Leviathan

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Audience Member It's likely you've not seen a documentary like this before. Set on a Massachusetts-based trawler off the coast of North America, this experimental art installation like film is really something to behold. What you see is what you get, there's barely any editing giving you an intensely raw (no pun intended) picture of the trials of being a deep sea fisherman. It's fascinating for it's entirety, and there is some beautiful imagery, especially when the camera is placed underwater for minutes at a time, when all you can see are bubbles and hear the rushing of water around the camera. There is something incredibly soothing about many of the lingering shots of seagulls flying alongside the trawler, surrounded by the dawning of a beautiful sunrise. You might have difficulty hunting it down, but it has previously played on Film4, and it is absolutely worth you finding it. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member (Deadliest Catch + Cloverfield) x (GoPro / Salvador Dali) = Leviathan This has been on my list since JS first sent me the 2013 trailer - which is a pretty good encapsulation of the entire film. I've never seen anything quite like this. I'm still processing it. Well, by processing I mean dealing with nausea. It starts off at night. It's dark. You don't know where you are. A fishing trawler? I guess so. But there's no establishing shot. It's like experimental Kubrick, but with sea instead of stars. There are wave sounds and lights and water. And the drone of an engine, and then thick colorful ropes like from a car wash being pulled from the ocean. Fish. Bulging eyes and fins, slippery sides flapping and sliding. A voice like Charlie Brown's teacher is amplified from somewhere. "No! No! No! Get back! No!" Men working with cigarettes in their faces and ink in their arms. They are not fun quirky seafaring characters. They are a work detail. Rubber gloves and knives and blood. They don't speak. They stare into the void, and repeat muscle memory. Pry and cut and slice and toss. Pry and cut and slice and toss. Pry and cut and slice and toss. A bird is trying to walk up a crate. The camera is practically on its neck. It can't fly. Why can't it fly? We watch it struggle. Finally it moves along the deck and disappears down off the side. Where did it go? What was wrong with it? One scene is just a fish head on the deck as the boat rocks back and forth. For six minutes we are watching a fish head with its flat dead round eyes. We are waiting just waiting for it to slide out of frame until it does. The camera is in a shallow tank. Fish slide past the lens and bang into it, mouths and guts and eyes and blood. Death. There is no VO. No POV. This is pure document. Sting rays. Why are there so many sting rays? Where did they come from? Two men hack one to pieces. Just slice it and tear it apart. And then there are other rays just scattered on the deck, their mouths gaping, their faces like wet and silent angels. Eventually they are kicked into the sea. A man watches tv. We can't see the tv. We can only hear it. And it isn't anything. But we are watching a man watch tv. There are haphazard dishes on the table in front of him and a roll of paper towels lying on its side, and we can see the man breathing. It is mundane perfection. So wonderfully banal. Nothing is happening. Jarmusch meets a restrained Korine. The camera is underwater near the surface alongside the ship. Blood and bait and chunks and parts are being dumped into the sea off the deck. The camera breaks the surface for a moment and there are gulls. It's an incredible shot. It is the whole circle/circus of life caught in the maelstrom of water and air. The birds are feeding, diving into the water eating bits of fish. The sound alone is worth an Oscar. Bottom line I'm pretty sure this is a great film even though I had to fast forward through a lot of it. It is as much a pure documentary as it is a total art house acid trip. ???????????? http://youtu.be/U2wNiJt-I6U Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Exceptionally genius filmmaking! A worthy addition to the increasingly popular list of Sans-dialogue documentary films! Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member After watching Leviathan I was left in disbelief about how astonishing it was. This is one of the most exceptional contemporary films I have seen. It's also unforgettable. I find myself thinking about it days after seeing it. Five stars, outstanding. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member A truly one-off movie experience, which might either be the future of cinema or an anomaly. Best viewed as an art installation, I liked the bit where they caught and killed the fish. Rated 1.5/5 Stars •  Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Not ethnographic as it claims. You don't learn anything from the experience. Rated 0.5/5 Stars •  Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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