The Farewell reviews

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Sabin
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Re: The Farewell reviews

Post by Sabin »

I fall somewhere in the middle of the takes of this film and ultimately my biggest problem with the film is despite how many lovely, unique moments are layered throughout the film how many fairly identical scenes must we engage with of Billie asking "Are we going to tell Nai Nai?" I think Lulu Wang makes a big miscalculation in this film. She turns Billie into an audience surrogate to the point where she loses a Guggenheim fellowship and I couldn't even tell you what for. Awkwafina is quite good in this film but her character registers as such a blank. There's really nothing much going on besides a family going through the motions waiting this period of time out. The pleasures of the film are in the details not the plotting. I found myself wishing that Billie would go out at night and just *do* something. Lord knows, there is sufficient time in this film for a subplot. Something to contrast her family responsibilities and create more of a personal journey for her. Right now, the only thing that is different for her than the rest of the characters is persistently asking "Are we going to tell Nai Nai?" Because Billie never registers as substantially more than a stand-in, it's up to the family to essentially serve as a body-protagonist and... they're fine? I wish I found many of the discussions more interesting. The film expends quite a bit of real estate into characters discussing their pasts and motivations for why they left China for the U.S.. These are conversations that I think a lot of first generation immigrants or Chinese-Americans will respond to. I personally did not because I didn't feel as though the film gave me enough of a reason to care about this specific family. I'm grateful for films that bring me into new cultures but I wish they demonstrated more dramatic acumen. On the other hand, I'm trying to just accept this movie as a personal story from a filmmaker telling the story of something that happened to her, authentically, that just so *happened* to get a little more overhyped than it should be.

Zhao Shuzhen is adorable.
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Re: The Farewell reviews

Post by Big Magilla »

I agree with portions of what Tee, DWS and Precious Doll all said but I'm perplexed over the enthusiastic critical and audience response to this film.

The film that it most reminded me of was Ang Lee's 1993 breakthrough film, The Wedding Banquet in which a gay Taiwanese Manhattan immigrant convinces his live-in boyfriend to temporary move out and a female tenant to marry him in a sham wedding when his conservative-traditional parents visit. It's The Farewell in reverse in which the younger family members visit China during which a wedding takes place to mask a different concern.

The Wedding Banquet was a comedy-drama in the true sense of the word with the emphasis on comedy with serious undertones. The film is often laugh-out-loud hilarious.

The Farewell is billed as a comedy-drama but here the emphasis is on drama with small, comedic moments, none of them hilarious. That's OK, but unlike The Wedding Banquet there are no real surprises. I kept thinking something is going to happen. The hapless groom is going to turn out to be gay or the stoic Japanese bride is going turn out to be a lesbian or both. Nope. Then I thought maybe the old lady is going to be revealed as knowing that she is terminally ill just as the father in The Wedding Banquet is revealed to have really known what was going on between his son and his gay "friend", Again, nope. What happens at the end is nice, but in a small way.

As Precious Doll says, Awkwafina is stilted and lifeless throughout but it's the way Lulu Wang directed her. She was, after all, playing a variation of Wang herself. I also agree that the dying grandmother is one-note, although I must say his description of her lack of charm is a bit harsh.

On the other hand, as Tee suggests, the graveyard scene and the wedding banquet scene evoke Renoir, but they both go on too long.

I join Tee and DWS in their appreciation of Diana Lin's performance. I thought her "these people are ridiculous" was the best line in the film.
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Re: The Farewell reviews

Post by Precious Doll »

I'll be really interested to see what the reaction to this film is going to be like as it rolls on internationally. It's underperforming at the box office in Australia & New Zealand in its opening weekend and is already off the 'no free list' and has been shunted off to smaller screens and less sessions, however I suspect local Chinese audiences prefer Hollywood & Chinese blockbusters over a small family drama.
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Re: The Farewell reviews

Post by Reza »

Precious Doll wrote:Goodness I loathed this film.

Talk about amateur hour. Sketchy broad characterisations is being generous, the most shockingly bad cinematography I've probably ever seen though this was no doubt an aesthetic choice by the director but I don't think it helped the film one bit. Its such a contrived set-up to begin with and everything felt so forced and phoney.

Awkwafina (such a delight in Crazy Rich Asians) is so stilted and lifeless in this. She walks around for the entire film with a sullen expression on her face and hunched over like a tortoise/turtle stretching its neck out from its shell in anticipation of some terrible event. Shuzhen Zhao is one-note as the dying grannie and has the charm of a rotting piece of fruit. Its not really fair to make an judgement on the rest of the cast because they are given very little or nothing to do. The characters of the cousin and his Japanese wife were beyond offensive quite frankly and played for nothing more than cheap laughs.

I can't imagine anything else contending for Oscar consideration this year being worse.
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Re: The Farewell reviews

Post by Precious Doll »

Goodness I loathed this film.

Talk about amateur hour. Sketchy broad characterisations is being generous, the most shockingly bad cinematography I've probably ever seen though this was no doubt an aesthetic choice by the director but I don't think it helped the film one bit. Its such a contrived set-up to begin with and everything felt so forced and phoney.

Awkwafina (such a delight in Crazy Rich Asians) is so stilted and lifeless in this. She walks around for the entire film with a sullen expression on her face and hunched over like a tortoise/turtle stretching its neck out from its shell in anticipation of some terrible event. Shuzhen Zhao is one-note as the dying grannie and has the charm of a rotting piece of fruit. Its not really fair to make an judgement on the rest of the cast because they are given very little or nothing to do. The characters of the cousin and his Japanese wife were beyond offensive quite frankly and played for nothing more than cheap laughs.

I can't imagine anything else contending for Oscar consideration this year being worse.
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
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Re: The Farewell reviews

Post by dws1982 »

Good movie overall, with a very generous approach to all of the characters. The mom, for example, is someone who would come across much more negative in a lesser film, but the movie never sees her conformity (and adherence to tradition) as a character flaw to be fixed. And of course Diana Lin deserves a lot of credit for this as well. The whole cast is really very solid--I wouldn't at all be surprised to see it get a SAG Ensemble nomination. If The Big Sick and Beasts of No Nation could, I don't see why this couldn't.

I don't really have a lot to add to what Tee said, and largely agree with it. I did think that Lulu Wang's tendency to always place her actors dead center of the frame was distracting, and I thought she showed a real tin-ear for music. Some of the songs and pieces of music were good (although I didn't care for the score at all) but none of them were very well-integrated into the film.
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Re: The Farewell reviews

Post by Mister Tee »

A lovely, touching movie. I thought it started a bit tepid, and it was definitely in a minor key throughout, but as the film moved on, it provided more and more precious little scenes, giving time to a significant number of characters, all of whom I was glad to be give the opportunity to know. The story's trajectory is mostly confined to the events of the central deception, but it manages to cover quite a bit off territory in glancing ways: what it means for family to travel wide and to stay close to home are all explored, and no one seems right or wrong -- there's a hint of Renoir in the approach to characters. There are also many scenes -- like the graveyard tribute, and the entirety of the wedding banquet -- that provide exceptional detail in short strokes. I wouldn't tout Lulu Wang as any visual stylist at this point, but she has a good eye for capturing the telling tiny moment.

I can't say Awkwafina gives a exceptional performance -- there were times, especially early, that I wished a more expressive actress had been cast, to fill in some of her silent, reactive moments with more detail. But she's a triumph of casting -- the character of Billi is rather thinly sketched, and casting someone with her bounteous personality fills things in for us. She is also completely up to her Oscar clip (you won't need to ask which one I mean, once you've seen the film), delivering a more-or-less monologue like a full-on pro.

And the ensemble is full of strong actors: Diana Lin as Billi's mother has some wonderful scenes; the actors playing her father and uncle do nice work showing their similarities and differences; and the actress who plays Billi's great-aunt (can't locate her name) has a killer scene near the end. But best of all is Shuzhen Zhou as the grandmother -- she lights up the movie, making it clear why the thought of losing her would make so may people unhappy, but at the same time, she can be hilariously blunt-bordering-on-insulting. It's a wonderful performance that one would normally assume would have no shot at an Oscar nod -- but after last year's first-time-since-1973 De Tavira nomination, maybe it's not an impossible dream.

I wish BJ were still around, because I'd note to him that the movie ends with "that thing I hate" and for a moment it almost wrecked the finish for me -- until it offered a surprise that just elated me.
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The Farewell reviews

Post by Mister Tee »

It can be difficult pinpointing which Sundance films will break through and which are mountain-air illusions. But this seems to be getting a very solid response. And it might be the commercial beneficiary of the Crazy Rich Asians huge success last year.

https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/t ... 203117966/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/revie ... 19-1179427

https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the ... 87.article
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