or, baby nightcrawler
love love love the way this is shot, it's sort of voyeuristic, painful, excruciating. fantastic acting all around. i was really into the sound design — the way campos uses ambience and doesn't fear the hum is super effective both thematically & tonally and contributed a lot to the way the movie made me feel. the dialogue felt a little hit-or-miss, some great stuff maybe some stuff that didn't hit as naturally (mostly just michael stuhlbarg's character). it definitely felt like an intentional choice, just one that i thought didn’t super work.
narratively & thematically this definitely struck a chord with me. although it’s not the central idea of the movie, i found myself really connecting with the ways campos interacts with some of the struggles of art-making: artistic detatchment, genuineness, consideration, creation in the wake of collective emotion. what does documentary filmmaking owe to its subjects and its audience?
it's also really chilling to see something like this really capture the New England Prep School Culture in such a sinister way. reflecting on my time in high school and the sinister social dynamics that i was not entirely exempt from, i think some of the most upsetting and "unrealistic" stuff that takes place in this film really could happen in an environment like that. don't get me wrong there's some stuff that gets a little bit wild, but the more i think about it, the more realistic it feels.
on the whole i think afterschool is best when it's at its most grounded and its most experimental, which is more often than not at the same time. campos makes a great case for the idea that experimental filmmaking and narrative practices can actually heighten a sense of realism when done right. cool stuff! drop this in a cauldron with super dark times, if, and zero day, stir it up and you'll end up with something astronomical.
p.s. the best part of this is the film-within-a-film i think. it's fantastic and i love it. what a great moment
p.p.s. i think i am spending too many hours per week in this screenwriting class... the little john warren in my head kept yelling the inciting incident doesn't happen until 35 minutes in! the objective is unclear! the whole damn movie (love you john)
or, baby nightcrawler
love love love the way this is shot, it's sort of voyeuristic, painful, excruciating. fantastic acting all around. i was really into the sound design — the way campos uses ambience and doesn't fear the hum is super effective both thematically & tonally and contributed a lot to the way the movie made me feel. the dialogue felt a little hit-or-miss, some great stuff maybe some stuff that didn't hit as naturally (mostly just michael stuhlbarg's character). it definitely felt like an intentional choice, just one that i thought didn’t super work.
narratively & thematically this definitely struck a chord with me. although it’s not the central idea of the movie, i found myself really connecting with the ways campos interacts with some of the struggles of art-making: artistic detatchment, genuineness, consideration, creation in the wake of collective emotion. what does documentary filmmaking owe to its subjects and its audience?
it's also really chilling to see something like this really capture the New England Prep School Culture in such a sinister way. reflecting on my time in high school and the sinister social dynamics that i was not entirely exempt from, i think some of the most upsetting and "unrealistic" stuff that takes place in this film really could happen in an environment like that. don't get me wrong there's some stuff that gets a little bit wild, but the more i think about it, the more realistic it feels.
on the whole i think afterschool is best when it's at its most grounded and its most experimental, which is more often than not at the same time. campos makes a great case for the idea that experimental filmmaking and narrative practices can actually heighten a sense of realism when done right. cool stuff! drop this in a cauldron with super dark times, if, and zero day, stir it up and you'll end up with something astronomical.
p.s. the best part of this is the film-within-a-film i think. it's fantastic and i love it. what a great moment
p.p.s. i think i am spending too many hours per week in this screenwriting class... the little john warren in my head kept yelling the inciting incident doesn't happen until 35 minutes in! the objective is unclear! the whole damn movie (love you john)
