Review of Loving Vincent (2017) by Christopher E — 22 Oct 2017

Even if it's not the most complete narrative, it still boasts an amazing, inventive method of story-telling that'll certainly leave you stunned.

This feature-length painted animation -- the first film of its kind -- explores the life and unusual death of Vincent Van Gogh via depictions of his artworks.

This is the second film I've gotten to use my MoviePass on and let me just say that it's totally worth it. I was able to view this film at a small theater in Chicago called the Music Box Theater. It was like an old classic film theater with projectors that projected film. It was a really cool experience and honestly, it made watching this film even more fun.

"Loving Vincent" is certainly an inventive film, and definitely one of its own kind. It takes advantage of multiple aspects used in film. It's like a combination between animation and stop-motion story-telling, however, it's told entirely through oil drawing paintings. I mean, how fucking cool is that? If that doesn't interest you as a filmmaker or as a fan, then I don't know what will. Every scene in this movie was painted over hand by hand, and it looked absolutely beautiful. Over 100 painters were used during the production, and it certainly came out beautifully.

The way the paintings were captured looked really good. It really did look like everything was in constant motion. What I think they did was they painted layers over and over the base painting, which gave they illusion of the painting moving as the filmmakers snapshotted each frame. It can be a little weird to look at at first, as your eyes have to adjust to unique movement that the frames display, but you quickly adjust and it becomes so worth it.

The sound design was also something that was very crucial and beneficial to this sound. I wouldn't say that the score or the sound effects were completely out of this world, but they added so much to something that is 2D. They brought life and realism to these gorgeous paintings and it made it feel so real. At times, it looked like these scenes were real, as it looked that spectacular. The sound design and editing team really put a lot into this film, making the experience even more memorable.

What I didn't like about this film, which was actually a big negative, was the story itself. No, I'm not saying Van Gogh's story is uninteresting, because it certainly isn't. But the story is just the main character walking around for an hour and a half, having conversations about what really happened with Van Gogh. The movie really was all narrative, and they missed a huge opportunity by not telling the movie with the imagery. The imagery was such a huge part, but I couldn't find myself attached to the story because it was told in a very mundane way.

In the end, "Loving Vincent" was a very solid film and one that had a really unique take on it. I would certainly watch this film just to experience the innovative story-telling, even if it's not the strongest film as a whole.