Loveless (2017)

Excellent, a Must See

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

But is this the only way? Should this be the only way? (disclaimer: my reviews are mostly reviews of content. especially with movies like this. to me, style is secondary to content.)The inevitable becomes learned somewhere along the way. Desperate isolation becomes self-inflicted. No wonder this should happen soon after that very self gave up on watching. And no wonder the self gave up on it: It had taken for granted what was temporarily its. The self just watches, most of the time, without ever making a point of it. However only when you make a point of it will you be wary of the expectations you have forged and were not able to nourish. Life, love, the will and power to share... are not yours to keep. It is a garden that will perish in your hands, while you have been looking through it at elsewhere. Until of course, you start feeding it....This movie was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. This is 10+more stars for me. Something else.Although it's been months since I watched the movie, I am still overwhelmed by its honesty, sadness, silent SOS alarms, and beauty.I had no problems marveling at the composition of scenes even as I was getting immersed in it more by the minute.No abuse of emotions through soundtrack, which would be OK in other circumstances. Cold and bare, honest, as everything else in the movie.There was a scene that this movie burned in my brain, a scene that I will never forget. The way I see it, a fantasy science fiction movie can convey the real better than a skewed and biased account of history. Given that, the more real a movie, the more heartbreaking it is. And reality is not conveyed just by plot content. It is conveyed by how the plot is executed and the execution depends on the choices of the director and the screen writer, and being honest with these choices. Choices, in turn, depend on what push these people to write these lines and shoot these flicks. Their motivation to shoot that particular movie. That raw need.The reality conveyed to me by the scenes in this move, some very very heartbreaking scenes, is that isolation does not feed mankind. This era, teaching us that selfish individualism is freedom and that we are solely responsible of what happens to us, encouraging us to make more superficial contact only to get instant approval at the cost of losing our touch and empathy and therefore sympathy, and passing all this off as "modern cultural values"... does not feed us. It is, in fact, killing us and it grooms us for this job first. We accept to be a part of it, thinking we have no other way.What makes this movie special for me is this most sincere social commentary as made obvious by the choices of the makers of the movie as to what to dwell on. And that then dictates how long to use a scene, or a music piece, or silence, which angle to use, when to zoom in on a face and when to pan out. I was a case of success. The movie managed to talk to me. I can see what the director's been trying to say. Execution brought the content higher.The whole story is also a breathtaking pun for the parallel course Russia's fate has taken in this era of destruction of social ties, exposure to transformation by degeneration, and the consequential losses.A beautiful movie from a beutiful director, calling us to our senses, trying to shakes this barren earth of apathy off of us. ... So... No, this shouldn't always be so, it doesn't always have to come to this:Lovelessness breeds more of itself and its ilk: think of a lexicon of words here. Do not, however, make the mistake of assuming you have none left to give. Save it for the worthy, instead. Especially, all your children. Your and others' future. Force that mirror in your faces. It can only get better.

"Loveless" (2017 release from Russia; 127 min.) brings the story of Boris and Zhenya and their 12 yr. old son Alexey. As the movie opens, school les out and Alexey takes the long way home, through a nearby park. At home, we quickly learn that Zhenya and Boris are going through a bitter and antagonizing divorce. They argue relentlessly, all the while thinking Alexey doesn't hear them But he hears them all too well... Boris and Zhenya are already in new relationships. Then one day, Alexey doesn't come home from school. Where could he be? Can Boris and Zehnya patch their personal differences in looking for their son? To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from Russian writer-director Andrey Zvyagintsev, who previously brought us such excellent films like 2012's Oscar-nominated Leviathan, and 2011's Elena. In "Loveless", he goes a very different direction, examining modern day life in Moscow with its endless apartment buildings, and the correlating urban loneliness. The very bitter feelings between Boris and Zhenya are at times shocking, but feel very real. The two Russian actors playing the roles of Boris and Zhenya are unknown to me, but are nothing short of outstanding. I absolutely love how Zvyagintsev chooses a camera angle and setup, and then simply lets the scene unfold. Check the lunch scene between Boris and his co-worker, where they discuss their company's policy on divorce, all playing out over several minutes in a single take without any camera angle changes. The second half of the movie, focusing on the search for Alexey, is simply chilling and by the end of the movie I was emotionally spent. That is of course a dead giveaway that I was emotionally involved and invested in the movie, the sign of a top quality movie, "Loveless" was nominated at this year's Oscars for Best Foreign Language Movie, but did not win. I have now seen all 5 of the Oscar nominated movies in this category, and with all due respect to the Oscar winner "A Fantastic Woman", I have no doubt in my mind that "Loveless" is a better movie, and should've won. Alas, I am also quite certain that quite a few of the Oscar voters were turned off by the very bleak nature of "Loveless", in fact quite the opposite of "A Fantastic Woman". After the thinly-veiled criticism of the Russian authorities in "Leviathan", it came as no surprise that the Russian government refused any funding for "Loveless", so Zvyagintsev had to obtain funding from elsewhere (mostly Western Europe)."Loveless" premiered at last year's Cannes festival to immediate critical acclaim. It finally opened at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Sunday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended dismally (4 people in total, including myself). That is a darn shame. Hopefully this movie will gain a wider audience as it gets distributed on various platforms. If you are in the mood for a devastating family drama movie that is nothing short of top-notch, I encourage you to check it out, be it in the theater (while you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

"Nelyubov" or "Loveless" is a new Russian movie, with which writer and director Andrey Zvyagintsev continues his career in a really positive fashion, although probably not everybody will agree and the reason for that is that this is a really bleak movie from start to finish of its massive over 2 hours. There is not a great deal of action going on, it is much more about depicting certain situations and using these depictions to make this a convincing character study about more than just a handful characters. It is about the boy in the center of it all, even if his screen time is not too big, then the mother and father of course, but also their new significant others to some extent as we find out about their relatives too and their relationship with these. But yes, in the center of it all are definitely the parents and I think they are doing a really fine job together with the script in depicting the polar opposite of parents of the year. The one scene that describes it the best is probably when they are in the car together already looking for the boy and both say itg would have been best if she did abort him back then and all this in the face of the boy possibly facing death. Shocking stuff. Very fitting that the man sends the woman out of the car not much later, there is just no way they can function together anymore. I think this was a pretty good watch in its entirety, there were no major weaknesses at all, hardly no minor weaknesses even. The film succeeds very much in terms of atmosphere, performances and offers more than just a few scenes that stay in the head. this was a really good example of how to include nudity that it never feels for the sake of it, but as an essential part of the story. Of course there is the scene where we see the father in fron of the window and all we see is his black silhouette, this one is also used in the trailer.And then a large portion of the film's appeal is about the audience wondering what happened to the boy? Is he dead? Will he live? Will we perhaps not find out. Well, sort of. I was not sure initially if tshe boy at the morgue really wasn't theirs because of the tears flooding out of both in there and I thought maybe it is denial, but the mole reference makes it the truth maybe. And perhaps the tears were also because they still don't have a solution, still cannot find peace, even if the reasonable approach would of course be to be happy it's not him because then all hope would be gone. The ending, and with that I mean the very final scene and shot even with the read-and-white band hanging up there in the tree indicates that the boy may actually have drowned in the water and that fits in with the quote from way earlier about how corpses in the water are for the police to find and with the general helplessness depicted by police in here as they will most likely never find him. But still life goes on one way or the other. New relationships arise, new children are born and it is not all a depressing movie, even if most of it certainly is. Nice to see this one receiving a lot of awards recognition, not just at the big events and I may have even liked it more as a winner than the actual winner from Chile, maybe more than all the nominees. This film offers a lot to discuss really and it is a truly strong achievement in terms of style, story-telling and atmosphere. Close for me to give this one an even higher rating, the ending definitely deserves it as it will really give you goosebumbs, also together with the music that initially seems not appropriate, but if you see the entire film, then it will fit very well. Also let me say that another favorite scene I had here was the one with the grandmother in the isolated house, a true scene stealer we got there. Maybe this scene alone is not reason enough to watch the film, but it sure helps in bringing up its quality, also because it shows that the broken relationship with parents may be one reason for the broken relationship with children. You definitely should see this one, especially if you have seen and liked previous works by Zyagintsev.

Greetings again from the darkness. Divorce is rarely simple or clean or amicable. By definition it changes people's lives and is typically cluttered by a wide range of emotions that distort one's thoughts. When kids are involved, the process is even more delicate, even treacherous. Russian filmmaker Andrey Zyyaginstev and his co-writer Oleg Negin follow up their exceptional Oscar nominated LEVIATHAN (2014) with this very intimate project focusing on the tragic impact of resentment and self-centeredness. They have been rewarded with another Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination, and deservedly so.The film begins with stark, almost harsh music as a young boy walks home in the woods after a day of school. Later that evening, his parents are involved in an extremely vicious and demeaning argument. The camera then glimpses the boy from the woods, their son Alyosha (Matvey Novikov), behind a door. He has overheard the entire argument and is devastated, quietly sobbing and unable to deal with words no child should hear. As viewers, we too are overwhelmed. Zhenya (Maryana Spivak) and Boris (Aleksey Rozin) are the boy's parents, and to say they dislike each other is an understatement. She is a salon owner and he is a generic "salesman" at a Christian company that doesn't allow divorced employees. She is focused on her phone and new lover, while he is worried about losing his job while his girlfriend (Marina Vasileva) is pregnant. They are fighting over who should raise their son. Neither want him.With each of these despicable people going about their business, neither notice that the boy doesn't come home one night. A teacher calls to say he has missed two days of school. It's at this point where the tone shifts from poor parenting to lackluster police work. In what could be described as the polar opposite of an 'Amber Alert', the Russian police rule it a runaway, and in ho-hum manner suggest that the parents give him a few days to return home. This lackadaisical approach lead Zhenya and Boris to turn to an organization that specializes in locating lost kids.The coordinated search creates a quiet tension that is quite effective. Cinematographer Mikhail Krichman's camera work is extraordinary as it tracks the searches through the forest and an abandoned building that could be a character unto itself. The parents head to the home of Zhenya's estranged mother. What follows is one of the most explosive movie scenes of recent years. Natalya Potapoya plays the mother and delivers a memorable no-holds-barred diatribe at her daughter Zhenya, who refuses to fight back. We easily understand how a disconnect between parents and kids can gain traction across generations. The brilliance of the movie is in how we somehow maintain empathy for all of these less-than-ideal people. When Zhenya calmly pronounces that her mother is "God and the Devil rolled into one", we understand her point while at the same time hope it stimulates self-analysis.Although we do get a rare Jill Stein reference, it's quite easy to spot the differences between story-telling in Russia and the United States. It wouldn't be surprising to see a Hollywood remake, but it would likely tread a bit lighter on the dwelling of past mistakes without losing one's humanity, and it would surely come up with a more Americanized ending. The detail in Zyyaginstev's filmmaking is exceptional, and while it may not be entertainment for the masses, the film is a prime example of cinema as emotionally powerful art.