Review of Like Crazy (2011) by Lotem S — 16 Mar 2012

Like Crazy is the equivalence of a feature length montage that Eisenstein himself would be confused with. The choppy linear frame of this story leads to a very interesting aesthetic style, that fuses documentary filmmaking with the pre meditated aspects of Hitchcock himself. Although technically appealing, the movie relies to much on the perception an average movie goer would expect to see from an exciting indie story. Through manipulation of the film language, and building up on the film history, Like Crazy presents a movie that seeks more congratulations from critics then it does self validation. There is no soul in this movie, only montage sequence after the other to try to describe the rather boring relationship of this couple. In all honesty there is no character development in the entire story, but rather we see a couple who through dialogue force a perception onto the audience of genuine human emotions. We as an audience didn't get to grow with these characters, they were just there mirroring emotions that we see in real life in hopes of establishing some kind of fake connection. Not to blame their acting, but the script doesn't provide insight into any issue of life, or how these people actually think, all it does is show that boy and girl fall in love and have problems. We all have problems, but we don't go to the theatre to see reality as expressed by memories, we go there to learn something about ourselves and hopefully be inspired. I didn't get that feeling from Like Crazy, instead I saw a movie that tried to exploit the handheld camera in hopes of relating it to an art film so that the viewer can know how to react. The pre meditated qualities of screen direction seemed to be there for the most part, and that helped move the film from one spot to the other, but at the same time this was its downfall. By keeping a chopped up linear story in this seeming flow the distinction between year to year is harder to see and gives the movie the overall montage quality that it desires. Instead of this I would have liked to have either seen a non linear approach to this story so that the director can actually make a statement on human emotions and reactions. But he didn't and as a result the movie is more of a comprehensive guide to these peoples lives, instead of a creative flick that leaves space for the imagination to create true insight.

Overall through the use of depth of field, composition, and screen direction, Like Crazy creates a technically sound movie that doesn't have the soul to back it up.

4/10.