Though it suffers from cryptic title syndrome and acute Terrence Malick-itis, this early work from David Lowery, a writer/director of most catholic taste (PETE’S DRAGON/’16 to THE GREEN KNIGHT/’21) makes its mark as an original take on some very Used Goods. Casey Affleck & Rooney Mara, scruffy, croaky-voiced married couple, are forcibly split when he takes the rap after she shoots a policeman. Loyal yet apart, he dreams only of crashing out and returning to meet their now 4-yr-old girl. But the best laid plans . . . Well, you know the drill, here spiced up with a few locals in and out of the police force (Keith Carradine, Ben Foster) who knew Affleck back when, and who care deeply for Mara; as well as pop-up bounty hunters eager for a pay out. And while twenty producers cobbled funds together to make this, none supplied much light for Bradford Young’s crepuscular lensing. You’ll need to squint as well as listen up to the mumbling vocals. But it’s the rhythm of the thing that holds you in, no small gift for a budding filmmaker. If only Lowery didn’t go overboard on the elegiac tone; he might be a story-telling folk singer with too many verses, and repeating choruses that da capo themselves to death. Still, as following films have shown, definitely someone to watch.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: While fatalistic tales of doomed young lovers fighting against the odds started long before YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE/’37, Fritz Lang’s classic remains something of a touchstone. And our Write-Up mentions many others in the same vein. Beyond this LINK, use the Search Box in the upper lefthand corner of the Main Site to find them all! https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/11/you-only-live-once-1937.html
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