Xixax Film Forum
Film Discussion => The Vault => Topic started by: wilder on May 18, 2017, 04:35:43 PM
In LOVELESS, Zhenya and Boris are going through a vicious divorce marked by resentment, frustration and recriminations. Already embarking on new lives, each with a new partner, they are impatient to start again, to turn the page – even if it means threatening to abandon their 12-year-old son Alyosha. Until, after witnessing one of their fights, Alyosha disappears. Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
Written by Oleg Negin
Release Date - February 16, 2018
In theaters February 16, 2018
my first experience with a film from andrey zvyagintsev. this is very obviously good and yet i felt quite distant from it. found myself at turns entranced by its craft and zvyagintsev's hypnotic mastery of tone, and resisting its tendency toward haneke-esque provocation by way of heavy-handed bleakness. strayed a bit into obviousness and redundancy... i'm not convinced this needed to be as long as it is. a case of admiration over affection, i suppose. i prefer the latter.
Having seen Leviathan three years ago (last flick I saw in the renowned, recently shuttered Lincoln Plaza Cinema) was curious to check out Loveless, had a similar reaction to both: sustained interest concluding with mild indifference. It's a different kind of cinema, where the storyteller is in no hurry to reach any conclusions, but can't say that I got much out of it. Overheard one guy say "totally uncompromising" while leaving the theatre, was curious as to what the fuck he meant by that.