Tonight I saw John Carney's Once, one of my favorite movies this year and one of the best reviewed.
You know when you're falling for someone and that speechlessness they can cause at moments where you don't even know how to find original, eloquent, honest words enough to tell them how you feel? The film is about moments like that; and made me feel the same way. I don't know how to write about it. It's such a modest, delicate, subtle, messy thing. It's scruffy and cheap, and maybe all the more beautiful for it. And strangely, it's a musical of sorts.
Having lived in Ireland for four years of college it is about the only film I can think of to share that exactly communicates the texture of the place when I lived there; in some ways I worry that some of the Ireland in the film is probably leaving, if not gone.
Where it's going to lose some people is the fact that it's a musical. No one breaks into spontaneous song and dance but there is wall to wall musical performance throughout but always within the context of the story (with one sublime moment that reminds what musicals used to be like). If you feel superior to Glen Hansard's songs you're not going to get this. But it's so wonderfully stripped of the contrivance and manipulation of other romantic films. At one point a character says "I used to have a romantic streak. When I was your age." And that's maybe the entire tone of the film. Someone deeply romantic who's trying not to be but just can't help it. It's so beautifully free of contrivance and manipulation. It comes to you with the bewilderment of falling for someone when you don't expect it. It seems simple but even now at 4am I just realized the importance and weight of a single line that at the moment didn't register.
Things I carried away so happily from this thing: seeing people in a movie looking desperately for batteries so they can listen to music in the middle of the night - the kind of prosaic thing that actually happens but becomes luminous here. The humor derived from environment and the kinds of random things you'd witness yourself on the street and file away as funny. The absolutely pitch perfect sensation of recording music in a studio, working till dawn and what comes after - the traditional leave the recording studio to hear the music on shitty car speakers (in my years of shooting documentary of musicians these were always some of my favorite moments). One of the most spot on portrayals I've ever seen of what alchemical bond forms between two artists who are doing more than collaborating; they become complements to each other. Just the pure complete honesty of this film. Tonally different, but the last movie I saw that felt this true was Half Nelson.
And without a doubt: this is a perfect date movie. The kind of thing you'll walk out of grateful someone is there with you having shared the same thing. Everything lately is like a song to me; this is one of those ones you hear and want to share the headphones over, and when you listen to that song someday you know it'll remind you of who was there. About the only good advice I could ever give here is to bring your crush to this.
You know when you're falling for someone and that speechlessness they can cause at moments where you don't even know how to find original, eloquent, honest words enough to tell them how you feel? The film is about moments like that; and made me feel the same way. I don't know how to write about it. It's such a modest, delicate, subtle, messy thing. It's scruffy and cheap, and maybe all the more beautiful for it. And strangely, it's a musical of sorts.
Having lived in Ireland for four years of college it is about the only film I can think of to share that exactly communicates the texture of the place when I lived there; in some ways I worry that some of the Ireland in the film is probably leaving, if not gone.
Where it's going to lose some people is the fact that it's a musical. No one breaks into spontaneous song and dance but there is wall to wall musical performance throughout but always within the context of the story (with one sublime moment that reminds what musicals used to be like). If you feel superior to Glen Hansard's songs you're not going to get this. But it's so wonderfully stripped of the contrivance and manipulation of other romantic films. At one point a character says "I used to have a romantic streak. When I was your age." And that's maybe the entire tone of the film. Someone deeply romantic who's trying not to be but just can't help it. It's so beautifully free of contrivance and manipulation. It comes to you with the bewilderment of falling for someone when you don't expect it. It seems simple but even now at 4am I just realized the importance and weight of a single line that at the moment didn't register.
Things I carried away so happily from this thing: seeing people in a movie looking desperately for batteries so they can listen to music in the middle of the night - the kind of prosaic thing that actually happens but becomes luminous here. The humor derived from environment and the kinds of random things you'd witness yourself on the street and file away as funny. The absolutely pitch perfect sensation of recording music in a studio, working till dawn and what comes after - the traditional leave the recording studio to hear the music on shitty car speakers (in my years of shooting documentary of musicians these were always some of my favorite moments). One of the most spot on portrayals I've ever seen of what alchemical bond forms between two artists who are doing more than collaborating; they become complements to each other. Just the pure complete honesty of this film. Tonally different, but the last movie I saw that felt this true was Half Nelson.
And without a doubt: this is a perfect date movie. The kind of thing you'll walk out of grateful someone is there with you having shared the same thing. Everything lately is like a song to me; this is one of those ones you hear and want to share the headphones over, and when you listen to that song someday you know it'll remind you of who was there. About the only good advice I could ever give here is to bring your crush to this.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home