Disobedience
Directed by : Sebastian Lelio
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6108178/
May you live a long life...
Spoilers ahead...
Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) living in New York gets the news of her father Rav Krushka (Anton Lesser) passing away. She returns to the Jewish community in London, meeting her childhood friend Esti Kuperman (Rachel McAdams) she was attracted to then. Both of them re-unite with feelings still strong for each other. But Esti is now married to Dovid Kuperman (Alessandro Nivola) who is likely to be the next successor to Rav having enough followers. Even though its a film on two females that love each other, the story explores the sexual freedom and the religious strictness the Jewish Community forces upon people. The moment Ronit arrives, we notice the cold behavior by everyone present there who sees her. Its only Dovid who greets and welcomes her, and letting her stay with him and his wife. The past of any of characters is never shown but the awkward tension between Dovid, Esti and Ronit in first 30-40 mins is enough to suggest that Esti and Ronit were lovers once. Rather the time is taken to show the beliefs and rules Jewish Community follows like not hugging someone of other sex not related to you in any way or a wig that you have to wear or sex on Friday though not compulsory. I am assuming all this happens in real and isn't some fiction. There's one lovely dining scene where Ronit shows her open attitude talking about how females have to go through change always and why she would never have children or find a husband.
The pace of movie is painfully slow, its only by 45th min we get to see Ronit and Esti finally talking privately and then indulging in romantic moments though with a fear always in mind, one to get caught and other the community would never approve of the relation like in past. We are even told Esti was made to marry Dovid thinking that would help her forget about her feelings for Ronit. Which ofcourse never happens, she still wants to be with her, keeps asking Ronit not to leave back to New York. The movie plays scenes that would be quite at your face very subtly, like when Dovid gets angry and seeks answers from Esti when he learns she is again seeing Ronit. There's two love-making scenes, total contrast to each other. Esti-Dovid going through the motions while Esti-Ronit having a passionate time together (that spit in mouth was yuck though). For someone who knows nothing about Jewish culture, it was something new to watch although I felt they gave too much time to it and less towards the romance of Esti-Ronit which spoils in a sense that the story never gets emotional even when we get the sad ending of Ronit leaving Esti. And that again I didn't get, if Dovid had set her free why did she still chose him over Ronit, because she was pregnant?
Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams totally compliment each other in their performance and great chemistry, I just wanted their scenes together to keep coming from very early which doesn't happen. Alessandro Nivola's act is very good too, that scene where he feels restless and keeps moving from one place to another before his speech where he openly tells Esti has her free will and that Rav's daughter is Ronit who seemed to be totally sidelined from funeral and also the house not given to her. Disobedience will test your patience levels and also how much you are willing to give time to the Jewish Community angle that very much is given equal importance as the lesbian angle. I personally liked the movie but lets say it doesn't touch me the way 'Call me by your name' did.
My Rating : 6/10
Madeline's Madeline
Directed by : Josephine Decker
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6101602/
The emotions you are having are not your own. They are someone else's. You are not the cat. You are inside the cat.
The story is about Madeline (Helena Howard) who is seen rehearsing for a theatre play project as her teacher Evangeline (Molly Parker) tells her to totally get into the character. But Madeline has had a past mental illness issue and is still on medications, with her relationship with Regina (Miranda July), her mother, most of the times very tense and resulting in fights. Regina is a protective mother, always worried Madeline will have another episode any time. While Evangeline starts improvising on the story of play making Madeline use her real life scenes and her equation with mother that is surely a risky approach knowing her condition.
A very unusual movie, that is shot through endless very closeup angles, sudden cuts and a shaky camera, clearly wanting to give a dizzy dreamy feel when we are watching to get more into the point of view of Madeline. What that does is, that we lose the sight of what's real and what is her dream or fantasy at many places in the narrative. I felt they overdid it and that ends up making me disconnect from film after a while, and I couldn't understand the ending either. I am assuming that I got the part right about Evangeline who is exploiting Madeline, whether its through asking her to not get into character of cat but be the cat, same with turtle scene and then using dreams of Madeline and her real life with her mother included in play. At one point she even makes Regina be part of a photoshoot only to see if the closeness could bring the perfect emotions on Madeline's face. One of best scene was the monologue of Madeline where she ditto enacts a moment she had with her mother in past, which gets so hard to watch that Regina leaves the place. It could be a way to show how some directors could go to any extent to get the kind of shot they want for their play/movie which Evangeline is doing in entire movie. I am not really into artsy kind movies which this one very much is, but Madeline's Madeline did work at many places and also for the performances from the main 3 leads specially Helena Howard. If not for the mentioned flaws, I would had enjoyed it lot more..
My Rating : 5.5/10
Directed by : Sebastian Lelio
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6108178/
May you live a long life...
Spoilers ahead...
Ronit Krushka (Rachel Weisz) living in New York gets the news of her father Rav Krushka (Anton Lesser) passing away. She returns to the Jewish community in London, meeting her childhood friend Esti Kuperman (Rachel McAdams) she was attracted to then. Both of them re-unite with feelings still strong for each other. But Esti is now married to Dovid Kuperman (Alessandro Nivola) who is likely to be the next successor to Rav having enough followers. Even though its a film on two females that love each other, the story explores the sexual freedom and the religious strictness the Jewish Community forces upon people. The moment Ronit arrives, we notice the cold behavior by everyone present there who sees her. Its only Dovid who greets and welcomes her, and letting her stay with him and his wife. The past of any of characters is never shown but the awkward tension between Dovid, Esti and Ronit in first 30-40 mins is enough to suggest that Esti and Ronit were lovers once. Rather the time is taken to show the beliefs and rules Jewish Community follows like not hugging someone of other sex not related to you in any way or a wig that you have to wear or sex on Friday though not compulsory. I am assuming all this happens in real and isn't some fiction. There's one lovely dining scene where Ronit shows her open attitude talking about how females have to go through change always and why she would never have children or find a husband.
The pace of movie is painfully slow, its only by 45th min we get to see Ronit and Esti finally talking privately and then indulging in romantic moments though with a fear always in mind, one to get caught and other the community would never approve of the relation like in past. We are even told Esti was made to marry Dovid thinking that would help her forget about her feelings for Ronit. Which ofcourse never happens, she still wants to be with her, keeps asking Ronit not to leave back to New York. The movie plays scenes that would be quite at your face very subtly, like when Dovid gets angry and seeks answers from Esti when he learns she is again seeing Ronit. There's two love-making scenes, total contrast to each other. Esti-Dovid going through the motions while Esti-Ronit having a passionate time together (that spit in mouth was yuck though). For someone who knows nothing about Jewish culture, it was something new to watch although I felt they gave too much time to it and less towards the romance of Esti-Ronit which spoils in a sense that the story never gets emotional even when we get the sad ending of Ronit leaving Esti. And that again I didn't get, if Dovid had set her free why did she still chose him over Ronit, because she was pregnant?
Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams totally compliment each other in their performance and great chemistry, I just wanted their scenes together to keep coming from very early which doesn't happen. Alessandro Nivola's act is very good too, that scene where he feels restless and keeps moving from one place to another before his speech where he openly tells Esti has her free will and that Rav's daughter is Ronit who seemed to be totally sidelined from funeral and also the house not given to her. Disobedience will test your patience levels and also how much you are willing to give time to the Jewish Community angle that very much is given equal importance as the lesbian angle. I personally liked the movie but lets say it doesn't touch me the way 'Call me by your name' did.
My Rating : 6/10
Madeline's Madeline
Directed by : Josephine Decker
Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6101602/
The emotions you are having are not your own. They are someone else's. You are not the cat. You are inside the cat.
The story is about Madeline (Helena Howard) who is seen rehearsing for a theatre play project as her teacher Evangeline (Molly Parker) tells her to totally get into the character. But Madeline has had a past mental illness issue and is still on medications, with her relationship with Regina (Miranda July), her mother, most of the times very tense and resulting in fights. Regina is a protective mother, always worried Madeline will have another episode any time. While Evangeline starts improvising on the story of play making Madeline use her real life scenes and her equation with mother that is surely a risky approach knowing her condition.
A very unusual movie, that is shot through endless very closeup angles, sudden cuts and a shaky camera, clearly wanting to give a dizzy dreamy feel when we are watching to get more into the point of view of Madeline. What that does is, that we lose the sight of what's real and what is her dream or fantasy at many places in the narrative. I felt they overdid it and that ends up making me disconnect from film after a while, and I couldn't understand the ending either. I am assuming that I got the part right about Evangeline who is exploiting Madeline, whether its through asking her to not get into character of cat but be the cat, same with turtle scene and then using dreams of Madeline and her real life with her mother included in play. At one point she even makes Regina be part of a photoshoot only to see if the closeness could bring the perfect emotions on Madeline's face. One of best scene was the monologue of Madeline where she ditto enacts a moment she had with her mother in past, which gets so hard to watch that Regina leaves the place. It could be a way to show how some directors could go to any extent to get the kind of shot they want for their play/movie which Evangeline is doing in entire movie. I am not really into artsy kind movies which this one very much is, but Madeline's Madeline did work at many places and also for the performances from the main 3 leads specially Helena Howard. If not for the mentioned flaws, I would had enjoyed it lot more..
My Rating : 5.5/10
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