Remember when that jock from Rick and Morty held Morty and said, "There's something special about you."? That's how I am towards Johan. Gone to soon. Rip to a king.
For a debut feature this is both incredibly impressive and a little underwhelming. When the movie showed the title card that it was based on a book I felt vindication. It's literally an audiobook. Tilda Swinton reads to you for a little over an hour accompanied by gorgeous music and a sharp eye for wonderful visuals. Tilda Swinton as the book reader or Narrator in this was lovely though. Her confident voice and choice of words gives her character a full bodied feel without ever seeing her.
It's the perfect movie to turn on if you want to be transfixed by something. And I imagine it will go over like gangbusters for anyone more or less intoxicated. That said, I watched this at 3am and found myself starting to dose off periodically (probably less the movies fault and more mine). The dreamy, slow pace and droning narrative would be enough on their own to inflict drowsiness but there's more then that. The visuals, while nice, are also super dreamy and slow paced. Lots of long takes pushing in or pulling out on architecture in a loop.
Fortunately, it only runs at an 1hr 10 which means it never feels boring. Slow and quiet? Sure, but not boring. The black and white visuals alone are striking. Couple that with an interesting narrative and you've got something. But it does play just like an audiobook would and does little outside of that. If you're in the market for abstract, museum level art then is will be a hit. Traditional, this is not.
For a debut feature this is both incredibly impressive and a little underwhelming. When the movie showed the title card that it was based on a book I felt vindication. It's literally an audiobook. Tilda Swinton reads to you for a little over an hour accompanied by gorgeous music and a sharp eye for wonderful visuals. Tilda Swinton as the book reader or Narrator in this was lovely though. Her confident voice and choice of words gives her character a full bodied feel without ever seeing her.
It's the perfect movie to turn on if you want to be transfixed by something. And I imagine it will go over like gangbusters for anyone more or less intoxicated. That said, I watched this at 3am and found myself starting to dose off periodically (probably less the movies fault and more mine). The dreamy, slow pace and droning narrative would be enough on their own to inflict drowsiness but there's more then that. The visuals, while nice, are also super dreamy and slow paced. Lots of long takes pushing in or pulling out on architecture in a loop.
Fortunately, it only runs at an 1hr 10 which means it never feels boring. Slow and quiet? Sure, but not boring. The black and white visuals alone are striking. Couple that with an interesting narrative and you've got something. But it does play just like an audiobook would and does little outside of that. If you're in the market for abstract, museum level art then is will be a hit. Traditional, this is not.