Some media is inescapable because everyone is talking about it. Causeway is a perfect little film that I haven’t seen anyone talk about. That gave me the joy of discovering the movie on my own without any expectations.
Jennifer Lawrence is one of the greatest actresses we have, but I haven’t seen many of her movies. I think I saw one of the Hunger Games, and a couple others. But I’ll never forget how I felt when she debuted with another perfect little film called Winter’s Bone. I’m not an actor, nor am I the kind of person to comment on an actor’s performance, but it was one of my favourite movie experiences ever.
A few years back, the TV show Atlanta debuted and I couldn’t keep my eyes off Brian Tyree Henry’s playing a character named Paper Boi. I found myself slackjacked at how effortlessly Henry could communicate on the screen with so little. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it, but I sent him a quick DM telling him how impressed I was by his acting. I am not a person that DMs celebrities. But for him I couldn’t resist.
Well. Causeway takes Jennifer Lawrence at her best, quite like her Winter’s Bone performance, and pairs her with Brian Tyree Henry, who is also at his best. I found myself rewinding and watching scenes a second time, and then a third, and then carrying my iPad to show my wife. “Look at this scene,” I’d say. “Nothing happens, but, like everything happens.” And she’d watch, then she’d nod, and add her own insights. “Did you see how she reflected his line back in the way she phrased her delivery? Wow.”
The movie just ended and I wanted to tell someone about it. If you like movies like Lost in Translation that don’t follow a perfectly linear plot, but are more about the feel of a scene, and of a whole life, you might like Causeway. And if you’re someone who wants to see some of the best actors alive doing what they do best, you’ll want to check this one out.
