Loving (2016)

[Plain Old Tele]

Discuss.

[aabattery]

I'm surprised noone else has commented here. This was a pretty nice little film. Ruth Negga definitely deserved her nomination. It might have been a bit too understated though, if that makes sense.

 

a-

Edited February 20, 2017 by AABATTERY

[Jake Gittes]

I was skeptical about this through the entire awards season, but I shouldn't have underestimated Nichols. His penchant for making quiet, elegant, human-centric films is exactly right for the story of people who never sought historical significance but simply wanted to live their life together, and he honors them by making the heart of the film the warm, unforced family and community scenes, stories told around the kitchen table, the quiet exchanges, the small gestures and pauses, without trying to get the Lovings (wonderfully portrayed by Edgerton and Negga) closer to the modern audience via big emotional speeches and whatnot. I was hooked from the first shot.

 

Later on, once the Lovings' case gets more attention, there's the questionable decision to suddenly have supporting actors speak in over-enunciated lines like "You do realize that this could alter the Constitution of the United States?!", and given how much the rest of the film opposes all that, I really suspect it was deliberate on Nichols' part to execute this part of the story with these hacky inspirational-movie beats in order to underline the contrast between the Lovings' ordinary life and what other people saw them as. Regardless, it leads to an awkward conflict within the film that never quite gets resolved. Overall, though, one of the better and more overlooked movies of last year.