In a quiet and God-forgotten town at the same time, without prior approval, two return. They haven't seen each other in over twenty years. Fate brings them back together again.
She is a charming blonde in a funny hat (Sarah Paulson), he is drab and unshaven (Mark Duplass). They can not refuse each other in communication and easily go on a journey after their memories. And around like nothing has changed - the same trees, stones, the seller in the store and jellyfish at the checkout. This makes them even more nostalgic. So gradually we learn their history.
They're former lovers. This is the case when all the charms and misfortunes of love are learned from school. Apparently, these two had a great time together in high school. Every memory of them causes genuine delight and a whole sea of tenderness. It would seem that could prevent them from staying together and continuing to live together.
Alexander Lehmann worked on the film, who not only directed, but also masterfully shot all the material; and Mark Duplass himself, who played the main role and produced the picture. They managed not only to tell a love story, but also to show it through the prism of the memories of the main characters. This absolutely chamber, intimate and very cozy style of storytelling turns Blue Jay into a small and quiet masterpiece that hides a real tragedy.
And all this fades before the incredible acting. The exact hit in the images that will necessarily respond in every viewer. You look at Sarah Paulson and you see her as someone you know, if not yourself. Only the power of improvisation can breathe such a unique liveliness and sincerity into the game.
Thanks to Netflix, we have a huge number of quality and interesting films. Sometimes it is too big, where a diamond like the Blue Jay can easily be lost.
Everyone wants to have a genuine feeling. A feeling that involves complete openness, trust, attention to significant details, a kind of vision of the other, and mutual.
The heroes of the film “Café Blue Jay” meet in their hometown after a very long break and by a sudden coincidence. But there is something very important between them that makes you timidly come up and offer to drink coffee together. Actors who played the main characters, Mark Duplas and Sarah Paulson, as best convey the awkwardness of this sudden meeting. At this point, the viewer realizes that they are connected by something more than a long acquaintance.
As the film progresses, we get to know the characters through their old shared habits and attitudes. They do not exist separately, there is only a joint story, written by hand and stored in an old house, to which the characters go, imbued with the spirit of nostalgia. They behave like teenagers, mentally going back to the period of first love. But they are not the same children, maturity and commitment leave their mark and do not allow the characters to cross boundaries.
The best thing for the heroes is the opportunity to relax. Adults often want and even useful to rid themselves of obligations at least for a while. They become sincere, tell each other things that no one was told, and at this moment the viewer sees and feels the real intimacy between the characters.
I do not want to spoil, so I will not write about the moment of the highest emotional intensity. The main thing I wanted to convey was the inspiration given by the blue jay from sincerity and real human intimacy.
As someone who feeds on emotions and turns them into a hurricane within himself, I declare that this film gives a sea of sensations. It’s not just that I’m an impressionable viewer. Just someone who has no expectations from the film, gets full of surprise and pleasant satisfaction.
This is why
1. Actors: Sarah Paulson This is not the first time I have seen a dramatic role, and from her I expected a good performance. But I am again impressed by the versatility of her game: from stupidity to pain and sadness in an instant. Mark Duplass I see for the first time, but he left a pleasant impression. Sometimes I thought I was overdoing it. But then I remembered that I told myself about men: in terms of expressing emotions, they are like children. Who knows, the reaction may be natural. So for the acting 5-
2. Screenplay: Mark Duplass also acted as a screenwriter for this film. Although, wait, there was no script for the film, only the plot. I think it helped the actors get used to the roles better, and turned the film into a relaxed archival snapshot of the day from the lives of the heroes. Of course, the plot is not innovative. But I am very glad that the finale, although predictable, but what did follow the last look that the operator caught? The choice is ours. So the script is also 5.
3. Picture: The visual component of the film is chic. This is the case where a black and white image is completely appropriate (it’s like a retrospective in a new time: old feelings are experienced 20 years later). The cameraman did a good job on the shots, the whole film - as a solid visual bliss. 5+
4. Stylistics: What this film definitely captivates is the style that is sustained everywhere. From the clothes of the main characters (thank you to the costumers for the mixture of coat, hat and colorful dress), to the furnishings of Jim's house, from the music to the silence (even it emphasizes style). Everything is beautiful, languid and juicy, like ripe figs. 5+
5. Soundtrack: Did you notice it? I don't. Good or bad, I don't know. But he was in the middle of the story, and that was his plus.
In general, the film infected me with feelings, and now I have something to experience the coming hours, maybe even days.
10 out of 10
Netflix is a guarantee of quality. Every year the platform provides more and more high-quality content to the audience and the Blue Jay picture confirms this.
From the first minutes of viewing, it may seem that the film is simple: the usual meeting of former classmates who were in love with each other. An awkward meeting in a supermarket has interesting consequences. The more you look, the more you immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the film, the more you begin to understand the characters, their actions.
Of course, the film is primarily about relationships, the complexity of making choices and the choice in general, about courage, about the specific consequences of decisions.
The acting is really brilliant. The inimitable Sarah Paulson as always plays not only the body, but also the soul. Each frame is saturated with the atmosphere of the film, really believe in what is happening on the screen.
The film is contrasting: at first you have fun and you smile at all, and after a minute you can not calm down. The picture is really true, not fictional and highlights some of the pressing problems of modern youth.
And of course, the final scene deserves special attention, which, in my opinion, is the most emotional and candid scene of the entire film. When everything comes out after 20 years, when there is no turning back and you can’t correct mistakes that might not have happened, a flurry of emotions overwhelms you and you still smile with tears in your eyes.
9 out of 10
The film undoubtedly catches and pulls from the viewer a thread of emotions and experiences: either those that once “trumped” him (the viewer), like a bear in the hands of an active cub, or those that are transmitted to us by the heroes. Although the film itself is not so emotional, all just hints, impulses, semitones, this is even the format of the film, it is black and white, but everything is for the viewer to lead him lightly by the handle, push him to the most tragic place on the map of his memory and leave there alone to experience the final.
The film is undoubtedly a drama, a tragedy even, unlived, unforgiven. It's always tragic when people get stuck in their sixteenth birthday, or another decade, and 10, 20, 25 years of being on autopilot, uselessly and mercilessly flipping through their lives without realizing the tragedy of how much they're losing. Time. Waste.
Despite all this, the film didn’t catch me. Maybe it’s because I didn’t experience it, maybe it’s because I did. Finally. He left everything where he was supposed to be, in the past, forgiving everyone and himself for everything. It seems reasonable to me, more or less. And what the heroes did – to keep “that day” in their chest pocket, to return to it again and again, to “dream” as everything could be, to envy other people’s children, someone else’s work, someone else’s happiness, to swallow antidepressants and “not to live your life” – this I consider unreasonable and stupid. Highly stupid. 25 years, heroes haven't lived their lives for 25 years. That's the tragedy and the stupidity.
But there is a good thing in the movie. This is the finale - parking, tears, exhalation and finally the decision to move on, albeit only now.
A film about how not to do it.
It seems that everything that Duplassa put his hand to, is able to convey this special touch to every confident who will allow himself to relax and succumb to sentimentalism, merge into someone else’s history or observe through the prism of his daily.
The picture is wonderful, above all. Things were so that after 15 minutes of viewing, I experienced tension on my face, from the smile that spread over him, which continued and continued to reach higher and for nothing I did not want to go. After a moment, the movie ended.
This talent, of course, without trying the genre framework of cinema at all, without spending extra time shooting and reshooting certain replicas, the director envelops two people with a smooth, leisurely storyline, accompanied by gentle dialogue, magnetic expressions of emotions. The picture itself is touching, touching each other, touching the dusty past, touching the viewer without “breaking the fourth wall”, and in the most natural way – the ability to feel; and the end of the tape, perhaps, is not yet accomplished touch to the future, which is not meaningful, but brings us as close as possible to what is happening and raises some guesses from the inside.
A very close film, touching and understandable, and it is “understandable” not by the simplicity of the plot in the literal sense, but understandable, as something from our own life, as something that does not need explanation and is not realized by reason.
I just watched this movie after a while (5 hours). I can't get over that feeling in my throat. But not because of sadness, but because of how close and understandable this film is to me. It is something familiar to the pain, experienced by almost every person, a feeling. Feelings of nostalgia, slight sadness. All those memories. Youth years. This is amazing!
Because it's improvisation. The cleanest.
Honestly, I don’t even want to say anything and explain the logic of the film and evaluate the footage. I just want to be silent with a slight smile of realizing that here it is, a native feeling met by you in the film. I haven't seen this in a while. And so far, there's not much of that on screen. In life, too. All these worries. Hurry. I think I’ll watch this movie more than once. And two, three, four, ten. All you want! And each time it will become even more cozy and dear to me.
I’m not saying this because I just watched it and was like, ‘Wow! Great! Emotions! Nope. He is truly wonderful, magical, magical and worthy of high marks! + My beloved Sarah Paulson!
10 out of 10
