This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
I hate to be a downer, but I was a little disappointed in this. Bong has certainly set himself high standards with previous work, and I'm all for a filmmaker being versatile through genres, but this struck me as kind of childish compared to things like Parasite and Snowpiercer.
The highlights were Toni Collette and Mark Ruffalo for sure, but past their performances, I found it all a bit meh. There were a lot of characters shot and narrated as…
A camera like no other that I've seen. It wanders in such a beautiful, childish way, as if it's distractedly drifting around the world, fascinated by the mundane. It takes precious moments to aimlessly guide us around the house or out the window, making us wonder why so many filmmakers are taught to rush to the next shot.
The narration, too, gives such vibrance to the world of 2001 Mexico: we're steered past moments of political turmoil and deeply personal…
Man, the Letterboxd reviews for this are a fucking rollercoaster.
I agree with a lot of the comments about how this, like Ex Machina and Annihilation, gets so close to saying something, and seems to play itself out through silent, solemn imagery that makes you feel like you didn't get it as opposed to the probable truth - Garland just didn't really have anything big to say here.
BUT
I also think that his style of filmmaking works for this…
