I watched Before I Disappear when it screened at Jakarta International Film festival this past weekend and also fell in love with the short film version, Curfew, when I saw it after it won the Oscar for best live action short film.
Another fascinating movie from SXSW, one I wasn't sure I would enjoy but walked out of the room with a few tears streaming down my face, which never happens to me in cinema. Shawn Christensen's direction in this film was positively extraordinary.
Christensen plays the lead role as well as directing, and while he's good in front of the camera, it's behind the camera that's really what impresses me. The style and flow of the short was good, but he does so much more here, and there's a very strong visual presence in so many scenes that it really sticks with me. This includes not only some of the more fanciful parts, like an expanded version of the music number from the short to simple shots, like the phone on the floor at the start of the film.
The strong character-driven story is very original and has such great characters to invest in, especially the core relationship between the main character, Richie, and her niece, Sophia, played by the extremely talented, Fatima Ptacek. Christensen's strong visual and storytelling style flows seamlessly throughout the movie, showing his brilliantly creative voice. For one, the visuals and the cinematography are absolutely stunning from each scene to the next, with vibrant colors, smooth camera composition and movement, and unique lighting choices all throughout the story.
This movie brings the uncomfortable truth to the surface, what it's like to battle with drug addiction, how it feels to suffer with loss and how some people cope with the choices... on the other side of the coin, how the family members tend to deal with these loved ones. I feel this movie did for drug addiction what Silver Linings Playbook did for people coping with being bipolar. It's ugly, it's messy but there are answers.... there is hope.
I honestly like this movie, i didn;t expect it would be this good though. I totally rec it to youu.. There's a lot of hole but it's good movie. I like it because I didn;t think Iw ould like it. but surprise. I enjoyed it.
IMDB : 74/10
metacritics : 39/100
Rottentomatoes : 75%
mine : 7.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment