Kelly Reichardt's NIGHT MOVES, an ecoterror drama w/ Eisenberg, Sarsgaard, a Fanning

saw this over the weekend. it was good! some thoughts (spoilers obv, do i even need to say that):

1) this was more "hollywood" than i thought it would be tbh, based on her other films. i honestly didn't even expect that the bombing was even going to happen. this is kelly reichardt! i mean i think about "old joy" in which not much really happens at all (yet "so much happens" of course but still). i felt like there was prob a 80% chance that their plot just fails or we see multiple failed attempts or whatever. i admit it was very strange to even see the bombing mission succeed an hour into the film. also i tend to really love the slow pace of her films and it was interesting to see her take on a more briskly paced thriller w/ a clearer plot line.

2) actors were all pretty good, eisenberg was great. schlump otm upthread about eisenberg being "isolated" rather than asocial, that point was especially apparent in that final phone call with sarsgaard when he is crying and asking sarsgaard "can we just go somewhere together in the middle of nowhere" very powerful. btw i didn't know sarsgaard was in this until i kept staring at that character's first scene and thinking "oh that's sarsgaard!" he was good, i had a very strong sense of who this guy was. fanning was very good too i thought.

3) lots of talk about what the characters' "motivations" were and how the lack of attention given to that was a weakness (david denby called it a "hole" in the film. idk. i agree w/ schlump, it wasn't really necessary for me? i mean how much motivation backstory do you need? just the crew they were hanging out with at that activist event at the beginning and the film about environmental destruction filled me in enough to know who these people are. even the expository dialogue about ipads and golf courses was even too much i thought!

4) again thank you sleeve for turning me on to "if a tree falls." i feel like there should be a double feature w/ these two films or something. i saw that one a while back and honestly like that was the backstory for me. also i've spent a lot of time in my early 20s acquainted with some pretty out-there environmental/animal activists fantasizing or debating or even doing (on a much smaller, non-violent direct action way) shit like this so i never really spent even a second watching this movie wishing "oh wow i really wish we had more exposition about why these characters are doing such a thing!!"

5) i saw some interview (i think it was quoted upthread) where she says the central question in the film was "is this a good solution?" i.e. "should we be blowing shit up?" idk. i never really saw that as a question posed by this film. by "in a tree falls", yes definitely. but not this. imo it didn't really engage much at all with that question and not even like 5% of the wat "if a tree falls" did. i couldn't imagine anyone really coming away from the "night moves" grappling with that question with any seriousness or depth unless you are very young or naive. it was still a very good film though.

6) yes very beautifully filmed. all her films are imo. also very good costume/set design, you knew these folks, you could smell the fertilizer, you could smell the soil and the trees, you could feel that cool damp air.

7) i kind of agree w/ morbs about the third act plausibility w/ eisenberg's character, though that final phone call when he was freaking out calling it an "accident" (maybe to cover his ass if the phone is tapped? idk) and crying and shit, and also the ambiguous conversations about "making sure dee doesn't talk" makes it a little more complex than just eisnberg being a psychopath

lovely music, too

6) yes very beautifully filmed. all her films are imo. also very good costume/set design, you knew these folks, you could smell the fertilizer, you could smell the soil and the trees, you could feel that cool damp air.

still think about this film for its kinda just-right digi-16mm alexa vibe, like it really works with the vibrancy of colour & grain & richness of land & clothing while still feeling pretty modern or at least not feeling at all retro. it's v well measured & the landscape is so distinct.

yea definitely! one scene though that did feel pretty retro visually was the act 3 climax in the sauna -- all the steam and that reddish light and the intensity of the scene gave it this classic horror movie vibe i thought

great director, good movie, awful lead

eisenberg? wrong

he has NO range... same off-putting semi-sociopath creepy nerd in every movie. worked in the squid and the whale & the social network