"I can't talk right now... I'm out of words... but to say just one thing... this is why cinema exists and needs to exist, right?!" - my companionshipLance Hammer's 18yrs hiatus to develope this grand motherlover here is all but a bad sign that Malick takes his trillion years to finalize his Jesus epic, isn't it?everything fucks here, not only our beloved but permanently horny grandparents: Calder-Marshall's demented yet lecherous grannie, Courtenay's grumpy but viagra-powered hubbie, Hunt's Gen Z-lerette and her tender approach to first love standing diametrical towards death knocking on our elderly's door; that being present so vehemently & direct as gentle & soft as the youngsters are approached by the fragmenting camera; Juliette Binoche now standing in the boom(er)ing middle of it all, having to negotiate those two generations next to her own feelings somehow. Hammer speaks about many themes in handsomely shot & virtuously arranged parallel montages: consent and what it means in different situations and different generations. about how a late stage romance & the towering end of it all looks like. about the efforts of care & institutional work, and the hindrances by them. about so much more in between. the film is such a darling also because he treats every character with good care; obviously all the family members (f.e. transforming the initially grumpy, rapey Courtenay into a genuinely lovely & loving person by the end) up to all of those side characters: the guardedly & heedful juveniles up to the care workers, police and social services, that are doing many mistakes, but always in good faith and with best intentions. people are flawed and Queen at Sea says "that's life... and it's okay!"Adolpho Veloso - being the hottest name in the business right now - lenses this slightly Dardennesque/Leighesque drama skillfully & tactful while the exuberant use of music - intra- & extradiegetic - might be peculiar but ultimately doesn't hurt the film, that is simply so strong that it can't be fazed by any little distractions. easy to see how the editing process took two years - it must have been a gargantuan piece of work to sort it all out & concatenate it together. a class act. --- slight spoilers ahead ---without spoilering the ending I found the decision Hammer is making here pretty bold, boisterous & impetuous. that being said the final image slaps so fucking hard while being so subtle. this is brilliant filmmaking, no questions asked. this must be the Golden Bear unless Josephine wants to have a word.
