WATCH PARTY: Drive My Car (2021) Ryusuke Hamaguchi @ Jordan Newby Library

My mother recommended this movie. She said it was three hours long and about Chekhov and cars, and I would like it. We will be in the Cloud Room on the 2nd floor.

RATED: Not Rated / 16+

RUNTIME: 179 minutes

SYNOPSIS (via Criterion.com): Only Ryusuke Hamaguchi, with his extraordinary sensitivity to the mysterious resonances of human interactions, could sweep up international awards (including the Oscar for Best International Feature) and galvanize audiences everywhere with a pensive three-hour movie—presented in nine languages and adapted from Haruki Murakami stories—about an experimental staging of an Anton Chekhov play. With Drive My Car, the Japanese director has confirmed his place among contemporary cinema’s most vital voices. Two years after his wife’s unexpected death, Yusuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) arrives in Hiroshima to direct a production of Uncle Vanya for a theater festival and, through relationships with an actor (Masaki Okada) with whom he shares a tangled history and a chauffeur (Toko Miura) with whom he develops a surprising rapport, finds himself facing up to his emotional scars. This quietly mesmerizing tale of love, art, grief, and healing is ultimately a cathartic exploration of what it means to go on living when there seems to be no road ahead.

BLURBS:
"Here's the best movie you never heard of, a flat-out masterpiece from Japan that's a frontrunner to win the foreign-film Oscar and maybe pull a 'Parasite' and compete for Best Picture. Why not? It's enthralling from first scene to last." - Peter Travers, ABC NEWS

"At two hours and 59 minutes, there is an endurance factor, but this is as patient and sensuous as movies get." - Max Maller, Chicago Reader

"The length of the film is daunting, but it's also a thoroughly engrossing piece of art that's sexy and thoughtful." - Esther Zuckerman, Thrillist