High Life (2019) - Claire Denis In Space

[Dex Sawash]

Okay, I have to interrupt proceedings with something that I've been feeling for ages, and it's taken this film to finally prompt me into writing about it. I am sick of modern cinema. Absolutely fucking sick of it. It's nothing but shit that's either like being spoonfed gruel (this movie), or "entertainment" where it's like being spoonfed gruel from a bowl with a logo on it (everything else). It's all shit, with very very few exceptions. Where's all the funny films, for a start? Why is everything so fucking morose? I mean I do know why, you all know why; but Jesus, give us a reason to go on with our lives rather than fucking prompt us to shoot ourselves. And give us some films that have more than two colours at any one time, while you're at it.

Can we have some enjoyable things to watch rather than airy obtuse bollocks like this, or three hour adverts for other three hour adverts coming out in 2022? Something with joy, warmth, fun, and a basic sense of human decency rather than people sticking their cocks in a box while wagging their finger at us. And the director can fuck off for her "I don't care about the Weinstein scandal" remarks, which miss the point in a way only the elder population of France can achieve.

I'm sorry if I've irritated people who like Denis's work, but I'm miserable as fuck and have been so for fucking years now, and I want to watch movies that might possibly brighten things up a tiny bit and spur me on to getting out of bed every morning rather than lie frozen in it after my latest nightmare has ended. Just staring up at the ceiling, contemplating life in a way that I don't really need some fucking film director to remind me about. The world right now is shit, granted... and what else can you tell us?

Knicked that from pornhub comments?

[Chriddof]

No, I nicked it from hours and hours and hours of worrying if we'll all still be alive in a decade or so.

[mothman]

I know what Chriddof is saying. It certainly feels like mainstream cinema has gone to both extremes - franchised blockbusters that cost $200m and expect to make $1billion, and high-art pieces that cost £10m and might make $50m. But it's just perception, and probably not borne out by serious examination of the statistics. There are still movies being made which occupy the space in between, small comedies and dramas and what-have-you. It might be more that we're less aware of them a) because they don't get the promotion or the critical praise that the blockbusters and the arthouse movies get, respectively; and b) less places show them - the arthouses show the arthouse films, the multiplexes show the blockbusters. There aren't the 4-screen Cannon or ABC cinemas anymore that you might have gone to see them in (except in some big cities).

Plus I'll admit that occasionally when one of these middle-bracket films does catch my notice, I do wonder who the film is aimed at. (And they always seem to star Diane Keatin for some reason)

[Puce Moment]

I fucking love depressing, morose and sad films. It is my favourite genre. So I can say with some certainty that you are spoiled for choice if you like happy-go-lucky, fun films with nice people doing nice things. They are fucking everywhere.

[Chriddof]

It's a bit different when you feel depressed, morose and sad practically all the time. Anyway, I don't want to continue talking about this.

[garbed_attic]

It's a bit different when you feel depressed, morose and sad practically all the time. Anyway, I don't want to continue talking about this.

I hope you find some solace in Of Body and Soul. It's on Netflix I believe.

[chveik]

I hope you find some solace in Of Body and Soul. It's on Netflix I believe.

I really liked this one too

[garbed_attic]

I really liked this one too

It's cute without being whatsoever cutesy I think... on Mubi I described it as being like a sugar-deprived Amélie or a less affected Me, You and Everyone We Know, but while I'm actually fond of both those films, I think my comparisons there do it a disservice. It's far wiser and morally serious than both and actually offers concrete insights into how to live with some love for the world despite the world being a horror show (which I think all three films attempt, to varying degrees of success). It's definitely not a film for everyone but it was a comfort to me when I saw it.

[zomgmouse]

Quentin Dupieux is making some of the best silly surreal films out there these days.

Also The Favourite for fuck's sake, one of the funniest times I've had in a cinema the past year.

Please also check out The Breaker Upperers. Very funny and sweet.



I did like On Body and Soul a lot but I hardly think a laconic Hungarian dream tale is going to cure Chriddof of his disdain for modern art wank.

[Puce Moment]

It's a bit different when you feel depressed, morose and sad practically all the time. Anyway, I don't want to continue talking about this.

I disagree, but understand completely why you do not want to talk about it.

[Dex Sawash]

This is on US Amazon now, seen it last night.
I wish some of you who know how to watch films properly would come stay at mine for a year or so to hold my hand through films and gently explain.

Not many knobs 3/10