I have listened to many interviews about this film and watched it on a laptop instead of theatres. Two reasons that have made me so harsh in tone but still don't change how I fundamentally feel about this film.
I understand that the film was about their relationship and was not a traditional biopic, but, if the two main people in the relationship don't have complexity then how is their relationship supposed to be complex and have layers to make sense of, and thus, captivating?! By the end, I was only desperate to learn more about them even though I got to see the most intimate and sadly, crushing parts of their relationship. I will admit, when Felicia yells at Lenny and says he will only end up as an "old queen", (kinda homophobic but this fight scene is perfection) is so satisfying. Why? I don't quite know but probably because most of the sympathy of this film lies with Felicia and how Lenny crushes her, especially as he goes on about his multiple affairs with other men. I suspect this has to do with the kind of framing of the "tragedy" of this story; the making of an incredible man but the cost to those whose most intimate self gets destroyed in that making. As a gay man, I am deeply interested in this woman's/women's story, I ultimately felt unconvinced by the retelling of this trope. I am probably flattening out some of the nuance that the film provides, but I don't think there was enough effort to reckon with these two and all they faced with in terms of the historical conditions that shaped their relationship and how we retell that story.
I will say over and over again, Carey Mulligan, as Felicia (and Bradley Cooper was pheonomenal, but I felt way less care and interest in him as Lenny) is soooo compelling. With every close up on her, I just leaned in a little bit. Just to get a little closer to that magic. She holds multiple truths, lies, hopes, and fantasies of herself and Lenny in those frames. Thank God, because for how everything is so beautiful in this film and the amount of effort, attention, and care put into the film, I still never made my way around to really caring about these two. I know this film was years in the making but gosh I am disappointed. The incredible makeup, the costumes, and the constant smoke across their beautiful faces could not make up for the lack of a compelling story. Something was so unsurprising but, devastating from the very first hint at that unravelling, that a woman can at once deeply love, care, and labour for a man and all his wonders, but ultimately be destroyed by him. I cast no moral judgement but is this film a lesson to just say no to sparkly, beautiful things? Or maybe just a story of how we still say yes and in that, we still find something incredibly fulfilling and nourishing?
I understand that the film was about their relationship and was not a traditional biopic, but, if the two main people in the relationship don't have complexity then how is their relationship supposed to be complex and have layers to make sense of, and thus, captivating?! By the end, I was only desperate to learn more about them even though I got to see the most intimate and sadly, crushing parts of their relationship. I will admit, when Felicia yells at Lenny and says he will only end up as an "old queen", (kinda homophobic but this fight scene is perfection) is so satisfying. Why? I don't quite know but probably because most of the sympathy of this film lies with Felicia and how Lenny crushes her, especially as he goes on about his multiple affairs with other men. I suspect this has to do with the kind of framing of the "tragedy" of this story; the making of an incredible man but the cost to those whose most intimate self gets destroyed in that making. As a gay man, I am deeply interested in this woman's/women's story, I ultimately felt unconvinced by the retelling of this trope. I am probably flattening out some of the nuance that the film provides, but I don't think there was enough effort to reckon with these two and all they faced with in terms of the historical conditions that shaped their relationship and how we retell that story.
I will say over and over again, Carey Mulligan, as Felicia (and Bradley Cooper was pheonomenal, but I felt way less care and interest in him as Lenny) is soooo compelling. With every close up on her, I just leaned in a little bit. Just to get a little closer to that magic. She holds multiple truths, lies, hopes, and fantasies of herself and Lenny in those frames. Thank God, because for how everything is so beautiful in this film and the amount of effort, attention, and care put into the film, I still never made my way around to really caring about these two. I know this film was years in the making but gosh I am disappointed. The incredible makeup, the costumes, and the constant smoke across their beautiful faces could not make up for the lack of a compelling story. Something was so unsurprising but, devastating from the very first hint at that unravelling, that a woman can at once deeply love, care, and labour for a man and all his wonders, but ultimately be destroyed by him. I cast no moral judgement but is this film a lesson to just say no to sparkly, beautiful things? Or maybe just a story of how we still say yes and in that, we still find something incredibly fulfilling and nourishing?