A Statement

really liked the performances and like many film festival attendees i love a movie that’s just people talking at each other in a room. felt a bit confused by some of the characters that were foregrounded (i love tatiana maslany and this is her biggest hair transformation since cosima but i didnt feel like the way they integrated edith's participation in the panel really lined up for me). but overall i did really like the pace of it and MOST (we’ll circle back to that) of the comedy. ive been thinking a lot about similar ideas about the sort of line between performance and reality recently (in part because of but not limited to: at night, just like weather, primetime, f for fake) but i really find this movie’s insistence that the conversation all Really Happened fascinating, especially given that everything outside of the transcript is explicitly fictional? i feel complicated about it, not in a damning way but in a way that made me think “huh” every time the transcript popped up on screen. (some light “spoilers” for the historical record below) ultimately though the thing i bumped on most is that im a bit confused where this movie lands on the value of the titular statement. something i thought a lot about during this movie (embarrassingly) is the good place committee; for much of this movie i similarly thought that it was doing a kind of takedown of the failings of liberal democracy. what was the best case scenario for this conference? a 1-2 page document that makes strongly worded suggestions but ultimately produces no direct action? rudd’s borderline religious obsession with “a statement” is comical! ryan's devastation that some of the brightest minds can not produce even that is all the stronger for the low bar! but the brief coda to the film to me suggests that if the conference has produced a statement it would have changed the course of history and recasts a lot of the movie in a different light for me. it’s much less funny if you think this was the turning point in fighting climate change. i dunno. maybe im a bit too much of a doomer for this to hit the way it should. john turturro a delight! evan peters serving adam brody realness! really loved the q&a after the movie!