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maryann johanson | self-isolating

As I Lay Dying review (London Film Festival)

Mon Sep 23 2013, 09:10pm | 5 comments

As I Lay Dying red light Jim Parrack James Franco

If this isn’t a deliberate parody of furiously solemn, self-conscious artistic pretension, it’s an accidental one.
I’m “biast” (pro): I’m a big fan of James Franco in most of his incarnations

I’m “biast” (con): nothing

I have not read the source material

(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)

Remember a few years ago when James Franco turned a guest-starring stint on the daytime soap General Hospital into a multimedia art project? I’m absolutely convinced he’s up to the same thing again here. Because if this isn’t a deliberate parody of furiously solemn, self-conscious artistic pretension, it’s an accidental one, and I suspect that Franco (This Is the End) — screenwriter and director here — is better than that. Working from the legendary stream-of-consciousness novel by William Faulkner, Franco earnestly deploys two arty, obfuscating cinematic ruses: an abundant use of split screens that apparently allowed him to use up every take from every angle he shot; and permitting his actors (including himself) to affect impenetrable Depression-era backcountry Mississippi accents while mumbling their dialogue. If it’s all offered ironically, perhaps it’s intended to send up overweening directorial ambition and suggest that this tale — of the poor Bundren family making a long journey by horse-drawn cart to bury their recently deceased matriarch in a town many miles away, and told via multiple internal perspectives of family members who do not communicate much with one another — is uniquely unsuited to filmic adaptation. If it’s all offered unironically… well, the upshot is the same. But I figure that by casting his Your Highness buddy Danny McBride in a small part here, Franco isn’t even trying to hide how hard he’s pulling out collective leg, and is now eagerly gathering the head-scratchings of film critics attempting to unravel his work here, which will surely soon be assembled into Phase 2 of this project, probably to be entitled As I Lay Laughing.

viewed during the 57th BFI London Film Festival

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner [Amazon U.S.] [Amazon Canada] [Amazon U.K.]


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watch at home

As I Lay Dying (2013)
US/Can release: Oct 11 2013

MPAA: rated R for disturbing images, some sexual content and brief nudity
BBFC: not rated

viewed in 2D
viewed at a private screening with an audience of critics

official site | IMDb
more reviews: Movie Review Query Engine | Rotten Tomatoes

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