Post by joekiddlouischama on Sept 18, 2021 8:55:31 GMT
Blue Bayou—written, directed by, and starring Justin Chon, and co-starring the much-better known Alicia Vikander—reconnects viewers to the most basic pleasures of movie watching. The film transports the spectator to another realm, another place, while at the same time offering universal resonance that speaks to people's fears and frustrations, their sympathies and uncertainties. Much like the famous song from which the movie takes its title, Blue Bayou—set and shot in New Orleans—represents a haunting, bittersweet experience, at once lyrical and troubled. Like 2016's Moonlight, another film set and shot in the South, Blue Bayou is a story about people living tenuously and the way that life can prove paradoxically eerie, at once hopeful and dreary. Like Moonlight, Blue Bayou is an obviously artistic film whose surrealism manages to seem organic and to enhance the film's soulfulness, rather than detracting from it. But make no mistake, Blue Bayou is its own movie with its own distinct look—a sort of gauzy grittiness or gritty gauziness, depending upon one's perspective. It seems to use filters to bathe the colors of the bayou in pale luminosity, as if the movie is reflecting some kind of realistic netherworld. Indeed, the film's technical distinction can ultimately be found less in composition and more in lighting and editing. A lush, neo-noir-style, New Orleans-inspired jazz score plays evocatively yet sparingly, adding to the ironic tension. And the acting, assured in its ability to convey hesitation and doubt, is uniformly outstanding, especially Vikander, Chon, Linh Dam Pham, Mark O'Brien, and the youngster Sydney Kowalske.
Vikander seems to shine most of all. Instead of serving as a sort of pretty prop, as in some of her past roles, she comes across here as a fully dimensional mother and wife, at once young and tempered by life. She also conveys the intricacies of a New Orleans accent remarkably well, as stated here by nola.com writer Mike Scott:
In other words, if the locals can note your imperfections yet still laud your overall achievement, you excelled.
One can tell from the first scene that Blue Bayou is something remarkable. Chon's Anthony LeBlanc, accompanied by his young stepdaughter, Jessie (played by Kowalske), interviews for a job, the camera trained entirely on them in one shot (a medium closeup) lasting a few minutes. Off camera, a skeptical, unsympathetic boss—who we never see—questions LeBlanc about his origins and his troubled past. The next few scenes shift through a kaleidoscope of moods and events, establishing the elliptical, sometimes non-linear style of the movie. For awhile, one wonders what it will add up to, but then come a couple of powerhouse scenes involving violence and domestic turmoil, assuring the viewer that the film is as secure in its vision as it is artsy in its style.
Blue Bayou definitely carries a socio-political agenda, one confirmed just after the end of the film proper and before the closing credits. But just as the movie largely mutes its lurking sentimentality, it does the same with that agenda, so that the film never feels preachy or instructive. Instead, Blue Bayou focuses on the humanity at the heart of the matter, and on the existentialism and fatalism befitting the multicultural-yet-swampy setting. And in the end, only the most non-compassionate ideologues could not be troubled and moved by what they see and by what the movie ultimately, factually reveals.
After an initial screening, I would deem Blue Bayou "very good." I saw Moonlight four times in the theater in early 2017, considering it "very good" after the first two occasions and "great" following the last two. Blue Bayou may not linger in theaters long enough for four screenings, but I plan to see it at least once more.
Vikander seems to shine most of all. Instead of serving as a sort of pretty prop, as in some of her past roles, she comes across here as a fully dimensional mother and wife, at once young and tempered by life. She also conveys the intricacies of a New Orleans accent remarkably well, as stated here by nola.com writer Mike Scott:
Nit-pickers might also catch Vikander’s mispronunciation of okra as something like “ahkra,” one of the rare hints of her Swedish roots in what is otherwise an equally subtle capturing of local dialect.
"An open letter to Dennis Quaid: Or how the New Orleans-shot 'Blue Bayou’ gets it right"
"An open letter to Dennis Quaid: Or how the New Orleans-shot 'Blue Bayou’ gets it right"
In other words, if the locals can note your imperfections yet still laud your overall achievement, you excelled.
One can tell from the first scene that Blue Bayou is something remarkable. Chon's Anthony LeBlanc, accompanied by his young stepdaughter, Jessie (played by Kowalske), interviews for a job, the camera trained entirely on them in one shot (a medium closeup) lasting a few minutes. Off camera, a skeptical, unsympathetic boss—who we never see—questions LeBlanc about his origins and his troubled past. The next few scenes shift through a kaleidoscope of moods and events, establishing the elliptical, sometimes non-linear style of the movie. For awhile, one wonders what it will add up to, but then come a couple of powerhouse scenes involving violence and domestic turmoil, assuring the viewer that the film is as secure in its vision as it is artsy in its style.
Blue Bayou definitely carries a socio-political agenda, one confirmed just after the end of the film proper and before the closing credits. But just as the movie largely mutes its lurking sentimentality, it does the same with that agenda, so that the film never feels preachy or instructive. Instead, Blue Bayou focuses on the humanity at the heart of the matter, and on the existentialism and fatalism befitting the multicultural-yet-swampy setting. And in the end, only the most non-compassionate ideologues could not be troubled and moved by what they see and by what the movie ultimately, factually reveals.
After an initial screening, I would deem Blue Bayou "very good." I saw Moonlight four times in the theater in early 2017, considering it "very good" after the first two occasions and "great" following the last two. Blue Bayou may not linger in theaters long enough for four screenings, but I plan to see it at least once more.
