The Null Device

MIFF: Morvern Callar

The final film I saw today was Morvern Callar. This film was stylistically in the tradition of recent drug-culture films like Trainspotting and Human Traffic, in that it was primarily focussed on the subjective experiences of its protagonist, a Scottish checkout chick whose oversensitive record-collector boyfriend kills himself, leaving behind a mix tape (containing Stereolab, Broadcast, Lee Hazlewood and the Velvet Underground), money for his funeral and the manuscript of his unpublished novel. She covers up his death, sends the manuscript to a publisher under her own name, and uses the funeral money to go on a holiday in Spain with her best friend (the very cute Kathleen McDermott) and, of course, the mix tape. It's not a very complex plot; though the point of the film is in the rollercoaster of emotions she experiences. It was OK, though it's probably the sort of thing you have to be in the mood to get into (read: watch this on DVD at home with certain substances).

There are 2 comments on "MIFF: Morvern Callar":

Posted by: David Golding http://pah2.weblogs.com/ Mon Jul 28 07:14:24 2003

My refined review: "The heroine moves at a glacial pace through a series of variously cliched and random vignettes with her friend. Eventually she dumps her friend."

From: http://pah2.weblogs.com/2003/07/28#a822

I didn't think the emotions or the suicide itself or the mix tape or the drug culture were developed in any worthwhile sense. The problem with talking about this film is that any mention of these elements tends to overwhelm your actual words.

Posted by: Ben http://leviathan.weblogs.com Mon Jul 28 17:29:49 2003

Is there some sort of film festival on that you want to tell us about? BTW any time you want to drop that LXG sequential art book off would be good, I have another associate clamouring for a read of it.