nbb100
Joined Oct 2013
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nbb100's rating
This film is about the explicit values of two adjacent cultures who live on different sides of a railroad, each reaching for something more
the unknown. For Felix and Meira, the unknown becomes uncertainty. Life and lifestyles are disrupted, communities clash, and traditions unsaddled.
This isn't a story of skinheads, hippies, Trekkies, or of Generations X, Y, or Zeds. It is of a girl called Meira and French Felix, each who adopt their known cultural traits. Her identity is repressed, arrested by secret Hasidic customs and protocol where women are quieted and obedient. Apparently of the Satmar tribe, women wear wigs and are in arranged marriages. Felix flits in and out of his family, daring to explore the matrix of love. Meira too openly resists the known in favour of love, romantic love. However, romantic love is not reality.
Viewers experience subconscious moments acknowledging resistance to our ostensibly defined lives. Each of us wanting to explore outside known cultural norms. Some may call it slow moving, I call it pace. We aren't rushed through every scene, but given permission to decode the mysteries of the Hasidim. What is uncovered, I cannot tell. What is revealed, is how the unknown can be even more uncertain than what we know.
This isn't a story of skinheads, hippies, Trekkies, or of Generations X, Y, or Zeds. It is of a girl called Meira and French Felix, each who adopt their known cultural traits. Her identity is repressed, arrested by secret Hasidic customs and protocol where women are quieted and obedient. Apparently of the Satmar tribe, women wear wigs and are in arranged marriages. Felix flits in and out of his family, daring to explore the matrix of love. Meira too openly resists the known in favour of love, romantic love. However, romantic love is not reality.
Viewers experience subconscious moments acknowledging resistance to our ostensibly defined lives. Each of us wanting to explore outside known cultural norms. Some may call it slow moving, I call it pace. We aren't rushed through every scene, but given permission to decode the mysteries of the Hasidim. What is uncovered, I cannot tell. What is revealed, is how the unknown can be even more uncertain than what we know.
Viewers are asked to identify with the Coen Brothers' fictional "Fargo" and the reality of the Zeller Brothers' "Kumiko" (Rinko Kikuchi of Babel). Our leading lady on a treasure hunt for something we all crave – what we want.
Kumiko is insulated from the rest of the world through solitude, Her character cannot subscribe to Japanese societal norms and the journey is like many: weathering professional and personal criticism for not measuring up to the public barometer. She is hungry for the smallest dollop of approval. Frosty comrade pressures and a personal friend with child make the tiny Single made to believe she does not measure up. Even Mother is disappointed that she is still not married, a Japanese custom that girls are to wed by 25 or live at home.
Yet, our actress ventures out alone to find little gems wherever she goes, small hidden treasures that strengthen thoughts of another journey. She identifies best with her bunny Bunzo (Rabbit - symbol of rebirth and innocence). Emotionally drained, Kumiko cannot stay in a world that punishes her for not attaining expected behaviours. Mistaking make believe for real life, our disillusioned lead leaves native Japan penniless and fixated, but armed. She encounters Americans who unknowingly assist in her adventure. Blanketed in determination, our heroine explores self-abandonment, only to be rescued from the cold with local hospitality.
All this happens against a constant, white background of the silver screen, the Japanese symbol of death. This film leads viewers to decipher what is "not" real and what is. This film is a myth of fortune and the pursuit ... of what we each want. After watching, we may all realise we have been living a dream, maybe other's dreams and not our own. Her future may be someone else's chaos.
Kumiko is insulated from the rest of the world through solitude, Her character cannot subscribe to Japanese societal norms and the journey is like many: weathering professional and personal criticism for not measuring up to the public barometer. She is hungry for the smallest dollop of approval. Frosty comrade pressures and a personal friend with child make the tiny Single made to believe she does not measure up. Even Mother is disappointed that she is still not married, a Japanese custom that girls are to wed by 25 or live at home.
Yet, our actress ventures out alone to find little gems wherever she goes, small hidden treasures that strengthen thoughts of another journey. She identifies best with her bunny Bunzo (Rabbit - symbol of rebirth and innocence). Emotionally drained, Kumiko cannot stay in a world that punishes her for not attaining expected behaviours. Mistaking make believe for real life, our disillusioned lead leaves native Japan penniless and fixated, but armed. She encounters Americans who unknowingly assist in her adventure. Blanketed in determination, our heroine explores self-abandonment, only to be rescued from the cold with local hospitality.
All this happens against a constant, white background of the silver screen, the Japanese symbol of death. This film leads viewers to decipher what is "not" real and what is. This film is a myth of fortune and the pursuit ... of what we each want. After watching, we may all realise we have been living a dream, maybe other's dreams and not our own. Her future may be someone else's chaos.
GENRE: Drama LOCATION: NYC VENUE: Art-house Film Festival in NJ WRITER/DIRECTOR: Victor Levin STARS: Glenn Close, Frank Langella, Lambert Wilson, Anton Yelchin (Star Trek), Bérénice Marlohe (Skyfall) PLOT: Am. writer falls for Fr. married woman with children
SCRIPT: poorly written. Character conversations are cliché'. MUSIC: distracting: does not match the events of the movie. COSTUME DESIGN: meant to mirror "Breakfast at Tiffany's" CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: happens fast; hard to digest any relationships develop at all. ACTING: our "STAR TREK" actor is not lead material. If there is acting going on, I did not see it, he simply reiterates words on a page at best. Our lead actress should stick to foreign films or playing BOND girls. If not for Glenn Close and Frank Langella's 5-7 minutes, all would be lost. The BEST scene occurs when the Lambert Wilson's character as the husband approaches the writer.
OPINION: Not a film for SMART audiences. Meant to drive an audience towards tenderness, it is sloppily edited bouncing from park benches in Central Park to deficient acting. This seems to have been someone's idea that actually got made into a movie and should have stayed in their head. The writer fails to allow the audience to think for themselves, overstating every sentiment within the film. This could have been achieved by "demonstrating" cultural differences. Even the sex scenes are undeveloped: lead actor unconvincingly getting his pants off.
Movie goers will be disappointed. It will not be of interest to any X, Y, or Z generations. It misses being anywhere close to mirroring "Breakfast at Tiffany's" if not for the costuming. The Trailer cherry picks the only few moments of the movie that have any depth. Don't bother with video on demand (VOD) when you can wait a month for it to come out on Netflix.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HimzZ6QG2o
SCRIPT: poorly written. Character conversations are cliché'. MUSIC: distracting: does not match the events of the movie. COSTUME DESIGN: meant to mirror "Breakfast at Tiffany's" CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: happens fast; hard to digest any relationships develop at all. ACTING: our "STAR TREK" actor is not lead material. If there is acting going on, I did not see it, he simply reiterates words on a page at best. Our lead actress should stick to foreign films or playing BOND girls. If not for Glenn Close and Frank Langella's 5-7 minutes, all would be lost. The BEST scene occurs when the Lambert Wilson's character as the husband approaches the writer.
OPINION: Not a film for SMART audiences. Meant to drive an audience towards tenderness, it is sloppily edited bouncing from park benches in Central Park to deficient acting. This seems to have been someone's idea that actually got made into a movie and should have stayed in their head. The writer fails to allow the audience to think for themselves, overstating every sentiment within the film. This could have been achieved by "demonstrating" cultural differences. Even the sex scenes are undeveloped: lead actor unconvincingly getting his pants off.
Movie goers will be disappointed. It will not be of interest to any X, Y, or Z generations. It misses being anywhere close to mirroring "Breakfast at Tiffany's" if not for the costuming. The Trailer cherry picks the only few moments of the movie that have any depth. Don't bother with video on demand (VOD) when you can wait a month for it to come out on Netflix.
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HimzZ6QG2o