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Ezen Baklattan

CAYOM Y6 - Official Discussion Thread

By Ezen Baklattan, in Create A Year Of Movies (CAYOM)

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cookie Global Phenomenon

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Promised this yesterday, so here we go:

 

Cookie's Preliminary Review of @SLAM!'s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

 

Spoiler

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is not a film you come across often. At least not in CAYOM.

 

On its surface, the film is about a descent into madness by a musician who got way into his own fantasies of saving a historical figure and let that bleed not only into his creative process but his personal life as well. Many of the film's more out there moments, some which are bound to make viewers pause as it skeeves into uncomfortable territory, aren't as much based in truth as they are in legend.

 

It's not a representation of fact, but in my opinion it doesn’t have to be. It's not really about the external narrative anyhow. Most of the recordings go without a hitch, the band members all seem to get along just fine with only the occasional arguments, and they never face any great external challenges or failures. No, the film's stakes lie in just how far Jeff Mangum's obsession with Anne Frank goes before he either crosses an event horizon or he himself falls apart completely.

 

I got the sense that Jeff isn't so much obsessed with Anne Frank as much as the version of her he's created in his mind. In his lucid dreams, that stand-in becomes a living person, someone Jeff can share his dreams, wants, doubts, fears and — perhaps most fascinatingly — his guilt with. Jeff bears no responsibility for what happened to Frank nor does he know anyone who does, but he still feels the obligation to either somehow save her or let her inspire him to make more music. The latter results in one of the most influential underground albums of all time, the former drives a man to have a mental breakdown.

 

What might help ease the discomfort one gets when Jeff's interactions with this stand-in of Frank turns into a full-blown relationship is that even Jeff's delusions eventually fight against him, telling him to move on by making it abundantly clear that even his fantasies can't escape reality. Jeff's friends don't do much to help until it's too late, but their motives for being hands-off are all understandable, and you get the sense part of it is also driven by an unease they're all too considerate to do anything about.

 

The only question mark, then, is the film's final moments, making it seem like Jeff is surrendering to his madness even if that same madness warned him not to. I think it's supposed to be left up to interpretation, and just how that scene plays out does give the feeling it's all another lucid dream, but it's difficult to tell.

 

I'm reminded of last year's Yin where the experience is what drives the narrative. It's a window into a particular moment in Jeff's life (smartly avoiding many tropes that plague the usual music biopic), but when Aeroplane Over the Sea truly soars is when that window disappears and it more becomes a wave that pulls you into its world, only letting go once it wants you and Jeff to snap back to reality, wondering what just happened but immediately wanting to go back.

 

I don't think I've had this lucid sensation watching any other film in CAYOM's life-span, and it's made me more fascinated to go and read up on the real Jeff Mangum than a film that would've tried to fill in more details would've done. It knows what it wants to tell, and it does so swiftly, and even viewers unfamiliar with the music scene Jeff inhabits will come out wanting more of it.

 

A

 

(Not that it has any effect on the rating, but it did feel more like 90 minutes than necessarily two hours, though the numerous songs could make up the difference.)

 

 

Edited by cookie
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Ezen Baklattan Global Phenomenon

Ezen Baklattan

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ITAotS Light Spoilers:

 

Spoiler

Given @cookie's review, it looks like Slam did a good job of leaning further into the elements I suggested in my initial feedback pass. Can't wait to read the new version.

 

Edited by Mr Pastaffelees
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1 minute ago, Mr Pastaffelees said:

ITAotS Light Spoilers:

 

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Given @cookie's review, it looks like Alpha did a good job of leaning further into the elements I suggested in my initial feedback pass. Can't wait to read the new version.

 

Congratulations @Alpha on apparently writing In The Aeroplane Over the Sea

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