I want to see films that respond to our real-life experiences. But few film-makers are willing to tackle this shared trauma
In March 2022, I went with some friends to see The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier’s wistful film about a young woman’s flailing search for fulfilment. In the epilogue – set some time after the film’s events – the protagonist, Julie, is wearing a face mask, as are others onscreen.
Leaving the cinema, I struggled to articulate why I found this detail moving. The mask signalled that Julie was now on the other side of not just profound personal losses, but also the global shutdown that rattled us all. It anchored the film’s uncertain heroine in an uncertain present. As Paul Thomas Anderson remarked: “Something about it made me feel like I had seen something that had genuinely happened.” For those of us who turned 30 amid the agonies of lockdown, this little nod to the pandemic deepened the movie’s elegy to millennial youth.
About Author
More Stories
Hubris by Johannes Krause and Thomas Trappe review – learning from the Neanderthals
Nasa probe ‘safe’ after closest-ever approach to sun
Plantwatch: the smelly deception of titan arum’s phallic spadix