Review of Cold War (2018) by Everett — 25 Jan 2019

I loved his film "Ida" and bought the DVD afterward. So perhaps my expectations were too high, especially given the reviews. But this is what it came down to: I just didn't care about the characters. All the perfect cinematography - and stunning art direction on the whole - couldn't compensate for that. I never expected to be bored, yet because I had never been drawn in emotionally, and because of a certain redundancy in the writing, I found it long at an hour and a half.

Also, I had to wonder why he didn't make more use of the "cold war/Stalin" etc. background. I've seen political backdrops put to much better (and more profound) use recently in "Roma" and especially (on TV) "Babylon Berlin." More character development - as in "Ida" - would have helped. This seemed more like a dated stock film than one of the classic b&w's that show us more than passion and gazing. (Lots of "gaze" here, including the director's!) I had to wonder if the years' apart structure was a way to avoid anything resembling an examination of a passionate relationship over time.