Shallow freezing There are evenings when the mood is not bad and not good, and nowhere especially does not pull to go, and want to sit at home, drink a seagull and reflect on the meaning of life. It is for this evening, it seems, and shot his drama American director Tim Blake Nelson.
Immediately I want to make a differential emphasis on the word “drama”, since the “thriller”, stated in the genre line of the tape, has nothing to do with Nelson’s picture. I don’t know who put this label in the information block, but wandering from site to site today, she confuses fans of the genre, who then blow the brains of moderators: “What was that?” So here's the note: "Anesthesia" - not for the target thriller audience.
Nelson is actually better known as an actor. Many remember his work in the films “Oh, where are you, brother?”, “Overseas novel”, “Big white burden” and others. However, "Anesthesia" for him is far from his debut as a director. Before that, he shot quite a watchable "Grass" with "Edward Norton" and Shakespeare's interpretation of "O" with "Josh Hartnett".
Like his previous directorial works, "Anesthesia" can not be called either a masterpiece or a new word in cinema - it is just a fairly strong representative of its genre group, a dramatic film essay with mamblecore elements and a slight deviation into philosophy.
Stories of different people who do not know each other, somehow intersecting under the curtain of the action - the technique is quite bearded, widely exploited by modern cinema to record it as a number of exclusive directorial merits. In addition, in "Anesthesia" he is not associated with pronounced dynamics and plot ingenuity - the course of the film is more meditative than "springy."
He is a philosophy professor who loves his work and lectures enthusiastically to Columbia University students. A young housewife who is cheated by her husband, and who is often put to the bottle because of this. A black drug addict and his childhood friend who believes that hospital treatment will help the poor man get rid of addiction. Brother and sister who have reached the age of the hormonal revolution, smoking weed on the roof and discussing the nuances of oral sex. Despite some formally negative markers, there are practically no negative characters in the film. The only bad guy will jump out of the darkness of the evening streets, do his dirty business and dive back into the darkness.
The director - in the best traditions of mamblecore - does not express his personal attitude to what is happening on the screen, giving the viewer the opportunity to place evaluation points above the "i". Although there are no too bright, exciting characters or storylines in the picture, so you do not really want to place points. The quotes of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer about loneliness, emptiness and the loss of meaning in life, which sound a refrain throughout the film, too, unfortunately, do not find a sufficiently vivid materialization. Idea or accident, but the name of the tape was in tune with its vital leitmotif.
A special praise deserves a smart guy Kristen Stewart. Although her role is not too large - a girl on the verge of a nervous breakdown, who is trying to drown out the pain of the soul with physical pain - her presence brings an excitingly spicy note to the relatively dietary actor's bouquet of "Anesthesia".
The film does not leave any special aftertaste, but it also does not make you regret lost time. Surely it will appeal to lovers of slow dialog-intensive novels in the spirit of Noah Baumbak. And to Kristen's fans, of course.
6 out of 10