‘Drowning Dry’
This elliptical thriller by the Lithuanian director Laurynas Bareisa opens in the midst of a mixed-martial-arts bout; one of the film’s lead characters, Lukas (Paulius Markevicius), is beaten up quite brutally but emerges victorious. One might expect a sports drama to ensue, but “Drowning Dry” turns out to be about a different kind of competition — the ego battles that preoccupy men, which, in this case, has tragic consequences.
After that high-octane opening, the movie shifts to a slower pace. Lukas’s wife, Ernesta (Gelmine Glemzaite), is very close to her sister, Juste (Agne Kaktaite), and the two of them gather their husbands and children for a trip to their countryside home. Languorous scenes of summer fun — swimming, eating, basking in the sun — are interrupted by prickles of tension between the two men. Tomas (Giedrius Kiela), Juste’s peevish and potbellied husband, is envious of Lukas’s physique, while Lukas is struggling with financial issues; both also seem to have problems in their marriages. But midway through, a sudden accident occurs, and the film shifts gears again, now hopping back and forth in time. Slowly, grippingly, Bareisa traces the catastrophic ripple effects of petty masculine one-upmanship.
‘Chuck Chuck Baby’
This song-studded dramedy set in North Wales combines the bitter grit of kitchen-sink realism and the joyous ebullience of musical comedies to wonderful effect. “Chuck Chuck Baby” follows the timid, mousy-haired Helen (Louise Brealey), whose living arrangements encapsulate her defeatist attitude to life: She rents a room in her fool of an ex-husband’s house, in which he lives with his new wife and baby, as well as his dying mother. Helen cares for the kindly elder, the only familial figure in her life; the woman’s imminent passing hangs over Helen like a heavy fog, unleavened even by the camaraderie she shares with her co-workers at a drab poultry processing plant. Then an old acquaintance, Joanne (Annabel Scholey), returns to town and reignites passion and hope in Helen.
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