• The film repeats the line “death is the road to awe” and awe is the best way to describe this film. It’s luminous beauty is unmatched by 99.9% of cinema ever made
  • The three stories (future, present, past) are woven together well but in a different way than nolan’s recent Dunkirk and different than requiem and leone’s the good the bad and the ugly which start a little separate and then are getting closer and closer together as the stakes get ramped up almost like the dueling banjos in deliverance.
  • Parallels can easily and rightly be made to 2001 and david lynch
  • The film is a wonder of set design—my favorite (pic above) section may actually be the Spanish sequences set in the past- such ornate and beautiful design and lighting scheme.
  • That lighting of the entire film is purposefully the fading star (referenced often as is a focal point of the film’s narrative) it’s similar to but distinct from fincher’s green or green/black and soderbergh’s yellow glow. It hovers between the two.
  • The camera is constantly moving in and out in a deliberate speed to keep the structured mise-en-scene symmetrical—many of the symmetrical layouts remind me of Wes Anderson’s work
  • It’s quite possibly both the most beautiful film visually of 2006 and includes the best musical score of the year
  • Aronofsky’s visual triumph cannot be overstated—such meticulous construction detail paired with aching beauty
  • Aronofsky’s obsession with self-mutilation is alive and well here with Jackman giving himself a painful ring tattoo and the inquisitor’s self-flagellation
  • A film of ridiculous artistic ambition- go-for-broke cinema
  • if forced to pick a flaw (and to be clear I’m a 4/4 stars guy here—nowhere near the 51 on metacritic) I think it’s telling I don’t think more of jackman’s performance (though he’s very good) and the screenplay isn’t amongst the best of the year. I think Jackman in the yoga pose is easy fodder for critics but that’s nothing really
  • Must-See/Masterpiece border – I have previously been learning towards high end MS but I’m happy to call it fringy now