Mutual Appreciation is oddly comforting in how awkward the conversations are. Characters stumble over their sentences, say things without any idea where they’re going with it, and apologize for their lack of eloquence. It’s all these tiny piece that make the film feel incredibly real, like these characters are just the kinds of people you’d meet in various social circles and friend groups. The human urge to apologize for being less than perfect is so relatable, to want to take back things that you just said even though no one took issue with them. If the film was just doing something a bit more interesting with its camera or at least made it feel like the camera wasn’t there, I think I would’ve enjoyed it more. The camera kind of un-grounds a lot of the forward action of the film, taking away from the conflict of day to day conversation more than adding to it.
Mutual Appreciation is oddly comforting in how awkward the conversations are. Characters stumble over their sentences, say things without any idea where they’re going with it, and apologize for their lack of eloquence. It’s all these tiny piece that make the film feel incredibly real, like these characters are just the kinds of people you’d meet in various social circles and friend groups. The human urge to apologize for being less than perfect is so relatable, to want to take back things that you just said even though no one took issue with them. If the film was just doing something a bit more interesting with its camera or at least made it feel like the camera wasn’t there, I think I would’ve enjoyed it more. The camera kind of un-grounds a lot of the forward action of the film, taking away from the conflict of day to day conversation more than adding to it.
