headyhood

Far and away my favorite Cassavettes performance. Elaine May’s script is so great.

Tough watch, these are some of the most slimey characters. Unsurprisingly, the performances are top notch. Would heavily recommend people to watch it between Faces and A Woman Under the Influence, as it feels like a really interesting stylistic middle ground between those two films.

Based on what I’d read online I knew this was going to be heavy going in, but was still caught off guard by how upsetting of a watch this was. Can see why the performances are dominating the conversation, but the rest of the filmmaking here is really inspired. Hell of a debut feature, excited for what Curry Barker has in the chamber.

It’s fine? Technically really impressive, and super cool to see on an actual IMAX screen. Top notch sound design too. I thought most of the performances were good. Damon is solid, but the real shocker was Tom Holland, who gave, for my money, his first great performance. Supporting cast is really stellar, and the actors who only get a few minutes of screen time are often the most memorable. Jennifer Lame continues to prove she’s one of the best editors in the business, and her collaborations with Nolan continue to elevate his work. There’s some really excellent sequences here, but it’s definitely a Christopher Nolan film, for better and for worse.  He really cant seem to get out of his own way. The writing drags this down considerably. I actually think the final conceit is smart, and a great way to modernize this story, but oh my god he really beats you over the head with it. Nolan would be a better filmmaker if he worked with a second writer, other than his brother, or maybe just brought in a script editor to reel in his worst impulses. The writing leaves the film feeling empty, and lacking the emotion that the original poem is really all about. While the whole thing being shot in IMAX is cool, I don’t know if it makes sense. The interior scenes are noticeably photographed to accommodate the format, and the result is framing I can only describe as weird. Too much headroom maybe? Some scenes are worse than others, but it’s worth mentioning. The action in these more claustrophobic settings suffers as a result. Maybe the limits of IMAX are a benefit. Save it for the set pieces. In short, I don’t think The Odyssey is greater than the sum of its really impressive, really expensive, parts.