Starring Kate Dickie (a crazy mom from Game of Thrones). A dirty picture hinting at a small budget, but skillfully twisted into realism. It's also a frank domestic game. It is a simple and simple story, the length of which is like a chip.
The main character works in the police as a camera tracking operator. Sees some guy who's out of jail and she knows. We also understand that something bad has happened to her in the past. I guess it has something to do with this guy. And the whole movie, she's stalking this guy and spying. And the audience is watching the whole movie and waiting for us to explain everything. At the very end, they explain everything. That's it. The idea and the ending are the simplest. I don’t know, if they didn’t explain it to us, but made some open unexpected ending, it would probably be more interesting. I don’t even know why I should watch this movie. The movie is not bad, but you can find more interesting.
It would be a great movie if there was more depth. Something's been squeezed, something's not been squeezed. As always in the art house - everything is dirty, puked, gray, dull. And the characters are like zombies who just stagger from one place to another and do something like that.
It is clear that this happens often in life. But that’s what I want to watch the least.
So, the story is about a street surveillance operator who sometimes likes to have sex with a colleague at work. Also, the work is very psychologically exhausting – you need to look at a bunch of screens and identify suspicious activity among them. And then this woman cameraman on one of the screens flashed a familiar face from the past. Watching it cost the blood of one girl, which the operator missed. And this witness, as it turned out, was guilty of the death of her relatives by negligence. He is released early and she wants to get even with him, dirty setting up, but at the last moment changes her mind and withdraws the statement from the police. Also in the story is a guy who sat with this accused of murder. And this guy's glad he wasn't used by a cellmate instead of a woman. There's also this defendant's daughter, who was only glimpsed. And also the guy's optional girlfriend. Here are the main characters that just exist in this film.
So it is better to save your time and do not waste it on this nonsense, unless you are a stubborn fan of art house. Moreover, the actors, as it turned out, are not the last to play in star series like Game of Thrones and Another World with Blade. I wasn't expecting it, to be honest. Although in the film, surprisingly, due to the lack of glamour, their fame is not particularly striking. The picture is dark and dark. Character lines are not well developed. Just covered a time period a week long. That's all. You can see the same thing in your home, unfortunately.
To view the “Red Road” I was a feat of watching another film by British director Andrea Arnold – “Aquarium” (2009), which made a pretty strong impression on me, so I approached the “Red Road” by the viewer already familiar with the peculiar manner of shooting Arnold. Her corporate style is to create an absolute immersion in the picture, thanks to the unconditional effect of presence: everything that happens is shown not detached, but as if from the first person of one of the characters. The Red Road is no exception to this: Glasgow comes to life in front of us on the screen, with its dark night streets, pubs and skyscrapers of sleeping areas, the outskirts dotted with garbage and written graffiti... The atmosphere of hopeless despondency and gray life of the absolute majority of its inhabitants is shown through the prism of the eyes of the operator of street video cameras, a woman named Jackie. Every day, going to work, Jackie peers through the camera monitors in the lives of strangers, while not leaving the feeling that she is diligently running away from her own, in which desolation and indifference reign. Jackie wears a wedding ring on her finger, but does not live with anyone in marriage, she sometimes goes to parties with friends, but more because she is simply uncomfortable to refuse than out of a true desire to have fun. One day she accidentally notices on the monitor the face of a man from her past, a man who she would never want to see again for anything in the world, a man who made her current life as miserable as it is now. The feeling of the existing mystery in the actions of the heroine and her motivations, the presence of a mysterious incident in her past does not leave during almost the entire film, which is facilitated and deliberately voyeuristic manner of the operator Robbie Ryan. It is worth saying that all the emotions and experiences of Jackie are perfectly and very believably conveyed by the actress Kate Dickie, whose other projects, among others, are Ridley Scott’s film Prometheus and the series Game of Thrones. Jackie and everything that happens to her touches, intrigues and delays with a sense of genuine realism.
The Red Road is, above all, a story of forgiveness, a story of reconciliation with oneself and one’s past, acceptance of life as it is – in all its manifestations: from the everyday small details to the tragedy of death and the loss of its very meaning. Andrea Arnold turned out to be an extremely integral and harmonious film about the “road” along which each of us goes every day from his birth to death, despite the fact that there is prepared for the next turn, the road whose name is Life.
9 out of 10
Directors in the United Kingdom adore making sluggish, unhurried, often boring, films with usually ugly, unfamiliar actors, physically repulsive erotic scenes and “vital” details. However, all this can be done talentedly, with an idea, with deep psychologism, with a complex, but often justified, motivation of the characters, with a good performance of the actors, for example, as in “Cracker Method” or “Class 76”, or you can shoot “Red Road”.
The film tells the story of a certain Jackie (Kate Dickie), who, working as a camera operator, once saw a man in one of them who broke her life. She begins at first remotely, and then quite realistically follow him, driven by a desire for revenge.
For almost an hour and forty we will watch Jackie, who is watching others: everything is gray, shown uninterestingly, shallowly. At the same time, the director sketchily presents the life of Jackie herself, as dull as everything else. The viewer understands that the heroine survived the tragedy, and this knowledge justifies the protractedness, emptiness of the narrative, filled with some meaningless people, scenes, dialogues. The actions of the heroine are chaotic and ill-considered (“It often happens in life!” – you say. "Yes, of course!" But do you believe that in this case? It seemed that the desire for revenge (which eats all the people who lost loved ones through someone else’s fault) arose in Jackie spontaneously, only after she saw the man who deprived her of her dearest. And so, an hour after the film began, the director came to his senses and gave a light: Jackie makes various kinds of contact with the person she hates (some scenes are shown suspiciously naturalistically), then a banal, world-old, literally rustic, reversible act of revenge occurs. The finale of the picture is enchanting. It seemed that give the director another 30-40 minutes, and he would marry the main characters of his film.
What am I talking about? European low-budget cinema is famous for the “originality” of ideas. Directors who gravitate towards arthouse (and “Red Road” can quite be counted among it), like to turn the human soul inside out, show it “sick”, illogical. And that's often justified. But the classic is that it must be treated delicately, so as not to laugh or lull the audience.
Old as the world story about revenge (by the way, the director tried to escalate the situation, and at one time it seemed that something unimaginable happened and this red locksmith literally cannibal), may deserve a new, original reading. But not at all, not at all.
I am an advocate of the idea that the human soul is dark. In the dark, with the help of arthouse movies, I love to wander. And often these are very interesting journeys: unusual motivation, perception of life and circumstances, deep, ambiguous characters. It seems that all this was here (otherwise, we would have perceived the “arthouse” actions of the heroine from a clinical point of view), but the director failed to convince me that such a perception of a woman who lost the most important thing in her life is possible. And if so, the price of such an art house.
About acting. For some reason, the filmmaker found Kate Dickie’s eagle profile interesting. So most of the time we see him. The play of the actress is boring, inexpressive. Do not believe her emotions, do not believe that with a half-open mouth and a surprised look you can perceive both the first appearance of the killer and sexual intercourse.
The villain was very well played by Tony Curran. Despite everything, his character aroused interest and sympathy.
In a word, “Red Road” is not the most interesting film of this genre, but for the hero Tony Curran, I want to put him.
5 out of 10
The last round of "Cinema Battle" ended in a draw, so the theme of the new round was determined by the random number generator. I chose one of the options I suggested. Movies with color in the title quite a lot from the blue-white-red trilogy of Krzysztof Keslevsky to my popular films like “Green Mile” and “Black Swan”. Anyway, there's a place to go. I decided to take the author’s drama “Red Road”, the description of which interested me in the British program SFF.
The main character of the film works as a video surveillance operator in Glasgow. All day Jackie monitors the lives of passers-by, scurrying back and forth, ensuring order in the streets and the safety of citizens. Not a job, but a voyeur's dream. Sit in a warm office and watch how in some office the cleaner famously dances, on the street a man walks with his sick dog, and behind the garages the couple decided to retire for intimate intimacy. Moreover, you can follow any character you are interested in, jumping from one camera to another throughout the area.
But at one point, a man from Jackie's past appears on the screen. We don't know exactly what he did, but it's clear from her excitement and questions that Clyde was released early for exemplary conduct. If he fails again, he will return to prison. At first it is not clear why the main character is watching him. Afraid? But then why is she creeping closer and closer to him? And what happens when they come face to face again? I liked the ending of this story. A woman can't come up and punch a man in the face. She struggles with the methods available to her. And she has a good reason if she decides to do this.
I liked the movie. I'm used to European arthouse, so I didn't find it boring. Be prepared for the slow development of events. Director Andrea Arnold is familiar to me from the film “Aquarium”, which is also characterized by everyday naturalness. She's not afraid of frank episodes without bills. A good performance of the actors further immerses the viewer in the atmosphere of the film. Especially I will highlight Tony Curran, who created the screen image of the lustful red alpha male Clyde, who just smells of testosterone. Still, there is something in this gloomy picture and in the negative main character, but I will hardly reconsider. Although the film left a pleasant aftertaste.
Sometimes even in a huge city you can meet a person who, according to the logic of events, should be hundreds (or even more) kilometers away, but, as they say, “the world is small” in which I personally am convinced a huge number of times. But these meetings can bring emotions completely different, and pleasant not always. A similar story did not pass by the main character of the film.
Jackie is the simplest video surveillance operator, to which millions of people are flashing almost every day, for whose safety she is in some sense responsible. The girl lives an absolute dull life, but the appearance of one person on the screen makes her “wake up”, thereby remembering the darkest moments of her past.
The film is definitely not ordinary, and for many it will probably seem boring, if only because 70% of the viewing time can give the impression that nothing is happening on the screen. Spectacularity and pathos are the last thing to expect from this movie.
I especially liked the idea of the film. It is simple, but many people may like it. Surely everyone has not the most pleasant moments of the past, which are sometimes difficult to get rid of throughout life. This movie is about both the past and the future at the same time, namely, how one cannot exist without the other.
As for the cast, it is quite difficult to single out someone other than the main character. Kate Dickie quite well managed to convey the whole range of not the brightest emotions of his character and this is great. There is no one else to highlight, but this film is not so bad.
On the whole, I was satisfied with what I saw, and the ending was so shocking at all - it's how much it must hurt to go on such vile revenge ... Yes, I may be exaggerating.
Jackie (Dickie) sees the world through digital stream and color filters as she works at a CCTV point in Glasgow. Lives like a hermit, a favorite occupation is to watch people and their cares. Favorites are a fat cleaner, annealing a non-existent dance during work and middle-aged man with gray hair and a dog on a leash. Once every two weeks, an amiable married co-worker puts Jackie in a van, takes him to a clearing and fucks him. The interests of the ladies are exhausted.
One evening, while sitting on the post, Jackie will notice on the screen a couple making love outside the garage. Occupation is quite mundane and familiar in the muddy alleys of Glasgow, but the face of a curly red-haired gentleman (Curran) will catch Jackie's attention. She recognizes him, gasps, and then goes to collect information about why he got out of prison so early.
The Red Road, microbudgetary even by the standards of art house, is an example of incorruptible art, the British answer to the European classics Haneke and von Trier. Completely filmed on a hand-held camera and carefully observing the rules of Dogma 95, "The Road" has a kind of animal magnetism - for two hours, as if you are out of reality. It is as much a thriller as the White Ribbon. Haneke is a detective; the genre in this case is nothing more than convention. The image of Jackie is built so filigree that you wonder that Dickie, brilliantly acting out either fear or hunting excitement, did not collect a heap of awards at home and on the continent. Perhaps the reason for this is specificity. Two hours does not happen absolutely nothing, only in a tight tangle of intrigue, bringing in the final to inhuman tension and banal tears. The road is very heavy, painfully beautiful, restless, and, as is often the case with such things, not for everyone. The obsessive pornographic scenes make von Trier laugh in his fist (the climax cunnilingus easily competes with the best scenes of Antichrist), and Arnold is particularly unceremonious with the viewer, making him consistently observe cruelty, death and beauty. The latter, by the way, is a British woman and promotes to appreciate and hold in her hands a dead grip - when Jackie retires to meet the flow of people, the sun plays in her breezy hair, and a cover of Honeyroot's Love Will Tear Us Apart sounds in the background. Isn’t that the devil’s beauty?
8 out of 10