watch it stoned pls b0ss

Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s unforgettably unsettling Evolution is set on a rustic island somewhere off the coast of France, perhaps in the stretch of azure sea between the YA dystopia of The Giver and the chilly urban streets of Under the Skin. It's a place where single women with white brows and black pupils raise a generation of young boys without fathers (nowhere to be seen).

During the days, the youths go swimming amongst the coral. At night, their mothers feed their kids a mush of curdled squid ink and inject their skinny arms with a vile sleep-inducing goop they refer to as “medicine.” One evening, a curious little boy named Nicolas (Max Brebant) manages to resist his dose, slipping out of the spartan house he shares with his mom (Julie-Marie Parmentier). He follows her to the shore, and that’s when things start to get weird.

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Lucile Hadzihalilovic's Evolution is mystifying & Manuel Dacosse's cinematography was devastating, the two of them came together to create a breathtaking work of art that will haunt me for weeks to come.

On an even less sophisticated & spoilerish note, I have always been super into the idea of humans evolving from the sea & vaguely Lovecraftian fish people with bleached eyebrows, so, this was an easy 5-stars.

I give this film 3 starfish

Cool cinematography! Have no idea what the rest of this was about. Instant five stars if he would've turned into a star fish

The film this extraordinary, arthouse biological horror story most reminded me of was Eraserhead. Both are the stuff of nightmares – especially for male viewers. But while Lynch’s debut feature is about masculine fears about fatherhood, Evolution is centred in adolescent fears about growing up and perhaps the loss of masculinity. Both also have a certain coldness about them, but while Eraserhead also has a strong harshness about it, Evolution hypnotises with its gorgeous photography. Like all of my top films at GFF this year, this one comes recommended but with the added, strongest caveat that it “isn’t for everyone”.

I was so excited to see this because the concept sounded so interesting, but i'm not gonna lie, I fell asleep for about 20 minutes during the middle...

Hooptober 5.0 - What Have You Done To Hooptober?
Film 1/31

A distressingly wet film.

There were some really interesting and pretty shots, I loved the camera work, but that’s about it. This was a little painful to follow because the concept and plot didn’t appear to be fully developed. 

The worst part was, no one actually transformed into a starfish. That would have made this movie at least interesting.

This really thinks it's so much deeper than it is. An absolute pretentious bore from start to finish.

I enjoyed this for its post-Freudian bugfuck crazy twists and turns, but removing any sort of interiority from the premise (this film is shot almost exclusively in wide shots), it doesn't inspire any further thought than, "Jeez, that's weird." It's like the Napoleon Dynamite of the Locarno scene in that way.

At times painfully slow, but worth it for the cinematography and insane twist/basis that the film revolves around.

SO MUCH BEAUTY. SO MUCH FEELING. SO MUCH VISION <3

I need this on blu-ray!!!