Mild-mannered English countryside fashion designer Eloise finds her urban fellow design students cruel and insufferable, and decides to move into an old boarding house. There, she starts to receive dreams of her favorite time period, the 1960s in London, and is captivated by a gorgeous confident singer, Sandie. However, Ellie's dreams soon turn into increasingly horrific and intrusive visions as her desire to uncover the whole awful story cuts dangerously into her life.
The film is extremely slick in its surrealism and horror. Brilliant visual effects and staging are used to constantly blur Ellie and Sandie together, with them swapping out in mirror reflections and switching places and costumes as they share a space in the past, all paired with Ellie consciously embodying elements of Sandie to reinvent herself in her waking time. The visions are started with red and blue lighting flashes hailing from the real world, and the bedroom and lights soon create Pavlovian dread for the next vision.
The film is about a lot of things. Mental health struggles and isolation fuel the characters' concern for Ellie as she seems on the verge of a seriously dangerous breakdown, but there's a lot about loss of innocence, misogynist abuse, and the death of a dream as Ellie and Sandie face the perils of London and adulthood and the cruelty in fame. The film plays really well with the idea of ghosts as a concept, as we see some ghosts are memories and some memories are actually ghosts, and it creates a unique horror atmosphere.
Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy are excellent in their roles(s) and the evolution each character undergoes is compelling. The film plays very heavily with the question of whether Sandie will notice or interact with Ellie and what that interaction will mean, and the relationship of the two characters gets a really interesting resolution. I think Ellie can seem a little too far into the "born in the wrong generation" mindset, but seeing how her experiences tell her how wrong that mindset is, it works out. I'll also say this film has one of my all-time favorite climaxes. While I could easily guess the first narrative revelation that starts the ending climax, the second revelation that drove the climax blindsided me while instantly twisting the film upside-down in a way that elevates the experience into something else while adding its own ideas. This film absolutely stuck the landing for me by ending with a big flourish.
This was a well-done surrealist thriller with lots of compelling atmosphere, acting, visuals, and narrative turns. It's maybe not the deepest, but I think it's a great viewing experience.
Just what *is* a ghost?
Mild-mannered English countryside fashion designer Eloise finds her urban fellow design students cruel and insufferable, and decides to move into an old boarding house. There, she starts to receive dreams of her favorite time period, the 1960s in London, and is captivated by a gorgeous confident singer, Sandie. However, Ellie's dreams soon turn into increasingly horrific and intrusive visions as her desire to uncover the whole awful story cuts dangerously into her life.
The film is extremely slick in its surrealism and horror. Brilliant visual effects and staging are used to constantly blur Ellie and Sandie together, with them swapping out in mirror reflections and switching places and costumes as they share a space in the past, all paired with Ellie consciously embodying elements of Sandie to reinvent herself in her waking time. The visions are started with red and blue lighting flashes hailing from the real world, and the bedroom and lights soon create Pavlovian dread for the next vision.
The film is about a lot of things. Mental health struggles and isolation fuel the characters' concern for Ellie as she seems on the verge of a seriously dangerous breakdown, but there's a lot about loss of innocence, misogynist abuse, and the death of a dream as Ellie and Sandie face the perils of London and adulthood and the cruelty in fame. The film plays really well with the idea of ghosts as a concept, as we see some ghosts are memories and some memories are actually ghosts, and it creates a unique horror atmosphere.
Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy are excellent in their roles(s) and the evolution each character undergoes is compelling. The film plays very heavily with the question of whether Sandie will notice or interact with Ellie and what that interaction will mean, and the relationship of the two characters gets a really interesting resolution. I think Ellie can seem a little too far into the "born in the wrong generation" mindset, but seeing how her experiences tell her how wrong that mindset is, it works out. I'll also say this film has one of my all-time favorite climaxes. While I could easily guess the first narrative revelation that starts the ending climax, the second revelation that drove the climax blindsided me while instantly twisting the film upside-down in a way that elevates the experience into something else while adding its own ideas. This film absolutely stuck the landing for me by ending with a big flourish.
This was a well-done surrealist thriller with lots of compelling atmosphere, acting, visuals, and narrative turns. It's maybe not the deepest, but I think it's a great viewing experience.