Gô Shibata’s 2004 “Late Bloomer” is, alongside “Synecdoche, New York,” a notable portrait of loneliness. In the case of “Late Bloomer,” likelier comparisons can be made to Gaspar Noe’s “Carne” and “I Stand Alone” or “Taxi Driver” as well as Crispin Glover’s “It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE.” Severely handicapped actor Sumida Masakiyo plays an increasingly angry young man in a wheelchair, Sumida-san. Black humor leavens the cultural and narrative strangeness, and Shibata’s empathetic portrait of someone who’s disabled whose passion for his caregiver gives him the strength to kill goes beyond odd into something of strange conviction. The story teeters toward exploitation territory, and the violence is explosive. 83m. 35mm. (Ray Pride)
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