INDIE FILM REVIEW - I AM LOVE

I AM LOVE 

At a dinner -- during which her husband learns that he and his son Edoardo Recchi Jr. are about to assume control of Edoardo Recchi Sr.'s lucrative business -- Emma meets a chef named Antonio.  Antonio and Emma soon find themselves in bed together. With the family already divided over the elder Recchi's unusual plans, Emma's affair is the wild card that might divide the family for good.

Release date: February 11, 2010 (LIMITED THEATRICAL RELEASE)/APRIL 14, 2025 (DIGITAL) 

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Languages: English, Russian, Italian

Running time: 2 hours

Cinematography: Yorick Le Saux

Distributed by: Magnolia Pictures, Mikado

Starring: Tilda Swinton, Pippi Delbono, Flavio Parenti, Gabriele Ferzetti, and Edoardo Gabbriellini 

Even for Indies, it is highly unusual that a movie lies about for so long before it gets a chance at a mass audience, but here we are, some 15 years later after this movie's initial buzz through the various festivals and limited small theatrical release. As it finally comes to digital video on demand platforms everywhere. It is also free to those of us who have MAX. This movie, back in the day, even received an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design.  A lot of this resurgence is due to its director, Luca Guadagnino, who has since done a couple of high-profile films, "Call Me By Your Name" and "Challengers". 

His eye for beauty and architecture is even more prominent in this one than both of those very good films I mentioned above. In fact, it is really the centering and calming element of what is an intriguing and thought-provoking statement on class, privilege, and how love is stronger than all of that. 

This film has such an awesome retro 70s drama feel to it. I kept thinking I was watching "The Graduate" or "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down" or "Hannah and Her Sisters" (yes I know that's the 80s) akin to a Woody Allen, Lawrence Kasdan, or Pedro Almadovar piece of that period. The music also lends itself to that 70s drama feel, where the orchestral crescendos harken in a moment of defiance or stark intrigue. 

The pacing will throw a ton of people off, again very akin to a 70s throwback drama like The Big Chill, and it offers very little in giving you everything, even in the most climactic, most awe-struck moments of the 3rd act. There is a controlled, if nothing else to describe it as, arrogance that stamps its foot in moments of real emotion needing to flood into this family like a tidal wave. Their prim and properness is so demanding on an audience but in the same token so fucking fascinating. There is the sense that chaos will never break out, that everything, even in utter ruin, is in this fixed control. It is masterful to watch both the filmmaker and actors dance in this rhythm and complement one another in such a chorus of synchronicity. The opportunities they all have to pause and give to the scenic value of where they are and what they are experiencing are priceless. 

Wide shots that frame a distance, extreme close ups that make the most intimate of moments feel evasive, or so bright you are feeling the sweat beat down the side of your face from its heat, to roaming tracking shots of the absurdity of wealth and pompous circumstance. I love when natural sunlight rips through the middle of the frame like a foreshadowing that there is some cleansing to do, yet still blinds you to the obvious first.  

TIlda Swinton has played so many of these types of roles on the other side wherein she is the one who dictates the aggression and demands the perfection. It is rare to see her vulnerable and unsure, and it is awesome in the same token to watch it on screen here. It is so advanced molecular acting physics that you couldn't figure it out with an advanced acting degree if you tried. The rest of the cast has such a definition in their roles that they all play them with such restraint that we are looking for anything to grab a hold of in terms of an emotion, and when we get it we see how quickly that unravels the entire facade. Each of them gets a chance to do this too, which I love. 

I really am anamored by how careful this movie steps and yet how it always seems to be teetered on the edge of coming crashing down, that when it seems inevitable to do so, it pulls off one of the most fascinating reactions and interesting ending statements I think I have seen in a film in a long, long while. It is profound, sophisticated, and very well designed and orchestrated that its beauty is even more stark in its ugliness. 

YOU CAN SEE THIS FILM ON YOUR FAVORITE ON DEMAND STREAMING WEBSITE LIKE YOUTUBE, AMAZON PRIME, APPLE MOVIES OR IF YOU HAVE MAX YOU CAN SEE IT HERE.