Derik Badman's Journal

2023-01-01 15:15

Rewatched Hong's The Woman Who Ran and then finally watched In Front of Your Face. Both are narratively less adventurous than many of his movies (no repetitions, no sense of irreality). The former is tripartite, and each section features as a kind of final stage a man behaving badly, inconsiderately. The latter, unusually for Hong, has the occasional voiceover by the protagonist as she creates these small prayers or mantras, trying to appreciate what's in front of her as she faces death.

I went into Noah Baumbach's White Noise not expecting to love it, and I came out of it let down on even that lowered expectation. It seemed all... too much... a little too fast, a little too big, a little too much effects, a little too much cleverness. It's been more than a decade since I read the novel (I recall liking it), so I can't compare, as such, but it just felt like maybe Baumbach was not the right person for the job. I'll reread the novel sometime this year.