The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent, August 2,2019) Movie

follow up to The Babadook

The old timey thriller follows a 21-year-old Irish convict in 1820s Tasmania, who is desperate to be free of her abusive master, Lieutenant Hawkins, having served her seven-year sentence. Hawkins refuses to release Clare, so Clare's husband, Aidan, retaliates and she becomes the victim of a harrowing crime at the hands of the lieutenant and his cronies. Unable to secure justice from the British authorities before Hawkins leaves his post to secure a captaincy up north, Clare decides to pursue him and is forced to enlist the help of a young Aboriginal tracker, Billy, who grudgingly guides her through the rugged wilderness to track down Hawkins.

 

ayyyyyyyyyyy finally. Looks so good.

 

Looks amazing

 

Stoked.

 

Hearing that this is a pretty rough watch, not because of the quality but the content and the upsetting nature of certain sequences. I suspect some people may have a hard time sitting through all of it.

That said, I'm hearing it's really good. I'm excited for it.

 

I kinda can not wait for this. The Babadook is one of the few “prestige” horror films of the decade that I can fully get behind.

A friend of mine works in distribution and saw this through work. Said there’s an absolutely brutal rape scene. Putting it out there for anyone who is sensitive to depictions of this stuff and might want or need to know beforehand.

 

This is F I N A L L Y out there!!!!

 

Due to the subject matter I have to wait to watch this one alone but I’m excited

 

is this streaming anywhere

 

holy shit

don’t go making your year end lists just yet

 

I want to watch this so badly, but I’m really not sure I can handle it.

 

It’s really hard at points, but I think it’s well worth it. DM me if you need to know the extent of trigger warnings before you watch

 

This was good. Enjoyed the setting. Aisling Franciosi turned in a great performance, I thought.

 

Great film

 

Yeah I thought this was excellent

 

This was so good, but so hard to watch at times

 

Oh man, I thought the Babadook was just okay, so I was surprised that this blew me away.

I loved Kent’s use of the 4:3 aspect ratio. Most movies that take place in wooded, forested areas seem to use as wide an aspect ratio that they can (to showcase the beauty of nature). The Nightingale has a claustrophobic and tense feeling by keeping the camera so close and constrained on the characters and their immediate surroundings.

 

So I did end up watching this. I think I really liked it, but I feel very conflicted about the ending, especially since it was written by a white woman. I think there is a lot of powerful stuff on screen here, but I also read a lot of very fair criticism from Aboriginal people on Letterboxd and it left me torn on how to place this.

 

You can watch it on Hulu right now.

Are you talking about Billy's death? I saw the criticism over on Letterboxd too; I never took any of the Aboriginal peoples suffering as serving toward Clare's journey. I felt a lot of Billy's suffering and worldview factored more into his character than Clare's.

 

Yes, that's what I'm referring to. It was something that made me a bit uncomfortable while watching it, and then I felt that my suspicion was confirmed by seeing some other reactions. I'm white, so I don't think I really have a say in how black people or particularly black aboriginal people react to that.

Overall though, I felt that the message that colonial violence is racist violence is patriarchal violence is capitalist violence was well done and poignant. The ending of a black man sacrificing himself for a white woman in that context just didn't sit 100% correctly with me, especially after seeking out and reading the opinions of black people. It doesn't take away that it is a masterfully written and beautifully shot work of art - it just didn't get a 100% from me. I hope that's clear, because I'm definitely not trying to start an argument or anything! Just share some thoughts.[/spoiler.]

 

I completely get it. The ending was fine for me at first, and then I realized that every Aboriginal character died. Charlie, slave woman with child, Billy, spear throwers, aboriginal that talks back. Like, you couldn't have ANY of the characters live? really?