Wonderstruck

Started by wilder, May 12, 2017, 04:36:32 PM

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

wilder



Set in 1927 and 1977, the film centers on Ben (Oakes Fegley) and Rose (Millie Simmonds), two deaf children from two different eras who secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known, while Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his home and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out on quests to find what they are missing that unfold with mesmerizing symmetry.


Directed by Todd Haynes
Starring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams
Release Date - October 20, 2017




matt35mm

Why is Todd Haynes so good?

Just Withnail

Yeah really. That clip tickles me.

It's quietly cosmic in the way it juxtaposes the time periods, 70s/ancient history, 20s/ancient history, 20s/70s.

We get a sense of the things that pass away: Fashions, technology (b/w vs color), species.

And we get a sense of something constant: human curiosity and play, the museum itself (a safeguard against entropy, the passing-away of things, collective forgetfulness).

wilder


wilder


Something Spanish

Not the biggest Todd Haynes fan, but will always watch his features. Somehow I saw this one twice over the weekend. I really liked the idea of alternating constantly between two time periods, especially where one is a B&W silent film, but Wonderstruck did not work for me at all. The silent scenes in 1927 were nicely done, but that only plays in the film to a certain point and ultimately the whole movie felt meandering and pointless. I understand what he was going for as far as making connections, with other people as well as the past and present, but everything just felt so forced and unnatural here. The kid Millicent Simmonds was great, and the rest of the actors believable enough, the story just could not keep my interest and felt so pandering, felt like so much time was spent writing on a little pad that by the time the climax hit I really did not understand the need Haynes had to make it. While I'm Not Here felt like a failed experiment, this just felt like a failure.