Watches
November 28, 2020
Sono's latest is a pretty light film. There's none of his usual craziness (or at least, very little), there's no excessive violence, harsh drama or over-the-top absurdities. It's actually a film you can watch with your family around. So instead we get a slightly larger than life comedy that meanders from beginning to end.
Kobayashi is a popular and respected director. For his next film he's looking for a cast of amateur actors, so he spreads his casting call around and accepts all the applications. The film plays like a series of vignettes, detailing the lives of all the people who applied for the audition.
150 minutes is a bit much for a film with no clear endgame. Performances are good (Morgan Mara is a real find - I'm certain we'll be seeing her again), the cinematography is nice and there are some solid smiles, but in the end it lacks something that kept me fully engaged for the entire runtime. Not Sono's best, but even his more pedestrian films are well worth a watch.