We’ve been thoroughly enjoying The A.V. Club‘s week-long “Best of the ’00s” series, including today’s installment on top cinematic performances. The site’s writers certainly did the right thing by including Samantha Morton’s star turn in Morvern Callar, one of our favorite movies of all time. The ending sequence, shown above, never ceases to create a lump in our throat, though we can’t quite figure out why. Perhaps it’s because it’s one of those rare scenes in which music and chaos are used to convey a sense of total isolation, instead of joy and connection. Plus it adds a slight “was the entire movie a dream?” nuance to the enterprise.
As an aside, Lynne Ramsay simply doesn’t work enough. Can’t wait for We Need to Talk About Kevin, though we’ll have to line up some shots of happy juice right outside the theater doors. The woman is the master of the total downer.
Jordan // Dec 2, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Definitely a well-planned and executed shot.
Raves/clubs are pretty miserable places to be if you can’t properly turn off the think-y parts of your brain. Much more fun to reach that almost meditative state of clarity. That’s certainly what I strive for when I go rock climbing.
Brendan I. Koerner // Dec 3, 2009 at 11:10 am
@Jordan: The whole movie is def. worth a look, if you haven’t seen it already. One of the few flicks I’ve ever seen that more than lived up to the book, in part by diverting from the author’s plot in subtle yet clever ways.