thoroughbreds review
Nov. 21st, 2021 09:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maritimo like one? two? years ago i was too lazy to watch the movie, so instead i read the play it was based on. it's a quick read and i enjoyed it a lot in general, and then a few days ago that "what's the most romantic thing from media you can think of" tweet was going around and obviously i was reminded of it lolol, so i reread the play and then today watched the movie and ummmmmmm. it was not good.
okay im not a Film person or whatever but i'll do my best. first of all i think it was very... slow? there are a lot of shots just following the characters around lily's house, long ass shots of them walking that didn't really tell us anything important? the play is short and fast paced so i understand there empty space that needed to be filled for a feature film but surely there must have been better ways... i'll give it to this guy it was his directing debut but like.
lily's characterization felt a bit off to me? i guess the movie is like a dark comedy or whatever, so they mostly talk with straight faces and dead voices, but i think it did not work!! specially because what would've been really amazing is the contrast between the both of them, with lily lying with amanda but in a girly happy way, etc. it just bothered me, and i think it took away some of her depth, we don't really see her losing it like i imagined i would when i read it. but again, the guy who wrote it directed it so... rip.
the story actually changed? besides like certain dialogue not being there with doesn't matter that much if the changes are done well (not so much), they actually rewrote stuff ughhh. tim isn't amanda's cousin? i'm guessing this was made to show lily's dark side or whatever earlier in the movie since she became the one who approaches this random guy. but i think this was generally very odd, and definitely made the scenes with him less funny just because like lol. being cousins makes everything funnier. also this gave him less stakes? idk if that makes sense, and made amanda's fight with him also mean less, since they didn't previously know each other.
this next change made me sooooo sad. they took away the "and the tree was happy". i have NO idea why this was a choice that was made, couldn't they reference this book in the movie???? it added a lot to their relationship, and with all of this stuff moved around the movie ended up not really portraying their (one-sided imo) bond... i felt like the pacing was also a bit off, so by the end when amanda drinks the screwdriver it's not as impactful as it could have been.
this is what everyone complains about but WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY would you leave out the best part of amanda's letter?? what this guy scared that the movie was gonna become gay or whatever? i truly don't get it, and i don't particuraly view lily/amanda in a romantic way, but this letter is crucial to amanda's character and understanding her!!! idk, it was very upsetting and made the ending so anticlimatic lol, genuinely don't understand what was going on in this dude's mind. ughhhhh the point is literally supposed to be that amanda cares and lily doesn't!!!! i'll be honest i don't even want to research this shit it'll probably make me even more annoyed wtf is wrong with you. anyway.
the acting was good:) olivia was awesome as amanda tbh, and anya did a good job was lily too, she's so good at standing there and looking at people. but still T__T wish we had gotten to see her play a less put together lily. the scene where lily lies down next to sleeping amanda after killing the guy and holds her arm and cries was soooo good. anya is good.
overall i'll say that if you really like the play when you read it you probably won't enjoy the movie but that's just my opinion. and to finish this off:
And I want to tell that I don't, and that I did it because I think I loved you. Because I think I still do. And because I knew how happy you could be -- so much happier than I ever could -- but how tied down you were by your own fear and guilt. And that I don't think you ever really wanted my friendship, so I gave the next best thing I could. The thing you really wanted to take anyway, I think.
okay im not a Film person or whatever but i'll do my best. first of all i think it was very... slow? there are a lot of shots just following the characters around lily's house, long ass shots of them walking that didn't really tell us anything important? the play is short and fast paced so i understand there empty space that needed to be filled for a feature film but surely there must have been better ways... i'll give it to this guy it was his directing debut but like.
lily's characterization felt a bit off to me? i guess the movie is like a dark comedy or whatever, so they mostly talk with straight faces and dead voices, but i think it did not work!! specially because what would've been really amazing is the contrast between the both of them, with lily lying with amanda but in a girly happy way, etc. it just bothered me, and i think it took away some of her depth, we don't really see her losing it like i imagined i would when i read it. but again, the guy who wrote it directed it so... rip.
the story actually changed? besides like certain dialogue not being there with doesn't matter that much if the changes are done well (not so much), they actually rewrote stuff ughhh. tim isn't amanda's cousin? i'm guessing this was made to show lily's dark side or whatever earlier in the movie since she became the one who approaches this random guy. but i think this was generally very odd, and definitely made the scenes with him less funny just because like lol. being cousins makes everything funnier. also this gave him less stakes? idk if that makes sense, and made amanda's fight with him also mean less, since they didn't previously know each other.
this next change made me sooooo sad. they took away the "and the tree was happy". i have NO idea why this was a choice that was made, couldn't they reference this book in the movie???? it added a lot to their relationship, and with all of this stuff moved around the movie ended up not really portraying their (one-sided imo) bond... i felt like the pacing was also a bit off, so by the end when amanda drinks the screwdriver it's not as impactful as it could have been.
this is what everyone complains about but WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY would you leave out the best part of amanda's letter?? what this guy scared that the movie was gonna become gay or whatever? i truly don't get it, and i don't particuraly view lily/amanda in a romantic way, but this letter is crucial to amanda's character and understanding her!!! idk, it was very upsetting and made the ending so anticlimatic lol, genuinely don't understand what was going on in this dude's mind. ughhhhh the point is literally supposed to be that amanda cares and lily doesn't!!!! i'll be honest i don't even want to research this shit it'll probably make me even more annoyed wtf is wrong with you. anyway.
the acting was good:) olivia was awesome as amanda tbh, and anya did a good job was lily too, she's so good at standing there and looking at people. but still T__T wish we had gotten to see her play a less put together lily. the scene where lily lies down next to sleeping amanda after killing the guy and holds her arm and cries was soooo good. anya is good.
overall i'll say that if you really like the play when you read it you probably won't enjoy the movie but that's just my opinion. and to finish this off:
And I want to tell that I don't, and that I did it because I think I loved you. Because I think I still do. And because I knew how happy you could be -- so much happier than I ever could -- but how tied down you were by your own fear and guilt. And that I don't think you ever really wanted my friendship, so I gave the next best thing I could. The thing you really wanted to take anyway, I think.