listen I am not someone that knows how to talk about film specifically but I do have thoughts anyway. I'll try to keep to minimal spoilers and none of this is in any particular order.
1. great movie. please go see it in theaters if you can. I said in the notes of a different post that it feels like one of those movies where you can tell it was made by someone who *loves* movies.
Writer/Director Aleshea Harris I will watch more movies made by you please do it.
2. so many good directing and framing and color grading and other cinematography choices.
we get these sepia flashbacks and information from off screen and these side by side split screen shots and there's text that goes back and forth between the twins Anaia and Racine as a visual sort of "twinspeak" or other kind of connection you get when people are super close where they can say what they need to say to each other without it being out loud.
also their mom's house feels so lush and green and alive and cozy there's soft fabrics and plants and soft lighting and then their father's house. . . is not. ooogh! loved that. the whole movie looked so good.
3. the sound design?? oh my god, so many good clicks and crunches and rocks and fabrics and fine little details that sounded so so good. also a killer (haha get it?) soundtrack. the sounds in the hair braiding scene? you can hear the women working with their nails and rings and jewelry etc. moving in the background of the conversation and it feels soo satisfying and real.
4. hair and makeup felt so good too, I love how in the scene where Anaia and Racine go to meet their mom at the start their hair is tied back away from their faces and styled into pigtails almost (style that feels very young and innocent and childlike) but as the movie continues and the stakes get higher we see the hair looser and moving and wild and in their faces and getting splattered with blood, etc. very fun detail.
also Anaia and Racine and their mom? all have their hair in long braids. the two other women they encounter that know the father & have some connection with all this? have their hair smooth and partly covered and tied back/cut short and pinned into place just so.
5. the main antagonist? the father? I love that we don't see his full face until later in the film, we see him from the back and in shadow and just his mouth as he talks but we don't get a good look at him until he's right there. we get shown throughout the whole movie what he's done and how he has affected so many other people's lives and the pain he causes to everyone around him but until he's confronted it's almost like he's the monster under your bed or something that's not quite real, you're not sure what you're actually going to run into and then. There He Is.
6. idk how the oscars works but please give this movie at least one.
7. the dynamic between Anaia and Racine feels so real too, I'm not an expert in like twin tropes & things but I do have a sister and I love how even though they have some similarities visually between their hair and how they dress etc. and do a lot of the same things together they still feel very different and obviously have different ways of approaching the situation and managing the way they feel and what they do and what they want with their lives.
one of those things like that's my sister I love her, I don't agree with her, what am I going to do with her, what am I going to do without her.
8. also not for nothing I will always love when women make art about revenge and anger and power and Making Decisions TM even if they aren't "good" ones.
9. doomed narrative, haunting the narrative, psychological weight of the unknown and knowing you gotta confront it anyway they could never make me hate you.
10. there's blood and softness and connection and grudges and loyalty and rejection and it opens with sisters who have been through hell and back and still have each other and then it ends with even more hell and whatever comes after that.
ps: shout out to @creatingblackcharacters who made the post that told me this movie existed in the first place.
