A staff report

Title: The Eternal Sunrise
Director: James Whitman
Cast: Emma Stone, John David Washington, Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet
Genre: Drama/Romance
Runtime: 125 minutes
Release Date: May 30, 2024

James Whitman’s latest film, *The Eternal Sunrise*, is a poignant exploration of love, loss, and the unyielding passage of time. With a star-studded cast including Emma Stone, John David Washington, Saoirse Ronan, and Timothée Chalamet, the movie promises to be a cinematic journey that resonates with audiences long after the credits roll.

Set against the picturesque backdrop of the Italian countryside, *The Eternal Sunrise* follows the intertwining lives of four characters over two decades. The story begins in the early 2000s with Sophie (Emma Stone) and Michael (John David Washington), two aspiring artists who fall in love during a summer art residency. Their passion for each other and their art seems unbreakable until a tragic accident forces them apart.

Years later, Sophie, now a renowned artist, meets Eliza (Saoirse Ronan), a young journalist assigned to write a feature on her. As they delve into Sophie’s past, Eliza uncovers a web of connections that lead back to Michael, who has become a reclusive writer. The narrative weaves between past and present, revealing the impact of their choices and the enduring nature of true love.

Emma Stone delivers a mesmerizing performance as Sophie, capturing the character’s vulnerability and resilience with grace. John David Washington’s portrayal of Michael is equally compelling, embodying the character’s struggle between his passion and his past. Saoirse Ronan brings a fresh energy to Eliza, while Timothée Chalamet’s cameo as a young artist adds a delightful touch to the ensemble.

James Whitman masterfully directs *The Eternal Sunrise*, balancing the film’s emotional depth with its visual beauty. The cinematography by Luca Romano is breathtaking, with sweeping shots of the Italian countryside and intimate close-ups that draw the audience into the characters’ inner worlds. The film’s score, composed by Max Richter, perfectly complements the narrative, enhancing the emotional weight of key scenes.

At its core, *The Eternal Sunrise* is a meditation on the passage of time and the enduring power of love. The film explores how our choices shape our lives and the lives of those around us, often in ways we cannot foresee. It also highlights the importance of art as a means of connection and expression, with each character finding solace and purpose through their creative pursuits.

The Eternal Sunrise is a beautifully crafted film that will resonate with anyone who has ever loved and lost. Its rich storytelling, stellar performances, and stunning visuals make it a must-watch for this week. James Whitman has once again proven his ability to create films that are both emotionally powerful and visually captivating.

Rating: ★★★★☆

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I haven’t been to a Renaissance faire since — well, not quite since the Renaissance, but a really long time. I know from the billboards, though, that a local edition is still going strong. The one I knew — the original Renaissance Pleasure Faire — was held on the Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills, among the oaks, a cozy, nonprofit, semi-educational, handcrafted hippie festival co-sponsored by KPFK, our leftist community-sponsored radio station. This was back when LARPing had no life past Civil War reenactors, before cosplay went mainstream, before “Dungeons & Dragons,” Medieval Times restaurants and thatched-roof fantasy blockbuster movies.

All things change, even in the re-created Renaissance, and such events, which have proliferated across the country and into Europe, can be big business. In the documentary series “Ren Faire,” premiering Sunday on HBO, Lance Oppenheim (“Some Kind of Heaven”) trains his camera on the 50-year-old Texas Renaissance Festival, outside of Houston, which claims to be the biggest in the nation, and specifically its founder, owner and operator, George Coulam.

The constructed narrative is one of a power struggle. (This is not a detailed look into the obviously complex workings of a Renaissance faire.) In his mid-80s, George is thinking of moving on — he has determined somehow that he will live to be 95, exactly, and wants to leave enough time for working on his art, his gardens and to “chase ladies.” To this end, he’s on 15 dating apps, including “sugar daddy” sites; we accompany him on a couple of dates to the Olive Garden, where his first and potentially only question is “Are your breasts natural?”

“What is the king without his kingdom?” muses George, who favors shirts with patches representing stars and military medals. “What is the king without his property? He’s free.” But, as we will see, giving up his fiefdom won’t be so easy.

“It’s just a game — some people lose and some people win and some people win more than others,” observes Glenda, a.k.a. Fairy Godmother, who has known him for a long while. “Something to fill that emptiness, his games.”

Not only is he “King George” in the context of the faire and the minds of many around him, he’s also the mayor of Todd Mission, the town he incorporated in order to be able to stage an event as large as the festival. (It has its own police force.) He lives there in a stone-walled house he calls Stargate Manor, a temple of expensive kitsch with its own arboretum, chapel — where George prays to Jesus, Buddha and Mother Nature — and waiting sarcophagus. One would call him a naive artist, were it not for the master’s in art.

Barely daring to imagine he might one day wear the crown, but imagining it all the same, is Jeff Baldwin, formerly the entertainment director, the latest in a line of general managers whose tenures last no longer than that of a Spinal Tap drummer. (George is capricious.) His association with the festival, which he loves with childlike passion, goes back almost to its beginning; there’s no one more devoted to it, or to George. (“He is our benefactor,” Jeff says to wife Brandi, now the interim entertainment director. “He is your benefactor,” Brandi replies.) He describes himself as “the head Oompa Loompa” to George’s Wonka; in the “King Lear” metaphor he kicks around with Brandi, he’s hopefully Cordelia, whose imperious, impetuous father finally recognizes his honest child’s worth.

Jeff’s primary opponent in this drama of succession is lean and hungry-looking, overcaffeinated Louie Migliaccio. His spiritual, temperamental and physical opposite, Louie runs a kettle corn stand, a burlesque nightclub and other concessions on the site; he pounds Red Bull like it’s a contest, and is determined to buy the festival — his family is rich — beef it up with “new and immersive technology” and, above all, make a lot of money. “Capitalism has a negative connotation nowadays,” says Louie, “but I see the beauty in it.”

Because the characters can seem both ridiculous and relatably human, “Ren Faire” reads as a comedy, of a melancholy sort — a not-so-fun faire. Oppenheim calls the series a “docu-fantasia,” which is to say, liberties have been taken. Stylistically, it aims for, and achieves, a cinematic look, with shallow focus, extreme close-ups, elaborate camera movements and some hallucinatory visual and sound effects to create tension and indicate emotional distress.

Still, real life has a habit of imposing itself even on a docu-fantasia, and “Ren Faire” does a lose a little steam in its final third, as the characters — now including a third contender, Darla Smith, appointed co-manager with Jeff — continue to go ‘round in circles. You may share their frustration. But as time spent in a different sort of place — different even from the one the characters imagine inhabiting — it’s a quite rewarding, even refreshing, not-overlong watch. And the ending is, in its way, happy.

“This is too real. What kind of dream is this?

“Hong Kong in the Lens by Asian Directors” is a program supported by the Hong Kong Tourism Board, which includes a series of microfilms directed by renowned directors from Asia. “Hong Kong, Within Me” is one of those titles, directed by Kang Yoon-sung, whose credits include the four entries in “The Roundup” series.

The movie begins with a Korean woman in her pajamas descending the stairs in her house while counting backwards. When she reaches one, however, she wakes up and she seems to be in a place she does not recognize, which soon is revealed to be Hong Kong. Still in her pajamas and barefooted, she goes outside first asking two young women to loan her their phone, and then taking up a cab, of an expectedly suspicious driver. She eventually reaches her destination, where a man recognizes here as Hye-rim and she him as Chan-sung. It turns out he is an old acquaintance, although the surprise of her being there is mutual. As they are talking, she reveals that she has insomnia issues, and that she received hypnotherapy treatment. At the same time, she seems to think what she is experiencing is her dream.

Nevertheless, Chan-sung, who is the owner and cook in the specialty restaurant the two are in, prepares her a meal in order to hear her opinion. A bit later on, the whole thing takes an even weirder twist, as it seems the interaction of the two is being shot by a film crew and Chan-sung is actually an actor. A swooshing cut through night time Hong Kong brings the two in a pier, where they talk once more about whether this is a dream or a movie shoot. Or even a Groundhog Day situation.

The first thing one will notice in “Hong Kong, Within Me” is that the pace is frantic, which is actually what allows Kang Yoon-sung to shoot a meta, romantic movie which also includes a ‘will-they-won’t-they’ element and much comedy, in just 15 minutes. The result can be dizzying on occasion, one could say mirroring the rhythm of life in Hong Kong, but is definitely entertaining, with the quality of the production values definitely helping in that regard.

Kwon Hyeok-jun’s cinematography in particular, captures the different setting with a polished gusto that is quite pleasant to the eye. Furthermore, Hoo Sun-mi and Park Jong-min’s editing is responsible for the aforementioned frantic pace, in a style where the cuts are actually part of the narrative.

Woo Hye-rim plays Hye-rim with an excessiveness that goes a bit too far on occasion, but actually works in the economy of the short. Kang Yun-Sung as Chan-sung plays his part in more down-to-earth fashion, with the antithesis creating a very appealing chemistry.

“Hong Kong, Within Me” is well shot, well acted, well directed, looks particularly good, and is also a lesson on how to condense movies into the short format. Definitely a joy to watch.