Like life, so bittersweet. Gentle, touching, and so gorgeous, with an incredibly natural performance by Koji Yakusho.
Hirayama appreciates the little things, the small, fleeting moments. He loves his cassette tapes, his plants, and the calm moments when he can just relax. Sometimes he'll take photos of these moments and try to capture them, even though they only really exist once, at that moment.
"Now is now."
I've seen most people say this is a celebration of taking the time…
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Might be a bit of a miss of sorts for me, didn't live up to the hype. I did enjoy it a lot but it's lesser Miyazaki for me. It feels like a lot of Miyazaki's usual traits just kind of come to a head here and it falls apart a little because of it.
Firstly the suddenness of the ending. It's not unusual for Miyazaki but you do usually get some kind of denouement Even sometimes during the credits…
Easily the most I've enjoyed a Lynch project so far. I really vibed with it, harsh and unpleasant at times but the soundtrack and tone sucked me in, and surprisingly upbeat at the end.
Endlessly evocative, the word I'm feeling most summarises Lynch's work. Sandy walking out of the darkness from under the willows as its leaves rustle in the wind, dragging her nail down the stair case banister, telling Jeffrey her dream, the ear, the joy ride, the Yellow…
Oozing suave and style, a razor-sharp script, a great and large-scale score, feels obvious this is from the same crew that did The Matrix. So many shots that just go extra for IMPACT and memorability, what a fucking calling card. Gorgeous set design too. It manages to feel so epic even though the story is so focused and small-scale.
Does get a little repetitive towards the back half, only detraction.
Sapphic gaze for days too, can tell this was made by two lesbians two minutes in, even if they didn't realise themselves at the time. Maybe the best sex scene ever?
Not having grown up in 90s suburban America, instead in a dead-end country town in England during the 00s, I do miss some contextual nostalgia for the setting and specific TV shown here. But the other themes are painfully relatable.
That ever-present smothering feeling, as time ticks by faster and faster and faster and you're constantly feeling like you're burning out, like the fire will go out. Don't let it burn out. Don't put it out. Feed it.
There is…
One of the most masterfully coloured films I've ever seen. Bright, summery colours, natural greens and sky blues and pastel yellows, give way to black and brown and pale blues like drowned lips, on to deep purples and eye-seering Autumnal red and yellow.
These natural hues reflect the themes, a sardonic takedown of the self-centred ego of heterosexual married men, and their tendency to excuse their behaviour as "natural". We see a lion and lioness in a zoo, a natural…
