Hosive

we get the big themes from the trailer without ruining the pleasure of watching this movie: “this is not your family” and yet “this is your family”: it is both joyous and painful to relive how familes work…the unconditional, tender love as well as the hurts we carry and inflict. the other tagline is that this is what heaven will be like…the gathering of beloved friends and family….but the movie also depicts the choices that we make that shreds that reality and possibility.

this movie is like attending someone’s wedding and seeing the ins and outs. the genius is how real this feels. the people are real. they act like how real people would react under joyous and tragic situations. these are regular people portraying regular folk. only anne hathaway feels out of place only because she’s well known but she is getting great reviews for this being the best work of her career. if you didn’t know her, she would be more real too.

another idie flick that is not for everyone. it is a direct contrast with anne hathaway’s other wedding movie to come out(video at the end)that one is about the wedding. this one is about marriage and family. the shell and the filling. the image and the reality. the ideal and the actual work needed.

i may watch this again but unlikely to purchase it. i love the music in the film though….and might get the soundtrack. it is world music…and life music…music for art and soul and not merely consumption and sales. the music comes from a place of celebration and having lived and felt. y’know, real music.

a final note on the asian actors who do a great job capturing what western asians are like. the irony is that western asians come across plastic to me. fake smiles. fake small talk. a mind bender that the actors accomplished capturing the reality of fakeness. or were they just being themselves. and why am i repulsed by western asians? is it the spectacle of asians acting white? is it that i think they are only acting?