Director: Juan Diego Escobar Alzate
MPAA Rating: NR
Film Pulse Score: 5.5/10
Live Life Dearest is a unique experimental film that joins more than a thousand collaborators to create a thought provoking and poetic journey through life. Told by using a myriad of different mediums, the film proposes the philosophy that we all exist in the dreams of others, which is an interesting notion considering the film’s loose narrative is made up of home video footage from many people. This concept is one that mostly works, but with some hiccups along the way.
The 35-minute short is broken up into different sections that come with unique titles and different narrators, however the through lines are connected and much of the footage is repeated throughout. The film is comprised of ambient music composed by Kevin MacLeod set to one of three narrators reciting what amounts to a poem accompanied by different bits of footage. For the most part, this proves to be interesting and at times downright beautiful.
The footage Colombian director Juan Diego Escobar uses mostly consists of old Super 8 home movies, which look great and help aid in the nostalgic tone the film sometimes plays with. There is a fair amount of slow panning HD video as well, some of which looks amazing, like the forest bit, but the starry sky is returned to too much. There are also several other clips that feel out of place and result in a cheapened feeling. The majestic eagle soaring through the sky and the hourglass running out of time felt entirely too corny for a film like this and should have been omitted. There was also footage of an old commercial involving a doll that cries that pops up several times that also feel oddly out of place. While these items are jarring, the bulk of what we see is quite visually pleasing, with the surprisingly effective score acting to accentuate the footage.
When the film begins, I had a very serious concern that this would be treading a little too far into new age territory, with video of desert landscapes, moody music, and starry skies, and it does get close, but it doesn’t go off the edge. For every silly piece of video or seemingly ridiculous line of poetry there’s another that feels genuine and fully realized.
It’s also a film that I’m not ashamed to say my eyes glazed over a few times while watching. If it was any longer than 35 minutes it would just be too much pretentious gobbledygook to stand. That statement isn’t meant to downplay or belittle the film in any way, I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I believe the filmmaker knew this wasn’t a film that could be tolerated as a feature.
Live Life Dearest is an interesting film that’s perfect to watch when you feel like contemplating your own existence. The vivid and at times superb imagery combined with a solid score make it an entertaining, yet not entirely cohesive ride that’s still worth taking.
