Accidental Genius

Ghost monkeys. Reincarnation. Catfish cunnilingus. The inspired weirdness is so off the charts with “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” it almost sounds like a lark. Instead, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s mesmerizing Palme d’Or winner redefines the notion of “movie magic,” by conjuring images and experiences that transcend the boundaries of the screen. Ten years later, it remains a haunting, wondrous incantation — a movie that gives new meaning to fantasy filmmaking by refusing to escape the world, and instead attempting to see it in a whole new way. One doesn’t watch an Apichatpong movie so much as hang out in its headspace, meditating through those pregnant pauses and sifting through the metaphors to see the profundity within. Having explored that approach with absorbing curiosities like “Syndromes and a Century” and “Tropical Malady,” the Thai auteur reached the apex of his career with this jungle-set portrait of a man at the end of his life, wrestling with his past si...