Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Year Released: 2006
Rating: 2.0
Another Weerasethakul experiment, this one (like Tropical Malady) broken into two parts, the first taking place in a rural setting, the second in a city setting, with the same characters doing the same basic things in both (one's a doctor who interviews other doctors, the other's a dentist). He's (somewhat) faithful to the structure, but the result lacks the intellectual rigor of his previous film - essentially, he's complaining about the absence of spirituality in city life (Buddha's 'just a statue'), but there's also a lot of filler in there and by the end the camera's just wandering around, staring at the ceiling like it's high on something. I suppose that's the ultimate goal - to let the images glaze over you and to make your own meaning (as if under a marijuana-induced haze) - but sometimes a shot of a vacuum, a tracking shot of a monument and a shot of people exercising are just that: shots of a vacuum, a monument and exercising. Make of that what you must.
