Where I Watched It: iTunes
English Audio Description By Deluxe
Primary Narration By Jedidiah Barton
Do you ever think “Oh, that seems interesting.”, and then everyone on the internet responds to it with the level of dedicated Ferber that suggests the movie is now a religion. Do you worship at the church of Past Lives? Perhaps you saw the A24 logo, and just stared at that for two hours, and let A24 be your new God. in short, cal the hell down.
I went into Past Lives really trying to keep my expectations measured and fair, allowing a film to surprise me by being good, or fail me by also not being so. but there were so many reviews, including one from a film critic who declared that this would be his favorite film of 2023, the rest of the slate be damned. He handed out his Oscar in June.
Once you get past everyone else’s bluster, you find the 2023 human connection story, along the same lines of taking Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy all over town at either Sunrise, Sunset, or midnight. Selene Song’s debut feature takes a South Korean friendship and stretches it across time, and continents, but make no mistake that this film is very much about that same search for human connection.
Greta Lee, in the role that might land her an Oscar nomination, portrays the South Korean girl who is in the middle of all this, as her family immigrates to America, and she becomes part of the American way. She leaves behind a close friend, later played by Tao Yoo, who assumes he will never see the girl from his primary school days again. Of course, she has the same thought, and eventually meets someone who she feels a connection with (John Megarro) and the two start their lives together. And then comes Facebook.
The ability to find someone across decades, and send them a message…. “Do you remember me?” it changes everything. What she had assumed was her past life is now looking like it might crash into her present, and this exploration of what happens after is what lies in the heart of Past Lives. certainly people are connecting to this film on a personal level, as it reminds us of that someone from our childhood we lost touch with, even a platonic friendship, and without knowing anything about the last however many years, the idea that these people could just swing back into your life thanks to social media is a profound idea.
but, the problem for me is that we see these human connection stories more and more. They seem rather easy to write, as they really might come from a personal experience. Even this year, we had a slightly more comedic take with Ry lane, a chance meeting that takes two strangers looking for a connection on a journey to that very connection.
That need to connect has led to some powerful films that still stand the test of time today, whether it be Lost In Translation where Bill Murray is lost in a foreign land looking for an escape. So, perhaps, Past Lives for me just fell into a pot of other solid to great films that put our souls out there for the world to examine.
I thought the movie was fine, and I would have thought that either way. I don’t think it’s a groundbreaking work of staggering genius, nor is it the best thing I’ve seen in 2023. It is a very promising debut for Song, and helps to elevate an actress like Greta Lee to potentially a higher level of stardom that puts her in consistently strong films. but, sometimes, the distance that Past Lives creates is greater than the closeness it imagines. Instead of feeling like two halves of a part were being reunited, it felt more like that kid from school was taking a trip to New York City. It lacked in that emotional connection, because who we are at that age and what we want is often so different from where we land as adults. There’s no real indication that she has been pining for him for years, so why is this reunion this monumental?
Barton does the primary narration, but there’s a team that has to dub the voices of the Korean actors. Barton’s narration is strong, as he focuses a lot on the everyday nuance this film leans on. Song works so hard to make this feel like real life, and it’s nothing necessarily spectacular or groundbreaking visually. Song trusts that her script and her actors are enough. And for the most part, they are. but when film twitter is running around declaring this the best thing they’ve ever seen, it doesn’t help such a quiet film. It’s so personal that it will hit people differently, especially those who left their home country to move to America. Leaving behind everything you know to come to a strange country where you may not know anyone, is totally different than moving from Wichita to Cleveland, yet I promise there are people who are sharing that experience and somehow getting the most out of this film.
I’m fairly confident this will earn an Oscar nomination for best Picture, but A24 always has a few irons cooking. Should you watch it? If you want. But just because you saw someone losing their mind on YouTube doesn’t necessarily mean you will have the same spiritual connection.
Final Grade: B+
