This Must Be the Place

[Reno]

Just came back from a screening of This Must Be the Place, which was the first great film I saw this year. Sean Penn plays a former rock star, part Robert Smith, part Ozzy Osborne who lives in comfortable retirement in Dublin with his wife, played by Frances McDormand. When his dad dies in the US he goes back for the funeral and takes up the hunt for a Nazi who his Auschwitz survivor father was looking for for most of his life.

It's basically a road movie where Penn's character regains some meaning in his life again and bumps in all sorts of colourful characters and gets ready to settle a score. So far so familiar, but the film has a very distinctive sensibility, from the writing to the visuals and it's full of surprises. It never quite goes where you think it will go from one scene to the next. All the characters have their eccentricities, but they feel truthful and the film thankfully avoids decsending into being an indie quirkfest or dishing out trite life lessons. It just feels too distinctive and sincere, managing a great balancing act between drama and comedy. Looks great too with an excellent soundtrack by David Byrne.

Penn is amazing in the film, giving a performance that is really off the wall and genuinely original, funny and touching as someone who is totally out of touch with normal life. Loved this. The trailer makes this look more conventional than it is, but still:

 

[butchersapron]

I've really enjoyed all of Paolo Sorrentino's films up to now - really like the way his camera is always moving and how he manages to integrate his tricks with the narrative - seen best on The Consequences of Love IMO. I struggled to connect with this one in all honesty though and i think it was mainly because there's always been something that annoys me about Sean Penn and whatever it was was operating at hyper-levels in this one. But now i think about it a bit more i can think of lots of scenes and situations in the film that i liked and i do appreciate the attempt to be thoroughly original without shouting 'we are weird'. Guess i'll have to watch it again to get a fuller perspective.

 

[Reno]

I loved the camera work, there is nearly always something amazing or odd to look out for in the frame. Yet the film never becomes less than a sum of its parts, like Wes Anderson films often do for me. The was real wit in the editing too, cutting to the next scene or shot at unexpected moments and it always worked.

I liked how Penn was so radically cast against type and I thought he nailed it. He got to show that he does have a talent for comedy after all and he never does the obvious thing. When performances are nearly always praised for authenticity or mimicry, there is no comparison for this, it's just so out there and yet thoroughly believable. Had he been boring, Sorrentino would have cast someone like Johnny Depp.