Have you ever felt like you are going crazy while watching a movie and have to frantically google the plot synopsis to make sure you didn’t hallucinate 2/3rds of what you just saw? Well, Perfect Blue joins those ranks (for me at least) alongside Villeneuve’s “Enemy”, anything by Kaufman, and this year’s “The Father” from Florian Zeller.
Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that I think it is really interesting how the movie gradually reveals that the awkward sidebar points it makes in the beginning are in reality the main point of the movie at the end. The little uncomfortable subtextual moments sprinkled throughout wind up being more the focus of the story than the glaringly obvious moments that present themselves as the main text, and that is a refreshing experience, albeit a confusing one at first.
I found myself repeatedly asking “what is happening right now” and being surprised to discover those answers usually in the form of more questions, leading up to the grand finale. Probably there isn’t supposed to be much ambiguity in the conclusion, but I would like to imagine that there is (in an “Inception” sort of way), because that makes it even more fun to puzzle back through again.
See this review on my Letterboxd
Beyond The Standard 