Raw

Rating: 7/10 (7 February 2016)

If you are the type of a person to watch movie to judge beautiful cinematography or look for masterful direction, don't look here. Thats not the only problem with the movie, editing is choppy, the camera setup is boring, blocking is very simple, and it is clear that the stars of the movie Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are not professional actors. So why does this film work so well? Perhaps it's because of the soundtrack recorded by the two stars. Their voices compliment each other perfectly in their tunes and it fits the story. The rough edginess of Hansard's voice blends with the soothing nature of Irglova's. However; if only the songs are what makes "Once" what it is, it would've not have gotten the accolades, awards, and nominations from variety of sources which made me be interested in the movie. So once again, why does this film work? Because of it's mistakes. Once is a romance, and usually movie industry does a poor job in conveying what romance really is. In movies love is too perfect, and beauty is above the truth. In here love is not beautiful, it's awkward, choppy, and unprofessional, that's why it works. The movie does not lose anything because of it's lacklustre qualities, in fact it gains something which many Hollywood movie can't even create, rawness. I heard that the director's next movie "Begin Again" with a similar premise but a bigger budget did not fare as well. While I haven't seen the movie yet (and would love to compare those movies) I assume that the bigger budget got rid of the rawness prominent in "Once."
As a film, it lacks a lot. If you show this to your film professor, they will undoubtedly discredit the movie. However; we should not focus on it's lack of cinema techniques and look at what the movie revealed to us. Truth.