PedroPires90

The way this film (and the script) evolves from something seemingly harmless and without much room to grow is fascinating. One of the most beautiful stories I've ever seen on screen.

So calm, so sweet, so melodious, yet so sad, so melancholic. That's what memories do to us - they make us feel again, and there are memories that, when revisited, bring doubts and certainties we didn't have before. New perspectives and new "what ifs" that will forever remain unanswered.

Was this really Shunji Iwai's debut? Incredible. So delicate in the way he places everything on screen, so meticulous in how he builds these characters and gradually adds layers to them. RIP Miho Nakayama - I wasn't aware of how good you were on acting. Incredible dual role. Everything so good and so beautiful. Of course, the third act was a sea of tears.

Probably the most courageous film of the year, and a movie that will hardly fail to bring tears to the eyes of those who watch it. Ideological and religious blindness supplants basic human values. The seed has been planted, and while many lives may still be lost along the way, the new generations will make sure to carry the torch.

What is fictional intertwines with reality in a very organic way, and Rasoulof does another great film, his best to date - with a very interesting touch of a paranoid thriller. Perhaps his last film on Iranian soil? It doesn't matter - the seeds he is planting are everything, and the message will reach its audience.

PS: At a time people are talking of Ariana Grande or Zoe Saldaña winning an Oscar, it's hard not to feel pity for what Hollywood, the Academy, and American audiences in general have become. This film alone features at least two supporting performances far superior. Mahsa Rostami, the star you will be!

And now I'm also going to be mad with the French Oscars committee for naming this instead of All We Imagine as Light.

First things first. The obsession with everything that assaults our senses. With the loud. With the fast. With the chaos. Yesterday I saw Anora (a better experience but still annoying) and today this, but it's all a consequence of the chaotic world we live in, with everything and everyone shouting. People need to shout to be listened and we are all shouting all the time. Now even in movies.

This film has style and strong performances. It also has ridiculous musical numbers that almost made me want to hide from the cringe. There are good scenes. But it also has inexplicable script choices. There are characters that are thrown in without context, lacking development, but that are there to - literally - carry the final flag.

The fundraising dinner scene is a musical number that will stick in memory and is fantastic, but I can't help thinking about how this film fails utterly in what should be its emotional strengths, never delving deeply into anything because it's always in a rush to add something more to an already oversaturated script. I have many doubts about several of the messages, but above all I felt that not even their writers know what they wanted to say.