Life Itself (2018)

Life Itself is a movie that touches your heart and many emotions of life. Love the story and now one of my favorites.

Fmovies: I was apprehensive going to the movies because the movie is neither popular nor well-reviewed. What a surprise! I both laughed and cried in my seat. It has a beautifully written script, the story is original, emotional and immersing. Yes, it is messy at times, but so is life. I loved how it all tied together in the end. I felt that there are many many sentences from that movie that will soon be legendary.

I was hesitant to invest the time in this film after reading critic reviews but I can absolutely say they were truly too harsh with Life Itself. No surprise but it's very reminiscent of 'This Is Us' and instead of an episodic narrative it's condensed to a two hour multi-chaptered film. While it did feel closer to three hours at points, there's a clear disconnect between the current reviews and the actual film performance. It was very emotional and most of the movie I had a lump in my throat. The way it's structured it's almost like three movies in one but the way it all comes together was so fascinating to watch as an audience member. My vote is you give it a shot, it's a really creative story.

Life Itself fmovies. This movie is a great dramatic epic because the dialogue is great. The 'Book Thief' is a great dramatic epic because of it's excellent character development, essence of a literary novel or movie. 'Life Itself' does not engage in character development, yet you feel endeared to the characters because they somehow are defined by their dialogue. Never seen a movie soften an adverse event as much as this movie does, with outcome you focus on the good that could come out of the adverse event. Don't know why they threw in that 'goddamn' at end of the movie, but I overlooked it and gave it a 10 anyways.

I fell in love with this movie. The characters, the stories, the landscapes were enthralling. I'm not sure what the critics who panned this movie were watching but it wasn't what I watched unfold on the screen. Big thumbs up from me!

RANT WARNING:

I have incredibly mixed feelings on this movie.

On one hand, ya, I see why it has a less the 15% score on rotten tomatoes. No spoilers, but there's a major plot point near the end that you really need to suspend belief in reality to believe, within a movie that is so incredibly grounded in its graphic portrayal of reality, both mundane and intense. Additionally, it's pretty sappy, and essentially a 2 hour version of This is Us.

On the other hand, I've been buying up all available stock in Oscar Isaac ever since Inside Llewin Davis, and in Olivia Cooke ever since Thoroughbreds, and this movie only cements them as my first round picks if there were ever a fantasy football style league for actors. And also this: this movie did to me what really all movies are aiming to do. It gripped me intensely for two hours, it made me feel deeply, and here I am 6 hours later, still thinking about it. So really what else matters. Sometimes I get caught up in making sure my opinion of a movie lives up to what I think a movie should critically be without looking at what the movie actually is. I refuse to do that with this movie. I liked it and the people in it. Screw the rest. 9/10