"Milk, a symbol of innocence and purity, emerges as a contrived fetish, a gag that feels more engineered for the film—or perhaps TikTok—rather than genuine expression."
yes yes and YES! I've been annoyed by the TikTok-ification of what could have been a great film: just wrote about how the marketing might have been its biggest flaw on my Substack yesterday 😂
also loved Matt and Mara, made my top 15 of 2024 🫡
I found the movie boring. Nicole Kidman is great however at times I felt there was too much sighing and perspiration… entire scenes were like this! also I was left confused by both characters wants and needs and found it hard to root for her. Shame because the themes the movie intended to explore were interesting but the realisation not successful in my opinion.
Agreed she is so sure of herself one second and then bewildered the next. i understand that she's working things out herself, and that doesn't always make for compelling cinema, but something is missing and the director did not properly bring it to light!
I also didn’t like the reference to her childhood thrown in randomly and literally mentioned twice only in passing perhaps to give some justification to why she might be “wrong”( and why is she wrong?) All without any further development or elaboration. It takes out from her character’s complexity. The more I think about the movie the more I find it problematic on many levels but maybe that’s the strength of the movie to incite a reaction in the viewer whatever that is.
The way I could feel the lightbulb going off in my brain on the line about the milk of it all feeling engineered for TIKTOK... once you see it it's so obvious. Another excellent review
Fully agree with all of this, especially it being an aimless mess. The general uncertainty in their interactions dulled a lot of their moments for me. The attempt to be "real" or "authentic" made the action boring instead of keeping me on the edge of my seat. If a high powered woman wants to be dommed so bad, wouldn't she want someone with almost sociopathic self-confidence? Also, I felt like the CEO vs Intern relation was too staggered anyway. Like why not make Harris Dickinson a rising VP or something?
Very lastly, I hope shirtless dancing needle don't be the sine qua non for a new generation of movies because they're already starting to feel trite...
Did you read the interview where Reijn shared the milk in the bar scene was based on a real thing that happened to her? That was wild.
"Milk, a symbol of innocence and purity, emerges as a contrived fetish, a gag that feels more engineered for the film—or perhaps TikTok—rather than genuine expression."
yes yes and YES! I've been annoyed by the TikTok-ification of what could have been a great film: just wrote about how the marketing might have been its biggest flaw on my Substack yesterday 😂
also loved Matt and Mara, made my top 15 of 2024 🫡
more people need to watch Matt and Mara!! one of my faves from last year too.
this.
I found the movie boring. Nicole Kidman is great however at times I felt there was too much sighing and perspiration… entire scenes were like this! also I was left confused by both characters wants and needs and found it hard to root for her. Shame because the themes the movie intended to explore were interesting but the realisation not successful in my opinion.
Agreed she is so sure of herself one second and then bewildered the next. i understand that she's working things out herself, and that doesn't always make for compelling cinema, but something is missing and the director did not properly bring it to light!
I also didn’t like the reference to her childhood thrown in randomly and literally mentioned twice only in passing perhaps to give some justification to why she might be “wrong”( and why is she wrong?) All without any further development or elaboration. It takes out from her character’s complexity. The more I think about the movie the more I find it problematic on many levels but maybe that’s the strength of the movie to incite a reaction in the viewer whatever that is.
The way I could feel the lightbulb going off in my brain on the line about the milk of it all feeling engineered for TIKTOK... once you see it it's so obvious. Another excellent review
The Piano Teacher comparison is so apt and your note about the milk scene being built for TikTok made me so sad. We are starved for depth.
Fully agree with all of this, especially it being an aimless mess. The general uncertainty in their interactions dulled a lot of their moments for me. The attempt to be "real" or "authentic" made the action boring instead of keeping me on the edge of my seat. If a high powered woman wants to be dommed so bad, wouldn't she want someone with almost sociopathic self-confidence? Also, I felt like the CEO vs Intern relation was too staggered anyway. Like why not make Harris Dickinson a rising VP or something?
Very lastly, I hope shirtless dancing needle don't be the sine qua non for a new generation of movies because they're already starting to feel trite...
I finally watched A real pain, as per one of your newsletters, you wrote about it and I was so curious. i really enjoyed it!