What a worthless movie.
Red Angel is equal parts miserable, empty, nonsensical, and infuriating. At its best it is boring and bland, at its worst it is poorly concealed fetish content. What’s worse about it is that, if given more of a story and characters, it could’ve been movingly macabre. Instead, it is so desperate to be gritty and realistic that it feels like Tom Hooper tried to make a Japanese New Wave film.
However, there are some highlights. The opening scene is so well done and sets the tone. In a better movie, it would be only the beginning of an enriching story, but here it is an echo of a great movie trying to claw itself free. The scene where Nishi wears Okabe’s clothes is a great character building moment, but it comes 10 minutes before the end so it’s too little too late. Ayako Wakao provides so much nuance in her performance, but it is trampled by the rest of the actors being, frankly, very bad. Finally, the ending shot was the only nice shot in the whole movie, the ending as a whole is very effective in a vacuum.
This movie upsets me to no end. It is so poorly delivered that I considered calling it anti-art. However, I’d prefer not to think of this movie again.
What a worthless movie.
Red Angel is equal parts miserable, empty, nonsensical, and infuriating. At its best it is boring and bland, at its worst it is poorly concealed fetish content. What’s worse about it is that, if given more of a story and characters, it could’ve been movingly macabre. Instead, it is so desperate to be gritty and realistic that it feels like Tom Hooper tried to make a Japanese New Wave film.
However, there are some highlights. The opening scene is so well done and sets the tone. In a better movie, it would be only the beginning of an enriching story, but here it is an echo of a great movie trying to claw itself free. The scene where Nishi wears Okabe’s clothes is a great character building moment, but it comes 10 minutes before the end so it’s too little too late. Ayako Wakao provides so much nuance in her performance, but it is trampled by the rest of the actors being, frankly, very bad. Finally, the ending shot was the only nice shot in the whole movie, the ending as a whole is very effective in a vacuum.
This movie upsets me to no end. It is so poorly delivered that I considered calling it anti-art. However, I’d prefer not to think of this movie again.
