Visitors

Tedious. Glass' score starts as a stupid minimalist quotation of the first several bars from Ludwig van's 9th, or someshit, and the rest is basically a lukewarm, self-parodic turd [and this isn't even his worst lately-- not hardly]. Complete joke of a composer these days, tbh. ok, the film is maybe not entirely as bad as I'm making it out to be, but yeah.

This functions like a symphony, installation, or photo exhibit--only one that doesn't include a program. Reggio's capable of showing images that inspire awe via both feel & construction. However, he falters when it comes to assembling those into a story. The film loses steam as it goes on mostly because the thematic and intellectual points are fuzzy. He's just tossing stuff out there while failing to meet the audience halfway. Marginal recommendation for those interested in photography.

I still find Reggio's work pretty but pompous, and his insistence that his films are "open to interpretation" a joke. The gorilla's accusatory glare is (sad to say) a hoary device run into the ground by pop-environmentalism (like the famous Crying Indian), and here it impresses only aesthetically. The intent of the technophobic material and the Schoelleresque closeups of human faces is clear but ineffective; Reggio himself seems like the alien one here, not us.

Underwhelming. I get the feeling that the film doesn't know what it's talking about. Considering average attention span is closer to an instagram story, almost-still video of isolated shots of people doesn't work. We are still mortal beings, there's no point in stretching a 10 minute idea to 90.

subat '!4, if2014 &