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10.23.2023

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

 May be an image of 1 person and lighting

The first half abstracts itself to such a fragmented degree its noir romance becomes slippery to the point of inscrutable but its that inscrutability that makes it mesmerising. The details are tantalizing: a lost love in a green dress, a broken clock with a photo hidden in its back, a book with a poem that's a spell for making a house spin, a naive ghost who likes a good game of ping pong . The enigmatic languor may be familiar to anyone who's seen Kaili Blues but the suck of this one is how musical it also is, not necessarily the actual music in it, much as there's a lot of that, and a lot of it good, but more in the way it opens itself up, and the way I come to it. When we get to the second half, with its fifty plus minute single take in 3D, everything coheres but in cohering becomes even more abstract and beautiful. It may come on like bells and whistles, sure, and it is a technical marvel, but it’s bells and whistles that actually elevate the work rather than merely garnish it. The ending is a swoony, breathtaking rush. Late to the party but make way for a new favorite.

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