Tak sobie pomyślałam że chciałybyście przeczytać recenzje osoby która nie sika po nogach na widok Jasona ( wcześniej miała raczej nikłe pojęcie o jego istnieniu) więc można liczyć na jakiś obiektywizm z jej strony.
Autorka jest fanką Dominica Monaghama.
Shooting Livien
The narrative for this film is disjointed, hazy, unclear. At first, that bothered me, until I realized how perfect it is for what’s going on. The brilliance in Rebecca Cook’s directing and writing is that everything technical about the film—the music, the camera work, the lighting, the script—all sets the exact right mood of the piece. Alternately dreamy, funny, frustrating, sad, depressing and beautiful, it tells the story of its protagonist in more than mere spoken words.
Doing a play-by-play for this film is much harder than a straightforward story like Hooligans, so I won’t try, but the basic gist is this:
John Livien (Jason Behr) is obsessed with John Lennon and with his mother, whom we learn more about as the film goes on. He’s a gifted songwriter and musician, and very emotionally close to his two bandmates, Owen (Dom) and Robby (Joshua Leonard.)
He meets and falls for Emi (Sarah Wynter), who comes to one of their shows, and begins changing his life. The band gets scouted (by no-nonsense Brea, played by a very healthy-looking Ally Sheedy), and starts getting bigger. Emi starts coming between Livien and his bandmates, and tension rises. Through it all, he’s starting to crack. A Lennon-esque alter-ego starts showing through, he starts hallucinating, hearing voices, having visions of his mother and his childhood, and Disaster looms large.
It sounds kind of twisted up, but it makes sense on-screen, though I can see how it might take some people a couple of viewings to understand what all happened.
It’s absolutely beautifully-shot, though some of the handheld camera work bothers me, even though I know why it’s there. The overall look and feel of the movie is wonderful. The music is also sublime. The songs were all written for the film by Finn O’Lochlainn, and I dearly hope there’s a soundtrack in the works. Cook says the film was shot in 24 days, but you’d never know it. It has the feel of a much larger production.
One of the thoughts that came to mind as a comparison for it is that it’s as if all of Charlie’s backstory flashbacks on Lost were strung together, only better-shot and more intense.
The acting is top-notch, with the exception of Sarah Wynter, who apparently felt compelled to overact much of the time. Jason, whose work I’m not otherwise familiar with, is really good. He overplays a few things from time to time, but most of the time, he’s totally in character, which has to be damned hard to do considering all of the whacked out shit the character does, and the random shifts from Livien to Lennon. He’s completely believeable.
Dom is a total scene-stealer (although that does become a problem in a few scenes) and has quite the opportunity to show his amazing range. He gets the best one-liners, but then also gets to show a huge range of other emotions. So nice to see. Owen and Robby are sort of like a combo of Sam, Merry and Pippin to Livien’s Frodo. Owen is the most Sam-like. He’s Livien’s best friend and roommate, and his conscience, his crutch and his sanity. Where Livien is off in the clouds, Owen is thoroughly grounded. Despite his cheekiness and penchant for beer and women who can “suck peanut butter through a straw” Owen is the most grounded of the whole cast of characters, and the one sane and stable point around which a lot of the film’s insanity revolves. He gives a sense of reality and focus to what could otherwise just be an exercise in artsy-fartsy esoterica.
Yes, I’m biased, but I do think this is a great role for Dom, even though, as he joked at the Q&A, he does seem to be developing a career doing roles as a bass player in bands.
Overall, I’d say the most credit for the film goes to Cook, for a wonderful creative vision, and then Jason, Finn, and Dom, who give the film its mind, soul and heart, respectively.
"I know who you are. I can see you. You're swearing now that someday you'll destroy me. Far better women than you have sworn to do the same. Go look for them now." (Atia)
""You...have...a rotten soul" (Cleopatra)