Film review
Matt and Mara 2024
Directed by Kazik Radwanski80 minDrama
Mara is a young creative writing professor struggling with problems in her marriage to an experimental musician. One day, she runs into Matt, a charismatic, free-spirited author from her past, when he wanders onto her university campus. Bonded by their shared interests, the two gradually become closer. When Mara’s husband unexpectedly cancels plans to drive her to an out-of-town conference, Matt accompanies Mara on the trip instead. Along the way, the tension surrounding their undefined relationship slowly grows.
½Watched 30 July 2025
I love films like this. Very natural improvisational tone with Matt Johnson in it. Also the story is not that uninteresting, I can’t think of a better way to put it than another review I saw on letterboxd that said it was past lives for Canadians. But I don’t know this film really wasn’t that enjoyable to watch. None of the characters were particularly likable and though I usually love improvised dialogue because it makes the film feel real, in this it felt kind of annoying and slowed the film down. There were too many characters saying “like” every two seconds and stutters that just made it feel so slow in a bad way. Also it really felt like the film didn’t go anywhere, the way all their problems just kinda wrapped up because something bad happened to one of the main characters just felt really weird to me. Also the shot of her on the floor listening to music that we can’t even hear was incredibly boring and went on for way too long.
There was a lot I liked about this film and its message and maybe it was just the mood I was in having watched this at 2am, but it just didn’t do it for me this time.
5.0/10
