man, I'm so confused I don't even know what to rate this film.
I struggled through a lot of it, but also found several sequences leaving me silenced and gripped. (that opening was fkn amazing, had me hooked).
a film about a director struggling with writer's block, not knowing what to say, how to say it, what is true and needs to be said, what really matters.
gradually we see that the film he's trying to make is in large…
"If you figure a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you'd be the first person in the history of the world."
yeah so this was just fantastic.
the pacing, the performances (holy heck so good), the score, the script, the cinematography, the story itself. haven't seen a film about cults done in this way, with this particular mood and feeling to it.
contains some of my favourite…
i haven't seen a film that has moved and enthralled me this much in quite some time.
it's rare to find a survivalist film that isn't sensationalist - and this film easily could have gone that way, what with the sensationalism that occurred in the media at the time this story emerged.
Instead of gratuitous gore, J.A Bayona chooses to centre the friendship and love the men had for one another, friendship that ultimately led to their survival rescue.
fantastic…
subtle, sexy, lonely and sad all at the same time.
this was a really enjoyable watch. i loved the nuanced conversations about sex and desire, the use of V.O also as characters went about their day, creating this steady stream of conversation. gave the film a really nice rhythm.
graham and ann's last meeting via the videotape felt so intimate and so beautifully truthful in how they spoke to and were with each other, I didn't want it to end. the looks between them, the softness, the tenderness.
simply lovely.
