Wow so many of the reviews that give this movie a high rating are so full of crap reasons it's hilarious. it's like "if we make it sound like you're just not hip/intelligent enough to get it you'll stop complaining about not getting it." but your fluffy analysis, bloated self-importance and "deeeep thoughts" will not save this flat flick. and i will tell you why.
first let me be clear --- i love moody movies that are thoughtful, metaphoric, slow paced, artistically filmed and do not rely on dialogue, noise or action to convey a perspective or carry a message. what those kinds of movies do rely on are gestures, music, expressions, emotions, setting and effective filming techniques.
this movie offers none of these. there was not one moment where i experienced even the slightest revelation about life and death or where i identified with the loss or alienation. not one moment where i was drawn in by an expression, transformed by the suffering, or inclined to feel anything from an authentic gesture of pain, despondency or distress. nothing surprised me, nothing destroyed me.
just cut-out figures with vacant movements imitating the most powerful of human events and emotions -- only to be standing so far from the nucleus of the experience as to render the impact mute and numb. it all seemed so irrelevant to me. just a complete lack of nuance --- around a very nuanced subject.
and while the ghost himself is cold and alienated, the film itself doesn't have to be cold and alienating. but i guess in that sense one could say it's a performative success. still, it fails to include us. it never considered me; never reached out to me. it fails to engage, to inspire compassion or to enable us to relate to anyone else in this film. but what could be more relatable than the fears around death, loss, and permanent endings??
in this way i found it NOT to be profound but to be profoundly self-absorbed; too head-up-its-a** to bother taking the time to bring us in to an experience, a feeling, a transformation. i literally couldn't have cared less about these people who seemed to be as clueless as we are about this whole affair. to me it felt like everyone phoned it in and walked off. turns out everyone is a ghost in this film; everyone is dead.
** a lil sidebar convo -- not a minor muddle but ghosts aren't poltergeists (those disruptive entities responsible for shaking things up). poltergeists are dangerous; ghosts rarely are. ghosts cannot interact with our environment because they're in another dimension. poltergeists are energy entities created IN our dimension and as such are able to feed off and act out the energy/intentions of the living (and, say, throw dishes) in a way ghosts cannot. poltergeists are the result of redirected intense emotional feelings and turmoil expressed/suppressed by the living beings in the home, usually those that are coming of age/entering puberty. ain't them hormones saints. **
but ohh those long shots, solemn stares and pompous reviews will save this hollow forgery of an "art film" that only inspires our ire because it offends our intelligence (and then implies we're stupid for being offended/duped --- "you just didn't get it, silly!") no, you just didn't deliver, silly!
to be sure, this is a film about a fatality all right. its own. 3/10
first let me be clear --- i love moody movies that are thoughtful, metaphoric, slow paced, artistically filmed and do not rely on dialogue, noise or action to convey a perspective or carry a message. what those kinds of movies do rely on are gestures, music, expressions, emotions, setting and effective filming techniques.
this movie offers none of these. there was not one moment where i experienced even the slightest revelation about life and death or where i identified with the loss or alienation. not one moment where i was drawn in by an expression, transformed by the suffering, or inclined to feel anything from an authentic gesture of pain, despondency or distress. nothing surprised me, nothing destroyed me.
just cut-out figures with vacant movements imitating the most powerful of human events and emotions -- only to be standing so far from the nucleus of the experience as to render the impact mute and numb. it all seemed so irrelevant to me. just a complete lack of nuance --- around a very nuanced subject.
and while the ghost himself is cold and alienated, the film itself doesn't have to be cold and alienating. but i guess in that sense one could say it's a performative success. still, it fails to include us. it never considered me; never reached out to me. it fails to engage, to inspire compassion or to enable us to relate to anyone else in this film. but what could be more relatable than the fears around death, loss, and permanent endings??
in this way i found it NOT to be profound but to be profoundly self-absorbed; too head-up-its-a** to bother taking the time to bring us in to an experience, a feeling, a transformation. i literally couldn't have cared less about these people who seemed to be as clueless as we are about this whole affair. to me it felt like everyone phoned it in and walked off. turns out everyone is a ghost in this film; everyone is dead.
** a lil sidebar convo -- not a minor muddle but ghosts aren't poltergeists (those disruptive entities responsible for shaking things up). poltergeists are dangerous; ghosts rarely are. ghosts cannot interact with our environment because they're in another dimension. poltergeists are energy entities created IN our dimension and as such are able to feed off and act out the energy/intentions of the living (and, say, throw dishes) in a way ghosts cannot. poltergeists are the result of redirected intense emotional feelings and turmoil expressed/suppressed by the living beings in the home, usually those that are coming of age/entering puberty. ain't them hormones saints. **
but ohh those long shots, solemn stares and pompous reviews will save this hollow forgery of an "art film" that only inspires our ire because it offends our intelligence (and then implies we're stupid for being offended/duped --- "you just didn't get it, silly!") no, you just didn't deliver, silly!
to be sure, this is a film about a fatality all right. its own. 3/10