molly mary o'brien

visa problems

Saw Like Crazy last night.  Visually and sonically it has Sophia Coppola written all over it, with lots of pastels and beautiful, minimal interior decoration.  Something about the film set and Dustin O’Halloran’s piano score has the power to induce intense sadness.  Did The Virgin Suicides condition me to feel upset at the first sight of flowy white skirts and pale blue nail polish?

 I’ve been thinking a lot about how physical spaces reflect the lives of those who inhabit them.  Seeing Like Crazy reminded me how sad a young person’s room can be, simply because permanence isn’t an option.  ’Nesting’ is impossible in your twenties.  You are renting, not buying.  The bed you share with your significant other won’t always be there.  All you can do is hang up a tapestry and buy a cute tea kettle and hope for the best.  (500) Days of Summer had its Ikea scene so that its starring couple could play house amid mid-priced furniture; this film doesn’t even need to feature Ikea because we already know how disposable Anna’s apartment is.

They shot lots of scenes with a handheld camera.  There is a lot of gazing and a lot of silence.  The two actors convince the audience of their characters’ veracity because Anna and Jacob define themselves solely by their work and their feelings for each other.  Jacob designs furniture and Anna becomes a junior editor for a magazine.  They go to their office or their studio, and then they text each other and cry during phone calls.  I don’t know if “realism” is an appropriate genre tag for a film at the moment — cinéma verité doesn’t sound quite right either — but what is most painful about this film is how realistic it seems.  The dancing at concerts, the drinking, the menial tasks done in order to climb the career ladder, the long-distance phone tag — Drake Doremus nails all of it.  It is too soon to tell at the moment, but Like Crazy might be today’s version of The Way We Were: an objective look at romance set during a specific time period, and a film no one can look at objectively.