Fingernails

(ETERNAL GLUM OF THE NAILLESS THUMB)

Filled with an offbeat insight, this smart, provocative, and moody sci-fi romance has a flair for the absurd.

Fingernails is a RomCom masquerading as mystery. The premise is solid, examining the idea of love & compatibility via a (mostly) definitive test. Anna (Buckley) & Amir (Ahmed) are colleagues whose evitable coupling is a foregone conclusion. At its core it's a film about free will & relying on feelings rather than machines that satirises the notion of quantifying compatibility. Buckley & Ahmed carry the film, but the languished pacing & melancholic tone make it a less enjoyable watch.

You can really feel the influence of working with Yorgos Lanthimos (especially The Lobster) and this is a good thing. The central ironic conceit of a scientific test for (capital L) Love holds up suprisingly well, along with all the other absurd social externalities of successful coupledom (my personal favourite being 'good at disco dancing'). The dark satire is gentle, and the answers it suggests are open enough to linger beyond the frame of the film.

I feel it ran out of narrative road pretty quick, making it predictable and a bit dull, but in a kind way. Needed some salt and pepper if you ask me

it’s not like the movie doesn’t have any insight but if the whole gist of the movie is to say *well, human condition is complicated and it’s not possible to rationally sum up love* without presenting any interesting character or situation all the while with a clean ad-like cinematography…i don’t know…

"bazen aşık olmak, tek başına olmaktan daha yalnız hissettiriyor."

A clever, subversive take on hopeless romance with excellent performances from Buckley, Ahmed, and White. Doesn’t reinvent the wheel regarding risk and reward in love, but it casts a spell with offbeat comedy and genial absurdity.