I guess I just don't jive with Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
This is the second film of his I've seen (the other was "Drive My Car") and neither of them made me feel much of anything. No, that's not completely accurate. "Evil Does Not Exist" did make me feel something, namely grumpy and frustrated.
I'm going to whine for a minute. Right now most of the movies in theaters that are made ostensibly to entertain large groups of people are crap. They're either Marvel movies, which I hate, or they're the fourth installment of some series that was never that good to begin with. So then I turn to critics to see what they are giving high scores to, and they are giving high scores to movies like "Evil Does Not Exist." I am a cinephile and have seen a lot of different movies in my time. I like to be challenged, and I can like having to do most of the work myself when appreciating a movie. But I also know that I need variety, and not a steady stream of any one thing. I feel like every movie lately that experts are telling me is good is like this one. It seems almost designed to be as un-entertaining as possible. Like moving the camera too much, or having anything resembling narrative momentum, or moving the film forward at anything other than a glacial pace is capitulating to the dumb ass masses. And then don't even get me started on these endings. The nice word I suppose is "enigmatic," but really they're just baffling and often feel arbitrary, like the filmmaker picked a random place to just end the movie because they didn't have a better idea. Where are the films that intelligent adults can enjoy but that also feel like entertaining movies? The other night I came across "Tootsie" on TCM and I felt like a parched desert wanderer stumbling across an oasis of refreshing, crystal clear water.
Ok, done whining. I'm going to give Hamaguchi the benefit of the doubt and say the problem is me. Maybe I wasn't in the mood. He's clearly a smart guy. I don't have to "get it" in the conventional sense of the word. I can just let it wash over me and see how it makes me feel. But again, it made me feel nothing except restlessness. Like are you trying my patience on purpose just to be a jerk? Would it kill you to frame actors sometimes so that we can actually see their faces while they're having a five-minute long conversation? Do we need such long, static shots of tree branches, and people chopping wood, and filling water jugs? I really do get it. We're exploring the relationship here between man and nature, and the fact that we all, just like the animals in the forest, are driven primarily by the instinct for survival. We will do what we must for what we think are our best interests and justify those actions in whatever way we can. So I'm really not incapable of enjoying or understanding a slow burn movie. I just ask that it gives me a reason to keep watching it.
I don't know what the ending means, and I don't care enough about this movie to try to figure it out. It really needed Dustin Hoffman tearing off a wig and shocking a room full of soap opera actors by revealing himself to be a man. That would have made as much sense to me in the context of this movie as the ending I actually did get.
Grade: C.
This is the second film of his I've seen (the other was "Drive My Car") and neither of them made me feel much of anything. No, that's not completely accurate. "Evil Does Not Exist" did make me feel something, namely grumpy and frustrated.
I'm going to whine for a minute. Right now most of the movies in theaters that are made ostensibly to entertain large groups of people are crap. They're either Marvel movies, which I hate, or they're the fourth installment of some series that was never that good to begin with. So then I turn to critics to see what they are giving high scores to, and they are giving high scores to movies like "Evil Does Not Exist." I am a cinephile and have seen a lot of different movies in my time. I like to be challenged, and I can like having to do most of the work myself when appreciating a movie. But I also know that I need variety, and not a steady stream of any one thing. I feel like every movie lately that experts are telling me is good is like this one. It seems almost designed to be as un-entertaining as possible. Like moving the camera too much, or having anything resembling narrative momentum, or moving the film forward at anything other than a glacial pace is capitulating to the dumb ass masses. And then don't even get me started on these endings. The nice word I suppose is "enigmatic," but really they're just baffling and often feel arbitrary, like the filmmaker picked a random place to just end the movie because they didn't have a better idea. Where are the films that intelligent adults can enjoy but that also feel like entertaining movies? The other night I came across "Tootsie" on TCM and I felt like a parched desert wanderer stumbling across an oasis of refreshing, crystal clear water.
Ok, done whining. I'm going to give Hamaguchi the benefit of the doubt and say the problem is me. Maybe I wasn't in the mood. He's clearly a smart guy. I don't have to "get it" in the conventional sense of the word. I can just let it wash over me and see how it makes me feel. But again, it made me feel nothing except restlessness. Like are you trying my patience on purpose just to be a jerk? Would it kill you to frame actors sometimes so that we can actually see their faces while they're having a five-minute long conversation? Do we need such long, static shots of tree branches, and people chopping wood, and filling water jugs? I really do get it. We're exploring the relationship here between man and nature, and the fact that we all, just like the animals in the forest, are driven primarily by the instinct for survival. We will do what we must for what we think are our best interests and justify those actions in whatever way we can. So I'm really not incapable of enjoying or understanding a slow burn movie. I just ask that it gives me a reason to keep watching it.
I don't know what the ending means, and I don't care enough about this movie to try to figure it out. It really needed Dustin Hoffman tearing off a wig and shocking a room full of soap opera actors by revealing himself to be a man. That would have made as much sense to me in the context of this movie as the ending I actually did get.
Grade: C.
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