I recently(ish) saw "A Ghost Story", David Lowery's most recent film, and felt some things about it.
A persistent issue I seem to have whilst watching more "Arthouse", or just less mainstream cinema is this constant sense of scepticism at the more unconventional elements of the filmmaking - it's as though I have to internally justify the merits of a film and convince myself on one level that a film isn't just pretentious shit. In "A Ghost Story" this mainly came from:
1. the use of an unusual aspect ratio (1.33:1)
2.very sparse, editing, with extremely long, lingering shots, used to heighten their emotional impact and develop (mostly) very believable characters.
Both of these decision really, measurably improved my appreciation of the film however even 2 or 3 weeks after having watched the film I have this doubting feeling that I
forced myself to like it more than I "really" did.
Does anyone else encounter this? I find it massively frustrating because it always feels like it lessens my enjoyment of films that I, on one level, genuinely enjoyed, however I guess it probably also leads me to better clarify exactly why I haven't enjoyed films that I broadly felt were o k a y.
this turned a bit rambling but basically (I think) I really enjoyed "A Ghost Story"; both Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck (
I know) put in really subtle, convincing performances and the cinematography is
GORGEOUS - and this isn't even mentioning how interesting and original some of the themes explored are, would highly recommend as a film that you'll still be digesting/thinking about weeks after watching it
edit: I totally get what you're saying with 2001 - again the cinematography, mise en scene, editing etc. is stunning but a lot of it's "deeper meaning" seems pretty wooly to me so I feel a bit lukewarm to it on the whole