Matt and Mara, 2024 dir. Kazik Radwanski (very very light spoilers)
Has anybody else seen this? The MUBI algorithm has been pushing it on my pretty hard and last night, after a busy shift, the idea of an 80 minute indie seemed appealing.
I was a little bit devastated by the film: it nails the feeling of films like The Worst Person in the World of just ambling passively through your own life but doubles down on the bleak entrapment by giving Mara a circle of annoying artist friends who just bully and belittle her and a baby she seems pretty disinterested in.
The cinematography is stark and austere but there’s a quiet, freewheeling spontaneity to the film, largely in part due to Matt Johnson’s performance. Deragh Campbell is quietly sensational as Mara; she’s the kind of actress who makes you want to track down everything she’s ever been in to find out if she’s always been this good. Her performance is so light and said, you worry she’s just going to float away up into the clouds.
Even though it’s very languid and melodic I was never sure quite where it was going to go and it reminded me a lot of early-Godard in a sense. And in the wake of the Neil Gaiman stuff, the tail end and its portrayal of an affable, friendly ‘male artist’ type in a liberal circle showing his true colours in a hotel felt very uncomfortable. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to bed and lain awake thinking about a film like this; has anyone else watched it?
Has anybody else seen this? The MUBI algorithm has been pushing it on my pretty hard and last night, after a busy shift, the idea of an 80 minute indie seemed appealing.
I was a little bit devastated by the film: it nails the feeling of films like The Worst Person in the World of just ambling passively through your own life but doubles down on the bleak entrapment by giving Mara a circle of annoying artist friends who just bully and belittle her and a baby she seems pretty disinterested in.
The cinematography is stark and austere but there’s a quiet, freewheeling spontaneity to the film, largely in part due to Matt Johnson’s performance. Deragh Campbell is quietly sensational as Mara; she’s the kind of actress who makes you want to track down everything she’s ever been in to find out if she’s always been this good. Her performance is so light and said, you worry she’s just going to float away up into the clouds.
Even though it’s very languid and melodic I was never sure quite where it was going to go and it reminded me a lot of early-Godard in a sense. And in the wake of the Neil Gaiman stuff, the tail end and its portrayal of an affable, friendly ‘male artist’ type in a liberal circle showing his true colours in a hotel felt very uncomfortable. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to bed and lain awake thinking about a film like this; has anyone else watched it?