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Author Topic: The Perfection  (Read 1146 times)

Bondo

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The Perfection
« on: May 30, 2019, 07:49:03 PM »
I guess out of respect for Junior's sentiment that this film demands (or at least rewards) absolute purity in approach I'll put my thoughts here.

Admittedly, I was not pure in my approach in that I had seen just the faintest glimmer of a headline review saying that The Perfection as a miss in tackling #metoo. In fairness, given that we find out that Charlotte (Alison Williams) had been raped by those at the elite cello school she attended, and that structured abuse drives the plot of the film, the film's place in the current dialogue was an inevitable consideration.

Though in fairness, my first inkling that the film wasn't going to nail the landing came well before the metoo aspect rose up. Just watching Charlotte and Lizzie (Logan Browning of the Dear White People series) travel in Shanghai as the first elements of horror arise gave me a bit of a queasy feeling about the portrait it paints of China as gross and backwoodsy in certain ways, even while Charlotte in particular is an ugly American. Even as we find out that Lizzie's illness is not natural or local, it still kind of acts as a caution to travel.

I was fairly put off by the stylistic choices here too, in two instances rewinding and revealing an enhanced perspective to sequences as if to celebrate the writers/director's cleverness in the twist. But there's nothing clever about how the film handles its serious subject. I can see the need for horror revenge fantasy, but the toll our presumptive victims pay makes it a bit off as that. Ultimately, I just wasn't there for this film.

jdc

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Re: The Perfection
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2019, 04:29:46 PM »
The film failed me in a couple of ways... Unless I missed it, why didn’t she start off with going to the police or try to sue them? Maybe we are now to assume that this never works for victims so they don’t bother to try to explain it away. (Small chance I missed it if they did).

Given that she never took step one, the step that she took to protect her Friend is absurd; (in order to save you from these evil men, I will have to make you not special to them by cutting off your hand) was a plot point I didn’t go along with.

It had to go there I suppose so the movie could have you believing it was going in one direction then to flip it and turn it into something else.  But I didn’t go alone with the ride do to her choice of actions. 
"Beer. Now there's a temporary solution."  Homer S.
“The direct use of physical force is so poor a solution to the problem of limited resources that it is commonly employed only by small children and great nations” - David Friedman

1SO

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Re: The Perfection
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2019, 05:05:09 AM »
"Charlotte planned Lizzie's amputation to save her from Bachoff, knowing that if she could no longer play cello, Anton would have no use for Lizzie and discard her." This was the plan? To wreck a fellow victim through extreme pain and psychological torture in order to save her from physical abuse? The bug-infested sickness was great when it was happening, some of the best horror I've seen all year, but I can't buy that she would do this to her friend in order to save her, and the plan itself has too many variables, especially regarding the bus driver and the specific toxicity levels of Lizzie.

tamro-24

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Re: The Perfection
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2020, 01:25:42 PM »
It is about vendetta. Sometimes there is only one way to save someone,  a bitter pills to swallow.
Watched and liked by me :)
Yo llore porque no tenia zapatos hasta que vi un nino que no tenia pies

 

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