Helga without the H

Every year* I attempt (with varying degrees of success and effort) to watch as many of that year’s Oscar nominees as possible. For the past few years* I’ve posted reviews of these movies here on this blog. At some point before the awards ceremony, I usually write up some sort of over-analysis and maybe some predictions, but we’ll see if I run out of steam before then. In the meantime, today we cover…

*Except 2022, when I was too burned out from 2021’s binge to give a crap.

Past Lives

[2 nominations for best picture and original screenplay]

IS IT SALTBURN? Yes. But much more chill.

If you’ve been reading my reviews this year, you might think that I have a bias for weird goofy shit. I loved Saltburn and Poor Things, but was critical of serious fare like Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, and Oppenheimer. Sure, I like some weird stuff. And I generally don’t enjoy watching quiet, contemplative films. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate them. Here is a prime example:

I didn’t particularly enjoy Past Lives. It just wasn’t for me. However, as I thought about whether the movie is “good,” I admitted that yeah, it totally was. I had high hopes for this film, given the nominations. The trailers were intriguing. I was so curious to see where they go with the story. But the truth is: the story goes nowhere. If you have seen the trailer, then you have seen the film.

I don’t mean that as an insult, though typically it would be. “If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the movie” is typically an insult in plot-driven films (in which case the trailer is at fault for revealing too much,) or for comedies (in which case the film is to blame for having so few jokes they could all fit in a trailer.) But this movie is not driven by plot or humor (there is zero humor. You will never laugh.) No, this film just tells a very simple story about a woman who reconnects with an old friend. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s a very realistic depiction of a very realistic interaction. It’s the type of weekend I could see myself having. Just a quiet weekend catching up, and comparing two cultures, two possible lives, two possible loves.

The cast is primarily two people, plus two child-actor versions of the two people, a third-wheel husband, and then a couple friends and parents who show up in one or two scenes each. So we’re relying heavily on these two performances. Most of their acting is in Korean, so it was a little tough to judge just how good their acting was. But there was a very real vibe shift when the main actress switched between talking to her Korean friend, and then talking to her American husband. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but the whole film just feel different. The main actress is basically two people wrapped up in one; living in two worlds, with two different personalities. She spells it out for us once, when she explains to her husband that the other guy “is so Korean!” (or something like that- it was in the trailer if you want toe exact quote.) I could relate heavily to this woman, as I’m sure could many or most multi-cultural Americans with a connection to their motherlands. One detail that really got me was her trying to figure out how to type on her American keyboard using Korean characters. The Latvian alphabet only has a few special characters that differ from Latin script (aka English), and I already struggle to work with those few characters; I can only imagine how much harder it is with a whole different alphabet. That was a cute detail, butt he truth is that the depth with which she speaks varies when addressing the Korean vs the American. I can get this. Growing up Latvian-American, there is always a sense of history and somberness at Latvian events that just doesn’t seem to be present in a society obsessed with reality TV and American football.

The film is quiet, sweet, and contemplative, and everything the filmmakers do to set this quiet, sweet, contemplative tone is super effective. A large part of this is the ever-present quiet piano music that permeates the film. But there’s also beautiful cinematography that captures the sun dancing on reflective city surfaces, transforming a cab drive through Manhattan (usually a chaotic nightmare of an experience) into a soothing dream. If you’ve ever been to NYC, you know it’s a freaking madhouse. Everything is loud and dirty and busy. The fact that this film makes that setting feel empty, like our characters are the only characters in the world, is a tribute to the deliberative and effective decisions made by the filmmakers.

All that being said, I didn’t like this movie. Even though it was good. (It’s the flip of Barbie movie, which I liked, but didn’t think was all that great). Part of this dislike was a major personal preference of mine that I mentioned in my American Fiction review; I hate movies about writers. I hate them. I find them so lazy; so very, very lazy. In that other review I said that the worst is stories about writers block. But just as bad are stories where there is zero reason why the main character should be a writer. That’s the case here. Our protagonist is a writer in NYC. She went straight from college to becoming a pro writer. Just like that. And the old friend keeps telling her things like, “You are too brilliant to have stayed in Korea!” or “you were just too big for that little place!” or whatever other nonsense. I couldn’t help but feel that I was living out the screenwriter’s personal fantasy. I hate this shit in films. Give her some other thing to do and be! If you can’t come up with a different profession than your own, then maybe you’re not that good. (Like I said before, this is just a personal preference.)

I also got annoyed at the main character for a major scene towards the end, when she introduces her husband to her old friend, and the three go out together. She does a terrible job trying navigating basic civility here. She doesn’t translate anything well enough, and eventually just ignores her husband for like an hour straight. I’ve been in a similar situation recently, when I took my non-Latvian-speaking husband to Latvia. We met some family, some of whom spoke English, and some of whom didn’t. I was so very, very careful and diligent to make sure the non-bilingual folks weren’t feeling excluded. Now there is a certain degree of that that can’t be avoided, and my husband was happy to sit to the side at certain points so we could catch up with more ease (like the folks do in this film). But only to a point. Now, I realize that was part of the idea here; it was just a weird situation to be in. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t get annoyed by her being a giant douche. For real, what a douche.

Bottom line: It’s a sweet quiet film, executed well, and totally praise-worthy. Just not really my jam.