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dwrevans
Reviews
You Were Never Really Here (2017)
Leon: The Professional, but made very very real
The Parallels to Luc Besson's León run as deep as the premise for the story- a lone hitman going on the hunt to save a young, recently fatherless, girl embroiled in in deep government corrupt coverups. Yet where Reno and Portman's relationship is playful, endearing and ultimately heartbreaking; Phoenix and Samsonov's attachment is necessary, moulded by trauma and for me crushing.
Flashbacks and visions play a major role in the film but are deftly managed whereby the aforementioned link between the central characters is subtly introduced at an early stage. Our obsessively off the radar hitman is more than the cliche stereotype for his character, having a sometimes strained yet loving relationship with his mother, possibly rooted in their own troubled pasts - he is pretty human for someone whose seen a lot.
Glitches in reality and visions from the past nod to these links yet don't bash you over the head with them. A mix of post-military service PDST and a drug dependency keeps reality just loose enough to masterfully weave these flashbacks and jarring images into the narrative without giving the rules of the game away.
Joaquin's character in particular is the most truthful realisation of this kind of hitman I could imagine and as usual the subtleties of his performance carry real depth, especially in moments like the apparently improvised duet. Touching on that moment, the soundtrack really must be commended. For me the use of old americana classics during some scenes highlighted the madness, not just of the government corruption but of the personal experiences of Joe and Nina. Additionally Johnny Greenwood's soundtrack was a perfect match in tone and tension.
Phenomenal ending, really just bringing your own sympathy for Joe and Nina, for both their past and present situations, to the fore; coupled with a quiet optimism that a film this dark should probably have. 'If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake' and if I knew that was coming, well it just wouldn't be the same - avoid any spoilers and just take the dip.
Hats off to Lynne Ramsay.
Accident (1967)
Good, but not the masterpiece other reviews cite
Having loved Losey and Pinter's first film, The Servant, for its class commentary and Incredible portrayal of gradual emotional manipulation, I was optimistic for Accident, yet ultimately left disappointed.
Following three rivals competing over an Austrian student, empty conversations hide the turmoil and distrust under the surface of our leads interactions. Whilst the deliberately vapid dialogue did make the plot hard to follow and also delivered some awkward and weird reactions from the character, I didn't hate it all that much and can see how well some of the performances are in that regard. Despite little indication from the script you can figure out what insecurities are affecting Stephen and to an extent the other male leads from their body language and delivery of the scant dialogue.
For me however, the main flaw is the one dimensional nature of our male characters which ultimately makes them unrelatable. Their only motive seems to be getting the girl or out performing each other. Whilst the film does build tension surrounding this, there is little else to their characters. Their jobs and families hardly seem to be a concern and their single mindedness often makes them very dislikable, especially given how immorally some of them act.
The female characters on the other hand are really overlooked and would offer far more complexity and relatability. Anna's final actions are never explained and the film offers almost zero insight as to how she thinks and feels- in fact it's often the male characters telling us for her. Given she Has the most complex situation and that we are clearly told how the men think and feel, it just seems like an unfortunate case of the period's attitudes of depicting women as simple, dull and oblivious have won over here- even with an Oxford student.
Perhaps if she and others were included as fully fledged characters, the film's focus on the importance of characters true feelings underneath the meaningless conversations would carry more weight. As it is, it's just an embarrassing case of three oxford men, acting and thinking in the one way men supposedly do. Maybe Pinter was trying to critique the typical entitled Oxford Don, but I highly doubt it.