The Washington Post - 23.08.2019

23

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THE WASHINGTON POST

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019

Movies

Aquarela



A climate-change documentary that rattles as well as impresses

BY MICHAEL O'SULLIVAN

The documentary “Aquarela”

opens with overhead shots of

what appears to be an iced-over

lake, accompanied by a score of

headbanging power chords by

composer Eicca Toppinen of the

Finnish “cello-metal” band Apoc-

alyptica. Viewers of this almost

wordless, at times quasi-abstract

meditation on the power of water

may experience initial disorienta-

tion — even confusion — about

what they’re looking at. But a

form, and then a narrative of

sorts, gradually emerge.

In the first little chunk of the

globe-trotting film, which jumps

from Siberia to Greenland to

Mexico (and other points) with-

out warning, director Viktor Kos-

sakovsky turns his camera on

Russian police who are tasked

with fishing out cars from under

the ice of Lake Baikal in southern

Siberia, after drivers have ill-ad-

visedly ventured onto its partly

frozen surface.

“Can’t you see the ice is melting

already?” a cop asks, incredulous-

ly, of a couple of numskulls who

recently lost their vehicle, having

narrowly escaped by swimming

out the hatchback. “Usually it

melts three weeks later than this,”

says one of the unfortunate mo-

torists, in a rejoinder that hints at

the film’s theme: global warming.

The shadow of climate change

lurks just under the blue watery

surface of the beautiful yet unset-

tling film.

Later, by tragic chance,

“Aquarela” happens to catch an-

other car being swallowed up by

the lake. One of its occupants is

not as lucky as the men in the first

car.

“Through the lens of water you

are able to experience all known

human emotion,” Kossakovsky

said, explaining that “Aquarela”

is his attempt to capture this

metaphorical rainbow — the film,

in fact, ends with the image of a

real one — whether the emotion

be positive or negative.

Yet the documentary, which

also spotlights on Hurricane

Irma, devastating floods, melting

glaciers and giant, storm-tossed

ocean waves, mostly focuses on

the unsettling side, dedicating

precious few minutes to such

pretty natural wonders as Ven-

ezuela’s Angel Falls.

In large part, its message

seems to be: Water is scary. But

what we’re doing to the planet is

even more disturbing.

Filmed in High Frame Rate, a

high-definition format that cap-

tures images at 96 frames per

second, “Aquarela” is a visual tour

de force, even though technology

does not exist to project the film

at a rate greater than 48 frames

per second. (That’s still twice the

rate of standard digital projec-

tion. Only one of the area theaters

where the film will be shown,

ArcLight Bethesda, has the ca-

pacity for 48 fps.)

But as startling as the crisp

and, yes, dramatic images may

be, a sense of slight monotony

sometimes creeps in after so

many shots of ice, calving gla-

ciers, heaving waves, sea foam,

rain, snow, fog, mist, etc.

Despite these occasional mo-

ments of tedium, however, the

film is at once chilling and likely

to make your blood boil.

[email protected]

VIKTOR KOSSAKOVSKY AND BEN BERNHARD/SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Police work to retrieve a car that had fallen through the ice of Lake Baikal in a scene from “Aquarela.”

The film’s message seems to be: Water is scary, but what we’re doing to the planet is truly disturbing.

PG. At area theaters. Contains

some disturbing thematic material.

In Russian, Spanish and English

with subtitles. 90 minutes.

The Last 

Dud of a family drama drops a bombshell that fails to explode

BY TRAVIS DESHONG

“The Last” is a perplexing co-

nundrum of a film: a potentially

profound concept buried beneath

layers of amateurishness.

At the start of the film by writ-

er-director Jeff Lipsky, a former

distributor of indie films who has

turned to filmmaking, we meet

Olivia and Josh (Jill Durso and AJ

Cedeno), a couple gearing up for

marriage. Olivia, previously Cath-

olic, is a Jewish convert with zeal

for her new faith; Josh is a Jewish

agnostic with a critical view of

Conservative Judaism. At the top

of Josh’s multigenerational fam-

ily, smiling sweetly, is 92-year-old

matriarch Claire (Rebecca

Schull).

When Claire, known to her rel-

atives as Nana, pays a surprise

visit to the newlyweds, who have

escaped to a beach, small talk

soon gives way to what’s really on

Nana’s mind. She’s come with a

diary and some yellowed photo-

graphs, relics of her and her

mother’s pasts. One of those snap-

shots is a scene at Auschwitz, in

the center of which a young wom-

an stands — in a nurse’s uniform.

Claire, who reveals she has brain

cancer, has decided that before

seeking physician-assisted sui-

cide, she is going to let some

radioactive skeletons tumble out

of her closet, at her family’s feet.

But that riveting setup is large-

ly squandered. The film is visually

drab, with a home-video aesthetic

of flat lighting, shaky camera-

work and uninteresting shots that

work on the viewer like a sedative.

An absence of a musical score for

most of the film saps the energy

and drama from much of the

dialogue. Moments meant to be

solemn lack intensity and often

come across as unintentionally

funny. Dubbing glitches and poor

sound design grow ever more dis-

tracting, providing endless fod-

der for nit-pickers.

This is more than a case of

technical ineptitude getting in

the way of a great story. “The Last”

is, unfortunately, dialogue heavy,

which is a serious weakness con-

sidering that conversations are

either clunkily delivered, full of

overstuffed exposition, or possess

a Socratic edge that turns them

into heavy-handed debates about

the film’s themes: inherited guilt,

justice and individual well-being

amid societal suffering. Several

performers struggle to remain

convincing when their characters

are forced to utter such inane

lines as, “Three years I’ve been

teaching special needs kids. I

guess today, I was a special need

kid.”

“The Last” fails in ways too

many and too spectacular to be

simply forgettable. If there’s a sav-

ing grace — a silver lining to this

cloud of unsuccessful elements —

it’s that it’s undeniably ambitious.

Rotating through its ensemble

cast, the film tries to examine how

grief burdens a family, with mixed

results. Lipsky has set his eye on

challenging questions here, and

the way he positions his bickering

characters to play off one another

at least nods in the direction of

thematic nuance. But at every

turn, he is undermined by his own

incompetence. A scene in which

Claire recounts her and her moth-

er’s histories to Olivia and Josh

clocks in at 22 minutes, with bare-

ly an interruption. In defter

hands, a scene of such punishing

length might have been an artful

and potentially mesmerizing risk.

Here, it’s excruciating.

Maybe “The Last” would have

worked better in another medi-

um. Everything about it — from

the way the actors project, as if

trying to make themselves heard

in the nosebleed seats, to the

circuitous writing — screams live

theater. As for any nuggets of

interest that might be there, the

film’s off-putting clumsiness

makes digging for them a chore.

[email protected]

GLASS HALF FULL MEDIA

In “The Last,” Rebecca Schull’s Claire clears her conscience by

confessing past deeds as she grapples with terminal brain cancer.

Unrated. At the ArcLight Bethesda.

Contains brief strong language and

mature thematic material. 123

minutes. On Friday, Saturday and

Sunday, the theater will host Q&As

with the director and/or cast

members following the 10 a.m.,

12:45 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

screenings.