Minari

Chung and his cinematographer Lachlan Milne photograph the landscape beautifully, and you see how both Jacob and David can be entranced by its vastness, even for all the trouble it causes.

What makes this more than just another formulaic feelgood film is the grit with which Chung evokes the hardscrabble lives of his characters, balancing the dreamier elements of the drama with a naturalism that keeps it rooted in reality.

A rare film about assimilation that can be equally cherished by both poles of the American political landscape. And everybody in between.

Minari is a story of the American Dream. But Chung's brilliance is in how he adds depth and complexity to those foundational ideas - it's in the spaces in between that we find love, loss, hope, and regret.

Though two last-act sequences dovetail a little too neatly, the word that covers this cinematic experience is "raw".

It briefly drags before the closing act, but that's hardly a complaint.

Minari is incredibly tender, and woefully honest.

Lee Isaac Chung's look at a Korean family immigrating to Arkansas is a tantalizing experience filled with so much togetherness, hardship, and true beauty.

Lee Isaac Chung lays his heart to this project as he shares some of his personal memories through this family, and the narrative is just so compelling. I challenge anyone not to fall in love with young David, played by Alan S. Kim.

THE DEFINITION OF PERFECTION