It’s rare that a movie portrays the kind of messy and absurd arguments that can unfold in relationships, so there’s a special awe to seeing a movie that goes for it. Yoko Yamanaka’s brilliantly observed “Desert of Namibia” often boils over with the anger of its young protagonist, Kana (Yuumi Kawai), but it often also just simmers with her frustrations about her place in the world.
Outright fights are just one facet of the film’s unvarnished fidelity to Kana’s state of mind. She upends parts of her life, sometimes for the better in the long run, but can’t always reassemble the pieces into a satisfying future. Her boyfriend, Honda (Kanichiro), dotes on her at their shared apartment, but she lurches into another relationship with a writer, Hayashi (Daichi Kaneko), whom she’s seeing on the side. Her mind-numbing job at a hair-removal salon doesn’t help.
What clinches the portrait is the sure-handed direction and Kana’s organic performance of a daunting character. Dramatically, Yamanaka finds unpredictable ways into and out of scenes, and she has an eye for the poignant details amid the angst, like neatly packed baggies of food in a refrigerator, and for underplaying other moments, like the breeziness of a doctor who diagnoses Kana over a video call.
Kana’s spikiness (which recalls Kit Zauhar’s similarly candid triumph “Actual People”) segues into an eventual need for stability. But Yamanaka is admirably in no hurry to simplify or explain what Kana is still sorting out for herself.
Desert of Namibia
Not rated. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 2 hours 17 minutes. In theaters.
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