Lovesong

The first thing one needs to know is that the movie has a strong autobiographical element to it. On the DVD, in the 'extras', the writer-director explains that she had similar experiences growing up, some with boys and others with girls, that is what prompted her to make this movie. She is married and has kids, the two little girls who play the same character at age 3 and age 6 are her daughters.

I came across this movie on DVD from our public library. After seeing a couple of Jena Malone movies recently, I wanted to see if I had missed any and this one came up.

Plus we also like Riley Keough. She plays Sarah, a young married woman with a young daughter and a husband that has to be away from home too much for business. Then her old friend visits, Jena Malone as Mindy. At a gathering later they say they have been knowing each other for 17 years so they must have grown up together from their preteen years. They have some low-key time together then Mindy buys a bus ticket to New York. They don't see each other for another three years, when Mindy is getting married.

The movie has all the feel of an independent, low-budget movie. It has a couple of strange scenes that both my wife and I thought were very odd. Some dirty jokes at the pre-wedding party that seemed way out of place for the audience.

Overall both Malone and Keough handle their roles very well but the movie itself is just so-so, a slice of life of two old friends who aren't quite sure if they love each other more than they love their spouses. I suppose things like that happen in real life.

Definitely didn't know to expect for this film, but what it eventually ended up being is a solidly written and very well acted tale of two friends. It's not a film driven by plot at all, and for that reason it may not engage all types of viewers, but it does tell a nice human story. More than anything, the two leads are really quite good in this. It's nice to see Riley Keough leading a film like this and I hope she continues to get offered roles, and Jena Malone can always be relied on something extra in her roles. This was no exception.

Right from the beginning of the movie I sat with a weird feeling of wanting to participate in the illusion of the film but to never be able to submerge in it. The actors all seemed strangely aware of the cameras - like they throughout the film were trying to conceil an awkward smile - even though we are talking about highly experienced actors (this fact rises a lot of questions: Was there a lot of improvising? Did the actors feel unsafe? Did the director fail? Was the cinematographer of an odd character? All of this popped into my head while watching the film which was quite distracting). The choice of telling the story through mainly closeups feels somewhat misguided since the actors didn't have very much to work with - the storytelling didn't provide them with proper background for their characters and didn't build up the proper emotions within the viewers to justify the astetic choices that have been made. The cinematography promise much more emotional rawness and intensity than the director/script/actors could provide and the movie feels like it's missing some pieces in order to make the audience feel what it so eagerly is trying to make them feel.

I haven't seen any of So Young Kim's other movies, but I am going to make an effort. I understand the varied responses of others here, and make no excuses; it is different for me, and this love story really is a Lovesong, one played in the background over several years, which rises from piano to sforzando, and back to quietness. Remarkably acted and directed, Riley Keough and Jena Malone are just perfect in the depiction of their barely suppressed love for one another. The film both delighted and depressed me, but it has become one that I will buy to keep. I do agree with a review of Lovesong by Justin Chang in "Variety" on 25 Jan 2016: "There's a remarkable truthfulness to the film's acknowledgment that people often make enormous decisions rooted not in fear so much as uncertainty, even laziness, as well as a comfort with their lives as they've lived them until the present juncture." What is left unsaid is the consequences of those decisions, that we are left to look out the window and consider. Well done.

Lovesong (2016) was co-written and directed by the Korean-American filmmaker So Yong Kim. It stars Riley Keough as Sarah, a young married woman who might as well be a single mom. (Her husband is away for months on business.) Sarah lives in a beautiful home, in a beautiful setting. She has a great daughter, Jessie, played at age three by Jessie OK Gray, and at age six by Sky OK Gray. (I assume they are the director's two daughters.)

Enter Sarah's old friend Mindy (Jena Malone) who lives in New York City. They haven't seen each other for years, but they're still good friends. We get a sense that they're more than good friends, but director Kim is discrete about these things. After spending the night together, Mindy leaves for NYC. The women don't meet up again until three years later.

There was a good movie in here somewhere, but it never made its way out. Both women are moody, taciturn, and passive. As an example, it apparently never occurs to Sarah that she could do more with her life than be a mother to Jessie, and wait for her husband to return home. How about leaving Jessie with a sitter and volunteering for a political cause or for a library? Nope. She just sits home, takes walks, and sulks.

Mindy doesn't appear to have any thoughts at all. She makes an offhand comment about work, but she never says what she does and how she does it. She certainly has a gamine-like charm, but we don't see anything else to recommend her as a friend or as a person.

This is the movie to see if you want a story about two attractive women who don't really connect with each other or with the world. Otherwise, find a better movie and watch that one.

We saw this film at the excellent Little Theatre, as part of the wonderful ImageOut Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on the small screen.

Lovesong is one of 22 films that had their New York State premiere, or their East Coast premiere, at ImageOut. My compliments to the ImageOut Programming Committee for their great success in bringing these films to Rochester.