The Staggering Girl (2019) User Reviews

Beautiful, Confusing, Lush

[stefanobaraibar-09207 · 5/10 · 2 June 2023]

Terrific cast, Beautiful Couture Valentino gowns, Visually Beautiful & mysterious.

That's where the fascination and intrigue ends. This short is very hard to follow and understand as the story makes zero sense. It would almost be better if it was silent, with the score being the only sound.

Initially I was very confused why the credits at the opening were the same format as Woody Allen traditionally uses. However, as the movie went on I started to see many similarities as Allen's film, The Other Woman.

It's a stunning film and has many of Luca Guadagnino signatures. The Italian shots are my personal favorite.

The worst kind of art-house

[MOscarbradley · 2/10 · 27 February 2020]

This enigmatic little memory piece may be only 37 minutes long but it still typifies the worst kind of art-house. A superb cast, (Julianne Moore, Marthe Keller, Kyle MacLachlan, KiKi Layne), mooch about in the past and in the present but none of them manage to engage us on any level other than the banal. The director is Luca Guadagnino and this must rank as nothing more than a doodle on his CV, the kind of film that established film-makers with too much power and money, but perhaps limited imagination, make simply because they can. If, like me, you admire the director's other work it's best you give this one a miss.

A poetic and problematic reunion between a daughter and her mother

[danybur · 7/10 · 21 December 2020]

A woman (Julianne Moore) receives a call at her home in New York. She must return to Italy to convince her mother to move with her to the US She is a blind artist (Marthe Keller) who lives in a large house assisted by a caretaker (Kyle MacLachlan). The daughter is writing her memoirs, where her mother (the staggering-staggering-girl in the title?) May have a central role.

Luca Guadagnino offers us a sophisticated medium-length film with permanent jumps in its temporality and in its locations, which even overlap, with flashbacks intervened from the present; Valentino's wardrobe, Italian cityscape, and Ryuichi Sakamoto's music reinforce those dreamlike and fragmented qualities (like the title) of the story.

We witness the always difficult moment of resuming the role of daughter in person, in this case in front of a beautiful and talented mother (Mia Goth as a young woman and also Keller today) who became famous and who despite her limitations continues to create. The return to childhood at the same time as the role of an adult overextended by a declining mother. The story of both parades in front of the character of Moore and is headed towards a perhaps epiphanic end.

Ho-hum...

[projectmolcos · 2/10 · 13 March 2020]

A 40mins advert for Valentino, masquerading as an Arthouse short.

At least that's what I hope was its reason for being. Otherwise, this was tediously ponderous piffile that squandered supreme talent in front and behind the camera - I WISHED I was in this film's New York and Rome! But it's all in service of a underwhelming plot of a writer with Mom issues...to say nothing of slowwww.

So, pretentious tripe that wastes a really great cast but, on the other hand, they've probably never looked so well-dressed on a film before!

Entertaining

[fermintheodossiou · 7/10 · 21 March 2020]

User reviews are to harsh. The movie is beautiful and amusing even though its script isn't as good as its cinematography.

A tour de force of elegance

[nigiweij · 8/10 · 16 February 2020]

'The Staggering Girl' brings together a group of creative geniuses. Directed by Luca Guadagnino, a filmmaker whose work can both satisfy lovers of art house and popular films, the film stars in the lead roles Julianne Moore, Marthe Keller, KiKi Layne and Kyle MacLachlan, impeccably dressed in Valentino garments, with a film score by the legendary Ryuichi Sakamoto.

In short, the film is about an Italian-American writer working on her autobiography and rethinking her life, who has to move back to Rome to take care of her mother. The structure of the film is complex, with a thin line between reality, flashbacks and fantasies.

Instead of occupying yourself with a minute understanding of the film's plot, I would rather advise the viewer to sit back for 35 minutes and enjoy the extreme visual refinement, in (among others) the camera work, dresses, and the picturesque Italian landscape, in combination with the spellbinding soundtrack. The last scene left me with a sheer feeling of joy and fulfilment.

Mystery and fog

[dentzien-lima · 9/10 · 2 March 2020]

Great film for those who are not afraid of images doing more storytelling than the script itself. The Kyle MacLachlan character does bring to mind a Twin Peaks atmosphere and Ryuichi Sakamoto's music is just sublime to top it all off.

Homage to Woody??

[russsims-30052 · 8/10 · 24 April 2024]

It's not just the font of the opening credits that winks at Woodyphiles, we also see hints of "Another Woman" in its flashbacks, cold earth tones seen in costumes, settings and cinematography itself. We even hear a woman's confessions through what might be a vent similar to the character of Marianne in Woody's Bergmanesque chamber piece. The director gives a nod to "Autumn Sonata" playing with the mother/daughter relationship. Both Woody and Luca relish in the use of flashbacks where characters peer into their pasts as the are "played out" in front of them. One of Woody's favorite themes makes an appearance in the struggle of the artist and how hat struggle affects those closest to them. A fine homage to two masterful filmmakers (Bergman and Allen) and one might want to add Luca into the pantheon of the (film) giants.

Mother/daughter leads look more like sisters

[random-70778 · 15 February 2020]

Actress playing daughter looks fairly haggard and at most a couple years younger. This stretches credibility of the scenes together