![]() To the story’s benefit, the memories of Michael exist outside of a digital space when Meredith and Josie tussle over the ownership of Michael’s drawings, it helps that they’re fighting over a notebook of tangible sketches rather than files on a hard drive.Īs Michael’s father, Alfred Molina provides a calming presence in the chaos, despite his minimal screen time. The mother’s drunken tirades are glancing blows compared to the scythe that Meredith wields when McTeer’s voice is assured and her insults are delivered with a biting calmness.Īlthough Janet Fitch’s novel of the same name is set 1980s Los Angeles, the film untethers the material from any specific time period, instead letting the shifting venues of the greater Los Angeles area take precedence over temporal concerns. The tears she sheds feel earned. While McTeer towers unchecked in her early moments, she’s far more ferocious in Josie and Meredith’s quieter interactions. Shawkat is the film’s constant anchor, exhibiting Josie’s ongoing turmoil without relying on overblown histrionics. (Josie’s continued ascension of steep staircases while also trying to climb out of her grief is a nice, constant touch.) “Paint It Black” Drawing explicit connections between the repeated elements of Josie’s story, superimposing faces and body positions, the stylized approach has a forced quality - especially in contrast to the subtler moments found elsewhere. Tamblyn’s experience as a first-time director is readily apparent in some of these more experimental moments. ![]() When Josie can’t grasp the clearest way forward, she’s overwhelmed by fragmented visions, marked by radical color changes (neon reds give way to isolated blues) and an eerie sound design that seeps through past and present. Josie’s discovery of Michael’s upbringing, floating through his childhood room and hearing Meredith’s contradicting stories, brings on some of Tamblyn’s boldest hallucinatory sequences. ![]() The film focuses on its two women’s joint struggle rather than its cause.Īs Josie and Meredith both cope in their own unseemly ways (an outrageous funeral encounter here, an unwanted house call there), they also struggle to preserve their respective ideas of the young man they’ve both lost. He only reappears in sparse flashbacks filtered through Josie’s memories, mostly without dialogue after the scene of him and Josie meeting. A former ingenue pianist, Meredith never quite sheds her performative skin, adopting the veneer of the grieving parent as an extra layer over the pain and confusion underneath.Īs both women begin to process a life without Michael, the tension between them rises. Tamblyn’s strongest narrative choice is one of omission: The film isn’t overwhelmed with an investigation of why Michael chooses to take his own life. ![]() ‘Animals’ Trailer: Alia Shawkat and Holliday Grainger’s Wild Sundance Friendship Dramedy Sets Fall Releaseīeyond Josie’s struggle, “Paint It Black” also offers the perspective of Meredith ( Janet McTeer), Michael’s distraught mother. ![]()
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