The Queen’s Gambit (2020) *****

I stumbled upon this mini series in my Netflix suggestions and it looked interesting, with an underdog heroine, a brainy subject and a very original concept that left me guessing where this was supposed to be going. I was hooked within minutes. The visuals are gorgeous, with a muted colour palette and clean lines from the 1960ies. The acting is absolutely superb, and Anya Taylor-Joy is mesmerising to watch as she portrays a child genius with a troubled past and a bit of a substance abuse problem. I was thrilled to see Harry Melling and Thomas Brodie-Sangster alongside her, too – both actors that I’ve been meaning to see more of.

The plot is very satisfying because, despite some minor hiccups, it is essentially catastrophe-free. Main character Beth may be a bit of an oddball, possibly with some kind of mental condition, but despite her stony façade, she is a lovely girl with no psychopathic dark side, like you might expect. The drama surrounding and interfering with her life is quite mundane and non-epic. She faces real-life challenges, but they are surmountable, and it’s nice to know that things will probably be ok. I am grateful to the writers for not forcing any catastrophic or shocking twists, because – despite the tension of the chess games – this makes for a relaxing viewing experience where you don’t have to expect terrible things to happen around every corner, for once.

The chess itself was unexpectedly exciting, both through the brilliant editing, excellent acting – the faces of the players did all the story telling – and the rousing, gorgeous score by Carlos Rafael Rivera. I’m sure it will get a lot of people interested in the game.

5/5

 

The Lobster (2015) ****

This dark arthouse drama about a society where love is mandatory was surprising and absolutely riveting. In its peculiar tone and mysterious concept, it reminds me very much of Under The Skin, especially since it also appears to have been shot in Scotland. Intriguing from the start, the strange script, despite the outlandish ideas it contains, is surprisingly comprehensive and easy to follow.

The unsettling and ominous atmosphere of the film is created not only be the slightly out-of-tune score, bleak colour palette and cruel concepts, but mostly by the deliberately wooden and dead-eyes delivery of oddly flat dialogue. The actors were obviously asked not to display emotion – or maybe display the opposite of the expected emotion – and I imagine delivering all their lines with little to no inflection must have been very challenging. Yet there were only a few slip-ups. It mostly sounded like someone was haltingly reading a book that they felt no emotional engagement for.

After a while, what was a creepy dystopia almost turned into a full-blown horror film, complete with animal cruelty, murder and maiming. One of the main questions of the film was probably how people can be required to be in love if they are fundamentally so utterly emotionless and uncaring about each other.

The actors did a great job at bringing this paradoxical script to the screen with all around great acting. Collin Farrell impressed with a consistent character performance, portraying a man that seems not quite as dead inside as the rest of the population. Still, his struggles and traumas stay hidden under a studied layer of indifference. Rachel Weisz is great as ever as his love interest, but I particularly enjoyed Olivia Coleman’s disturbingly passive-aggressive portrayal of the “hotel manager”, and Léa Sydoux as the practical but heartless leader of the Loners.

The film was well-made and clearly shot on location in Scotland (it looked like the Isle of Skye to me, but might have been another island). The visual composition stayed minimal and stuck to a grey-green-blue colour palette that made everything look sad, even the gorgeous nature locations. The directing and editing were flawless. Lighting appears to have been mostly natural and the overcast sky aided the washed-out, almost corps-like look of the characters as they struggled through their painful, often hopeless existence trying to conform to rigid social norms.

All in all, a thought-provoking, disturbing parable about societal expectations and how they interfere with the life of the individual. This may warrant a second viewing to catch all of the metaphors and the deeper meaning of certain story elements. Yet I’m not sure I want to sit through this unsettling, distinctly uncomfortable experience again. 4/5