Matt Johnson represents the unattractive nerds I simped after in high school, or the guy who made me laugh way too much but wasn’t going to date me anyway. So his movies are just magnets for me. This isn’t one of his movies, so now he’s much more natural in Matt and Mara, even though his name is literally Matt Johnson. He and Mara are writers and I’m gathering so much intel to justify staying out of this world. I thought this was muddily shot but it’s much cleaner now. I’m so determined to speed run as many movies as I can so if I can find any other shit of his, I’ll watch it.
I like the pace of this and the kind of improv/mumble core vibe it’s giving without that level of pretentiousness. It’s also one of those woman a bad marriage falls for someone else and you don’t know if she’ll leave the husband. It’s giving Adaptation, she’s a very muted Meryl Streep, less sexual or sexually driven and more seeking something with the fear of realising her desires. Her interactions with her students made me realise how little fucking one on one interaction we really got. Was I supposed to go to my lecturers and force them to help me with my independent study project? Did I cheat myself not going to an extra course? I was so disillusioned and disappointed and I felt unmotivated to do my absolute best. She doesn’t belong in the husband’s world at all. And the husband’s the classic “oh, he doesn’t get her really, he’s passive aggressive, he’s an arrogant musician who just plays when he wants. and has musician friends who are assholes to her”. But funnily, Matt’s not entirely kind, either, and I’ve dealt with that too, their attraction doesn’t make them nice to you, he’s kinda neggy too.
I’m not familiar with the director but if I can find the other film he did with Matt, I’ll watch it too, despite it possibly being the spiritual prequel to Matt and Mara. I can absolutely identify with poor Mara trying to engage with her students, her husband, her child and her colleagues and her own boss. Matt’s also unapologetically confused and ignorant to a lot of stuff but still knowledgable. He belongs more in her world, but I couldn’t live with a writer, personally. I’d be too pissy about any success and I couldn’t trust a man being mean to me or condescending about my work. Matt still has his “manic” moments but he’s not “Matt” the way I understand him, he’s grounded but still insistent about his opinions. Mara defends him to other people. I don’t know enough literature to even have a casual conversation, I can’t blend with artists, I’m a guy in A Crash Test Dummies song complaining about artists when you go out with them.
And I’m struggling to think of a “cheating” movie that didn’t portray the cheated upon as perfect and kind and not deserving of being cheated on. It’s inexcusable to some regardless, but narratively it’s integral for the audience to at least understand the motivations of the main characters’ intentions. Even if nothing happens, like Lost in Translation, people will still see emotional cheating, and it’s still important to make their significant others less appealing by comparison.
Mara does a very depressed Bevis as Cornholio impression with her turtleneck. I feel like there’s a meta commentary about Matt as a director and creator being off the wall and controversial. He’s hiding behind death of the author stuff and being completely off the wall. Mara’s husband dips on her because he has to do another musician thing and Matt does it for her. He takes her to Niagara Falls. They kiss under the water, a nice reference to them in the square jumping over one of those fountains that come up out of a grate (I thought they were in Perth, which is the other reason I stopped on the trailer). Her friend’s already mentioned conferences are just hotbeds for affairs with likeminded people who are in their element. I’m so glad I never got this far, I have opinions nobody gives a shit about.
Matt runs into another familiar face, which will likely affect his “relationship” with Mara, strained now because she booked a separate room on another floor for him. He’s bailed on her obviously so she gets room service and refuses to go meet him with this other girl. I’ve seen that trope before, that was Bill Murray in bed with the lounge singer and now Scar Jo is pissed as hell, especially when she finds the earring of the most famous person at the conference, they fight and he tells her he loves her, she accuses him of emotional manipulation. She goes back to her husband. I prefer the pacing again, this is a lot of quick, impactful moments, we don’t linger between anything.
Matt’s father’s also dying and he passes and Mara’s immediately sympathetic and he has to face the bureaucracy of death. Including dressing for a funeral, and the writer (I identify with this I think people believe I would’ve coughed up the most profound wedding vows or a eulogy of great import and I don’t have fucking words for this in reality) doesn’t know what to say. The funeral becomes another awkward moment for them both removing a crucifix to lie it on the ground despite Matt not wanting to touch it.
I also saw A Ghost Story ages ago and that was hardcore mumble core I missed all the dialogue but there’s a moment the husband shares his song only we don’t get to hear it. She reconnects with the husband, takes a dry cleaning receipt, puts it in the book he wrote full of her ideas and it ends there. The trailer had this clip but there’s no context to tell you it’s the end. I like it, I don’t know if I’d buy it but I’m glad I saw it.
I’m bummed as I’m not seeing a lot on Mubi so I need to do searches. I need to do some digging for a week.
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