Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022)
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Dead or Deader
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Finch
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
- Location: Edinburgh, UK
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cantinflas
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DarkImbecile
- Ask me about my visible cat breasts
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Re: Trailers for Upcoming Films
That was the trailer for the actual full trailer
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DarkImbecile
- Ask me about my visible cat breasts
- Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
- Location: Albuquerque, NM
Re: The Films of 2022
It’s as rare to see a fantasy film with a decent budget and ideas aimed at adults as it is to see one unapologetic in its joy for visual and auditory inventiveness, the patient rhythms of good storytelling, and big emotions. Not all of George Miller’s attempts at those things in Three Thousand Years of Longing consistently work — some of the emotional moments don’t land with the intended effect, a bit of the pacing is off at either end of the film, and the reach of Miller’s visual ideas sometimes exceeds their grasp — but the sheer volume of attempts makes this one of the more purely enjoyable moviegoing experiences I’ve had this year.
The scope of the titular millennia allows the film’s stories nested within stories to illustrate both the permanence of the animating urges, desires, and failings of the human condition and the way the fantastical mysteries of the past have faded into the under-appreciated magic underlying modern society. If some of the points Miller wants to reiterate about the importance of mythology and narrative to our existence aren’t made with much subtlety, they are infectiously delivered with an unassuming earnestness and evident delight by a filmmaker approaching his 80s and still having fun with his chosen form.
Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton’s performances are as good as you’d expect, but they aren’t as central to the success of the film as I’d assumed; the dreamy reality-adjacent atmosphere and the story-hopping narrative swirls around them more than serves as a platform for their talents.
Finally, I’ll say that it’s a real shame that MGM clearly had no clue what do with this film, with an advertising campaign that tried to make it look only slightly less wacky and manic than Everything Everywhere All at Once and a release plan dumping it at the end of August. It probably wasn’t ever going to fill multiplexes, but it deserved more of a chance with audiences than it got.
The scope of the titular millennia allows the film’s stories nested within stories to illustrate both the permanence of the animating urges, desires, and failings of the human condition and the way the fantastical mysteries of the past have faded into the under-appreciated magic underlying modern society. If some of the points Miller wants to reiterate about the importance of mythology and narrative to our existence aren’t made with much subtlety, they are infectiously delivered with an unassuming earnestness and evident delight by a filmmaker approaching his 80s and still having fun with his chosen form.
Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton’s performances are as good as you’d expect, but they aren’t as central to the success of the film as I’d assumed; the dreamy reality-adjacent atmosphere and the story-hopping narrative swirls around them more than serves as a platform for their talents.
Finally, I’ll say that it’s a real shame that MGM clearly had no clue what do with this film, with an advertising campaign that tried to make it look only slightly less wacky and manic than Everything Everywhere All at Once and a release plan dumping it at the end of August. It probably wasn’t ever going to fill multiplexes, but it deserved more of a chance with audiences than it got.
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Brian C
- I hate to be That Pedantic Guy but...
- Joined: Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:58 am
- Location: Chicago, IL
Re: The Films of 2022
In fairness, I think that if I was running MGM, I wouldn't have known what to do with Three Thousand Years of Longing either! At some point, the studio must have noticed that they just didn't have a movie on their hands that audiences would enjoy, and what do you do then?
I think that the biggest weakness of the film is that it just has no clear idea of who these characters are, and I think the performances reflect that lack of vision. Elba seems to think that he's in a movie called Three Thousand Years of Self-Pity - this is the most dour, humorless romantic lead I can remember in some time. And Swinton ... look, I love Tilda Swinton. But would it have killed her to play this character as someone that has at least the tiniest shred of charm? Certainly she's capable of it, but her charmless spinster routine is just the wrong choice for this material in every way. On the other hand, his character arc from Sheba to Swinton's character may be why the Djinn is so dour and humorless!
The title of the film is so evocative, but I didn't feel a lot of "longing" here at all, and the film is not so successful in persuading that Swinton's "heart's true desire" or whatever has anything to do with love or longing in the first place (the Djinn's conception of love seems to be mostly the generic possessive type). And I have to be honest, I don't know what the point of this movie even is. The anthology that takes up most of the first half is fitfully engaging, but none of the stories really work on their own to the extent that I'd want to see feature-length versions of them. And the framing each of them within the overall narrative seemed annoyingly self-referential - Swinton says something like "oh I've read all the stories and I know the pitfalls", and the Djinn is like "Aha, well the next chapter of my story illuminates the pitfall that you speak of!" But the real drag of the movie are the present-day scenes between Swinton and Elba, especially after the story switches to London, where among other things we learn that modern-day Istanbul apparently does not have cell phones or TV.
It's funny to me, because a lot of the reviews for this film seem like the reviewers are conflicted - few seem to have actually liked the movie, but they're hesitant to shit all over a movie these days that is as original and daring as this one. And I get it, but the bottom line is that this film had very little in the way of actual enjoyment to offer as far as I'm concerned. Frankly it's a slog, despite all the visuals and my admiration (in principle, at least) for Miller really putting himself out on a limb with this one. It's just kind of a terrible film.
I think that the biggest weakness of the film is that it just has no clear idea of who these characters are, and I think the performances reflect that lack of vision. Elba seems to think that he's in a movie called Three Thousand Years of Self-Pity - this is the most dour, humorless romantic lead I can remember in some time. And Swinton ... look, I love Tilda Swinton. But would it have killed her to play this character as someone that has at least the tiniest shred of charm? Certainly she's capable of it, but her charmless spinster routine is just the wrong choice for this material in every way. On the other hand, his character arc from Sheba to Swinton's character may be why the Djinn is so dour and humorless!
The title of the film is so evocative, but I didn't feel a lot of "longing" here at all, and the film is not so successful in persuading that Swinton's "heart's true desire" or whatever has anything to do with love or longing in the first place (the Djinn's conception of love seems to be mostly the generic possessive type). And I have to be honest, I don't know what the point of this movie even is. The anthology that takes up most of the first half is fitfully engaging, but none of the stories really work on their own to the extent that I'd want to see feature-length versions of them. And the framing each of them within the overall narrative seemed annoyingly self-referential - Swinton says something like "oh I've read all the stories and I know the pitfalls", and the Djinn is like "Aha, well the next chapter of my story illuminates the pitfall that you speak of!" But the real drag of the movie are the present-day scenes between Swinton and Elba, especially after the story switches to London, where among other things we learn that modern-day Istanbul apparently does not have cell phones or TV.
It's funny to me, because a lot of the reviews for this film seem like the reviewers are conflicted - few seem to have actually liked the movie, but they're hesitant to shit all over a movie these days that is as original and daring as this one. And I get it, but the bottom line is that this film had very little in the way of actual enjoyment to offer as far as I'm concerned. Frankly it's a slog, despite all the visuals and my admiration (in principle, at least) for Miller really putting himself out on a limb with this one. It's just kind of a terrible film.
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Persona
- Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:16 pm
Re: Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022)
An utterly odd film.
There's an off-handedness about the film that I enjoyed. As Solomon's instrument becomes an increasingly elaborate piece of expression, I had to wonder how metatextual the film itself might be. Turns out, very, though it might be difficult to form a cogent analysis of that fact other than to point out the instances where the film's many narrative threads stretch and strain and wind about each other.
But yeah, pretty baffling to see a FX-heavy not inexpensive movie like this from a big studio when THIS is what it is. I guess it reminded me a bit of BIG FISH but where that traded on whimsy and pacing, this is something entirely more unique and awkward. Miller still brings a lot of vision to bear but I kept feeling like I was watching something that shouldn't even exist, so unusual and disjointed its form, a narrative construct struggling to make itself fit the way its djinn does.
There's an off-handedness about the film that I enjoyed. As Solomon's instrument becomes an increasingly elaborate piece of expression, I had to wonder how metatextual the film itself might be. Turns out, very, though it might be difficult to form a cogent analysis of that fact other than to point out the instances where the film's many narrative threads stretch and strain and wind about each other.
But yeah, pretty baffling to see a FX-heavy not inexpensive movie like this from a big studio when THIS is what it is. I guess it reminded me a bit of BIG FISH but where that traded on whimsy and pacing, this is something entirely more unique and awkward. Miller still brings a lot of vision to bear but I kept feeling like I was watching something that shouldn't even exist, so unusual and disjointed its form, a narrative construct struggling to make itself fit the way its djinn does.
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senseabove
- Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2015 3:07 am
Re: Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller, 2022)
I'm with DI on this one—I wasn't really expecting it to be anything more than mildly entertaining, but I just about loved it. It's earnestly simple without being cloying, content to play a very small theme on a very large scale, and while it certainly has its core message, and a fairly tired one at that, it spells it out with just enough wit and verve that I was on board.
It's likely an unpersuasive argument to say I think the whole thing is less about the stories themselves, how they may or may not have different plots or lessons to similar stories, than about the pleasures of telling or being told a story—but even without that, I can't agree that the Djinn's stories are just redundant illustrations of Alithea's narratological premonitions, since his stories are all about how yes, Djinn tales are about people being tricked or making self-defeating wishes, but they're also about how he's just as often the one that gets 'tricked' or defeated by those wishes. It's probably also salient, if quite literally academic, that, to a narratologist, similarity would be an interesting feature.
There are definitely elements that took me out of it: the plot point Brian mentions about Istanbul vs London, of course; the over-emphasized argument with the neighbors; as well as But I'm fine with it being whimsically slipshod about internal coherence when I'm just grinning basically the whole time.
It's likely an unpersuasive argument to say I think the whole thing is less about the stories themselves, how they may or may not have different plots or lessons to similar stories, than about the pleasures of telling or being told a story—but even without that, I can't agree that the Djinn's stories are just redundant illustrations of Alithea's narratological premonitions, since his stories are all about how yes, Djinn tales are about people being tricked or making self-defeating wishes, but they're also about how he's just as often the one that gets 'tricked' or defeated by those wishes. It's probably also salient, if quite literally academic, that, to a narratologist, similarity would be an interesting feature.
There are definitely elements that took me out of it: the plot point Brian mentions about Istanbul vs London, of course; the over-emphasized argument with the neighbors; as well as
SpoilerShow
the brief moment after Alithea discovers Djinn in his degraded state, when he flees up the stairs and inexplicably, to me at least, appears, underneath his coat, to take on the size, shape, and voice of the first spirit that Alithea encountered in the airport.