TW: THE FOLLOWING FILM CONTAINS BRIEF SEQUENCES OF THE FOLLOWING: SEXUAL ASSAULT, ANIMAL CRUELTY (staged), SELF-HARM, AND GRAPHIC NUDITY. VIEWERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED
After Poor Things, I was surprised at myself that I hadn't seen a Yorgos Lanthimos film before that one, and I knew that whatever his next film is that I'd have to watch it. After seeing trailer for this all summer, it finally released on streaming so I watched it, and I was impressed for the most part! It's hard to explain the synopsis, but its a tryptch film meaning it has three different stories told in order. The actors are reocurring from each segment however they play completely different people in each segment. Also each segment has a vague similarity in theme, however the plots are different from each other as well. The first segment deals with someone who willingly has someone else control their life for them, the second is about a man who's wife went missing on an island for a couple days and when she is found, the husband has a case of imposter syndrome. The final act is about a woman in a cult who is trying to find 'the one' who can in theory revive someone from the dead. I will say, the reviews for this film seemed pretty mixed (which I looked up afterwards) so I was surprised that I found it more enjoyable than most people. The segments themselves had great pacing and were 50-ish minutes each and most stories followed a similar formula of starting out vague and then towards the end coming together. Of course since this is a Yorgos Lanthimos film, a lot of questions were up to audience interpretation, especially for the second segment. I will also say this is one of the most unique films I have ever seen, since I haven't seen a trypch movie structured this way along with the strangeness of each segment, however I think it was very original and very pleasing to watch! The acting in this movie was amazing and it was super creative and also strange how each actor played such a different yet similar role in each segment. For Jessie Plemmons, he always played a strange character that seemed off in each segment, or a person who never seemed right whenever he spoke. Emma Stone had the widest range in the film I'd say, as she played off-beat characters the entire time ranging from a wive to a love interest and then to a main character. But each one of Emma Stone's characters had a unique sense of 'strange' to them and none of them appeared to be right either. Willam Dafoe played similar characters throughout with him being in a position of power, and I think all these roles suited each actor. The themes of each one are spoilers, however by watching it you can see a clear theme for each segment, although more questions are felt after the segment is over. As for Lanthimos, the cinematography was excellent throughout and the third segment had some crazy shots that helped with the feeling of ambiguity. I do wish that the recurring character known as RMF would have a grander ending as I expected a bit more out of him (maybe a direct line hinting to the kinds of kindness he represented throughout) but other than that, I did enjoy this movie and I recommend for anyone who wants one of the most unique film experiences.
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