Change Your Image
jennielivingston
Reviews
Ingen kender dagen (2022)
a brilliant thought-provoking work
This film asks a question, which, if you like nuance and complexity and surprise, will keep you engaged, and it comes down to: what is trust? What is trust betrayed? In different configurations, at different times: what might we owe one another?
The director commissioned writers to each write a story on the subject of trust: one is a harrowing story about immigration and deportation: one story is a sex comedy where an affair is trying to happen, but it keeps getting interrupted (perhaps on purpose!) ; one story is about a bullied gay teen and a teacher; one is about a parent and a child, where we can't tell who is rescuing whom.
There's suspense, because each time you leave a story, you wonder where it will pick up. But suspense isn't the driver; what drives this film is you, as an audience member, being asked to actively put the pieces together.
While this film isn't for people who prefer formula or genre, if you're up for storytelling that's more literary, and more formally inventive, and asks for you to think and participate, here's the film for you.
Heart of a Dog (2015)
a poetic, thoughtful, and at times humorous meditation on impermanence and loss, by an influential American artist
Brilliant memoir/essay film/experimental film about impermanence, family history, and love. If you like first-person cinema (Agnes Varda, Ross McElwee, Sarah Polley, Jem Cohen, Thomas Allen Harris, Doug Block, Su Friedrich, Jonathan Couaette, etc.) you'll love this film.
If you are looking to see a traditional documentary (social issues doc; biopic; historical film) and aren't familiar with literary memoir, art installations, animation, or personal essay (either written or filmed), you may find this film difficult or confusing, as did the previous reviewer.
But if you love memoir and poetry, and have been thinking about stuff like: 1) it's hard to lose beings we love 2) where do we go when we die? 3) what are the connections between big political losses and changes and smaller, more personal losses and changes? 4) what is the connection between suffering and empathy and meaning? 5) how do our own particular hardships affect how we relate to our families? YOU'LL LOVE THIS FILM.
If you love humor, subtlety, formal innovation, Buddhist cosmologies, intelligence, mystery, and (yes) dogs, GO FOR IT.