4/5 stars

With a story driven by beautifully restrained emotions and conversations steeped in philosophical queries about the meaning and significance of art, the Franco-Japanese co-production Nagi Notes combines the best of the two cinematic worlds it was born out of.

Playing in the Cannes Film Festival’s main competition, Nagi Notes is based on Japanese playwright Oriza Hirata’s Tokyo Notes, a play revolving around 20 characters sitting in a museum hall talking about their lives while a devastating war rages in faraway Europe.

In Fukada’s very loose adaptation of the 1994 play – which retains only two of the original characters and removes the spatial confines in Hirata’s Beckett-ish narrative – war and its imitations are also omnipresent.

On television, they see the devastation in Ukraine; up close, they contend with military trucks rumbling past their homes and the constant boom of regular drills taking place at a nearby training camp.

Fraternal twins Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson) have always had only each other. After a childhood bouncing from one abusive foster home to the next, the two have settled into a life together where sisterhood always comes first. Both sisters have burns on their bodies, but Anaia’s facial scars make her stand out. And if someone bothers Anaia, Racine is there to fight for her.

We see this at the very beginning of Aleshea Harris’ debut feature, Is God Is. In a black and white flashback, the young twins sit peacefully on a bench together, until some kids walk by calling Anaia ugly. Racine quickly rises, beats the bullies, and then returns to sit next to her sister. In the present day, the twins get fired when Racine defends her sister at work. They are both newly unemployed when Racine tells Anaia that she’s been corresponding with their estranged mother (Vivica A. Fox). Soon enough, the twins pack their things and get on the road, driving their very cinematic classic car down the backroads of the American South.

Once they arrive, their mother gives them a simple mission: kill their father. In flashback, we learn that they were once a family until their mother got a restraining order against their father (Sterling K. Brown). One night, he violates the restraining order and comes into the house, hoping to embrace his wife. But when she doesn’t reciprocate, he pushes her into the bathtub, pours lighter fluid on her and sets her body ablaze. He also brings his twin daughters into the bathroom to see their mother burn — their scars are the result of their desperate attempts to save their mother.

Meanwhile, their father walks out of their life entirely. And though their mother survives the burns, she couldn’t take care of them. Now that her daughters are grown and she is near death, she can’t rest easy until the man who tried to kill her is dead. Unfortunately, the three women have no idea where to find the wayward patriarch. 

Harris’ screenplay follows a classic “hero’s journey” template, with the twins setting off on the open road, meeting a variety of eccentric characters in the search for their enigmatic father. The first stop is a church run by the charismatic Divine (Erika Alexander), who bills herself as a healer. The twins also meet their half-brother Ezekiel (Josiah Cross), who becomes a problem later. Thankfully, Divine has kept all their father’s things, and they steal his address book, leading them to his former lawyer, Chuck (Mykelti Williamson).

Eventually, the sisters make it to their father’s home, meet his new wife (Janelle Monae), their twin brothers (Xavier Mills, Justen Ross) and, eventually, the man himself. Racine and Anaia’s journey mirrors that of The Bride’s in Quentin Tarantino’s two-part epic Kill Bill, as they follow a bloody trail of revenge before the final showdown. Fox’s presence in the movie is another reminder; in Tarantino’s film, Fox is slain by The Bride (Uma Thurman) and she tells her daughter that she may seek her out for revenge when she’s older. Racine and Anaia, acting as spiritual successors, pursue revenge with their own Bill, this one Black and even more mysterious. 

Is God Is is not just the story of one Black family; it stands as an almost cosmic example of the dysfunction inherent in so many Black American families. Black men, weighed down by white exploitation in the world, come home to families that bear the brunt of their outside frustrations. Late in the film, when Anaia asks her father why he tried to kill her mother, his response is simple: She wouldn’t let me hold her. Never mind that she had a restraining order against him and legally he should not have been there; even after having all those years to think about his actions, he continues to blame his ex-wife. There is this prevalent idea in the Black community that a woman’s role is to calmly support the Black men in her life, setting aside her own feelings and safety. Brown’s patriarch is the embodiment of that unbalanced relationship, causing chaos and expecting more love and forgiveness in return. 

The “God” in the title is Fox, the name bestowed upon her for giving life to our heroines. Racine and Anaia are more than just sisters in this narrative — they represent all the justifiably angry Black girls who deserved more than the world gave them. Harris adapted Is God Is from her play of the same name, and the theatrical spirit lives on in the film through the rhythm and repetition of the dialogue. The central performances are strong, with Brown perfectly embodying a sinister, otherworldly image of masculinity run amok.

It’s a shame, then, that the film around these impressive actors is visually flat. The South we see in Is God Is is a desolate, underpopulated landscape — too neat and quiet for a story that should feel larger. All the words sound right and everyone is in place, but Is God Is feels like a film just short of greatness.

A coming of age teen comedy can take many shapes. Sometimes, it can be on the raunchy side. Other times, it can be fairly wholesome. When you hear that Driver’s Ed is an R rated coming of age teen comedy from Bobby Farrelly, one half of the Farrelly Brothers, you’d be forgiven for thinking this might be on the dirty side. However, this film has an incredible sweetness and genuine affection for its characters, something the Farrellys have shown throughout their career. Here, Bobby evokes the comedies of the 1980s that John Hughes trafficked in to make a lovely little movie.

Driver’s Ed reminded me a bit of The Sure Thing from Rob Reiner, in that it takes a potentially dirty premise and finds the sweeter side of things. There’s so much heart here, you not only don’t mind when things get especially silly, you also are fully on board when the more serious moments go down. There’s also an honesty here about teenage emotions and love you don’t see in comedies like this. It’s very much a bit of a unicorn of a flick, even if its ambitions are simply to put a smile on your face.

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For Jeremy (Sam Nivola), being a senior in high school is tough enough, given his creative filmmaking tendencies, without having to deal with his older girlfriend Samantha (Lilah Pate) now being a freshman in college. They’ve opted to do the long distance thing, even though she’s just a drive away. As her texts become a bit more sporadic, he receives a drunken call from her one night that has him worried they’re about to break up. So, unable to bear the thought of losing her, he steals the car during the next driver’s ed session being run by substitute Mr. Rivers (Kumail Nanjiani), planning to drive to Chapel Hill and save the relationship. Unfortunately, he hasn’t thought this through too well, and he’s not alone in the car.

Along for the ride are his fellow driver’s ed classmates Evie (Sophie Telegadis), Yoshi (Aidan Laprete), and Aparna (Mohana Krishnan). Evie doesn’t believe in love, Yoshi is a druggie slacker, and Aparna is a classic uptight overachiever. At least, that’s how they present early on, though as they get to know each other on the drive, layers to each of them are revealed. While they’re bonding, Mr. Rivers reports the theft to Principal Fisher (Molly Shannon), who recruits Officer Walsh (Tim Baltz) to track them down.

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Sam Nivola gives a real winning performance here in the lead, showcasing charm, vulnerability, and a screen presence that suggests big things to come. Kumail Nanjiani gets the silliest moments and occasionally seems out of a broader movie, but he’s so consistently funny here, it’s mostly just a delight. Mohana Krishnan, Aidan Laprete, and Sophie Telegadis each get their moments, both comedically and dramatically, with Telegadis especially capturing your attention. Lilah Pate, on the other hand, doesn’t cut quite as dynamic a portrait, though that’s partly by design. In addition to a solid Molly Shannon and Tim Baltz, supporting players include Marley Aliah, Clayton Farris, Alyssa Milano, and more.

Director Bobby Farrelly takes the screenplay by Thomas Moffett and balances out the coming of age tale with the broad comedy. At times, Driver’s Ed is very silly, though when it gets heartfelt, the emotions feel real. At 98 minutes, the pacing is strong, knowing when we need to check back in with Nanjiani and Shannon, though always keeping the focus on Nivola and company. Farrelly hit on the right lead for his film, with the results speaking for themselves.

Driver’s Ed charmed the hell out of me. The movie doesn’t have ambitions beyond that, though it’s able to mix heart and humor with aplomb. You may not get the raunch of American Pie here, for better or worse, but you will get the genuine affection that Farrelly has for his characters, which results in a very enjoyable little flick.

SCORE: ★★★

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