Now I'm not going to analyze it inside and out because there's going to be a million reviewers doing that who are actually getting paid for it. I will say this. I think it won't be fully appreciated by most right away. It'll be too dense for everyone on first viewing, and I'm definitely including myself when I say that. It will grow on you like a an acquired taste for a fine wine, or in my case, a sincere appreciation for a 40 of OE or 3.99 bottle of Andre ghetto champagne from food lion. As unsettling as this film may feel at first, you will grow an intense love for something hard to swallow, just like my love for shitty malt liquor.
(Catherine Keener's character is an artist who paints on a scale so small it must be viewed through magnifying lenses. Just one example of the colorful characters in this film)
I can already say this will take multiple viewings to appreciate. I can also say that I've never hyped any move up like I have this one. There has been no single filmmaker or writer that has tapped into my brain like Kaufman has with movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
I'm not going to say much anymore, because for one, I don't know much more, but more importantly I'd like it to be a surprise for all of us, and hear people's take on it.
But I do think it's important that I post a couple things said by a couple reviewers who have seen it in order to get people to actually go out and watch this movie, approaching it with the attentive mindset it deserves. Or actually, demands.
"Caden doesn’t seem like the genius he sees himself as, and the inspiration triggered by the sudden blessing of complete artistic freedom may also be only a figment of his imagination. Whatever the case, Hoffman embodies him completely, forcing the audience to share his every physical and emotional wound."
"As Philip Seymour Hoffman’s consummate artist tears through his relationships and his grant money, accumulating doppelgangers and burning bridges, the unpleasantness of creation is laid bare time and again. That being said, if there’s any movie that I would excuse this kind of narrative breakdown in, it would be in a movie that attempts to cover so much ground that it ultimately becomes about how art hits its limitations when trying to encapsulate the totality of life."
That last sentence is my favorite. I should have written it. I should be getting paid for having a career that revolves around watching movies! How does one get that job?
And best of all, Jon Brion provides the score. The best film score composer ever in my opinion, and and even Kanye West was smart enough to realize this and grab this man for his string arrangements. (gotta admit he makes good choices for collaborators, e.g. daft punk- not sure why he's a jackass when it comes to just about everything else).
(official trailer)
I think this will really be a historical piece of cinema in the long run. Kaufman provides psychological twists and turns and strange loops inside layers of mentals fractals that would've made M.C. Escher's head spin. I'd go as far as to say this will be the most mind-bending movie of all time.
But no matter how much I dig this movie, I think I'll leave the theater feeling a little uneasy. Whoever watches it with me first is going to have to come back to my cozy pad and watch Narnia and Harry Potter until I can climb my way back into happy, magical land. I think what bothers me about the theme is that I feel like I could become the character. Many friends have heard fragments of my belief system relating to the universe and existence from time to time. It's a well-defined vision that has been there and evolving and refining itself in my mind for the last ten years. I'm just worried that it's something so big that I won't be able to get out in a way that does it justice before I die, partly due to the fact that I don't know if the English language is equipped with the words necessary to describe this spiritual belief system firmly rooted in science. More on that in the future; a short synopsis coming soon.
For now, go and see the film when it comes out next month. And let me know what you think.
1 comment:
i think this movie will be one of the greatest films ever made. just the trailer alone made want to do nothing but focus on what it is that i want to do in this life and that death is always around the corner.
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