Oh, what an echo!
Well I must admit that I wasn't expecting too much from it initially, especially after seeing Zach Galifianakis on poster. It's just hard not to recall his iconic play in the Hangover series - the idiotic monkey-holding image.
But I was wrong again.
It's Kind of A Funny Story is a non-commercial non-Hollywood piece of production. It was made to give out surprises.
This is a coming-of-age comedy drama centering on a 16-year old boy, Craig, who turned breathless facing bits of stresses of live, thinking about killing himself, and voluntarily ended up with a short stay in a psychiatry ward seeking for treatments. As the story goes on, he started to figure out what is the thing called life...
Well it may sound ordinary, and I do realise that most of the critics aren't scoring high for the movie, but seriously, I have a crush on it.
Umm indeed I am biased towards the unique filming styles – Fight Club, Wanted, and the kind-of alike bittersweet-teenage-troubles-production Submarine all went similarly. I love the way it portraits and illustrates with all those first-person narrations, freezing shots, and interesting funky imaginary scenes – which all fitted very well in the storytelling. And yes, the narrated snapshots at the end were so lovely and gosh I liked them so much!
The leading actor Keir Gilchrist came to me as an entirely unfamiliar face, yet his raw play ran so naturally that makes the film easy and comfortable to enjoy along. Without much decoration he depicted a lost teen right to the point, it’s not those who went overly-depressed with tears, but you could only barely sense the struggle within. At times, he reminded me of those good old days in highschool, when everyone else were kind of egocentric and emotion-driven; and went confused for reasons unknown.
I can't agree more on Craig's point on being depressed - somehow we are down due not to a single distinct depressing event, but an aggregate of things that don't seem going on the way they should.
Another lovable part is the psy-ward setting. In such a confined place filled with all sort of simple harmless (though weird) minds, one is no longer overwhelmed by expectations and judgments, and can breathe and live as it was meant to be. When we kept labelling others as psychics, shouldn't we stop for a while and ask ourselves - are we busy dying?
Alright, let’s bring along with the old song back in 1981 by Queen. You’ll know why as you watch along. Oh and: It's Kind of A Funny story is not just a funny story to go.
Queen - Under Pressure (1981)
P.S. I do see the shadow of mine from Craig - at least - when I am getting nervous, I puke as well. =]
