Gus Van Sant is a director of the "middle way". This does not play to hyperbolic tastes of his time, but creates works that resonate years after. Here I also see a swan song of the 00s manic pixie indie, not quite a subversion of the genre, but the best distilling of it.
You see her illness makes her an angel figure, placing her outside the frame of our society, therefore quality to remark on it through our pity. The performance becomes amazing because her impending death is casting a weight on her every single scene. It is not how we see her but the way she is countering it. Occasionally the tension begins as her dreaminess clashes with the cold hard reality. The pain she quickly distracts herself from; she is almost pushy she is grabbing him by the hand and pulling him off to have this young love experience while she can.
The film is in love with her, afraid of her. She brings these details to her scenes that are like little lines of poetry, this sort of moment only a truly great director can bring. But she is also only as a frame around the boy. We are seeing the memories of her that he will carry with him for life. During one scene they are playing their parts, as theater, reflecting on his frustration in playing a role. He is questioning how real the love is.
Henry Hopper has those intense moments that give you a shade of his father, there are scenes he is so intense he is almost in a trance, showing a boy in an impossible circumstance. That reflects the journey that life will imprint, the teenagers are asked to bear it all at once. Yet for all this the film is a beautiful film of autumn. Of course it will pay homage to Japan through the character of Hiroshi. It is just the kind of films the Japanese make, the love of youth, nature, the whimsical, and darkness.
I also realize when comparing it to its genre, pretty much all movies like this are good, because anything giving compassion and attention to the young is a service. The movie is like a dance, or a ballet.
You see her illness makes her an angel figure, placing her outside the frame of our society, therefore quality to remark on it through our pity. The performance becomes amazing because her impending death is casting a weight on her every single scene. It is not how we see her but the way she is countering it. Occasionally the tension begins as her dreaminess clashes with the cold hard reality. The pain she quickly distracts herself from; she is almost pushy she is grabbing him by the hand and pulling him off to have this young love experience while she can.
The film is in love with her, afraid of her. She brings these details to her scenes that are like little lines of poetry, this sort of moment only a truly great director can bring. But she is also only as a frame around the boy. We are seeing the memories of her that he will carry with him for life. During one scene they are playing their parts, as theater, reflecting on his frustration in playing a role. He is questioning how real the love is.
Henry Hopper has those intense moments that give you a shade of his father, there are scenes he is so intense he is almost in a trance, showing a boy in an impossible circumstance. That reflects the journey that life will imprint, the teenagers are asked to bear it all at once. Yet for all this the film is a beautiful film of autumn. Of course it will pay homage to Japan through the character of Hiroshi. It is just the kind of films the Japanese make, the love of youth, nature, the whimsical, and darkness.
I also realize when comparing it to its genre, pretty much all movies like this are good, because anything giving compassion and attention to the young is a service. The movie is like a dance, or a ballet.