When we talk about movies, what are we talking about?
I thought that this confusion had been brought to the extreme in Nolan. Unexpectedly, there was another head blow .
This latest Netflix online has a big backing:
Director Charlie Kaufman , the level of magic stick compared with Nolan can be described as unparalleled.
"Become John Malkovich", "Adapted Screenplay", "Warm and Inner Light"...
Every one is very open . And his new work, written and directed by himself, has completely released himself——
The film unfolds from the perspective of the heroine.
Jack, who has known her boyfriend for 6 weeks, invites her to visit her parents' home in a small suburban town.
"Meeting family" generally means "a step forward" in this relationship.
However, the thought of "I want to end it all" lingered in the heroine's mind.
The "good guy card" has already been sent, and this relationship is in jeopardy .
Although the hostess did not want to continue, she still agreed to Jack's invitation.
Because rejection will consume more energy and more decisive courage, and compared with it, it is undoubtedly easier to agree.
The strange thing is that every time the female protagonist thinks of "want to end" emerges in her mind, she will be interrupted by the male protagonist immediately, as if he can contemplate the thoughts.
What's even stranger is that the colors of the heroine's clothes, coats, and scarves are also constantly changing.
They talked solidly for half an hour all the way, topics spanning novels, poetry, art and philosophy.
It's eloquent and all-encompassing.
Finally arrived at the destination, the abnormal thing is that Jack did not bring the hostess into the house, but guided her to visit her farmhouse in the ice and snow.
What is even more bizarre is that the corpses of sheep and pigs are scattered everywhere in the farmhouse .
The weird atmosphere continued to spread back.
When they got out of the car, they clearly saw Jack’s mother waving at them upstairs.
But when the two entered the house, Jack's parents did not come downstairs to meet them.
By the time the heroine was already impatient, the two "old men" came down from the stairs belatedly.
The behavior and expressions of Jack's parents were strange and uneasy everywhere .
Even his dog is possessed like a drill :
WTF?
Is this world going to collapse?
Don't worry, the more weird ones are yet to come.
After an awkward greeting, Jack's father suggested that they have a meal.
In a blink of an eye, a table of sumptuous delicacies suddenly appeared in the empty restaurant. This family of three moved so swiftly that they were sitting on the table in an instant like an apparition.
At the dinner table, the heroine's identity and settings began to change wildly.
During the conversation, she was a physicist for a while, a painter for a while, and a waiter in a restaurant for a while.
Professional magic jump, even the name...
Lucy, Louisa. Louisa, Lucy.
Since then, the development of the film has become more confusing.
Time and space began to intersect, and the hostess saw the different ages of Jack’s parents in the room:
One second before he was still chatting and laughing at the dinner table, the next second he was old and staggering in the room, and the next second, he was rejuvenated and radiant.
The hostess kept telling Jack that he had to go home tonight, but Jack was always looking for various reasons to delay.
This weird night with heavy snow does not seem to end so easily...
Good job!
See friends who are still struggling here.
Is there a feeling of brain cells being broken by thousands of huge question marks?
This film...
What are you playing?
Well, be mentally prepared if you want to know the answer.
Spoilers are about to begin below .
As one of Hollywood's most well-known creative directors , all of Kaufman's works show an unconstrained consciousness.
His imagination is like a rabbit hole. You don't know where it leads or how deep it is.
He has a distinctive style and a very skilled film technology ability, and he has the courage to consistently implement his consistent ideas.
If the audience wants to keep up with his rhythm, it is undoubtedly a fantasy adventure like a wonderland.
The film adopts his usual mode, but has been subverted and reconstructed .
In the previous works "Become John Malkovich", "The Warmth with Light", and "Adapted Screenplay", Kaufman will set a hook in the story .
This hook can be a door to the hearts of others;
A program that can manually clear painful memories;
Or, a writer’s creation anxiety.
These hooks tear open a small hole into the director's spiritual world for the audience, and let us have a life-saving straw to grasp in his illusory and unconstrained world.
But in this film, the director doesn't mean to take care of the audience at all (you are already mature fans, it's time to learn to keep up with my brain automatically).
From the very beginning, the audience was dragged into a world without logic, and all the settings were abstract.
The director is constantly creating suspense and raising questions, but he has never answered any of them.
But if you pay attention to the details buried by the director, you will find:
Logic without logic is the greatest logic.
Just as emotions without a reason are the most irresistible emotions.
This kind of huge confusion undoubtedly affected the emotional introduction, and all we can feel is the long and endless anxiety.
And this is exactly what the director has in mind.
But if you pay attention to the details buried by the director, you will find that although he did not actively explain, the answer is actually hidden in the details of the film.
The old man who appeared in the film poured milk into the pool in the first shot, and milk appeared at the corner of Jack's mouth in the latter shot.
The old man’s house has the same wallpaper pattern as that of Jack’s parents’ house; Jack said he likes many famous musicals, but he never bought a ticket to watch it. The old man is a school cleaner and can always see it when cleaning the school hall. The students are rehearsing a new play.
Therefore, this old man is actually Jack in his old age.
Kaufman's works have always explored those who try to break free from the shackles of their own thinking and body, and try to bridge the gap between them.
This has never changed, and this film is no exception.
Some of them can find a way to resolve them, and some are getting deeper and deeper in this chaos.
The same is true for Jack in this film. The film expresses the struggle and reconciliation between "Jack" and self-consciousness throughout the film. Everything in the film is based on the old man named Jack's recollection of his life at the end of his life. And reflection.
And the heroine whose name keeps changing is also part of Jack's thoughts.
This also determines that although the heroine always wants to end and break free, it can only be a futile result in the end.
Although the film maintains a weird style and creepy tone from beginning to end, in the strict sense, this film is definitely not a general horror and thriller.
The director only uses this method to achieve the goal of constantly exerting pressure on the audience.
For example, the opening and ending are combined with two driving scenes for an hour, continuously outputting tension and high-pressure emotions, allowing the audience to unconsciously substitute the characters’ boredom, anxiety and anxiety into themselves, thus feeling the length and pain of time. But it doesn't give you a chance to relax.
Too frustrating OTZ...but this trick really works.
The audience all had unforgettable recognition of the title.
In a certain way, it is futile to get too tangled in details. The point of this film is not the answer to the mystery at all.
The director just wants to evoke the fears that have been around us but have been deliberately ignored.
Like Jack, we are afraid of being alienated, but we are also afraid of communication and contact;
This kind of meditation on aging, loneliness, memories and self-reflection--
Great harmony in the world.
Director Charlie Kaufman once said:
"If you can't write something indescribable, just put it on the screen."
Honestly, I'm not deceiving.
Writing a film review for such a god-stick work once felt hollowed out.
Long-length non-linear philosophical thinking, with large blank spaces in the background of the story;
Anxiety that continues to roar like low-frequency noise, and a narrative structure that runs counter to film tradition...
You will not fall into the abyss, but you also never want to meet the orgasm.
And this, is it like you and I are resisting and hard to give up day and night,
Those that you can’t put into words and words at all,
Mysterious and dark myth?
Then you are welcome, Alice.
You have entered the illusion.
(This article first appeared in the ten o'clock movie)
View more about I'm Thinking of Ending Things reviews
