The Drama

Star Wars

The Cell

Lilya 4-ever

this is one of the most confronting exercises of an inevitable ending i've experienced in a long, long time. LILYA 4-EVER has been on my watchlist for about a decade at this point, and it strikes me how i genuinely believe my reaction to it would have been different had i seen it at an earlier time in my life. back then, i would've been much closer in age to this beloved protagonist and i also had a stronger stomach for tragedy. i can't malign myself and presume i'd be numb back then, but the level of devastation this film has brought upon me now that i see it in my thirties is almost indescribable. the urge to scream, cry, throw up over the vast injustices so starkly portrayed in LILYA is visceral and paramount. i greatly appreciate how deliberate lukas moodysson's directorial choices were. small but unmissable details and threads connect character moments and plot points throughout the film in such a satisfying way, despite the narrative's heavy subject matter. for me what makes LILYA feel so realistic isn't the dreary mise en scène or cinema vérité set dressing - once you've seen enough movies with that kind of outer packaging, it can quite quickly become gimmicky. but this film doesn't feel exploitative in that way. it instead questions the audience over our choice to bear witness, yet without berating us because to look away is to be even more complicit. that kind of balance is so tough to strike in social commentary films. it's a skill reserved for the greats and i do think moodysson nails it spectacularly here.