Fallen Angels - Experimentation Gone Well | REVIEW

Fallen Angels - Experimentation Gone Well | REVIEW

(Very Mild Spoilers) 

By

Ainsoph

I spend a lot time bitching about how most movies have a very boring look and nobody tries to ever do anything special with the shooting approach. Well, seems like this movie finally gave me exactly the thing i was asking for…. is it any good? 

You've likely heard of either character or plot driven features, but what about a movie that is driven by the portraits the makers wanted to capture? What street level interesting imagery crossed their lenses? We are indeed in front of a formidable voice in the field of visual language. 

The music, the characterization, the production design, the color gading and of course the cinematography: the atmosphere of this film is so dense you can almost taste it. A beautiful neo noir picture so intimate that even modern day young people could strongly connect with, and they already have. This just seems like the perfect poster movie for the “aesthetic” internet culture. 

It's a extremely interesting, artistic eccentric ass, at times surreal movie. 

This is easily one of the most aesthetic movies ive ever seen in my entire life.The look is very pretty. 

The movie is shot in a very experimental type of way. Everything here has an attempt to distancie itself from conventional movie language, from someone walking to someone opening a door. There is an abundance of strange angles and distorsions. Even the story is structured in an extremely disorienting and fragmented way. But the movie doesnt come from an intelectual angle for you to reagrup the pieces back, rather its about mood and atmosphere. 

You can make the point that its at the service and for the purpose of emphasisng the subjective emotions of the characters and the story, But whether the style enhances the story, or detracts from it by being too distracting would make an interesting debate. Maybe the disorienting factor will prevent some from ever fully getting into it. But since i am prone to take it just fine and even enjoy myself so long as i feel i am being shown something interesting, this movie was very entertaining to me. 

You can also make the point that this movie is all style and no substance. But i think the language of the film is adapted around just the right amount of human exploration for me to debate that. 

This is a collage filled with underground street connections, an exceedingly pretty one at that. Yes there is the two possible way that this is merely a video sesion for damaged yet attractive people, its certainly quite modelesque and aesthetics driven, but there was just enough sincerity in there for me to also debate that. The human emotion is there, the performance is there, the sincerity is there. 

Romanticism is another huge drive in this picture. And it comes with all its cons and pros. 

For one, because of how íntimate the movie is you will feel the loneliness, the depression, the hornyness as if you really were there, that's the visual language really paying off. On the downside however, there are parts of the movie romanization element is debatably misguided… this is at times a pretty cool movie, but much of it is reserved for gangster life. Some parts of this feel like they were made by a modern korean weaboo girl with how much gangster simping there is here just because they’re asian. 

And at times the cool factor can cross into borderline over the top ness. Like the shooting scene. Its comically ridiculous and an out of place romanization of violence. With the unconventional collage style it runs into debate territory of whether if all we are being presented is necessary be it for story of for mood. Unfortunately some of the content feels like its just fucking around in front of the camera disguised as artístic exploration of character. 

Like that pig guy scene…

And i am no puritan but even i question at the inclusion of that masturbation scene. What was the point of that? You showed me a pretty woman masturbating, yes it looked very aesthetic, but is that it? i should also note some of the audio design is not great, there are some clearly inserted stock farts, screams and gunshots. 

Yet, as i always say, i want filmmakers to try and i appreciate an effort even if it goes south. Fortunately this movie is not that, its aesthetically strong but the makers have just the right sense of orientation to know what the fuck they are doing even if they experiment and not loose the thread, with which we would be lost aswell. 

Thoughts on language experimentation/conclusion

Experimentation is only a tool, neither inherently good nor bad, but it is a huge gamble. Not anybody can pull it off.  There is a reason why 95% of us have acomodated to a single standard look and that is if an experiment goes wrong, it goes massively wrong. As in, people might come to think you are a tone-deaf weirdo that tries anything for the sake of looking interesting. 

However, it might be just another crazy fantasy of mine to even suggest it, but i think that, should the filmmakers be confident that it is at the service of the experience and not an aesthetic exercise exclusively, visual language experimentation is definetly something that should be given more of a free leash, and i for sure encourage filmmakers to keep finding interesting new ways to communicate what we mean. What is the point of practicing an ever evolving art if after some point we all just let it stagnate? 

Fortunately, Fallen Angels is the embodiment of what happens when all those things go well. 

8.5/10

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