Classmates Minus

Huang Hsin-yao's 2020 Taiwanese film follows four school friends who have reached middle age. One is a director who has never made a film, one works insecure jobs, one sells insurance and one makes paper goods for funerals. The four meet weekly to drink and know without saying it that none of the dreams of their youth came true. The film relates this without making it pitiful; the humour is black and the characters' small calculations are ridiculous. Some of them becoming entangled in politics and the workings of a local election form a second line. The director adds his own voice between sections and intervenes in the story directly at times. Black and white images are used alongside colour passages. Who it's for: viewers who like Taiwanese cinema and black comedy about middle age. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a hopeful ending; the film does not give one.