Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)

#26 Post by DarkImbecile » Thu Nov 17, 2016 4:51 pm

I'll add my support to Campos' light touch behind the camera and the extremely strong performance by Hall (both Halls, actually) in front of it. As someone more than a little familiar with depressive behaviors and mental illnesses, I found the treatment of these topics both powerful and tasteful, a difficult line to walk in a film already having to work to avoid exploitation of the subject matter. Campos and cinematographer Joe Anderson sneak in some subtle yet impressive shots (one of Rebecca Hall leaving a restaurant by a series of mirrors stands out in my memory) without ever distracting from the careful character study that is its main focus. The evocation of time and place is effective throughout - I especially liked the chronology-by-Watergate-news that gives us a strong sense of the passage of time in a place with no seasons.

One of the better efforts I've seen this year, and surprisingly easy to spend two hours with despite the subject matter, if that's scaring anyone away.

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)

#27 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue May 23, 2017 10:32 pm

Not sure if this is news to anybody, but I just noticed this had been added to Netflix and - given its extremely limited distribution last fall - wanted to make sure those who hadn't had a chance to catch it knew it was available.

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Omensetter
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Re: Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)

#28 Post by Omensetter » Sat Jun 03, 2017 7:45 pm

Thanks for the heads-up; the DVD wing of Netflix never bothered to pick Christine up and I found myself in a position today to stream it.

I found the film amazingly accomplished and the story too compelling to even pay much mind to Campos's direction. A lot of this of course falls on Hall's astonishing performance, of whom I'd only previously seen playing a more sensual role in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Just based on my experience, it is remarkable how much this film gets right with regard to details of individuals with depression. Chabbuck's lack of affect, a near monomaniacal pursuit of competence at work almost to avoid life beyond work, an inability to be dishonest, constant stage-management (her "to-do" list and steady, early bedtime) in order to remain functional the next day, a habitual shutting-out of others perhaps out of that peculiar fear/yearning of connection, a disinterest in celebrating one's birthday as self-negation. The film falters at the end post-Christine, partly because those are the first non-Christine scenes of the film and Hall's portrayal is so commanding that the obvious writerly end contrivance thuds all the harder. I'd rather it not be this way, but the films begins and ends with Christine.

For me, the most disconcerting part of the film is when Christine is positively glowing right before asking to anchor---that's when you know she authoritatively wishes to off herself as now she has a concrete plan. The film was wise to not pursue any themes of the sensationalizing of the news except with how it pertains to Christine. That'd be too easy. Sure enough, as I was searching Google to recall how I first heard of Chubbuck (a Rick Perlstein book), the opportunity to view the video was one of the first hits, making me wish the tape was just destroyed.

Solid effort---I look forward to Campos' next offering, and it also looks like I'll have to carry this film with me to recommend as it doesn't seem primed to have a high profile.

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knives
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Re: Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)

#29 Post by knives » Mon Feb 19, 2018 11:21 am

Finally sought this out because of the biopics list and I'm really glad I did. It's about a subtle as a grapefruit to the face, but the material mostly works well toward that end. It seems like the film Campos wants to make isn't particularly good with his fetishization of film and his hatred of modernity, but fortunately there's enough character work here to overcome that. Really the main attraction is the acting which is phenomenal. Even something like the scene with the police captain as short and as corny on paper as it is is absolutely great because the actors hit all the right tones to make it emotionally effective without being exploitative (the one thematic question of the film that completely works). This largely goes to the feet of a completely unrecognizable Rebecca Hall who carries the movie like no other. The way she shifts her eyes and slouches, hell even her hair laying on her shoulders, has so much character to it every aspiring actor should spend hours figuring out how she does it. It's really potent stuff.

Plus the lame geek of an idiot from Veep plays a lame geek of a weatherman here which is fun.

black&huge
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Re: Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)

#30 Post by black&huge » Wed Jan 01, 2020 1:20 am

Is there no R1 blu release of this? I just did a lookaround and if not I wonder why

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mfunk9786
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Re: Christine (Antonio Campos, 2016)

#31 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Jan 01, 2020 1:37 am

Guessing it has something to do with having a $313,465 worldwide box office gross, which is akin to an annual household income or the cost of a charming three bedroom suburban fixer upper. It's streaming in HD though, and it's a very good film so I'd recommend finding a way to watch it.

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