Young Adam
Oct. 10th, 2003 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmOne of my many story telling quirks, when going for realism anyway, is to write pieces where although something happens, nothing changes, or something abruptly changes without impetus -- as to me this is more reflective of the human condition than "something has to happen and something has to change."
Young Adam is very much of this type and is maybe the first time I've seen a film that is compelling, but also where nothing happens and nothing changes.
It's an hour-and-a-half long, but feels like three hours, and that's more or less okay. Joe, the character played by Ewan McGregor, isn't even really an anti-hero in that classic "he's just misunderstood" way, although I suspect that every teenager that somehow manages to sneak in to see this film will feel that way, will want to hold him until it's all right. Because that's the creepy genius both of the material and McGregor's performance. He makes Joe both just charming enough, and just frightened enough, that somewhere he pushes people's "exception to the rule," buttons, because ultimately, Joe is a lost little boy, with no real ability to do anything other than burn situations up.
The sex in the film, which is no doubt what has been entirely what has made it news here, is both more and less shocking than you probably expect. First, it is absolutely constant (there are easily a dozen and maybe twice that sex scenes in the film), and they do range from very hot to very grim. They aren't particularly more graphic than anything you've seen before, just better acted and more perfunctory and with an attention to detail, that is pronounced and weird. It is effective, but please, don't see it in a crowded theater, or you will lose lots of dialog (the accents are heavy and not cleaned up to be easily understood) to nervous laughter.
Joe is a relentless narcissist though, and there isn't a single scene where he seems to be having sex for any other reason than because he knows he looks cool doing it. Truly, he is the epitome of the man who gets turned on every time he gets away with something, even as it seems to make him angry that he can do nothing but that.
It is a strange, brutal film, and one worth seeing, for how it portrays the ephemeralness of even the most solid things.
Young Adam is very much of this type and is maybe the first time I've seen a film that is compelling, but also where nothing happens and nothing changes.
It's an hour-and-a-half long, but feels like three hours, and that's more or less okay. Joe, the character played by Ewan McGregor, isn't even really an anti-hero in that classic "he's just misunderstood" way, although I suspect that every teenager that somehow manages to sneak in to see this film will feel that way, will want to hold him until it's all right. Because that's the creepy genius both of the material and McGregor's performance. He makes Joe both just charming enough, and just frightened enough, that somewhere he pushes people's "exception to the rule," buttons, because ultimately, Joe is a lost little boy, with no real ability to do anything other than burn situations up.
The sex in the film, which is no doubt what has been entirely what has made it news here, is both more and less shocking than you probably expect. First, it is absolutely constant (there are easily a dozen and maybe twice that sex scenes in the film), and they do range from very hot to very grim. They aren't particularly more graphic than anything you've seen before, just better acted and more perfunctory and with an attention to detail, that is pronounced and weird. It is effective, but please, don't see it in a crowded theater, or you will lose lots of dialog (the accents are heavy and not cleaned up to be easily understood) to nervous laughter.
Joe is a relentless narcissist though, and there isn't a single scene where he seems to be having sex for any other reason than because he knows he looks cool doing it. Truly, he is the epitome of the man who gets turned on every time he gets away with something, even as it seems to make him angry that he can do nothing but that.
It is a strange, brutal film, and one worth seeing, for how it portrays the ephemeralness of even the most solid things.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
So I asked myself suddenly, "Hey, where did she go?"
Date: 2003-10-11 01:46 pm (UTC)So I added you.
On movie topics, have you seen Lost In Translation yet? I'd love to read your thoughts on it. I'm surprised we even got it, down here in the Hinterlands....but we did.