There’s no real spoilers here, but it might be better not to read if you’re going to see it. It’s really for people who saw it.
you’re warned
Wow. Excellent stuff.
The classic complaint of the first one was that it was just TOO slow after a while. Well, I heard this one wasn’t. About 30 minutes in, I was ready to leave because I thought I was getting more of the same. Kind of awkward conversation, about somewhat shallow stuff (shallow, like “surface” stuff, not that talk of jobs and the environment is really shallow).
Then, all of a sudden, the movie was over and I realized I was just under its spell for the last hour of the movie.
At some point, I just got absorbed. This is the kind of movies I go to see movies for, to just get totally transported into a different world where you just feel like you’re observing what people are doing. This captured their conversation, their feelings, their setting through a great combination of writing/acting/directing. Some of those takes had to be 5 minutes long, winding through the streets with constant dialogue and that style just puts you there. The only person who comes close to lettting the actors go like that is Quentin Tarantino.
And now, I think that my discomfort during the first 30 minutes paralleled what the characters felt. Once they got on the boat (or around there), I was just “in” the movie though. The scene in the car was riveting.
Another movie I’d compare it too for just absorbing me like that is “You Can Count On Me”. But the style of this (personal settings, two characters, sort of real time) just made it so much more immediate.
What a spontaneous feeling movie. . .“lets get some coffee”, “let’s get on that boat”, “you want some tea”. You never knew where it was going because THEY didn’t know where it was going. A complete melding of movie and character.
Anyway, that’s my take. It’s sort of a hard experience to describe, but I think you get my drift.