‘Blood’ Review: A Young Widow Searches For Meaning in an Unconventional But Uninvolving Character Study
25.01.2022 - 03:17
/ variety.com
Tomris Laffly A scrapbook collection of serene, observational moments in search of a story, “Blood” runs deep, but only with obscure meaning, so opaque at times that its essence feels unreachable. Writer-director Bradley Rust Gray’s first feature in a decade offers some modest rewards to patient viewers up for a challenge, but this good-natured study of a young widow’s new chapter in life is finally too understated to leave a memorable trace.Premiering in this year’s U.S.
Dramatic Competition at Sundance, “Blood” is exactly the type of unstructured, casually paced indie that requires the immersive experience of the movie theater: dark, big and distraction-free. The irony, of course, is that’s a hard sell these days to spectacle-seeking ticket buyers.
Beyond the festival circuit, the film could find a small, committed audience on streaming platforms. Those captivated by the filmmaker’s previous, similarly dispositioned films like “The Exploding Girl” ought to turn up, as might devotees of South Korean master Hong Sang-soo’s tranquil and conversational cinema.
But Gray is no Hong, a virtuoso of low-key tales and scenes one tentatively eavesdrops, only to be mesmerized by their quiet profundity. Even viewers with a strong taste for the experimental might struggle to connect with “Blood,” despite the film’s collection of amiable characters.
(Bonus points to any viewer who can decipher the relevance of the film’s title, styled entirely in lowercase.)At its center is Chloe (Carla Juri), a widowed photographer who travels for work to Japan, where she reconnects with her old musician friend Toshi (Takashi Ueno). If their comfortable body language around each other is any indication, there is mutual, loving care between the two.
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