Slight spoilers below.
Martin Scorsese once compared the experience of watching a Hong Sang-soo movie to unpeeling an orange. It's a comparison I would apply to watching Cody Clarke's Feel and Stay. It starts unassumingly, two people casually meeting, and gradually unfolds to an emotional unveiling. In this way, it feels very consistent and cohesive, even while improvised in three hours.
Clarke's usual trademarks are featured here: characters sitting and talking, offbeat bits of humor. This time around though, he removes himself from the cast and keeps things on two female characters. The addition of a third camera lets him spice up his filmmaking too, using coverage to give a nice change of pace from the usual shot/reverse shot of his movies.
Chloe Pelletier, as expected, is also present, as a person who documents her surroundings on camera. Early on, she shares a conversation with co-star Magenta Squash about shooting conversations and being authentic on camera, bringing a humorous layer of self-awareness.
The movie gets more real as it goes on, and it ends in a moving monologue about living transiently that feels very raw. Life is constantly moving, and nothing is ever permanent. A respite from this can be a camera that captures feelings and moments of beauty before they are gone.
Several feelings and moments of beauty are captured on camera in Feel and Stay. They are not always with the best picture quality, color, lighting, or sound, but they are captured just the same. This and Bed affirm Cody Clarke as one of my favorite currently active filmmakers in this decade. His slice-of-life movies feel like they exist in their own comfy little pockets of reality, and they achieve a level of intimacy and vulnerability I never see enough of in movies.
Martin Scorsese once compared the experience of watching a Hong Sang-soo movie to unpeeling an orange. It's a comparison I would apply to watching Cody Clarke's Feel and Stay. It starts unassumingly, two people casually meeting, and gradually unfolds to an emotional unveiling. In this way, it feels very consistent and cohesive, even while improvised in three hours.
Clarke's usual trademarks are featured here: characters sitting and talking, offbeat bits of humor. This time around though, he removes himself from the cast and keeps things on two female characters. The addition of a third camera lets him spice up his filmmaking too, using coverage to give a nice change of pace from the usual shot/reverse shot of his movies.
Chloe Pelletier, as expected, is also present, as a person who documents her surroundings on camera. Early on, she shares a conversation with co-star Magenta Squash about shooting conversations and being authentic on camera, bringing a humorous layer of self-awareness.
The movie gets more real as it goes on, and it ends in a moving monologue about living transiently that feels very raw. Life is constantly moving, and nothing is ever permanent. A respite from this can be a camera that captures feelings and moments of beauty before they are gone.
Several feelings and moments of beauty are captured on camera in Feel and Stay. They are not always with the best picture quality, color, lighting, or sound, but they are captured just the same. This and Bed affirm Cody Clarke as one of my favorite currently active filmmakers in this decade. His slice-of-life movies feel like they exist in their own comfy little pockets of reality, and they achieve a level of intimacy and vulnerability I never see enough of in movies.