I really wanted to like this. I saw the trailer and was awestruck by the mood, tone, and visuals. Shot in 144p on a Sony Walkman phone from 2008, the lofi aesthetic is really interesting, but despite Koberidze's beautiful camera work and painterly eye for compositions, he doesn't manage to artistically justify this visual choice. There are a few moments where the low quality visuals are intriguing, but as a whole, it would not be different if the film was shot in 720p on one of the newer cellphones the characters in the film use. Speaking of characters, this film doesn't really have any. I mean, sure, Irakli, Levan, Lisa, and Nino are characters, but we don't end the film knowing anything except a few basic facts about any of them. They're all nice enough, but they have no depth beyond that. The plot is similarly non-existant. Lisa leaves a letter to tell her parents, Irakli and Nino, that she's left town and not to worry about her. After not hearing from her for over a month, her father decides to travel around rural Georgia (the country) with her coworker, Levan, to try to find her. What follows is nearly 3 hours of "Have you seen this girl?" followed by "No, sorry." Rinse repeat. Nothing happens until the end when Irakli finally meets a woman with a letter from Lisa, which explains nothing about why she left. He follows her directions, finds her, and she's fine. Just living outside of the city where they can visit her. The film ends with Irakli reflecting on the animals and people and landscapes he saw, and cherishing the road that took him on this journey. That's really sweet, but the film could have done that in under 2 hours, keeping a similar pace while cutting out the needless repetition. That would have been a very nice and cozy watch, but instead, at 3 hours, it's a fucking slog to get through, with repetitive visuals and story beats (if you can call them that), maybe 5 pages of dialogue total, and ultimately nothing to say. Even the score, despite being the best part of the whole film, includes multiple themes that I was sick of hearing after the first 2 hours. I don't hate this film, but I do feel like it wasted my time, and while I believe Alexandre Koberidze has some potential as a filmmaker, I will not be watching anything of his that runs over 2 hours
Edit: I've read about Koberidze's other films, and his debut from 2017 about a gay boxer/escort actually sounds really interesting, but it's 3.5hrs long. Hopefully the fact that it has more story in the plot summary than this film has in its script means that it'll be more interesting. We'll see I guess, but it'll be a while before I sit down for another Koberidze film
I really wanted to like this. I saw the trailer and was awestruck by the mood, tone, and visuals. Shot in 144p on a Sony Walkman phone from 2008, the lofi aesthetic is really interesting, but despite Koberidze's beautiful camera work and painterly eye for compositions, he doesn't manage to artistically justify this visual choice. There are a few moments where the low quality visuals are intriguing, but as a whole, it would not be different if the film was shot in 720p on one of the newer cellphones the characters in the film use. Speaking of characters, this film doesn't really have any. I mean, sure, Irakli, Levan, Lisa, and Nino are characters, but we don't end the film knowing anything except a few basic facts about any of them. They're all nice enough, but they have no depth beyond that. The plot is similarly non-existant. Lisa leaves a letter to tell her parents, Irakli and Nino, that she's left town and not to worry about her. After not hearing from her for over a month, her father decides to travel around rural Georgia (the country) with her coworker, Levan, to try to find her. What follows is nearly 3 hours of "Have you seen this girl?" followed by "No, sorry." Rinse repeat. Nothing happens until the end when Irakli finally meets a woman with a letter from Lisa, which explains nothing about why she left. He follows her directions, finds her, and she's fine. Just living outside of the city where they can visit her. The film ends with Irakli reflecting on the animals and people and landscapes he saw, and cherishing the road that took him on this journey. That's really sweet, but the film could have done that in under 2 hours, keeping a similar pace while cutting out the needless repetition. That would have been a very nice and cozy watch, but instead, at 3 hours, it's a fucking slog to get through, with repetitive visuals and story beats (if you can call them that), maybe 5 pages of dialogue total, and ultimately nothing to say. Even the score, despite being the best part of the whole film, includes multiple themes that I was sick of hearing after the first 2 hours. I don't hate this film, but I do feel like it wasted my time, and while I believe Alexandre Koberidze has some potential as a filmmaker, I will not be watching anything of his that runs over 2 hours
Edit: I've read about Koberidze's other films, and his debut from 2017 about a gay boxer/escort actually sounds really interesting, but it's 3.5hrs long. Hopefully the fact that it has more story in the plot summary than this film has in its script means that it'll be more interesting. We'll see I guess, but it'll be a while before I sit down for another Koberidze film
