby Driver, The Bad Batch, The Beguiled, The Big Sick, and if you want to stretch it a bit, I Am the Blues. Patton Oswalt must be exhausted (language alert).

The big releases are The House and Despicable Me 3. It’s hard to imagine that the critics are gonna be the reason you see or don’t see those. But maybe Scott’s enthusiasm (and interview with star Christopher Plummer) will entice you to The Lot in La Jolla for The Exception? Or to Landmark Ken for Moka? Meanwhile the best I can do is ask you to consider firing up Netflix for Okja, which won the Palme D’Or at Cannes but isn’t getting a theatrical release. I liked it a lot, and here’s my brief four-star review:

• If a film is screened for local critics in a theater and then opens exclusively on a televised streaming service…does it merit a review? Maybe only if it’s this crazy good — emphasis on the “crazy” but also on the “good.” High-tension CEO Tilda Swinton announces, during the bonkers opening scene set in her dead father’s infamous subterranean factory, the “discovery” of miracle superpigs and a decade-long contest to raise the most super pig of all. (Yes, their faces look more canine than porcine, but who wants to look a gift pig in the mouth when they could be gazing into those soulful little eyes and/or dreaming of dino-sized pork chops?)

• Cut to ten years later and to an idyllic, forested mountaintop in South Korea, where the titular pig has been living as the beloved pet of a sweet girl named Mija. So begins a wild ride on the tonal roller coaster, which is kept from flying off the tracks by the dual magnets of a powerful sincerity on the part of everyone concerned (good and bad alike) and an equally powerful sense of plausibility under the frequently ridiculous action. Pitch-black satire, heartwarming devotion, over-the-top performance, and subtle drama are engineered into something decidedly (if improbably) delicious. Bong Joon Ho directs a game cast, including Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal, and young Seo-Hyun Ahn as the dogged pig-lover.