The Cinephile's Aisle
Two film haters and a microphone covering cinema classics, box office blockbusters, and everything in between!
The Cinephile's Aisle
Episode 29: "Die My Love"
Why Die My Love Left Us Wanting
SPOILER ALERT: Episode contains key plot details from Die My Love.
Join TCA as we dive into Die My Love, a film that reaches for emotional intensity while wrestling with structure and perspective. We start with our immediate reactions to the film and how quickly its tone repositions your expectations (00:00), then move into the visual choices and subliminal cues that shape its atmosphere (19:59). We examine why the story feels both packed with ideas and strangely underdeveloped (20:33), and at 21:00 we explore its portrayal of postpartum decline and how closely it connects to real emotional experiences without always earning the weight it aims for. Thoughts on the nonlinear narrative come next (24:12), followed by a closer look at the lead performances and the chances they have in awards season conversations (27:26). We close with the psychological unraveling of the central relationship (30:52) and wrap with a few recommendations for what to watch next, including All Her Fault and Guillermo Del Toros Frankenstein (36:29).
TCA Verdict: a divided room, striking ideas, and a film that never fully settles into itself.
Find us on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube at @CinephilesAisle.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of the Cinephile's Aisle. It is Ofili and McSteve today. How you doing, bro?
Steve:I'm doing good, bro. It's snowing in Toronto, which we're in the second week of November. So that's a very, very big jump scare. I wasn't expecting that. But you know, we're thriving. SAD came earlier this year. What can we do? Just gotta be sad for the next six months.
Ofili:You know what's crazy? I was thinking the same thing. I was like, it so it snowed in Chicago like last week. Okay. I or was it like Tuesday? And I was like, yo, does it normally slow around this time? Is it this feels this feels a little bit early? People started telling me it snows almost every year around Halloween.
Steve:And for some reason I didn't pay attention, but yeah. But it's crazy. I just wasn't expecting that. I wasn't here this time last year in Toronto. In New York, it wasn't snowing. I talked to my New York co workers, you're like, yeah, it's not snowing. We're good though. We're doing good. This is the time of the year. I feel like I say this every time we record around this time, but all the quote unquote really good films start to come out, and you're like, Oh, I don't have enough time for this.
Ofili:It's Cinephile bag. Cinephile bag, man. Cinephile bag, bro.
Steve:Award season torture.
Ofili:We love it. But like I tell everyone if you're doing an on-again, off again cycle for AMC, it's October, November that you start, you get it on. Cancel is in January, they ban you for six months. You pick it back up in June.
Steve:Yeah. Oh man. But we've got it some good stuff this year, you know? And it's been a good year. So I'm gonna read a couple reviews for some of the films that we've seen this year. And I want you to try and guess what films they are.
Ofili:Okay, fair enough. Are these going to be like our reviews? Like, are you reading from like my Letterboxd?
Steve:No, just random letterboxd, just random letterboxd reviews that I thought were pretty funny. First one for busy movie fans everywhere, you can rest easy because I can confirm that you don't have to watch the first 16 films to enjoy this one.
Ofili:I feel like this is like Fast and Furious is not 16. Oh, MCU stuff. It's it's something that's no no no.
Steve:It's it's a film that came out this year.
Ofili:It's a film that came out this year.
Steve:Yeah, it's an only 2025 film. You don't have to watch the first 16 films to enjoy this one.
Ofili:Oh, Mickey 17. Okay, yeah, yeah. Mickey 17. Mickey 17. I thought that was funny.
Steve:Yeah, that was funny. Um, this one just says, fine, I'm gonna kidnap and torture Jeff Bezos.
Ofili:Okay, that is BUGONIA. That is BUGONOIA. Damn, you're good with you're good at this. Yeah, I feel like this has been really fun. This has been really good. It's for sure been a really good year for movies.
Steve:Fair enough. But no, it's been a really good year. I'm not gonna lie. 2024 was not that strong. I was looking at the nominees for best director, and he had like Sean Baker and the Brutalist and the Substance and stuff like that. I'm like, okay, we could have done better. But this year is good, and I think next year is even going to be crazier. Strong end, strong close to the year that we're having so far.
Ofili:Yeah, isn't the I can swear the Passion of Christ movies coming out next year. Whoa, there's a Passion of Christ, you know that there's like a new Passion of Christ. I didn't even know what the change in the story is. We know how it ends. Mel Gibson. I don't know if it's Mel Gibson, but I feel like there's a second Passion of Christ that's coming out next year. And I think Scorsese is doing something religious, though. I know Scorsese is doing a religious thing.
Steve:Okay, okay.
Ofili:Should be coming out next year. We know the Odyssey is coming out next year.
Steve:Yeah. Yeah. And then if you're an MC, if you're a comic book fan, next year is the year. It's the it's the repeat of 2018. We have our next super, super big, super sized film since Endgame, um, Doomsday. So yeah, that's a big one.
Ofili:I mean, I I really doubt it's going to beat Edge of Tomorrow or Man of Tomorrow. Man of Tomorrow, my bad.
Steve:It is absolutely going to affiliate comeback. I I don't think so. I really don't think so. Bro, so I think I was talking to my friend about this. I think the thing is we go, we go in phases, right? No pun intended, even though the MCU has phases. But we've just come out of a very bad phase. We've come out of a phase where people thought that Marvel films were going to die, right? And we're on the high right now, and the box office tends to follow, and the quality also tends to follow those phases. So since we're bad, you know this every film that was coming out was bad. I don't know why or how, but it was just all bad. And now they're good. Yeah, and now they're good, and every film that's coming out is good, you know what I mean? And the crescendos, the crescendo's, and I think doomsday stuff. What do you mean? They've all been good. If you ignore that Black Captain America one, we don't talk about that one. They've all been good.
Ofili:So they've they've been they've been better. They've been better, they've been good, they've been better than the last like four years. Like, you know, as a United, I feel like as a United fan, you know, this last like three games where we were like we were like second on the table for a little bit. We were like, oh yeah, we might be winning the title. I said, Well, just better than we've been recently. It doesn't mean we're one of the best.
Steve:Unfair one player of the month, and the United coach one coach of the month. You guys are good. Like, you can just take that, right? And I think it's the same thing with Feige and his his his universe right now, and the guys down the street too, DC, they're doing great stuff too, you know.
Ofili:So I hate that you're saying DC, they're doing great stuff, like they're not the one cornering the market, big dog. What do you mean? In all kinds, like I feel like they're they're beating, they're beating the boys, they're beating Marvel to a pulp. Like the Sean Gun universe is literally dominating.
Steve:This is their biggest, like, this is as big as it gets.
Ofili:They started off with the bang, we're starting off with supporting characters. I don't think okay, man. You're gonna be able to get it. You're forgetting Lance comes out next year.
Steve:It's not going to beat Superman. Super Girl is also not gonna beat Superman, like nothing that they're going to come out with, except obviously Batman film, is going to beat Superman.
Ofili:No, I disagree. I okay, okay. I feel very much that you will be shocked when it's time.
Steve:Okay. Well, um, yeah, speaking of 2025 and the good, you know, there's some that haven't been so great, some that we really wanted to be great. And today we're gonna talk a bit about one of those films. Um, directed by Lynne Ramsay, produced by Martin Scorsese and Jennifer Lawrence. It's the independent film from Mubi. Well, it was acquired by Mubi for 24 million, their largest purchase to date. Um, it's called Die My Love. And how are we feeling about Die My Love Ofili?
Ofili:I think that's very interesting that you started off with like talking about we expected this to be good or we wanted this to be good. I did not. I very much did not. And it's hilarious. I as soon as I started seeing like produced by Scorsese everywhere, I was like, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. You fooled me one time with that him movie when it was like produced by Danny Peel everywhere. No, you can't run this on me twice. Oh come on, come on.
Steve:I think for being a bit disingenuous there. I thought it was or maybe it's just me. I thought it was gonna be good, and I thought it was gonna be good for two reasons. One, it was on this podcast, this very podcast, that we talked about the current film stars, like the big movie stars right now, right? Yeah, we're talking about how you know Tom Cruise is the last great one, but we have a new batch coming up. And we said Pattinson was a movie star, like that was the consensus on here. J Law took time away from the big screen because she had a kid, she got she went through some form of PPD, not this form, but she went through some stuff, so she took time out. But she's but like if you go back to 2014, I would make the claim that she was the biggest actress in the world, like during the Hunger Games and um Silver Lining's playbook and all of that. She was pretty big. So I think I don't know about that. No, I I I think there's a claim to be made. There is a claim to be made.
Ofili:Obviously, you had I think in in some spaces, like in some in some YA young adult spaces for sure.
Steve:Some YA spaces, yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But I think like when you have J Law and Pattison, and then you have like the producing team that you have, we were expecting this to be good, or we were hoping at least that it would be good. The press had them, you know, tugging on the strings of some old rom com, you know, presses where they're making jokes and they're hugging and kissing, not kissing, but like, you know, poking at each other's personal life and stuff like that. So they marketed this like it was going to be one of those. I'm not even kidding. And before the film even came out, we already saw critics calling her calling for her to be nominated for um best actress in the Oscars. So uh walking into the theater, I walked in, it was limited release, so which probably played into this. But when I got there, it was packed. I sat in a very front row because of how packed it was, you know what I mean? And so I think my entire audience was hoping for this to be good, to be good. Um yeah, so that's why I think that's why I think we're hoping for it or expecting it to be good.
Ofili:I think we lived very different lives. I'm not gonna lie. Because I first of all I feel like you should never know some finer details when things are gonna be really good. You never know some fine details of things. Like you can, you know, you know, Barcelona is kind of you know it's kind of shaky, a little shit right now, because you know who like Barcelona B's coach is. You know, you know names that you should not be knowing. But I'll stood there like you know who you mean, what is like you know what I mean? Fair point, you got a fair point. I can name like six people apart from the coach that like the man is not slaughter, and you should never know that. Yeah, like okay, that's fair. So that's that's that's an example. So and then to apply it here for me, it's like thinking about the producers. Like, I don't think I should ever really know who the producer of a film is. If the movie is going to be banger like that, yeah, they don't need to highlight that. The film should the trailer should carry itself. Okay, the stars should carry itself. And like when I I think like it took me out when you were like, um, you said the producers uh like big star producers, Scorsese, and you know, and I was like, the other producer in the film is J Law. Yes, like it is her.
Steve:When is she a star producer? No, no, she's owned a production company for a bit of time now. I think she's produced a few. No, she has, no, it's not she has she has she has she's not a big producer, like that's not her thing, right? She's an actress, but she's produced a few. Fair enough.
Ofili:Yeah, I'm going to think about my thoughts going into this movie or expecting this movie. I I watched it on a Thursday, I believe. Or no, probably like what no Tuesday, Tuesday or Wednesday. It was like right after work. Um it was chill. I did not have a packed cinema, even though it was a Wednesday typically for and like this is like first week release. So normally it should stretch throughout the week. My cinema had like five people apart from me. Oh wow, yeah. What we do live very different lives. That's what I said. Five people apart from me. So there was, and I heard nothing going into this week about this movie. I completely forgot about this. So I was just like, Oh, this is coming up on AMC, so let me just go watch this. And I was like, Oh yeah, Patterson's in it as well. So I yeah, I want to I want to watch that, I want to enjoy that. So when going into the film, I expected something grounded and intentional about and like you know, reading the the reviews a little bit plus like you know, just the synopsis of the movie. You know, you understand the movie is about psychological unraveling, and you know, it's about postpartum, yeah. And I expected something closer to, and I wrote this in my letterbox review, but I expected something much closer to like the yellow wallpaper, and that's a book by Perkins that deals with the same premise of like a young woman like losing her mind, yeah. And I think one of the best examples of someone losing their mind in film, and like that slightly different topic was dementia, but it was like Anthony Hopkins and the father, and like I kind of felt like this was where we were going.
Steve:You're calling you're calling the literal bazooka, like you're calling he won he won the very award for the depiction of that, but okay, I get what you mean.
Ofili:Yeah, but like what are we if we're not meant to learn from the past? Yeah, the standards are meant to change each year because we have more things to pull from. So I expected this, especially when she recently also the press. I'm disgusted by the press because the way they're having fun, and you're thinking this is like some sweet little rom-coming in to watch.
Steve:I'm like, are these people insane? I think it's very insightful for you to mention the father. And what the father does really well for me, at least, is it puts us in the seat of the lead actor, like it puts us in Hopkins' character, and to the point where you start to question, am I losing my mind? You know, what I mean. You can hate the film, you can not like certain things about the film. Yeah, you can hate the the way it chooses to tell the story. Well, everybody understood exactly what he was going through, right? He takes us through his journey. I feel like Die My Love at no point cares to let us know how she's feeling. And I don't even think I think it does the character itself a disservice by not even letting her know how she's feeling. You know what I mean? Like, obviously, we know that she's going through stuff, we know that she's going through stuff, but it's it's never mentioned, it's never addressed head on, right? And they kind of make it feel like she's just throwing tantrums and wanting to get wanting to have sex and wanting to wanting to her little urges to be satisfied in that moment as opposed to actually like taking time to go through what it is that she's going through and why how she's feeling. So yeah, I just I just didn't think about it like that.
Ofili:I hear what you're saying, and you know, I understand it's very much like bringing up the father again is very much like hydrogen bomb versus coughing baby. Right. But but looking at this film, I actually disagree. I think they try to show us what her descent into madness is and what her feelings are, but they do a poor job, they do a really poor job, and one of the easiest scenes is the hallucinations because you're also there, like they you're like, I don't get the purpose of this. Like you you almost feel like Lakeith is in a perfume ad. Yes, absolutely, yes.
Steve:With the whole motive, like the mode by girl of now, it's just like yeah. Yeah, I thought he was I thought he was a real character. Like, you already wanted to explain that to me. Um, for listeners that feel explain it to me offline, but I genuinely thought he was a real character that she was having real interactions with until after like the first time that they actually interact on screen, she makes him cut his lip with a knife until the next time I see him, I'm like, your lip is healed. How is that happening like how is that possible? Like, where's the blood? Where's the injury? And you know what? So I think, and plus like when they go to his house and stuff like that. And so I don't realize, and maybe I'm just media illiterate, maybe that's the problem, but I don't even think the film does a good job of explaining that. Like, it seems like everyone that understood his reference or the purpose that he serves on screen read the book or they knew something about it. I went in completely blind. I didn't see a trailer, didn't read the synopsis, didn't know any review. And I like to do that for films that I'm actually excited to see. I've set that on the pod before. That's right. Well, I completely had no idea, like, no, I didn't understand. And so I'm like, okay, with time, there's going to be some resolution, as typically there is with uh narratives. There wasn't any resolution for his character or for that storyline, you know what I mean? And I'm just like, yeah. Let's let's let's let's talk about something that I really liked super early on. Um okay, so she wakes up in the middle of the night, she goes to breastfeed the baby, she's breastfeeding the baby, and then puts the baby to sleep, walks back to her husband's workstation or her workstation. Sorry, she's in she's a writer's, but it seems like they paint. And then some of the breast milk dips onto the canvas, and she takes like black paint and she's sprinkling it on sprinkling it on it. So the black from the black paint and the white from the breast milk mix, and then we transition to the night sky, like the milk being the stars and the black paint being the night sky, and then transitions into Pattinson's face because he's looking at the night sky through his telescope. And I'm like, bro, I literally did the lean in lean in my feet because I'm like, okay, and this is very early on. So I'm like, okay, we're cooking with gas. You know what I mean? Like, we're we've touched the and I know that Lynn is a cinematographer. I know that's that's her profession by by craft, or that's a craft by um training. So I know, okay, you know, I'm expecting some great things. And the cinematography is good. I'm not gonna take that away from the film. Like it's pretty inventive, the camera work and stuff like that. And like even before we get to that god tier transition, I had noticed that almost every time that we're looking at um the characters, we're we're looking at them from behind something. At the very start, we're looking at them behind pillars, right? Like we're three pillars away and we're watching them interact. When we're looking at the husband, it's usually from behind a counter or behind a table or something like that. Like when we're looking at both at the mom, at the mom-in-law and Jennifer, it's from behind the kitchen wall. So it's a lot of a lot of that is happening, and there's mirrors as well. We're looking at them through mirrors or through like windows and stuff like that. But ultimately, it means nothing. Like I'm waiting for it to jump out to me and what the meaning is and what the significance is, and it just comes to mean nothing. And I wanted to talk about the other thing that ultimately doesn't really mean anything because you said it in your review, but there's it's a recurring theme. It's like the crawling, it's a recurring theme, and it's like, yo, like, and so at the end, again, I'm giving it patience, like um Lakeith's character, the the camera behind behind layers and the the cinematography, the camera work. I'm I'm giving it patient, I'm waiting for it to end to see what it all means, but ultimately it comes to nothing. There's a thin line between showing something oftentimes or over and over again, so that the audience can be intelligent enough to pick it up as a okay, this is a theme thematically, this is what it means. And then there's the other side of it where maybe I don't know what else to do here, and so I'm just gonna keep the scene. And unfortunately, man, this film just feels like the latter, unfortunately.
Ofili:Yeah, I think um to to start off with like acknowledging the same shot that you said, that shot, I was like, that is cooking. Because even before it merges into because he's like spraying the ink and like the fresh milk and then drips, and before it merges into the transition to the night sky and to Pattinson looking through the telescope, it starts to look like a Rochard painting. Yes, yes, yes, yes, where you know, when where you're like genuinely like this is what they use, or what they use very popularly in psych words and just like in psychology treatment, just to what are you seeing, and just like subliminal messaging, all of that, all of that Freud stuff, and um it's just it's insane because again, I was like, Oh, that was that's cool, you know. That's cool. That's just it was kind of stuff. You're like, oh, that's cool. Yeah, it was cool. Oh, that looks good. Like, like, there's one thing you can't say is that the film did not look good, it did, it genuinely did. Very quickly, you're like, I can't take this anymore. It is like, and I really love the part that you echoed in my review, which is that the film is both overstuffed and underdeveloped at the same time, yeah, yeah. And that is that's the that's die my love. Die my love is overstuffed and underdeveloped at the same time, yeah. And to build off of that, I wanted to talk about one of the like the main themes of the film. I was wondering how you feel because for me, it's like I feel like they went into this film understanding that postpartum decline is like very real, very painful. And you know, we we talked about Jennifer Lawrence having you know, having a child and maybe potentially expensive postpartum depression. I feel like the film relies a bit too much on that real world connection instead of earning it through strong storytelling. Do you feel like the topic was doing the heavy lifting while the actual storytelling was suffering?
Steve:I I think two things. So, yes, the topic is doing the heavy lifting, but that's that's intentional. It's a there's a thesis statement that it's sure, it's a narrative, but like there's a thesis that's building itself around, right? PPD, and we're exploring PPD through non-judgmental eyes, at least we're supposed to as the audience. But I think the acting is also doing some heavy lifting. So, like the storytelling for me is suffering from obviously the topic and the acting being very, very good. Like, you're in awe a lot of times from J Law's nonsensical theatrics, right? You're Jack, oh, she's really committing to it. But it's not giving me enough time to like I'm not able to fully focus on what the on what the the plots or the different acts or what they're what's happening narratively. I'm actually, I think in a few months I'm gonna forget a lot of the different scenes and what they ultimately come to mean. You know what I mean? Because like it's not it's under it's underdeveloped, like you said, and it's not allowing itself to actually grow and develop in real time because every other every other minute or every other, you know, it's throwing us back to PPD, you know, it's throwing us back to um our lead heroin throwing a fit or complaining about something, rightfully so. So it keeps bringing, and every time there's another subplot about to develop, especially with the mother-in-law, which I really like that performance. Oh my god, it's so good.
Ofili:That was so good.
Steve:Every time a new subplot is about to develop, you know, okay, we go to her house and we're actually like experiencing her pain, and she's just lost her best friend, and she's confused and sleepwalking. They find their way to throw it back to her, right? Like they're in the kitchen talking about her pain, and they ask her, How are you doing? and she walks out. She's walking around, she's walking at night with a gun, and she comes herself too, right? And in that same shot, it goes back to the house, to the to J-Law, walking out of the house and going into the field. It's like we're never even allowed to let anyone else's story develop. We don't husband might be cheating on her. Maybe let's look at this a little bit more. Nope, we're gonna go back to the mom. And again, that's the thesis. So, yes, to answer your question, it's a thesis, even though it's a narrative, there's a thesis being explored here. So, unfortunately, we have to stay on that, we have to focus on that. It's just as a as a result, like you know, storytelling suffers because of that reason.
Ofili:That's fine, yeah. I think something that you also mentioned was how they jumped back and forth quite a bit, just so that they could focus on their thesis. How do you feel about the non-linear structure of the film? And like, I know we've hated on non-linear structures because if you don't know how to do it, you're going to mess up the movie. Yeah. And personally, for me, I feel like it created a bit of confusion rather like you know, emotional depth. So, how do you feel? Did the timeline help you connect with characters, or did it feel like the movie was, you know, didn't jump in there off no reason?
Steve:I think okay, there've been films where I've been more mad at it than in this one. So I wasn't like very, very mad at it. Another thing is obviously these filmmakers are better than me at making films. That's why it's filmmakers, obviously. So they're good. They're good at what they're doing. Everybody isn't good, man, at everything. Like, some people are good at some things and some people aren't great. And you kind of just expect some people not to be so good at it. Like, if Nolan is doing a film in a non-linear structure, I'm like, okay, it's going to be good because he has that unlock. Bruh, if she can't do it, she can't do it. She's gonna do her best, which she did, but like you just take what you get. So for me, I tried not to be too mad at it. I think, yes, to answer again, to answer your question, you know what you're saying. It takes away from some of the development or the character development because I'm getting there with this person and you're taking me back to this place, and it's like, okay. But for some other people, it kind of adds a little bit. Like seeing Pattinson's dad, for I don't even know Pattinson's character's name, but seeing Pattinson's dad and seeing what happened, right? After when I did see it, instead of like obviously like earlier earlier on or whatever, when the mom starts coming into focus more, I'm like, okay, I'm understanding why she is the way she is. And in certain other things happening with Jennifer Lawrence's character, like I actually start to feel some empathy for her because like her crash out, like one of her crash outs is placed right between the two times that we see the dad, right? Like early on when he's trying to tie his shoes, and then the later when they have the low interaction where he's holding the belly and saying that's a boy, like her crash outs is like sandwiching between that. And I see I have empathy for her because she has empathy for the dad. I'm like, okay, I don't I'm not blaming her for some of these things that she's doing. I don't think she's an asshole. Just because I've seen her interact with that person, like, you know, right there and then. Um, yeah, and so I'm not blaming her. I'm blaming PPD. So I think that's the purpose that that's why they're placing some of these scenes where they're placing it. But then later on, when you know the wedding and all of that, like the wedding, and she walks pushing the kids on the road and they made and like they're all thrown out of sorts and out of order. I'm like, yeah, no. Because why? Like, what's the point? Like, what are you trying to say? You know what I mean? Just take that story, stay with it, take another story, stay with it, just stay with it, man. Because we've already established, we've already developed your characters to the best of your ability, clearly. So just stick with it at this point. So, yeah, yeah, I think those later stages did the characters a disservice, and it doesn't make me feel like the character, it doesn't make me feel like J-Law. It doesn't make me feel like Pattinson, it doesn't make me feel like anybody that I'm supposed to, so I don't understand why you're doing it.
Ofili:Okay. Yeah. Okay. So on a positive note, since let's let's not be too hatery. I was gonna ask you so which which performance stood out to you the most out of everything? Because you've talked about Patterson, you've talked about J-Law, you raved about J-Law, actually. And I didn't know that you really liked the grandmother's performance as well. So how do you feel?
Steve:I think obviously my answer is J-Law. She's good, she's great. I I I think she earned uh lead actress nomination in this film. I would be very surprised to see her not be nominated. I don't think she's gonna win. We're gonna save this for a future podcast, but I want to say loud and clear November 14th, 2025. Jessie Buckley is your next Academy Award for lead actress for her performance in Hamnet. So when that happens, remember I said this. But I think she did well enough to earn her nomination. So I she carries the performance. I saw Spencer with um Stewart, Kristin Stewart. This reminded me a lot of Spencer because it's a film where obvious Pablo Larrain, we know how Pablo Larrain films tend to be. But that was very much so on her back. I felt like Die My Love, a significant portion of it is on her back. So and we wouldn't feel this way, like we wouldn't be sitting here talking about this and that and that if her performance isn't good, you know what I mean? But her performance is too good, she overcommits to the script, and she puts in a hell of a hell of a show, and that's why we feel the way that we feel. Um, I don't think Pattinson's performance is particularly great. I know, like before a part of the press, he said like he took choreography lessons for dancing, and I'm like, where is it, man? Like I know they did a little, you know, dance here and there, but I don't really I didn't really see it much. And I think he's underutilized. He's great, we know he's great, he's done a bunch of good stuff. But seeing him shoot in northwestern um United States, Montana, right next to Washington, where Twilight was filmed, it just felt like bro was taking a step back, man. And like that thing with the with the green, the color gradient being like dark, kind of like how Twilight was. I'm like, uh yeah, no, no, okay, okay. Um, and then the the mother-in-law or the grandmother, depending on whose point of view you're looking at. I thought she was fantastic, man. I thought she was beyond fantastic. And the scene, the very last scene we see her on screen, where they're at the come welcome home party um for J Jennifer Lawrence. And Jennifer is like crashing out because everyone's asking her, How are you? How are you? And she's pretending to be good until like the last, you know, okay, let's go. Like Patinson is trying to take her and be like, let's go. And she just like pushes him away and goes in the center of the screen. And she's yelling at everyone. Um, and then the mother-in-law steps forward and she's like, It's okay, it's okay. Cheers, she raises a glass, and they cheers, and she's like, May you live long and die out. I was like, Yeah, bro, I would not be mad at all if she gets you know some acclaim from this, because it felt like she was the balancer, she was like the she was setting the tone, right? For every single time that Jennifer would be on screen with Jennifer and Jennifer would act out, she would like to calm her down or she'd be her rock. And that's because she had been through something like this before, which she shares with her early on. So I really liked her performance, and it kept growing, kept building up on itself until like that scene where it climaxed for me. And I'm like, okay, I actually really love her in this. So yeah, those were the only two for me that I felt great about.
Ofili:Okay, I think something I want to also talk about because you keep talking about her crashing out. And I no, no, and I I definitely agree, but like I know a lot of reviews and a lot of people were talking about how they were confused about what this film was actually about, because obviously postpartum decline is like the major thing, but there's also very heavy themes of like relationship breakdown. Is this like marriage story type vibe between her? Is it just like you know, the constant crashing out, the self-destruction? Does does honestly apart from PPD, is does she is she also suffering from something else psychologically that's causing a lot of this reckless behavior?
Steve:So I'm gonna flip the question on you because you're the one that's more um adept in you know matters of the brain. Are some of these things related? Because you know, when sometimes people have anxiety, uh, they also tend to have depression and they also have to like it just snowballs on itself. Do you know if there's any links between you know PPD and it affecting other? Because obviously, most times that we see PPD, it's uh it's one person, it's like you know, isolated to the to the woman, and everyone else is like, I don't know what to do about her, da da da. But do you think that leads to because obviously she was hypersexual? It wasn't like a case where where in some other cases of PPD that I've seen, it's lack of you know, they don't want to have, you know, they feel very asexual. In this case, she was it was beyond hypersexual, and her husband wasn't, you know, um reciprocating, instead, he was finding that outside of the house. So, yeah, my question for you is is there a link to that?
Ofili:Unfortunately, I feel like I'd have to do a little bit more research, but there is like I do know that there is a comorbidity. Okay, um, so comorbidity just I don't know if you know what comorbidity means, but let me just give it an example. So comorbidity just tends to mean like these things just kind of develop together at some fucking time. So happening concurrently. So a really good example is how ADHD has a comorbidity with both anxiety and depression. So you can have ADHD, which can manif- manifest in depression, okay, but also have depression, depression, and anxiety, so it just kind of comes together. So I feel like that could be something that's going on here, yeah. But I'm also wondering did she have pre-existing conditions before PPD? Okay, we don't get enough context. We don't know because it's not grounded. Exactly. Yeah, and like there is like a little inkling of things where she's in the clinic and the therapist is talking to her about her about abandonment issues and her pants dying when she was 10, how at one point she was almost kidnapped. Yeah, well, I don't know if it was almost kidnapped, maybe I'll be dramatic. But I recently watched this show called All Her Faults, which is kind of just like about like kidnapping like a four or five-year-old, which is like what what happens here with her being lost for hours and her parents getting very upset.
Steve:Yeah, I like that you mentioned the scene because after that scene, part of the whole non-linear thing, they show us when they go to the beach as a reformed couple and they just come, someone just comes, like the kids come, you want to play with the baby, and she's like looking at him almost like I was like, I could have bet money on it that she was gonna crash out. That was crazy. She wish she was staring at him. Yeah. So I think like even though we saw that happen a couple times, when they wanted when he wanted to take them on the drive, when they wanted to take her on the drive, and she was like, she's just not gonna leave the baby, and then when she comes back, she runs to the baby. So it sounds like there's there's a there's some attachment, or rather, um, I don't know if it's abandonment, and I don't know if it's linked to what happened with her parents, but obviously she's attached to this baby. And in I think it's good that in every single, again, I call it a crash out because I don't know what a term to use, but in every single crash out, they never show the baby being negatively affected, right? Or they never showed the mom intentionally harming the baby. If anything, it's patenting that she's like, go pick up your child, or go, you know what I mean? Like the dog is barking and barking, and the baby's crying because the dog is barking, and it's her that takes the dog out and does what she does to the dog. And so I feel like I love, I love that you can't, like, there's no, you don't walk out of this room feeling like she was a bad mother. But all the other stuff, yeah. I think I don't know the term that you just use, cum mobility. I do think that there's some, you know, like you said, marriage theory. I mentioned marriage theory in my review. Yeah, like there's a relationship, there's a relationship breakdown here, and I think it's all sort of linked. Like there's something going on there. I just wish, again, that's what I was asking if you knew, so that would explain it a bit better since Ramsey chooses not to. I just wish there was some more context. Like, all we know is that they moved from New York, they moved into this house that was left to them by the father, right? Uh, the uncle. The uncle, the uncle, yeah. And um, yeah, I wish there was more given to us.
Ofili:Yeah, I just I definitely think there was more given to us. I feel like a lot happened to her in a short time. So obviously, there's stressful situations from writer's block and inconsistency with that kind of lifestyle, then moving to a new place where you don't really have family. But she's also apparently never really had family since like 10. So it's like a lot is going on, and you don't really know what is the cause of this decline.
Steve:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, we can we can start to close out. I think another thing this reminded me of is I Saw The TV glow last year. We didn't we didn't uh talk about that on the podcast, but that was another film where I felt very similar to this in that it's important stuff we're talking about in very important subtext and context. But the filmmaker, um, Schoenbrun in that case, is being very, very defiant and persistent in that we're not gonna tell you, I'm not gonna tell you anymore. I'm not going to show you any more than I want to show you, and you're going to take that away from this. And I don't know. I think there's something to commend there, I guess. Like I might not enjoy it, I might find it um, I don't want to say boring because her accent is too electric to call it boring, but I might not be too enthralled by what is displayed. But at the same time, both of those films, 24 hours, even 48 hours after it, I was still thinking, man. I was still like I was rattling, I was very unrated. The films were unnerving. Um, I felt like they were intentionally they were intentionally and stubbornly unnerving, but they succeeded in that. I was still thinking about it long after I left the theater. So good job to them, both of them. Cinematography is inventive, the music is amazing, the acting, especially Jennifer learned, uh very electric stuff. I wish that we had gone a different route, but ultimately, like a lot of people, especially mothers, are loving this. Um and wives as well are loving it. So I'm glad it exists, man. Like we need important subtext or cut or films with subtext that people love. You know what I mean? We don't have to like it. I hear you. I hear you. If people love it, that's that's enough for me.
Ofili:Hey man, if they love it, we like it. Okay, as you mentioned earlier, we're gonna close out right now. And this has been one of our shorter episodes, but you know, don't worry. We have a loss of content coming for you guys up soon. Steve, give us a rec to close us out. What's your what's your go-to right now?
Steve:Man, you should not have asked me that because I'm about to glaze. But guys, I've just been given license to glaze, so why not? So earlier this year, we did our Oscar episode, and when they asked me who my vote for best actor was, I said, my current working favorite actor, Chalamet. So crazy that I said that out loud. I was ashamed to say that a few years ago. But um, man, guys, I don't want to say, you know, we don't want to be those guys that get excited too early. But if you're not invested, if you haven't purchased your stocks, go all in right now. I'm telling you right now, man. Marty Supreme is going to rewrite the entire landscape of the year. This is the big one, guys. This is the big one. I feel it in my bows. I feel it in my bones, man. This is the one. So uh Christmas, Christmas Day, following his tradition of Wonka and Complete Unknown, or around Christmas, rather. It's the big one. I think that's the one. I think that's going forward. I think that's the one, even more than your Hamnet's and your Park Chan. I think this is the one. Yeah. Have you already no, you haven't yet seen it though?
Ofili:I haven't seen, I haven't seen it, I haven't seen Supreme. You're kidding me, bro. That's what I said. I'm gonna beat the gun, bro. Okay, I believe. Okay, I'm I'm gonna give the people a recommendation of something that is currently out. Okay. So there actually two things. So earlier I talked about All Her Fault, the TV show that's on Peacock. You're going to love Sarah Snook in that, you're going to love uh Dakota Fanning in that. Jay Ellis is also in that. It's fucking good. It's so good. Okay, okay, it's so good. Then um, the last thing I want to talk about is Frankenstein. That is also pretty good. Oscar Isaac does a great job there. Oh, okay. Okay. And wait, with Elordi.
Steve:Okay, that's what I was going to ask you. So let's cut you off. We did talk about that one, and I haven't seen it. Yay or nay? I'd say it's a it's a yay. Okay.
Ofili:It's not a yay, but it's a yay. You know, Guillermo del Toro is gonna find you another like 6'4 attractive looking person, make them and make them a monster woman wanna fuck. Like it's kind of weird. It's it's so weird. But the people are saying he's washed man. I mean, I feel like the problem is that he's he's the he did salt burn, he's doing this. This is okay, but Saltburn and he's going to do Wuthering Heights. So it's just kind of like we don't know if you're trying to do a ser you're are you a serious actor, basically. Okay, okay. You're a serious guy, you know.
Steve:Okay, okay.
Ofili:Fair enough. Yeah. All right, ladies and gentlemen, this has been another episode of the Cinephile's Aisle. I hope you guys enjoy this episode. Should be coming out pretty soon. Have a great day.
Steve:Have a good one.
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