84/100

[reviewed from AFI 2011]

Second go. Feared I might find the first half a little get-to-the-Incident enervating this time, but Loktev has an uncanny knack—also on display in Day Night Day Night—for making the eventless eventful, mostly via attention to arresting details that are unusual without being "quirky." (I was about to note that the "chimpanzee" headstand arguably crosses that line, but then suddenly suspected that that's an actual alternative to e.g. "Mississippi" somewhere or other, and sure enough. Headstand itself's still a bit cute, though.) And I remain in awe of the high-wire act that constitutes the aftermath, in which any and all discussion of what happened gets postponed until after the credits roll—a stunt that only works…

The Loneliest Planet is a film I really want to love. It's slow, and takes its time, and wants to reel you into the relationship between the main couple. However, The Loneliest Planet is also slow and takes too much time.

I really love when films take their time to show you things instead of rushing, but there is a difference between taking your time and meandering around in a vain attempt to stretch out the running time.

There's a real subtle beauty to the main theme of The Loneliest Planet, but it really doesn't need to be a 2 hour film. This would be fine at 80 minutes, and actually manage to make a harder impact. Gael Garcia Bernal…

Film #73 of The December Project

I've been battling myself about this one since I saw it. The fact that it's stayed with me is a good thing, and speaks to how well-crafted it is. Literally nothing happens but some mostly silent walking in the countryside for most of the film. There are some relationship-building and characterizations in the first 45 mins or so that serve to make the three things that actually happen in this film jaw-droppingly brilliant. I can't think of another time a moment in a film has been so pivotal and shocking that I literally had to pause it because I was freaking out so much. If you've seen this, you know exactly what I'm talking…

Oh, there will certainly be blood marked against "The Loneliest Planet" from audiences wanting the perfect getaway of Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) -- visiting Georgia the summer before getting hitched -- to come attached with more, preferably pulpier strings. Praise Julia Loktev's film all you'd like -- poignant, original, shockingly cognizant -- it's not for everybody. Hold on; I never said worthless. It's tough not to read into this art house wanderlust of pastoral imagery concerning the pain of passage, instinct, and what it means to be human, especially with two actors at the helm who couldn't be more open and engaged. Sleepy but never bored, one could call "The Loneliest Planet"; alive with the kind…

Oh, there will certainly be blood marked against "The Loneliest Planet" from audiences wanting the perfect getaway of Alex (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) -- visiting Georgia the summer before getting hitched -- to come attached with more, preferably pulpier strings. Praise Julia Loktev's film all you'd like -- poignant, original, shockingly cognizant -- it's not for everybody. Hold on; I never said worthless. It's tough not to read into this art house wanderlust of pastoral imagery concerning the pain of passage, instinct, and what it means to be human, especially with two actors at the helm who couldn't be more open and engaged. Sleepy but never bored, one could call "The Loneliest Planet"; alive with the kind…

Gael Garcia Bernal shows up, beardy and floppy haired, in this largely ignored film that made a few top tens last year. Its meditiative. and largely event-free, following Garcia and a girlfriend taking a summer trip before they get married, moving slowly towards a climatic event midway through that the film’s meaning teeters on

As a landscape film, its oddly claustrophobic, the wide, empty scenery running as a vast parallel to the intimacy of the events as the couple and their guide trade smalltalk and realistically trite anecdotes as they trek across the open plains and mountains.

Its been compared to Gus Van Sant’s Gerry, and I wasn’t overly taken by that either. Both have a feel of forced contemplativeness.…

Films of this type almost always cause me to react in the extreme. It shares some DNA with the likes of Bruno Dumont's 29 PALMS and Catherine Breillat's ROMANCE and FAT GIRL, all of which I rabidly despise. But then there's Gus Van Sant's GERRY, which I could rhapsodize about for days. Luckily, Loktev's entry into this genre which I can't even define is much closer to GERRY on the Zach-freaks-out scale.

Of course, as one would expect, it's all in the details. There's the imagery -- Loktev captures this Georgian mountain much like Kelly Reichardt did the American West in MEEK'S CUTOFF: nature is huge and imposing, gorgeous and dangerous. And her camera locks it off in a way…