first, it’s real that i / we have all become spoiled by the direct-to-streaming age. i have definitely become more sensitive to sub-par cinematic experiences, which this one definitely was. went on a tuesday for cheaper tickets, but it was only playing in VIP, which means that the theatre is a fucking restaurant with people milling about for the first 20 minutes of the film. there’s less seating, so we had to sit off-centre and too close, craning our necks. there are far, far too bright lights to help the waiters bring the people their fucking poutines and whatnot. that all sucked and definitely soured my perception of the film…
it felt a bit overblown to me. the soundtrack would not let up; the dialogue would not let up; the narrative would not let up. introducing oedipal elements into the film, just to continue piling up the themes of epic, tragic destiny…i don’t want to slam it for being “self-serious” because i know that most movies are decidedly not self-serious, to their detriment, but the epicness of the story + all the epicness of form make for an extremely vulnerable film. i really liked The VVitch and The Lighthouse, and appreciated both for their dialogue, but it made more sense in those narrative contexts; plus, the narratives were a lot smaller-scale. gonna just chalk it up to not being on the film’s wavelength.