Nuestro tiempo

As an Australian watching this narrative unfold in a Mexican life unknown to me was both refreshing and original. Especially the cinematography and slow yet precise direction. Kudos.

Masterpiece. Dark. But amazing. Reygadas as always plays with the language of film.

Carlos Reygadas's cinema is one of meticulous observation and grandiose revelations. Casting himself and his real-life wife, the Mexican auteur boldly explores with spellbinding visuals the dark corners of relationships, dissecting patriarchy along the way. A domestic drama of majestic proportions.

Last month each viewing of The Souvenir lifted me one step into an aesthetic that I couldn't initially appreciate. And now it's happening again, with Our Time, by Carlos Reygadas. (The reviews on Metacritic are abysmally low.)

My first viewing, last night, was similar to that of at least one reviewer. In the middle of an interesting or puzzling shot, your heart breaks open and you haven't the faintest idea why. Has the spaciousness of the landscape prepared you? Or the passage of time? Or the tension? At the end (or in my case, as always, the next morning) you are left with such sadness. For...? For the human condition?

In his first sentence one reviewer calls the film "spiritual." Yes, at times wasn't there the sense of something beneath the surface, silent, all-embracing? Needs to be seen again.

Carlos Reygadas has become one of the greatest film-makers of our time. All his films have been great works, but this is his first masterpiece, exploring most of the same central themes of marriage, fidelity, infidelity and ranching that his two previous films ('Silent Light' and 'Post Tenebras Lux') have, but with more coherence and focus than 'Post Tenebras Lux', and more depth than either of them.

Nothing about movies engages me as much as masterful cinematography, and I've encountered very, very few directors whose cameras have awed me with their grace, uniquity and creativity as much as Reygadas has with his more recent works. The visual texture of the Digital Cinema Package format is definitely a hindrance, but this is easily the most visually astounding film I've ever seen made with it. Over and over and over again, I found myself asking 'How in the hell does this man DO it?'

Carlos Reygadas movies are a bit of a hit or miss with me. He's also an acquired taste as all of his movies are very different from mainstream movies and I understand if they rub people the wrong way. The deliberate pacing, the graphic sex scenes, the rural setting are enough reasons to discourage some people but, if it has an interesting story behind all this I usually like his movies. And I'm glad to say that this one is a winner for me. Again, most of his trademarks are there, and it is a three hour movie but I found this marriage story to be very engaging. It even gains an extra layer when you realize that the actors playing the couple are real life husband and wife and he is also the director. Who needs therapy when you can lay it all bare in a movie... Anyway, it is a very well directed movie and I found the cinematography breathtaking but I think it all rests on the shoulders of both actors to carry the movie and make you care for their relationship and they completely nail it. So, if you're a bit tired of all the Hollywood same old same old you might want to give this movie a chance.