I don't know if it's a great or mediocre film, but it made me think a lot and also sank me deep into a sea of emotions that I forgot movies could make you feel. It was a whole experience.
We're used to ghost stories being about ghosts who haunt the living, but in A Ghost Story, it's the living who haunt the ghost. That's because it's all from the ghost's point of view. One perfect shot after another, the film tends towards the still life, but one has to understand the obsessiveness of a soul that has refused to move on. We linger on moments of import to the spirit for almost unbearable lengths of time, while time may move in montage when its motive is absent. It's a love story that transcends eternity, a sad one, describing love as a haunting (because it is, even in life). It's about grief for things lost. It's also about closure, and the fear we won't be remembered, or won't have time to finish what we set out to do in this life, get all the answers we seek, and so on. Let's just say there's a lot to unpack in this quiet, artful movie, and leave it at that before I ruin any surprises by saying more.
If you're the sort of person who easily pauses a movie and never comes back to it, this one is a challenge.
The infamous pie scene IS pretentiously long, but if you stop watching within the first half hour you'll just have wasted your time. If you stick with it, it builds and builds and goes to unexpected places, and those first slow thirty minutes become an important piece of the whole.
The whole 'ghost as a guy under a sheet' gimmick quickly becomes crucial to the pathos because the ghost is human and feeling, but simultaneously alien and in many ways frightening. Not jump scare frighting, but "what if life is meaningless" frightening.
It's the sort of film that sticks in your head and you end up thinking about over and over again. It's an enriching experience and I'd really recommend it. It's art house as fuck, but then it knocks down the art house and rebuilds it again in a really cool way.
One of the few times I have seen a group of people walk out of a theater. They left probably about 20 minutes in, and never came back.
Worth considering where you see it. The only theater playing the movie near me seemed to be having audio issues. There are many shots in this film that are completely silent. The sound system in my theater was giving off a very low pitched, static sounding hum. The hum was very noticeable during these silent parts of the movie... and once I noticed it, I began to hear it for the rest of the screening.
Worth seeing, in my opinion, but it is not necessary to see it in theater. Better to watch at home in a quiet environment.
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Comments 1 - 13 of 13
Rohit
Now this is the use of Casey Affleck I can endorse.Sammael
Hahah I legit shut it off during the pie scene.ivanrs
Subtly built to tear you apart.ivanrs
I don't know if it's a great or mediocre film, but it made me think a lot and also sank me deep into a sea of emotions that I forgot movies could make you feel. It was a whole experience.Siskoid
We're used to ghost stories being about ghosts who haunt the living, but in A Ghost Story, it's the living who haunt the ghost. That's because it's all from the ghost's point of view. One perfect shot after another, the film tends towards the still life, but one has to understand the obsessiveness of a soul that has refused to move on. We linger on moments of import to the spirit for almost unbearable lengths of time, while time may move in montage when its motive is absent. It's a love story that transcends eternity, a sad one, describing love as a haunting (because it is, even in life). It's about grief for things lost. It's also about closure, and the fear we won't be remembered, or won't have time to finish what we set out to do in this life, get all the answers we seek, and so on. Let's just say there's a lot to unpack in this quiet, artful movie, and leave it at that before I ruin any surprises by saying more.SSpaulding
more liek a BORING storyamirightr?
otoemec
To all the folks who've seen the film: where did you watch it?jrkinnard
Easily, my favorite movie of 2017 thus far.Beautiful, deliberate, thought provoking.
ryanhogan1990
Every love story is a ghost story.SpacedJ
If you're the sort of person who easily pauses a movie and never comes back to it, this one is a challenge.The infamous pie scene IS pretentiously long, but if you stop watching within the first half hour you'll just have wasted your time. If you stick with it, it builds and builds and goes to unexpected places, and those first slow thirty minutes become an important piece of the whole.
The whole 'ghost as a guy under a sheet' gimmick quickly becomes crucial to the pathos because the ghost is human and feeling, but simultaneously alien and in many ways frightening. Not jump scare frighting, but "what if life is meaningless" frightening.
It's the sort of film that sticks in your head and you end up thinking about over and over again. It's an enriching experience and I'd really recommend it. It's art house as fuck, but then it knocks down the art house and rebuilds it again in a really cool way.
martinscorsaucy
If you watch this in theatres there will definitely be people who leave during the pie scene, but I think it's worth sticking through.The_Comatorium
I give it 3 sad pies out of 5.adastras
Very good movie, but not for everyone.One of the few times I have seen a group of people walk out of a theater. They left probably about 20 minutes in, and never came back.
Worth considering where you see it. The only theater playing the movie near me seemed to be having audio issues. There are many shots in this film that are completely silent. The sound system in my theater was giving off a very low pitched, static sounding hum. The hum was very noticeable during these silent parts of the movie... and once I noticed it, I began to hear it for the rest of the screening.
Worth seeing, in my opinion, but it is not necessary to see it in theater. Better to watch at home in a quiet environment.