Love Exposure, at the Silent Movie Theater (5 out of 5 stars, with some reservations)
I’ve never seen a movie that’s quite captured the essence of Dostoevsky as well as Sion Sono’s 4 hour epic about peak-a-panty sinning, a devastating teen luv triangle, religious cults + 50 other things. And while it has the suspense, humor, and many of the character/plotting techniques and themes of Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, Demons, et al, it is also the equivalent of reading one of those books in their entirety during one sitting. Such an act would undoubtedly affect your soul and body; an undertaking with psychosomatic repercussions. In the case of Dostoevsky that is great. In the case of Satantango or Empire or Jeanne Dielman - movies with very serious schemas addressing duration rather than just “entertainment” goals - that is great. In a movie where deep emotional repercussions are not hindered by ridiculous characterizations, such as Godfather2, or Fanny and Alexander or Yi-Yi - such XXXLength can be truly sublime. But in Love Exposure, it becomes the film’s main problem. The levity with which much of the characters’ behavior is presented is hilarious, clever, often earnest and sometimes even successfully punk in stylization, but always with a bit of Kierkegaardian Irony - creating a bit of distance where we should be feeling pain and empathy. Instead of empathy, we can only laugh at the characters’ plight with a bit of pity and wait for some event to rectify the purported longing, pain etc. And because of this, no transcendent or sublime moments are possible when the movie begins running out of steam two hours in. Only at the end, when the resolution of the narrative is reached in simultaneity with the payoff we’ve all desired, do you get that emotional rush, that should’ve have happened many times over to justify the running time. Also maybe the seats made my butt hurt.
But enough griping. I loved seeing the movie and would probably only walked out if it passed the 6 or 7 hour mark. The first 2 hours are better than about 90% of movies I’ve seen, and the latter 2 are also good, filled with enough engaging paprika to excuse the fact that many of the scenes are intermittently long and lost. There are some amazing cinematic ideas here mixed with some more mini-series style vibes. There are only about 5 songs in the movie and they are using endlessly, to powerful, almost iconic effect (in spite of the fact that the Beethoven and Ravel selections have been used to death already - Barry Lyndon anyone?) . All of the acting is awesome, even though the characterizations follow their own stylized logic a bit too strongly. And there are countless brilliant set pieces throughout, incorporating excellent interweaving of characters from the movie’s multiple backstory subplots. Love Exposure’s got style and heart and thoughts and characters and anecdotes for miles and miles and miles and most of the ideas crammed into it are inspiring and fun to watch.
So Is this a great movie? On it’s own ridiculous terms, yes. Is it highly flawed? Certainly. Should you go to the Silent Movie Theater this Friday (today?) and catch the last screening of it’s one week run? Without question. Click on the pic above to purchase some tickets and get more info!
