Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES (2010) - March 23, 2012
An absolutely entrancing film about a dying man who gathers his close relatives and looks back on his life (and his past lives) days before his death.  The film is very slow, and it's not really about much, but there's something very captivating and almost magical about it.  This is a film that features ghosts and strange spirits and treats them with a deadpan normalcy that somehow makes them feel simultaneously more magical and like almost humdrum everyday occurences.  I'm not doing a very good job of describing this movie, but it's quite delightful.  It helps that the film is beautifully directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who emphasises long takes in which the characters take their time in whatever they are doing; no one is in a hurry in this film.  This could have made the film disasterously uneventful under a lesser director, but here it only helps to draw the viewer in to this enchanting universe.  I also really liked the use of sound in this movie; the sounds of nature are used in a way that somehow manages to feel both very stylized and completely naturalistic.  ****