For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Another Earth
The Impression:
A fan-favorite emerging out of Sundance starring a
fresh-faced starlet and lightly garnished with a side of
sci-fi? Sounds very, very intriguing.
The Reality:
It took me a while to like Another Earth, but when I
finally started to, this like quickly blossomed in to love.
The story of Rhoda Williams (Brit Marling, the co-writer of
the film as well) is shot in such a lo-fi, freshman in
college type way, that I found myself, to begin, fighting
not to think that I, with ambition and a chunk of change,
might have been able to make the film. Yet Rhoda’s story,
the story of tragedy and the discovery of a parallel Earth
exactly mirroring our own drew me in. Yes, the symbolism of
a second Earth where everything is exactly the same, but one
that starts to change as soon as we discover it is a bit
heavy-handed (the giant second Earth literally looms over
most of the scenes in the film) but director Mike Cahill and
company manage to make a film about the way we deal with
unexpected tragedy that sticks in the craw of your memory.
If mumblecore was still a popular genre, people might refer
to this as mumblecore sci-fi, it is all emotion and the
consequences of our actions with a glimmering glaze of
science fiction. These are the moments I found the strongest
- the discovery of a second version of each of us, Richard
Beredzen’s robotic voice, the chilling ending - but Cahill
is no slacker when it comes to bringing the emotion either.
The film shines with Brit Marling’s pain and grief and her
emotional journey is what draws together the looser elements
of the film.
The Lesson:
Sundance still gets it right sometimes.
- Noah Sanders
-
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
Creative Commons License.
