X
- 2019
- Unrated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 49 m
- 2019
- Unrated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 49 m
Summary The hunt for a killer draws a detective into an even larger mystery: the nature of the universe itself. Mike Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson) is an unconventional New Orleans cop investigating the murder of renowned astrophysicist Jennifer Rockwell (Mamie Gummer), a black hole expert found shot to death in her observatory. As Mike tumbles do...
Directed By: Carol Morley
Written By: Martin Amis, Carol Morley
- 2019
- Unrated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 49 m
- 2019
- Unrated
- IFC Films
- 1 h 49 m
Out of Blue
49
5.3
Where to Watch
Summary The hunt for a killer draws a detective into an even larger mystery: the nature of the universe itself. Mike Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson) is an unconventional New Orleans cop investigating the murder of renowned astrophysicist Jennifer Rockwell (Mamie Gummer), a black hole expert found shot to death in her observatory. As Mike tumbles do...
Directed By: Carol Morley
Written By: Martin Amis, Carol Morley
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 16 Critic Reviews
49
19% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
63% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
19% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 16 Critic Reviews
49
19% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
63% Mixed
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
19% Negative
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
Having now seen the film three times, I find myself loving it all the more for its imperfections. When a film-maker aims this high, how can one do anything but watch in wonder?
Out of Blue is one of those films you're not sure if you really enjoyed viewing, but you're immensely glad that it exists, cheered to know the film industry still has room for maverick, boundary-smudging work like this.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 6 User Ratings
5.3
33% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
50% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
17% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 6 User Ratings
5.3
33% Positive
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
50% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
17% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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(Mauro Lanari)
Like an "A Serious Man" (2009) or "Interstellar" (2014) shot by Lynch or his mentor, producer and alter ego Laura Dern. Psychedelic and bewitching, however in the third act the dissolution ("lysis") of the plot ("desis/ploke") is far from being exhaustive. The detective's demons, the motivations of the serial killer, the dynamics of the first death are not explained but allusively hinted. Irritating yet atmospheric. There are scientific inaccuracies but it's a low-budget film and not everyone can afford a Kip Thorne as consultant.
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Out of Blue undeniably works as a stylish, psychological neo-noir, but significantly less so as metaphysical rumination.
With its arch, Lynchian tropes and curiously mannered dialogue, which may be deliberately disengaged from reality or may just be out of tune with the voices of the characters, this film will not be for everyone.
At its best, Out of Blue captures a slightly intoxicated “eureka” sensation, as the whole detective genre transforms elegantly into a philosophical awakening, and as the greatest threat comes not from a murderer but from our protagonist’s sense of self (or lack thereof). At its worst, which is most of the time, it’s a conventional detective story that resorts to lengthy scientific-namedropping when it probably should be getting on with it instead.
Carol Morley’s film wants to blow our minds, but it succeeds only at rousing our boredom.
Clarkson has given many memorable, invigorating performances in the past, but in Out of Blue she goes through the motions of a hard-boiled cop with charmless brunette hair, off-the-rack clothes and convincing detachment like someone who is constantly being rudely interrupted from a long nap.
It's fitting that redhead Patricia Clarkson dyes her hair black for this role, the film's darkness pervades every frame (and every strand). She plays a sullen detective in New Orleans and, like any movie cop, she has substance abuse issues. Her current case is the murder of an astrophysicist (Mamie Gummer), but this is far from a typical procedural. Writer/director Carol Morely has opted for a neo-noir that certainly hits the dark part right, but adds a metaphysical/quantum physics element that just clutters the investigation. Even with all this pretentiousness, the big reveal was telegraphed early, so no big surprise there. Slack pacing, dull writing and an uninteresting case combine to drag this story into a black hole of boredom.
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A clichéd, predictable, tonally inconsistent mess
Part murder-mystery, part esoteric cosmological rumination, part metaphysical neo-noir, writer/director Carol Morley's Out of Blue is a complete shambles. That this is so gives me no pleasure at all, as I'm a big fan of both Dreams of a Life (2011) and The Falling (2014). Loosely based on Martin Amis's 1997 novel Night Train, Out of Blue is obviously designed as a puzzle - the story only ever seems half-formed, as if we're seeing it through gauze. Mixing tones, themes, and styles, the film tries to be many things at once, but ultimately ends up being none of them; far too simplistic to be a fully realised examination of the nature of existence, far too predictable to be a whodunnit, far too clichéd to be a noir.
Set in New Orleans in an unspecified time period, the film follows Det. Mike Hoolihan (Patricia Clarkson) as she investigates the murder of astrophysicist Jennifer Rockwell (Mamie Gummer), an expert on black holes and a proponent of the multiverse theory. The investigation will ultimately involve quantum mechanics, dark matter, string theory, Schrödinger's cat, and the double-slit experiment, as well as forcing Hoolihan to confront a childhood trauma she has repressed and an unsolved serial killer case from the 1970s; the ".38 Killer", who always killed women that looked a lot like Jennifer.
Out of Blue attempts to connect the relative mundanity of human suffering to the vast unknowable mysteries of the universe. On the surface, this is quite similar to what Terrence Malick does in The Tree of Life (2011). However, whereas Malick was essentially making the point that the birth **** is analogous with the birth of a child and that spirituality and science are not mutually exclusive, Morley sets our existence as a random and infinitesimal fragment in the impossible-to-conceive-of enormity of the universe.
Unfortunately, the predictable outcome of the murder investigation has virtually nothing whatsoever to do with black holes and the multiverse. Audiences will be left asking such questions as why is there so much information on Jennifer's research; is it all just an elaborate MacGuffin. The idea is obviously that in searching for the killer, Hoolihan is discovering herself, played out against the backdrop of infinity, but the film never addresses why we should care, as it doesn't actually say anything interesting or significant about the connection between humanity and the strange goings-on of space-time.
The quotidian nature of the whodunnit isn't helped by the fact that much of the acting is questionable, which seems unbelievable given the cast. As Jennifer's parents, Jackie Weaver appears to be in a completely different film to everyone else, and James Caan is simply doing an imitation of John Huston in Chinatown (1974). Devyn A. Tyler as a novice reporter, and Todd Mann and Brad Mann as Jennifer's creepy twin brothers never manage to escape the archetypal noir parameters of the characters they play. Yolanda T. Ross and Aaron Tveit, as Hoolihan's boss and colleague, respectively, are basically extras. Even Patricia Clarkson struggles with breathing life into the material. The problem, however, lies with Morley's script, rather than the actors. Essentially refusing to allow the audience any kind of emotional connection with the characters, Morley instead reduces the performances to shouting and clichés.
On the other hand Conrad W. Hall's cinematography is excellent, flattening New Orleans in the background, and essentially creating an oppressive and generic geographical location that could be anywhere yet is always just out of reach, something which works in tandem with Hoolihan's repressed memories.
With the identity of the killer proving so banal (and so predictable), the film essentially tasks its metaphysical component with the heavy lifting. However, despite creating a dream-like narrative, always receding from the viewer, Morley can't cut loose of the shackles of genre, with the film's last act falling back on melodrama and coincidence. Ultimately, we're left with a film where nothing emerges fully formed. If it's really about Hoolihan's existential discovery of self, why is psychological nuance utterly absent? If it's a murder mystery, why is it so predictable? If it's an esoteric rumination about eternity, why are so many of the necessary components presented in such a simplistic manner? Morley's themes and tones end up tripping over and undermining one another, as she fails to integrate the metaphysical concepts with the murder plot, and all in all, it's a misfire for a heretofore promising director.
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Production Company
Cannon and Morley Productions,
Independent Entertainment,
Ellenglaze Films,
The Electric Shadow Company,
BBC Films,
Dignity Film Finance,
BFI Film Fund,
Particular Crowd,
Gorean Films
Release Date Mar 22, 2019
Duration 1 h 49 m
Rating Unrated
Tagline Can you explain your place in the Universe?
Awards
Toronto International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
