Shoplifters

A film that just grows and grows and grows. It seems very quiet, but you are absolutely hooked.

[Shoplifters] is a film edged by despair, and yet is life-affirming. Families may disintegrate, but love keeps us ticking over.

Writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda fills the film with grace notes, humor and fine observations, circling and filling out each character while leaning more on innocence than corruption.

It's the perfect depiction of the line between being a good person and being law-abiding, and how that's not a border, but a Venn diagram.

Kore-eda marshals his considerable talents to tell what initially appears to be another story of family love and perseverance in the margins of society.

This kind of subtle richness is not new for Kore-Eda, though it's as satisfying here as it's ever been.

Kore-eda favors the intimate and subtle over big drama, and this film is filled with both touching and heartbreaking moments of affection and disappointment.

Shoplifters is a tender film about a family comprised of thieves, murderers, kidnappers, scammers, and liars.

Episode 23: Vox Lux / The Guilty / Shoplifters / The Mule / Rififi

Director/writer Hirokazu Kore-eda handles the film with a pragmatic yet empathetic eye and as a result, crafts together one of the year's best movies that clutches the heartstrings by the time the credits roll.