Here's my review of
THE SOUVENIR (5/10):
I swear, give this script to Greta Gerwig and/or Whit Stillman for two-three rewrites and this would become the film school satire that individual scenes heavily suggest it could be.
What a strange movie! I haven’t read so many reviews, but of the raves that I have read, I can tell the satisfaction that I received from the film is quite different than most.
I have read many reviews from friends who say that they can’t believe that Julie would fall for such an insufferably pretentious jerk-off but to make such a statement betrays the very identity of our leading lady. Julie is ridiculously insecure, extremely sheltered, and a drama queen in the way only privilege from wealth can buy. We see these first two attributes quite early on when she pitches a vague outline of her film (seen both in-person and on-paper) that suggests an experience that she, as a citizen of the upper middle class, is largely appropriating (as so many rich kids do in film school in pursuit of being taken seriously as artists). This makes her perfect bait for Anthony, an (at times) hilariously opinionated man, because insecure people seek the security that comes with firm opinions. It doesn’t matter if the opinion is flattering (that might actually hurt the chances of this man), it just matters how confident he is in stating it. That kind of confidence with the added bonus of being a first love for Julie is pure hook, line, and sinker. As someone who has fallen for that schtick many times, I bought it wholesale.
Anthony keeps her hooked through a few devious ploys that I suspect some may find entirely romantic. His first gift to her, a set of lingerie, has a double edge to it. On the surface, it’s sexy and sweet, on the other, he is dressing her in the image that he desires before what may be their first real sexual encounter. His opinions are literally shaping her to be what he wants her to be. This is a toxic relationship.
But does Joanna Hogg think of it as a toxic relationship? Jury is out on that one which may be an underlying reason why some friends have such a problem with the story. Though I think Julie is wrong in her cultural appropriation of the working class, the scraps we see of the new film she pursues after abandoning her original idea doesn’t seem to be inspiring either. In what is possibly the worst of Hogg’s decisions, Julie is shown telling Anthony on the phone that his opinions of her were correct, as if to say that there is redeeming correlation to the abuse that she suffered. The film school graduate in me says no, your film looks like a dozen other rich kid try-hards, both of you know nothing about how to create good art, none of your conversations are about self-examination which may be indicative to why Hogg’s serious tone feels so incongruent with the film. If this is purely autobiographical then she may be too sincere for her own good as I did not feel any sense of loss for the tragedy that puts an end to this relationship. Despite the complications that they are given, the two characters are still shallow rich white kids, clinging to each other for the drama of their romance.
This is my first Joanna Hogg film and, despite my problems with this film, it won’t be my last. I find her mise-en-scene to be genuinely perplexing, a mixture of throw-it-at-the-wall-see-what-sticks school of thought with random spurts of inspiration by the melodrama masters like Sirk or Fassbinder. I wouldn’t be surprised if she storyboarded only half of the script and decided the rest of the shots on location. Despite my reservations with the script, this is still a pretty intense character study that surprised me with every new detail. In retrospect, Martin Scorsese’s producing credit makes complete sense.
https://letterboxd.com/ws_evans/film/the-souvenir/