October 19, 2023
FILM: PASSAGES
DIRECTED BY: IRA SACHS
STARRING: FRANZ ROGOWSKI, BEN WHISHAW, ADELE EXARCHOPOULOS
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Passages is a film that has been buzzed about all year which I finally caught up with on the MUBI streaming site. It played at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals and then received some notoriety when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) gave it an NC-17 rating this summer. Director Ira Sachs and the distributor, MUBI, rejected the rating and released it unrated for a limited time. Ultimately though, it’s hard to see what any of this buzz and fervor was about.
Passages is a very average film which does one thing that makes it stand out from other films about infidelity: it features one half of a same sex couple having an affair with someone of the opposite sex. It’s been promoted as a story about a sexually fluid character which is, perhaps, a bit rare even in the independent film world. Tomas (Franz Rogowski) jumps into his affair with Agathe (Adele Exarchopoulos) rather quickly after spending some time on the set of a film he is directing. His relationship with his husband Martin (Ben Wishaw) is clearly strained already but this doesn’t help. Tomas impregnates Agathe but then goes back to Martin for some sexual activity which Agathe overhears from another room. Essentially, Tomas is only committed when and with whom he wants to be in the moment.
The thing is, we’ve seen plenty of films featuring characters who seem uncommitted to their partners. I couldn’t help but think of all the Woody Allen films (Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway, etc.) that addressed the same subject, albeit with heterosexual characters AND with a lot more humor and visual panache. Sachs’s film feels pretty flat and dull, except for some well shot scenes in which Tomas rides his bike through the streets of Paris. He also uses a lot of somewhat effective long takes that feel a bit like he’s attempting to emulate French New Wave directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.
It’s hard to see what makes Tomas so appealing to both Martin and Agathe though. He isn’t traditionally handsome by any stretch. He’s got an interesting choice of sweaters and half-shirts that some may find attractive but basically he’s an asshole and lacks boundaries. For instance, during a ridiculous scene, he barges into the classroom where Agathe is teaching elementary-aged children to profess his love for her.
Ben Wishaw and Adele Exarchopoulos have been very good in other film and television roles. They’re not given a lot that is substantial to do here though besides react to what Tomas does throughout the narrative. They are, in the end, stronger characters than perhaps the film would have led us to believe but they’re just not that interesting.
As far as the NC-17 rating goes, I don’t get it. Sure, a few of the sex scenes are passionate and intense but we’ve seen other films go much further. The rating speaks more to the continued puritanical nature of the MPAA and their fear of protests from sex fearing conservative groups than from any substantial content that would be harmful for someone under 17 to see.
I have to admit that I’ve not been the biggest fan of some of Ira Sachs’s other films. I thought 2012’s Keep the Lights On was overrated and 2014’s Love is Strange was a disappointing story about a gay couple played by John Lithgow and Alfred Molina. His best film though is the underseen 2016 film Little Men about two best friends whose friendship takes a turn during early puberty. It’s a solid coming of age story. All of Sachs’s films focus on variations of same sex relationships and friendships. Passages does explore something new for Sachs with a sexually fluid character but it ultimately does not really pop to life.
Passages is currently available to stream on MUBI.
FILM: PASSAGES
DIRECTED BY: IRA SACHS
STARRING: FRANZ ROGOWSKI, BEN WHISHAW, ADELE EXARCHOPOULOS
RATING: 2 ½ out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
Passages is a film that has been buzzed about all year which I finally caught up with on the MUBI streaming site. It played at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals and then received some notoriety when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) gave it an NC-17 rating this summer. Director Ira Sachs and the distributor, MUBI, rejected the rating and released it unrated for a limited time. Ultimately though, it’s hard to see what any of this buzz and fervor was about.
Passages is a very average film which does one thing that makes it stand out from other films about infidelity: it features one half of a same sex couple having an affair with someone of the opposite sex. It’s been promoted as a story about a sexually fluid character which is, perhaps, a bit rare even in the independent film world. Tomas (Franz Rogowski) jumps into his affair with Agathe (Adele Exarchopoulos) rather quickly after spending some time on the set of a film he is directing. His relationship with his husband Martin (Ben Wishaw) is clearly strained already but this doesn’t help. Tomas impregnates Agathe but then goes back to Martin for some sexual activity which Agathe overhears from another room. Essentially, Tomas is only committed when and with whom he wants to be in the moment.
The thing is, we’ve seen plenty of films featuring characters who seem uncommitted to their partners. I couldn’t help but think of all the Woody Allen films (Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Bullets Over Broadway, etc.) that addressed the same subject, albeit with heterosexual characters AND with a lot more humor and visual panache. Sachs’s film feels pretty flat and dull, except for some well shot scenes in which Tomas rides his bike through the streets of Paris. He also uses a lot of somewhat effective long takes that feel a bit like he’s attempting to emulate French New Wave directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.
It’s hard to see what makes Tomas so appealing to both Martin and Agathe though. He isn’t traditionally handsome by any stretch. He’s got an interesting choice of sweaters and half-shirts that some may find attractive but basically he’s an asshole and lacks boundaries. For instance, during a ridiculous scene, he barges into the classroom where Agathe is teaching elementary-aged children to profess his love for her.
Ben Wishaw and Adele Exarchopoulos have been very good in other film and television roles. They’re not given a lot that is substantial to do here though besides react to what Tomas does throughout the narrative. They are, in the end, stronger characters than perhaps the film would have led us to believe but they’re just not that interesting.
As far as the NC-17 rating goes, I don’t get it. Sure, a few of the sex scenes are passionate and intense but we’ve seen other films go much further. The rating speaks more to the continued puritanical nature of the MPAA and their fear of protests from sex fearing conservative groups than from any substantial content that would be harmful for someone under 17 to see.
I have to admit that I’ve not been the biggest fan of some of Ira Sachs’s other films. I thought 2012’s Keep the Lights On was overrated and 2014’s Love is Strange was a disappointing story about a gay couple played by John Lithgow and Alfred Molina. His best film though is the underseen 2016 film Little Men about two best friends whose friendship takes a turn during early puberty. It’s a solid coming of age story. All of Sachs’s films focus on variations of same sex relationships and friendships. Passages does explore something new for Sachs with a sexually fluid character but it ultimately does not really pop to life.
Passages is currently available to stream on MUBI.