I went to see Cloud Atlas with a few small apprehensions, regarding some specific controversy over casting and makeup treatment that I’d heard about prior to the film

cuz, I’m not gonna lie, I’m usually very quick to catch any faintest whiff of racial/gender bigotry in anything after which I proceed to at least side-eye the thing super hard, if not tear it a new one

well I’m happy to announce that when I left the theater those apprehensions were completely obliterated for being ultimately utterly irrelevant, at least to the intent of the movie and the story. In fact I thought reusing the main cast over all the stories was critical in carrying the most obvious core theme of the movie. And personally, trying to track and recognize all the actors under their various costumes/makeup across all the stories was really fun and sometimes awesomely/hilariously surprising (i.e. HUGO WEAVING in probably my favorite story )

if I sound calm about this movie it’s a lie cuz I’M REALLY NOT calm about it cuz I love it lots and it gives me Feels the way Life of Pi gave me Feels and wow two incredibly spiritual/conceptual movies in the same month it’s making a real mess out of my head and my heart

a few notes:

- Doona Bae was electrifying. Her presence even when she didn’t speak (and she didn’t speak very much) was quietly enthralling.

- ZHOU XUN WADDUP GUUUURL

- Ben Whishaw’s wrecked little face, also he looks hilar with an out of control 70s beard

- Jim Sturgess as a Korean man, albeit kinda off-looking in a weird CGI prosthetics way, was weirdly attractive anyway

- my only quip with the CGI/makeup in New Seoul is how similar the eye area treatment was for the raceswapped (I’m not using the Y word cuz it’s wrong and stupid to use it in this context) actors. There could’ve been some variety to the eye shapes and sizes, and I’m almost certain they could’ve done the CGI a little more… gracefully, although I read somewhere that they were made to look deliberately weird and artificial to preserve a theme in the book not explicitly stated in the film

- but the prevalence of the well-pruned triangle eyebrows tho what is up with that is that a New Seoul fad or something

- I’m convinced those that complain they didn’t like the film cuz they were confused by it are the same ones that didn’t get Inception and for that I’m truly sorry for them cuz it is so rewarding to pay close attention to everything for it to all click in the end and then for a brief moment you believe you have the answer to every question in the known universe

- I need to read this book now gdi