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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Dec 20, 2023 4:35:49 GMT
With Kore-eda's pedigree and this being the winner of both Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm at Cannes, I have no idea why it feels like this movie is flying under the radar on most "Best of 2023" lists. This is an incredibly rich movie that offers a masterclass in its use of perspective, unfolding less like the typical Rashomon style of "which truth is the truth" and more like a puzzle where everyone only has some of the pieces. Every new bit of information we get feels like a revelation that invites more insight and compassion into these characters as they sort through their losses and anxieties. And that ending - holy shit am I going to be thinking of that for a while.
There is not a single weak element in the movie. Kore-eda continues to maintain the pensive pace of Hou Hsiao-hsien - though his camera is more reflective of Hsiao-hsien's freewheeling Millennium Mambo than his more famous locked-down frame. The ensemble is perfect, especially the kids who bring a liveliness and exuberance that perfectly contrasts the oppressive forces of the adult systems they are operating within. And of course the score by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto is beautifully tender and serves as a remarkable final opus in a storied career.
I greatly recommend people check this out when they can. I've only seen a few of the Cannes selections this year (Anatomy of a Fall, Asteroid City, May December) but this is handily my favorite so far.
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Post by mhynson27 on Dec 20, 2023 9:06:40 GMT
Saw this back in June. Pretty good stuff, and I still nominated Ando.
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Post by Martin Stett on Mar 20, 2024 18:06:57 GMT
Because every character has only small pieces of the story, we're forced to sit and wait for the pieces to coalesce into a whole - what we *should* get in this type of fractured narrative is a constantly re-evaluation of facts. What we *do* get is waiting around for something to make any damn sense.
It's all relatively well-made, outside of the screenplay cheating us out of anything to latch onto until the end.
This has been the Stett Hot Take Factory, delivering the worst in hot takes since at least 2015. Proud to be of service.
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Post by stabcaesar on Mar 20, 2024 18:22:20 GMT
Because every character has only small pieces of the story, we're forced to sit and wait for the pieces to coalesce into a whole - what we *should* get in this type of fractured narrative is a constantly re-evaluation of facts. What we *do* get is waiting around for something to make any damn sense. It's all relatively well-made, outside of the screenplay cheating us out of anything to latch onto until the end. This has been the Stett Hot Take Factory, delivering the worst in hot takes since at least 2015. Proud to be of service. I don't agree with many of your hot takes, but this I agree. The whole time I was like "huh?" |
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Post by mikediastavrone96 on Mar 20, 2024 18:53:58 GMT
Because every character has only small pieces of the story, we're forced to sit and wait for the pieces to coalesce into a whole - what we *should* get in this type of fractured narrative is a constantly re-evaluation of facts. What we *do* get is waiting around for something to make any damn sense. It's all relatively well-made, outside of the screenplay cheating us out of anything to latch onto until the end. This has been the Stett Hot Take Factory, delivering the worst in hot takes since at least 2015. Proud to be of service. I said it in my OP, but the film sticking closely to the perspectives and not unfolding as a constant re-assessment of facts (like Rashomon) is what I appreciate as it more closely resembles real life for me where everyone has incomplete information, inferences made have consequences, and it's only once we piece through the bigger picture that everything is entirely clear. Perhaps it's because it mirrors my work, but I like the act of piecing it together like an investigation where things only become clear once we get all sides and allows all the characters the grace of us being only within their perspective where their actions make some sense (at least to me). What I latch onto in something like this are the perspectives and the questions raised as more and more information is dispensed. |
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Post by Martin Stett on Mar 20, 2024 19:28:53 GMT
Because every character has only small pieces of the story, we're forced to sit and wait for the pieces to coalesce into a whole - what we *should* get in this type of fractured narrative is a constantly re-evaluation of facts. What we *do* get is waiting around for something to make any damn sense. It's all relatively well-made, outside of the screenplay cheating us out of anything to latch onto until the end. This has been the Stett Hot Take Factory, delivering the worst in hot takes since at least 2015. Proud to be of service. I said it in my OP, but the film sticking closely to the perspectives and not unfolding as a constant re-assessment of facts (like Rashomon) is what I appreciate as it more closely resembles real life for me where everyone has incomplete information, inferences made have consequences, and it's only once we piece through the bigger picture that everything is entirely clear. Perhaps it's because it mirrors my work, but I like the act of piecing it together like an investigation where things only become clear once we get all sides and allows all the characters the grace of us being only within their perspective where their actions make some sense (at least to me). What I latch onto in something like this are the perspectives and the questions raised as more and more information is dispensed. To me, everyone was so vague about everything that I couldn't buy it. If even one person actually said what was going on to anyone else at any point, nothing would have happened. Sure, we get some explanations on why everyone is tight lipped, but the amount of circumstances that have to arrange just right for this perfect storm of misinformation is a bit ridiculous to me. The Principal needs to have her issues, Hori needs to have no backbone over the MANY accusations being flung at him, the kids have to keep their mouths shut over what is going on... I don't believe that this mountain of explanations holds together in the real world. At some point, SOMEBODY doesn't have the perfect trump card to keep them from speaking out. It's all so *written.* As Ms. Mugino says to the teachers, none of them are acting like humans. They're not. Not in that room, and not at any other point. Somebody, somewhere along the line, is going to have some blood in their veins. Side note: This discussion is reminding me of the kids' novel Nothing But the Truth by Avi, about an American child who gets in trouble for singing the National Anthem in class, starting a nationwide media firestorm. It has been a while since I read it, but I felt that it handled the idea of exploring each character's PoV in a way that didn't come off as the writer pulling a fast one. We don't know what happened in that room, but every person who was there - and then every journalist, commentator and random guy on the street - has their viewpoint, as the facts of the case become harder and harder to identify (people's stories change, memories morph, even the same observer will say two things at two different times). |
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Mar 20, 2024 19:56:28 GMT
one of my favorites of 2023. The presentation was initially challenging but the experience became richer as the story progresses and the puzzle pieces fit into place because the story Kore-eda's telling is among his most heart-wrenching and beautiful. I've seen many if not most of his films and this one BY FAR hit me the hardest, even more than Shoplifters which was my previous favorite. I loved the POV shifts because each segment of the story served to further develop the characters and slightly move the story onto a new trajectory as its breathtaking truth gradually reveals itself. There aren't any villains in the story and I really came to love and sympathize with all of them. Eita Nagayama especially as the teacher who at first presents as tyrannical and casually cruel but in reality a kind soul trying to help and understand his students (Nagayama's performance is one of the best supporting turns of 2023). I will say what brought it home for me was the story's queer subtext (this isn't really a spoiler because it won the Queer Palm but I think I watched it mostly blind and wasn't expecting a gay story so that was a genuine and welcome surprise that made me even more receptive to what Kore-eda was selling). Minato's character perfectly captures the closeted experience and it was so moving seeing him gradually open up with Yori. Both characters are "different" but express themselves differently, where Yori seems to live freely and take the bullying when it comes while Minato has built up such rigid defense mechanisms that no one -- except Yori -- can penetrate them, and the narrative presentation allows an organic breakdown of Yori's defenses into the boy he becomes in the closing minutes... and god what an ending. Two souls running free through a field after the storm has passed, completely uninhabited by constraints both internal and external, passed over into a new world/dimension where only their companionship lives while Sakamoto's tender piano celebrates their joyous rebirth. A film for the ages. |
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Mar 20, 2024 20:48:05 GMT
the ambiguousness and transcendence of the ending recalled Picnic at Hanging Rock for me. A literal or metaphorical (or both) extrication from a previous existence shedding meaningless & trivial constraints. Also reminded me of that beautiful scene in Far from Heaven where Cathy suggests she and Raymond run away together to a new existence where no one would know them (and how freeing that would be). No matter how you interpret the ending of Monster or its literal implications for the characters, it represents an escape. And it could not have been more cathartic than how Kore-eda frames it, lenses it, and scores it with Ryuichi Sakamoto's music. A perfect ending.
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