Movie Breakdown: The Farewell (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
It’s A24. That’s all I need to know.
Post-Screening Ramble:
The Farewell is a very basic family dramedy, tightly wrapped in the disguise of an art-house film. Lulu Wang’s latest follows Billi (Awkafina going super indie-mopey as a fictionalized version of the director), a 1st generation Chinese-American who’s life as an artist has run aground. When her beloved grandmother is diagnosed with lung cancer, Billi’s family decides, as is common in China, that instead of telling her, they’ll keep her illness secret. It’s an interesting, if not basic concept, one that strays dangerously close to something better suited for a middling comedy, but the cast and Yang’s artsy touch elevate it enough. The problem is that the movie tries so hard that there’s a feeling the director is screaming “look how artsy this film is” over and over again. There’s a sense of the film wanting to be something more, striving to be considered a bigger, more important thematic presence than it’s able to be. There are parts of it that, beautiful may they be, feel like an audition for inclusion in the Criterion Collection. Sweeping orchestral scores played over brutalist architecture, slow-mo walking in the style of Wes Anderson – all the tropes of modern indie artfully stuck together. There’s something to say about this being Yang’s second film, that her artistic influences are worn more heavily on her sleeve, that she hasn’t extricated her own voice just yet, and if anything she’s very close to doing so. Yang, and cinematographer Anna Franquesa Solano do an amazing job of placing the viewer directly into each familial situation, composing every shot and interaction so the audience feels like they’re really a part of the family. This is Solano’s first big film and her ability to draw meaning out of simple visual blocking speaks highly of what to expect. The Farewell is a good movie that deserves to be seen, it just wanted to be something bigger, maybe better, and the feeling of the film stretching can be distracting.
One Last Thought:
This is going to be the movie in 2019 that I don’t like that much and that every person loves and I have to spend too much time defending my position about. I’m relatively excited about it.
