Mrs. Gaagaagiins and I watched Past Lives (2023), and, my voice is hoarse from barking quips and complaints about the movie at it while it was still running. Spiritually disgusting movie
Long story short is that it was downright creepy to what degree the context of the things known as âKoreaâ and âAmericaâ actually have on this story (given how, you know, impactful those two things are in many ways on the real world), and neither of us could get over how much the movie felt like the directorâs thinly veiled and somewhat pathetic attempts to visualize and work through their own weird hangups. It is pathetic how obvious it ends up being that this is at least semi-autobiographical, because itâs obvious it is as soon as boring shit I donât want to see in a movie starts happening. Like, is it weird that Immigrants end up marrying dumpy looking rizz-bereft gamers from New York? No. Is it weird that a real life one seemed to feel the need to make a movie about an imaginary Hot Charming Domestic Boy who was so madly in love with her that he could just not get over her for literally 20+ years?? Itâs fucking weird!
Literally a step below a Stinky Food Memoir from the New Yorker or NPR, fr
Oh god Iâm reading the production notes here and the Korean man was based on a real person. Imagine being that guy and seeing this movie??? And he was cast as an extremely hot and charming dude. What the fuck man. I think if I was that guy and I saw that movie I would end my life
i thought it was a well-told, tender story about desire, sacrifice, and attainment. i cried at the end.
the cultural and identity stuff almost felt like window dressing in that regard, so i didnât take too much away from it. not to say youâre wrong for doing so, just thatâs not where my head was.
I need to shoo Mrs. Gaagaagiins out of the room 'cause sheâs gonna see you defend this movie and sheâs gonna be very unkind about it (âNo!! Let me be unkind!!â)
Itâs really fuckin weird that that dude was based on a real dude though, fr. What the hell. I would bet my left nnnnnnostril on the idea that the lionâs share of the content of his part in the movie was imagined or greatly exaggerated by the director. Thatâs a fuckin weird and personal thing to put on screen? âHey look this dude was DESPERATE for me for 20 years, isnât that tragic?â I donât know who the hell would agree to be depicted in this way even fictionally
I also didnât like that movie although for different reasons. It frustrated me that the characters felt so nonspecificâweâre told repeatedly that theyâre writers, heâs from Korea, heâs from New York, he holds a PlayStation 5 controller. Thatâs the extent to which they are described and exist.
Also thought it was super weird at the end when the protagonist stares into the love interestâs eyes as he gives a slow impassioned speech about his feelings in Korean while Husband sits just out of frame. Maybe they were going for some heightened reality thing but it didnât work for me and I kept thinking about whatever Husband was doing offscreen
Bro was straight up texting! Itâs shown in a shot in that scene. He was prolly telling his Destiny 2 boys in the GC about how he was getting tragi-romantically A24 movie cucked in real time
We have not yelled at a movie like that in a long time, think the last time we hated a movie together this much was when she was trashed and we watched Her
The ending was very moving, although I have a weakness for lateral tracking shots of people weeping (canât believe someone uploaded exactly the clip I thought of)
Are you the author of a novel titled Boner perchance?
Jokes aside I didnât love the movie as much as everyone else (wish I had!) but I also didnât hate it. Loved the pacing of it but couldnât emotionally connect. Anyhoo now you should watch Challengers (2024) because it was written by Celine Songâs husband aka potion seller guy lmao and also deals with a âlove triangleâ
When I saw this I really thought that the artist couple were some kind of satirical, almost mean-spirited caricature of boring, careerist New Yawk writers. It wasnât until I read A.S. Hamrahâs review in n+1 that I realized I was supposed to find the main characterâs ruthless prize-hunger inspiring, or at least endearing.
