The Long Day Closes

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Andy P @AndyPhoni Dec 21, 2025 This film is 95% style; what little substance it holds is left for the viewer to figure out, presumably through relatability. For people of colour, it is difficult to navigate through white media. When the family was racist towards the Black man for simply asking directions, any sense of relatability vanished for me. The scene that follows, in which one of the racist family members is "envisioned" hanging on a cross like Jesus, is utterly diabolical and laughable in its tone-deaf nature. This picture must be a comedy because what else could one expect from such a scene but laughter? See more Scott R @ScottR May 22, 2025 I saw it since it was on the NYT 1000 movies and BBF list. It was a well made coming of age movie that reflects on living in England / growing up. SLC DVD. See more helder f @uniquecliches Dec 26, 2024 The film is a work of great sensitivity, serving as a reminder of the fragility of childhood. The movie shows the inner world of a young boy as he struggles to make sense of himself and his surroundings and achieve connection with others . Like any other phase of life, childhood is not a universal experience—it unfolds differently for everyone. While the boy struggles, others seem to have it all figured out. His family is gentle and well-meaning but not able to shield him from the world's harsher realities. He appears to find comfort in movies (which we never see), but their music is played frequently and poignantly.. The movie does not go anywhere, as it does not follow any sort of conventional narrative, but it does not need any narrative. Instead, it unfolds like a poem, centered on capturing this boy's inner world. In that sense, the film lacks the inspiring tone typical of a coming-of-age story, But we are able to hold this boy and hope that whoever he turns out to be will be happier than he was. See more May 29, 2023 A young Britain boy is trying to make his way through the world directed by Terence Davies In the mid-1950s Bud is lonely and quiet but finds much solace sitting in rapture at the local movie theater He watches towering and iconic figures on screen Bud is given the strength to go through every day as he deals with his oppressive school environment to his burgeoning homosexuality A lot of this ends up being a drag to watch There's so many long establishing shots without that many edits The main character ends up being so uninteresting Maybe more out if this works fantasy sequences wouldve helped liven things up The story ends up being very meandering See more W. W. W @Witt2k9 Feb 17, 2022 Give it a 3-star for its music, otherwise 2-star for its story. See more Sep 3, 2017 Meticulously crafted with each sequence suffused with a distinctive kind of light, often muted or mediated through the rain; on the soundtrack, there are snippets of film dialogue or songs and unknown noises transposed over the more diegetic sounds. This is director Terence Davies' personal reverie, bespeaking of a lonely childhood, brightened occasionally by the cinema and by family bonds with preoccupied older siblings and a widowed mum. The stillness of the moments is often broken by singing, sometimes low and distant and personal, and occasionally religious or from the heart, collectively, as in Davies' previous film (Distant Voices, Still Lives; 1988). But the overall feeling is cold, not warmly nostalgic, but chilly and apart -- the staged and constructed nature of the shots adds to this sense of detachment. There is often pain and torment, from stern schoolmasters and schoolyard bullies - and friends who carelessly exclude. Yet, the film is still wondrous, a series of high-culture poetic moments with low-culture British tenement life as their ingredients (alongside audio from The Magnificent Ambersons, Great Expectations, Meet Me in St. Louis, and the Ealing Comedies as clues to decipher or totems to worship). Almost too personal to share, if it weren't for its deeper common humanity. See more Read all reviews

The Long Day Closes

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