Just wanted to start this review with a quick fuck you to Roku TV for getting my hopes up. If you're not familiar with Roku's free TV service, it's fairly small but has some interesting movies I've been wanting to watch for a while now. This movie was on that list as I remember watching it once when I was about 16 and hating it. It was the first A24 movie I ever saw, and I was interested to give this movie a second chance. I became far less interested when I learned how many ads they put on their quote unquote free movies.
All right all right now that that's out of my system I think I'm finally ready to talk about this movie.
Re-watching this movie, I realized why I didn't like it the first time around. This movie is agonizingly slooooooooooow. We get long unbroken takes of people doing mundane takes of people doing the dishes, eating a pie, lying on a hospital bed, and so many more minutes long takes. I'm not saying this is a bad movie, but I am saying this movie takes some serious patience.
That being said at the core of this movie is a fairly interesting idea for a movie. After a car crash kills a husband, he chooses to stay and haunt the house instead of walking towards the light. As a consequence he gets stuck on the same property for all time. But this isn't one of those movies where the literal plot means much.
Every scene is a philosophical metaphor about how we view love, human nature, grief, and pretty much any topic you can think of. It has its moments, but it mostly feels like a semi-bald bearded man trying to give you his two week philosophy major talk on how the whole world works. The best part of this movie is everything it's able to convey silently, so when halfway through the movie some nihilist has a monologue explaining everything it's kind of a bummer.
So in the end, I'm not too sure how I feel about this movie. It may have its long and boring moments, but overall I really love the directing and plot of the rest of the movie. It's not my favorite movie on Earth, but it's great at giving you everything you need to understand the themes without being incomprehensible. So if you're looking for a beyond the black rainbow style love story, this one might be for you.
As long as you don't bore too easily. or bore at all actually this shit feels endless.
7/10
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