Closeness

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runjump h I wanted to check out Kantemir Balagov's movies since he is directing the first couple of TLOU episodes. Closeness(2017) could have been a decent indie debut, but completely derails and crosses an ethical line betraying the public's trust w/ 0 warning snuff footage. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Great! Balagov is a promissor filmmaker. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review alex h Although Balagov is an outstanding director and most of his movies are great, I have found "Closeness" very disappointing, as of how slow paced it was. The plot is interesting, as it gives a topic for discussion on hard themes like people stealing or Chechen War, from which you understand how hard it is for some people to live and how grateful you should be, that you are not in their situation. The camera angles are beautiful, the transitions are great and interesting, but this movie lacks the most important part -- good actors. The actors here play like if they are playing in a cheap domestic Russian drama made strongly for TV. They are not memorable, you don't remember their names through the entire film, although you desperately try to. It is impossible to watch this film because of that, because of its banality, however the move to add swears in a Russian is very brave, although it doesn't add up anything to the picture, as everything looks boring and unrealistic, although you can see how the director tries to make it so. As for me, it doesn't really work, so I wouldn't recommend spending your time and money watching it, as I have found myself constantly looking at the time or at my phone, as I believe that 2 hours is too much for such movie. It's a pass from me and a fair 5/10, in my opinion, although after that film Balagov made "Beanpole" which is wonderful and you should check it out instead of this one. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This is an intense watch. I saw Beanpole, the director's second film, before I saw this, and while that one was better overall (and just as intense), this one did not disappoint in the slightest. The lead does a superior job of depicting the toll taken when being in an impossible situation. Her close-knit Jewish community is both supportive and suffocating. The long scene near the film's end of her dancing with the lights flashing and the sound cut out is unforgettable, and I can't explain exactly why. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/18/23 Full Review Audience Member Text: Upon watching the film I was shocked over the footage of the slaughter of Russian soldiers by Chechen terrorists used in this film. This might be perceived by the viewers as staged scene, but in fact this is real footage and I personally have real-time memory of those events from the mid 90's. Like many millions of my countrymen, I have seen that footage when it was first released by the terrorists on Russian TV and later worldwide. The use of such footage in fiction film is an insolent and blasphemous action aimed at abusing human dignity. It traumatizes the relatives of those poor victims, who most likely still have fresh memory of those events, just like myself and millions of other people of my generation. This film has to be banned from public screenings in my opinion. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/23/23 Full Review Audience Member Balagov is a major young talent; an exceptional artist with perhaps the most potential and brightest future of any young director. Ila is manic, miserable and manipulated, but she also makes a lot of her own misery. All principal characters are especially well acted, but Darya Zhovner is just remarkable in conveying so much of a range of mental & emotional extremes and subtleties throughout this film. Plus, the brilliant camerawork; capturing the faces in points of great drama and havoc, but also the gorgeous countryside of the North Caucasus. I so look forward to many more films of such power and grace from Balagov. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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