Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
"To Live and Die and Live" is a story about Muhammad who returns home to Detroit to bury his stepfather and is thrust into settling his accounts, but Muhammad's struggles with depression and addiction may finish him before he finishes the task. This is director Qasim Basir's latest work and I have seen his previous film "A Boy. A Girl. A Dream." which I thought had strong elements but was extremely underwhelming. Here, despite a strong performance and interesting narrative choice, the film suffers the same issues I had with his previous work.
Basir has talent and throughout, the camerawork and production designs are extremely gorgeous and beautiful to look at. The scenes of Detroit and the settings helps to build the atmosphere. The performances from the cast members were pretty good especially the chemistry between the romance of the main two leads. Basir's direction was pretty good. Unfortunately the film struggles with a narrative that seems to be unsure where it wants to lead and a mix of mediocrity. The film struggles with an uneven pacing as the film drags on with moments that are unsure where it wants to go and uneven tones. The characters aren't written very well as it was hard to connect with them. I understand the purpose of the main character as he is portrayed as a flawed person going through life and trying his best but there are moments where his characters feel off and choices that are made that don't match up with his personality or the intentions Basir is wanting. There are some decent soundtrack but the overall score was pretty bad.
The structure of the narrative feels lost and the third act of the film falls apart quite a lot as the twists feels inconsistent. One of the worst aspects of the film was the sound design as the sound design had this echoing affect throughout which was very off-putting. I purchased tickets for this film virtually and I don't know if there was a technical issue behind the website but jesus, that sound design was god-awful.
Overall, Bashir clearly has passion and I can see the good intentions of what is he is trying to communicate with this story. But unfortunately, the film still needs a lot of work to improve.
Rating: C-
