Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck's God Bless The Child is a startling and truly singular experience, a film that manages to capture the world from the perspective of young children in a visceral, chaotic way. Using impressionistic cinematography and a grounded, slice-of-life story, God Bless the Child elicits the sense of wonder felt by young children, exhibiting the curiosity, ignorance, and exuberance of youth, living in a large world in which they simply cannot truly comprehend. The opening scene of God Bless The Child is a perfect example of the impressionistic cinematography and lighting used by the filmmakers, a scene in which the mother of these young children drives away at dusk. Shot from the perspective of one of her young children who is perched in the doorway, the sequence reveals only the silhouette of the child, evoking a universal sense of abandonment, with the child being a faceless figure who is now forced to fend for themselves. Of course the child is unaware of exactly what is going on, the potential parental abandonment, but the sequence is dimly lit and haunting, a sequence that evokes a sense of worry in the viewer, who is far more privy to what is going on than our young child protagonist. The disconnect between the viewer and the young children is one of the stronger and more interesting aspects of the film, with every character outside of Harper, the oldest of the five children, living in a world of ignorance, having no true understanding that their parental figure may have abandoned them entirely. Due to this, God Bless The Child manages to transport the viewer into these children's perspective, asking the viewer to essentially forget the true potential terror of this situation and embrace the lens of adolescence. We observe the actions of these young characters, as the film captures how youth is shaped by what they experience, with God Bless The Child providing a geniune-feeling look at youthful curiosity and exuberance that has a quietly broooing sense of horror underneath the surface.. With God Bless The Child having the temperament of an observational documentary, the film does feel a bit tedious at times, but through the observational study of these young characters, the film manages to make a ordinary day feel extraordinary, viewing life through the eyes of these young children where fantasy and chaos are merely a part of their everyday life.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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