hopscotchee: christina ricci score: 59 rating: tv-18 time: 74 minutes
if you were like us, you probably didn't know this movie existed. in fact, if we weren't re-routing our batch three hopscotch, we probably would STILL have no clue that this movie existed. luckily for both of us, that's what our hopscotch design allows us to do!! so, here have you, 10 things we should do before we break up. notes about this film before the review: you can either go into this movie knowing the summary (like annie) or not knowing anything (like katie), and your outcome will stay the same. it really is a movie that you can just sit and enjoy the ride, so there is no added pressure to your viewing enjoyment. (an example of a movie with the pressure of pre-requisite knowledge would be avengers: infinity war. you kinda half to know a lot going into that one or you're gonna be hecka confused). another thing we warn you is that this film has high cringe levels, so if you at all have low cringe-tolerance, beware. but, if you are 'adult' and stoic and stuff, you should be fine.
to commence this review, let's just dive into the cringe while we are here. again, this idea of cringe, we use loosely, because we know some people are stronger than the cringe, but, since this is our review, we are gonna go forth calling this type of conversational and behavioral acting = MAJOR CRINGE!! like, perhaps one of the most cringey films we have included in all of the hopscotch history. then again, we did sit through all summers end, brad's status, burlesque, and the edge of seventeen. so, it seems like we are masochistic people when it comes to suffering through cringe. ANYWAY, even though we may complain and squirm at the screen, we do understand that this quality of audience manipulation is awarded to the acting and the screenwriting. for one, having the mental power to write down all the awkward encounters on top of the uncomfortable situations deserves the biggest of applause. 👏*CLAP*👏*CLAP*👏 *CLAP*👏 and secondly, the vulnerability that the actors must break down to enable the goofy, embarrassing, and sadly realistic side of themselves ~ or at least their acting-selves ~ is very brave. most celebrities want to appear like the poster child of perfection, unless you are MGK, but when it came to the cast, we gotta hand it to hamsih linklater. now, we don't think any less of him because of this role. in fact, we think more highly of him for his ability to achieve such brutal cringe-honesty. for example, his dancing shimmy!! 😖😖😖😖 that was intense CRINGE that we could all relate to. and his stumbly communication skills. c'mon, we've all been there. in all, it's definitely aside of acting that, we believe, most actors want to avoid to not seem that awkward themselves, however we encourage this raw-humiliation to be the next acting fad. why not, right?? the celebrities aren't fooling us. we know they be cringe with a spotlight.
moving on with our relationship with this film, we got to mention the road bumps. and that was the editing. to be fair, we don't put the jump cuts and junky shot alignment all on the responsibility of the editors(s), this reflects just as much responsibility on the director's end. this simply could've been a situation where the director knew a general idea of the pace of the film but neglected to draft up a storyboard. for all those not fluent in film lingo, a storyboard in a visual depiction of the script. it's almost like a comic, each shot is drawn in a little square, except the storyboard also has information about the scene written off to the side like the time of the scene, the general idea of what the shot is showing, and etc. another thing about storyboards is that not all filmmakers/directors like them due to not all of us being artistic!! we know, shocking. but it's true. not everyone is a fan of drawing out the layout of the story. some only use schematics. (essentially a digital or paper version of a scene's blocking that uses geometric designs only). and that's not bad, however, it is more likely to have problems with visual flow of your film, if you neglect the storyboard, because you aren't picturing the transitions and shot-by-shot edit.
overall, the wacky editing was rebounded with the film's creative take on a simplistic story. giving us less intensity than the marriage story or argyris papadimitropoulos' 2020 film monday, but still giving us that new modern day, complex love story that sheds light on a different type of relationship dynamic. additionally, choosing to close the story with (spoiler) documentary-style ending "where they are now" credits was different but eye-opening in a way. you wouldn't really think of a fictional romance film not having a proper conclusion but, at the same time, shouldn't all stories about love connect to us on that real-life level?? plus, not all love stories end. they go on. and that's what the ending was depicting. a continuation of a love that couldn't work but didn't end. sure, the abrupt end might've not been the way to go about it, but the idea was kinda brilliant, if you think about it.
before we break, an imdb review called 10 things we should do before we break up "decent but meh". in our opinion, it was not "meh". it's probably not gonna be your first choice movie night option, but we were glad to check this off our movie bucket list. what about you??
-- thanks, christina xo