Long Day's Journey Into Night

[jenkins]

i'm kind of over the internet, and that's an example of me being difficult about everything. and basically i mean that everything lets me down eventually.

i adored this movie. and some of you will too. some of you won't. i'm seeing it again tomorrow. i have to. you know what i mean. it just happens.

i didn't even provide the trailer or credits. kind of rude. and i can even still fix things. all this 'i,' i can take it out. god that sounds like work. i'll just go see this movie tomorrow.

[Robyn]

So sad that I can't watch this in the theater.

[jenkins]

it's crazy bc dude sits down in a movie theater, puts on 3d glasses, it's like an hour and a half into the movie, then the title card appears and there's a 50min 3d shot that takes place in a natural feeling dreamscape

the whole movie is a feeling. i can't quite describe what it's all about

i like its languor. its patience

the camera would surprise me and move in these really elegant ways

there's a lot of WKW influence i guess but it's far less precise than WKW, who wasn't quite precise in the first place

i saw it twice and i'd see it again but i probably won't actually. just because. but that might be it for me bc i wouldn't watch it again on a home media release, not after seeing it how i saw it

each time after leaving i'd wish that life felt like how the movie depicted it. that's when i best like a movie

[jenkins]

i was wondering what other movie nerds were saying about it so i consulted the criterionforum

Long Day's Journey into Night (2018) evokes some kind of dream state that I don't often see in films in general (particularly newer ones), at least not done as delicate and poignant as here. It really feels like a dream. Not overly full on clear fantasy elements, but that kind of dream that is more grounded in reality and still having that distinct perplexity, which works fine together with the themes, especially the one about memories. It's also why it pays off for me, because there's no clear/linear narrative to follow and the whole mystery part isn't obvious. It may be confusing at first, but dreams often are.

there is a discussion about whether to see it in 2d or 3d, and the unified consensus is 3d. but the same post quoted above ends with

I wish I could see the film in a theater, 3D or not and not having to travel several hours, but it is what it is. I'm glad to have seen it at all.

i was sent an email about this being available on digital platforms now, with a 3d bluray release date of Dec 17, via Kino Lorber

there's no movie from this year that's touched me as intimately as this one

another movie nerd quote

It's a masterful film. Although a lot of its visual tropes are borrowed wholesale from Tarkovsky, they're pulled off beautifully and incorporated into a style that feels very different. I mean, WKW is also a clear influence, and as a stylist he's about as far removed from Tarkovsky as it's possible to get. The extreme plan-sequence of the second half is far more reminiscent of Angelopoulos than Tarkovsky, however, in the way it wends its way all around a darkened town, but then it also incorporates an amazing descent by flying fox and unmotivated flight. Despite the antecedents (I was also put in mind of The Element of Crime, another film that tried to make Tarkovsky dance to a film noir beat), Bi Gan is doing stuff in this film that is incredibly hard to pull off.

The 3D definitely adds to the trippy feel of the dream sequence, and aspects of the sequence that involve unusual movement (gliding, flying, spinning) are strongly enhanced by the technology, but it would be a trippy and transformative sequence anyway, so I doubt that its absence would be fatal, and I'm definitely looking forward to revisiting this film at home, unenhanced.