Spin a Yawn
Faraz Fesharaki/DFFB
MOVIE REVIEW
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (2021)
“What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?” is a modern fable set in the nation of Georgia. There’s allegedly magic in the air per the voiceover narrator, though it’s his narration that does the heavy lifting. We don’t get to witness much of the miraculous the way we do, say, in a Jacques Tati film.
Despite this once-upon-a-time storytelling approach, there’s little joy or whimsy in the proceedings. Writer-director Alexandre Koberidze doesn’t exhibit the same kind of imaginative charm or lighthearted playfulness displayed by Tati or Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Quite the opposite, in fact, and we feel the entirety of the film’s daunting two-and-a-half-hour runtime. Incidentally, “Playtime” is five minutes longer, and one hardly notices!
“What Do We See” is drab visually, and Giorgi Koberidze’s score does little to uplift. Sometimes Mr. Koberidze’s narrator launches into tangents, like ones involving stray dogs and where people gather and watch soccer matches on TV. These meanderings start to get a little tedious and grating before the film commences its second part an hour and 22 minutes in – the narrator is literally keeping scores of soccer matches as if he were commentating on ESPN. It’s only a matter of time before the film wears you down, and you stop caring if Lisa and/or Giorgi will return to their former selves and/or find each other again.
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