Love Is Blind: Japan, Drive My Car, and Zoë/Rob
Public perception and private realities, plus red-carpet heat
Hello!
On this week’s episode of Criticism Is Dead, we discuss Love Is Blind: Japan and Drive My Car, a reality show and a film about the discrepancy between interior and exterior feelings in relationships.
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04:15 Love Is Blind: Japan, streaming on Netflix, is a more thoughtful and illuminating window into dating norms and challenges than its U.S. counterpart.
In general, Love Is Blind is fun trash for when you want to turn off your brain. But Love Is Blind: Japan delivers a more emotionally mature and realistic look at the social issues that impact relationships and marriage, particularly within its own cultural context. The vast gulfs of difference between public vs. private, said vs. unsaid, and expectation vs. reality are particularly interesting. One participant says he wants an equal partner but actually wants a traditional housewife who sacrifices her dreams for his; another discovers that she man she fell in love with is not the same in private as he is in the company of others. These are all real patterns and problems that feel much more relatable than the manufactured drama and loud fights that typically pepper similar reality shows. It’s worth a watch.
23:51 Drive My Car, available on HBO Max, is a long reflection on grief, love, and art, but it ultimately falls a little flat for us.
Yes, we are going to say it: The critically acclaimed Drive My Car is overrated. It’s good, certainly, but for a movie that’s partly about restraint, Drive My Car doesn’t quite know when to let go and when to hold tight again. Its third act, in particular, is disappointing in its need to make explicit everything that hangs in the air: spelled-out confessions of regret and grief, a heavy-handed emotional climax, and a self-indulgent final scene that doesn’t add much at all to the film. Three hours is a long time for any movie; it feels longer, still, when a large part of it doesn’t work (in our opinion).
40:40 Plus, culture notes about Zoë Kravitz and Robert Pattinson’s smolder-heavy press tour.
Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac have passed the torch of red-carpet chemistry.
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY:
Bonus links
Okay well Oscar Isaac is still at it, after all:
The Spirit Awards were great, and Pelin is right:
Ben Schwartz interview post-Afterparty finale!!
Wow:
That’s it for now. See you next week!
— Jenny
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Some credits:
Music: REEKAH
Artwork and design: Sara Macias and Andrew Liu