Tuesday, October 3, 2017

A Ghost Story (2017)

Director: David Lowery. Cast: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara. 92 min. Rated R. Drama/Fantasy.

The best advice I can offer here is: go see this fresh. Don't watch any trailers, don't read any reviews. Rather than a ghost story, this is merely a movie with a ghost in it: exploring the concept of a person close to you dying, their ghost wandering around you (including watching you for 6 minutes somberly eating a pie), and what it means for a ghost being confined to neither time nor space. This is an unbelievably mesmerizing piece of art, that had me thinking for days. So does that make this deserving of a MoMagic? Probably.

Mo says:

2 comments:

  1. See my note before reading yours;)some similarity is amazing!

    A 7 minutes shot of eating pie! It was too long and I was wondered why ! It could be done 3 minutes at least!
    A sad and thoughtful drama the best review is "go and see it" . Childish costume design of ghost and beautiful cinematography haunted me the most .I like the concept of piece of paper that captivates Casey Affleck’s ghost .
    It was said that is destined to be a piece of cinema akin to the whisper from Bill Murray to Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation. it’s left a mystery. Lowery said about that message:
    The famous piece of paper that captivates Casey Affleck’s ghost is destined to be a piece of cinema akin to the whisper from Bill Murray to Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation. What’s written on the paper isn’t shown to the audience, so it’s left a mystery. Lowery believes that it’s not as important as the fact that he finally got to read it:

    “We thought about whether or not we should show it, but it doesn’t matter as much as just knowing that he got it. Nothing written there would mean anything to the audience at that point, and it would just complicate that moment — you’d see something, process it, and then wonder what it means.”

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    1. Actually, I’m glad they never showed what the note said. It only means something was not resolved for Casey Affleck, and was keeping him wandering at that same site. He read the note, reached closure, and left. My guess is, the note said something along the lines of Rooney Mara always loved him, no matter who she ended up with. Similar to Patrick Swayze’s last words at the end of “Ghost”.

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