More subversive than I was expecting even when considering the conceptual framework which involves a sex doll that comes to life and begins to experience the world through a human lens. There are moments in this film, particularly through use of montage, which evoke the often inexpressible pathos of urban life - densely populated but desolate, a sea of disparate souls in motion who've forgotten, in many ways, what it's like themselves to live. This juxtaposition with that of our central characterization - the sex doll who herself is learning affect - provides ample terrain for Koreeda's portrait of loneliness, one which is utterly compelling, intimate, and relatively unique. While the conception itself is rather familiar - particular throughout genre cinema - Koreeda's treatment is far more rooted in intimacy and naturalism, navigating in many ways the socially constructed dichotomy between sexual desire and mutual affection. The edifice of love as an idea is deconstructed in a way which posits that any meaningful pursuit of connection without internal-reflection is a failed endeavor. A portrait of humanism which is rarely didactic, Air Doll never expounds its intent, crafting instead a meditative portrait of urban living in which the search for connection feels insurmountable despite abundance, driven in part by the personal enclaves we create for ourselves internally
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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