Angel's Egg

holy hell that was fantastic I've friends told me they are interested in a "weird movie summer," which I couldn't be happier about, so I'm front loading some watches to have some good picks, and ho boy this is definitely gonna be on the list. I didn't know anything about this going in, save that it was dialogue-light, and whatever quick clips I saw in the trailers for the theater re-release last year which I unfortunately had to skip, and while I'm sad I missed that likely generational experience, I'm glad I didn't look into this further, because going into this with no idea of what you're about to see is 100% the way to go. Angel's Egg is a metatatitive, spiritual, gorgeous film, whose exploration of faith, rich visual storytelling, and almost myth-like structure feel completely unlike anything I've seen before in the best way. Angel's egg is a beautifully haunting film that feels immensely heavy in every aspect of its construction, from the immaculate, gothic inspired architecture that stretch across the ruined city, to the dark black shadows that cover most of the shots, to the massive machine sun orb of terracotta soldier esque fossilized people in the opening and ending of the film, to the overall biblical nature of the whole thing, including the longest dialogue scene in a movie with very little dialogue being the reciting of scripture, from a character carrying a mechanical crucifix, angel's egg feels massive and ancient. Thee's a profound melancholy to Angel's Egg that you often don't see in modern post-apocalyptic narratives, which often feel required to add some absurdity to distract from the crushing weight of what it means to live in a dead world. looking out at the decaying cityscapes and abandoned mausoleums, you feel the loss here, amplified by Yoshihiro Kanno's magnificent score, in a way I was not expecting at all. I think what ultimately did it for me, when I realized this was a masterpiece and not just a really good film, was the fishing scene, where a platoon of spirt-esque fossilized soldiers spring to life, working with purpose and unison no one else in this methodical work comes close to, to hunt down the remnant shadows of fish to no avail, their harpoons crashing into the ground, reverberating loudly against the stone, the only sound in the city at the time being footsteps and metal echoes. It's remarked that these soldiers don't even know what they're doing is impossible, yet the continue running and hunting with the same determination. there's a few moments like that for me, like the long take of the man watching over the girl sleep as the fie dies out, where you just feel in your heart of hearts that something drastic is about to happen, to that horrible scream shortly after...keeping things vague as possible to any of my followers who haven't yet seen this. it's so well done. Moreso than any film I've seen in a hot minute, I'm struck with the strong desire to see what everyone else thinks about this, whether that be the reviews on letterbox, to videos on YouTube, reddit threads...I want to know how this affected everyone, because I thought this was incredibly profound, and I can see its influences all over other works I love dearly. I don't feel like Angel's Egg is particularly challenging to parse, despite how symbolic and "up to interpretation" a lot of it feels, but I do feel like its one of those movies where everyone who sees it will have a unique, personal connection to what they watched, good or bad, and I think that's beautiful.