critiqths

Writing film criticism  Linda F.

[critiqths]

People We Meet On Vacation review- Netflix attempts the ‘friends to lovers’ trope in this travel romcom

I’m always interested when a book I’ve read is being turned into a film but when I heard the novel People We Meet on Vacation (2021) was being developed by Netflix, I was slightly displeased. 

This is the first book being adapted into a film for Emily Henry, the romance writer who has gained huge popularity in the past few years. Without having read her other books, I can’t say much other than that I am surprised they would adapt this book first as it is not the authors most popular amongst fans. Perhaps what made it appealing for Netflix was the potential for numerous filming locations, because who doesn’t love a travel film, but also the ‘friends to lovers’ trope that stands out amongst the many ‘enemies to lovers’ stories already out there.

The film didn’t really nail the emotional core of the story for me. The Italy scene - the ‘big fight’ and the reason for their falling out - didn’t feel well executed. Poppy and Alex’s partners had only just been introduced at that point and Alex’s sudden engagement felt strange and underdeveloped. It felt like not enough had been shown beforehand for it to really land.

For a story that spans several summers, the films run time undercuts the story. These two are (I think) only really seeing each other once a year, with maybe the occasional visit back to their small hometown. Because of that, you don’t really get to sit with the characters long enough to feel deeply connected to them or properly root for them as a couple. The story has to keep jumping forward to the present day and parts end up feeling a bit compressed. I think what made the book enjoyable was reading about their several trips and adventures which made the passage of time feel accumulative. You can’t exactly replicate this in a film. 

I think it’s often hard to express the passage of time and the build-up of a situation when you’re working within a set runtime. Conceptually, you understand that years are passing - but emotionally, I didn’t always feel it. Parts ended up feeling compressed rather than lived-in. 

It only really became clear what Alex was thinking once the film neared its end. They could’ve done more to express his character earlier on. Because of that, he felt a little bland - like we were missing who Alex really was as an individual. I didn’t really feel the sense of doom hanging over their relationship because of their different wants and desires in life.

That said, I thought the actors were good and had great chemistry. The main actress in particular was really funny and charming, as she was in My Lady Jane (2024). Stoked for Coriolanus (Tom) and his romance era. He was good, but there wasn’t really much to his character - it could’ve been played by any actor. I think he suits darker, grittier roles more, like Billy the Kid (2022).

The feeling I got at the end of the book was one of uncertainty - will they or won’t they actually work? I liked that it wasn’t a neat answer and instead felt like a more honest interpretation of two opposites coming together. The film however feels much more decided on their fate. 

[critiqths]

The Love Witch

Is the aesthetic nostalgia in The Love Witch (2016) powerful enough to ensure a cult classic, or is too soon to say?

Shot on classic 35mm film, Anna Biller’s The Love Witch (2016) is a contemporary film enveloped in 60s nostalgia focused on a young woman searching for a husband. You’d be forgiven for mistaking this film for one released fifty years prior as we experience Elaine leaving her abusive husband after what is assumed to be his murder by her hand. A femme fatale, she is determined to find a man that will love her, but one she does not fall in love with.

The Love Witch is convincing in its cosplay of a 1960’s technicolour film, a decade which coincidentally marks the period in which cult films gained currency and, despite the film's recent release, is already being considered part of that category. 

It is difficult to predict the trajectory of any film's cult potential, so it is especially worth considering which of Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton’s typical cult film traits the newly released The Love Witch has on offer. These traits, however, should only be used as a guide as not all cult films share the same cult qualities as Bret Shepard outlines in saying, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) illustrates certain cult qualities while Ferris Bueller's day off (1986) exhibits cult traits in other ways but both belong to cult cinema.’ 

Apart from its attractive narrative themes, the film toys with other attributes that might align with what is typical of a cult film from its marketing, aesthetics, critical reception and nostalgia. 

In an interview, Biller states ‘actually, I’m not that into stylisation. I’m more into psychological realism, getting to the characters and a certain kind of truth but aesthetics are a big part of how you accomplish that. I use lighting, colour and design to tell a story and create a world’ (Matthew S).

It is interesting that Biller states style and aesthetics as not being the focal point of her work, when these are what the film is most praised for. She had such a heavy involvement with the film's mise en scene, all facets have been produced by what seems to be a ‘labour of love’. The film also looks vastly similar to her previous work in her film Viva (2007), which indicates that she does in fact have a strong connection to the stylisation and aesthetics of her work. 

In what is just her second feature film, Biller is able to produce a quality motion picture that demonstrates skill and talent which, unlike most cult films, does in fact achieve critical recognition, thereby adding to its cult status. 

Although this positive reception does not conform to what is usually an attribute of cult classics, perhaps not all cult films require negativity in their initial years. The captivating stylisation has been admired by several critics, with one describing it as a ‘nostalgic homage to the spellbinding visuals of 1960s pulp paperbacks, technicolour romance, and tragic femme fatales’ (Stumer S). 

Like many of the other films in this category, The Love Witch fits the criteria of being a cult film in terms of its captivating experience of production and distribution contexts. While there isn’t exactly a scandal or any extreme marketing tactics used, like in some cult classics, the film's marketing campaign does ‘poke audiences but disciplines them as well’ (Sexton, J, M). 

The promotional video for the film features the main character, Elaine, asking audiences to stop texting and talking during films as she deems it ‘unattractive.’ The unattractiveness of this sort of behaviour not only aligns with the film's narrative, but disciplines the audience and their cinema experience. Similar to witchcraft and spells, Anna Biller intends on showing how cinema can cast spells on audiences that can evoke certain moods and behaviours, which extends to clever thematically-relevant marketing tactics. 

The aforementioned term ‘labour of love’ is a common trait amongst cult films due to the commitment and passion of filmmaking known to occur in cult classics. It is clear that director Anna Biller is committed to her craftsmanship, but in a series of tweets she has revealed that many of the crew in fact hated the film, were uncommitted and did not even see the film. Something which diminishes the idea of cult films acquiring a loyal and creative working group. 

Though this minor detail is not relevant for all cult cases, it does, however, unintentionally cause commotion for the film — commotion being an important factor for cult films. 

Much of the labour can also be shared by what is known as ‘reception labour,’ or turning a film into a cultural object, which audiences are responsible for. This can be said about The Love Witch as there is much discourse about the film online that has fans analysing the film’s narrative and the director’s artistic intentions. This is even more interesting as many of these interpretations were quickly deemed incorrect by the director herself in multiple interviews — further building commotion and interest.

Part of The Love Witch’s charm can be credited to its nostalgic-like qualities, as the film evokes a certain ‘yearning for an idealised past’ (Mathijs & Sexton). Not only does the main character romanticise the past, as seen in her renaissance dream, tea house outings, clothing style and witchcraft, but the film itself also favours a cinema-going experience of the past. 

Ways in which it does this is through asking audiences to get off their phones, and challenging their cinema knowledge, but also through technical and aesthetic qualities that differ from mainstream cinema today. Biller, shooting on 35mm film, presents a technical nostalgia which accompanies technicolour and hard lighting and attempts to formulate an Alfred Hitchcock-like film.

Alongside these nostalgic narrative and visual cues, Biller hypocritically comments in her interview on how she looks to classic movie aesthetics, acting and how she chose the main character actress's accent based on its similarity to Cary Grant — moments after stating she is not focused on stylising her film a particular way. Nostalgia, in this case, also plays a role in determining the stylisation of the film. 

Although The Love Witch may not boast every attribute that eventuates in a cult classic, it does have a few. The film's early cult status can be tied to the dedication to craftsmanship, marketplace traits, nostalgia and especially the director’s stylisation. 

The film is still young which highlights the importance of that ‘while aesthetics are important they certainly don’t fully demarcate a cult from a non-cult text’ (Mathijs & Sexton). It is certainly a possibility for a film to be ‘cultified’ this way, through visual nostalgia and unique aesthetics, but only time will tell if The Love Witch has the complex blend of cult traits needed to remain popular in the decades ahead. 

Bibliography

Mathijs E and Sexton J (2018) The Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema, Taylor & Francis Group, London ; New York, New York.  

Sexton, Jamie, and Mathijs E (2011) ‘Cult Cinema : An Introduction’, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2011. DOI: 10.1002/9781444396447

Shepard B (2014) Cult Cinema by Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton. Walden, MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 31:1, 93-97, DOI: 10.1080/10509208.2011.646214 

Sorrento M (2017) ‘The Way She Looks: An Interview with Anna Biller on The Love Witch’, Film International, 15(2):126-130, DOI: 10.1386/fiin.15.2.126_7 

Stümer S (2022) ‘(Un)masking femininity: desire and fantasy in Anna Biller’s The Love Witch’, Feminist Media Studies, 22:5, 1211-1226, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2021.1879195 

[critiqths]

The Gray Man

Styled for cinema but experienced at home, Anthony and Joe Russo bring the familiar spectacle of the Marvel Cinematic Universe to Netflix’s Spy Thriller The Gray Man (2022).

A careful attempt to aid the streaming service in maintaining subscribers and hold market share, the directors also aim to make the cinema experience more ‘accessible’ to audiences at home.

For a streaming service that was once innovative, Netflix has adopted a formula that works for theatres and has created what feels to be another Marvel attraction, only without a superhero, but rather a CIA-recruited assassin.

As Netflix’s most expensive film, we anticipate a visually impressive experience in all elements of mise en scene, though on a small at-home screen, audiences are subjected to an overstimulating experience of distraction.

The entrance of the first action sequence has a Marvel likeness to it that audiences will feel acquainted too, it could be likened to the casino action scene in Black Panther (2018). A spectacular display of fireworks fills the city skyline which then cuts to an elaborate party filled with balloons, heavily saturated colours and contrasted lighting along with a soundtrack to perpetuate the attitude of the main characters current CIA mission.

A few moments later it becomes apparent, through two of the main character’s dialogue, that the film is aware of its ‘flashiness.’ The not so discreetly dressed CIA assassin (Six) and agent (Dani Miranda) sarcastically describe themselves as ‘subtle’ and ‘flies on the wall,’ which is ironically what a good espionage film should do. However, nothing about the film is subtle, as is the nature of a Marvel film — given superheroes inherently attract attention.

The action scenes are made further chaotic with experimental drone shots which make it more apparent this film is concerned with the ‘spectacle.'

The Gray Man’s attraction is attributed to an impressive budget and acclaimed directors, but makes clear to audiences what Netflix’s intent is, a viral commotion as opposed to uniqueness.

The film may only engage with audiences through unremarkable Marvel tropes, but it does question the validity of these visual cues in new narratives and their place in online streaming services.

Read my published review here: