Wacky and wonderful in respects, The Scary of Sixty-First is a film that I fully believe is self-aware of its playful provocations rooted in eliciting subversion over substance while featuring a healthy dose of filmic homage sculpted around Epstein conspiracy theories. There is not much depth here yet the capricious ethos sustains interest while the film's omnidirectional pastiche indebted to so many other films is consistently alluring for the eyes. The more I reflect on this film, the more I think it should be seen as a dark comedy that conscripts and combines possession film sensibilities and conspiracy film tropes to create a fun, relatively empty ride. I think it did intend to say more though, and the underlying subtextual ideas never really materialize.
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Reclamation of the body and soul; the search for identity, and a semblance of self amongst the malaise of contemporary society. Love Hotel's provocations in the perverse aim to display the coercive effects of the male gaze, the derision it intrinsically places on feminity, and ultimately the contextual disparity between the body and the mind when it comes to finding meaning amongst the great expanse that is living. Transactional notions of connection, whether related directly to the body or to the mind, may provide momentary comfort from existential concerns yet anything sustainable must be forged through mutual reciprocity and an attempt at understanding beyond mere exchange. Somai constructs a rich, vibrant artifice that reverberates with alienation, pain, and a sense of longing, enunciating through visual assembly and spatial acumen how much of the unspoken anguish of these characters is driven by an inability to express themselves outwardly, untethered from past transgressions, societal impediments and/or expectations. Structurally, Love Hotel begins in an abrasive, uncomfortable fashion, slowly transforming and repositioning its ultimately empathetic gaze on Kimi, who reclaims her story, forging a path forward despite the various socially regressive norms that remain a part of living.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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