An R rating almost exclusively for language. Like, it has enough f-bombs to definitely earn an R-rating. But it's not so much that I could even remember a single instance of the f-bomb being used. There's also a plot where children are prostituted to Nazi officers. Nothing is shown and, as far as we're informed, nothing actually happens. Maria ends up singing to the officer. But the implication is that something horrible happened to them. R.
DIRECTOR: Pablo Larrain I almost feel bad for writing about this one. This movie took way too long to get through considering that it had a fairly normal runtime. I have to thank whoever is running the IMDB page for Maria for putting the trailer right on the front page. I know they do that for every IMDB page, but I'm making a point. The trailer just started playing and I saw that this was directed by the same guy who directed both Jackie and Spencer. Both of these movies frustrated me a whole bunch, so it makes sense that Maria did almost nothing for me. (Does he name all of his female led biopics after single names?) This is probably an unfair take on the movie, but this might be the most sleep inducing movie ever. The reason that it took so long --four nights to be precise --is that I kept falling asleep. I am getting older. The couch puts me to sleep. But I've been watching other Oscar noms and I haven't had nearly the sleep issue with those movies. (Although, I dare say, that I have yet to really have my socks knocked off by any of the Oscar noms yet. It's still early.) I don't really want to write about a movie that kept putting me to sleep. I'll give myself some props. I'm really good at realizing that I just fell asleep and I will only have been out for a second. But it doesn't really bode well for having a unified understanding of what Maria is all about. These are issues that I carry with me. It's not that anything in Maria is outright bad or detestable. As a movie, this is a completely functional movie. If anything, it makes me appreciate Angelina Jolie more. My wife, who does not care for Jolie in the least, thought by the end of the movie that nothing changed her opinion. I gave Jolie credit. This is a heavier role than I'm used to seeing for her and she kind of nails what it means to bring this character to the screen. From what I understand, there was a splicing of Jolie's singing voice with Callas's unique singing voice. There's an intensity to Jolie that makes me believe that Jolie was earnestly invested in this role. It's not a role that I'm going to carry with me. Again, I kept falling asleep on this movie. (It's almost like I kept getting sung to sleep on my comfy couch.) It's just that I respect the craft that went into this performance. That's a tip in the right direction. But the real issue is that Callas doesn't have much of a story here. I'm actually surprised that this movie didn't grab me. While I tend to bemoan biopics in general, the format for Maria is my favorite way to do a biopic. I tend not to like biopics that cover a person's entire lifetime or entire career. I'm a big fan of the truncated timeline. This movie covers the last seven days of Callas's life. But maybe it is Larrain's fault because a very similar format was part of Spencer. Maybe Larrain is not-so-great at the spotlight on one moment story. Let me distance Maria from Spencer. While the format is similar, the effectiveness of the last days of Maria Callas works better than Diana Spencer's three days at Balmoral. These days give Larrain get to be a bit more artsy fartsy because there's no real way to say what Callas was dealing with. I respect the attempt. I don't necessarily love the execution. Part of it is that, while it is an examination of aging and mortality through the eyes of a celebrity, it doesn't really have a lot to say. Will I admit that I'm less-than-familiar with the historical Maria Callas? Yeah, probably. But the character comes across pretty clearly in the first moments of the movie. She's a celebrity who unabashedly loves her imprint on history. She's haunted by her own looming shadow and knows that her deterioration, while affecting her time on this earth, is doing more damage by forcing her to fall into obscurity. That's all great. But in terms of story beats, it really only has a few. Callas is rude-but-flirty to her house staff. She tries to sing. It's nowhere as good as it used to be in her youth. She walks out on the people trying to help her get to a good point. She interacts with some hallucinations where she stresses that she likes when people fawn over her. Repeat. It's a lot of that. While these scenes are great, it never really is a story of progression. Instead, we watch as Callas gets more and more desperate. While this could be intentional, I do also get the vibe that Callas herself has the same knowledge into dramatic irony that we do. We know that she's nearing the end of her life. It's almost like she watched the beginning of the film as well and has to get some kind of artistic success before the film. Really, it's a Monster at the End of this Book scenario, only she's really going to die. But where the film succeeds is serving the needs of character. It's funny. The movie is up for cinematography and the cinematography is pretty rad. But if this is just a study of character, it is fun to see these characters interact in the way that they do. I do find comfort in the most bizarre way with Callas's home life. The fact that she surrounds herself with people who adore her, yet are completely open to her causal abuses, somehow brings me a sense of reality to the whole thing. But it also stresses the fact that Maria Callas was a lot. Everything that she does is almost an attempt to build a wall between what most people find relatable and where art begins. She keeps doing these things that are incredibly frustrating from an outside perspective. But Callas never becomes unsympathetic. When the journalist has his "gotcha" moment, which seems a bit ridiculous considering that most people sound like hot death during the early days of rehearsal. Here's one thing that I'm having a hard time digesting. I get the superficial read on these moments, but I don't really connect the human element to these times. Maria Callas was a celebrity, one of the greatest singers in the world. She performed for sold out audiences and probably royalty. She did so much by herself. Yet, she's surrounding herself by old, gross, rich guys. Now, here's me trying to meet the movie where it's coming from. The young Maria Callas was in a rough spot growing up. Because she was prostituted, there had to be a moment where she relied on funds to allow her to sing. But she is married to a guy who is gross but rich. With whom does she have an affair? With a man who seems older and grosser than her husband? And even more insane than both of these things, so does Jackie Kennedy? I don't even understand the history of that. But it almost feels like the stories of the affairs doesn't really play out into the larger ideas of the film, what few moments really exist. Perhaps these scenes are to pad out the story. Maybe it's a bit of showing how insane her life was. But it feels more like it is a disconnect. Look, I should be writing more about this movie. But everyone is distracting me and I don't really have a good take on it. I honestly don't think that the movie has all that fascinating take on Maria Callas's life. Instead, it's a good performance and pretty visuals, but not much in terms of things to say. |
Film is great. It can challenge us. It can entertain us. It can puzzle us. It can awaken us.
AuthorMr. H has watched an upsetting amount of movies. They bring him a level of joy that few things have achieved. Archives
February 2025
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