Previous examples have been Requiem For A Dream and Black Swan. The former is probably a film with the most depressing themes I have ever seen and one of the most unsettling films of all-time. Yet, I have in my top 100 films of all-time list.
As for the latter, it is certainly more accessible and still a lot of socially awkward scenes.
His most recent project was Noah. While I thought the film was alright with some interesting moments, it felt incredibly tame for someone like Aronofsky to be director.
As for this new piece of work, I think it is safe to say that he is back on form. Now I am not necessarily saying "back on form" as in another great film, but another highly unsettling film that will cause everyone to talk about. Now be prepared, because I have so much to talk about.
From the first scene, you could already tell that something is off. I could already see possible fantasy elements to this story. The story was falling into a mystery thriller which I felt was what the trailer was suggesting. But I knew that with it being Aronofsky, that this to fall off the rails at some point.
In comes the second act, which starts to slowly get out of control. It almost lost me. However, the more surreal the story and images got, the more everything clicked together for me.
For me, the feeling of suddenly losing touch with what the film is trying to show to suddenly getting everything is quiet a joyous one. I was seeing so many deep metaphors and meanings, mainly in religion. It explores environmental issues, the consequences of being a celebrity, a modern day equivalent of the progress of religion particularly Christianity.
There is one massive segment that helps support this in the second half of the film that is wonderfully crafted, shot, executed and perfectly edited that I could watch again and again. I would have loved to have seen how Aronofsky and his team made that happen. I also witnessed one scene that deeply effected and shocked me. It is almost up there with my most unsettling scene of all-time from 'Under The Skin'.
The final act sees everything come to a head with a few moments that pretty much confirmed to what I was thinking this film was trying to portray and symbolize.
So many people are going to are think this is either brilliant or the biggest pile of pretentious rubbish. For me, these are the most interesting films of all, because it gets people talking. After leaving the screening, my mind was racing in all sorts of directions and I have been thinking about so many aspects to this film. I was adoring the metaphors and symbolism. I am understanding more and more even as I type.
The performances on the whole did their job well. Jennifer Lawrence's performance is innocent, raw and intense. I get the hate for Lawrence as it's natural to possibly show jealously for someone who got too famous too quickly. But I think she did a great job with this.
Javier Bardem played his part rather well and perfectly executed the reason for his characters actions. Seeing Michelle Pfeiffer was such a nice welcome as I think she is a great actor and still has a sexy presence to her. Ed Harris also has his creepy moments. There is also a surprise cameo that certainly came out of nowhere with all the chaos happening on screen at the time of their arrival.
The technical side of the film is so strong that it deserves many awards nominations. So much of the camerawork is intimate, frenetic and reminded me a lot of Requiem For A Dream and Black Swan especially. That style of cinematography is probably the most integral part of why this film for me is great. One aspect that I almost never mention, is the sound design. There's very clever sound design early on that I noticed in my screening. It was as if you were moving around with the central character and experiencing their environment and point of view.
With all of this being said, I did have some flaws with it. The pacing especially in the middle was a bit inconsistent and hard to adjust to. They were many scenes that were supposed to feel socially awkward that just did not work for me. Some scenes do drag but I think that might leave me on a second viewing.
Also, while I did not feel it to be pretentious, I can see it coming across as that.
I'm glad I knew very little about this. All I knew was that it was very divisive. So I was prepared to be disappointed or even angry. But thankfully, I eventually eat it all up and want more.
A film that so many messages crammed into it has the easy potential to be a complete mess. But I felt his execution to be so masterful and I really enjoyed it. It will certainly have me thinking about it over at least the next week.
This movie is design to unsettle you, frustrate you and it will do that in so many different ways. But if you absorb the surreal nature of it, you will be heavily rewarded in the end.
Nothing is wasted and everything is a detail. Some of it can go a bit off track. But by the end of it, it is propelling so far on track that it becomes so satisfying and almost heavenly.
This film makes up for the somewhat disappoint of Noah in tenfold. There are many moments that remind me of a having nightmare and there are things happening that you have no control over.
There are a lot of similarities to Rosemary's Baby. Even one of its posters is near enough identical to it. I also saw bits from The Shining, The Lord Of The Rings.
One thing is for sure, is that this is will be heavily polarizing and devisive much like to what Requiem For A Dream was. General audiences I think will hate it. But without trying to sound superior, I got so much out of it.
I can complete understand if you end up hating it, or even being angry towards it. That's the beauty of films like this. The type of film that can make the audiences exert extreme behavior that are both highly positive and negative is quite an achievement. It gets people talking. Similar films are ones like Cloud Atlas, The Fountain and The Neon Demon which I really like and films like Synecdoche New York and Inherent Vice which I did not get at all but appreciated nonetheless.
Now that I've read a bit more as to why Aronofsky made this, I can see why it will be seen as pretentious by many people. But the message coming across is both very topical, political and also timeless. I can get supposedly pretentious films. But if I enjoy them as well as understand it, then we have a huge hit that I will give high praise to it till the end of time.
For me, Aronofsky has given us something so extraordinary that it will be discussed for quite some time. This is the type of film that maybe your initial reaction to the film won't be your true view on the film.
In the end, I still feel Black Swan and Requiem For A Dream is still superior. But this is still something special despite it coming across a pretentious.
If you haven't seen it, then if I may, I will give you advice. Try not to look at as a realistic narrative, but more of a metaphor of life and the progression of religion. If you're more into your symbolism, then definitely check this out. If not, then maybe avoid it. But if you were initially intrigued, I would still check it out and you can have your own opinions on it.
If you have seen and are stuck on what this film is about. Feel free to comment and I would happy to have a discussion with you without spoiling the film.
I will be interested to see how well this ages over the next few years.
Rating: 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment