G
regg Araki was nice to have the fifty past, he remains a young man in his head. His films are carried by a youthful energy, which is always a pleasure to see, in the image of Kaboom in 2010, his last film to date. 4 years later, he is back, with a nice cast including rising star Shailene Woodley (Divergent, Our Stars Contrary) that no longer stops to follow up the successes. Adapted from an eponymous novel by Laura Kasischke, you will soon understand why Araki has taken hold of the work as yet and still, he finds himself with a character in teen hands. Of those with whom he makes the most beautiful things since the beginning of his career.
A woman is lying on a bed, upside down. We see her back in this room that looks like that of a teenager. Off-field, someone else comes along, one discovers that it is Kat (Shailene Woodley), and, through dialogue, that the person lying is his mother (Eva Green). From the first shot, we understand that something is wrong. After the scene confirmed, a quirk to distill input and will cross the whole of the film little by little. Like when Kat returns home and she finds out her father, alone, in a corner of the living room, lost. His mother is gone and he stays there, sitting. The use of a focal length to be very short creates a vacuum in space, it is not known describe with certainty what will not in this plan but you feel it. “Completely weird…” chains Kat in the scene after, except that the sound is offset to arrive before, while we are still on the map in the living room. And she has reason to say, this movie begins in a manner ” completely bizarre “.
For this new film, Gregg Araki decides to abandon the energy of a Kaboom , and moving towards a pace more laid back. He did not forget to propose once again a nice work on the aesthetics, where there are particular colours that are very saturated, bright light, plans that you think is straight out of an advertisement (the flashbacks). This work is very visible on the image brings the falsehood that is fitting for the lie in which are the parents of Kat. They are locked up in false images of themselves, posturing. They are nothing more than images, she the housewife perfect subscribed to the chores, him the model husband too good. And they sink into these roles, not seeking the outcome, then it seems possible. Kat, young, decides to enjoy his life, why not try things a little crazy, like this scene where she decides to go and flirt with him a police officer much older than her. This is why Araki likes as the characters of teenagers, they are out of the worlds of the adults, they still have this recklessness, this insanity, which makes them less sad. But also the fact undergo the events they do not always understand, because that does not arise directly from them. We remember the character of Smith in Kaboom faced with the end of the world or Neil in Mysterious Skin, sexually abused. Kat runs through the film like them, not really knowing what happens to him. A sweet cruelty is established during 1h30, the image of the dreams that haunt during his nights. Of the pure moments of grace and dreamlike.
”From the first shot, we understand that something is wrong. The result is confirmed, a quirk to distill input and will cross the whole of the film little by little.”
For all that Gregg Araki does not take pleasure in torturing Kat, it has a real empathy for his character. The naivety of Kat echoes that of the director, not always in its intentions, as in the way he uses the snow to bind the dream and the final revelation. Shailene Woodley embodies the perfection of his character, such as a “white bird” that we want to protect them from the blizzard that came down on it. Eva Green, cold is opposed to a Christopher Meloni against the employment in relation to the roles in which we are waiting. He is doing very well in the role of the father to the kindness a little too exacerbated, to a thousand places of his roles in New York Special Unit.
I was talking about the end just before, this last disappoints significantly, she flirts with a grotesque ill-advised. Fortunately, behind, Araki arrives to rebound to conclude his film in a very beautiful way, in simplicity. The plan is trembling slightly, the emotional instability of Kat overflows on how it is framed, and Araki has the intelligence to rely on the talent of Shailene Woodley. You gaze at his face, tears welling up. The voice-over speaks of the future during the spectator remembers everything she has experienced before. She looks at the city as she left while we watch evaporate in a fade to white hope-filled. One can’t help but think of the scene pre-generic when his mother disappeared in front of our eyes. “She’s just withdrawn it all and left far behind them.”
• Achievement : Gregg Araki
• Scenario : Gregg Araki based on the novel by Laura Kasischke
• Main actors : Shailene Woodley, Eva Green, Christopher Meloni, Shiloh Fernandez, Thomas Jane, Gabourey Sidibe
• Country of origin : America
• Released : OCTOBER 15, 2014
• Duration : 1h31mn
• Distributor : Bac Films
• Synopsis : Kat Connors is 17 years old when her mother disappears without a trace. Then she finds out at the same time her sexuality, Kat seems to be only marginally troubled by this absence and does not appear to resent his father, a man erased. But little by little, his nights filled dreams will affect her deeply and lead them to question itself and on the real reasons for the disappearance of his mother…