Enjoy the absurdity of our world. Our world is a lot less painful than the real world.
Nocturnal Animals
I don't have an issue with films that aren't subtle. I love satires and films where the message is obvious. I don't know if this is because this is only Tom Ford's sophomore feature film, but tying the novel that the main character's ex-husband is writing, to her relationship troubles (her husband played by Armie Hammer is too distant and is obviously cheating) is too on-the-nose. The film is about the problem of not fixing something when you have it, but there's not much else to it. The film has got style, which makes sense from someone who used to be in fashion. The opening is arresting (naked obese women dancing as American cheerleaders). Jake Gyllenhaal is excellent as a man with little control when his family is abused
Deliverance-style by Aaron Taylor Johnson's road posse and then is on a lawless quest for revenge. Michael Shannon is the best part about this film as an imposing law figure who's willing to bend the rules to get justice, and he's only in the neo-noir. The problem with this film is one part is engaging but the frame is boring to get back to. Amy Adams does well here (although she's better in
Arrival), but her and Armie Hammer's relationship is bland, and frankly I just wanted to punch Armie's face in (thankfully, he's way better in
Free Fire). I did like that the film acknowledges Isla Fisher and Amy Adams look very similar. There's one great jump scare involving an iPhone with a sarcastic quip about how disposable everything is nowadays is probably the best moment in the film, and I wish the rest of the film was as biting. I have to give mention to a brilliant match cut between a punch and a book falling. However, just as a neo-noir thriller,
Neon Demon from this year was far more interesting.
Certain Women
A vignette story that doesn't work for me. The only connective tissue between these threads is that all the protagonists are women and they live nearby, but they don't quite intersect. The acting is great all around, but the only story that works emotionally is the last one about an unrequited rural-urban love between the characters of Lily Gladstone and Kristen Stewart. I can't believe I'm pointing this out as a negative, but it feels like a documentary. It's too slice-of-life, there's no peaks or troughs of a drama. Reading up later that they're all based on short stories, that makes sense why I felt a disconnect. At least I can say I finally saw a Kelly Reichardt film and one with three female protagonists (one a native American lesbian!), but that's too surface of an appreciation. Hopefully, her next film connects. Then again, it won best film at LFF, so others might appreciate it more.
Can we be clean white trash?
American Honey
Not as good as Andrea Arnold's previous films (
Red Road,
Fish Tank,
Wuthering Heights) and its length suffers (2hr43min) due to repetition (could be the point) along with obnoxious characters with little character development.
American Honey still is beautiful and full of kineticism (regular collab'ing DP Robbie Ryan) like when the camera acts as a physical person running towards the characters or gets down low to the ground for intense close-ups. I appreciated the Peter Pan-ish look at these young kids who seem like low-to-middle class runaways where no adults are in display, so there's an amoral streak of not judging their actions as they're still kids. This does become infuriating with the main character (played excellently by first timer Sasha Love) who can't seem to shake off the badboy (played by Shia LaBeouf who doesn't hold back) despite all the red flags. There's still something watchable to the film with it focusing on "clean white trash" kids on a road trip with the weak excuse of selling magazines so they can sustain this new lifestyle. It's like a mix of Harmony Korine, Larry Clark, and a bit of Terrence Malick. If that mashup is intriguing, it's worth a watch.
The Red Turtle
Stunningly animated, wordless surreal life journey of a man marooned on an island. Some of the story beats are familiar for a survivalist tale but the overall theme of the ebb and flow in life is pretty interesting. Where sometimes you need to stay and be content with what you have or leave when the opportunity arises. Shares not only Ghibli's naturalistic tendencies but also the bittersweet mood especially in Isao Takahata films. Shoutout to the crabs as best comedic relief in a film this year.
Some insights from the Q&A. They were approached by Studio Ghibli to collaborate with, which in itself is surreal when you're the one being pitched by the best animation company in the world. Secondly, Takahata doesn't draw at all, which is rare for animation directors.
Psychonauts, The Forgotten Children
Leave it to an animated film to be the most imaginative, disturbing, and depressing film to see this year. It paints a very surreal post-industrial future dystopia with mouse gangs, fireflies as spirits of the dead, drug addiction, demons, and mental illness. If you're a fan of
Angel's Egg,
Neon Genesis Evangelion, and
Watership Down, keep it on your radar.
Manchester By The Sea
For a film about grieving, this sure is hilarious. Comedy makes for coping bedfellows with tragedy, but I wasn't expecting it to this level. Particularly enjoyed the scenery and attention to the detail with the location, made me appreciate small town snowy America more. It's another film about men not being able to open up and connect which leads to self-destruction, and Casey Affleck really kills it here as a short-tempered, flawed uncle who's struggling to move on from the loss of his family and to start a new one. It feels weird to say, but this was one of the most entertaining films I saw from this LFF.
You're fucking bewitched!
Layla M.
For some dumb reason, I was expecting a no-frills muslim romance film. Didn't realise I had just seen one of the most honest portrayals of the struggle for young, disillusioned, diasporic muslims who through various factors (such as misunderstanding parenting) go down the road to radicalisation. Director Mijke de Jong and writer Jan Eilander do a fantastic and very well-researched job at understanding the struggles that young "woke" muslims are facing these days. Layla (Nora El Koussour) is a political young muslim who is in touch with her religion far more than her family who are too Westernised for her. The very first issue is about the burqa ban. However, being young, she's gullible, and falls into the trap of radicalisation through romance. If you've ever seen the British TV drama
Britz (with Riz Ahmed), this path might seem familiar, but otherwise it's important filmmaking and something particularly muslims should watch.
I was surprised at how good this was. Yea its got low budget written all over it but the story it tells is pretty good. This doesn't even gloss over anything it just keeps hammering you with how shitty things are for this soldier in post Vietnam life. The ending was pretty brutal too. Overall I liked this a lot.
