The Souvenir and the Souvenir part II. Rating: 10/10 Probably one of the greatest films on a purely emotional level that I have seen in my lifetime, and I watch a lot of movies. I haven't walked out of movie feeling this way about a movie since Lost in Translation, having an emotional connection to the story. The movie follows Julie Harte during the 80s of about 10 years as she navigates an emotionally draining relationship with her boyfriend: Anthony who is a heroin junkie and her pursuit of a film degree. The film explores the meaning of memory and truth, I feel, and how many people can view a situation differently. The movie will inspire a lot of questions (although I don't want to give much of it away) but the film certainly invites questions about what you are viewing. Beyond that, the dialogue and cinematography are first rate: the tone is dead perfect, the score and music are strong points and often used to break up the evenness of the general loudness, which is usually rather muted. Similarly to Tar, for example, although I don't feel that Tar is similar to The Souvenir. Except that both are character studies. This is certainly one of A24's greatest films and I put it in the same league as Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, which I think is one of the greatest modern horror films of all times.
Only if it was the last movie I watched....which it was not, busy time for movies unfortunately....but that passes.
