25/17
OvertureWritten by Josh Schmidt and Marius De VriesPerformed by Josh Schmidt
Chronology
After decades of being alone, a wealthy family living in a salt mine encounters a stranger.. Joshua Oppenheimer described the film as an exploration of whether we as human beings can reach a place where our guilt is too great to recover from our past.. I don’t think I’ve been as excited about a film as I’ve been nervous in a long time.
Technically, this film has sauce
Oppenheimer’s feature debut was supposed to be an uncompromising and unique vision, but I’ve really not seen anything like it. They clearly have no idea how to market this film, as Neon is set for a limited release in December, and there’s still no poster or trailer. I digress, but this film really had me in the mood for most of its run.
The weak links are in the story and music
Really interesting and detailed environments, the cinematography and use of lighting are also critical and work to contextualize the scenes. While I don’t think the Golden Age musical is a necessary gimmick, I don’t think it’s fully realized or used as well as they hoped. I’d say I was engaged for at least half the songs, but they all sound so similar.
With all that said, I really liked this film
Aside from the moments where the visuals seem to have to match what’s going on, people are just walking around singing how they feel. And it’s also a very thematically loose film, kind of having its eggs in too many baskets without committing to any. When it’s not scratching the surface of something profound, it can often feel banal.
You can’t put it in a box and there’s nothing like it that I think would be worth a watch
It’s not for everyone and the guy next to me was clearly bored, along with my girlfriend who said she’d probably never watch it again, but that she liked it enough. While it doesn’t seek to answer any lingering questions you may have, or any larger questions, it does beg you to do something and asks, “have we gone too far or are we to blame for our past to recover from it?”