nyanbatcat

Dreamlike, abstract, jazzy, mysterious, non-linear storytelling, the dualitynof people and many more qualities would destribe this movie. But I think they are best summed up as lynchian.

Right from the beginning amazingly utilized camerawork, editing and sound editing pulled me in. Especially The protagonist, John, often speaks poetically.

The mystery starts right away and keeps unfolding quite steadily.

I do admit, it can feel tedious If you cant tell whats real, If the viewers trust is betrayed over and over. But Secret Friends managed to hold my interest the entire time. The trick is, that even imagined scenes add context, flesh Out the characters, progress the story. I know, seems obvious, but apparently it really isnt (im looking at you "Oculus"). Even If you might not be sure what is currently happening, you still understand the overall Story and how things match up. You just get handed more and more pieces. It will however require attention, as many things take time to connect or pay off. This attentive and intuition-driven Viewing experiences also reminded me a lot of Lynch's movies.

Alan Bates delivers a fantastic Performance, but Gina Bellmann knocks it out of the park.

I cant believe the bad ratings this has and I also cant believe how little attention this movie receives.

Only in the third act, there are a few scenes that made my interest waver a bit. There are still more pieces to the puzzle being added, when i wished the story would simply use the pieces already in play. What I mean is, that foreshadowing and a satifying Setup+Playoffs need time. And not every aspect got the time it deserved.

Plotwise there isnt that much here. It feels like a good episode of a crime investigation show, with a little dip in the supernatural. But it doesnt go much beyond that.

What makes this a unique and recommendable experience, are the shots and the sound. Many creepy shots, locked off, still, wide lense. Together with the framing, blocking and the sound, they create a fear of missing a tiny movement, somewhere in the distance. Filming wide, yet invoking claustrophobia isnt easy. I also love the color grading and cinematography. Many dark mushed colors, but always offers enough contrast to not become ugly or takes you out because it seems too artificial. Sometimes punctuated by some brighter colors (usually red). You can see, that a lot of attention went into how the Images are presented.

The Last third, the supposed climax, falls completely flat for me. All the tension of the movie stems from the mystery and the unknown. But after a slow build up, we suddenly get slapped with ALL the details as to what is/was going on. The tension is lost, the plot mostly predictable from that point onwards. A sad ending to an otherwise great movie.

If youre in the mood for "i dont know, some western?" then this should hit the spot. Its not terrible, its not great.

Lots of violence, gunfights, multiple plots meeting each other every now and then, alright, but not fantastic acting, with some attempts of creating rounded characters, which never really works out though. Arcs also dont happen a lot, in some cases maybe a tiny bit. But it loses some points mostly because it is kind of silly, has many tropes, characters with the thickest plot armor and offers a very heightened view of the west where basically everyone wants to kill every person they meet.

All in all an alright way to spend your time but nothing I would actively recommend anyone ever.