Even if she hasn't had a massive blockbuster hit in a few years, Angelina Jolie is without a doubt one of the most recognizable movie stars on the planet. After generating widespread acclaim for her Oscar-winning performance in James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted in 1999, Jolie became perhaps the definitive star of the 2000s. From tabloid drama to blockbuster success in films like Tomb Raider and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Jolie has more than established her spot in the pantheon of great Hollywood celebrities. In recent years, Jolie has tried to make the transition to directing, a switch that many actors have attempted to varying degrees of success. Her 2011 debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, was met with mixed reviews from critics, but expectations were much higher for Unbroken, her 2014 follow-up. Even with Jolie's limited experience behind the camera, many expected the adaptation of the best-selling chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini to be a Best Picture front-runner.
But even a prime Christmas release and a script from the Coen Brothers couldn't save Unbroken from a disappointing result- it snagged a few technical Oscar nominations and did well at the box office, but critics and audiences gave the film poor notices. Her marital drama By the Sea was met with even more disdain, but after a brief hiatus, it appears that Jolie has returned with her most widely appreciated project yet. First They Killed My Father had its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, and it was immediately hailed as her best directorial work yet. Considering the fact that I had heard nothing about the film, I was suddenly intrigued. Telling the story of the Cambodian genocide under the Khmer Rouge through the eyes of a young girl, this is a beautifully shot, often moving story- and unfortunately, a film that is simply a slog to get through. Jolie finds gorgeous power in the painful struggle of the human race, but the film can't apply its intense imagery to a compelling narrative. The result is a monotonous, frequently repetitive tale of suffering and misery, a disappointing film with only a few rewarding moments.
In 1975, as the United States winds down its involvement in the Vietnam War, the country also began dropping bombs on Cambodia. This destabilized what was previously known as a neutral nation, eventually leading to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, a militant revolutionary movement that sought to bring mass equality to the country and destroy the ruling class. This story is framed through the eyes of the young Loung Ung (Sareum Srey Moch), who is forced out of her home in Phnom Penh along with her family. As the revolutionaries begin to form a stronghold in Cambodia, Loung and her family are forced to undergo a series of horrific events, as they are torn apart from each other, harmed, and often killed. As Loung watches the world fall apart around her, she'll struggle to keep what's left of her family together, and to process the complete destruction of the country she once called home.
First They Killed My Father is a powerful film with absolutely nothing to say at all. Loung Ung co-wrote the screenplay with Jolie, and the project has the feeling of a memory, which is indicated by the initial title- A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. But Jolie has trouble stringing the evocative images and tragic material into a story that has any kind of propulsive energy, something to keep the audience engaged in the story moving forward. And in addition to that, the film has little in regards to thematic resonance- each time it seems poised to make a point, the scene ends or Jolie shies away from the idea altogether. Save for one scene towards the end of the film, it's surprisingly less brutal than I imagined it would be, opting to imply violence rather than show it in great detail. This is an inspired choice, but the lack of gratuitous violence doesn't make the film any less excruciating to sit through, an endurance test of the most tedious kind.
And I think that's because the film never really goes anywhere. Jolie uses the camera in two ways- either to convey the perspective of Loung, or to create a kind of bird's eye view to convey the monumental nature of the story. Jolie alternates between these two views constantly, and it's so easy to figure out the film's visual pattern that it quickly grows exhausting. The cinematography by Oscar winner Anthony Dod Mantle is aesthetically appealing, crafting images that are both colorful and hopeless. But the film's narrative is such a loosely connected series of events, and we're told so little about the characters that the sense of emotional investment is ultimately thrown to the wayside. Jolie has an eye for capturing the trauma of human suffering, but when all you focus on is tragedy and misery, eventually you're missing out on something to provide texture to the story.
It's hard to see children put through hell, and this film coasts on that baseline level of empathy for much of the runtime. There are some poignant moments at the end that hit me in a surprising way, and Clint Mansell's score underlines the emotional triumph that Jolie is often trying to display. But I personally believe that the job of narrative cinema is to get audiences to care about characters beyond the pain that they endure, and that's something that just never happens in First They Killed My Father. Loung Ung is reasonably well developed, but while we get a brief sense of the family ties that bond them all together, so many of the characters are blank slates. We see everything through the eyes of Loung- her pain, her dreams, her hopes. But we barely know a thing about her fellow family members, and it eventually feels like Jolie is putting all of the characters through the torturous ringer without much of an impact on the audience.
First They Killed My Father does an incredible job of documenting the horrors in Cambodia that many are unaware of (myself included), and if the film was meant to be a mere recollection of what happened, then it is an unqualified success. But if Jolie hoped to provide some necessary insight into why this happened, then the film is unfortunately a failure. In my head, I kept comparing this to Beasts of No Nation, another Netflix movie about children forced into horrifying situations. Even though they're vastly different films and radically different stories, I can't help but feel that First They Killed My Father makes all the wrong moves in comparison. Its filmmaking prowess is often dazzling, but its storytelling is less than satisfactory, and despite initially trying to frame the narrative in a historical context, Jolie all but abandons it in favor of a manufactured happy ending. First They Killed My Father is a noble undertaking, but it's a difficult film to sit through, and not one that feels all that rewarding in the end. Jolie has a cinematic eye, but I'm still waiting for a project where her obvious skills behind the camera and her understanding of human struggle can be applied to a rich story that results in a satisfying experience.
THE FINAL GRADE: C (5.6/10)
Images courtesy of Netflix
But even a prime Christmas release and a script from the Coen Brothers couldn't save Unbroken from a disappointing result- it snagged a few technical Oscar nominations and did well at the box office, but critics and audiences gave the film poor notices. Her marital drama By the Sea was met with even more disdain, but after a brief hiatus, it appears that Jolie has returned with her most widely appreciated project yet. First They Killed My Father had its premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, and it was immediately hailed as her best directorial work yet. Considering the fact that I had heard nothing about the film, I was suddenly intrigued. Telling the story of the Cambodian genocide under the Khmer Rouge through the eyes of a young girl, this is a beautifully shot, often moving story- and unfortunately, a film that is simply a slog to get through. Jolie finds gorgeous power in the painful struggle of the human race, but the film can't apply its intense imagery to a compelling narrative. The result is a monotonous, frequently repetitive tale of suffering and misery, a disappointing film with only a few rewarding moments.
In 1975, as the United States winds down its involvement in the Vietnam War, the country also began dropping bombs on Cambodia. This destabilized what was previously known as a neutral nation, eventually leading to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, a militant revolutionary movement that sought to bring mass equality to the country and destroy the ruling class. This story is framed through the eyes of the young Loung Ung (Sareum Srey Moch), who is forced out of her home in Phnom Penh along with her family. As the revolutionaries begin to form a stronghold in Cambodia, Loung and her family are forced to undergo a series of horrific events, as they are torn apart from each other, harmed, and often killed. As Loung watches the world fall apart around her, she'll struggle to keep what's left of her family together, and to process the complete destruction of the country she once called home.
First They Killed My Father is a powerful film with absolutely nothing to say at all. Loung Ung co-wrote the screenplay with Jolie, and the project has the feeling of a memory, which is indicated by the initial title- A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers. But Jolie has trouble stringing the evocative images and tragic material into a story that has any kind of propulsive energy, something to keep the audience engaged in the story moving forward. And in addition to that, the film has little in regards to thematic resonance- each time it seems poised to make a point, the scene ends or Jolie shies away from the idea altogether. Save for one scene towards the end of the film, it's surprisingly less brutal than I imagined it would be, opting to imply violence rather than show it in great detail. This is an inspired choice, but the lack of gratuitous violence doesn't make the film any less excruciating to sit through, an endurance test of the most tedious kind.
And I think that's because the film never really goes anywhere. Jolie uses the camera in two ways- either to convey the perspective of Loung, or to create a kind of bird's eye view to convey the monumental nature of the story. Jolie alternates between these two views constantly, and it's so easy to figure out the film's visual pattern that it quickly grows exhausting. The cinematography by Oscar winner Anthony Dod Mantle is aesthetically appealing, crafting images that are both colorful and hopeless. But the film's narrative is such a loosely connected series of events, and we're told so little about the characters that the sense of emotional investment is ultimately thrown to the wayside. Jolie has an eye for capturing the trauma of human suffering, but when all you focus on is tragedy and misery, eventually you're missing out on something to provide texture to the story.
It's hard to see children put through hell, and this film coasts on that baseline level of empathy for much of the runtime. There are some poignant moments at the end that hit me in a surprising way, and Clint Mansell's score underlines the emotional triumph that Jolie is often trying to display. But I personally believe that the job of narrative cinema is to get audiences to care about characters beyond the pain that they endure, and that's something that just never happens in First They Killed My Father. Loung Ung is reasonably well developed, but while we get a brief sense of the family ties that bond them all together, so many of the characters are blank slates. We see everything through the eyes of Loung- her pain, her dreams, her hopes. But we barely know a thing about her fellow family members, and it eventually feels like Jolie is putting all of the characters through the torturous ringer without much of an impact on the audience.
First They Killed My Father does an incredible job of documenting the horrors in Cambodia that many are unaware of (myself included), and if the film was meant to be a mere recollection of what happened, then it is an unqualified success. But if Jolie hoped to provide some necessary insight into why this happened, then the film is unfortunately a failure. In my head, I kept comparing this to Beasts of No Nation, another Netflix movie about children forced into horrifying situations. Even though they're vastly different films and radically different stories, I can't help but feel that First They Killed My Father makes all the wrong moves in comparison. Its filmmaking prowess is often dazzling, but its storytelling is less than satisfactory, and despite initially trying to frame the narrative in a historical context, Jolie all but abandons it in favor of a manufactured happy ending. First They Killed My Father is a noble undertaking, but it's a difficult film to sit through, and not one that feels all that rewarding in the end. Jolie has a cinematic eye, but I'm still waiting for a project where her obvious skills behind the camera and her understanding of human struggle can be applied to a rich story that results in a satisfying experience.
THE FINAL GRADE: C (5.6/10)
Images courtesy of Netflix
Comments
Post a Comment