Under The Radar: The Nazi-Killing Thrills Of Sisu, Finding Truth In Fiction With No Bears, And More

(Welcome to Under the Radar, a column where we spotlight specific movies, shows, trends, performances, or scenes that caught our eye and deserved more attention ... but otherwise flew under the radar. In this edition: Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's latest "No Bears" is another personal triumph, "Joyland" tackles painfully relatable South Asian shortcomings, and "Sisu" puts the hurt on some deeply unlucky Nazis.)

Goodbye April, hello May, and welcome to the unofficial start of the summer movie season. If it seems like the yearly schedule for big-screen releases is weirdly compressed, well, that's because it is. We essentially go from the doldrums of the early winter months of the year to a blockbuster-heavy "summer" slate that extends from May all the way to September or even October, before pivoting right back to awards season mayhem. Traditionally, Memorial Day weekend is the point at which it feels a little more socially acceptable to kickstart our more spectacle-heavy entertainment (remember, "Top Gun: Maverick" released just in time for the long holiday weekend last May), but more and more it feels like the calendar has become all but meaningless, with so many big-budget crowd-pleasers jockeying for position.

In the March edition of this column, we pointed out how springtime tends to feel like the forgotten months of the moviegoing calendar. That tone somewhat continued through April, though that's not to say we lacked for worthy options to watch either in theaters or streaming at home. Kelly Fremon Craig debuted "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret," "How to Blow Up a Pipeline" stirred up quite a bit of noise, and Peacock released the mind-bending series "Mrs. Davis." But for our purposes, we're focusing on a trio of underseen gems: Jafar Panahi's "No Bears," the queer drama "Joyland," and the blood-soaked action of "Sisu."

Where does the line between fiction and reality blend into something altogether more complicated? Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi's latest film, "No Bears," explores this and even more nuanced concerns in unconventional fashion. You see, Panahi has suffered through government censorship and even arrest in Iran because of his movies, which dare to portray Iranian politics and social customs in an honest light. Originally detained in 2010 and sentenced to house arrest and a 20-year ban on filmmaking in his native country as punishment for his outspoken views, Panahi nonetheless filmed several movies in secret that starred himself as a fictionalized Jafar Panahi, whose cinematic backstory largely reflected his own.

The same is true of "No Bears," in which Panahi plays a filmmaker named Panahi who has been forced to flee Teheran and relocate to a remote border town in Turkey, where he conducts a remote shoot of a documentary that he can't physically visit. Faced with a spotty internet connection that interrupts his efforts, the reclusive Panahi finally steps out into the town and instead trains his curious camera on the villagers. But upon snapping a few innocent photos, Panahi becomes embroiled in a local dispute involving two young forbidden lovers that he happened to capture on film. Between the regressive rites and traditions involving arranged marriage on one side of the camera and his ongoing documentary falling to pieces as his two Iranian subjects struggle to acquire passports in order to escape government overreach, the links between these seemingly disparate storylines — and Panahi's own exile — soon becomes clear.

With a playful sense of meta-textual humor and a keen eye on capturing profound truths, "No Bears" is an experience unlike any other.

"No Bears" is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel.

Those who've grown up in South Asian culture have an intimate knowledge of how much entrenched social customs and traditional mindsets can negatively effect those caught in their wake. For decades, women have been burdened with the societal pressures of marrying a total stranger, bearing children, and leaving all other responsibilities to their husband. Men face a strict and suffocating definition of what "masculinity" is supposed to be, relegating anything that dares to exceed those boundaries as a threat to be snuffed out. You'll notice that such a binary mindset leaves out practically the entire spectrum of human identity that doesn't quite conform to one label or the other.

"Joyland," the directorial debut of Pakistani filmmaker Saim Sadiq, addresses all of this and more with an incisive and utterly empathetic approach — one that resulted in the film's banning in its native country. Though this has since been reversed (albeit with certain scenes subjected to censoring), Pakistan's response all but confirms the fact that the film's subject matter hit its mark.

The story follows unemployed husband Haider (Ali Junejo) and his fiercely independent wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq). The almost pathetically ineffectual Haider constantly disappoints his hard-edged father Amanullah (Salmaan Peerzada), but lucks into a new job ... which involves being a backup dancer at an erotic dance theater to a transgender headliner, Biba (Alina Khan). Compelled to give up her own job to stay at home and help with domestic duties, Mumtaz begins to spiral as Haider is drawn more and more to the freedom afforded by Biba. Impressively, the film never once judges any of the main trio of exceptionally well-drawn characters, choosing instead to highlight how their culture has failed them. Don't miss this one.

"Joyland" is currently playing in select theaters.

What happens when you cross a legendary, John Wick-like figure straight from myth with a style evoking Quentin Tarantino's exploitation streak? You wind up with something close to the balancing act that "Sisu" (mostly) pulls off. From Finnish writer/director Jalmari Helander, the movie explains from the outset that "Sisu" is a Finnish word for, essentially, finding strength and resilience when all hope is lost.

The avatar for this entire concept is embodied in Aatami Korpi (portrayed with impressive physicality by Jorma Tommila), a rugged gold prospector and former soldier who earned a reputation as an "immortal" killer and a one-man scourge to the invading Russians. Having left his wartime ways behind him, he now quietly ekes out a living in the Lapland wilderness in the latter days of World War II, panning for gold and searching for wildly profitable deposits. When he finds one and seeks to make off with unimaginable wealth through his war-torn country, he runs afoul of a marauding group of Nazis with nothing better to do than accost solitary travelers. This, needless to say, turns out to be a grave mistake.

What follows is a straightforward exercise in the ever-silent Aatami brutally killing Nazis in all sorts of creative ways, turning a fight for survival into a vengeance-seeking crusade against the fascists who simply couldn't leave him be. As the film goes on, divided into six chapters that further lends to the episodic feel of the movie, it quickly becomes clear that "Sisu" works best when it embraces a much more heightened and fantastical tone. Aatami simply refuses to die, no matter how dire his predicament, and viewers can't help but get swept along with him.

"Sisu" is currently playing in theaters.