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After some big news – New podcast! New co-host! Coming next week! – Jim gets to the discussion of Certified Copy, a film that he was fully on board with for…55 minutes.
Tags: abbas kiarostamibattleship pretensionbpcertified copydramafilmfilmsi do movies badlyJean-Claude Carrièrejim rohnerJuliette Binochemoviemoviespodcastromancewilliam shimell
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I suppose I could be accused of hypocrisy, since I normally demand internal logical consistency from any film which isn’t an absurdist comedy or otherwise surreal (something I’ve recently been arguing about in the case of Brick and Looper), but I was fine with the bifurcated approach in Certified Copy. I suppose it’s because in the moment where the shift happens you can regard it as just them play-acting, and then the strange thing is that they keep going rather than dropping character. You can imagine that they’re super dedicated improvisers/actors who manage not to drop it for an unusually long time, but as you noted the film denies you any return to the “reality” prior to that.
One thing I was surprised you didn’t mention is that William Shimell was an opera singer who hadn’t really “acted” in the normal sense before. Iranian directors have been known for casting amateurs, especially children, but here he hold up half the film opposite Juliette Binoche and acquits himself quite well.