Shoplifters (Manbiki Kazoku) - Barney's Incorrect Five Second Reviews

Ouf... it's always tough talking about a tough movie. How can I convince people it's most certainly worth seeing, while acknowledging that it's not super pleasant?

Let me start by saying two things:

1) If I HAD to draw a parallel to another movie, it would be GONE BABY GONE even though this is NOTHING like that. Lol

2) This knocked Black Panther off my top ten list for 2018.

So it's a Japanese movie, and that's important to know since not only will there be subtitles but this is a VERY Japanese culture movie. For instance, the excessive slurping while eating noodles, something you don't see or hear in Western culture, is all over this. I guarantee that it will bother some of you.

What's this movie about? On a high level, it's challenging what a family is supposed to be. How no one ever gets to really choose their family. More importantly, how badly we need in our lives to both be loved and to love. Both.

The ending is great and powerful, but the stand-out for me is this interrogation scene which is the most dramatic one since Three Billboards, even more so. Some monumental acting going on there.

Be prepared to not really understand what journey you're being brought on during at least the first half. It's fun to watch, it's difficult to watch. Then everything sort of gets flipped and things become REAL.

Boston Globe called this the worst family movie of 2018. They're not wrong, lol. They’re probably comfortable saying that because this seems to be pigeon-holed as a criminal drama which is RIDICULOUS. I would classify this as “family movie that you should NOT bring your family to.” This is a 13+ movie everywhere except in the States where it’s rated R and that makes sense there cuz b00bs.

Listen, I do think you'll really like this movie. At the same time, it's not easy to like. I just believe in you :)

Heart rating: 5 stars (oh yes, absolutely. it whips you around)

Brain rating: 4.5 stars (it will work your brain long afterwards)