Long before he was even a twinkle in the DCU's collective eye or the physical embodiment of a Stephen Chbosky character, Ezra Miller was Kevin.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2011 British/American thriller based on the book of the same name which tells the story of a high school massacre from the point of view of the killer's Mother.
Every time I watch this film, I feel like I'm seeing something new, it seems so complex but in reality it really isn't, it just has the power to suck you in with just the story or just the characters or just the beautiful imagery so your attention is unintentionally focused on one aspect - this time however, I was taken over by the whole experience. Stepping away from a film for a few years can enable it to take on a new life and this was certainly the case here.
Ezra Miller's all too convincing portrayal of a completely undiluted psycho is just the tip of this traumatising/mesmerising iceberg. Its so dreamy and hypnotic; it makes me feel sedated.
The whole film has this blood red hue to it and given its subject matter, it may surprise you that the red we see is almost never actual blood. The bright red and navy blue pallet is contrasted beautifully by the sometimes jarring but quirky soundtrack, which I suppose symbolises the fact that life goes on after tragedy whether you like it or not and more importantly, you can't change the fact that your child is your child - life goes back to the mundane, the normal, the harmonious, for the world around you following a life shattering experience - whether you like it or not. Nothing changes in the world in general, music is the same, the sky is still blue and the birds still sing.
Everything about this movie seems to be starkly ordinary, costumes, sets etc everything except the cinematography which I will get to later. I have never seen such a distressing subject matter handled so beautifully and with so much colour - the flashback scenes are light and airy; all blue skies and sunshine and almost technicolour with a vaseline filter in comparison to the claustrophobic and high definition, every-wrinkle-every-scar approach to the present day scenes.
Someone once described one of my favourite TV shows by saying something like 'woozy saturated flashbacks' and 'near-delirious fiction' and I couldn't be more livid about that fact that I didn't come up with those words just at this moment because its the perfect description for this film. It has, what I can only describe as, a tranquilising effect on me and I don't mean that sobering feeling you get when you watch something that gets under your skin and disturbs you, I mean a calmness that can only be achieved after a shock to the system. The story is told backwards so that slow burning reveal of the massacre will either hit you like a ton of bricks or satisfy your suspicions to the point of smirking - either way, it should make you physically react.
As I have said previously, the way this movie was shot is so out of sync with the subject matter, its so aesthetically pleasing during some of the flashbacks it may make you feel pangs of guilt for gaining visual satisfaction from such awful circumstances but there is also merit in some of the present day scenes, particularly one in a supermarket that is extremely gratifying in its bare simplicity.
The fresh angle from which the story is told allows Tilda Swinton to take us with her through the 15 -20 year period the film spans and you really do feel every second of it with her, she's formidable and John C Reilly as her oblivious husband is charming but frustrating in his stubborn blindness to the situation right in front of his face. The kids who play the younger Kevin especially the pre-teen years were haunting and showed maturity beyond their years with such discomfort inducing performances.
The dialogue is scarce but wonderful, especially the way Kevin forms his sentences he sounds so philosophical and poetic at times - even though he is the very definition of a monster but then these beautiful moments are also accompanied by ordinary and sometimes fun conversations between siblings but they are always underlined by thinly veiled threat and malice.
This film makes me wish that DC had never found him and that they would leave him to be the wonderful actor he is, rather than sucking him up into the DCU probably never to return.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is a 2011 British/American thriller based on the book of the same name which tells the story of a high school massacre from the point of view of the killer's Mother.
Every time I watch this film, I feel like I'm seeing something new, it seems so complex but in reality it really isn't, it just has the power to suck you in with just the story or just the characters or just the beautiful imagery so your attention is unintentionally focused on one aspect - this time however, I was taken over by the whole experience. Stepping away from a film for a few years can enable it to take on a new life and this was certainly the case here.
Ezra Miller's all too convincing portrayal of a completely undiluted psycho is just the tip of this traumatising/mesmerising iceberg. Its so dreamy and hypnotic; it makes me feel sedated.
The whole film has this blood red hue to it and given its subject matter, it may surprise you that the red we see is almost never actual blood. The bright red and navy blue pallet is contrasted beautifully by the sometimes jarring but quirky soundtrack, which I suppose symbolises the fact that life goes on after tragedy whether you like it or not and more importantly, you can't change the fact that your child is your child - life goes back to the mundane, the normal, the harmonious, for the world around you following a life shattering experience - whether you like it or not. Nothing changes in the world in general, music is the same, the sky is still blue and the birds still sing.
Everything about this movie seems to be starkly ordinary, costumes, sets etc everything except the cinematography which I will get to later. I have never seen such a distressing subject matter handled so beautifully and with so much colour - the flashback scenes are light and airy; all blue skies and sunshine and almost technicolour with a vaseline filter in comparison to the claustrophobic and high definition, every-wrinkle-every-scar approach to the present day scenes.
Someone once described one of my favourite TV shows by saying something like 'woozy saturated flashbacks' and 'near-delirious fiction' and I couldn't be more livid about that fact that I didn't come up with those words just at this moment because its the perfect description for this film. It has, what I can only describe as, a tranquilising effect on me and I don't mean that sobering feeling you get when you watch something that gets under your skin and disturbs you, I mean a calmness that can only be achieved after a shock to the system. The story is told backwards so that slow burning reveal of the massacre will either hit you like a ton of bricks or satisfy your suspicions to the point of smirking - either way, it should make you physically react.
As I have said previously, the way this movie was shot is so out of sync with the subject matter, its so aesthetically pleasing during some of the flashbacks it may make you feel pangs of guilt for gaining visual satisfaction from such awful circumstances but there is also merit in some of the present day scenes, particularly one in a supermarket that is extremely gratifying in its bare simplicity.
The fresh angle from which the story is told allows Tilda Swinton to take us with her through the 15 -20 year period the film spans and you really do feel every second of it with her, she's formidable and John C Reilly as her oblivious husband is charming but frustrating in his stubborn blindness to the situation right in front of his face. The kids who play the younger Kevin especially the pre-teen years were haunting and showed maturity beyond their years with such discomfort inducing performances.
The dialogue is scarce but wonderful, especially the way Kevin forms his sentences he sounds so philosophical and poetic at times - even though he is the very definition of a monster but then these beautiful moments are also accompanied by ordinary and sometimes fun conversations between siblings but they are always underlined by thinly veiled threat and malice.
This film makes me wish that DC had never found him and that they would leave him to be the wonderful actor he is, rather than sucking him up into the DCU probably never to return.