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Tag: Elle Fanning

QuickView: The Beguiled (2017)

“It seems the enemy… is not what we believed.”

Miss Martha Farnsworth

Sofia Coppola’s output is frustrating not because of its decline in quality since her first two films but because there are routinely glimmers of that greatness in her later work. With the arrival of a wounded soldier bringing disruption and jealousy to an isolated girls’ school during the American Civil War, The Beguiled crafts some captivating character moments in its first hour, through a heavily vignetted haze of desaturated colour that often approaches sepia. Oona Laurence stands out as the young girl who initiates the story. I haven’t seen the Clint Eastwood original, but Coppola’s take on the material is ponderous and predictable. The serene pacing works well initially but, once the dominoes topple into pure Southern Gothic, Coppola is evidently out of her depth as I don’t think titter-inducing ridiculous was the intention.

6/10

QuickView: How To Talk To Girls At Parties (2017)

“How do I further access the punk?”

Zan

Neil Gaiman’s short story about adolescent insecurity, with a literal approach to the alien nature of the opposite sex, does not obviously lend itself to a feature-length film. Mitchell’s film draws out every theme available in the story, straddling disparate genres as he presents the 1970s punk scene, a coming-of-age tale about individuality, alien tourism, and a sweet love story. Elle Fanning (still 17 at the time of filming) delivers wonderfully as an alien driven to rebel and experience the world. However, the film’s erratic nature will prove highly divisive. Whether you enjoy the experience will be clear from the titular house party early in the film: either you can embrace its weirdness or it will send you running for the comfort of something saner and more coherent.

7/10

"A film is a petrified fountain of thought."

(CC) BY-NC 2003-2023 Priyan Meewella

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