this was pretty good.
Rather than lean into exaggerated conflict, Song embraces understatement. And even though her background, like Nora’s, is in playwriting, she clearly understands the difference between making art for the stage and for the screen. She also displays an innate understanding of visual storytelling. Working with cinematographer Shabier Kirchner, she allows the characters to be realistically inarticulate about their feelings, and instead shows their emotions and connections through blocking and framing. Note the body language between Lee and Magaro in the photo above. Consider the physical distance between Magaro and Yoo in that same image. If I hadn’t told you any of Past Lives’ plot, you probably could have intuited a lot of it just from that single picture — something that Past Lives itself considers from its very first scene.
good reviews.