Change Your Image
RaynarRogers
Reviews
Anatomy of a Love Seen (2014)
Don't just watch... See.
Earlier I read a review that basically warned viewers about this movie but since the Director was so kind as to personally message everyone who queried about the film on Youtube strands and the trailer was done so beautifully, I decided that it was worth the $5 and went ahead and watched it anyway. Now can I just say that this is not a 'typical' movie and if you are a plot based person who gets bored easy and needs the car chase or the lonely montage or any other Hollywood film tricks to fill your 90 minutes, you may not be prepared for this and may even have words as strong as the previous reviewer who claimed that it was slow and self indulgent. But if you can be open to seeing something very different and raw, it is really something unique and special. Realism to me often comes in a slightly art house package, with a slow narrative mimicking reality. You know. Those long look-out-of-the- window-of-a-train sequences or how the film sometimes gets taken over by silence. And somehow, even with a narrative, these films will so often lose me. However, this movie is clever in that it is absolute realism without the extended narrative, in fact, the whole film is set up within a short space of time, literally almost mimicking time itself which absolutely gripped me like I was living those moments with them. The four lead actresses were fantastic and the chemistry between Zoe and Mal was nothing short of Real. I can talk about how great the pace was or the shots but art isn't always meant to be picked apart by its roots. For me, seeing a film that is not dragged down by plot but puts all of its cards on letting a situation and a relationship run its course throughout a difficult day, a film thats core focus is to express just... love, is refreshing and honestly exciting. With this and Blue is The Warmest Colour... I am feeling pretty confident that particularly lesbian relationships are started to be represented well within the film industry. Despite that we were removed from so much of the context and history,I was so emotionally invested because it wasn't about exposition and it wasn't about knowing, it relied on feeling. That in-the-middle-of-a-complicated-break-up-and-now-I-don't-know-how- to-function feeling that leaves us completely vulnerable and if you've never had anything like that or never felt sick when you're around a person, like your body doesn't feel like its you anymore or you've never had a first fight or a last fight or a relationship ultimatum moment or you've never stopped yourself before you risk getting hurt, then maybe, just maybe you might be like meh, a film about love with no plot. Otherwise, this is a gem and you will not be sorry for putting money into this film. Commendation to the team!
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Really thoroughly enjoyed but questioned the choices made
The film in terms of theme did exactly what it was supposed to do. It created a world we as an audience invest in. The effect of drugs needs not to be known to audiences before the film, it is what we learn about more than anything- closest to the first hand account I've seen on many films (especially Sara), and it's the directors choices that we engage in and feel the dream like state ourselves in many ways.
However, each character goes on a downwards spiral character arc and each left with a story that goes on from the film that we may never know about. I wouldn't call the end a resolution. The closest character to have a resolution is Harry and so I almost felt let down by the film makers because 3/4 of the way through the film, I realised they were all on a bad arc and it would end bad for all of them, so I expected the end to have a little less prediction. I think if one character managed to struggle out of that spiral, the film would have had more worth.
That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, the style, the acting and the decisions made in terms of camera angles, fisheye, pov etc. It made me want to write about it, so it did have a big impact on me, but the strengths were that I was immersed in a world that had been created and come to life and the weaknesses were that the story-line was unfortunately (regardless of the amount of unexpected events that happened) predictable in the sense that we were led to believe throughout the film that they weren't going to overcome the addiction and therefore we expected what was coming.