Her Smell (2019)
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Her Smell Movie Review
Her Smell is a 2019 drama film directed by Alex Ross Perry and starring Elisabeth Moss. It’s a weak movie that has a couple of strengths to itself.
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“Promise me mama, when I die,
have the coffin arrive half an hour late
and on the side written in gold letters:
“Sorry for the delay“
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It follows a lead vocalist of a punk rock band who experiences brief commercial success and a long, slow descent into addiction and self-destruction. I did like the premise to this movie as it’s quite truthful for this particular lifestyle and career choice so it felt very relevant in that regard and especially for those people who engage in such a job.
I also found its dialogue amusing and even thoughtful at times, and whenever the film focused on conversations, it was quite solid. But the musical part was uninspired and overall the movie never gripped me as it lacked any sort of momentum or memorable moments.
I found the pacing very problematic and the movie in particular did not need a 135-minute runtime. That was simply way too much for an indie drama as that genre should not exceed two hours ever in my opinion. Thus, the flick felt pretentious, dragged and quite boring when all is said and done.
The technical aspects are particularly weak as the cinematography, direction, score and especially the overall look and feel of the movie were too small, uninspired and TV-like. It’s an indie that felt like an indie a bit too much.
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Elisabeth Moss herself delivered a very strong, believable performance in a great, very interesting and fun role. The second half of the film felt overly serious and too different from the first more entertaining one, but still she carried it through to the finish line on her shoulders and is the only legitimate reason to check out this film.
Her Smell is technically uninspired and particularly boring having in mind its runtime is ridiculously long for an indie drama. It’s not well paced at all. It’s best to be seen for its strong dialogue and a particularly committed performance from Elisabeth Moss in a very interesting role.
