“Past Lives” (Drama: 1 hour, 45 minutes; English and Korean with subtitles)

Starring: Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro

Director: Celine Song

Rated: PG-13 (Some strong language)

Movie Review: If you see one movie this year, see “Past Lives.” It is a moving, well-acted drama.

Director-writer Celine Song crafts a beautiful tale of love and love lost that evokes the best of humanity. Song’s directorial debut delivers an intelligently scripted movie that makes one explore the wonder of love over two decades.

Nora Moon (Lee), neé Na Young, and Hae Sung Jung (Yoo) share a connection that spans back to when they were preteens. The childhood friends lose their connection when Nora and her family leave South Korea for Canada.

Twelve years later, Nora and Hae Sung reconnect via the internet. She is now in New York and he is in China.

Nearly 12 more years pass and they reunite in New York. Their lives have changed but not their love for each other, even though Moon is now married to fellow writer Arthur (Magaro).

The restorative bindings and tribulations of romance are front and center in this superior romantic drama. “Past Lives” makes the most of its cast and the cinematographic way the actors exist in scenes.

The beginning scenes are visually based moments, a type of lasting memory for the actors and the audience observing them. The setting where the characters exist and their physical actions are equally important to what they say.

One scene takes place when Nora, whose name is Na Young at the time, and Hae Song say their goodbyes in what appears a neighborhood alley. They part ways. Hae Song goes to the left, disappearing around a curved walkway. Na Young goes up some steps heading right. Both remain on the screen, walking away from audiences and each other.

Cinematographer Shabier Kirchner’s use of visuals also helps facilitate the story. This scene is moving because they say their farewells vocally and then physically in a tranquil manner.

No vocal expressions are needed. Music is also unneeded via Song’s excellent use of her characters. Their physical split expresses multiple emotions.

Years later, Song beautifully reunites them. With a few words, their physical presences together again are also a pivotal moment. The scene contains some of the best emotive elements of modern dramas.

Again, the cinematography, especially the background, helps promote their very touching gathering.

Song makes her audience wait for Nora and Hae Sung’s reunion. Like a good storyteller, she does not rush the story; she slowly develops her characters with meaningful actions.

Moviegoers can already term “Past Lives” as a top tier movie of the year although six months remain. Song is a writer and director worth watching for future movies.

Hats off to Song, actors Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, cinematographer Kirchner and the rest of the cast and crew for this brilliant story of love and its many beautiful attributes.

Grade: A (Spend a part of your life observing this fine drama.)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“No Hard Feelings” (Comedy: 1 hour, 43 minutes)

Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Andrew Barth Feldman, Laura Benanti and Matthew Broderick

Director: Gene Stupnitsky

Rated: R (Sexual content, strong language, graphic nudity, violence and drug use)

Movie Review: If one can make it through the approximately first 42 minutes of this adult comedy, it becomes better than expected entertainment.

Jennifer Lawrence plays Maddie Barker, an Uber driver. Maddie is about to lose her home because she can no longer make money without her car that was repossessed.

To find the resources she needs to save her house, Maddie answers an advertisement by parents Laird and Allison Becker (Broderick and Benanti). The Beckers want Maddie to date their son, Percy (Feldman), to mature the 19-year-old before he heads to Princeton University.

Maddie quickly finds seducing Percy will not be an easy task.

Ukrainian Gene Stupnitsky is no novice to adult comedies. He directed “Good Boys” in 2019. His comedies have a juvenile side to them that is off-putting but this is common considering his cast contains several tweens and teens usually.

However, Stupnitsky and his teams often create characters who are likable by the end of a movie. Such is the case with “No Hard Feelings.”

Characters are childishly irritating initially but become affable people. The role fits Jennifer Lawrence despite her and other characters’ muddled first encounters.

Andrew Feldman is similar to his character Percy who put his Ivy League college studies on hold at Princeton. Feldman took a break from Harvard. It is Feldman who scores points best. His naïve, nerdy Percy is a scene stealer.

“No Hard Feelings” is not a solid comedy. It takes a moment to become better. When it gets to some smart comical bits in its latter half, its characters shine, and Maddie and Percy become likable people.

Grade: B- (It leaves audiences with good feelings.)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Asteroid City” (Comedy, Drama: 1 hour, 45 minutes)

Starring: Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright and Bryan Cranston

Director: Wes Anderson

Rated: PG-13 (Suggestive material, smoking involving a minor, graphic nudity)

Movie Review: Numerous moviegoers admire Wes Anderson’s movies because of the director-writer’s artistic delivery style. His movies appear as a picture book from some grand tale. He is creative. His style is artistic but his screenplays are becoming something of an esoteric message with plentiful eccentric characters played by actors from his previous movies.

“Asteroid City” is two linked stories and both are queer conceptualizations.

Conrad Earp (Norton) is a writer of an internationally famous fictional play about a group of people convening in a small rural Asteroid City for a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention. The event in Earp’s writing is a scholarly competition for the best and brightest young minds.

A life-changing, extraterrestrial event interrupts the high-tech gathering’s itinerary.

“Asteroid City” is two stories. Audiences see Earp writing his novel. Viewers also see the story that Earp is writing played out simultaneously.

Both storylines appear as some weird mix of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1956) and the life of Tennessee Williams. One involving people trapped in “Asteroid City” is interestingly weird. The second is about the man writing the play about the people stuck in the desert town. The latter is stranger than the prior.

Wes Anderson is known for “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2002), “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2015) and “Isle of Dogs” (2018) among his many movies. His style is noteworthy.

“Asteroid City” is a beautifully shot movie. The set designs are visually similar to a Norman Rockwell painting or the backdrop for a Looney Tunes episode. This part of the movie is a visual treat.

Anderson and Roman Coppola’s story, however, is a bloated one. It is also a puzzling narrative, where characters’ intentions are subtle bits. Some resonate with appealing comedy while others are bland interactions.

Characters break the fourth wall, chatting to the movie’s audience, which is funny sometimes. For other moments, the gimmick is just a new way of narration or a speedy progression to another plot point.

Anderson’s eccentric screenplays are becoming too familiar, even when he tries to add some creative elements and apply a multitude of well-known actors.

Grade: C+ (A quaint city that is a visually potent but rocky story.)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Between Mercy and Me” (Drama/Music: 1 hour, 50 minutes)

Starring: David J. Driskill and Andrea Summer VonAllmen

Director: Craig Lamar Brown

Rated: NR (Thematic elements)

Movie Review: “Between Mercy and Me” is a well-intentioned movie about gentrification and race relations in the United States, especially within Christian evangelicalism.

The movie has some nice musical talents from its leads but the acting needs prayer.

Hugo (Driskill) and Mercy (VonAllmen) are two Christian musicians. The Black man and white woman form a romantic relationship. Racial differences cause problems for them but the singers and members of their neighborhood come together to save a favorite business from gentrification and promote the unification of their religious community.

“Between Mercy and Me” uses original music and drama to inspire conversations about race, racial divisions among those of faith and stereotypes. The problem is this movie engages in some of the very concepts it wants to negate in society.

A barbecue moment shows this regarding Black people and cooking.

Craig Lamar Brown makes his directorial debut. It is far from a stellar presentation. This exists mainly because of poor acting and forced situations to exhibit racism and racial divides. One can tell the acting is by a mainly novice cast.

Some people are hailing this movie as some new, sincere movie aspect about racial constructs in the United States. It is not.

Other, better movies have done this better. “Crash” (2004), “Dear White People” (2014), “Get Out” (2017), “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018) and the television documentary “Segregated Sunday” (2000) are some examples.

“Between Mercy and Me” attempts to show how American culture does not have to be an “us versus them” mentality. This optimistic nature is commendable but this script does portray that very message before it has a kumbaya message through music and an unemotive funeral.

Grade: D- (Do not get between them.)

Adann-Kennn Alexxandar has been reviewing movies for more than 25 years for The Valdosta Daily Times.