In today's society, our own appearance is something very important. We constantly have the images of perfect, slim mannequins and guys with bodies chiseled as those of Greek gods shoved into our faces and in some people, it creates several complexes about oneself. Likeness is an effort to portray a girl with bulimia and her perception of the world.
I enjoyed this little film, but thought it could have been handled better. During the nine minutes of the film (three are dedicated to credits - not really a smart move) we see a bizarre and dark place, with people skinny to their bones and an eerie atmosphere. Later, a girl, Mia (Elle Fanning) enters the bathroom and experiences a breakdown due to her disorder.
The first thing that truly bugged me were the first three minutes. Mia is nowhere to be seen. It just takes too much time to get the story in motion. You only see the camera being driven around and the time is utterly wasted.
Second, another bad thing I noticed is how the portrayal of bulimia is so limited. We mostly only see Mia staring at herself in the mirror with terror, vomiting, and nothing much. I respect what the director tried to portray but I feel that he could've gone an extra mile.
But not all is bad in this film. The bathroom scene is one of the most gruesome I have ever seen. Never has a scene in a film made me twitch in my chair, gave me nausea and made me want to pause the video. It's just so depressing, gross, violent, self-loathing and really shows Mia's fragile mind state. I won't spoil it since I think you should experience it yourself.
Likeness is a decent film. It has great camera-work and soundtrack, which gave me goosebumps and made me feel like I was in a horror movie. The bathroom scene is utterly phenomenal and made me feel so many emotions at the same time. But it suffers from a bad time management and lack of depth. Definitely worth watching this thought-provoking short.
